As far as gaming laptop goes, thin doesn’t usually equate to power. ASUS changed all that when they unveiled the Zephyrus at this year’s Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. The gaming laptop that’s giving the Razer Blade a run for its money, the ASUS Zephyrus (GX501VI) clocks in at a hyper slim 16.9mm frame (a good 10mm smaller than the Razer Blade) and is fitted with NVIDIA’s GTX 1080 GPU.
A couple of days ago, this sexy beast has landed on Philippine shores and was showcased and unveiled in ASUS Republic of Gamer’s SM Megamall concept store.
ASUS has done the impossible, compromising very little to fit everything in this miniscule frame, the Zephyrus is a full-fledged gaming laptop that can probably rival your current PC rig.
While we have yet to have a true hands-on with the unit, the Zephyrus is one sexy specimen even to just look at. The usual ROG Gaming laptop design has been streamlined to create a sleeker and thinner look. One key notable design difference in the Zephyrus is the keyboard placement. For one the place where the keys should be is now occupied by a blank metal panel and the keys are way below it. The panel there is probably where the graphics card is housed.
While we may need to say goodbye to our accustomed hand-rest, we’ve yet to truly test the Zephyrus out to see if this minor change will affect overall gameplay experience.
Having a GTX1080 GPU, upto 24G of RAM on your system can produce a tremendous amount of heat. To address that, the Zephyrus thought of an ingenious contraption to allow better ventilation and airflow through the system. When you open up the Zephyrus, the bottom of the unit extends a little. This, according to the presscon, automatically improves PC performance by up to 30%.
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- Space for airflow
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- Just a few mm makes all the difference
It was also revealed that the Zephyrus opted not to have a 4k display as of yet. We’re not sure why and we feel this may have been a missed opportunity here. Not that a lot of games are calibrated for 4k gaming but for a high-end concept laptop, we’d thought they’d throw in everything at it already. Still, it’s not much of a game changer as displays are still beautifully produced thanks its G-Sync 120Hz Full HD IPS screen.
George Su gives everyone at the event an update on ASUS’ stellar performance so far for 2016-2017.
Now comes the fun part, price!
George Su, ASUS Philippines Country Manager, as with every press con, revealed the Philippine SRP of the ASUS Zephyrus. For the GTX 1080-fitted unit, the Zephyrus retails for Php 179,995 and Php 149,995 for its 1070 variant. While that is a lot of money, take into consideration the strength of the unit plus it’s super portable form-factor. The ASUS G752, a 17” GTX1070 unit already clocks in at Php 189,995, the Zephyrus actually comes out waaaaay cheaper by a few thousand pesos. That’s a good deal, right? Right? Hold on, time to sell both my kidneys, brb.
(But seriously, don’t go selling your kidneys now)
We’ll go through the Zephyrus in more details once we get our hands on a review unit so stay tuned for that! Until then, keep it here at Ungeek.ph and do check our other ASUS Gaming Laptop and Peripheral stories if this interests you. The Zephyrus drops in a few hours (7 hours and counting according to Official Website).
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