In a gaming laptop , having a good diagonal is an aspect that for many users is essential. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 is presented on the market as a forceful team to play on the move both for power and connectivity and screen diagonal, at the same time that it is positioned as a valid laptop for much more thanks to its screen format and quality Of the same.
Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 datasheet
| ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS M16 | |
|---|---|
| SCREEN | 16-inch IPS LCD with 16:10 aspect ratio, Pantone validation and Adaptive-Sync |
| RESOLUTION | QHD + at 165 Hz |
| MICROPROCESSOR | Intel Core i9-11900H |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 (100W) |
| PRINCIPAL MEMORY | 2×16 GB DDR4 3,200 MHz (maximum 48 GB) |
| SECONDARY STORAGE | 2 TB SSD M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 + free PCIe Gen 3 slot |
| CONNECTIVITY | 3.5mm HDMI combo audio jack (8K @ 60Hz / 4K @ 120Hz) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A + 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A 1x USB 4 Type-C (Thunderbolt 4 and Displayport) 1x MiniDisplayPort 1.4 1x SD Express card reader 1x LAN RJ45 |
| WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.2 |
| SOUND | 4 x 2W woofer with Smart Amp Technology 2 2W tweeters |
| BATTERY | 90 WH |
| THICKNESS | 1.99 cm |
| WEIGHT | 1.9 kg |
| PRICE | $2830 |
Asus ROG Zephyrus M GU603HR-K8009T Intel Core i7-11800H / 32GB / 1TB SSD / RTX 3070/16 “
A large but compact and well-connected laptop
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 performs an important juggling exercise at the design level to achieve a case that does not penalize the raw power of its interior and at the same time is attractive, with just the right level of attention to detail and without losing weight at the level of dimensions.
It is precisely at this last point that the highlight for me at the design level: being able to enjoy a laptop with a 16-inch screen without excessive size or weight and in which, in turn, the connectivity of the equipment has been greatly respected. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 stays at a thickness of 1.99 cm and a weight of 1.9 kg .
The appearance of this new Zephyrus is elegant, highlighting the upper part of the housing, which is perforated with more than 8000 holes which have a prismatic film below that gives it an effect of random reflections depending on the light and the angle from the one that we observe that part of the laptop.The design of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 is above all practical, seeking a balance between physical parameters so as not to be penalized in any field … but not to stand out in any field either.
The rest of the equipment, including the inside of the palm rests, maintains the same dark and matte tone, not very prone to keeping fingerprints or dirt.
The design, elegant and discreet, offers some distinctive touch of the house.
One detail that I liked about the design of this ASUS Zephyrus is that the screen allows a total tilt up to 180 degrees , thus giving the user a lot of flexibility, although the counterpart is that the equipment is less resistant and robust than what its appearance.
Opening the display makes the keyboard of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 raised at the rear. That inclination seems to me to be correct at an ergonomic level while leaving enough space for the cooling of that critical place in the case, although at the cost of the fact that, as we will see in the cooling section, a good part of the hot air is extracted just by those heatsinks pointing directly at the panel.
Tilted display makes it easier to cool your computer and improve keyboard ergonomics
The user also achieves high flexibility by observing the varied connectivity of the equipment, which takes advantage of this “controlled” thickness to be able to offer, among others, an HDMI 2.0b and one Ethernet port.
The rest of the ports are already more common in any computer, from the 3.5 mm combined audio connector to the two USB-A 3.2 ports (one Gen 2 and one Gen 1), the USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, the Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort support as well as a microSD card reader (UHS-II, 312MB / s). It also includes a Kensington Lock port.
High connectivity is concentrated almost exclusively on the left side of the equipment
Wireless connectivity is starred by Wifi 6 (but not Wifi 6e ) and Bluetooth 5.2.
Regarding biometric identification, although there is no clue in the design, the power button, located above the keyboard in isolation, acts as a fast and reliable fingerprint reading system .
A big screen to play … and much more
The main reason for the ASUS Zephyrus M16 is found on its screen . We are talking about a 16-inch diagonal in 16:10 format with a significant reduction in the edges, which makes it more inverse.The 16-inch 16:10 screen is the reason for this model to exist within the excellent Zephyrus family from ASUS
The panel is IPS type and has a QHD resolution (2560 x 1600 pixels), Adaptive-Sync technology, 165 Hz refresh and 3 ms response time. It is also a Dolby Vision certified panel and comes with anti-glare coverage.
