The ROG Zephyrus G14 is calling to me even more now it has an RTX 5080 stuffed inside it
Two of our favourite gaming laptops have been upgraded for 2025. There's the new Zephyrus G16, which comes with Intel's Core Ultra 9 processor 285H and choice of RTX 50-series GPU, up to an RTX 5090. And the Zephyrus G14, my pick of the two, which keeps the same Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 as last year's model but up to an RTX 5080 this time around.
Nvidia announced the mobile RTX 50-series at the same time as its desktop Blackwell cards, which means we have a sweep of new mobile GPUs within the gaming laptops in the booths here at CES 2025. Everything from the RTX 5090 down to the RTX 5070—though these mobile chips don't align core-for-core with their desktop counterparts.
For the Zephyrus lineup, we're seen the G16 once again saddled with the biggest GPU of the lot, the RTX 5090. In our experience with the RTX 4090 in the G16, that's probably not the model to go for, as it's going to be restricted by the diminutive chassis. There will be more sensible options available, at least.
The G14 is the more sensible of the two with 'only' an RTX 4080. That could be a pretty powerful pairing alongside AMD's excellent HX 370 chip, though we'll have to see if the RTX 5080 pushes the Zephyrus cooling over the edge or not in testing.
Other than the change in processors, there's not much else to report. Both laptops feature an ROG Nebula display: the G16 a 2.5K, 240 Hz display and the G14 a 3K, 120 Hz display. They also have the same chassis design, same trackpad, same keyboard—you get the idea.
With last year's model marking a major shift in the Zephyrus design, I wasn't expecting a major change here. Asus stuck with the same basic design for the Zephyrus for a couple generations prior to the 2024/2025 design, and it's a good design to boot. We've reviewed both Zephyrus models from 2024, even liking the G16 enough to cover it twice in various configurations (one, two), and much of what we liked about those laptops is true for the newer one.
My only regret is that I wasn't able to stuff the G14 in my bag at CES 2025 and get to testing it right here at the show.
Catch up with CES 2025: We're on the ground in sunny Las Vegas covering all the latest announcements from some of the biggest names in tech, including Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Asus, Razer, MSI and more.