Skip to main content

Asus’ new Zephyrus G14 is getting an RTX 5080 upgrade

Asus Zephyrus G14 and G16 laptops sitting next to each other.
Asus
Read and watch our complete CES coverage here
Updated less than 10 minutes ago

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is already one of the best gaming laptops you can buy. I called it “damn near perfect” in my ROG Zephyrus G14 review. But Asus is giving its thin and light gaming laptops a big boost at CES 2025, adding just a bit of extra size so it can pack up to an RTX 5080 laptop graphics card.

Clocking in at just 0.63 inches thin and 3.46 pounds light, Asus says you can pack in up to an RTX 5080 and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 into its 14-inch laptop. With last year’s Zephyrus G14, Asus topped out the range with an RTX 4070 in order to achieve a form factor that’s even thinner and lighter than a MacBook Pro. This year, Asus says it’s able to extend up to an RTX 5080 by adding 2mm in size to the laptop — that’s really not much.

Recommended Videos

All of the things that made the Zephyrus G14 great last year are present this time around, too. Outside of the RTX 5080 — which Asus says can draw up to 110 watts — you get up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, up to 32GB of LPDDR5X-7500 memory, and the same 2,880 x 1,800 ROG Nebula OLED display that comes with a speedy 240Hz refresh rate. You’re also getting the latest wireless connectivity, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

Despite a small bump in size, the 2025 ROG Zephyrus G14 is basically identical to last year’s model externally. The laptop is housed in an all-aluminum chassis, and it comes with Asus’ Slash Lighting light strip, which you can customize. Unfortunately, the issues with last year’s model are present, too. The memory is soldered, so you can’t upgrade or replace it, and the thin size likely means the laptop will run hot. I’ll need to wait until I’ve tested the laptop to see how that assumption holds up, however.

Ports on the 2025 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16.
Chris Hagan / Digital Trends

The 16-inch Zephyrus G16 is also getting an upgrade with next-gen Nvidia components, scaling up to an RTX 5090 with up to 130 watts of power. Alongside the GPU, Asus says you can include up to 64GB of memory along with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H. The changes to Asus’ 16-inch Zephyrus are just under the hood, though — externally, everything is identical, short of swapping one of the two USB-C ports to the other side of the laptop.

Asus hasn’t revealed the release date of these laptops yet, nor how much they’ll cost. The cost will be important, as last year, Asus slightly increased prices to account for the aluminum chassis and OLED display. Hopefully there won’t be another price increase this year.

Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
The Razer Blade 16 converts to AMD and gets insanely thin
razer blade 16 converts to amd gets thinner 2025

Razer has brought some significant improvements to the Razer Blade 16 this year. At CES 2025, Razer has announced that the laptop will be moving to AMD for the first time, adopting the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 as its CPU to pair with Nvidia's new RTX 50-series GPUs.

But that's not all. The new Razer Blade 16 makes a number of interesting tweaks to the design. First off, it's become imaginably thin, shrinking down to just 0.59 inches at its thinnest point. That's 32% thinner than the previous version of the Razer Blade 16, which is quite a lot of thickness to cut in just one generation. The new Blade 16 achieves this partially with its "thermal hood design," which allows the front of the laptop to be thinner, while adding some thickness where better airflow is needed. The rubber feet in the back (toward the screen) are slightly taller, giving a slightly raised ergonomic angle.

Read more
I don’t understand HP’s new tiny gaming desktop
The HP Omen 16L gaming desktop sitting on a desk.

Outside of dedicated mini PCs like the ROG NUC 970, we don't see a lot of small form factor (SFF) desktops from mainstream brands. But HP has an exciting SFF option on its hands for CES 2025. It's the Omen 16L, which is the smallest gaming desktop HP has ever made, and it can pack a decent punch with graphics card options up to an RTX 4060 Ti or RX 7600. I'm just scratching my head at the processor options.

Like most Omen desktops, you have a lot of spec options with the Omen 16L. In terms of Intel, you can stick with the last-gen Core i5-14400 or Core i7-14700, or you can go with Intel's newer Arrow Lake offerings -- either the Core Ultra 7 265 or Core Ultra 5 225. It's the AMD options that are really strange, though. If you go with Team Red, you're stuck with either a Ryzen 5 8500G or Ryzen 7 8700G. HP is also offering the F-series versions of these processors, which lack integrated graphics.

Read more
I broke HyperX’s new gaming mouse — on purpose
The HyperX Saga Pro with its components taken apart.

I've already gotten my hands on a lot of new tech at CES 2025, and I'm always careful. You never want to break a precious prototype that needs to be handled by hundreds of hands during the course of the week. So, you can imagine my surprise when HyperX put a broken gaming mouse into my hands and told me that it was broken on purpose -- in fact, it was designed that way.

Of course, the HyperX Pulsefire Saga and Saga Pro aren't broken -- though, I understand if the image above gives you pause. This is HyperX's bid at a customizable gaming mouse, providing you a solid foundation to build off of with your own buttons and heel. This is far from the first customizable gaming mouse, but it might be the first one that actually catches on.

Read more