I purchased a 2022 ROG Zephyrus G14 around Christmas 2023. It had some issues with the screen being blank on boot but rebooting it once or twice did the trick. I should have known that was a bad sign.
After less than 1.5 years, it got stuck in a boot loop after trying to update the graphics driver. After unsuccessfully trying to restore it to factory settings, I took it to my local Microcenter for diagnosis. They’re listed by Asus as the only certified repair shop in my area.
It seems the motherboard has died and would cost more than what I paid for it to replace. The tech also said this is a common issue with this model. A quick search online shows I’m not the only one with this problem.
TLDR: A bad experience with the 2022 G14 makes me want to avoid ROG and Asus for a while. Any recommendations for a similarly sized gaming laptop? I like the Legion 5 Slim 14. 5" laptop but can’t find it anywhere outside ebay and with this experience, I’d prefer something with a warranty.
What’s your budget?
And yeah, Asus went downhill like half a decade ago. They used to be my goti but now I avoid them. I personally like Lenovo, but that’s for their second hand business laptops that end up on eBay, so I can’t speak to their consumer gaming brand.
I’d prefer under $1500 since I WFH and only need the laptop as a spare for when I’m out (about 5-10 times a year) or if my desktop is unusable for whatever reason (ex: blackouts, out for repairs/upgrades etc).
That’s why I thought the G14 would be perfect since it’s portable but powerful enough to run my games or run some light Photoshop work. But the fact that it died so quickly and cost so much is so disappointing.
And yeah, I hadn’t noticed that Asus went downhill until now since I don’t buy laptops/computer parts very often. I like their routers a lot and the Zephyrus is so well reviewed coupled that with the fact that I wouldn’t use it often meant that I thought my laptop would be good for at least another 5 years minimum.
Do you particularly need a gaming laptop for such infrequent use? I can’t solve the blackouts / in for repair or upgrades issue, but I personally got a Steam Deck for this niche in my life and prior to that I used Moonlight to game stream from my home desktop when on vacation.
Not optimal for FPS games but for my use (MMO) more than sufficient. Just a couple potential options, obviously YMMV - Moonlight depends on your Internet connection on either side.
The laptop would also be used for work as well. I had also considered getting the Steam Deck or using a game stream app for my desktop but figured having one device be used for both work and gaming would be easier than having to carry around 2 devices.
After doing some research, I’ve narrowed it down to the Legion Slim 5 14" and the Acer Swift X or Acer Swift Go. My college laptop was an Acer and I had no issues with it (except when I dropped it but that was my own fault).
The internals can have some issues in terms of quality control, but the build/features are quite nice on the razer blade laptops. I believe they still have 14" models, and if you buy used they also had a 13" at one point.
For me the benefits are good gpu, all usb c ports can charge, backlit keyboard, good amount of ram. Only real issue is it doesn’t hold a charge for long.
You forgot the absolute dumpster fire quality software.
Their software is worse than your typical OEM tools and utilities packages?
Synapse bricked a keyboard during a firmware update and it was a known issue dating back at least 2 years and they tried to refuse rma. Not even a mistake on my end, literally “updating do not unplug whoops it’s gone.” That was just the final straw for me but the program crashes and freezes literally all the time. In fact after a certain point it just doesn’t work anymore and you have to completely reinstall.
That’s rough. I’ve heard pretty bad things about Razor’s customer support, sounds like their software isn’t that good either.
