Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 เป็นความพยายามล่าสุดของ Asus ที่จะก้าวเข้าสู่ แนวโน้มการแสดงผลบนแล็ปท็อป 16:10 และด้วยตัวชี้วัดนั้น การแสดงผลนั้นทำได้น่าทึ่ง หน้าจอมีขนาดใหญ่ 16 นิ้วในแนวทแยง แต่แชสซีของแล็ปท็อปนั้นสร้างขึ้นสำหรับรุ่น 15 นิ้ว ซึ่งทำให้ขอบบางเฉียบและอุปกรณ์พกพาที่บางเฉียบ ความละเอียดหน้าจอ 2560 x 1600 ที่สว่างสดใสก็ดูสวยงามเช่นกัน แต่เมื่อพูดถึงประสิทธิภาพ แล็ปท็อปเครื่องนี้มีปัญหาเรื่องราคาและอยู่ได้กับคู่แข่งของ Ryzen ที่ราคาถูกกว่าและมีราคาใกล้เคียงกัน
ถึงแม้จะมีราคาสูงก็ตาม-พลัง โปรเซสเซอร์ Intel Core i9 เจนเนอเรชั่น 11 และ GPU แล็ปท็อป RTX 3060 ในการกำหนดค่าของเรา แล็ปท็อปเครื่องนี้มีประสิทธิภาพเหนือกว่าคู่แข่งในคลังทดสอบเกมของเราครึ่งหนึ่ง และนั่นทำให้ขายยากเพราะมันค่อนข้างแพงด้วย
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การออกแบบ Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
อ้างอิงจาก Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 มีอัตราส่วนหน้าจอต่อตัวเครื่อง 94% ด้วยความบาง กรอบและจอแสดงผลขนาด 16 นิ้วในตัวเครื่องขนาด 15 นิ้ว ทำให้มีพื้นที่หน้าจอมากกว่าแล็ปท็อปขนาดใกล้เคียงกันเล็กน้อย ซึ่งมักจะเลือกใช้หน้าจอขนาด 15.6 นิ้ว แต่ก็ยังมีการออกแบบเกมเมอร์สไตล์ ROG มากมาย ซึ่งอาจดูคับแคบเล็กน้อยบนแชสซีที่มีขนาดเล็กกว่านี้
ฝาแล็ปท็อปส่วนใหญ่นี้จะมีรูปแบบในแนวทแยงของจุดที่ปิดบัง ลวดลายคล้ายคลื่นสีเงินที่คุณเห็นได้เฉพาะเมื่อมองจากมุมหนึ่งเท่านั้น ด้านข้างมีช่องระบายอากาศขนาดใหญ่และมองเห็นได้ชัดเจน และยังมี I/O นอกจากนี้ยังมีไฟ LED ที่ช่องระบายอากาศด้านหลังเพื่อระบุสถานะของระบบ ช่องระบายอากาศด้านหลังของระบบยังมองเห็นได้จากด้านในของแล็ปท็อป ซึ่งมีทางเข้ารองที่แป้นพิมพ์ตั้งอยู่ด้านใน บวกกับลำโพงด้านบนทั้งสองด้าน กันชนบนจอภาพยังยกแป้นพิมพ์ขึ้นจากโต๊ะในแนวทแยงมุมเมื่อคุณเปิดฝา
ของตกแต่งเยอะมาก และเสี่ยงต่อการดูฉูดฉาด แต่นี่เป็นแล็ปท็อปที่ตามค่าเริ่มต้นจะกะพริบไฟของแป้นพิมพ์ทุกๆ สองสามวินาทีเมื่ออยู่ในโหมดสลีป มันรู้ดีว่ามันเกี่ยวกับอะไร และถ้าคุณเจาะลึกความสวยงามของเกมเมอร์ รายละเอียดเพิ่มเติมทั้งหมดนั้นอาจดึงดูดใจคุณ
สิ่งที่ดึงดูดใจไม่ว่าสิ่งของชิ้นนี้จะมีขนาดเท่าใด ที่ขนาดใหญ่ 13.98 x 9.59 x 0.78 นิ้ว ซึ่งเล็กกว่าและบางกว่าคู่แข่งที่ระบุในรุ่นเดียวกันทุกรายที่เราทดสอบ ตัวอย่างเช่น Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 คือ 14.02 x 10.73 x 0.9 นิ้ว ในขณะที่ Lenovo Legion 5 Pro มีขนาด 14.02 x 10.41 x 1.07 นิ้ว Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition ยาวน้อยกว่าเล็กน้อย มากกว่า Zephyrus M16 ซึ่งมีขนาด 13.94 x 10.2 x 1.07 นิ้ว แต่มีขนาดใหญ่กว่าทุกที่
