Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) Review
A gaming laptop that strikes the perfect balance between performance and portability.
Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is a fantastic gaming laptop; not only does it feature a sleek design and a funky customisable lid, but it’s more than powerful enough to play contemporary games. While there are more powerful gaming laptops out there, few can beat the Zephyrus G14 for its balance between performance and portability.
Pros
- Customisable light-up lid
- Lightweight and sleek design
- Great battery life
- Consistently impressive performance
Cons
- Fans can get loud
Availability
- UKRRP: £1999.99
- USARRP: $2499.99
- EuropeRRP: €1999.99
- CanadaRRP: CA$2199.99
- AustraliaRRP: AU$2999.99
Key Features
- Powerful CPUThis laptop comes packed with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU.
- Lighting featuresCustomisable lighting features on the lid of the laptop can be accessed through the ROG Armoury Crate.
- 120Hz refresh rateSupport for both 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates for a smooth gaming experience.
Introduction
Gaming laptops are known for having bright and vibrant designs, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is no exception. It features a customisable light-up lid, allowing you personalise it with flashy pixel art.
This laptop comes in multiple variations, but my review model came with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU. This provided more than enough power for my Steam library and could handle day-to-day productivity work without breaking a sweat.
With a price of $2499.99/£1999.99, it’s not the cheapest gaming laptop on the market, but with all that power and such a beautiful design, it’s a shoo-in for our Best Gaming Laptop roundup.
Design and Keyboard
- Only weighs 1.72kg
- Great variety of ports
- Customisable light-up lid
The design of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is very sleek and stylish; my model came in Moonlight White and I was pleased to find that it felt very sturdy to use, with the 1.72kg weight feeling very reasonable for a gaming laptop. One of the key design features of this laptop is the customisable lid, which can be accessed by downloading ROG Armory software.
Navigating the app was a tad confusing, but I really enjoyed tinkering with the light-up features. There are a couple of set animations you can choose from, with my favourite being Starry Night, as well as a text feature. Outside of distracting my coworkers, there is not a lot of practical use for these features, but I still thought it was a great add-on and a lovely way to personalise the device.
Turning to the port selection, I found that there was more than enough range for my needs. There is an HDMI, a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD slot, two USB-A ports and two USB-C ports, although there is sadly no Thunderbolt 4 support.
I was able to hook up my Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense alongside a mouse, even pairing it with my Razer Raptor monitor without any issues. There is also no Ethernet port, which may make it harder for those with unstable internet connections to game online, although this is somewhat made up for by the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6E support.
I really liked using the keyboard; I felt like it had good travel and great responsiveness, and unlike the other 14-inch gaming laptops I’ve tried, it did not feel too cramped. The Zephyrus G14 has finally been upgraded with RGB lighting for more dazzling lighting effects, but it’s single zone lighting, which means you can’t change the colour of the backlight for individual keys.
The touchpad here was not bad, I felt like it had good responsiveness, but the small size did make it a little cumbersome to use during intensive games, although it fared fine for productivity tasks and navigation. I would recommend pairing this laptop with a mouse, and you can check out our Best Gaming Mouse List to see some of the best options on the market.
Screen
- A bright and vibrant screen
- 120Hz refresh rate
- Great colour accuracy scores
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) packs a 14-inch screen with a 2560×1600 (WQXGA) resolution. I found that both games and video looked sharp, and I never felt that the 14-inch screen size was too cramped. Games appeared colourful and vibrant, with summer scenes in Stardew Valley packing in a lot of detail and nuance despite its 16-bit design.
I tested the screen to take a deeper look at what it’s capable of. The brightness came out at 457 nits, which is more than enough for a gaming device, but the poor black levels restricted the contrast to a mediocre score of 1010:1.
The low black level lined up with my experiences, as in both Stardew Valley and Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, certain scenes were too dark to be distinguishable. This could prove frustrating, and I imagine that games with dark colour palettes may suffer even more.
I also tested the colour coverage, and the results were surprisingly positive. It managed to score a 100% accuracy rating for sRGB, with 88% and 99% for Adobe RGB and DCI-P3, respectively.
This means that the ROG Zephyrus G14 is more than serviceable for creative professionals since it will be able to represent colours very accurately on screen. The AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU will also provide enough power to engage in intensive creative applications like Photoshop and Lightroom, making it a viable alternative to the MacBook Pro 2023 or Dell XPS 15 for content creators.
