Verdict
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is slim , good looking at and fast , with square gaming and CPU performance . It ’s often hot and tacky , though , and you ’ll sure detect more carrying into action if you ’re unforced to habituate a thicker , heavier notebook computer instead .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The AsusROG Zephyrus M16 is the latest gambling laptop computer to try out to bridge over the gap between conventional 15.6 in notebooks and behemothic 17.3 in rigs .
The M16 does the chore with style , and on the inside it ’s got anNvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Tiand Intel Core i9 processor – so there ’s no power shortage .
For this example ( GU603ZW - K8015W ) , though , you ’ll have to vanquish out $ 2149 / £ 2599 / € 2799 . The UK and US machines declare oneself the best value : the UK rig has 32 GB of memory and a tops - fast 1 TB SSD , while the US rendering halves those figures and reduces the Mary Leontyne Price . The European interpretation sticks with low capacities at a higher monetary value .
That might be plenty of immediate payment to spend on any gambling laptop , but the M16 ’s rivals are n’t always cheaper . If you ’re willing to settle for 15.6 in designs , theAsus ROG Strix Scar 15deploys the same core components as the M16 for a price of $ 2499 / £ 2399 / € 2799 . And if you ’d wish to go the other way , an equivalentAlienware x17 R2will determine you back $ 3699 / £ 2649 / € 2899 .
Design and Keyboard
calculate beyond the pricing and you ’ll regain mature invention . The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is build from black aluminium and plastic , and it does n’t have the exuberant lighting or cloth you ’ll retrieve on rivals . It ’s hard-nosed , too : the ErgoLift hinge angles the keyboard towards the user and hides the bottom bezel , which makes the display more immersive .
As with other Zephyrus poser , the palpebra has a smart dotted pattern and , when you occasionally catch it in the right lighting , a metallic rainbow sheen is seeable underneath . away from the RGB LEDs on the keyboard and a small ROG logotype , that ’s it for decoration .
The swindle ’s 2 kilogram weight undercut the Asus Scar and Alienware products , and the M16 is slight than both . There ’s a bit of give in the metallic element around the keyboard , but I ’m not concerned about the M16 ’s seniority . While the M16 is not modest , it ’s about as portable as big play laptop computer get .
The keyboard has a solid floor and enough action – the button are fast , uniform and have 1.7 mm of travel . They ’re strong enough for frantic gaming , and Asus include supererogatory spiritualist paint . Beneath the keyboard you ’ll bump a large trackpad , but its soft buttons intend I ’d recommend a USB computer mouse or else .
The M16 ’s type gear could be better , though . It ’s got single - zona RGB light-emitting diode lighting rather than per - key fruit , so both competitor have more customisation . There ’s no number pad , but there ’s no excuse for small cursor and Return keys on a machine this sizing .
The laptop ’s ripe boundary house a full - size of it USB 3.2 Gen 2 port and a microSD card reader , and the left - hand bound offer another USB porthole , a Type - cytosine connector , aThunderbolt 4slot and an audio laborer alongside HDMI 2.0b . On the inside , there ’s Gigabit Ethernet , dual - stripe Wi - Fi 6and Bluetooth 5.2 . The webcam is only 720p , but it does support Windows Hello , and there ’s no fingermark lector .
Screen
The 16 - inch diagonal is n’t the display ’s only interesting attribute . It ’s got a 16:10 aspect proportion , which mean a bit more vertical space for your games , and its 2560 x 1600 resolution is discriminating .
More mundane is adaptative sync that tops out at 165Hz : that ’s fine for single - instrumentalist gaming , but it ’ll only grapple with mainstream eSports rather than mellow - end competition . likewise , the 3ms answer time is good rather than not bad .
The panel ’s brightness level figure of 476 nits enables indoor and outside use , peculiarly with the sieve ’s matte goal , and the demarcation ratio of 1221:1 is high enough to provide enough depth for gaming .
The delta E of 2.43 provide ample accuracy for gamers , and the gore ’s 99.9 % and 98 % coverage design for the sRGB and DCI - P3 gamut think of that the screen renders every gaming colour .
This is a tilt - solid showing for mainstream single - thespian and eSports gambling . It ’s paired with groovy utterer – they ’re loud and punchy , and easily honorable enough to make game thunder . They ’ve got a shade too much high - end concentration and they could do with a chip more bass , but that ’s a minor complaint .
Performance
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 packs a RTX 3070 Ti , which deploys its usual 5888 stream processors and 8 GB of retentivity . Asus enunciate its magnate limit top out at 100W with an extra 20W available through active Boost .
Elsewhere , the M16 deploy an Intel Core i9 - 12900H with six Hyper - Threaded P - Cores and a top speeding of 5GHz . The UK role model has 32 GB ofDDR5memory and a 2 TB PCIE 4.0 SSD . US and European purchaser must settle for half the memory and storage capacities .
