ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) GU605MI review: for work and sometimes for play

ASUS’ line of image gaming laptops has received a major update this year, with the popular ROG Zephyrus G16 and G14 completely redesigned and noticeably thinner. However, how successful these changes were, how thickness affects performance, and whether it is possible to play modern games in this configuration, I will tell you in this review using the example of the ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) GU605MI model.

Specifications of the ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) GU605MI

Package contents

Traditionally for the ROG Zephyrus series, the new G16 offers a fairly extensive package: along with the laptop, you will find a nice case and two power supplies in the box, one with 200W for maximum performance and the other more compact 100W for use on the go.

Design, usability and ports

From the very beginning of the ROG Zephyrus gaming line, ASUS has positioned them as subtle image solutions for gamers and users looking for a powerful laptop, but without the RGB aesthetic inherent in most gaming solutions. It was Republic of Gamers that was one of the first brands to set the minimalist trend in gaming laptop design, and ROG Zephyrus G16 is no exaggeration to say that it is the crown of that trend.

The model has a restrained design with a matte aluminum case cover, which is separated by a strip of polished metal with small slots for LEDs. ASUS decided to abandon the AniMeMatrix LED panel, which was optionally available in some models of the previous two Zephyrus generations and allowed for animated images to be displayed on the display unit lids.

However, the manufacturer decided not to completely abandon the backlight, leaving a small strip of backlighting called Slash Lightning, which can be customized through the Armory Crate utility. It seems to be just one strip of LEDs, but you can set different types of backlight animation and even display app notifications through it.

Another big innovation in the ROG Zephyrus G16 is the thickness of the case, which is now 1.49 ~ 1.64 cm. When you first see the laptop, it’s hard to believe that it was possible to fit discrete graphics into its body, but it’s a fact.

The build quality of the ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) is very high, all parts fit well, and even though the laptop is thin, it does not push through. The 16-inch display is covered by a protective glass, so you can only count on a glossy finish that can catch glare both in the sun and under artificial light.

In previous Zephyrus models, the manufacturer used a different type of topcase finish with a soft-touch coating that left fingerprints. Now we have only matte metal, which does not get dirty at all and is pleasant to the touch.

The design of the ROG Zephyrus G16 (2024) no longer provides for the ergonomic ErgoLift tilt, because the display unit lid does not lift the base with the keyboard when opened. It seems that ASUS decided to abandon this feature to reduce the thickness of the case, although it had its advantages, in particular, it provided better air access to the cooling fans.

The speakers of the audio system in ROG Zephyrus G16 are now located not only on the bottom of the case, but also on both sides of the keyboard and their number has increased to 6 (4 high-frequency and 2 low-frequency). ASUS notes that their volume has increased by 47%, and it’s hard to argue here, because they sound really loud and generally like a pretty good portable speaker. The new Zephyrus G16 is probably the loudest laptop I’ve ever tested.

Design changes also affected the keyboard and touchpad. The keys have become larger, which is a bit unusual, but their travel is the same 1.7 mm as in previous models, and typing large amounts of text on such a keyboard is very convenient.

The buttons have a noticeable travel, but with a pleasant soft press and minimal sound.

The laptop’s touchpad has also gotten bigger, with a fairly large touch surface covered with frosted glass with an oleophobic coating for easier finger sliding. It’s a pleasure to use: the touchpad accurately detects the position of your fingers, has a quick response, supports standard Windows 11 gestures, and clicks with a pleasant click.

The only wish is that in such an advanced model, the touchpad could be fully electronic with a linear motion drive that would simulate pressing with a short vibration. Instead, ASUS still uses a mechanical panel, which has uneven response when pressed on different parts of the surface (the closer to the keyboard, the harder you have to press).

The laptop’s full HD webcam is located above the display and has sufficient quality for video calls, and next to it is an infrared sensor used for face recognition and Windows 11 login.

The relatively small thickness of the laptop and its weight of 1.85 kg make it comfortable to use ROG Zephyrus G16 as a mobile computer, taking it with you to meetings or just to the office. Moreover, there are enough ports here.

On the right side there is an SD card slot (UHS-II), USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A and USB 3.2 Gen2 Type C with DP, and on the left side there is an ASUS Slim Power Jack, HDMI 2.1, USB 4 with DP + PD and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

As you can see, ASUS has finally added a slot for SD memory cards, which also hints at the target audience of this model, which, according to the company, can be photographers, cameramen, editors, and other creative professions.

Display

For some time, ASUS has been actively considering the possibility of wider use of mini LED screens in its gaming models, but as the experience of last year’s Zephyrus M16 showed, such matrices are still too expensive. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the manufacturer would start implementing OLED displays in its gaming models, which happened in the case of the Zephyrus G16 (2024).

