Asus ROG Zephyrus M

amazon Asus ROG Zephyrus M reviews

Design

Also at this time, last June (2017), the Asus ROG Zephyrus (GX501) laptop was launched, and I believe that not only myself but all of you are also very impressed with the laptop model. Impressed with the extremely beautiful and creative appearance, impressed by the thinness and lightness thanks to the application of NVidia’s Max Q technology standard (applying solutions to reduce pulse and electricity to reduce the load on the power system, heat dissipation, etc.) ) with powerful GTX 1080 graphics card.

However, the price is what most of us have to consider, even though gamers still spend more than usual. The reason may be that this is a newly launched product and applies the latest technologies, so the price of the device is still quite high, but if you are an enthusiast of the ROG series of ASUS laptops, surely It will certainly be hard to ignore this ROG Zephyrus M, a successor with a more accessible, affordable price.

First of all, talking about the appearance of the machine, I find it still almost intact the design lines of the previous life. The Zephyrus M’s case is made of titanium and copper alloys for an extremely luxurious feel, while still keeping the “small” weight of the product (Zephyrus M weighs about 2.4kg). Beveled metal scratches on the lid and the wrongly placed ROG logo (with a red led, which will light up when the device is turned on) make Zephyrus M look even more delicate.

At a glance, the finish of the machine’s outer shell is very good with the gaming quality of this machine visible. Although not the thinnest and lightest gaming laptop currently (compared to the MSI GS65 or Razer Blade), the Zephyrus M is still thin and light enough to carry around, even for those who buy the machine to work.

If it is not introduced first that this is a product for gaming with the keyword “Republic of gamers”, ROG Zephyrus M may be mistaken by some users as a high-end product for office workers, especially big bosses, and businessmen.

A very special point of the ROG Zephyrus series, which can be considered as an identifying feature! It’s a very unique heatsink design. Asus has invested in research into a unique lifting joint that can be said to be unique when opening the lid, this joint will automatically raise the machine a bit, creating a gap of about 9mm on the bottom of the machine to increase space for air to circulate, and help dissipate heat better during the operation of the machine. According to Asus, the company has placed a metal plate to prevent insects and foreign objects from entering the machine, so you can rest assured.

However, the limitation of this heatsink is that the machine will not be as sturdy as the monolithic machines, so you will need to be more careful if you pick up the device and move it when the device is open.

The two sides of the Zephyrus M are the familiar connection ports. The left side of the device includes a charging port, 1 HDMI 2.0 port, and 3 USB 3.0 ports (this port is not painted in blue, so some of you may think it is a USB 2.0 port, but if you look closely, you will see the word SS) is Super Speed, characteristic of 3.0) and 3.5mm headphone port. Meanwhile, the left side of the machine includes a USB type C port with Thunderbolt 3 technology and a USB 3.0 port. Just enough for gamers to use during the game, not too much. Do you see anything missing? Yes, it’s a machine without an Ethernet port! Oh, what a surprise!

The lack of a network port can be explained by the thin body and the company is confident in the very fast Wifi card integrated into the machine, but anyway, Asus should also include a network adapter with the USB port as with the previous generation. For many gamers playing online, a wired network to ensure a stable connection when playing is still essential. In addition, the machine also does not have a memory card slot, a bit inconvenient for those who need to process movies and photos on this laptop.

A bonus for Asus’ care for the appearance of the machine, is that the bottom is made of plastic, but it looks solid, clean, and neat, without the pits of heat dissipation slots like some other gaming laptops.

When opening the lid, the heat dissipation area below the bottom of the Zephyrus M shines even more literally. Not only does it help with heat dissipation, but this slot is also equipped with LED lights to adorn the gaming design of the product.

With a unique heatsink design and at the same time “releasing” heat for the heavy components inside the machine, the upper third of the body of the machine is prioritized for heat dissipation. When I first opened it, I mistook this for a speaker area. In fact, under this mesh are exhaust fans to take in cool air from the outside to cool the internal components.

The ROG logo on the lid glows red when turned on, making the Zephyrus M stand out even more. I believe it will bring a lot of attention to you every time you use it at work or a cafe.

The whole machine has a thickness of about 1.7cm, and which Asus build looks very sturdy, from the top of the machine to the keyboard frame. After breaking the way with the first-generation keyboard design, Asus has returned to the traditional design on the Zephyrus M. The keyboard and number keys are located in the middle of the key surface, the bottom is a fairly compact touchpad. This design makes using the keys more comfortable thanks to the palm rest, the usage is also more natural.

Equipped on Zephyrus M is a Full-size keyboard with RGB backlighting which is a trend. The keyboard is thin, but the key surface is slightly curved, so the typing feeling is good, the key travel is 1.7mm, supporting the ability to receive 30 keys simultaneously. Four function keys are separated for easy access, and the navigation buttons and the small number pad can affect the gaming or working experience.

The touchpad has a glass-covered material for a very smooth finger surfing experience, multi-point support, and 2 left and right buttons that are smooth and give a good press feeling. The size of this touchpad is a bit small, but it is probably not a big problem for users, because gamers will often equip their separate mouse.

