CNN Underscored is on the ground at CES 2024 in Las Vegas to pick out the tech products that are actually worth your attention. Be sure to follow our CES 2024 coverage hub for the latest hands-on previews straight from the world’s biggest electronics show.
If our first looks from CES 2024 have taught us anything, it’s that OLED screens are coming to virtually every major gaming laptop you can think of. When that list includes a thinner, lighter take on one of our long-running favorites, we’ve got pretty good reason to be excited.
Launching early this year for a yet-to-be announced price, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 could be the new go-tos for folks who want something powerful enough to play modern games on the go but sleek enough to slide unassumingly into an office or coffee shop. Here’s what we think after some early hands-on time with Asus’ latest slim gaming powerhouse.
A new sleeker design with even more power — and OLED
The older ROG Zephyrus G14 was once the most compact gaming laptop we’d ever tested, and its 2024 redesign makes previous generations look chunky by comparison. Both the G14 and G16 are pleasingly svelte, with the former sporting a build that’s about 4mm thinner and 200 grams lighter than before. Even with that smaller overall chassis, Asus managed to pack in speakers that are 25% larger and promise 47% louder volume when you’re gaming without headphones.
The biggest thing that caught my eye about the new ROG Zephyrus models was simply how unassuming they are — the Platinum White and Eclipse Gray models each sport a clean, almost MacBook-esque construction while still serving up the customizable RGB lighting you’d expect from a dedicated gaming notebook. I was also happy to see a healthy amount of specs packed into each laptop’s thin frame, with each model sporting USB-C ports, two USB-A ports for older accessories, HDMI 2.1 for external displays and a microSD card reader. The cool but gimmicky LED back panel from previous models has been replaced by a single white LED slash on the lid, which you can customize with various effects. It does just enough to tell people “I play Elden Ring” without being too garish to bring to work.
Of course, the big story here is that these are the first ROG laptops with an OLED display, which is an accolade you’ll likely be hearing from most of the big gaming notebook companies this week. That means you can look forward to even richer colors and deeper blacks for getting better immersed in your games, whether you’re playing on the G14’s 2880 x 1800 display or the G16’s 2560 x 1600 panel.
The 14-inch model has a slightly sharper resolution and a speedy 120Hz refresh rate for smooth gaming, while the 16-inch variation has an even faster 240Hz screen for competitive gamers who need the best response times possible. I didn’t get a chance to do any proper gaming on these things just yet, but both OLED screens popped nicely at a quick glance, whether they were looping colorful demo videos or running multiple creative apps side by side.
Slimmer designs doesn’t mean less power, as the G14 and G16 both promise some compelling specs on paper. You’ll get up to an AMD Ryzen 8000 processor and up to Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics on the G14 — ideal for playing the best PC games at pretty respectable settings — while the G16 gets you the top-end Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and up to an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card for those who want to crank their visuals as high as possible while also being able to do some video editing and 3D rendering.
The takeaway
The older-generation ROG Zephyrus models were close runner-ups on our best gaming laptops rankings, offering some of our favorite designs but coming up a bit short when it came to performance and battery life. We’re hoping the 2024 lineup’s promising internals and OLED screen can help bring it back to glory, so stay tuned for our full review.