This coverage, although less meaningful in the case of equipment not primarily intended for outdoor use, does not penalize the overall quality of the panel, which is colorful, with high contrast and a good level of brightness that reaches 450 nits. The resolution, between 1080p and 4K, seems adequate to me to balance both gaming tasks and more professional or work tasks.
And it is that, in addition to its good skills as a screen to play, ASUS has not wanted to pass up with this new Zephyrus M16 the opportunity to place on the market a laptop with which it is not necessary to give up being able to carry out professional tasks related to image and video. For this, the panel has Pantone validation for greater color precision (in addition to being factory calibrated) and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space.
With ASUS software we can configure different image profiles to adjust the experience to what we need at all times.The 16:10 format and the DCI-P3 coverage of its panel make this ASUS a team to be taken into account by “creative gamers”
As we have anticipated, the screen is especially inverse due to the small size of all its frames, even the upper one and especially the lower one, something that is not very common in this type of notebook.
The screen bezels, even the bottom one, are very small
Despite this, there is a place to keep the webcam in a suitable place and not move it to strange places that are not very practical or not. Of course, the webcam has a maximum resolution of 720p and the right quality for scenarios with good lighting.
Powerful Dolby Atmos sound
During the test of this ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 we have not only been able to enjoy playing but also playing content. And there, the sound system that we had liked so much when playing, finished off the multimedia experience of this ASUS.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 enjoys a six-speaker configuration (2 tweeters + 4 woofers of 2W each), with force cancellation for the woofers and compatible with audio by Dolby Atmos and Hi-Res Audio. The sound is particularly powerful and faithful , without vibrations, although we expected a little more bass boost.
As for the microphones, there is a matrix with tri-mode sound pickup (stereo, omnidirectional and cardioid), which features bi-directional noise cancellation with AI that helps make video calls and conversations during games cleaner. In our case, we have been able to test it with continuous ambient noise from traffic and nearby works, and we can see a slight improvement in conversations.
Core i9 and RTX 3070: winning combination
The interior of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 is what we could currently consider as the high-end standard for this type of ambitious gaming notebook if we opt for a model with non-AMD processors.
The processor is the Intel Core i9-11900H with its 8 cores and 16 threads, which can reach a frequency of up to 4.9 GHz. The other member of the dance pair in the most complete choice available for this laptop is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 , in its 80 W version capable of reaching a frequency of 1390 MHz with ROG Boost (8GB GDDR6).
As for the RAM, it is of the DDR4-3200 type and supports up to 48 GB . The model that we have analyzed had 32 GB distributed in 16 GB soldered on the plate and a slot accessible by the user.
The storage unit is PCIe 4.0 with a size of up to 2 TB, but if necessary (it never hurts for gaming equipment and with which we are going to work at a professional level with photo and video) we can expand the storage capacity with a second slot M.2 SSD in this case PCIe Gen 3 and RAID 0.
In tests with CrystaldiskMark, the SSD reached 5000MB / s and 6800MB / s read and write respectively.
At the raw performance level, the combination of the Core i9 and Nvidia graphics places this team at the top among gaming teams that do not have the RTX 3080. In the test with Cinebench R23 this laptop obtained a score higher than 12,000 points using Turbo mode in system settings. If we opt for a more contained mode to, as we will see, avoid noise, the performance is reduced by 30%.
In tests with PCMark 8, our configuration of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 achieved more than 9000 points in the Creative test and 6000 in the Work test. From the graphical section, it should be noted that the synthetic tests with Time Spy Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra remained at 4800 and 6400 points respectively.
Moving on to real tests, we carried out initial tests with FullHD resolution and maximum quality in games such as Battlefield V (121 fps), Far Cry 5 (118 fps), Shadow of Tomb Raider (97 fps) or The Division 2 (97 fps), to later make the same measurements but choosing to play with the native resolution of the notebook panel, QHD`. In these conditions, we average around 980 fps for the titles Battlefield V (92 fps), Far Cry 5 (89 fps) or Shadow of Tomb Raider (83 fps).
