The M16 pairs an uncommon 16-inch display with Intel Tiger Lake-H processing and Nvidia’s latest RTX 30-Series GPUs.
Read more about the M16 right here!
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– Hello, and welcome to PCMag. We’re here to talk to ASUS
about the ROG Zephyrus M16, One of their new laptops just announced. There’s a lot of exciting additions, That includes a lot talk about, the screen And of course, the components That makes any gaming laptop great. We’re here with Sascha from ASUS. He has all the techs, all
the speeds and feeds for you, So you can take it away
with some of the details. Sascha, what’s the size of this laptop? What’s the sort of the
main compelling feature? – Alright. So yeah, I got it right here next to me. And as you can see, it’s
all about that display, And all the super-slim bezels. So the name kind of gives it away, It’s the Zephyrus M16,
so it’s a 16 inch panel. The chassis, though,
is a 15.6 inch chassis. So, we basically crammed a
16 inch display into there And not just 16 by nine, but 16 by 10. And that’s how the bottom bezel
is completely done as well. And we even managed to cram
in a webcam at the top, While keeping the bezel
super slim all around. And it’s the first gaming laptop, With all-around super slim bezels, For a super futuristic,
immersive experience. – That’s really interesting because, yeah, We’ve seen bezels get thinner. It has made laptops fit into smaller… Bigger screens fit into
smaller form factors Over the last year or two, I would say. That’s been a real push
but I don’t think I’ve seen The 16 inch screen down
to the 15 inch body,
So that’s really maximizing that. I’d say the 15 inch is probably The most popular sweet
spot for a gaming PC That’s still kind of portable. So, giving even more screen real estate Sounds really interesting. So what are we talking
about in terms of resolution And refresh rate for this large screen? – Yeah, yeah. That’s a very good point. So this would be really cool And it’s really cool
with any panel already. And there’s some consumer laptops That have super slim bezels already And they look really awesome. And it’s hard to go back to thicker bezels Once you’ve gone with those slim bezels. And this isn’t just any
panel with slim bezels, But it’s a QHD panel and it’s 16 by 10. So it’s 2560 by 1600 resolution, 165 Hertz, three millisecond
panel response time. It’s also 100% DCI-P3, Pantone validated And comes with adaptive sync. So it’s like all the check boxes, Check, check, check, check. And it goes up to 500 nits, Which for gaming laptops,
it’s pretty unusual. They usually top out around 300, 400 nits. – Interesting, yeah, the
refresh rate differences We’re seeing combined With different resolution combinations. There’s lot to talk in about
laptop reviews these days. I definitely get…put the words into Describing these different features.
And it comes down to really
when we test these laptops How good they are at
pushing the combination That the manufacturer has chosen. So I hope this makes good use Of the screen and the resolution. With a body that big, is
this laptop still thin? Can you show it off to us? – Talk about the weight…
– Oh, yeah. – and size? – Still very thin, And you can see it has an
ErgoLift mechanism as well. So it lifts up. You can see, as I open up the laptop, The hinge, the display goes further down And then pushes the
laptop up from the table. So there’s an air gap between
the desk and the laptop itself And it can actually go all the way flat. So we call this ErgoLift 180. You can put it flat on the table. And the reason for that
is some laptop stance, You can put it this high, In a really high angle, you
can use an external keyboard. You have more space on your desk You can push it all against the wall. And also it raises the display. So you can see it’s almost at the height Of my eyes naturally. So it’s much more ergonomic this way. And a lot of people put their laptop, Well, in Asia I know
this is really popular. I know in Europe and U.S. it’s uncommon, But in Asia it’s pretty
common for commercial laptops And also some consumer laptops, So you can put them flat like this.
And people like doing this
in meetings and study groups And stuff like this, When you’re working together on something. So you basically put it flat on the table. And you can imagine, then everybody Around the table can see
what’s on the screen. You can all point at it And look at it from different angles. You can have a dozen people Around a table all looking at it. – Interesting, yeah. I can’t say I’ve used that myself as a… That’s interesting to hear it’s A region-specific trend though. – The first time I saw it
as well, I thought, yeah, This is a bit weird, really, But you kind of get used to it And it doesn’t take anything away. So, if you don’t care about
it, you’re not going to use it, You don’t lose anything. – Oh, so, yeah, good to know. Have you, because people
are always concerned About gaming laptops
getting hot while cooling, And we’ll get to the
components in a moment ’cause that’s what makes
these things run so hot. But have you seen that there
is a cooling difference With the ErgoLift hinge for
a gaming laptop like this? Is there proven cooling gains? – Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, just putting a pen under your laptop, Under your gaming laptop,
to just lift it up From the table slightly, that’s
like a very common life hack That people recommend
to each other on Reddit And other message boards.
That’s like a very common thing. People go like, okay, that’s super easy, 30 second life hack that
usually drops your temperatures By five to 10 degrees, just like that. And yeah, having ErgoLift
basically has that built in. So that definitely helps. And yeah, cooling lights also. We draw air through the keyboard, Into the keyboard to cool your hands And the keyboard itself, And also to have the air
go directly into the fans. So yeah, that’s something
else that we have To reduce the temperatures. And compared to the previous generation, We also upgraded the cooling system. So you can see, we have a
ton of heat pipes in this one And also we use liquid metal. So we’re still the only ones That use liquid metal on the CPU. And we use it across the whole lineup now. So we started two years ago With ROG Mothership, our
super high-end flagship. And we have it now across
the whole ROG 2021, Gaming laptop lineup. All of the models use a liquid metal Both Intel and AMD on the CPUs. – Very cool. It’s the little things, right? Speaking of our two favorite chip makers, What is inside this? Tell us more about the components. Everyone wants to know
what’s inside this laptop. – Well, you say little things But the incremental really
makes a big difference.
