Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) Review

Verdict

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is a fantastic gaming laptop; not only does it feature a sleek design and a funky customisable lid, but it’s more than powerful enough to play contemporary games. While there are more powerful gaming laptops out there, few can beat the Zephyrus G14 for its balance between performance and portability.

Pros

  • Customisable light-up lid
  • Lightweight and sleek design
  • Great battery life
  • Consistently impressive performance

Cons

  • Fans can get loud

Availability

  • UK

    RRP: £1999.99

  • USA

    RRP: $2499.99

  • Europe

    RRP: €1999.99

  • Canada

    RRP: CA$2199.99

  • Australia

    RRP: AU$2999.99

Key Features

  • Powerful CPU

    This laptop comes packed with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU.

  • Lighting features

    Customisable lighting features on the lid of the laptop can be accessed through the ROG Armoury Crate.

  • 120Hz refresh rate

    Support for both 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates for a smooth gaming experience.

Introduction

Gaming laptops are known for having bright and vibrant designs, and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is no exception. It features a customisable light-up lid, allowing you personalise it with flashy pixel art.

This laptop comes in multiple variations, but my review model came with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU. This provided more than enough power for my Steam library and could handle day-to-day productivity work without breaking a sweat. 

With a price of $2499.99/£1999.99, it’s not the cheapest gaming laptop on the market, but with all that power and such a beautiful design, it’s a shoo-in for our Best Gaming Laptop roundup. 

Design and Keyboard

  • Only weighs 1.72kg
  • Great variety of ports
  • Customisable light-up lid

The design of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is very sleek and stylish; my model came in Moonlight White and I was pleased to find that it felt very sturdy to use, with the 1.72kg weight feeling very reasonable for a gaming laptop. One of the key design features of this laptop is the customisable lid, which can be accessed by downloading ROG Armory software.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) with Trusted logo on lidAsus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) with Trusted logo on lid

Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Navigating the app was a tad confusing, but I really enjoyed tinkering with the light-up features. There are a couple of set animations you can choose from, with my favourite being Starry Night, as well as a text feature. Outside of distracting my coworkers, there is not a lot of practical use for these features, but I still thought it was a great add-on and a lovely way to personalise the device.

Turning to the port selection, I found that there was more than enough range for my needs. There is an HDMI, a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD slot, two USB-A ports and two USB-C ports, although there is sadly no Thunderbolt 4 support.

Ports on the other side of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2022

Ports on the other side of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2022Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

I was able to hook up my Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense alongside a mouse, even pairing it with my Razer Raptor monitor without any issues. There is also no Ethernet port, which may make it harder for those with unstable internet connections to game online, although this is somewhat made up for by the inclusion of Wi-Fi 6E support.

I really liked using the keyboard; I felt like it had good travel and great responsiveness, and unlike the other 14-inch gaming laptops I’ve tried, it did not feel too cramped. The Zephyrus G14 has finally been upgraded with RGB lighting for more dazzling lighting effects, but it’s single zone lighting, which means you can’t change the colour of the backlight for individual keys.

Keyboard and touchpad on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14  Keyboard and touchpad on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

The touchpad here was not bad, I felt like it had good responsiveness, but the small size did make it a little cumbersome to use during intensive games, although it fared fine for productivity tasks and navigation. I would recommend pairing this laptop with a mouse, and you can check out our Best Gaming Mouse List to see some of the best options on the market.

Screen

  • A bright and vibrant screen
  • 120Hz refresh rate
  • Great colour accuracy scores

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) packs a 14-inch screen with a 2560×1600 (WQXGA) resolution. I found that both games and video looked sharp, and I never felt that the 14-inch screen size was too cramped. Games appeared colourful and vibrant, with summer scenes in Stardew Valley packing in a lot of detail and nuance despite its 16-bit design.

I tested the screen to take a deeper look at what it’s capable of. The brightness came out at 457 nits, which is more than enough for a gaming device, but the poor black levels restricted the contrast to a mediocre score of 1010:1.

The low black level lined up with my experiences, as in both Stardew Valley and Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, certain scenes were too dark to be distinguishable. This could prove frustrating, and I imagine that games with dark colour palettes may suffer even more.

Stardew Valley bright screen screenStardew Valley bright screen screenImage Credit (Trusted Reviews)

I also tested the colour coverage, and the results were surprisingly positive. It managed to score a 100% accuracy rating for sRGB, with 88% and 99% for Adobe RGB and DCI-P3, respectively.

This means that the ROG Zephyrus G14 is more than serviceable for creative professionals since it will be able to represent colours very accurately on screen. The AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU will also provide enough power to engage in intensive creative applications like Photoshop and Lightroom, making it a viable alternative to the MacBook Pro 2023 or Dell XPS 15 for content creators.

While the 120Hz refresh rate pales in comparison to other laptops, like the 300Hz Gigabyte AORUS 17G (2021), it provided me with a smooth enough gaming experience, especially at this price point.

Stardew Valley farm on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14Stardew Valley farm on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Performance

  • Great gaming performance
  • Breezes through productivity tasks
  • Up to 1TB of storage

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can be configured in several ways, but my model came with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and AMD Radeon RX 6800S GPU.

This is paired up with 32GB DDR5 RAM and 1TB 4.0 NVMe storage, the latter seeing read and write scores of 3637.06MB/s and 3470.71MB/s; while these are not the fastest results we’ve seen on a gaming laptop, I still found that the laptop booted up almost immediately with little to no waiting time when loading up apps and games.

TR home screen on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 TR home screen on Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Since the ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) launched back in 2022, it does not come with the latest GPU or CPU from AMD. That means it may not be as quick as some 2023 launches, but I still found it to be perfectly fast enough for Full HD and Quad HD gaming.

