One downside of putting all this power in a relatively thin chassis (0.9 inches) though is that this thing runs hot. Furthermore, if you want to enjoy the Zephyrus' native 2560 x 1600 resolution, the laptop has more than enough oomph to maintain a rock solid 120 fps with all the graphical bells and whistles turned on in Far Cry 6. Additionally, in Metro Exodus the M16 exhibited a similar lead when it hit 101 fps on Ultra at full HD versus 86 for the Blade 15. That's a pretty significant jump, though we're still waiting for a wider range of systems to arrive so we can get a more thorough comparison for 2023.ĭue to the M16's design, its ports are located on the left and ride.īut more importantly, the M16 solidly beat the Blade 15 in games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider when it hit 144 fps at 1920 x 1080 on highest settings compared to just 124 fps for the Razer. In PCMark 10, the M16 posted a score of 8,624, which is more than 20 percent higher than what we got from last year's Razer Blade 15 (i7-12800H/RTX 3080 Ti). ![]() But when you're spending this much on a laptop, it's weird to see ASUS leave a little bit of extra performance on the table. Granted, this may feel a bit nitpicky because it's not like the M16 is sluggish, particularly when you factor in its 32GB of RAM and speedy 2TB SSD. Meanwhile, ASUS limits the RTX 4090 in the M16 to 145 watts (or 150 watts according to the NVIDIA control panel), which is less than the 175-watt cards you get in some competitors like the Razer Blade 16. That's because instead of an HX-series chip, you get a slightly slower Intel Core i9-13900H CPU. While the M16's performance is anything but slow, ASUS stopped just short of delivering truly top-notch performance. The biggest design change for the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 this year is the addition of the company's AniMe Matrix LED lighting to the lid. So in the end, I set it to stay connected to the GPU all the time and never touched it again. This can get kind of tedious after a while, especially if you have Optimus set to switch automatically depending on if you're plugged in or running on battery. On top of that, depending on your specific settings, when it changes modes you may need to reenable things like HDR or specific color profiles. My one gripe, and this is something that applies to all laptops with Nvidia's Optimus tech, is that when switching between integrated graphics and the discrete GPU, the screen flashes and blacks out, which is just kind of clunky. In normal use, the display tops out at around 600 nits, but thanks to its VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification, things look even better when you're playing games or watching movies. Not only has the refresh rate been bumped up to 240Hz, because it's a Mini LED panel, you also get way more dimming zones which help cut down on blooming. ![]() ![]() That's because when you prefer to be more discreet, you can easily turn off the lights using ASUS's Armoury Crate app and then just flip them back on when you want to surprise some nosy Saiyans.įor 2023, the new Mini LED screen on the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 features 1,024 local dimming zones along with a peak brightness of up to 1,100 nits.Īs for visuals, the M16's 2560 x 1600 screen is arguably a more important upgrade than its new CPU and GPU. And while it looks almost exactly the same as last year's model, the AniMe Matrix LED lid (which we first saw on the Zephyrus G14 line) adds a bit of extra style without screaming about your power level. But the big question is that with our fully loaded review unit costing a whopping $3,500, is this system really delivering the same value back? Designįeaturing a relatively slim matte black chassis that weighs just over five pounds, the Zephyrus M16 does a great job at retaining a bit of portability alongside all that performance. This year, ASUS also upgraded the laptop's display to a stunning new Mini LED panel, and by bringing over the AniMe Matrix lid, the notebook looks better too despite the rest of its chassis being largely unchanged. And with the 2023 version of ASUS' ROG Zephyrus M16 packing a 13th-gen Intel CPU and an RTX 4090, we should be in for unmatched gaming prowess. Now that systems with NVIDIA's 40-series mobile GPUs are finally hitting the market, there's a fresh generation of gaming laptops promising even more bombastic performance.
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