For years, 14-inch laptops have ruled the roost when talking about thin and light devices. Typically, laptops with discrete graphics must choose two out of three: weight, thickness, or battery life. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 features a third-generation AMD AI PC processor. It is the first lightweight laptop to match high-end gaming laptops’ performance.
Look and Feel
Being part of the ROG Zephyrus lineup, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Air 2024 adheres to a new design that is more subdued, less flashy, and somewhat mature. Two things that gaming laptops hardly stand for. The general style of this laptop is clean and understated, appealing to those who go to class.
It comes in two colors: Moonlight Silver and Eclipse Gray. We have received the Eclipse Gray version of the review unit. Cover A and D shells are made with a metal material to make a full welded appearance, accompanied by a premium feel.
What makes it outstanding
On the A-side, this ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 only had a laser-engraved circular ROG Zephyrus logo, so it doesn’t scream too much in design. Still, it looks really unique due to the hinge design, which is located near the edge at the back, cut off a little to create a subtle distinction in looks with the CD surface. An additional section in the middle contains a four-phase status indicator light.
In terms of portability, the Zephyrus G14 is incredibly slim and light at its thinnest point of 16.9 mm and weighs only 1.46 kg. Dimensions are 31.1 x 22.7 x (1.69~1.99) cm in length, width, and height, making it quite portable. The screen opens up to 180 degrees, adding further versatility in many usage scenarios.
At the top of the screen, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 is equipped with a dual-camera module, comprising a 1080p FHD camera and an IR infrared lens, supporting Windows Hello face unlocking for enhanced privacy and convenience. The display features a three-sided narrow bezel design, with the sides being particularly slim and a slightly thicker bezel at the bottom. It has a 14-inch 16:10 IPS panel with a 2.5K resolution and refresh rate of 165Hz, response time of 3ms, brightness of 400 nits, and a 100% sRGB color gamut. It also supports DC dimming and G-Sync technology, making this among the better all-around displays for both work and gaming.
Other design elements
On the C-side, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 has an ASUS classic backlit keyboard with a standard desktop layout. There are four independent shortcut keys in the upper left corner, and the power button is hexagonal and located in the upper right. Additionally, the keyboard itself boasts a 1.7mm long key travel, three levels of white backlighting, and Overstroke flash technology for responsive typing. In the middle, there is a rather wide touchpad with a smooth glass finish and a 240Hz touch sampling rate. It gives a quite satisfactory sense of touch, offering smooth and precise feedback.
The D-side has been redesigned for better heat dissipation. The new vent openings and small footpads at each corner join an additional footpad in the middle of the lower left and right. The edges are beveled and waisted, with the speaker openings on either side of the lower edge.
The connectivity on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 is spread on the sides. With air vents at the back, on the left side, there is a square power interface, HDMI 2.1, USB4 full-function Type-C, USB 3.2 Type-A, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The right-hand side of the laptop is equipped with a USB 3.2 Type-C, a USB 3.2 Type-A, and a MicroSD card reader that supports the UHS-II specification.
It also gets a new rectangular interface black power adapter with 200W power.
Thermal Design and Performance
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 is the first model that will feature the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 mobile processor, designed with the new “Zen 5” architecture, manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm FinFET process. It is equipped with 12 high-performance cores and 24 threads, featuring 4 “Zen 5” cores and 8 “Zen 5c” cores, packing 24MB of L3 cache with a maximum clock speed of 5.1GHz. Upgraded architecture that provides impressive energy efficiency and performance.
The integrated graphics are based on the AMD Radeon 890M with the RDNA 3.5 architecture and 16 graphics computing units, significantly improving graphics performance. The AMD Ryzen AI NPU comes upgraded with XDNA 2 architecture, which boasts 50 TOPS of AI computing ability, unmatched beyond peer groups. For those looking for more display power, there are two options for discrete GPUs in the ASUS Zephyrus Air 2024: RTX 4050 and RTX 4060. On this unit, we have fitted an RTX 4060.
Disassembly
The disassembly of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is quite easy. Just unscrew the screws on the D-shell and loosen the one fixed in the lower right corner; it lifts right off. Under the bonnet, the laptop features a dual-fan and triple heat pipe cooling system. The fans have openings on the inner side of their casings to help expel hot air, which is a typical internal blowing design.
On the expandability front, the G14 has one M.2 slot on the left and another one in the middle of the cooling module. The left M.2 is fully equipped with a 1TB Western Digital SN560 solid-state drive, and the middle supports PCIe 4.0 x2 speed, suitable for adding a large capacity storage drive. The reading speed ran around 5000MB/s, and the writing speed was about 3500MB/s for the original SSD, even with the 50%-filled disk.
Besides, the G14 comes with a Mediatek MT7922 Wi-Fi 6E wireless network card and 32GB of dual-channel LPDDR5x 7500MHz RAM. The memory, equipped with Samsung chips, offers high read and write speeds, ensuring smooth multitasking and system performance.
