Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 2024 series (Intel Meteor Lake, OLED)

In this article we’re discussing the latest generation of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 series, the 2024 GU605 lineup.

This Zephyrus G16 is pretty much and oversized Zephyrus G14, as the two share an unified design this year. At the same time, Asus are putting the extra space in this 16-inch model to good use, offering a few extras such as a larger touchpad and even better audio, a full-size SD card, as well as a bigger battery inside and more powerful hardware specs with a more complex cooling module.

In fact, this Zephyrus G16 is one of the more configurable Asus Zephyrus products ever launched, available with OLED/IPS panels and a multitude of GPUs. It remains, however, an Intel exclusive platform, built on the latest Intel Meteor Lake hybrid hardware, which is fast enough for daily use and demanding loads, but more importantly, more efficient than past Intel Core H platforms.

So yes, there’s no AMD hardware on this G16, but you’re getting that with the G14. The more compact Zephyrus G14 is AMD only, and this Zephyrus G16 is Intel only. And both are no longer primarily oriented towards gamers, but rather aim at a larger audience of casual and pro users with their updated design and their updated mix of portability and power under load.

I got to spend the last few weeks with a few early production units of the 2024 Zephyrus G16 GU605 and I’ve gathered my thoughts on this series down below in this article. I’m not covering benchmarks and performance tests at this point, since this is not a finalized product, but I’ll follow-up with a proper review in the next few weeks. Until then, you’ll find in here my thoughts on the new design language, what I like about it and what Asus didn’t get right, as well as impressions on the inputs, the displays and the internals/cooling layout of this generation.

Disclaimer: Asus sent us the preview units in advance, so we can gather our impressions for the article. However, this post is not in any way sponsored by Asus or other brands.

2024 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16, vs. Zephyrus G16 2023

Here’s the complete specs sheet of the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16, next to the 2023 Zephyrus G16 model.

Design and ergonomics

For the most part, my impressions on the Zephyrus G14 apply to this larger G16 model as well, so I’ll refer you to the G14 article for my indepth analysis of this design. But there are some specifics that are improved on this 16-inch model, as you’ll see in a bit.

Here are some pictures of this 2024 Zephyrus G16, in the two available color options: Platinum White (silver) and Eclipse Gray (dark gray), both with matching inputs. I’ve used both, and while the silver version does a better job at keeping clean and hiding smudges, I would lean towards the gray version due to its overall sober appeal and the more functional keyboard, with better contrast on the dark keys.

And here’s how the 14-inch and 16-inch models look side by side, for size comparison. The G14 is more compact and lighter.

Finally, here’s how this 2024 Zephyrus G16 GU605 update looks next to the previous generation 2023 Zephyrus G16 GU603. In this case, the previous generation appeared a little more compact, due to how the hinge was designed to tuck the display behind the chassis when opened up. However, that also meant the hot air was pushed straight into the screen, something the updated model no longer does.

So all in all, this 2024 Zephyrus G16 design is simpler, cleaner, with limited branding on both the lid and on the interior. For some reason, though, Asus put this diagonal customizable lightbar on the lid, which they’re calling “Slash Lighting”.

It consists of chromed diagonal piece with 7 customizable LEDs in it. I didn’t care much for it at first, but at some point someone around me commented on how much nicer the lid would have looked without it, and he was surely right. I took the liberty of taking it out in Photoshop and the results are… quite interesting. That’s the G14 down below, but it would look the same on the G16. What do you think?

Open up the laptop and the interior design stands-out, with the beautiful 16-inch display and the clean main deck, with the centered keyboard and the extra large glass touchpad, flanked by a generous arm-rest. Plus, there are up-firing speaker grills to the left and right side of the keyboard. We’ll discuss the inputs and speakers in the next sections of this preview.

The entire main deck is a CNC piece of aluminum and just feels stronger and nicer to the touch than the metals used on the previous Zephyrus full-size models. The underbelly is a thinner piece of metal, but doesn’t flex or squeak when picking up the laptop and throwing it around with general use.

As far as ergonomics go, this laptop checks most of the right boxes, with the sturdy build and spacious arm-rest, with blunted edges and corners around the main deck, and with grippy rubber feet on the bottom. Plus, there are no longer any lights in the line of sight to bother you when using the laptop at night: there’s no light in the power button and the status LEDs were moved far out of sight, on the rear-edge of the screen part, behind the laptop.

Just like on the G14, though, the display only goes back to about 130-degrees, and not all the way flat to 180. This bothered me when using the laptop on the couch or in bed, with it placed on my thighs, but perhaps it’s less of an issue on this larger model than on the G14. Although this is still portable and I’d reckon you’re not just going to keep it on a desk, like with a full-size heavier model.

