ROG Zephyrus G14 G401IV WQHD 14" IPS Level Gaming Laptop (AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB, 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, 16GB RAM, Windows 10) Includes LED Lighting

I bought this laptop after i bought a razer blade 15 that was on offer; sadly the razer blade broke in the space of 2 weeks (very poor fans for such an expensive unit)... i decided to spend a little more money instead and get something i felt was going to be more reliable. I will be comparing the G14 to the Razer Blade to make some comparisons.There is a reason this laptop is number 1 by Tech RadarThis is a review of my time with the laptop for a week. I hope you enjoy my hefty essay of a review.Too Long Didn't Read: This laptop is great, great hardware, great software, great for gaming. the only thing that lets it down is a strange choice on the screen features and a fairly pricey tag.Design:Asus really hit the nail on the head with the design of the G14, they really know how to catch a gamer's eye in my opinion. The laptop is sleek, its super thin and looks just like any other "notebook"; unlike other laptops that feature chunky bases to accommodate for hardware or cooling, this has none of that, you would never be able to tell that this was a gaming laptop on first look.What is telling is the LED display found on the top of the lid. The AniMe Matrix (poorly named seeing as theres a Matrix short story series called the "Animatrix", googling is difficult because of it) allows you to configure a panel of LEDs on the lid to show information such as battery life, the date, notifications, or just flex and show gifs and other images. This feature is certainly where are large percentage of your money is spent, and while it is undeniably pointless, i have uploaded a ton of gifs to this display to flex as much as i possibly can. i love it. You have to be somewhat picky over the gifs you use, the lights are white so use a black and white colour pallet to display the gifs; if the object is the same colour as the background then you may struggle to see it. gifs that are already black and white work well, but you also need to ensure that the images aren't too detailed as the number of LEDs is limiting. it still works well in my opinion for what appears to be the first attempt at this display.Screen: The screen is great but also my main irk with the laptop. The G14 utilises a 14" display; this isn't too bad but is on the verge of being a "small" screen. has it been any smaller it would have been too small. for me, i think it's fine. the Razer Blade was a 15" screen and did feel that bit bigger, but for me who wants to either game on the go or on the sofa i like the size and have no problem. my main issue if the choice of features ASUS chose to include in the display. This screen is 4K... thats great, sadly as staed the screen is 14" so the use of 4K feels nonsensical. This would have been put to use far better had the screen been 144hz instead with 1080p. its not the worse thing in the world, just something i feel that Asus dropped the ball on.Colours look great, I've seen other reviews on websites mention that bright colours don't "pop", call me blind but they look fine to me.Keyboard: They keyboard is an area that i really enjoy, there is only one part that i feel could have been improved. The G14 uses shallow membrane keys that work as expected, there was a slight issue with some keys feeling like they hadn't been detected but this appears to be fixed with a firmware update using "My Asus", more about that later.My favourite part of the keyboard is the accessibility it provides. At the top of the keyboard you have buttons for your volume, microphone, and the Armoury Crate, more about that later too. On the f-keys you'll find other useful commands that were non-existent on the Razer Blade; fan controls, trackpad de/activation when you dont want you hand accidentally hitting it when you are using a mouse, etc. i use these every time i used the laptop. the only negative point i can make regarding the keyboard is the strange choice for the arrow keys; theyre offset from the rest of the keyboard and are a little on the small side, however this is something im already slowly getting used to.Trackpad: The trackpad is a trackpad, it works well enough. I just wish it had physical buttons on the top or bottom of the pad, it makes little sense that a gaming laptop doesnt have an ability to make a proper right click easily rather than having to double tap, this doesnt work well in a lot of games.Gaming: The laptop boasts a 6GB 2060, this is another reason you're paying a little more for this machine. Gaming on this laptop is amazing, i forget im playing on a laptop at times, at this time it doesnt feel restrictive. Running a fairly demanding game like Assassin's Creed: Odyssey on Very High I'm getting an average of 53 fps at 1080p. this is great in comparison to my PC with an 8GB RX580 GPU that got an average of 45. The 2060 will benefit from other games in the future that utilise advanced GPU features; DLSS 2.0 (a feature only on 2000 series Nvidia GPUs) has been announced to be included on games such as CyberPunk 2077 and Death Stranding; this will allow you to run at a higher quality at better frames per second. The 2060 also allows for Ray Tracing, if you feel like upping the graphics of your games, but be warned the frames per second will drop.This is a great GPU and its worth it for the DLSS 2.0, but if you feel you'll be playing games that won't have it, or games that are lower graphically, you may want to look at a cheaper laptop with something like a 1660ti.Cooling is another important factor when gaming, the fan speed options on the keyboard allow you to pump more air into the machine if you wish, however I'm currently running Assassin's Creed right now as i type this with the fans set to "silent" mode, and i can honestly barely hear them. I've seen other reviews on amazon for this laptop and i cannot understand where people are saying that the fans are unrealistically loud, they're by far one of the best bits about this laptop. i can sit on the sofa and play a fairly demanding game while my partner watches TV and there's no complaints. This is in comparison to the Razer Blade where it would sound like it was about to lift off the ground. This is another perk of the 2060 GPU; it can handle games that little bit easier and so it needs that bit more demand for the fans to need to speed up as much as a 1660ti would.Battery: There's lots of reviews that state that the battery is one of the best on the market; I'm yet to discover it. the My Asus software allows me to choose whether to charge the battery at 60%/80%/100% to value either longevity on the battery life, or to have a full battery; the lower the % you stop it, the longer your battery should last.Additional Hardware: There's a few bits I'm yet to cover so I'll keep this bit quick. There's no camera above the screen, if you're looking to use this laptop for video conferencing for work this laptop may not be for you; i have no need for a webcam so this does not bother me, if anything it gives me a bit of peace knowing no one is "watching". The mic isn't great, but there are very few laptop mics that are good. I never use it and instead use a gaming headset.Software:As mentioned above there's a button at the top of the keyboard to bring up The Armoury. This is a program allowing you to make customisation and tweaks to your machine; this is also where the AniMe Matrix is housed. Information such as CPU, GPU, Memory, and Storage stats, along with a lot of other features that can be accessed in this program. All these in one place works great.My Asus is another great app allowing you to troubleshoot your machine with ease but also ensure that you have all the correct drivers installed on your machine. This is another feature that the Razer Blade didn't have available, searching online for the latest drivers for the machine is a nightmare and this makes things so much easier.Overall: I love this laptop, the experience using it is far greater than the competitor i had originally bought. Yes it is pricey, but only 200 over the Razer Blade 15 for a better GPU and a lot of extra features that i now can't do without. There are a few features that could be better, and the AniMe Matrix is a bit gimmicky, but if you feel like treating yourself this is the laptop for you.4/5JL

Super fast 14in with fantastic sound quality with easy to understand settings control to boost loudness and display settings, only flaw for me is No built-in webcam or disc player, but can always add external Cam.Love the sound around moves around you like cinema experience. All round 09/10 would be 10/10 if not for webcam missing. You WON'T be disappointed.