ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 GA605 Review: A Gaming Laptop That Content Creators Would Also Appreciate

Another day. Another laptop. This one’s a rarity though. I’ve reviewed many laptops in 2024 but hardly any 16-inch gaming laptops. When I got a call from the ASUS team to ask if I wanted to review the ROG Zephyrus G16 (AMD variant), I jumped at it. I’ve been a huge fan of AMD for years, but they’ve always lagged behind Intel in one way or another.

Recently, in the past couple of years, AMD has taken the lead in gaming performance. This time around, with the brand-new AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, the Zephyrus G16 (alongside a Studio-edition Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU) has proven its worth for content creators as well.

You get up to 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, up to 2TB SSD, an option for a 16” QLED QHD+ (240Hz refresh rate) ROG Nebula Display with G-Sync, or a 16” TFT QHD+ (240Hz refresh rate) ROG Nebula Display with G-Sync. It’s a mid-range gaming laptop, as the only GPU option is an Nvidia RTX 4060 or 4070.

As far as ports are concerned, the Zephyrus G16 has it all. On the left side, you can find a power jack, a type-C USB 4 port, an HDMI 2.1 port (with support for DisplayPort and Power Delivery), a type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The right side features one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and an SD Card slot.

Let’s talk about design

The Zephyrus G16’s gunmetal chassis looks incredible. In pictures and when you actually sit down with the laptop. It is an elegant redesign and one that I’m all in for. There’s the impactful silver glossy slash that runs diagonally across the lid and comes with LED lightning. The Zephyrus G16 does stand out from the crowd and for good reasons.

If you were to mistake the Zephyrus G16 for a laptop amongst the business crowds then you wouldn’t be wrong. It stands out, but in a regular setting as well. What the Zephyrus G16 gets right concerning its design is that it doesn’t go out of its way to look like a gaming laptop. It’s elegant and fits in with the regular crowd. There’s a large trackpad, a comfortable keyboard and it all is nicely carved into one package. There are slim bezels (except for the chin), and the lid is thin. The Eclipse Gray chassis that I got for review instantly became my favourite and it did a great job of keeping those pesky fingerprint smudges at bay. There’s also a new Platinum White colourway if that’s what you’d prefer.

A shiny OLED

The 16-inch OLED (2560x1600 resolution) with a 240Hz refresh rate shined not only during long gaming sessions but also when I binged on my favourite movies. The skies of Mexico never looked prettier. The brightness is high, and thus the darker scenes are viewable without having to squint. The desert sand in Dune: Part Two jumped out and exploded in colours. The details on the panel were razor-sharp and there was a nice balance in the contrast levels. Yes, it’s not the brightest, or the most colour-accurate, but it more than gets the job done.

Mid-tier gaming device

Yes, the AMD variant of the Zephyrus G16 is aiming for the mid-range gaming crowd. Those consumers who are just playing a few hours a week for fun and even those who fall just short of counting themselves as professional gamers. Even with the RTX 4070 (as opposed to the more powerful RTX 4090), I managed to get above 65 frames per second on Far Cry 6 even at ultra settings. Red Dead Redemption 2, on medium settings again conquered the 70 frames per second mark. More casual games like F1 2024, Forza Horizon 5 and Counter-Strike ran beautifully and I flew through the streets of Mexico. I was slightly disappointed with the performance while playing Halo Infinite, but nothing that was a dealbreaker.

The downside here is that the keyboard can get a little too warm when pushed to the limits. It peaks near the bottom of the display and the centre of the keyboard. After a few minutes of cooldown, it’s back to normal. There were vents at the back of the laptop. Having this laptop on my lap for extended periods I never noticed it getting too hot to handle.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is solid. That’s the best way I can describe it. The keys are well-spaced, and your fingers glide across them at a natural pace. The RGB lights, though not the peppiest, provide a nice vibe to the laptop. The Copilot button is also prominently present. One good thing is that there are four quick buttons- Volume down, volume up, a mic mute toggle, and an Armoury Crate quick launcher - located near the top left of the keyboard.

The touchpad is large, and there is a good amount of feedback when clicking. One can easily navigate using the touchpad.

How’s the battery life?

Gaming laptops, as unfortunate as they are, have always been poor at battery life. That doesn’t change with the Zephyrus G16. Simply put, do not game when using the battery. Without gaming, and doing merely simple tasks like browsing the web, watching YouTube, and attending conference calls, the laptop barely lasts five hours before running out of juice.

If you’re gaming, then expect 100 minutes on a single charge. Period.

AI-ready PC

While the Zephyrus G16 isn’t a Copilot+ PC, it is still AI-ready, thanks to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and its XDNA 2 NPU processing unit. I’m not going to go into any details, since I am evaluating this more on a gaming-level than anything else.

But yes, AMD has bridged the gap with Intel when it comes to performance vis-a-vis content creators’ favourite software.

The competition

I’m just going to run through a few laptops that can be an alternative to the Zephyrus G16:

- Alienware m16 R2 (2024)

- MSI Stealth 18

- Razer Blade 16 (2024)

- The Intel variant of the Zephyrus G16

Final verdict

This might just be the “content creators also game” laptop. It’s got an elegant design (one that I’ve fallen in love with), an AI-ready PC that can tackle the world of gaming, a gorgeous OLED display, and all the ports you’d need in a laptop. The premium and solid build is what keeps this laptop ahead of the competition.

There are a couple of downsides like the limited screen angle, the extremely poor battery life, and merely average speakers.

Asus is on its way to creating an all-time great gaming laptop, but maybe it just needs one or two more iterations to get there.