นี่เป็นแล็ปท็อปขนาดเล็กที่มีน้ำหนักเพียง 4.19 ปอนด์ น้ำหนักเบากว่า Alienware 5.34 ปอนด์และ Legion 5.4 ปอนด์ นอกจากนี้ ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition ยังหนัก 6.61 ปอนด์ ซึ่งทำให้ Zephyrus M16 ดูน้ำหนักเบายิ่งขึ้น
แล็ปท็อปเครื่องนี้ยังมีพอร์ตต่างๆ มากมาย แม้ว่าส่วนใหญ่จะลดระดับไปทางด้านซ้ายของแล็ปท็อป. ในการเริ่มต้น ด้านซ้ายมีพอร์ตชาร์จ ตัวเชื่อมต่อ HDMI 2.0 และ พอร์ตอีเทอร์เน็ต RJ-45 ที่ดูเทอะทะเล็กน้อยที่นี่ นอกจากนี้ยังมีพอร์ต USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, ช่องเสียบหูฟัง/ไมโครโฟน 3.5 มม., พอร์ตที่สามารถชาร์จ Thunderbolt 4 และการเชื่อมต่อ USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ที่สามารถรองรับ DisplayPort ได้เช่นกัน ในทางตรงกันข้าม ด้านขวาของแล็ปท็อปจะมีพอร์ต USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A USB และตัวอ่านการ์ด microSD
Gaming ประสิทธิภาพของ Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
ROG Zephyrus M16 มาพร้อมกับซีพียู Intel Core i9-11900H พลังงานสูง และ GPU สำหรับแล็ปท็อป RTX 3060 พร้อม GDDR6 VRAM 8GB, boost clock 1,426 MHz และ 95W ทีจีพี ส่งผลให้แล็ปท็อป RTX 3000 series อยู่ในเกณฑ์มาตรฐาน เนื่องจากมี CPU ระดับไฮเอนด์ แต่มี Ampere GPU ระดับกลาง
ตัวอย่างเช่น ใน Shadow of the Tomb Raider Zephyrus M16 ทำได้เพียง 69 fps ในเกณฑ์มาตรฐานที่สร้างไว้ล่วงหน้าของเกมที่ทำงานใน FHD ที่การตั้งค่าสูงสุด By contrast, the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 (Ryzen 7 5800H/RTX 3060) hit 73 fps, and it only gets higher from there. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H/RTX 3070) hit 80 fps thanks to its higher-end graphics card, and the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition (Ryzen 9 5900HX/Radeon RX 6800M) jumped all the way up to 88 fps.
The Zephyrus M16 also ran a little slow in Red Dead Redemption 2’s benchmark running in FHD at medium settings, though it wasn’t our lowest performer. At 58 fps, it just edged out the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5’s 53 fps. Still, the Legion 5 Pro edged it out with 66 fps and the ROG Strix crushed it with 70 fps.
Grand Theft Auto V’s benchmark running at FHD with very high settings saw the Zephyrus M16 running at 86 fps. That’s ahead of the Alienware’s 82 fps and the Legion’s 84 fps, if barely. The ROG Strix still took the lead here, with 98 fps.
Finally, Far Cry: New Dawn is where the Zephyrus M16 actually came out on top. Here, it ran at 84 fps. Meanwhile, the Legion only hit 71 fps, the Alienware pushed up to 79 fps and the ROG Strix barely trailed behind at 81 fps.
