Its performance and OLED screen also make it one of the best MacBook alternatives.
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Finding a laptop that successfully balances a sleek, portable design, high-end performance, and all-day battery life is harder than it sounds. While many excel in one or two of these areas, they end up falling short in some way — whether it’s sacrificing battery life for performance, or portability for power. In my search for the best MacBook alternative, I’ve found the complete package (or the laptop that comes closest to it) in the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.
The ROG Zephyrus G14 breaks the gaming laptop mold, packing serious gaming power into a sleek, versatile design that’s as comfortable in a coffee shop as it is running the latest games. Unlike the big, bulky designs of traditional gaming laptops, the Zephyrus G14 is slim and lightweight without compromising on performance. With a powerful processor and high-end graphics card, it can play the latest AAA titles on high settings and tackle intensive creative projects, and send off simple emails in between.
Beyond raw performance, the G14 includes a vibrant, high-refresh-rate display that brings games and media to life with stunning clarity and fluid motion. The OLED display is on par with the much-lauded Liquid Retina Display of the MacBook Pro M3, delivering fantastic contrast and high dynamic range (HDR) for games and movies. These premium features, combined with thoughtful design choices and practical everyday functionality, make the G14 a compelling alternative to Apple’s MacBook line that excels at both work and play.
To get a sense of what the Zephyrus G14 is capable of, I put it to work as my main machine. What better way to push a laptop to its limits than to open dozens of Chrome tabs? In all seriousness, I used it exactly like I would my own laptop — writing, editing photos and videos, sending emails, listening to music, and watching movies. Pretty standard stuff.
While I generally work from home, I took the laptop to the one place you don’t take a gaming laptop: the library. Is it socially acceptable to play video games at the library, a place where people go for mental enrichment and quiet study? Probably not. But this experiment proved that the Zephyrus G14 can blend in just as easily out in the real world as it does at home.
To further get a sense of the laptop’s capabilities, I took it to several local coffee shops and even to my in-laws’, who didn’t think that playing games constituted “work.” I disagree. Ultimately, traveling to multiple locations, integrating it into my typical workflow, and testing its gaming prowess gave me a comprehensive understanding of its capabilities and limitations.
First up, I should say that the Zephyrus G14 isn’t the most powerful gaming laptop available. For that, I recommend checking out the Razer Blade 16 or Alienware M18. These machines are all about giving you the most power possible, but they’re not the most portable options, and they offer less than ideal battery life. That said, the G14 has the best balance of power, performance, and portability, while offering enough juice to last a typical day of work.
With AMD’s fast Ryzen 9 processor and Nvidia’s powerful GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, the Zephyrus G14 can handle modern titles with ease. While testing the laptop, I used it as an opportunity to replay the recent Resident Evil remakes. I’ll admit, the games aren’t the most demanding, but they still look incredible at high resolution (and they’re fun as hell). The fidelity and high refresh rates were impressive, showcasing Las Plagas in all their gory detail.
I also took Alan Wake 2 and God of War Ragnarök for a spin, which put more strain on the machine since they’re graphically more demanding. With these titles, I let the computer determine the best settings for optimal performance. You have some flexibility to choose what works best for you by tweaking the in-game settings. For instance, you can up the resolution or enable ray tracing for greater graphical fidelity. Just know that choosing to put a priority on graphics can negatively impact performance. Personally, I’d rather have a smoother gameplay experience than eke out every ounce of detail, so I generally went with what the Zephyrus recommended.
Either way, I didn’t spend much time gaming away from a charger. Gaming laptops are notorious for poor battery life, whether while running games or just handling basic tasks. While I still only got between 3-5 hours while playing — respectable for a gaming laptop this compact — it was a different story during everyday use. I regularly made it a full workday juggling 6-10 apps for writing, email, web browsing, music streaming, photo editing, and task management without reaching for the charger. For a gaming laptop, this kind of battery life is almost unheard of.
It won’t run for as long as a more productivity-focused devices like the Surface Laptop, though, naturally, the trade-off is Microsoft’s device isn’t that great for gaming. That said, the Zephyrus G14 offers a well-rounded experience while offering enough battery for most scenarios.
The Zephyrus G14 wouldn’t look out of place next to a MacBook or any other premium workhorse laptop. It has a minimal footprint for a gaming system, measuring just 0.64 by 12.2 by 8.7 inches and weighing 3.3 pounds. The sleek design made it easy to throw the laptop in a bag or carry by my side. It boasts a silver exterior with chamfered edges and a slash across the lid, which is fitted with an array of white LED lights. It gives the laptop a familiar yet futuristic look.
The impressive build quality extends to the trackpad and keyboard, which feature a slick platinum white color (the laptop is also available in eclipse gray). While the keys are quiet and offer a lot of travel, they felt a little soft for my liking. In the Asus Armoury Crate app, I could customize the keyboard’s RGB lighting and the slash on the lid, offering a nice bit of personalization.
Additionally, the Zephyrus G14 offers a wide port selection. The left side has one USB-A port, a USB-C port, an HDMI 2.1 connection, and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, it features a proprietary power connector, which forced me to carry around the pretty hefty charging brick. Using the included charger is necessary if you want to play demanding games while charging the laptop. The right side features a USB-A port, USB-C port, and a microSD card slot.
That’s a pretty good mix of ports, though since it’s an AMD system, there is no Thunderbolt. However, the left USB-C supports power delivery, while the right USB-C works with G-Sync over DisplayPort so you can connect to an external display.
It’s impossible to talk about the Zephyrus G14 without mentioning the 14-inch OLED display. With a resolution of 2880 x 1800, a refresh rate of 120 hertz, and Nvidia G-Sync support, this thing looks incredible.
The beauty of OLED is each pixel lights up individually, giving you true blacks and broad contrast, making games and other media pop off the screen. Colors are vibrant, with the display covering 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut — the same standard used in digital cinema. Meanwhile, the display can reach a peak brightness of 500 nits in HDR mode, which is plenty bright for using the computer outdoors.
The OLED display truly shines in titles like Resident Evil 2, where much of the environment is shrouded in darkness. The perfect blacks give haunting depth to every corner of the Raccoon City Police Department, and since I'm a bit of a scaredy cat, the contrast made every dark hallway even more terrifying. It’s equally good for movies; I recently caught up on The Wild Robot and Alien: Romulus, and both movies looked incredible on the Zephyrus G14’s display.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can do it all, from high-performance gaming to demanding creative projects and office work. Its sleek, portable design and gorgeous OLED screen complement the powerful hardware inside, delivering a premium experience that rivals both gaming laptops and ultrabooks.
If you or someone you know are shopping for a laptop that can handle intense gaming sessions without compromising on everyday performance, the Zephyrus G14 deserves a look. While it comes at a premium price, its versatility makes it a solid value for anyone seeking a do-it-all machine that doesn’t scream “gaming laptop.”
The Asus ROG Zephyrus is available in platinum white or eclipse gray, with prices beginning at $1,599, depending on the configuration you choose. That’s on par with Apple’s newest MacBook Pro M3 in terms of price, though the base Zephyrus G14 comes with 16 gigabytes of random-access memory (RAM) and 1 terabyte of storage, doubling both specs found in Apple’s laptop. You can upgrade the RAM to 32 GB and the graphics card to the GeForce RTX 4070, though that boosts the price to $1,999.
Brandon Russell is a freelance writer covering gear and technology. He started his journey as a news writer at a small newspaper and later began reviewing smartphones, movies, and video games. In his free time, he enjoys the slower, more intentional experience of using a 35mm film camera and making short videos about movies he grew up watching.
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