In particular, Aura Sync technology allows gamers to customize and synchronize lighting effects for mice, headsets, keyboards, and other devices in the Republic of Gamers ecosystem. With Aura Sync, users will have access to more lighting effects such as Rainbow, which change according to music or CPU temperature. You can easily customize the effects and colors to your personal preferences with the included software ROG Gaming Center.

Although there is no ability to adjust the Led color on each key, in return is the backlight by area. As a result, gamers can adjust the light mode so that the keyboard creates accents in the areas they often use. For example W A S D for FPS games or Q W E R for MOBA games.

Screen

If the heatsink design is very modern, the screen border of the Zephyrus M has not followed the trend of thin borders like many other Asus laptops. All four corners of the screen border of the device are quite thick. Currently, in the new ROG line, only the Strix Scar II model has a thin bezel screen, and I expect that the new generation Zephyrus will later adopt this design.

The 15.6-inch computer screen uses a high-quality IPS panel, with an average brightness of about 271 nits, good contrast, a wide viewing angle of up to 178 degrees, and an anti-glare layer so it can use the machine outdoors in bright light. Vibrant colors flatter the eyes with 96% sRGB color gamut and 72% NTSC color coverage.

The machine is also equipped with NVidia G-SYNC technology to minimize stutter, reduce input lag and eliminate screen tearing without affecting system performance. Finally giving you the ultimate visual experience, smoothest, fastest, and immersed in a wide range of games.

ROG Zephyrus M is claimed to meet most of the gaming and graphics editing needs of professional users.

Asus’ choice of Full HD resolution in my opinion is quite reasonable, allowing the use of a high refresh rate of 144Hz, a very fast response of 3ms, and reducing the processing burden on the GPU, because GTX 1060 or even 1070, it is also difficult to meet all games with 2K or 4K resolution.

With NVIDIA G-SYNC via HDMI and Thunderbolt 3, you can connect the machine to an external monitor for a better gaming experience.

Hardware configuration and performance of the machine

As the version is considered a successor with a lower price, but not so that the configuration of Zephyrus M is weakened. The upgraded chip is Intel Core i7-8750H with 6 cores, and 12 threads clocked at 2.2GHz (Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz). The graphics card on the new generation (specifically the one I’m evaluating) is the standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, not the GTX 1080 Max Q (optimized heat dissipation) like the original Zephyrus series.

16GB of DDR4 2666MHz RAM expandable up to 32GB. Despite its slim design, ROG Zephyrus M still meets the needs of hard drive memory with 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD for data transfer speeds of up to 3.1GB/s and 1TB Seagate SSHD at 5400 rpm per minute.

With the power of performance through the tests, it can be seen that the machine will need a really good cooling system. In my personal opinion, Asus has done very well, through the investment in the advanced intelligent AAS (Active Aerodynamic System) cooling system (with 2 fans and 5 heat pipes) to improve the airflow inside, and allow the fan to spin slower and quieter while maintaining low temperatures for the Zephyrus M without sacrificing performance, the shape of the fan has also been adjusted to reduce noise.

Asus ROG Zephyrus M does not need to lock or reduce the clock to keep the temperature of the machine stable.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, when you open the lid, the bottom area of the machine will be raised to create a gap, this slot helps to increase the air circulation space by 20%. Coupled with Asus’ unique Aero Accelerator technology, this empty slot improves airflow by 32% and reduces temperatures by 20% compared to conventional PC cooling. You can play games for hours and end up with perfect stability and no control.

In the area of ​​the heat sink, Zephyrus M has upgraded with dust resistance thanks to the exclusive dust outlet design. This system automatically removes all kinds of dust through a dedicated tube, limiting accumulation, preventing dust from clogging the system, and increasing the stability and life of the product. A High-performance 12V dual fan system provides powerful cooling with many user-friendly modes such as Silent, Balanced, and Overboost (fan acceleration). Allows automatic switching or users can switch using keyboard shortcuts (Fn + F5) or in the ROG Gaming Center software.

While the unique heat-pipe structure cools the CPU, GPU and chipset independently.

If you are concerned with the open bottom design that may cause the noise of the radiator fan, during the experience these noises are almost not affected too much. Thanks to NVIDIA’s new WhisperMode technology, the laptop will run much smoother when playing high-end games.

where can you get a Asus ROG Zephyrus M online

ASUS ROG Zephyrus M Thin and Portable Gaming Laptop, 15.6” 144Hz Full HD IPS, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, Intel Core i7-9750H, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512B PCIe SSD, Per-Key RGB, Windows 10 Pro, GU502GU-XB74: Buy it now

Gaming

With a configuration that can be said to be powerful with the combination of i7-8750H chip and GTX 1060 card, Asus ROG Zephyrus M offers a quality gaming experience, with the ability to fight most famous and popular games well. currently available on the market. Although not all games are capable of fighting at the highest configuration settings, it is basically enough to meet the gaming needs of gamers. That you can have a more objective view of the machine’s capabilities, here are the FPS parameters and CPU and GPU temperatures of the machine that I tested with a few unique games.

To measure the exact frame rate, on this Zephyrus M, I turned off the G-Sync feature as well as turned off V-Sync in the game.

