[Editor’s note: Monica Chin is The Verge’s former senior laptop reviewer, currently taking a break from tech journalism. But some things are hard to quit.]
Once upon a time, in March 2020, a small company called ASUS released a gaming laptop called ROG Zephyrus G14. It weighs just over 3.5 pounds and is powered by a truly powerful AMD processor the likes of which have never been seen in a 14-inch form factor.
I still remember looking back at that laptop about four years ago like it was yesterday.I remember running Red Dead Redemption 2 Benchmarks – the ultimate test at the time – pored over the game’s settings over and over again, desperately trying to figure out where I’d screwed up to make the sky-high frame rates I was seeing make sense. (Remember, the best thing Intel had to offer at the time was Comet Lake. And, well, we’re not talking about Comet Lake in this family.)
Then there’s the design. The G14 has a retro aesthetic that’s essentially a spaceship, with big, luxuriously comfortable keycaps and a keyboard font that’s reminiscent of Johnny Rockets. The lid eschewed the sleek and sleek aesthetic that laptops were just beginning to incorporate at the time, opting instead to be covered in a strange but entirely unique dot matrix. If you pay a little (okay, a lot) more, those dots turn into animated LEDs that you can use to do all sorts of funky things, from raising virtual pets to making a guy’s head explode. Since then, there’s been a G14 model that doubles as a DJ turntable, and another covered in obscure shapes with “BLACK HOLES IN THE NOW” scrawled across the bottom. It’s never been a laptop that needs to blend in.
I remember sending Asus an email asking if the $1,449 price they sent me was a typo – shouldn’t such a special product cost $1,000 more? Part of me remembers how I felt when the ASUS rep responded and said no, believe it or not, that’s the real price.People realize that this computer is something new – this computer is something different.
Over the next few years, the G14 went on to create a new gaming laptop category. The product’s popularity resulted in it being essentially unavailable for quite some time. It’s a huge product for Asus, one that’s almost always on Best Buy’s bestseller list, and by all accounts, one of the gaming laptops I see most often in the wild.
Today, innovative 14-inch drills abound. Asus isn’t the first ultraportable gaming laptop – that honor certainly belongs to the Razer Blade – but the Zephyrus G14 still proves to everyone that it’s possible to run heavy-duty games on more than just a full-featured 14-inch laptop , a day of battery life and a sleek, bold design, and a machine like this doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
In other words, it redefines the category and is basically the exact opposite of the MacBook in every way.
Fast forward to CES 2024. The G14 has essentially remained a replica of the 2020 chassis since its release, but debuted after a major redesign. It’s thinner and lighter. The spaceship vibe is gone. The lattice is gone, as are the afros and virtual fauna it created. The lid is now sleek and professional, with a – I don’t know, slash? – Go through the center as the only decoration. Everything about it is rounder, more refined, and more commanding. As show reports point out, it suddenly looks, feels, and looks a lot like a MacBook.
The G14 is far from the only CES version that’s blatantly chasing after the Mac lineup in terms of design. Dell has replaced its 15-inch and 17-inch XPS configurations with 14-inch and 16-inch models respectively (sound familiar?). Not only do these models lose the full-size SD slot (sigh), but they also lose the physical row of features, replaced by tactile touch buttons (another thing a Cupertino company is trying). Everyone and their mother was grumpy about it. It’s emblematic of a larger trend we’ve seen across the computing landscape in recent years, where 13- and 14-inch devices are merging boardroom aesthetics while becoming thinner and lighter at all costs.
Now, I understand the desire to emulate the MacBook. This is an extraordinary series of computers. It’s at the top of the best laptops page on the internet, and there’s little debate about its value.
But there are a few things I really hope manufacturers keep in mind when considering whether to give up a unique and different design in pursuit of a MacBook look and feel.First of all, the MacBook is not only The look and feel of it. That’s not all.
I think the most important thing that makes Apple computers the machines that every professional owns is how well they perform. It’s the top capabilities of their wafers and battery life – it’s the combination of strength and efficiency they offer. After all, the early 2020 MacBook Pro 13 and the late 2020 MacBook Pro 13 have very similar chassis, but only the latter combines top-in-class performance with top-in-class battery life, and it’s been completely eclipsed in just a few months . Sales of its Intel peers. By the way, top performance and top battery life are also what the G14 has had for years.
I’m not saying design isn’t important.I yes The pursuit of thinness, fashion, and elegance, no matter what you call it, often comes at a price.
We’ve seen this happen time and time again. You can look at the transition from the Dell XPS 13, an all-around great laptop that was on the best pages before the M1 era, to the Dell XPS 13 Plus, an ultrabook that’s a fireball , with battery life of around five minutes, a shallow trackpad, disappointing performance, and a frustrating keyboard, it got middling reviews from just about everyone. (tom’s guideFans of the XPS series criticized it as a “shocking step backwards”. )
You look at the ThinkPad Z series, which had to give up most of the features that made ThinkPads world-famous in order to maintain a slim profile. The Razer Blade has been trying to be thin and stylish for years, but it’s always been louder, hotter, more expensive, and has worse battery life than the G14. Heck, you can even look at Apple. After all, the thin-at-all-costs mentality has kept us using butterfly keyboards for five years.
I hope that doesn’t happen with the redesigned G14, XPS 13, and other major laptops at CES this year. But I see some warning signs. Last year’s G14 could accommodate up to an RTX 4090 (Nvidia’s top-of-the-line offering), while this year it’s capped at an RTX 4070. I’m not sure this is due to the thinner chassis reducing cooling capabilities, but it seems to be a possible explanation.
Then there’s battery life, which has always been one of the G14’s best features. Not only does the 2024 G14 have a smaller battery than its predecessor, it also has a higher-resolution OLED screen. Don’t get me wrong: I love OLED screens, especially for gaming, and the Zephyrus’s look great. But last year’s QHD Mini LED panel was already stunning, with some reviewers reporting that it was basically as good as OLED. The combination of a high-resolution OLED screen and an H-series processor rarely delivers great battery life. I would recommend the XPS 13 Plus to you again. Acer Swift 3. HP Pavilion Plus 14. ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED. HP Specter x360 13.5. I mean, literally, you have a choice.
I understand the urge to follow the cool kids to their cafeteria table. Really, I do. But things are going well with the Zephyrus G14. It’s not for everyone, but it’s utterly and unapologetic in its own right. It would be a shame if such a bold product disappeared, as the market for Windows machines is racing to catch up to the MacBook.
