Cut back to 2020, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 was one of the best gaming laptops we tested during the year. Back then, we said that this laptop belonged in a Star Wars movie set, especially the Moonlight White colour variant. ASUS has unveiled the 2022 version of the ROG Zephyrus G15. Does this deserve your attention?

Edgy, practical design

The LED lights of the AnimeMatrix display might be missing but this is a laptop that is a showstopper. Get ready for attention at the board room or your favourite café. It comes in Eclipse Gray but it’s the Moonlight White (that we checked out) that has our vote. There are no lights hut the same dot matrix design adds a shimmering effect from prismatic film beneath. ASUS claims that the asymmetrical dot matrix design on the lid is made with a precision CNC milling process that creates 8279 perfectly spaced perforations across an incredibly compact surface area.

We dig the reinforced metal lid that is precision cut and ASUS’ proprietary 180-degree ErgoLift hinge that offers flexible viewing angles. It’s lighter than its predecessor and yet it’s no feather light laptop. It weighs around 1.9 kg that is acceptable for a gaming laptop that fires on multiple cylinders. The 3.3 x 5.1-inch touchpad is 20% larger than the previous gen while the big, soft surface is comfortable to use. We also approve of the keyboard with a soft-touch deck.

Doesn’t skip a beat

The G15 is propelled by an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS laptop processor. With 8 cores and 16 threads, this processor is built on cutting-edge 6nm technology and is paired with the top-of-the-line up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. In addition, the new model is configurable with up to 16 GB of DDR5 RAM– 4800 MHz (expandable to 48GB). It coped effortlessly with everything we threw at it

Built to entertain

The 15.6-inch display (configurable with either a 240Hz or 165 Hz QHD panel) is one of our favourite features. With Adaptive-Sync technology 100% DCI- P3 color gamut coverage the display will please serious gamers. It’s kitted with top-firing and bottom-firing speakers. We wish the bass was more punchy though. Battery life is quite solid – you should manage 8 hours with heavy duty usage. ASUS has included a high-capacity 90Wh battery that powers up in quick time – 1 to 50% in just 30 minutes. You get the convenience of Type-C charging allowing you to minimise the number of chargers you carry on a work trip. While the integrated 720P HD webcam allows you to seamlessly join video calls and unlock your device with Windows Hello; we wish ASUS had kitted it with a better webcam

It’s pricey but there’s a lot to like about the 2022 ASUS G15 Zephyrus. Battery life is solid, the display packs a punch and it has enough firepower for serious gamers.

The ASUS Zephyrus G15 (2022) starts at Rs 149,990

Image credits – Asus, Ashwin Rajagopalan