ASUS – ROG Zephyrus M16 16″ QHD Gaming Laptop – Intel 13th Gen Core i9 with 32GB Memory – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 – 2TB SSD – Off Black

Look, this is one of the best laptops you can buy in 2023 but it has some weird quirks/software things that hold it back for someone like me who values fan-noise-to-performance and as someone who has tested a number of mini-LED panels now. So is it amazing? Yes. Is it the best? Maybe the best for you, but maybe not. It really comes down to some subjective differences that may lead to choosing another machine instead.
So first of all, this thing is quite a bit thinner and lighter than most other 4090 machines. It also has some CRITICAL features that some of the competition lacks. I’ve had it next to the Legion Pro 7 and it is very noticeably slimmer and sleeker. I’ll go over different aspects of this laptop below:
DESIGN:
It’s beautiful. It’s sleek. Aluminum and magnesium alloy is appreciated. Makes the laptop lighter while still being sturdy. Very minimal flex or screen wobble. Keyboard is one of the best around, it’s got good travel and feels great to type on, plus it’s CENTERED! Always appreciate that, plus the glass trackpad is super smooth, much better than the Legion/Alienware laptops with plastic trackpads. Webcam isn’t bad, not great but very acceptable. Speakers sound great, one of the best for gaming laptops, especially compared to those with downward-firing speakers (looking at you, Lenovo). The ergo-lift hinge also makes the chin basically vanish, which is a really cool look. Fans blowing onto the display is very minimal and doesn’t seem to affect anything.
DISPLAY:
The mini-LED display is one of the best displays you can get on a laptop, by far. The contrast is nearly OLED levels, while reaching about double the brightness and not having to worry about burn-in (1,200 nits is crazy!!! Blindingly bright). The issue I have here is that the blooming (halo effect) with 1,024 dimming zones is somehow worse than my 2022 Flow X16 with 512 dimming zones, which makes no sense. The blooming is very noticeable to me, but ONLY because I have the Flow to compare to. I think for those who have never tried Mini-LED before that you will be absolutely blown away by this display. PLUS Asus has a feature that no other manufacturer has and that is the ability to switch multi-zone dimming off. This disables ALL the local dimming zones and acts more like a traditional IPS display. This is great for content creators or those who are just browsing the internet, as you get uniform brightness across the entire display which leads to more accurate colors and brightnesses. This should be a GAMECHANGER for those working in creative applications, and something to definitely consider over other mini-LED laptops. It also has an sRGB-clamp (new to the 2023 Asus laptops) which is also not seen among other gaming laptops. This is great for those working and watching content in the sRGB color space (so basically most things that aren’t HDR).
CPU PERFORMANCE:
The i9-13900H is certainly not top-of-the-line compared to HX chips this year but it still performs very well! Cinebench scores give you like 19,500 multi-core and 2,000+ single-core, so CPU-heavy programs and games will run beautifully.
GPU PERFORMANCE:
The 150-watt 4090 is amazing to see in a machine this thin and light. Of course it’s not going to perform quite like the 4090 in a desktop or like the ones in thicker laptops at 175 watts, but it still is WAY better than most other laptops this size. You really won’t find GPU performance like this in a device this compact except maybe the 4090 Zephyrus G14. It can run any game at extreme settings QHD, or even 4k is very possible on this device. I was absolutely blown away seeing a Time Spy graphics score over 19,000!
FAN NOISE:
So the fans are not bad, but I have an issue specifically with the turbo mode. Turbo mode is currently bugged, as it hits over 56dB (double the perceived volume as my Flow X16 in Turbo mode). That is pretty hard to deal with, but there is a workaround! Manual mode with maxed out fans is actually QUIETER than Turbo mode while petforming identically! That’s crazy to me, and I hope they fix this soon, but yeah use manual mode unless you’ve got noise cancelling headphones, lol.
BATTERY:
Battery life is surprisingly decent for an Intel processor. It gets about 6-7 hours in YouTube playback depending on your settings. That’s pretty good compared to many others out there!
OTHER FEATURES:
So some cool little things that this laptop has that many others from other brands don’t, is first of all it has Modern Standby Assist, which allows it to actually sleep correctly, fighting Windows poor modern standby/sleep system. The sRGB clamp is very unique, as well as the single-zone/multi-zone toggle for the mini-LED display. You also get Eco Mode, which completely disables the dGPU (The RTX graphics) for helping maximizing battery life while reducing fan noise and power output. Armoury Crate also has VERY extensive features for tuning fans and performance from your machine.
OUTPUTS:
One thing to keep in mind is that the laptop’s outputs work differently in dGPU mode vs advanced Optimus (standard) mode. In dGPU (ultimate) mode, ALL outputs connect directly to the Nvidia graphics, allowing for max performance. While in Advanced Optimus mode, the outputs all connect to the integrated graphics, which reduces performance. This may be a bug as most other Asus laptops don’t act like this, but I confirmed it with others and they are experiencing the same thing as of May 2023. But it’s not something to really worry about if you rarely plug into an external monitor, just something to note.
So why did I give this 5 stars if there were things I didn’t like? Because I know for some people this WILL be a 5-star laptop. I just have a more niche use-case of needing lower fan noise and needing better output configurations. I’m also in the unique situation of being able to compare this mini-LED display to other laptops like the Flow. So for most people who like thin-and-lights? This might be the perfect laptop! For those who value the same things as me? Maybe look at the ROG Flow X16 or Zephyrus G14 instead! Anyways, that’s all I got! Still one of the best laptops of 2023, just maybe not the best for everyone.

GPU and CPU performance is great and it is a very portable laptop. Led screen is beautiful. When not doing gaming/3d graphics, all fans are off (0 RPM, see image). It was easy to add a second NVME SSD (4TB) into the slot, for Ubuntu 22 / Windows dual boot. Battery life is a mediocre when using the discrete GPU, but reasonable without.

This laptop changed my way of streaming, with an nvidia4090 graphics processor, added to an i9 13th generation processor and a cooling system with 3 liquid metal fans, together with the best screen on the market in gaming laptops the Rog nebula HDR screen at 244Hz and 1100 nits of Brightness. A beautiful design that is easy to customize and comfortable to carry. This computer changed my life for the better and it will change yours too.

If you’re an Asus fan and you want one of the best laptops out at the moment than this is for you. I chose this over the G18 because of the sleek black color and i felt it wouldn’t stand out too much when im out with it.