The new ROG Zephyrus laptops feature a light strip
The Titan 18 HX A14V: A Fun Boat Anchor of a Gaming Laptop and an Exceptionally Cool Zephyrus G14 and G16
The Titan’s most unique accessory is its illuminated trackpad, which is found on most gaming laptops. It’s a small sight to behold up close, as the entire front deck of the laptop is a clean sheet of matte-finished glass with the trackpad lighting up in the middle. It resembles a MacBook with its clicky feel, and it uses Macbook-esque haptics to maintain it. It is silly and fun and lands squarely in the category of I know nobody needs this. I am glad it exists. If you are actually going to spend five grand on a gaming laptop, it should give you some flair and have the right specifications to back it up.
Intel’s new 14th Gen Core i9 14900HX processor, an ARY 4080 or 4090 graphics card, up to 128 GB of GDDR5 memory, and an 18-inch MiniLED display with 3840 x 2400 resolution and 120Hz refresh are some of the features
The laptop has plenty of port space, with multiple ports including two Thunderbolt4 /USB-C ports, threeUSB 2.2 Gen 2 Type- A ports, and a full-sizeSD card reader. It costs five grand, but it also weighs 7.94 pounds with a shoulder-wrenching 3.6 kilogram. And like other new MSI laptops, it has AI-based performance profiles that promise to optimize settings based on whether you’re gaming or doing other tasks like video conferencing. Though, I expect almost nobody buying this behemoth is going to do much outside of play games with it and won’t be moving it around. The replacement machine is supposed to be mostly used for games, as it allows the colorful peacock feathers of the lighting to shine.
MSI is debuting a bunch of new laptops at CES 2024, but none are quite as over the top as the Titan 18 HX A14V, a boat anchor of a gaming laptop that costs as much as a beater car and has one of the coolest (or most garish, depending on your preference) trackpad designs I’ve ever seen.
The Zephyrus G 14 and G16 are the new thinner, faster, and even more versatile ROG gaming laptops, which will be introduced next year at the Consumer Electronics Show. I’ve been testing them out for a couple of weeks, and so far, it seems like a winning update.
The respective 14-inch and 16-inch OLED screens on both laptops are vivid and crisp. I was surprised by the speaker array’s sound, especially since it was a 14-incher. The keyboards were already quite good before, but now they feel like some of the best around. The trackpads are very good — they’re large and spacious, if still a little stiff and not very clickable toward the top third. And I even dig the slash lighting on the lid, which, by default, turns off when you’re on battery but lights up in preset or custom lighting patterns you can finely tune in Asus’ built-in Armoury Crate software. It’s a nice bit of flair that isn’t too attention-grabby, and I’d wager you could even sneak through some in-office meetings without anyone noticing you’re on a gaming laptop (unless, of course, someone looks close at the REPUBLIC OF GAMERS stamp at the bottom of the lid).
Port selection on both new Zephyrus laptops is more than adequate for such thin laptops (the G14 is 0.64 inches / 1.59cm at its thickest point, and the G16 is 0.69 inches / 1.64cm at the same). The G14 has one left-mounted USB 4 port (which you can use to charge at slower speeds), one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 on the right, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 (one on each side), HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card slot. The larger G16 has the same port as before, but it has a full-size card with UHS-I speeds, and also has Power Delivery on the right side.
I heard a lot of displeasure about these laptops opting for a proprietary charge connector over a barrel Plug, but as someone who does not like the latter, I am OK with the slim and reversible power cord here. I have mostly been using the laptop charging method, which is a high-speed cable, for when I just want to do work or browse. The power bricks can be put on hold until it’s time to play some graphically demanding games.
The ROG Strix and Strix Scar are not receiving a lot of new updates. The new Strix and Strix Scar have 14th Gen Intel processors and are now available in 16-inch and 18-inch models. The 16:10 QHD screens that hit the standard 120 or 120Hz are the same as last year’s models. They’re fairly beefy laptops, launching later in January, with the higher-end Strix Scar starting at $2,899.99 for a 16-inch and $2,999.99 for the 18-inch. It can be back to the prices of $4,000 if it’s specced to the stars. (Asus did not share pricing for the ROG Strix before publishing time.)
We’ve followed up with Asus for pricing information on its new laptop lineup. The Zenbook Duo and Vivobooks are scheduled to release later this quarter, while release dates for the TUF gaming laptops are yet to be confirmed.
There are new TUF-branded gaming laptops, including the F16 and A16 models. The A16 has an Intel Core i7 13 650HX processor, and the F16 has an Intel Corei7 13650HX processor. Both have a choice of 16-inch 165 Hz displays, up to 32Gig of RAM, and 2Gig of storage. The smaller TUF Gaming A15 has a processor with anAMD Ryzen 8000 series, and a 2.5K display with a 165hz refresh rate, up to 32GB of RAM, and 2 terabytes of storage. The laptops can be upgraded to have more memory and storage.
Asus is back with another Zenbook Duo, the latest device in its range of dual-screened laptops. But rather than including a small secondary display above this laptop’s keyboard like previous Duos, the revamped version for 2024 has two equally sized 14-inch screens. They’re both OLED, with resolutions of up to 2880 x 1800, aspect ratios of 16:10, and a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. Between them, they provide a total of 19.8 inches of usable screen real estate.
The dual-screen Yoga Book 9i was similar to this, albeit with a couple of changes. The lower touchscreen of the AORUS can be used to keyboard, or you can use a virtual keyboard. But what’s different here is that Asus’ keyboard has a trackpad built in, so you don’t have to use it in combination with an on-screen trackpad.