Essentially, performance was inconsistent, but typically the Zephyrus’Intel processor was beaten by Ryzen competitors, even with similar GPUs.
We also ran the Metro: Exodus RTX benchmark 15 times in a row on the Zephyrus M16 to simulate an extended gaming session. Here, the laptop ran at an average 53.51 fps. The CPU clock speed averaged 4.35 GHz while the GPU clock speed averaged 1.40 GHz. The CPU’s temperature was an average of 72.82 degrees Celsius during this test, and the GPU’s temperature was an average 73.98 degrees Celsius.
For a more personal touch, I also played Control on the Zephyrus M16 for a half hour to see how it handles during actual gameplay. Here, I was able to test both FHD gameplay as well as how well the PC holds up at its maximum 2560 x 1600 resolution. Unfortunately, I wasn’t too impressed. At high presets, the game ran between 27-33 fps at 2560 x 1600 resolution, and turning ray tracing on to its high preset reduced that to a slideshow-like 13-17 fps. FHD performance was more within my expectations, topping out at 62 fps with ray tracing off and 42 fps with it on. On the plus side, heat was imperceptible through the laptop’s case, and the fan only occasionally got noisy, usually during moments of heavy action and only for a few seconds at a time. Granted, this laptop uses an RTX 3060 and this is a more punishing game, but to both get 60 fps and get the most out of that high resolution display, you’re going to need to adjust your settings down to low presets without ray tracing on. Luckily, while this laptop can’t push 2560 x 1600 medium settings at a consistent 60 fps, the low preset does hit between 70-80 fps, so you might also be able to get away with a custom configuration that combines medium and low options.
Productivity Performance of Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16’s Intel Core i9-11900H chip gives it exceptional prowess as a productivity machine, although its SSD ran towards the slower end in our tests.
In Geekbench 5, which synthetically benchmarks general PC performance, the Zephyrus M16 scored 1,646 p oints on single-core tests and 8,495 points on multi-core tests. That’s slightly ahead of all of its competitors. The Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 (Ryzen 7 5800H) topped out at scores of 1,427/7,288, while the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H) was only slightly ahead of it with scores of 1,456/7,342. The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition (Ryzen 9 5900HX) came closest to the Zephyrus M16’s numbers, hitting scores of 1,519/7,746.
Our file transfer speed benchmark, where we track how quickly a computer can move 25GB of files, is where the Zephyrus M16 started to slow down, although it wasn’t the most sluggish competitor. It transferred files at a rate of 567.06 MBps, which is much slower than the 832.66 MBps we saw on the Legion and the 874.14 MBps we saw on the Alienware. The ROG Strix was the slowest laptop of this bunch, hitting just 340.68 MBps.
The Zephyrus M16 was also slower than competitors in our Handbrake benchmark, where we track how quickly a computer can transcode a video down from 4K to FHD, though not by much. Here, it completed the task in 7:58, while the Alienware did so in 7:05 and the Legion in 7:06. The ROG Strix was the fastest here, and finished transcoding in 6:57.
Display of Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
The Zephyrus M16 is yet another entrant into the 16:10 laptop club, and gives it a gaming edge with a 2560 x 1600 @ 165Hz IPS panel. I’m a big fan of both this aspect ratio and QHD resolutions on laptops, and this screen was a great reminder of what I like about both.
To test viewing content on the Zephyrus M16, I watched the trailer for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do it. Here, I found that colors were mildly vivid but that blacks were extremely deep (a must-have for a horror movie). I could see the screen clearly from almost any viewing angle, and I only encountered minor glare when I had the laptop perpendicular to my office window. Drawing my curtain and turning my lights off eliminated that glare entirely, although the screen was so bright regardless that I didn’t feel this was a necessity.
The 16:10 aspect ratio also gave me extra vertical space on my screen, which was convenient for scrolling through webpages to either research articles or even write this review.