Game Far Cry 5 (tested using the built-in benchmark feature in the game)

FHD resolution, High graphics level: minimum frame 54 fps, maximum 76 fps, average 63 fps

FHD resolution, Ultra graphics level: minimum frame 52 fps, maximum 68 fps, average 58 fps

Overwatch game

FHD resolution, Ultra graphics: minimum frame 58 fps, maximum 90 fps, average 78 fps

Game PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds)

FHD resolution, Ultra graphics: minimum frame 50 fps, maximum 93 fps, average 76 fps

FHD resolution, High graphics level: minimum frame 68 fps, maximum 112 fps, average 90 fps

The temperature of the machine after 1-2 hours of playing games, Balanced dissipation mode

The temperature of the CPU is also quite stable, at 80 – 85 degrees Celsius, as high as 90 degrees Celsius in balanced mode, and if you turn on over-boost, it’s only 70-75 degrees Celsius. While the great gaming laptops in the high-end segment today mostly have a temperature of 90-95 degrees Celsius, the Zephyrus only has 80 degrees Celsius, really too impressive, isn’t it?

At this time, the keyboard and palm rest are only slightly warm, but the upper part of the keyboard, where the heat sink is located, is quite hot.

Loudspeaker

The speaker of the machine is arranged on the bottom, when opening the screen, there will be space for the sound to bounce.

Zephyrus M features a special technology to optimize sound output. In most cases, when pushing the volume to the limit, the speaker can easily crackle due to overheating and amplifying the sound. Sonic Studio III software protects the speakers by setting thermal thresholds and gain levels, and monitoring variations due to the effects of load and temperature.

Through the process of playing the game and opening some songs, I feel the bass is strong, the mid and treble ranges are just enough, and the sound experience is good, but I won’t talk too much about this part, I think most Currently, most users are equipped with a headset or a set of separate speakers.

ROG Gaming Center

ROG Gaming Center gives you access to all the functions you need on a single dashboard – find system info, set up AURA RGB lighting, define hotkeys for faster in-game commands, control Adjust audio settings or record gameplay. In addition, ROG GameFirst V technology optimizes network traffic for online games, live streams, data sharing, etc, faster and without lag.

ROG Zephyrus M also supports a range of streaming-friendly features so you can share and broadcast your rounds with friends and a larger audience. Sonic Studio III stabilizes the overall volume of voice in and out while also reducing background noise. Casting Enhancer enhances voice clarity during playback and recording, and the laptop’s built-in microphone array filters out environmental noise for even clearer recordings. To power your live streams, ROG Zephyrus M supports a lifetime XSplit license. You can use XSplit Gamecaster in ROG Gaming Center to record and play rounds. The in-game interface allows you to easily play and record, and allows you to create in-game annotations to emphasize what’s going on. You can also interact directly with your audience while broadcasting on Twitch.

Connect

The latest Intel Wireless-AC 9560 integrated wifi card, delivers Bluetooth® 4.2 and 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity beyond Gigabit Ethernet speeds. Enjoy high-speed bandwidth up to 1.73Gbps on 160MHz channel – 5x faster than 802.11n 40MHz channel (300Mbps) and 2x faster than 802.11ac channel (867Mbps). MU-MIMO technology allows for more efficient, easier connections to multiple devices.

Capacity and battery life

With normal laptops, the integration of G-SYNC means that the machine will not have an integrated graphics card (onboard card), so the battery is very quick during use, especially playing games. However, ROG Zephyrus M is the world’s first gaming laptop to solve this problem thanks to Asus’ exclusive SWITCH GPU card switching technology (Optimus and G-SYNC modes). Users can choose to turn on G-SYNC and use the discrete NVIDIA GTX graphics card when playing games or turn off G-SYNC to use the integrated Intel HD Graphics card for light tasks. From there, Zephyrus M can bring up to 5 hours of battery life for mobile needs.

The experience, the battery life (4 cells, 50Wh) when doing light tasks such as office work, listening to music, watching movies, surfing the web, playing light games … is about 2 hours 30 minutes to nearly 4 hours, and playing heavy games is about 1 hour or so. So if you take the device out for a day to work or play a game, you will still have to carry the charger, and this charger is not very light.

Conclusion

ROG Zephyrus M has proven itself worthy of the title of the world’s thinnest gaming laptop running 8th generation Core i7 Coffee Lake. It can be said that the role of Zephyrus M is made to continue to emphasize Asus’ new definition of gaming laptops: it is not only designed to satisfy the strict requirements of gamers with strong performance and outstanding gaming experience but also to show that gaming laptops can also be optimized for mobility needs, heat dissipation and also have to look sophisticated.

When holding Zephyrus M in your hand, it will give you the feeling of holding an Ultrabook but with high configuration, easy to carry to work, to a cafe to play games with friends or to travel…

Although there are some small limitations, for example, after a period of use, when the device is closed, the keyboard mark will be printed on the screen, the hinge is not too firm, the gap at the bottom of the machine is eye-catching with red color LEDs but if you look at it for a long time, it feels hot…. however these are just their subjective feelings, really do not reduce the value brought by Zephyrus M.