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00:00This is the Zephyrus G. This is probably one of the more anticipated laptops we've seen come out in 2019.
00:10The reason why people are interested in it is because of its price point.
00:13It's an $1100 laptop, and for a gaming laptop, that's not cheap.
00:17I mean, there's cheaper devices out there, but this thing promised a lot.
00:21The teaser videos showcased this product that was really thin, really light, and had awesome performance.
00:26And because of that, I think I overhyped this product for myself.
00:29Not that it's a bad product, but I think I had unrealistic expectations of what this laptop could deliver.
00:34It's still a great device, but they had to take some shortcuts to get there.
00:38The build quality, let's start there, is an area that they did not skimp on.
00:43This thing promises a thin and light gaming laptop, and it is.
00:46For the money, for $1100, you're not getting gaming laptops thinner than this.
00:50In fact, most devices in this price range, in that $1000 price range, are a solid 25, even 30% thicker.
00:57It is a thin and light package, and they've also made it in a way that's, like, easy on the eyes.
01:02There's no, like, super ugly red lights and stuff like that.
01:05It's a very simple design.
01:06The logo on the front does light up when it's on.
01:08It's this orangey-red color, but it's relatively dim, and there's no other colored RGBs on the rest of the system.
01:14Now, the build quality is actually pretty good.
01:16It's got the, kind of, Zephyrus design, where it's very difficult to keep this thing free of fingerprints.
01:22Like, it's got this brushed metal finish, but the rest of the device is plastic.
01:26The inside deck, the bottom panel, everything is plastic all around.
01:29But it's a well-made device.
01:30Like, there's nothing about this that makes me feel like it's poorly made.
01:33Okay, let's talk about the screen, because this is probably its...
01:37I mean, when you're playing games, this is probably one of the more important things on a gaming laptop.
01:41So, this screen is a 120Hz panel, but this is the upgraded model.
01:45There's a base model that has a 60Hz panel, but if you're buying a gaming laptop in 2019 with this kind of performance,
01:50you probably want a screen of this caliber, 120Hz or higher.
01:54Now, this panel was probably the biggest disappointment for me.
01:59It's a fast screen, it's 120Hz, but the color accuracy is quite poor.
02:03Surprisingly poor.
02:04So, the past year or so for fast screens, we've seen really good color accuracy and color gamut.
02:10And so, when you see a screen like this, it just looks a little bit more dull.
02:13It's also not super bright.
02:14Not a dark screen by any means, but it's just not as bright as other competitors in its space.
02:19But overall, it's a fair screen.
02:21It's just compared to what we've seen in the market for the past year and a half, it doesn't really stand out.
02:26I can forgive it for the price, but I think that's part of the whole expectation thing, right?
02:30I just was thinking that for the money, you'd get a screen that was as good as other people in the space.
02:36It's also missing a webcam.
02:38Now, for most gamers, they probably don't use their webcam very often on their laptops,
02:42but for that occasional time when you do need video for whatever reason, like if you're making a Skype call or something,
02:48you now have no way of doing that video feed unless you purchase an external webcam.
02:52Like, it's not like they include one in the box or anything.
02:54It is a completely webcam-less machine.
02:57It does still have some mics at the bottom of the screen, but yeah, no webcam.
03:01Okay, the performance on this device is something I think most people are interested in.
03:06It's running the Ryzen 3750H and a GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q.
03:12So, this is kind of where my expectations were also led astray.
03:15When they first announced this device, I thought it was running a regular 1660 Ti.
03:19It's actually running a lower wattage Max-Q version.
03:22It's faster than the GTX 1060 for laptops.
03:25It's also faster than a 1060 for desktops, but it's slower than last year's 1070 Max-Q.
03:31Still a very powerful GPU, but you should know where it sits in terms of the overall ranking of laptop performance.
03:37It's combined with a four-core chip, and it's fast,
03:40but when it comes to multi-core applications, the Intel chips that have six cores are going to do better.
03:45It's a good combination. The AMD CPU with the NVIDIA GPU delivers some really good gaming performance,
03:51but to get there, they had to run some pretty aggressive fans.
03:54So, the thermals are fine on this machine.
03:56It doesn't overheat or throttle, which is kind of impressive considering the thickness of this device.
04:00It is a lower wattage CPU, so compared to some of the Intel CPUs out there,
04:04it's a 35-watt CPU, so it's putting out a little bit less heat,
04:07but the main reason why they're able to achieve this is through their fans.
04:10They're loud fans.
04:14I did not break any tabs.
04:15They are loud fans, but they cool the system properly.
04:19Now, in the software, you'll also see a decibel reading, and I think that's very inaccurate.
04:23In fact, I think that's, like, misleading because a lot of people will look at that number,
04:26if they own the device, and think that that's the actual decibel reading.
04:29There's no way. That is, like, probably 10 decibels quieter than what it's actually reading,
04:34unless they're measuring that thing out from, like, 10 feet away.
04:37These are loud fans.