Meanwhile, the 165 Hz screen meant I was able to see every one of the about 135-155 fps I was hitting in Overwatch on high settings at 2560 x 1600. Since I couldn’t hit 165Hz on this five year-old title without making some major graphics compromises, 165 Hz might actually have been overkill— a 144 Hz screen might have been more economical. But it should work better with even older titles like Team Fortress 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Or, if frame rate is always your top priority, you can always play at low settings or even a lower resolution.
Our color and brightness testing coincided with my anecdotal experience. The ROG Zephyrus M16 covered 75.8% of the DCI-P3 spectrum according to our colorimeter. That’s a respectable score, even if the laptop’s competitors beat it. The Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 covered 87.3 percent of the DCI-P3 spectrum, while the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro had a more muted lead at 82%. The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition had the closest numbers to the Zephyrus M16, with 76.7% DCI-P3 coverage.
As for brightness, the Zephyrus M16’s recorded 479 nits average only faced major competition from one other laptop: the Legion 5 Pro, which hit 472 nits. Meanwhile, the Alienware had an average 328 nits brightness and the ROG Strix took that number down to 280 nits.
Keyboard and Touchpad on Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
The ROG Zephyrus M16 has a tenkeyless keyboard with 1-zone R GB lighting. Most keys are full-sized, but the arrow keys are half-sized. The keyboard is also raised at an angle when you open the laptop’s lid, to make for a comfortable diagonal typing surface. There’s also dedicated media keys for volume and mic input that sit just above the keyboard, plus a programmable key that, by default, opens the Asus Armoury Crate app.
This laptop’s keycaps use a chiclet style with no detailing aside from on the W, F and J keys, which leads to flat surfaces that can feel slippery from time to time. Keypresses do feel cushiony on completion, though, and I was able to hit between 75-79 words per minute on most of the 10fastfingers.com typing tests I took with this keyboard. Asus did not provide travel distance numbers, but key travel did feel generous, which made physical feedback more noticeable and typing by touch alone easie
The 5.1 x 3.4-inch precision touchpad is, for the most part, a joy to use. Its massive size and smooth surface make for easy scrolling, but it still has enough friction to make precise movements easy to input. Multi-touch gestures like three-finger app switching and two-finger scrolling work especially well, with none of the resistance or physical discomfort I tend to encounter on most other touchpads. The power button also doubles as this laptop’s fingerprint reader, so the touchpad doesn’t need to have a dead zone to make way for one.
My only problem with the touchpad was that its palm rejection could sometimes fail, as the touchpad would occasionally implement a tap-click or even a swipe if I wasn’t careful about my palm placement. Luckily, you can turn off touchpad input via a shortcut on the funcion row for gaming sessions with an external mouse.
Audio on Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 has two bottom firing and two top firing speakers that make for a quiet but high fidelity listening experience.
I tested this laptop’s speakers by listening to Butter by BTS, where I was impressed by how little the vocals and highs changed from when I was listening to the song on headphones. The bass had a little less impact, but didn’t lose any information, and I was easily able to distinguish between details like drum hits and cymbal beats.
The speakers were on the quiet end, though, with a comfortable listening volume at around 70%-75%. I was easily able to hear the song across my home office, but not as well outside of the room. This shouldn’t be too much of an issue for most people, but if you’re hard of hearing, it might be difficult to make out dialogue scenes in film on this laptop. That said, changing to the “Voice” and “Movie” audio settings in the laptop’s included Dolby Access app can help with this just a little bit.
Upgradeability of the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
Taking the bottom case off the Asus R OG Zephyrus M16 is a bit of an ordeal. First, use a Phillip’s head screwdriver (I used a P00 bit) to remove 9 of the laptop’s outer screws and loosen the pop-up screw that’s in what is the lower-right corner if you have the case’s label facing upwards. Then, use a flathead screwdriver and some force to twist off the rubber caps that cover the case’s three center screws. Don’t worry— I was able to get these back on afterwards. Finally, just remove the three center screws with your Phillip’s head screwdriver and pry off the case.