The laptop has a 16-inch ROG Nebula Display OLED screen with a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, 16:10 aspect ratio, 240 Hz refresh rate, 0.2 ms response time, 500 nits peak brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and G-Sync support.

In the Armoury Crate settings, you can change the color scheme of the display or choose one of the profiles customized for a specific genre of games, such as shooters or real-time strategy.

In all respects, this is a perfectly calibrated matrix with a high refresh rate and a short response time, which is very comfortable for both gaming and working.

Performance

The laptop is based on the Intel platform with the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, which is quite popular for gaming laptops in 2024, which contains 16 cores with 22 threads and operates at a frequency of 2.3 to 5.2 GHz.

In this configuration, the processor is complemented by 32 GB of dual-channel LPDDR5X RAM, which operates at a frequency of 7467 MHz. This is the maximum for the model, so you won’t be able to increase the RAM.

Traditionally for laptops of this class, the Zephyrus G16 has built-in Intel Arc graphics for simple tasks and better battery life, as well as a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 mobile graphics card with 8 GB of memory.

For data storage, the laptop uses a 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD from Western Digital, which demonstrates a blazing read speed and average write speed. However, it will be enough for comfortable use.

Overall, the laptop demonstrates a good level of performance in both real-world tasks and synthetic tests. In PCMark 10, it scores 7717 points, which is above the average for gaming laptops in 2023.

However, when running on battery power, the laptop’s performance drops, but remains significantly higher than most office models.

In the Cinebench 2024 test, which tests system performance during rendering, the Zephyrus G16 shows better results than similar systems with the same Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor. This also indicates a good level of system performance.

Interestingly, the Armory Crate utility allows you to disable some of the processor cores, and thus regulate the system’s performance, which has a direct impact on battery life.

The user can reduce the number of fast cores and completely disable energy-efficient ones.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 discrete graphics card is not the top of the line for this model, there are configurations with RTX 4080 and 4090, but even this accelerator is enough to play modern games on Zephyrus G16. And in most cases, at maximum graphics settings. On the laptop, you can comfortably play Starfield games at maximum graphics settings with comfortable 45-55 FPS and over 75 FPS at just high settings.

The thickness of the Zephyrus G16 case imposes certain limitations, because the performance of its components directly depends on how well the cooling system does its job. That’s what we’ll talk about next.

Heating and stability of operation

Due to the reduced thickness, ASUS had to use a larger cooling system, consisting of three second-generation Arc Flow thin fans, larger heatsinks, and an evaporation chamber. Liquid metal is used to transfer heat from the processor.

In the standard AIDA64 stress test, the laptop shows trotting under almost 100% load, which is greater at the beginning, when the fans do not have time to spin up, and disappears when the cooling system reaches full capacity. However, from time to time the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H still has to slightly lower its frequencies, but on average they remain at 3.4 GHz. The average processor temperature reaches 86.5 degrees Celsius, which is normal for this class of chips.

The Zephyrus G16 case heats up noticeably in the upper part of the topcase, just in the center above the keyboard. Touching the case in this part will not be comfortable. However, the keyboard, touchpad, and panels that come into contact with your palms remain barely warm, and the cooling system works just fine in this regard.

Of course, ASUS hasn’t managed to get around physics, and a thin case is indeed more difficult to cool, but the Zephyrus G16 demonstrates that powerful components can work quite efficiently in a relatively compact case.

This is also confirmed by the 3DMark stress test, in which the Speed Way test is run in a circle 20 times, including the video card. The laptop demonstrates stability at 97.5%, which is a good result.

When running on battery power, the Zephyrus G16 switches to integrated graphics and reduces the processor speeds, allowing the cooling system to switch to passive mode by stopping the fans. Thus, in undemanding scenarios such as working with a browser, documents, and mail, the laptop works completely silently. However, I wouldn’t call the cooling system itself noisy either, thin fans allow Zephyrus G16 to generate less noise, so playing with the laptop is just as comfortable.

Battery life

The Zephyrus G16 has a 90 Wh battery, and its autonomy will depend heavily on the load. For example, in high performance mode with active discrete graphics, the laptop lasted 3 hours and 12 minutes in the PCMark 10 test.

If you switch to the “quiet” mode and the built-in Intel Arc graphics, you can get a result of 6 hours and 44 minutes.

It’s very good for a gaming laptop, but if we’re talking about a hybrid version that will be used mostly for work, then I would like to see a higher battery life, at least 8 hours.

The laptop can be charged from a 200W power supply or a smaller 100W power supply that connects via a Type-C connector and is also part of the package.