Borderlands 3 managed to reach 55fps during the 1080p test, and it managed to reach 50fps in Quad HD. Horizon Zero Dawn saw even better results, with the Full HD test hitting 84fps and the Quad HD test scoring 59fps. Unsurprisingly, Dirt Rally had the highest results since it’s the least demanding game of the three. The Full HD and Quad HD came out at 152fps and 110fps respectively, proving that this laptop is more than capable of running older games at a high level.

ROG branding logo on laptopROG branding logo on laptopImage Credit (Trusted Reviews)

Looking at our computing benchmarks, both the Geekbench single and multi-core results for the ROG Zephyrus G14 were outmatched by its competitors, including the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 (2022) and Alienware x14 (2022).

But the ROG Zephyrus G14 excelled in graphics performance thanks to the Radeon GPU, offering a more powerful performance than even Nvidia’s popular RTX 3060 chip. I found this with real-time testing too, as the Zephyrus G14 managed to run every game I played without any issues.

The high graphics performance also emphasises the point that this laptop is a great option for creators. And since this laptop is more than powerful enough for productivity and office work too, you would not necessarily need to purchase a separate work device, even though the combined weight of this laptop and its charger would make it harder to travel with.

Customisation on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14Customisation on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

The main issue I did have with the ROG Zephyrus G14 was the noise emitted from the fans. However, I did find it to be more manageable than the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (2021) and it only got loud enough to be distracting after I had been gaming for multiple hours, making it a small grievance in the grand scheme of things.

Battery Life

  • 76Whr battery
  • Lasted 6 hours 28 minutes during benchmark testing
  • Dropped 40% after half an hour of gameplay

The battery on a gaming laptop will never compare to a productivity laptop due to the powerful internals and large fans needed to keep it running.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) managed to last 6 hours and 28 minutes during our PCMark 10 Battery benchmark, which is very impressive. It managed to trump the Lenovo Legion Slim 7 (2022), but if you’re after someone that can last even longer, take a look at the Razer Blade 14 (2021), which lasted just over 7 hours.

TR background on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14  2022TR background on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14  2022Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)

It’s important to note that to get the best performance out of a gaming laptop, you will want to ensure that it’s plugged in during use. The ROG Zephyrus G14 dropped by 40% after playing Stardew Valley for 30 minutes at 100% brightness. Performance will also be hampered when playing away from the mains.

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Should you buy it?

You want a striking and reliable gaming laptop:

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) is a great-looking laptop with customisable features thanks to the ROG Armoury. It’s more than capable of running AAA games and will tackle productivity work without breaking a sweat, making this a great all-rounder. 

You want a super-powerful gaming laptop:

While the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can handle contemporary Steam games while still achieving a high refresh rate, it won’t be the best pick for anyone after a 4K resolution or over 60 fps during gameplay. 

Final Thoughts

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) has become one of my favourite gaming laptops on the market. I have fallen in love with the customisable lid features and the sleek design, while the internals provide a consistently smooth performance.

I think this is a great choice for anyone looking for a smaller gaming laptop that offers up a reliable performance. Anyone looking for exceptionally high refresh rates or 4K resolution will want to look elsewhere, but if you’re looking for something that will get the job done and looks fantastic while doing it, then the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is the pick for you.

Trusted Score

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How we test

Every gaming laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life. 

These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real world checks, such as how well it runs when running a AAA game. 

We used as our main laptop for at least a week.

Tested the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.

We tested the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.

We tested the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.

FAQs

Does the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) have a light-up lid?

Yes, this laptop comes with a customisable lid that can be lit up with various patterns and text. This feature can be accessed by downloading the ROG Armoury Crate software.

Does the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) have DDR5 RAM?

Yes, this laptop can be kitted out with up to 32GB DDR5 RAM.

Trusted Reviews test data

PCMark 10

Geekbench 5 single core

Geekbench 5 multi core

3DMark Time Spy

CrystalDiskMark Read speed

CrystalMarkDisk Write Speed

Brightness

Black level

Contrast

White Visual Colour Temperature

sRGB

Adobe RGB

DCI-P3

PCMark Battery (office)

Battery Life

Borderlands 3 frame rate (Quad HD)

Borderlands 3 frame rate (Full HD)

Horizon Zero Dawn frame rate (Quad HD)

Horizon Zero Dawn frame rate (Full HD)

Dirt Rally (Quad HD)

Dirt Rally (Full HD)

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)

7401

1575

9296

8703

3637.06 MB/s

3470.71 MB/s

457.5 nits

0.45 nits

1010:1

7500 K

100 %

88 %

99 %

6 hrs

6 hrs

50

53.33

59 fps

84 fps

110 fps

152 fps

Full specs

UK RRP

USA RRP

EU RRP

CA RRP

AUD RRP

CPU

Manufacturer

Screen Size

Storage Capacity

Front Camera

Battery

Battery Hours

Weight

Operating System

Model Number

Resolution

HDR

Refresh Rate

Ports

GPU

RAM

Connectivity

Colours

Display Technology

Screen Technology

Touch Screen

Convertible?

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)

£1999.99

$2499.99

€1999.99

CA$2199.99

AU$2999.99

AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS

Asus

14 inches

1TB

720p

76 Whr

6 28

1.72 KG

Windows 11

GA402RK-L8032W

2560 x 1600

Yes

120 Hz

3.5mm audio jack, HDMI 2.1, USB-C, 2x USB 3.2, DisplayPort, microSD slot

AMD Radeon RX 6800S

32GB

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2

Moonlight White, Eclipse Grey

IPS

IPS

No

No

Sustainability

TrustedReviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavour to help protect our planet from harm in its business practice

As part of this mission, whenever we review a product, we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment

We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but we will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.

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