Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 review

The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is thinner and lighter than its competitors while offering good quality in most departments, so it is ideal if you want a sleeker notebook.

Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 was a capable laptop with some performance issues, mostly because of its Intel CPU. We were eventually dissatisfied with the overall performance provided by this laptop, especially at its high price point, despite the fact that the lightweight form factor was a benefit.

With yet another Intel-based laptop that keeps much of what worked with its predecessor while removing some of the rough edges, Asus is obviously not trying to reinvent the wheel this year. Many of these updates, which include faster 12th Gen Intel CPUs and up to an RTX 3080Ti graphics card, are welcome but essentially incremental.

If you are looking for a gaming laptop, it’s also important to note that the Asus Zephyrus G15 added a webcam to its already impressive list of specifications in 2022, fixing one of the biggest problems we had with the previous model and eliminating one of the main advantages the M16 had over the G15. The M16’s Intel processor, though, might offer it an advantage in applications requiring creativity.

Design

We might assume Asus had that in mind when creating the ROG Zephyrus M16. We were thrilled that they did because it essentially maintains the same incredibly sleek appearance as the prior model while having a somewhat smaller form factor. Its aluminum lid displays a polished, off-black tone, and half of the surface is neatly covered in a dot matrix pattern with 8,279 holes.

The Zephyrus M16 features an unparalleled design. It features very elegant quirks that make it perfect for the gaming area and subtle enough to impress people in a professional environment. If that were not enough, the stamp “EST. 2006” ROG in shiny gold on the corner also screams “We have a high-quality gaming laptop.”

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is by far my favorite out of all the Zephyrus keyboards we’ve played with. The keys give strong travel and are clicky and punchy. And when we type on the keyboard, which happens far more frequently than you might expect, it doesn’t bend wildly. On the 10fastfingers.com typing test, we reached 84 words per minute, which is much faster than my typical 78 wpm.

In addition to being evenly spaced, the keys are also a pleasure to type on. Only one zone of the RGB lighting can be configured in the Armory Crate app’s Lighting section. The 5.1 x 3.4-inch touchpad is easy to use and provides pleasing clicks thanks to its smoothness. The three-finger tab switching and two-finger scrolling features of Windows 10 worked flawlessly.

Display

Featuring a 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 165 Hz refresh rate, the ROG Zephyrus M16 is a dream to play on. Along with a 3 ms response time for fast, competitive gaming in titles like Valorant and Asus’ “ROG Nebula Display” response covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 500 nits of brightness, we were engulfed by the crisp images and bright, vivid colors.

We are lovers of all things Marvel and enjoyed seeing Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight being chased by the bizarre dog Anubis over the rooftops of London. Wrapped in an all-white gown, they were able to see each wrap with a new level of detail thanks to the brightness of the display. Moon Knight’s cloak billowing against the backdrop of a night sky adorned with a crescent moon demonstrated the depth of contrast that Zephyrus M16 is capable of achieving.

Audio

The bottom-firing speakers on the Zephyrus M16 sound good. While by no means of the highest caliber, this does not sound like empty drivel either. We listened to Eliza Grace’s “we Can’t Save The World If we’re Not Happy,” and while the song’s opening vocals were charming and melodious, there was not enough bass to allow the gaming speakers to fully convey Grace’s vocal range. During the chorus, the percussion sounded alright but lacked power. The guitar, though, had a nice, brilliant sound.

We started playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and noticed right away that the speakers emphasized the eerie noises of cicadas that we could only assume were present around us. Although the immersion was pleasant, the sound was too harsh and eventually became intrusive. While firing arrows at our adversaries in combat had a nice snap and pierce, the voices in the game were loud and clear.

Graphics and Gaming

The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM hidden behind the deck. At 44 frames per second on Ultra, 1600p settings, it was more than adequate to capture my epic combat on a cliff face in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The Zephyrus M16 achieved 59 frames per second on the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), above the average for popular gaming laptops by 10 frames (49 fps).

Additionally, it outperformed the Triton 300 SE (51 fps) and the Stealth 15M (55 fps), both of which used the same GPU as the M16. The Zephyrus M16 averaged 48 fps at 1600p. The Zephyrus M16 surpassed the category average (74 fps), the Triton 300 SE (73 fps), and the Stealth 15M (84 fps) in the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark (Ultra, 1080p) (77 fps). The M16 achieved 67 frames per second when benchmarking the game at 1600p.