Asus are aware of this aspect and mentioned that they were forced to limit the angle in order to not choke the air-exhaust, which is entirely on the rear-edge of the laptop and is designed to push the hot air down and to the back, and not into the screen as on past Zephyrus units. That makes sense, but is surely not an ideal approach and impacts the laptop functionality with general use. There are ways to meet both ends, as shown by the competition.

My other nit with the G14 was the sharp lip around the A panel, around the lid, which I found rather uncomfortable on the fingers. But somehow the lid on the G16 is not as sharp, so it didn’t bother me. The grip isn’t that good when trying to lift up the screen with a single finger, though, since the lips is more blunt and since there’s no dedicated crease to pull up the screen from. But at least the hinges work smoothly and for the most part, you don’t have to use both hands to open this up.

As for the IO, ports are lined on the left and right edges on this G16 generation, and towards the back of these edges, since the cooling module has been redesigned and no longer utilizes side-vents.

Most of these ports are on the left edge, including the redesigned square-shaped power plug alt the way at the back, alongside an HDMI 2.1 port, an USB-C 4.0 with full functionality, and UBS-A and the audio jack. On the other side, there’s another USB-C ports that only support video and data, another USB-A and a full size SD card reader. Sure, an SD card only fits in half-way in here, but I appreciate having this port on this sort of pro-targeted device, and would have been nice if Asus could somehow implement that on the G14 as well.

Furthermore, both USB-C ports support full functionality on this unit, which means you get the convenience of charging the laptop on both sides. That’s not available on the G14. So really, the IO on this series is as good as it gets.

Inputs

The keyboard on this 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is identical to the one of the smaller 2024 Zephyrus G14, and a major revamp of the keyboard in the previous 2023 16-inch Zephyrus models.

The layout is still standard for an Asus ROG device, centered on the chassis, with smaller half-sized arrows in the bottom-right corner, and the extra 4 media keys above the main deck, in the top-left corner.

However, the keycaps are larger and have a square format, instead of the previous design with slightly rounded corners. Their surface isn’t flat either, it has a small dash meant to guide your fingers in the right spot.

Much like on the G14, I got used to this keyboard very quickly. The slightly rugged finish of the keycaps feels great to the touch, and the feedback and stroke depth (1.7 mm) are well suited to my typing style. Typing on this feels a bit loud, though, at least on this early sample.

A novelty for this generation is also the slightly redesigned font and the icons used for the top row of Functions keys.

I’ll also mention that the media keys feel a little weird to use, since they sit flush with the chassis when not used and go into the frame when pressed. So you kind of have to press them with the tip of your finger. It’s not a big deal, since you’re rarely use those, but something that I noticed during my time with the laptop.

As for the illumination system, that’s still single-zone RGB, with bright LEDs and decent uniformity on the main set of keys. However, I don’t like how the LEDs are generally designed, with a single LED in the middle of the key, which means only the middle of the key lights up, and everything on the side does not. This is especially noticeable on the larger keys such as Shift, Enter, but also on the arrows keys and on the top row of media keys. I was hoping that would be an issue with my sample, but it’s the same on the G14 that I have here as well. So I fear that’s just the way this system is designed.

And I must insist on how the F1 to F12 markups on the top keys are also difficult to figure out on this implementation, for the same reason: they’re in the corner of the keycaps, and the LEDs only light up the middle of the keycap. The images below are on the G14 (first picture) and the G16 (the other two).

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the new giant glass touchpad, which is larger than on the G14 and occupies the entire mid part of the arm-rest deck. This worked just fine on my unit with everything I threw at it. Palm-rejection worked fine as well, which is important with this sort of design.

As for biometrics, there’s IR functionality in the camera, but no finger-sensor in the power button, as on some of the older Zephyrus models.

Screen

There’s a 16-inch 16:10 display on this laptop, with a choice of either an IPS or an OLED panel.

Both are excellent panels in their segments:

• OLED QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px , 240 Hz 0.2ms, 400 nits, 100% DCI-P3 colors, glossy
• IPS QHD+ 2560 x 1600 px , 240 Hz 3ms, 500 nits, 100% DCI-P3 colors, matte ??

Both of these are non-touch and the OLED is a glossy finish, but it’s unclear to me at this point whether the IPS model is matte – I’m inclined to believe it might be?

Also, there’s no mini LED panel available for this series, which remains exclusive to the Zephyrus M16 and the Scar 16 models this year. That’s rather odd, since Asus already manufactured two lid versions for this series, with the lid on the IPS configuration being thicker than on the OLED. So that means they could have somehow fit the mini LED panel as well, especially since this G16 is their halo full-size Zephyrus lineup this year.

Anyway, my unit is the OLED panel, and it’s impressive. The image quality is beautiful, with punchy colors and excellent blacks and contrast.