04:38Inside, you also get access to your Wi-Fi card.
04:41It's a pretty bad card.
04:42You probably want to replace that if you get this device,
04:44and you also have access to a single slot of RAM.
04:47It's a two-channel system.
04:48It's just that the second channel of RAM is soldered on.
04:50You can only replace this channel that's visible,
04:53and you also have access to two NVMe slots,
04:55so these are strangely PCIe 3x2,
04:58so you'll still get really fast drives,
05:00just not the fastest speed possible from your NVMes.
05:04Battery down here, 76 watt-hour.
05:06It's actually a pretty good battery life on this system.
05:09It's a 7-hour battery life.
05:11I didn't think, like, Ryzen chips are not known for great battery life.
05:15They're usually a little more power-hungry,
05:16so 7 hours, pretty respectable.
05:19You also see the speakers down here.
05:21Pretty good sounding, but they're really poorly positioned.
05:23Like, if you take this device, and you listen to it with the speakers facing up,
05:26it just sounds so much cleaner than it does when it's in its natural state,
05:29but that's what we have.
05:30Down-firing speakers that blast right into your table.
05:34I really wish manufacturers would stop doing that.
05:36Like, I don't know.
05:38Is there an audio engineer that watches my channel
05:40that can explain why laptop manufacturers
05:44insist on putting speakers that face downwards?
05:48It's really weird.
05:49Okay, keyboard, trackpad.
05:51They're good.
05:52The keyboard has a clean layout.
05:53The keystrokes are a little bit shallow,
05:55kind of expected on a gaming laptop like this,
05:57but there's nothing I really have to complain about this keyboard.
06:00At least nothing that really sticks out.
06:02The arrow keys are small, but at least they're well-positioned.
06:05Plastic trackpad.
06:06Honestly, nothing I really have to complain about the inputs on this device.
06:09Okay, ports.
06:11It has an Ethernet port.
06:12Despite it being super thin, it has an Ethernet jack, which is nice.
06:15The rest of the ports are kind of standard,
06:17but keep in mind that the USB-C port does not support Thunderbolt 3.
06:20It is an AMD system, and it is a kind of cheaper product,
06:23so I wouldn't expect Thunderbolt 3 anyways.
06:25But I wanted to end this video with a kind of more important discussion
06:29of where this laptop fits in the bigger picture of things.
06:33When they first announced this,
06:35I was very excited about what this thing promised
06:37because for $1,100,
06:39I mean, that was the marketing price that they pushed out in the beginning,
06:42it seemed like you were getting an amazing deal.
06:45And it's still a really good device,
06:47but I really feel like you get what you pay for.
06:49The $1,100 variant of this system has 8 gigs of RAM
06:53and a 60 Hz screen,
06:55both of which are kind of underwhelming
06:57considering what 2019 has to offer.
06:59Even at that price point,
07:01the $1,200 version has a 120 Hz screen
07:04and 16 gigs of RAM.
07:06And that is a system that feels more complete
07:08just for a gaming laptop.
07:10It feels like what you would expect,
07:12but at that point, you're not paying $1,200.
07:14And there are competitors in this space
07:17that can give this thing a pretty good run for its money.
07:20So, a lot of people will compare this thing to the Helios 300,
07:23which is a popular, inexpensive gaming laptop.
07:25However, I don't feel like they're really that comparable.
07:28This is a much thinner and lighter device.
07:30It is a more compact and sleeker machine.
07:33Like, they have similar paper specs,
07:35but if you're looking for portability,
07:37definitely look at the Zephyrus over the Helios 300.
07:40There is, however, another device,
07:42which I've reviewed before,
07:44that I would consider a strong competitor to this.
07:47And it's the Lenovo Y740.
07:49That has a machine that has much better specs
07:51and is usually quite expensive,
07:53but because Lenovo puts their stuff on sale
07:55so regularly and so aggressively,
07:57when you catch that thing on sale,
07:59and if the Zephyrus is not on sale,
08:01they are, like, not that far apart in price.
08:04And I feel like if I had to choose between
08:06an $1,100 or $1,200 Zephyrus
08:08and a $1,300 or $1,400 Lenovo that's on sale,
08:11I'd probably go for that Lenovo,
08:13unless I really wanted a long battery life,
08:15because I feel like the Zephyrus does a better job at that.
08:17But the moment the Zephyrus goes on sale,
08:19I feel like it's a difficult decision to make,
08:21because they're both offering such good value.
08:24And I'll be honest, I wouldn't be surprised
08:26if Lenovo dropped the price of that Y740
08:30because of this thing coming out.
08:32They probably wanted to take the wind out of its sail,
08:34out of the launch, and just be like,
08:36you know, that's not that special.
08:38We got something cool as well.
08:39But that's basically it.
08:40I think this is a great device.
08:42Just temper your expectations,
08:44because it is still an $1,100 device,
08:46and I really think you're getting what you pay for.
08:48Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
08:50Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
08:52See you guys next time.