Baking
The 73Wh battery supports up to 100W PD fast charging, while the internal design makes good use of space. Running the PCMark 10 Modern Office benchmark under Quiet Performance Mode with integrated graphics and screen brightness at 50%, the laptop lasted 9 hours and 19 minutes, a fairly remarkable feat given the very compact G14 that comes in the 14-inch form factor.
During the CPU stress test, the processor temperature stabilized at 88.5°C after 10 minutes, while power consumption remained at 80W. Large CPU cores reached a frequency of 4.2GHz, while small ones were running at 3.25GHz. During the GPU stress test, the RTX 4060 maintained 100W of power consumption, and a GPU temperature of 76.6°C, while the video memory temperature was at 66°C, with the GPU frequency remaining at 2100MHz.
During the combined CPU and GPU stress test, after 20 minutes, the CPU power consumption dropped to around 35W, and the temperature stabilized at 72.5°C. Thermal: The GPU held quite well to 75W of power consumption, 1800MHz in frequency, and the temperature was also close to that of the single stress test, around 75°C.
The final performance release of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 reached 110W. In tests across various power settings, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor demonstrated superior energy efficiency and raw power compared to Intel’s Core Ultra 9.
What else
On the GPU performance side, the RTX 4060 was able to post a graphics score of 10,411 in the Time Spy benchmark, 12,958 in Fire Strike Extreme, and 6,015 in the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark for real-time ray tracing. In the Time Spy stress test, this translated into a frame rate stability of 99.3%.
Finally, the integrated AMD Radeon 890M graphics card scored 3,601 in the Time Spy test. This represents a 15.8% improvement over the previous generation’s 780M.
Productivity and Gaming Performance
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 features the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics. We found it to be quite meaty in terms of performance.
In the PCMark 10 modern office benchmark, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 came with a total of 7,214 points. On sub-categories, it did a very impressive task on digital content creation, proving it can go through everyday office tasks like a breeze.
In the V-Ray Benchmark 6 test, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor scored 24,491 points for CPU performance. The GPU scores were 1,835 for CUDA and 2,811 for RTX, setting a milestone for rendering and design tasks.
The G14 ran UR Procyon benchmarks for photo and video editing. In Adobe Photoshop, it scored 9,443 points for photo editing. In Adobe Premiere Pro, it scored 7,576 points for video editing. These results clearly show that the ASUS Zephyrus G14 has ample power for professional creative work.
In the AI performance test, the AMD Radeon 890M core graphics completed a 5-minute 4K video keying. It achieved this in just 1 minute and 53 seconds. Its performance is significantly better than most thin and light notebooks, which usually take 4-5 minutes. With RTX 4060’s CUDA acceleration, the G14 completed the task in 43 seconds, highlighting its strong mainstream performance.
Gaming Performance
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14’s RTX 4060 performs well in gaming at 1200P resolution. It matches mainstream performance laptops. Here are the results from testing various games:
1. **CS2**: At 1200P with low settings, the G14 averaged 305 fps with a 1% low of 145 fps. The Core Ultra 9 + RTX 4060 averaged 294 fps with a 1% low of 139 fps.
2. **Shadow of the Tomb Raider**: At 1200P on high settings, the G14 averaged 138 fps with a 1% low of 85 fps. The Core Ultra 9 + RTX 4060 averaged 130 fps with a 1% low of 78 fps.
3. **Forza Horizon 5**: At 1200P and extreme quality with ray tracing off, the G14 averaged 99 fps and a 1% low of 77 fps. The Core Ultra 9 + RTX 4060 averaged 92 fps with a 1% low of 75 fps.
4. **Cyberpunk 2077**: At 1200P with ultra settings, the G14 averaged 79 fps and had a 1% low of 33 fps. The Core Ultra 9 + RTX 4060 setup averaged 70 fps. It had a 1% low of 30 fps with the same settings. With DLSS 3 enabled, the G14 averaged 79 fps. It had a 1% low of 34 fps. This closely matched the Core Ultra 9 setup.
Integrated Graphics Performance
Gaming performance was also quite good with the AMD Radeon 890M onboard. The G14 averaged 61 fps with a 1% low of 30 fps at 1200P medium settings in *Cyberpunk 2077*. This was with FSR2.1 Performance mode enabled. The Intel ARC graphics with XeSS on the Core Ultra 9 averaged 47 fps. The 1% low was 31 fps. The 890M was 29% faster.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 features an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and an RTX 4060. It excels in productivity. It also performs well in gaming.
Conclusion
This laptop impresses with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor and integrated graphics. The new architecture delivers versatile performance, particularly at low power consumption, hence quite fit for a compact 14-inch device. The G14 Air 2024 outclasses nearly all competitors in its power and efficiency.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 has made a strong entry into the 14-inch thin and light notebook market. It’s an ultra-mobile notebook that meets gaming laptop standards, including Windows Hello face recognition and a 180-degree hinge. Sleek design and high-quality build set up this device.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 Air 2024 excels in portability, performance, and battery life. That’s why it is a top choice for this year. Its unique features and specs ensure it ranks highly among recommended lightweight, high-performance notebooks.