Once inside, you’ll see an admittedly cool red motherboard, the networking chip, an open M.2 SSD slot, an M.2 SSD slot that’s already in use and an 8GB DIMM of RAM. Since this system has 16GB of RAM, we’re guessing the rest is soldered in.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 Webcam
Despite having such thin bezels, the ROG Zephyrus M16 has still managed to fit a 720p webcam into its upper bezel. This is a big deal, because Asus had removed webcams from most of its laptops for the past few years with the expectation that gamers would bring their own if they wanted one. The last 18 months, however, have proven having one is necessary.
Unfortunately, while this webcam’s color is accurate if you have enough light, it leaves shots with plenty of artifacts regardless of lighting. It also had a tendency to make me look undead in dim light and like a tangerine in heavy light.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 Battery Life
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is long-lasting when it comes to gaming laptop battery life. In our non-gaming battery life test, which continually streams video, browses the web and runs OpenGL tests at 150 nits of brightness, it held on for 6 hour and 22 minutes before turning off. That’s just slightly above the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro’s 6:15 hours of battery life and well over the 3:29 hours of battery life offered by the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5.
The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition did drastically outlast the Zephyrus M16 with a battery life of 10:14 hours, although battery lives that long are a rarity among gaming laptops.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 Heat
Although I never felt the heat through the chassis, the ROG Zephyrus M16 can get toasty under even light load. After 15 minutes of streaming video, its touchpad was a nominal 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit, but every other measurement we took was over 100 degrees. The center of the keyboard (between the G and H keys) was 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit, while the underside was 114.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
While 114.5 is the hottest the laptop got under non-gaming loads, it got even warmer when we took its temperature during its sixth consecutive run of the Metro: Exodus Ultra benchmark. Here, the touchpad registered a cooler 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit, but the center of the keyboard hit 108.5 degrees Fahrenheit and the underside was generally 125 degrees Fahrenheit. The underside did have a hotspot opposite the keyboard’s 7 key, though, where it hit 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 Software and Warranty
Asus generally does a great job of not installing bloatware on its gaming laptops, and that’s no different here. Aside from Windows pack-ins like Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Intel inclusions like its Driver and Support Assistant, and Dolby Access for adjusting audio and video settings, there’s only two apps from Asus itself.
The first of these apps is Armoury Crate, where you’ll adjust lighting, view performance metrics, change your programmable keyboard button and the like. There’s also Aura Creator, where you can make custom RGB lighting effects to use with the keyboard.
Configurations for Asus ROG Zephyrus M16
The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 has four configurations listed on its website, though we could only find two of those configurations in store for now. Our unit was included among these, and costs a whopping $1,849. For that price, you’ll get an Intel Core i9-11900H CPU, an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16GB of DDR4-3200 memory and a 1TB SSD. It also has that gorgeous 16 inch, 16:10, 2560 x 1600 display, which all configurations of this laptop share.
Meanwhile, the cheapest configuration actually up for sale at the moment is a $1,449 model with a Core i7-11800H processor, an RTX 3050 Ti, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Best Buy’s current listing accidentally calls the GPU an RTX 3060 Ti in several places, but an Asus representative confirmed to us that these were typos.
Asus has not told us when the other configurations listed on its website would become available.
Bottom Line
The ROG Zephyrus M16 offers a lot to like thanks to a small build and a genuinely excellent 2560 x 1600 screen, but its steep $1,849 price point and mixed performance across our game library makes it difficult to pick over competing models, especially since it’s not the only laptop we tested that has a great display at that resolution.
If power is your primary goal, the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5 either beat or performed similarly to the Zephyrus M16 in most of our gaming tests, and costs $200 less. Meanwhile, the similarly priced Lenovo Legion 5 Pro outperformed the Zephyrus M16 in half of our tests (though mildly lost out in others) and also has its own gorgeous 2560 x 1600 display.
Also, while the Zephyrus M16 has a great screen, it’s only got a so-so keyboard. It’s a decent choice if you must go with Intel, but even among Asus computers, there are compelling and more powerful Ryzen-based alternatives like the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition.
The small chassis does offer the Zephyrus M16 a unique selling point, but that’s about the only place where it definitely beats the competition.