The RTX 3070 Ti is profligate . At the laptop ’s aboriginal resolution the M16 playedHorizon Zero Dawnat 67fps , and it ranBorderlands 3at 53fps . There is no big - name single - player plot that the M16 wo n’t execute , and you ’ll only need to dial down some options if you desire to flirt the toughest game withray tracing . Do n’t concern about eSports , either : the M16 played Rainbow Six at 217fps .
That ’s good gambling big businessman , but rivals are faster . TheAsus ROG Strix Scar 15ran its RTX 3070 Ti with a higher power gasbag , and at 2560 x 1440 it act Horizon and Borderlands at 80fps and 62fps . ask similar speeds fromthe Alienware , which also uses an RTX 3070 Ti with a higher power stratum .
This situation is no surprise . In the M16 ’s nonremittal Performance mode its artwork core only draw out 80W , so it bunk at lower speed than rival chips – the Asus ran at 125W and the Alienware is even faster . activate Turbo mode saw the M16 ’s GPU tear 100W , which meliorate its Horizon result from 67fps to 77fps , but that ’s still not enough to get rivals .
The M16 also delivered inconsistent caloric results . In the motorcar ’s nonremittal operation mode the M16 ’s fan output was present , but modest . Sadly , in this fashion the keyboard deck of cards and underside became live .
ramp up to Turbo mode saw the M16 make more stochasticity than most gambling notebook computer , and the randomness was richly - pitched and annoying – a headset is essential . The outside got warmer , and I could n’t touch the metal above the keyboard for more than a few moment . The Alienware and Asus Scar cheat may be heavy and thicker than the M16 , but they ’re cooler and quieter .
Testing the processor saw similar results . In Performance mode the noise levels were sound , but the CPU ’s phosphorus - heart run at 2.4GHz in a multi - core work load and between 4.3GHz and 4.6GHz in a undivided - core bench mark . When the chip attain 4GHz and up to 5GHz on paper , those speeds are clearly throttled .
Turbo mode saw the processor reach a multi - core velocity of 3.9GHz and a ordered single - core tread of 4.6GHz . Those resultant role are in effect , but still not top - snick , and the M16 was very hot and gimcrack .
Processing performance carry a hit because of this choking . In Geekbench the M16 returned score of 1822 and 11,591 . Those results stick the same Core i9 fleck inside the Scar , but they ca n’t match the multi - core speed furnish by the Core i7 - 12700H inside the Alienware . Turbo style saw the multi - core result jump to 13,754 , which is bright , but the M16 was very forte here .
I ’m not saying that the mainframe is slow – far from it . There ’s lashings of king here , and the M16 will harness almost anything , from baffling multi - tasking to high - close content creation , include picture and video body of work . It ’s just a shame that the CPU never achieve its full potential , and that you could only extract more grunt from this chipping at the expense of noise and heat .
As with most Asus rigs , the M16 has a Windows mode that restricts performance . That keeps the noise down and you still get unspoiled quotidian world power and enough oink to play most games at 60fps , but it arguably misses the point of buying a gaming laptop computer .
And , if you ’re thinking of send packing $ 3279 / £ 3499 / € 3499 on the M16’sRTX 3080 Tiversion , I would n’t recommend it . The RTX 3080 Ti will operate at a lower level than in other machine , and with even more noise and heating plant . The Asus Scar and Alienware notebooks commonly tender the RTX 3080 Ti at slightly lower prices .
Battery
If you do n’t utilize the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 for gaming , then this big laptop actually delivers decent length of service . It played video with the presentation at 150 nit for a ogre 8hrs 29mins , which was two hours beyond the Scar and more than doubly as good as the Alienware x17 .
When handling a piece of work benchmark , the M16 ran for just over four hour . That ’s still twice as good as the x17 , although slightly worse than the Asus Scar . Nevertheless , it ’s a reasonable result for a laptop computer of this size of it , and it better versatility .
Unsurprisingly , the M16 only lasted for 1hr 6mins when gaming . Neither rival dramatically improved on that result , and it ’s par for the path when it comes to gaming laptops – if you want to load the a la mode titles , abide plugged in .
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Should you buy it?
:
The M16 is a sleeker automobile than any competitor , and for the most part it does a good job in terms of performance and bioengineering . This is ideal for frequent travellers .
The svelte intention means the M16 is live and loud , and other machine have more display options and get more pace from the GPU .
Final Thoughts
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is slender and light than rival while still supply good timbre in most departments , so it ’s idealistic if you want a sleeker notebook computer . It ’s red-hot and loud , though , and other machines have more power and more screen door variety .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every gaming laptop we brush up goes through a series of uniform check design to gauge key thing including build quality , performance , concealment quality and battery life .
These admit formal synthetic benchmark and scripted test , plus a series of real world curb , such as how well it runs when running a AAA game .
FAQs
As with all other Asus gaming notebook , the Zephyrus M16 has a one - year warranty
