Ever wanted to play PC games wherever you go but is always turned off by the weight of those gicantic gaming laptops? The ASUS Zephyrus may be your answer.
PC gaming on the go has always been a mixed bag. Having the performance of a desktop PC on a portable form always resulted in a bulky laptop package. Thanks to Nvidia’s latest Max Q design GPUs (Graphics Processing Units a.k.a. Video Cards), slim and light laptops that can handle most of your gaming needs are now a reality.

One of the latest laptops that benefited from this new technology is the ASUS Zephyrus. This baby has an Intel i7 7700U, 24GB RAM, 512GB SSD and a GTX 1080.

For all your gaming peripherals and other accessories, you’ll need ample I/O ports and the ASUS Zephyrus does not disappoint. It has a USB-C Thunderbolt 3 and two standard USB ports on the RIGHT.

It also has an HDMI port, 3.5mm jack and two more standard USB ports on the LEFT.

If you thought the high-end features stops there, you’ll be mistaken. This machine sports a 1080p IPS screen with 120 Hz refresh rate and G-SYNC. Thus, you will have your opponents clearly on your sights.

By now, you may have already noticed the different keyboard layout. There is a massive space on the usual area of the keyboard where tiny holes serve as vents for heat dissipation. Even under load, the Zephyrus has excellent temperature readings and relatively silent cooling fans.

The keyboard is now pushed down to the usual area of the palm rests. I find this design route kind of refreshing and unique aesthetically. Though some people may have trouble using this laptop on his/her lap, I personally don’t see this as a problem since I can’t imagine any self-respecting gamer playing that way. The keys though are not the best for typing or gaming. Even though I am used to playing on a mechanical keyboard, I personally didn’t have any problems adjusting after playing for a few hours.

Another cool feature is the touchpad. It is unusually placed on the right side of the keyboard and it doubles as a number pad with a touch of the button.

Externally, the Zephyrus uses less of the standard red accents that most ROG and gaming products have. It is mostly built of brushed aluminum with some copper trimmings.

It may not be very obvious here but the Zephyrus’ buttom pannel lifts up upon opening the laptop which exposes the internal components to fresh air for better air flow. The red LED enhances this mechanism as shown in the picture below.

Just for comparison, the laptop is just a little thicker than a normal ballpoint pen. For a machine with the said specifications, I still can’t believe how ASUS was able to fit everything in a slim package.

The box came with a decent mouse, the ROG Impact. Nothing special here.

You’ll be happy to know that the included power supply or brick is not enormous. It may not beat Apple’s notebook chargers but it is still quite portable in my opinion.

All the cool things I have stated above will be in vain if the system itself performs poorly. Fortunately, the Zephyrus lives up to the hype. And what better game to test out on this amazing notebook than Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG. Due to the fact that this game is not optimised (still in early access) and is using Epic’s latest Unreal 4 engine, most desktop PCs are even having a hard time running this game.
Good news as PUBG runs buttery smooth on this machine. It performs similarly to my gaming desktop PC which has an Ivy Bridge i7 and a ASUS Strix GTX 1080. And since I regularly travel, this notebook is a godsend for a gamer like me. Playing PUBG and other PC games anywhere is heaven.
Like everything in this world, nothing is perfect. For all the positive things this notebook has, it has only one weakness. You guessed it right! The immensely powerful engine needs an equally large source of power. Without connecting the Zephyrus to its power brick, I was only able to use it for about an hour or an hour and a half depending on the application. But I don’t think anyone will be seriously gaming continuously without thinking of a wall socket.