ROG Zephyrus G16 GU605: What Real Users Actually Think

Send it back. Had problems with my Razer too, it can happen anywhere. What you'll regret is not sending it back while it's under warranty.

I think you got a lemon. I have no problems with my g14. This happens to every brand. Personally I wouldn't spend that much on an underperforming gpu. Just get a lower tier laptop then build a desktop

CPU power draw is insane...AMD is still pretty high but Intel wins by a mile... you'd think they've invested in building new power plants or something...

Honestly it seems like you've got a defective product, that's not what you paid for and I'd return it if possible.

Maybe I got a lemon, but for this price, I expected a golden apple. And yeah, a PC would be great—if I wasn't always traveling for work. Lugging a desktop around isn't exactly TSA-approved.

It's weird how flawed this machine seems yet I still really want it. Marketing is one hell of a drug.

The battery is enough to watch a couple of episodes of a TV series.

Even with the problems I've been having I still think it's the only gaming laptop I would personally consider after being so attached to the build quality of a MBP. Overall it definitely is a great laptop. Appreciate the review and info. I'll be trading my 4070 for a 4080 or 4090.

Depends what your definition of better is. For pure gaming 2023 model has a bit of a performance edge and is cheaper, for multi-use the 2024 is better and people love the new chassis but at the cost of some performance.

Nothing, even the Blade is a full pound heavier, although it will perform better. But it's also $700 more expensive for the 4080 version. Asus is going for Razer here, not a much thicker 6-7 pound laptop.

Are you sure you are using it in iGPU mode when doing your tasks, or do you have the dGPU enabled as well. Because having your 4070 on will drain your battery by a lot, but if you have it off you will get the advertised 8 hours. I have had my laptop (same spec as yours) for about 8 months and I'm averaging around 9 hours on it.

When I finally got ahold of my 2024 4070 I was a bit confused with all the hate for it on this sub. It's fantastic device that does everything well but not any one thing perfect. Well, except for that screen - it's perfect. I've owned the 2023 razer blade 14 and returned it.

This thing came in right where I expected it. ~20% slower than a full 4090, and similar to slightly better performance to 13th gen higher TDP CPU's. Noise appears to be where it should be and run times are quite good for this size machine. Beats my current 12900H and 3080ti in 100% of scenarios handily while being 1lbs lighter, OLED screen, better speakers, smaller footprint, and can actually be used off the charger.

The fact that Asus is selling a $2k laptop in 2025 with 16 gb of soldered ram is madness. I'd buy this if it had 32gb and was $100 more.

For higher tier RTX 5070/5070 ti/5080/5090 G16 models, you'll be waiting till next month I'd say for general availability and you'll need pretty deep pockets even for the RTX 5070/5070 ti versions.

I believe that the M.2 slots on this laptop are both gen 4 SSD slots so whilst a PCIE Gen 5 SSD will work in a Gen 4 slot, it'll only run at maximum PCIE Gen 4 SSD speeds.

Firstly the Intels have trash battery life but not as low as you say. You must be using G Helper wrong (somehow). Sounds like you got the GPU on at all times. You should make sure you have no asus services running or ghelper wont work properly but the app tells you this.

I picked this up during Black Friday (4080) in anticipation for a long overseas work trip. I was setting it up two weeks ago and running benchmarks and it's woefully underperforming (stutters and tons of fps drops) and below average Timespy scores. Screens gorgeous and I'm overall liking its build quality but wow… it kind of sucks now for its intended purpose (to game).

I have the same one, I don't have those problem. But I wanna ask does your laptop gets super hot during games like pressing g, h, t almost burns finger tip?

Yeah, the screen is just magical.

I get around 9 to 10 hours using ghelper on my g16 4090, it is by far my favorite laptop ive ever owned. I went from a scar 16 4090 to this, and it is close to perfect for me. I get over 20k in 3dmark gpu scores as well with my modded vbios. I have not had battery life like this and sound quality like this, maybe ever on a windows laptop.

