Asus ROG Zephyrus Review

The Zephyrus gaming laptop manages to fit the high end NVIDIA GTX 1080 graphics card into a super thin chassis. It measures just 0.66 inches thick and weighs 4.9 pounds, thanks to clever engineering and NVIDIA Maz-A design.

GTX 1080 laptops are typically much larger and heavier than the 15 inch Zephyrus, since the card is demanding. Max-Q cards have performance ceilings so they generate less heat, allowing them to fit in smaller laptops.

ASUS also designed thermal solutions to compensate for the 1080 like new fans and a bottom panel that opens a gap to vent. Even with the limits, the Zephyrus GTX 1080 performed well on the laptop's full HD, 120HZ G-Sync display.

Its performance was slightly better than that of a non Max-Q GTX 1070, impressive given the laptop's size. The Zephyrus efficient balance of power and design is an exciting demonstration of what Max-Q is capable of.