Asus ROG Zephyrus (GX501VI) - Review 2022

Aside from a few exceptions that focus on raw power, gaming laptops take undoubtedly trimmed downwards in weight and size over the years. Technology similar Nvidia'south Pascal graphics architecture has brought more power to increasingly trim systems, and now another initiative is moving the bar again. The Asus ROG Zephyrus (GX501VI) ($2,699) is one of the showtime laptops congenital with Nvidia's Max-Q design, an approach that enables high-end graphics cards similar the GTX 1080 to fit into thin laptops via a pinpointed performance cap and thermal solutions. Gaming notebooks such as the Alienware 17 R4 and the Razer Blade Pro are much larger to accomodate the card, while the 15-inch Zephyrus is just 0.66 inches thick. The Zephyrus' performance shows that Max-Q laptops tin deliver levels of proficiency well-nigh that of bigger machines, earning it an Editors' Choice for high-cease gaming laptops.

Top Efficiency

The design and size of the Zephyrus is the story hither, given the ability within. Its thickness is adept for whatsoever notebook, and it's the thinnest laptop bearing a GTX 1080. (It's as well 14.ix inches wide, ten.3 inches deep, and weighs 4.9 pounds.) For comparison with another high-end 15.6-inch gaming laptop, the Alienware 15 R3 includes a GTX 1070, but weighs 7.8 pounds and is an inch thick.

Putting aside the components for a moment, the Zephyrus is a nicely built laptop with a sleek await—a design manner I'd been hoping to come across more than of from Asus given some of its rather garish offerings. The body is all black, edged in metal with a brushed aluminum lid. The copper trim looks nice, and is used in a more restrained fashion than in some previous ROG laptops.

It should exist noted that Razer has set the benchmark for thin gaming laptops for several years via its own cooling technology and attractive design, as seen in the sleek Bract and the Blade Pro. To firm a GTX 1080, though, the Pro is a larger 17-inch, seven.77-pound system, and its fans get louder than the Zephyrus' under load. Even then, Razer is ahead of the competition, as the GTX 1080-equipped Alienware 17 R4 is much bigger and heavier at i.18 inches thick and ix.77 pounds. A blueprint equally slim as the Zephyrus' with that much ability is not solely the work of clever Asus engineers, however (though they were part of the collaboration), simply too a upshot of the entirely new Max-Q initiative pushed past Nvidia.

The renowned graphics company revealed this design approach, a method for getting the most powerful cards in its current architecture into increasingly sparse laptops, at Computex this year. Asus will non be the simply beneficiary of Max-Q, as all major manufacturers will want to make it on the action that'south changing the image and portability of gaming laptops, but the Zephyrus is the first to come through our lab.

The GTX 1080 in this laptop is physically the same as non-Max-Q versions, but manufactory software puts a cap on its performance to lower power consumption, which limits the heat and sound information technology generates. This in plough allows it to fit into a smaller chassis without overheating or inconsistently throttling, issues that traditionally led gaming laptops to be congenital into large, beefy bodies that don't travel well. On paper, a non-Max-Q GTX 1080 delivers 150W of graphics power, with a base block speed of i,556MHz. The Max-Q version offers 90W to 110W of power, with a base of operations clock speed between ane,101MHz and 1,290MHz. How much the card's performance is limited by these factors is obviously the of import question, and is covered in a split section below.

The innovation is not all in the preset software limits, but also in the physical ventilation. Max-Q is all about efficiency—finding the sweetness spot of maximum performance but under the heat threshold—and Asus worked closely with Nvidia to pattern the Zephyrus to practice just that. The interior fans have been tweaked to be thinner, so there are more than of them pushing more than air with each spin than you lot would typically find in a gaming laptop. They're made from a liquid-crystal polymer to withstand the added speeds, which would warp standard fans.

I of the main ventilation tweaks is visible from the exterior: When the laptop's lid is open, the lesser panel lifts abroad from the frame almost a quarter of an inch. Air is sucked in through this bottom gap and perforations above the keyboard, cooling the components earlier being pushed out through the side vents. This is pretty novel, and cherry-red LEDs shine out of either side for dramatic effect, just it makes the bottom panel feel flimsy. It's only plastic to begin with, but when it's lifted away from the base and you're holding it from the bottom, it flexes in, and it's not articulate how resilient the hinges are. I don't have concerns about the gap existence damaged when it's resting on a surface since the anxiety support the body, and it didn't give me any problems or show signs of wear, simply it definitely feels like a vulnerable area on an expensive motorcar.