Performance

For instance, the Zephyrus M16 only managed 69 frames per second when playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider at its highest settings in Full HD. 73 frames per second were attained on the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 (Ryzen 7 5800H/RTX 3060), and it keeps going up from there. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H/RTX 3070) was able to reach 80 frames per second because to its more potent graphics card.

While the Ryzen 9 5900HX/Radeon RX 6800M-powered Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition upped its frame rate all the way to 88. The Zephyrus M16 wasn’t the worst performer, but it did run Red Dead Redemption 2’s FHD benchmark at medium settings a little slowly. It barely beat the 53 fps of the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 with 58 fps. However, the Legion 5 Pro barely edged it out at 66 fps while the ROG Strix obliterated it with 70 fps.

Battery Life

If you don’t use the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 for gaming, it has a respectable lifespan. It played videos for an impressive eight hours and 29 minutes with the display set to 150 nits, outperforming the Scar by two hours and the Alienware x17 by more than two to one. The M16 ran a task benchmark for just over four hours.

Although performance is marginally worse than the Asus Scar, it is still twice as good as the x17. But it is still a respectable result for such a compact laptop, and it increases versatility. Not surprisingly, the M16’s gaming endurance was only 1 hour and 6 minutes. This is standard practice when it comes to gaming laptops: if you want to load the latest titles, stay plugged in. Neither rival significantly improved this result.

Heat

The ROG Zephyrus M16 can get quite hot under the hood, which worried me at times. The vents point toward the bottom of the display, and we felt that that part of the panel became very hot after long periods of gaming. It did not affect performance, but we are not sure about the long-term effects. After 15 minutes of play, the bottom of the Zephyrus M16 reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit, exceeding our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

The middle of the keyboard and touchpad reached 113 and 74.8 degrees, respectively. However, the highest temperature was 138 degrees on the back underside, three inches from the left edge. When not in play, the M16 was still a bit toasty after streaming a 15-minute video, with the bottom reaching 108 degrees. The keyboard reached 98.1 degrees and the touchpad 75.9 degrees. Again, it was the hottest at the same point, reaching 109 degrees.

Configurations

We could only locate two of the four options for the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 that are advertised on the company’s website. One of these was our flat, which is extremely expensive at $1,849. An Intel Core i9-11900H processor, an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory, and a 1TB SSD are all included for that price.

Conclusion

The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, which has some significant upgrades over its predecessor, is still a beast of a computer from the PC manufacturer. The laptop has an enhanced newer generation CPU, a smaller size, is lighter, and has a lot better battery. The design is still there, but the rubberized material that surrounds the keyboard is quite porous and is easily stained by sweat and oil. In Turbo or Manual mode, it becomes quite warm, and the fans often get noisy.

Additionally, the laptop does not provide a smooth gaming experience while running on batteries. Although it remains one of the most capable and powerful laptops available, the version we received for testing would mostly appeal to those who can afford $2940.17 price, the variant we got for review will mostly appeal to professional gamers only.

James Hogan
James Hogan
James Hogan is a notable content writer recognized for his contributions to Bollyinside, where he excels in crafting informative comparison-based articles on topics like laptops, phones, and software. When he's not writing, James enjoys immersing himself in football matches and exploring the digital realm. His curiosity about the ever-evolving tech landscape drives his continuous quest for knowledge, ensuring his content remains fresh and relevant.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related Articles

Hubspot Service Hub review 2024: a comprehensive platform

When it comes to customer support operations, HubSpot Service Hub is an all-encompassing customer service platform that is meant to...
Read more
When players on Windows 11 or 10 try to log in to Steam, they may get the error code E87....
Users of Windows 11 or 10 may find it frustrating to deal with the error number 147-0 in Microsoft Office....
The Microsoft Store is an important part of the Windows operating system because it gives users a single place to...
It can be hard to find the right balance between usefulness, durability, and cost when it comes to kitchen storage....
Both AirDroid and Vysor are well-known tools that help Android users control their devices and mirror them. One of the...
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, which features some significant upgrades over its predecessor, is still a beast of a computer from the PC manufacturer. The laptop features an improved next-generation CPU, is smaller in size, lighter, and has a much better battery.Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 review