ROG Zephyrus AI Gaming Laptop 14.0" 120Hz OLED 2.8K Display (AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 12GB, 32GB LPDDR5X, 2TB PCIe SSD, RGB KB, Win 11 Pro) w/Dockztorm Hub

This is about as good as a Windows laptop can get while still being portable. Its GPU isn't as powerful as a comparable desktop card would be, but it's powerful enough that you probably won't care for a while.For a point of reference, Oblivion: Remastered works pretty great for stressing what it can do now. The game is GPU bound on this hardware, so pumping out 4K can go for Really, Really Great Graphics and a playable framerate in the 30s and 40s; or turn it down and tune a wee bit to get closer to 60 fps while looking good. For something like Cyberpunk 2077, a common reviewer choice, it's firmly in the realm of "Don't care" level of excellent performance--at least when pumping out 4K to an external monitor and on charger. I don't even bother gaming on battery. I have zero complaints about graphics, as someone who always built desktops for my gaming needs.In comparison to my old Core i7-10700K / RTX 4070 Ti desktop was bottlenecked at the CPU. This laptop has similar storage/RAM but my old machine was hamstrung by its aging processor: to the point that monitoring usage showed CPU as the real kicker. To keep Oblivion: Remastered as a point of reference, my old desktop could do similar graphics quality but would stutter whenever the CPU couldn't keep up. Nvidia Reflex, DLSS/FG, were ways to push more load on the desktop GPU to compensate for the old intel chip, and also turned my study into a sauna from the GPU ramped up.This Zephyrus on the other hand, will max out the laptop grade 5070 Ti much faster than it's AMD CPU, so while its 5070 Ti laptop chipset can't beat my 4070 Ti desktop card, the CPUs make such a huge difference that it's still going to win or come close enough in performance that I don't notice or care about the difference in actual game play. None of the fine tuning settings was necessary for Oblivion, the game worked fine. And choosing between prettier graphics or higher framerate is hardly a problem when it's still great out of the box. Plus as an added bonus, it's less like a space heater. That said, it really deserves to be kept on a stand for better airflow, a factor my desktop didn't have.The worst thing that I can say about this laptop is that it is expensive, and the fans are really loud when gaming or doing anything with significant load. That's easily solved with noise canceling earbuds, or even a decent pair of headphones that encase your ears. In turns of fan volume? Eh, the last Intel MacBook Pros got louder. At worst, compared to my RTX 4070 Ti desktop, the difference is my laptop is on my desk instead of under it, so it's more noticeable. For most people, if you find the fans too loud, I'd suggest buying ANC headphones. The price point doesn't really have an alternative as clear cut as fan noise does, but at least it's uncompromisingly powerful for what can be packed into a 14" laptop!While I prefer gaming on a larger external monitor, docked, with speakers/mouse/keyboard all hooked up over thunderbolt: the laptop itself is pretty good in those regards as well. It probably has the single best screen that I've ever seen on a Windows laptop, period. The speaker's aren't bad, certainly no worse than my Pebbles. The USB4 port works with my CalDigit TS4 dock, so I'm happy. The keyboard and trackpad are solid, and those are things I'm particularly picky about on laptops. I really wouldn't mind using it as a 'laptop" for most things, and it's damn light for such a powerhouse. It's not that much larger than my MacBook Air 13 in surface area, but it's notably thicker and hefty--in a way that used to be called thin/light laptops back in the 2000s. Heck, my first laptop was twice as heavy as this thing, and it was just ordinary notebook. Asus really did a superb job on the hardware.

I saw a great laptop right when I needed it the most. Now for some reason it is currently in customs with no potential estimated time of release.