It'south Not All Almost Max-Q

Outside of the Max-Q design, the Zephyrus includes another nice features. Its 1080p brandish doesn't look specially precipitous or vibrant, but it features a 120Hz One thousand-Sync display. G-Sync synchronizes the screen's refresh rate to the speed the GPU renders visuals, limiting screen fierce like 5-Sync, but without suffering from V-Sync's latency. The screen has a matte finish, which reduces glare to practically nonexistent levels, though it somewhat dulls the picture. Its 1080p resolution is understandable for performance (bumping upwardly to QHD or 4K lowers frame rates, since many more pixels are existence pushed), only with such a powerful graphics card and at this price, it'due south a bit disappointing to not get at to the lowest degree a QHD screen. I said the Alienware fifteen R3 missed an opportunity in similar fashion, and it only includes a GTX 1070, so there's even more power bachelor here that could've displayed those resolutions. That said, it's probable that a more demanding screen would've thrown off the delicate Max-Q balance, and Asus had to make a call between the two.

The Zephyrus' keyboard is pushed downward right to the bottom edge of the deck, which multiple colleagues commented on as odd. This is a necessity, though, as the surface area higher up the keyboard is entirely defended to cooling, both on elevation with the air holes and beneath with fans and ventilation. Every bit long as you're non using the laptop on the very edge of a desk, your wrists can rest on the surface below rather than on the keyboard deck like usual—it just takes some getting used to. Asus must be aware of this oddity, and that it might exist uncomfortable for some, every bit a rubber wrist rest is included. The keys aren't mechanical (a noteworthy and fairly unique feature of the Bract Pro), but they are RGB backlit, and feel responsive and nice to type on.

The keyboard location as well requires a compromise from the touchpad: It's smaller and placed to the right of the keys. The Blade Pro has the touchpad in the same location, only because information technology'due south a 17-inch laptop, the pointer has the room to exist full-size. It'south not a huge issue, but the skinnier touchpad is slightly irritating every bit there'southward less room to pan, and its position on the right will frustrate lefties. Still, it's responsive, has two dedicated left and correct click buttons just beneath, and you can press a push to make an LED number pad appear on the touch on surface, which is a very cool solution to the lack of infinite for a physical one. The Zephyrus' speakers weren't noticeably strong in testing, but the quality is solid at high volumes. Voices weren't recessed, which I see sometimes in thinner laptops, and it'due south loud enough to fill a small room, so yous can picket a movie on it.

Despite its slim class, there are enough of ports on the Zephyrus. Its left flank holds two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, and a headset jack. On the right, in that location'south a USB-C port with Thunderbolt iii and two more USB 3.0 ports for a well-rounded selection. The remaining connectivity features are 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth four.2, with no Ethernet. For storage, there's a unmarried 512GB NVMe PCIe solid-state drive. That's not a ton of storage, but it is fast, and adding more SSD storage is pricey. You don't often get more that with portable systems—the Blade starts with 256GB and the Blade Pro with 512GB. The Origin EVO15-S is one of the exceptions here, a compact GTX 1060-bearing 15.6-inch laptop that houses a 512GB SSD and a 2TB hard drive, while the Alienware xv R3 is close with a 512GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive. Asus supports the laptop with a ane-yr warranty.

Punching Above Weight

In add-on to the Max-Q GTX 1080, our test unit includes a speedy 2.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and 16GB of memory. That'southward top-notch hardware for any arrangement, and all the more impressive when you remember this i'south size. On our general productivity and multimedia benchmark tests, the Zephyrus scored extremely well. The Alienware 15 is slightly faster on the PCMark exam, but the Zephyrus is quicker on the Photoshop test, and they scored very similarly on the other multimedia tests. The Blade Pro's PCMark score is lower, but its enervating 4K screen plays a office in that, and the media tests are close, with an edge to Asus' system. These direct comparisons show some minor differences, but in the stop, it's clear the Zephyrus is ane of the fastest laptops outside of workstations for multitasking, crunching data, encoding video, and other tasks.

