ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Gaming Laptop GU603VI-G16I74070 Review

ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Gaming Laptop GU603VI-G16I74070 Review

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Takeaway: Reliable, high-mid tier gaming laptop with solid visuals, good amount of processing power, and fast connectivity.

You'll receive the laptop, 6ft power cable, 240W power brick with 4ft cable, and quick start guides showing how to charge and power on the laptop. Unlike other models of the Zephyrus, the lid on the GU603 does not have LED lighting embedded in it. Instead, it features a prismatic dot matrix design diagonally across 60% of the shell which gives it a unique ""moving"" rainbow effect as the light hits it from different viewing angles. There’s also a small holographic logo plate at the back corner. The exterior of the unit has a metallic appearance but is a lightweight sturdy plastic. It measures 14” wide, 9.5” long, and just under 1.25” at its thickest, weighing in under 5 lbs. The power brick and cable will add another 1.5 lbs while traveling.

For I/O, along the left-hand side there’s the power port, HDMI 2.1 out, Gigabit Ethernet, USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, and 2xUSB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports; the left one of which supports Thunderbolt 4, and a combo mic/headphone jack. Both USB-C ports also support DisplayPort 1.4 out and Power Delivery charging of the laptop. One thing I don’t like about this layout is that the power plug can block adjacent ports if you run the wire towards the front of the laptop, so if you need the HDMI or Ethernet, it’s best to plug the cable in from behind the laptop. When the laptop is charging, the LED will be red when completely drained, but turns orange then white when fully charged. On the right is another USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, microSD card slot, and Kensington lock slot towards the back. The status LEDs for power, battery charging, and drive activity are located along the back edge of the laptop and on the bottom is ventilation for airflow and two long rubber feet span the back and front of the base. The two grills in the front corners are bass reflex ports.

Spec-wise my build has a 13th Gen 10-core Intel i7-13620H CPU with 2.4Ghz base clock, 16 GB 3200MHz soldered DDR4 RAM, 512 GB PCIe Gen 4 m.2 SSD, and a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX4070 GPU in addition to CPU integrated graphics. Inside, there’s one additional RAM slot that can accept a 32 GB chip for a total of 48 GB max capacity. There’s also a second empty m.2 NVMe slot for secondary storage up to 2 GB. If you don’t want to open the laptop up, you can utilize the microSD slot for additional removable storage.

The front lip of the screen is beveled slightly inward so you can grab it anywhere along the front edge to open the screen. The lid opens a full 180° to a lay-flat orientation, making it easy for you to find the viewing angle that’s right for you. The diagonal of the display is 16” and it has ultra thin bezels along the top and sides. In the middle along the top edge is the built-in 720p webcam with noise-cancelling 3D-mic array and while it can be used for video calls and live streaming, it’s primary purpose is for logging in with facial recognition via Windows Hello. I will say that face login is pretty convenient and quick; it even recognizes me with or without glasses on. Because the screen’s hinge rotates out behind the laptop, at angles wider than 90°, the back of the laptop will lift slightly, and the chin of the screen drops behind the main deck making it less visible.

The max refresh rate of this IPS screen is 165Hz with a max resolution of 1920x1200 and 3ms response time. The screen is decently bright, though reportedly only around 270 nits, however, it has 8-bit RGB color depth covering 100% of the DCI-P3 color space calibrated with Pantone Validation and Dolby Vision HDR support that delivers vibrant, well-saturated colors accurate enough for digital artists and content creators.

The 10-keyless backlit keyboard has the top-facing speaker grills on either side, a large 5” x 3.25” trackpad mouse BELOW, and four function keys above: volume control, mic mute, and Armoury Crate quick launch. Next to that you can view the three status lights, but only if you look down from above, as you can’t really seem them when looking at the screen. You can change the brightness of the RGB lighting using the function keys and set your preferred lighting pattern in Armoury Crate to a few different animations or a solid color, but note that the keys themselves are not individually addressable and the lighting effect will always be a single block.

Connectivity-wise, it’s got Wi-Fi 6E, utilizing the 160 MHz bandwidth to boost speeds and decrease congestion and latency as well as Bluetooth 5.3 for lag-free video and audio sync when using wireless BT headphones. Internet and network connectivity remained strong and stable during use, and I didn’t experience very long load times when playing cloud connected games. You can also use the MUX switch in Armoury Crate to set the GPU mode to ‘Ultimate’ to only use the discrete GPU, but this consumes more battery so it’s recommended to only use this mode while plugged in. All other modes utilize either integrated graphics or a combination of the two by switching based on the tasks and applications that are running. Note that the laptop will need to be restarted if you change MUX modes.

While gaming this laptop does a fine job with most games on Medium to High settings, when I tried to max out all video settings to Ultra in Path of Exile, I experience frequent dropped frames and stuttering. In games like Counterstrike and WarFrame, I was able to consistently get 165fps with little to no tearing thanks to V-sync. The fans can get super loud though, which can drown out the sound from the stereo speakers on top, which actually sound pretty good when you can hear them. The other thing is that the laptop can put out a lot of heat in order to keep the temperature of its components under control, so you definitely want to make sure it’s got plenty of ventilation. The other thing I use this laptop for is 4K video content creation. This unit does a decent job with processing time when exporting large files, though on battery power it can be a bit sluggish. Speaking of, the 90Watt battery provides about 4 hours of casual use at full brightness, and when gaming that drops to about 2 hours. Keep in mind, that’s including the reduced graphics performance when set to 60 fps at medium graphics.

Overall, this Zephyrus G16 is a decent mid-range gaming laptop with a sleek design in a compact unit. The display isn’t top-of-the-line, but I appreciate the additional screen real-estate which makes it easier to edit video and multitask for non-gaming purposes. The battery life is average for a gaming laptop in this form factor can stretch a bit farther when used casually for streaming video and browsing the web.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. #CommissionsEarned
Buy it at Amazon: ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 Gaming Laptop GU603VI-G16I74070 [Affiliate Link]