I really hope Asus didn’t ruin the Zephyrus G14

by Shivendra Singh · January 21, 2024

A sleek silver gaming laptop, on left, facing away from camera. A shiny slash is the sole decoration on the lid, running from top left to bottom right corners. On the right is a second, larger gaming laptop, screen open, with the Verge homepage displayed.

The Asus Zephyrus G14 and G16 are chunky and funky no more. | Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

[Editor’s note: Monica Chin is The Verge’s former senior laptop reviewer, currently taking a break from tech journalism. But some things are hard to quit.]

Once upon a time, in the olden days of March 2020, a little company called Asus released a spritely whippersnapper of a gaming laptop called the ROG Zephyrus G14. It weighed just over 3.5 pounds, and it was powered by a truly monstrous AMD processor, the likes of which had never been seen in a 14-inch form factor.

I still remember reviewing that laptop, almost four years ago, like it was yesterday. I remember running the Red Dead Redemption 2 benchmark — the ultimate test at that time — over and over again, poring over the game settings, trying desperately to figure out what I’d…