Liquid metal and a lot of surface to cool
Being such a compact device , the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 had the great challenge of offering a balanced solution for cooling. This can be seen from the very design of the equipment, which has four heatsinks located on both sides as well as in the hinge area of the screen. Right there, the three status LEDs of the equipment are visible .
Exterior design looks for any loopholes to aid cooling
In addition, for cooling, ASUS combines up to 6 heat pipes with two fans and that have 84 blades that vary in thickness from base to tip, all combined with a liquid metal thermal compound.The cooling system, consumption and noise in operation is correct until we start wanting to squeeze the Intel Core i9. In this situation Intel still has important work to do
This combination works quite well as long as we do not demand the maximum from the equipment or we have it configured in a profile that is not the Turbo. Under these conditions, the CPU, according to our tests, does not exceed 70 degrees Celsius, and the noise in operation of the equipment is not annoying or scandalous.
When the CPU temperatures exceed 50 degrees, the fans start to work but they do so at a fairly regular frequency and with a low and continuous loudness, without spikes or surprises for what is usual in very powerful notebooks.
But if we need to make the most of the equipment, or what is the same, the Intel Core i9, it is convenient to resort to the proprietary power supply so that we then have the Turbo operating mode available , which maximizes performance without taking into account the noise that is generated.
In this mode the CPU temperature rises a lot and touches 95 degrees Celsius, and in that situation, in addition to a problem for the consumption and sustained performance of the equipment, the noise of the cooling system is very evident and continuous (on average greater than 52 dB), not suitable for any situation. However, the heat that is appreciated to the touch in the different critical parts of the equipment, especially in the palm rests or the keyboard, is very low.
The behavior of the equipment at the level of cooling and therefore noise in operation can be customized according to the circumstances or our preferences using the Armouny Crate software.
Somewhat fair autonomy for a light laptop
Despite the fact that we are facing a gaming laptop that we can consider as quite light for its 1.9 kg of weight for a 16-inch diagonal and a strong interior, we expected a little more autonomy for this equipment, taking into account the best results we have obtained in Similar equipment but that had processors from AMD.
And that the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 is not short of battery capacity, with a total of 90 Wh. However, in our real-life tests with the same workload that we used in our laptop reviews, the Zephyrus M16 averaged between 5 and 6 hours , which is a couple of hours less than it was. wanted.
The size and weight of the proprietary charger does not invite us to take it everywhere with us, although we can always charge it via USB-C
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 includes a fairly heavy and large 200 W proprietary charger with which in just over half an hour we have 50% of the battery charged. There is the possibility of using the USB-C port to charge the device, but this is slower and it is also not enough if we want to use the Turbo mode of operation.
One of the best keyboards in laptops
The keyboard of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 is another of the very outstanding elements of this gaming laptop. ASUS has taken good care of it to offer a good-sized keyboard and very focused on the game and the functions associated with the management of the team rather than a classic layout.
The touch of the keyboard is one of the best in the gaming sector if we ignore the mechanical ones. It is very quiet , with a precise response and excellent feedback, but at the same time very fast.
Something that is not lacking in this ASUS keyboard is the RGB backlight , which can be managed and customized from the ASUS Armory Crate application. The keyboard display in low light is quite good.
The touchpad, one of the great forgotten in many gaming laptops, has a major importance in this ASUS Zephyrus M16
The touchpad , which in some families of gaming notebooks is often ostracized, in this ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 it has a decent size and high quality, both for the glass with which it is manufactured and for the touch and response to clicks. and gestures.
ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 and the opinion
There are already several powerful brands that are going to hunt and capture a user who is looking for a great laptop to play but without giving up important aspects for professional tasks beyond power, which is always supposed to a good gaming computer.
In that ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 , in addition to its great features as a gaming laptop, we have found a large screen both for quality and format as well as very careful aspects for a professional such as the keyboard, connectivity or touchpad, yes, with some sacrifice such as noise in operation when we demand the most, an autonomy that can be improved as well as a high price.
Design 9.25
Screen 9.25
Performance 9.5
Keyboard / trackpad 9.25
software 8.75
Autonomy 8.75
In favor
- Performance
- One of the best keyboards on the market in laptops
- Powerful sound with proper bass boost
- High-quality and versatile display
Against
- Somewhat fair autonomy
- Noise in operation when we demand the most of it
- Wifi 6 and Ethernet connectivity can be improved in this range of laptops
- High price