While the 120Hz refresh rate pales in comparison to other laptops, like the 300Hz Gigabyte AORUS 17G (2021), it provided me with a smooth enough gaming experience, especially at this price point.
Performance
- Great gaming performance
- Breezes through productivity tasks
- Up to 1TB of storage
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can be configured in several ways, but my model came with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU.
This is paired up with 32GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB 4.0 NVMe storage, the latter seeing read and write scores of 3637.06MB/s and 3470.71MB/s; while these are not the fastest results we’ve seen on a gaming laptop, I still found that the laptop booted up almost immediately with little to no waiting time when loading up apps and games.
Since the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) launched back in 2022, it does not come with the latest GPU or CPU from AMD. That means it may not be as quick as some 2023 launches, but I still found it to be perfectly fast enough for Full HD and Quad HD gaming.
Borderlands 3 managed to reach 55fps during the 1080p test, and it managed to reach 50fps in Quad HD. Horizon Zero Dawn saw even better results, with the Full HD test hitting 84fps and the Quad HD test scoring 59fps. Unsurprisingly, Dirt Rally had the highest results since it’s the least demanding game of the three. The Full HD and Quad HD came out at 152fps and 110fps respectively, proving that this laptop is more than capable of running older games at a high level.
Looking at our computing benchmarks, both the Geekbench single and multi-core results for the ROG Zephyrus G14 were outmatched by its competitors, including the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 (2022) and Alienware x14 (2022).
But the ROG Zephyrus G14 excelled in graphics performance thanks to the Radeon GPU, offering a more powerful performance than even Nvidia’s popular RTX 3060 chip. I found this with real-time testing too, as the Zephyrus G14 managed to run every game I played without any issues.
The high graphics performance also emphasises the point that this laptop is a great option for creators. And since this laptop is more than powerful enough for productivity and office work too, you would not necessarily need to purchase a separate work device, even though the combined weight of this laptop and its charger would make it harder to travel with.
The main issue I did have with the ROG Zephyrus G14 was the noise emitted from the fans. However, I did find it to be more manageable than the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (2021) and it only got loud enough to be distracting after I had been gaming for multiple hours, making it a small grievance in the grand scheme of things.
Battery Life
- 76Whr battery
- Lasted 6 hours 28 minutes during benchmark testing
- Dropped 40% after half an hour of gameplay
The battery on a gaming laptop will never compare to a productivity laptop due to the powerful internals and large fans needed to keep it running.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) managed to last 6 hours and 28 minutes during our PCMark 10 Battery benchmark, which is very impressive. It managed to trump the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 (2022), but if you’re after someone that can last even longer, take a look at the Razer Blade 14 (2021), which lasted just over 7 hours.
It’s important to note that to get the best performance out of a gaming laptop, you will want to ensure that it’s plugged in during use. The ROG Zephyrus G14 dropped by 40% after playing Stardew Valley for 30 minutes at 100% brightness. Performance will also be hampered when playing away from the mains.
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
You want a striking and reliable gaming laptop:
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is a great-looking laptop with customisable features thanks to the ROG Armoury. It’s more than capable of running AAA games and will tackle productivity work without breaking a sweat, making this a great all-rounder.
You want a super-powerful gaming laptop:
While the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can handle contemporary Steam games while still achieving a high refresh rate, it won’t be the best pick for anyone after a 4K resolution or over 60 fps during gameplay.
Final Thoughts
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) has become one of my favourite gaming laptops on the market. I have fallen in love with the customisable lid features and the sleek design, while the internals provide a consistently smooth performance.
I think this is a great choice for anyone looking for a smaller gaming laptop that offers up a reliable performance. Anyone looking for exceptionally high refresh rates or 4K resolution will want to look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for something that will get the job done and looks fantastic while doing it, then the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the pick for you.
How we test
Every gaming laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well it runs when running a AAA game.
We used as our main laptop for at least a week.
Tested the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
We tested the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.
We tested the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.
You might like…
FAQs
Yes, this laptop comes with a customisable lid that can be lit up with various patterns and text. This feature can be accessed by downloading the ROG Armoury Crate software.
Yes, this laptop can be kitted out with up to 32GB DDR5 RAM.
Trusted Reviews test data
Full specs
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