And since this is OLED, it also gets lighting fast response times and a 240Hz refresh rate, which paired with the MUX and GSync support, are excellent attributes for gaming. In fact, this Zephyrus G16 is one of the few OLED laptops with G-Sync support available out there, as well as one of the first OLEDs with up to 240Hz refresh rate.

Furthermore, this is one of the first OLED laptop implementation that supports VRR – variable refresh rate. And that’s because implementing VRR on OLED mobile devices is complicated, due to the nature of how OLEDs work. Unlike on LCDs, where the panel is constantly lit and then you adjust the number of displayed frames in software, on OLEDs each individual diode pulsates continuously. I’m looking for more info from Asus on how they worked around this issue on these implementations.

I’ll also mention this OLED doesn’t support touch. This is important, because it means that the image quality is sharp and clear on it, without any of the muddiness and graininess noticeable on touch OLEDs (caused by the digitizer layer), especially on white backgrounds.

But because this is an OLED panel, it doesn’t get that bright, although we measured over 400-nits SDR brightness across the entire panel, which is brighter than on most other OLEDs. Still, this is not quite ideal for bright-light environments or outdoors use. Especially as the display is also a glary glossy finish, so you also have to factor in the reflections in those bright environments.

Furthermore, because this is OLED, you’ll have to be aware of other particularities of this technology such as potential burn-in concerns if not used properly, or flickering at lower brightness levels. Still, burn-in should be fine with current OLEDs if you’re careful about how you’re using your device, and flickering should be less of a concern as well here, since Asus offer DC-dimming brightness control in Armoury Crate on this ROG laptop.

Anyway, here are the technical specs of this OLED panel:

• Panel HardwareID: Samsung -;
• Coverage: 100% sRGB, 94.3% AdobeRGB, 100% DCI-P3,;
• Measured gamma: 2.2o;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 412.62 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
• White point: 6500 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0 cd/m2;
• PWM: Yes.

The panel is properly calibrated out of the box, and uniform in luminosity and color coverage. Plus, you don’t have to concern yourself about light bleeding on an OLED.

As for the IPS panel, that’s most likely similar to the one in the previous G16 generation, and should be more or less within these lines:

• Panel HardwareID: TL160ADMP03-0;
• Coverage: 99.8% sRGB, 83.9% AdobeRGB, 98.0% DCI-P3;
• Type: 10-bit HDR, with Dolby Vision support;
• Measured gamma: 2.1;
• Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 484.86 cd/m2 on power;
• Min brightness in the middle of the screen: 34.22 cd/m2 on power;
• Contrast at max brightness: 1119:1;
• White point: 6700 K;
• Black on max brightness: 0.43 cd/m2;
• PWM: No.

This is brighter and still displays beautiful colors and offers good uniformity. But the blacks and contrast are nowhere near those of the OLED panel, or of a modern mini LED panel for that matter.

Hardware and performance expectations

Specs wise, the 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 is built on an Intel Core Ultra H platform with Nvidia graphics.

This unit here is the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H mainstream Meteor Lake processor paired with an Nvidia RTX 4090 dGPU, 32 GB of LPPDR5x memory, and a fast SSD.

Other configurations are available with Core Ultra 7 or the Core Ultra 9 processors, either 16 or 32 GB of RAM, and RTX 4050 to 4090 graphics chips. So Asus offer a wide range of variants for this 2024 Zephyrus G16 series.

Internally, though, the RAM is soldered on the motherboard, and the storage and wifi chip are the only upgradeable parts – there are two M.2 2280 slots to work with.

Inside, you’ll also notice the ample cooling module on this configuration, a dual-fan setup with two heatsinks on the rear-edge of the laptop, as well as a large vapor-chamber over the components.

However, the vapor-chamber is exclusive to the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 configurations, while the other variants fit a array of heatpipes that should be fairly similar to the cooling on the Zephryus G14, just larger.

The cooling has been also redesigned externally, so that hot air is no longer blown into the display. That’s important, especially since an OLED panel is more sensible to heat. Instead, the flow of hot air is pushed down and onto the back of the laptop, behind the display. This aspect comes with a downside, though, as it prevents the hinges from opening to 180-degrees, in order to not block this flow of hot air. Understandable, but surely not an ideal design.

It’s also important to understand that the power settings of this 2024 G16 generation differ between the configurations with the vapor-chamber cooling module, and those with the traditional array of heatpipes.

Here’s what to expect for the RTX 4080/4090 configurations with the vapor chamber cooling module:

And here are the power settings for the 4050/4060/4070 configurations with the regular cooling module.

The differences are quite significant, with the standard 4050-4070 models running at lower power both on the CPU and on the GPU, and louder noise levels on the most profiles.

