Portability has always been an issue with gaming laptops. They tend to be bulky and heavy to pack in the high-end hardware. However, the arrival of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 laptops turned things around, last year. These were the laptops that gamers had dreamt of for years. Following its success, Asus is now levelling up things with the Zephyrus G14 2021. The new laptop comes with improved connectivity, the latest hardware and a revamped cooling system. Asus says it’s a gaming machine that sounds too good to be true. Let’s investigate.
Weighing 1.6kg, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2021 (HZ176TS) is one of the most compact and lightest gaming laptops around. It achieves its portable form factor due its rigid aluminium chassis. Opening the lid raises the rear of the laptop by a bit, putting the keyboard at a more comfortable angle and also improving heat dissipation. The Anime Matrix design from last year’s models also makes its way to the new G14. It is as customisable as before, and you can use it to display unique animations and notifications.
Asus says the overall design is still minimalistic, so you can even use the G14 as an everyday laptop. The device is available in two colour schemes – Moonlight White and Eclipse Gray. Both colours have a matte finish which helps keep fingerprints and smudges away.
The Asus Zephyrus G14 2021 (HZ176TS) has all the ports a gaming laptop needs. On the right, are two USB 3.0 ports and a USB Type-C port. The left houses another USB Type-C port and a DisplayPort for connecting an external monitor. The device also has an HDMI 2.0b port that adds support for HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) format. Wi-Fi 6 is present for wireless connectivity and Bluetooth 5.1 for connecting wireless peripherals.
The Asus Zephyrus G14 2021 runs an AMD Ryzen 5900HS CPU paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. The CPU is an absolute beast when it comes to performance. It has 8-cores with a base clock speed of 3.3 GHz that can go all the way up to 4.6 GHz. The laptop comes with 16GB of DDR4 RAM, with an additional slot that lets you upgrade the RAM up to 24GB. There is a 512GB of M.2 NVMe SSD for storage as well. With these sorts of specs, the G14 2021 can run any game smoothly. Most demanding titles such as Cyberpunk 2077, Dirt 5 or the upcoming Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty: Vanguard should be no issue. It’s a versatile device that can also be used for programming, even professional video and photo editing work.
Asus manages to keep the internals cool with the new Self-Cleaning Cooling 2.0 technology. The new design features shorter anti-dust tunnels that leave more space for full-sized fans to channel heat away from the CPU and GPU. Asus says the new copper fins now have larger 1mm gaps, so the dual Arc Flow fans can generate impressive airflow within the slim frame.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2021 (HZ176TS) has a 14-inch full HD display, paired with a 16:9 screen aspect ratio. It’s a 144Hz refresh rate screen with support for Adaptive-Sync technology. There is also support for NVIDIA G-Sync that helps eliminate screen tearing and stuttering issues with high frame rate titles. The display is 100 per cent sRGB compliant, which means you can use the laptop for doing professional colour-accurate work. The screen also comes with an anti-reflective coating to prevent reflections.
The laptop comes with a full-sized backlit keyboard despite its small size. The keys are well-spaced, and they use Asus’s ROG Overstroke technology for good response. There are four dedicated hotkeys that give you quick access to the volume, mic, mute, and Asus Armoury Crate. They are on the upper left side, so you can quickly access them without taking your right hand off the mouse. The laptop’s power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, so you can unlock it like a smartphone. The trackpad is also large, letting you scroll smoothly through web pages, images, and spreadsheets.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2021 has a pair of 2.5W speakers along with twin 0.7W tweeters for a robust sound experience. Asus says the speakers support Dolby Atmos to deliver perfectly balanced audio while maintaining clarity and detail. There are 6 sound modes to choose from, and you can also customize them using the Asus Armoury Crate software.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2021 (HZ176TS) brings the perfect synergy of power and portability. The laptop equips some of the most powerful hardware from 2021, in an unbelievably small form factor. You can have the new ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2021 delivered at your doorstep by ordering it from www.reliancedigital.in. For more details and hands-on experience of the device, feel free to visit your nearest Reliance Digital store.
