2024 saw no shortage of the best gaming laptops — from slim and portable machines like the HP Omen Transcend 14 to the gargantuan Alienware m18 R2. Choosing my favorite should have been difficult, but one notebook stood above the rest.
And what is that gaming laptop? None other than the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. As I said in my Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review, this laptop feels specifically designed for me. It has everything I want: a minimalist design, powerful performance and an OLED display. The fact that many of my colleagues were also enamored with the Zephyrus G14 demonstrates how amazing this machine is.
Read on to find out why the Asus Zephyrus G14 is my favorite laptop of 2024 and why I think you should consider checking it out.
Understated design
Gaming laptops used to be bulky machines that could blind you with their harsh RGB lighting. While notebooks like that still exist, we’ve seen a trend toward more subdued designs that tone down or eliminate RGB lighting. The Zephyrus G14 is a fine example of this trend since it barely looks like a gaming laptop.
I wouldn’t blame anyone for mistaking Asus’ gaming laptop for a MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 since it also has a flat, utilitarian design. If not for the diagonal light on its lid, you wouldn’t even know this was a gaming laptop. That’s a major selling point, especially if I’m working at a cafe or restaurant.
Despite its relatively thin profile, the Zephyrus G14 features a healthy amount of ports. It offers a pair of USB-C ports, a headphone jack, an HDMI port and a microSD card slot. It also has two USB-A ports for legacy peripherals. The laptop’s aluminum frame is also plenty sturdy and feels good to hold when carrying it around.
Vivid display
The bright and colorful 14-inch (2880 x 1800) 120Hz OLED display helps games, videos and websites look their best. While you don’t get 4K resolution, 1800p is more than enough to let you see everything clearly on this 14-inch screen. And though I wish the colors were a bit more oversaturated, the more naturalistic hues look fantastic.
I tested games like Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 and was floored by how incredible they appeared on the Zephyrus G14’s display. The OLED provides a satisfying contrast between dark and light elements, which in turn helps colors pop more. The 120Hz refresh rate and 0.2ms response time also ensure everything runs smoothly and no perceptible input lag.
Powerful performance
Last but not least is the Zephyrus G14’s excellent performance. My review unit packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU, an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. These specs allow the machine to run many games at the laptop’s native 1800p resolution and at high settings without sacrificing performance.
During my review, I played the aforementioned Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 at 1800p and high graphical settings. I also enabled Nvidia’s frame-boosting DLSS to make the games run even smoother. At those settings, Doom Eternal ran at a buttery smooth 120 to 130 frames per second while Cyberpunk 2077 ran between 45 to 55 fps, which is great for that particular game. The games also ran well without DLSS enabled, losing about 10 to 15 fps each.
Naturally, the Zephyrus G14 can easily handle everyday workloads. It never slowed down even when I had over 30 open Chrome tabs and a YouTube video playing. Those looking for a gaming laptop that can double as their daily driver for work and recreation won’t be disappointed. The Zephyrus G14 has more than enough permanence for almost any task.
Bottom line
With CES 2025 right around the corner, we’re sure to see a slew of new gaming laptop announcements. Will any of these machines unseat the Asus Zephyrus G14 as my favorite gaming laptop? It’s possible, though it won’t be easy since Asus’ laptop is pretty much near perfect.
But even if another machine (perhaps even a successor) dethrones it, the Zephyrus G14 will still stand as one of the finest gaming laptops ever released.