Since this unit here is the 4090 configuration, I’m only going to briefly comment on the capabilities and thermal behaviour of this model.

I haven’t ran a lot of tests on this early model with early software, but the power profiles listed above seem to translate well in real-use.

As far as performance goes, on the CPU side, the Core Ultra 7 155H is mostly a match for the i9-13900H in the 2023 G16 in multi-threaded tests, and a tad slower in single-core benchmarks. However, the faster memory on the 2024 model will have a notable impact in certain workloads.

On the GPU side, the previous G16 had an edge in power allowance and thus should hold an edge in overall performance for matching specs. However, the 2024 G16 can be specced with higher-tier GPUs, the kind only available on the Zephyrus M16 series last year. That one also allows higher GPU power in mixed loads, while this G16 only allows for a ~95W TGP.

With longer gaming sessions on this RTX 4090 Zephyrus G16 model, on Turbo, the CPU averages around 87-90 C and the GPU around 75-77C.

In comparison, the 2023 RTX 4090 Zephyrus M16 that we tested averaged 75-85 degrees Celsius on the CPU and 75-78 Celsius on the GPU, with the laptop flat on a desk. The 4090 ran at higher power in that chassis, but the fans also ran much louder at 50+ dBA on Turbo.

And here’s a FLIR image of the external temperatures after 30+ minutes of gaming on Turbo, with the laptop flat on the desk. Take it with a grain of salt, since this unit is an early sample.

For the most part, while a hotspot develops in the middle of the top part of the chassis, the areas that you’ll get in touch with keep perfectly within comfortable limits. Plus, this G16 generation tends to run cooler on those areas than the previous G16 and M16 Zephyrus models, and the screen never heats up as on the past designs that blew hot air straight into the panel.

Bottom point, the 2024 Zephyrus G16 runs the GPU at lower power around 95W TGP in mixed sustained loads, with fan noise levels of only around 45 dBA, and acceptable internal and external temperatures.

So all in all, Asus gave up on some of the GPU performance on this Zephyrus G16 in comparison to the 2023 G16 and M16 models, for an overall more balanced experience in general use and sustained loads. We’ll further look into these aspects and draw some proper conclusions once we get to test a finalized model, though. Hopefully we’ll have our detailed review up in the next few weeks.

But before we wrap-up this preview article, let’s also discuss the speakers and battery.

There are 6x speakers on this G16, with 4x 2W woofers and 2x 1W extra tweeters. The woofers are dual-sided and fire both downwards and upwards, through the grills flanking the keyboard. They’re larger than on the previous G16 models, and thus louder and capable of reproducing lower bass frequencies of as low as 100 Hz. The tweeters are uni-directional and fire upwards through the grills as well.

Overall, this laptop is one of the loudest and nicest sounding I’ve listened to in a while.

The battery on this G16 generation is 90 Wh, on par with other Zephyrus models. The laptop ships with a 240W charger, with a redesigned square plug. It can also charge via USB-C, up to 100W, but the full-power profiles are only available when using the main charger.

Runtimes should be quite good with the Meteor Lake hardware and the 90Wh battery. Expect around 6-8 hours of general use and close to 15h of streaming on this 2024 model.

Wrap-up

Having spent the last few weeks using this Zephyrus G16 2024 model, I got to enjoy it more and more. If not for the limited screen angle, this would earn my clear recommendation in its space of premium 16-inch laptops with all the bells and whistles available today.

It’s built well and looks nice… well, aside for the glossy light bar part on the lid. It also does almost everything right, with good inputs and excellent IO, a beautiful display and punchy audio.

And then, it can handle some heat, from general multitasking to workloads and even games, especially in the higher-specced configurations with the more powerful Nvidia GPUs. Of course, it’s still a mid-powered portable design and not as fast as other full-size laptops available out there, but it aims at a target audience that’s willing to sacrifice on performance to some extent in order to get a beautiful and fairly portable machine. In fact, it aims at the audience that made the Dell XPS or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme, or the HP EliteBook 16 and even the MacBook Pro 16 so popular. Albeit, the MacBook is still in a class of its own in performance and efficiency and… pricing. Which I expect is going to be more competitive with this Zephyrus.

So overall, I’m glad Asus went this route with their 2023 Zephyrus G models, one that I didn’t quite expect. Both this G16 and the G14 are rather the Zenbook Pros that were never made in these last years, and I expect them to be highly popular over the coming months and years.

Pricing for the 2024 Zephyrus G16 series should be inline with that of the previous M16 2023 model at launch, and retail availability is scheduled for late January early-February in most markets.

Of course, I’ll need to spend more time with a finalized version of this G16 before making up my mind on its worth, so look forward to the detailed review. In the meantime, I’d like to hear your thoughts on this 2024 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605 update.