3D and gaming performance is the principal area of interest, not but because that's the primary focus of the Zephyrus, but also because information technology demonstrates what a Max-Q version of a card is capable of for the starting time fourth dimension. The Zephyrus scored 27,728 points on 3DMark Cloud Gate and 7,730 points on Burn Strike Farthermost, both very high results. The Alienware 17 R4 and the Bract Pro are proficient points of comparison for GTX 1080 laptops: The R4 scored 29,487 points on CloudGate and ix,328 on Burn down Strike, while the Blade scored 24,757 and eight,140, respectively. The R4 led the way, and its uninhibited GTX 1080 scored a couple thousand more points on both tests, just the Zephyrus' Max-Q 1080 wasn't too far behind the Bract Pro, and in fact outperformed it on CloudGate. The Heaven and Valley gaming tests told similar stories, simply all three laptops averaged 100 frames per second (fps) or more than on each at ultra-settings and 1080p.

We can see that Max-Q restricts the GTX 1080's operation to a degree, but yous're still getting first-class power out of the carte in a much smaller body—its numbers are extremely close to a standard GTX 1070. The Alienware fifteen R3'southward results prove that pretty conspicuously, particularly on Sky and Valley, which are both within 4fps of the Zephyrus' results. The divergence is, while both are 15.half dozen-inch laptops, the Zephyrus weighs about 3 pounds less and is nigh half an inch thinner. The Zephyrus' GTX 1080 may perform more like a GTX 1070, merely Max-Q is enabling much greater performance in this size tier. The Origin EVO15-S is very like in size and weight, but simply packs a GTX 1060, which topped out at 67fps and 70fps on Heaven and Valley, which drives the divergence domicile.

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With this power, you won't dip below 60fps (the platonic target for a solid gaming feel in this class) on virtually any championship with the Max-Q GTX 1080, peculiarly since the Zephyrus can't get beyond full HD resolution, information technology's fully capable of VR, and you get a G-Sync panel. You might feel similar you're non truly getting a GTX 1080, but the performance is somewhere betwixt it and a GTX 1070, which is a pretty reasonable compromise when yous look at the size of other GTX 1080 laptops. The Zephyrus also ran quietly later on long sessions, which is an area Nvidia heavily took into account when tweaking the graphics card. The aforementioned can't be said for the Blade laptops, as I've consistently noted loud fans in the Blade and Bract Pro when gaming. Betwixt the operation and noise levels, I feel confident saying Nvidia'south Max-Q engineering science is the real deal.

Unfortunately, there's one black marker on the Zephyrus: battery life. Gaming laptops are notorious for short life off the charger, simply that tendency has been slowly reversing, outside of the biggest, almost power-hungry laptops. The Zephyrus behaves much more like those systems than portable alternatives like Razer'due south: It just lasted for 2 hours and 31 minutes on our rundown exam. The Alienware 15 R3 ran for 5:33, and the Razer Blade for 10:36. The Alienware 17 R4 and the Origin EVO15-S aren't much better at 3:30 and iii:28, simply the Zephyrus' bombardment life is at the back of the pack. The larger Blade Pro has room for a bigger battery, just with a enervating 4K IGZO display, it lasted for iii:48.

Gaming away from an outlet for long stretches of fourth dimension isn't too common, but information technology's inappreciably an pick on the Zephyrus, which is a shame because that contradicts its portability. Yous can easily put this laptop in a handbag for a trip to play games at your destination, which will weigh your bag down much less than its contemporaries, but it's just not useful for long stretches on the road in between.

Setting the Bar

The Asus ROG Zephyrus is an excellent first representation of what's possible with the Max-Q blueprint. The partnership between Nvidia and Asus has yielded a new high watermark for performance in a thin, 15.6-inch laptop, even if in that location are a couple caveats. The Zephyrus' design is aesthetically tasteful, it weighs less than v pounds, costs less than several GTX 1080 laptops, and tin play games on maximum settings comfortably above 60fps similar a high-end gaming laptop should. Nosotros've seen some of what'southward already on the way with Max-Q, merely I'm very intrigued to see what other manufacturers will practice, and if the Zephyrus' lesser panel vent innovation will remain a thermal solution given its pros and cons. Max-Q looks probable to stay around, and for demonstrating the performance and design possible with the approach, the Asus ROG Zephyrus is an Editors' Pick loftier-end gaming laptop.