– Little things add up, yeah. – On average… Yeah, yeah, it all adds
up, yeah, yeah, yeah. So platform-wise, it’s Intel
Tiger Lake H45 eight-core. And thanks to that, you
also get Thunderbolt 4 And you also get Gen 4
SSD, PCI Express Gen 4 Which is a nice option as well. And yeah, so that’s
pretty much it, spec-wise And GPU goes up to an RTX 3070. – Nice, so what’s the
baseline model for this? What’s the least powerful
configuration this comes in For those who are looking to get some Of the advantages you
mentioned in the design But maybe want to keep
the budget more friendly. – The entry-level configuration GPU-wise, Is going to be a 3050 Ti. So that’s going to be
really interesting price, Performance wise and yeah,
also performance wise, right? Ray tracing in a mainstream
performance mobile GPU, Really interesting option as well. – That way you don’t
have to spend for a 3070 Or the high-end, to get some
of the design advantages Like the ErgoLift hinge And these other things,
the big 16 inch screen, So yeah, I’m looking
forward to testing this GPU. We obviously haven’t
done so yet, but yeah, It’s a nice, interesting. It’s about time we got another
lower-end 30 series option. So tell us a little bit
more about the build, Is there any other advantages? What ports do we have? Does the slimness leave out any ports Or are there any cool
other feature designs With the keyboard lighting?
Anything that you want to add in here. – Yeah, so the keyboard is really nice. It’s the same keyboard as
on our G14 and our G15, So it’s a really nice travel
and has a very nice feel to it. It has an SSO power button,
which is pretty cool. So, this button takes your
fingerprint at the same time As you turn the laptop on. So you only have to press it once And the system turns on and boots, And as soon as it loads Windows, It’s then going to send
the fingerprint to Windows To authenticate. So you don’t have to turn on the laptop And then wait until Windows is ready And then put your finger on it again. Surprisingly, a lot of
laptops still work that way. I think even the latest MacBooks are… Sorry, am I supposed to say… Am I allowed to say that? – Yes. – Do we have to cut that out? Yeah. So… – We love comparisons here. We love to put things head-to-head. – Okay. I don’t want to diss it! I’m just saying, I was honestly surprised But yeah, there’s still
a surprising amount Of laptops that still require
you to put your finger On the power button,
fingerprint button twice. So yeah, that’s pretty cool. Single sign-on power button. We got the hotkeys as well, Which is pretty convenient
especially during these days, Having a hotkey to write,
Adjust the volume and mute the microphone Whoever would have thought
that’s going to be that useful And that commonly used, But yeah, in gaming it has
been very useful for years. So that’s why we have that. We have a huge touchpad as well. Glass touchpad, it’s pretty nice. I/O ports are on the right side. We got a USB-A and a micro SD card reader. There are people asking why don’t you put In a full SD card reader, Because a lot of people do want
a full-size SD card reader. And the reason is, essentially
you have to make a compromise In how much space you have in
a laptop to put I/O ports in. And essentially we already put in As many I/O ports as we can. And then, so if you want to
add a full-size SD card reader, They’re pretty big. So you can imagine it’s then the choice, What else do you remove to have
a full-size SD card reader? Micro SD card reader in
return, it’s so small That you can add it easily Without having to
compromise anything else. So, yeah, instead of
sacrificing a full-size USB-A Or C port or possibly two, To have enough space for a full-size SD, We added a micro SD, which for drones And dash cams are really useful. Cool. On the other side, we
got HDMI, Gigabit LAN, Another USB-A and two USB type C, One of them being Thunderbolt, And we also got the combo
jack here for audio and, yeah, This one supports Type-C
charging, 100 watts.
So we upgraded that for
all 2021 ROG models. We can now Type-C charge up to 100 watts. So that doesn’t replace
your traditional charger, You still need your full-size adapter If you want to play games, If you want to get the full
performance out of the laptop, But you can also just take
a Type-C charger with you. And in a meeting room,
you can just plug that in. Those chargers are tiny. They’re like this big. They weigh around 100 grams or 80 grams, So you can save a lot of weight. – And it’s more likely
one of those is sitting Around from some other device. So yeah, it’s a good… – Yeah, exactly. – option to have.
– Like in most places now You have a Type-C charger already And more and more of them are Becoming PD, power delivery, as well. So for our phones, for
example, our ROG phone And our ASUS phones, we
also switched to Type-C PD. They also support quick charge But the chargers are PD. So you can basically use that charger To charge your laptop as well. You have it already, right? And yeah, we upgraded all the batteries In our 2021 models as well. We can quick charge from zero
to 50% in only 30 minutes. And we can even do that
on the Type-C charger. So that’s a really cool feature as well. – Very cool. And is there any other trick
or final feature you’d like
To show off before before
we say goodbye here? – Yeah, well, so you
talked about thickness. Weight is pretty cool as well. It’s 1.9 kilos and there’s a white version And a black version, just
like with the G15 and G14 And I don’t know how well you
can see it in the light here. It doesn’t look that nice But we’ll send you some B-roll Where you can see it really clearly. There is a version…
– I can see, I can see shimmering happening, yeah. – It looks way better though,
with the right lighting. So basically there’s a prismatic film That’s built into the laptop lid And based on the right angle of the light, It reflects in different colors And the light shifts,
the colors shift around. So when you open up the laptop There’s this nice little animation In different colors that shimmers on it Which looks really cool as well. – Very cool. People love those
eye-catching design features. That’s what makes a laptop
stand out over another. Thank you so much, Sascha. I’ve been Matthew Buzzi. Tune in in the future for a
full review of the system. Obviously, a lot to talk about. I look forward to putting it Through its paces and thank
you so much for watching.