I can easily get about 6 to 8 hours of web browsing on battery with my 2024 G16. Make sure you have the gpu mode set to Optimized in ghelper.

I had an ASUS OLED since 2021. 0 Burn in and I never took any special care of it. Watched hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of content in non full screen and no issues.

Return it and/or get your replacement! For the price, you definitely deserve to be able to return it. Like others, mine works perfectly, but I would be very unhappy if I was in your situation.

I eventually sent mine back I loved it too but went with something else. The touchpad rattled, top shell was bowing and I heard the same cracking noises when opening it.

AGREED! Check my post history. I was so excited and this thing had more problems than any computer i've ever owned.

I also had a lemon. Bad QC. Send it back if you notice any more issues, dont hesitate.

Quality of the build is fantastic, and the chassis is made of CNC-machined aluminum alloy.

The 2024 G16 is a pretty huge upgrade over the 2023 G16. The CPU is much more efficient, and the GPU will be about the same. So you'll get mostly the same performance at less power draw, which also means better battery life. And of course the display, chassis, speakers, etc. make it almost a completely different and more premium laptop.

Speakers are amazing and still one of the best sounding laptop speakers out there in the market.

Screen and sound are amazing on the G16, for media consumption it's great

I had really similar issues and was really pissed (add the laptop tip not closing all the way, like 1mm, but you can see and feel that it's not fully closed).... then I got a replacement from asus and it's been perfect!

I have the same model but mine is fine probably you were just unlucky. My only complaint is how it overheats, I live in the tropics so this laptop near the bezel gets like 150 F. I did reinstall windows from scratch, I notice the original image from asus sucks.

My husband gave me this computer last night. So far, the only issue I've noticed is that the thing gets scorching hot when trying to play Oblivion Remastered. The cooling pad I used on my old HP does absolutely nothing for this beast.

I got the 4060 and I love it.

It's terrible in terms of keeping cool. Gets to 85+ degrees Celsius CPU temperatures quite quickly with minimal load. Even starting up non-gaming applications makes it heat up. Fans are quite loud, and I had to buy a cooling pad with another set of fans just so it wouldn't overheat and start throttling. It really struggled to run Half Life Alyx which is a 5 year old game.

Dont buy if you are a heavy user and gamer. Go with strix or other thick babies. I have this and so many problems. 1 Year and I saw hardware failure - CPU fan degraded - grinding noise, 1 week passed no support from asus and its under warranty.

If it were me, I'd go for the 2024 model. In terms of performance the difference is negligible, but with the 2024 you'll get an OLED screen, a better keyboard, a better trackpad, a more sturdy chassis and significantly better speakers. The 2023 model, however, will be cheaper.

I went with the Best Buy model that has 32gb RAM and the 4070 and I find it works nice and quiet. The 4070 handles everything I throw at it with no difficulty even though it has no vapor chamber. Overall, I'm very happy with it.

Getting a 4080/4090 Legion now is the thing to do. The G16 only gives a 115W to the GPU, it's underpowered compared to the Legion's 175W. Better build quality and lets not get into Asus's criminal RMA's. The only good news coming from the 5 series is DLSS 4 and there's no need to buy the 5 series to even get it.

I also have the same model laptop. I bought it back in January 2024 and ended up having a stuck E and 2 burnt in pixels as of end of 2025. Battery life is fine. As a gaming laptop… these types of laptops are designed to be used when plugged in majority of the time to preserve battery life.

I get anywhere between 3.5 to 5.5 hours of battery life with this thing (AMD, rtx 4070 model). It's so inconsistent. Also my battery wear is around 12% already and i've only had the laptop a year.

My G16 2024 specs: AMD Ryzen 9 HX370, 32 GB, RTX 4060. Set Silent mode on armoury crate. Brightness 80%, 60HZ. Setting power in windows: Best power Efficiency when unplugged. Disable dGPU. I gets 6 hours for using Edge (facebook, forums, youtube, telegram).

When I shell out well above 2k for a machine, I don't want to have to replace it just two years later. Battery life was one of my biggest draws when looking at this, it's disappointing that it dies so quickly.