Asus' ROG Zephyrus Is A Crazy Thin Gaming Laptop
Asus’s newest gaming laptop is unfathomably slim. It’s called the ROG Zephyrus--for the Greek god of the west wind--and it’s just as light as air. We first saw it at Nvidia’s press event at Computex in Taipei and later got more information straight from Asus.
This laptop is one of the first to use Nvidia’s Max-Q technology, which allows for efficient, quiet, super-slim laptops. This particular product, for example, measures 0.7" at its thickest point.
Perhaps the coolest part is the bottom, which, when the laptop is open, lifts out to reveal an exhaust port. Asus calls it the ROG Active Aerodynamic System and claims it increases system air flow by 20%. This exhaust port reverts back into the laptop when it's closed to offer easy storage.
The Zephyrus' keyboard is front loaded, and it has a feature we’ve seen on some MSI laptops of late: The touchpad also doubles as a touch-sensitive number pad, which is a neat trick that saves some space. The keyboard is RGB backlit with the QWER and WASD keys in separate clusters.
Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang showed it running the first-ever demo of Project Cars 2 on the laptop's Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 GPU. The Zephyrus is also powered by an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU and supports up to 24GB of RAM.
This gaming notebook features a 15.6", 1080p, 120Hz display with G-Sync that Asus claims covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut. The laptop uses USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 for power delivery, data transfer, and 4K display output. Additionally, it has four USB 3.1 ports for peripherals.
The keyboard is Aura backlit and Asus claims it has 1.4mm of travel. When we went hands-on, it felt fairly average for a laptop.
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Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net. You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01
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ayashi Mmm, not sure about that num pad. Sleek bit of work though that's undeniable. I guess not everyone uses the num pad as much for gaming, but if the homerow portion of the keyboard is on a raised lye, why change it at all? :pReply -
sullivang Looks VERY good, and I love the dual purpose trackpad AND the fact that the keyboard has been brought forward. However, I don't understand the obsession with make them thin. The footprint is more important to me, so I'd prefer it if they had made it bezel-less, and heck - double the thickness and double the ports. I'm hoping someone will make a bezel-less 17" laptop. I'd also prefer a 4K display - is this only available in 2K?Reply -
cryoburner Reply
Are we talking about liquid air here? The density of liquid air is just a bit lower than that of water ice, so it's probably reasonable to assume that the laptop may weigh a similar amount as a block of ice of equal size.19753596 said:--and it’s just as light as air.