There are certain instances that have a song to match it – think Fairytale of New York for Christmas or The Final Countdown for, of course, Arrested Development.
Well, every time we opened up the absolutely surreal ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM Special Edition laptop. We hear Uptown Funk playing in the back of our minds.
Basically, clothing brand (and now known system designer) Acronym teamed up with gaming brand Republic of Gamers (ROG) to deliver a one-of-a-kind fashionable laptop. Hey, if designers can do it for clothes, why not for hardware?
And what a machine they’ve decided to give the makeover. The ROG Zephyrus G14 has already made waves in the industry by pushing the limits on ultra-portability – thanks to its superb AMD CPU and beast of an Nvidia GPU in a slim and sleek design.
So, is it worth adding an extra Dhs2,000 for a delightfully strange upgrade? Read on to find out.
Design – The light show
First things first – what on earth are these colours on the keyboard? Why are there ‘A’s’ all over the place? And why does our spacebar say ‘VOID’? They’re not RGB light up keys, that’s the special Acronym touch, with other unique designs including the directions on the top–left of the WASD keys and double-function key symbols on the top-left or each key. It’s stylistically futuristic that might not be for everyone’s tastes, but ours for sure. We haven’t even got to the actual futuristic part.
The ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM sports an AniMe Matrix LED display on its lid, meaning we can display custom text effects, animations and patterns in their LED glory. We had ‘Time Out Dubai’ blaze across our lids every ten seconds, and the time of day as our personal clock. It also comes with eight Acronym-designed animations exclusive to the laptop, one being Acronym co-founder Errolson Hugh’s face, that fittingly in all of its weirdness, explodes from time to time (not graphically, of course). Yeah, we want to show that off.
Underneath also comes with a variety of cool logos, including a ‘ZPHYRS’ font, ROG logo and other designs we’re not too familiar with. Do they look though? They do, indeed. Not that we get to see these seeing as they’re underneath, but still a stylish touch.
As for the Zephyrus G14 itself, it’s slick and slim. Touchpad is made with quality in mind and it precise, and opening the lid lifts the laptop off its base as another way of cooling the system down. Although, when using a mouse, we found that heat blasting onto our right hand. Something to keep in mind.
Speaking of, we’re surprised at how cool it stays no matter what game we’re playing. Not once have we felt it heating up (heat blast aside and bar Red Dead Redemption 2 on max settings), a real triumph considering all the high-end tech packed in such as small size.
Performance – Best in the business
There really isn’t much to say, other than it can play anything. As in, anything at max or high settings. Under the hood, it has a 8-core 16-thread AMD Ryzen 9 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, 32GB of RAM and a QHD 60Hz display (2560×1440).
Here’s the low-down: Doom Eternal on ultra-settings at 90 fps and Battlefield V at an average of 60fps. Games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 at max settings were just over 30fps, and for just how expansive and pretty that game is on a laptop, that’s astounding stuff.
So, high-end gaming on the go? This is the machine.
ROG also comes with the Armoury Crate, which customises the temperature, screen style for what type of game we’re playing and even boasts a silent mode to keep those fans nice a quiet – which works very well.
Extra bits
With so much packed into the ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM, there has to be something that’s scraped, and that’s the webcam. Now more than ever, it’s near essential to have a camera for online meetings for work or to simply record yourself. The trade-off is thin side bezel for its IPS-level QHD 60Hz display. From watching videos to playing high-demanding games, it’s easy on the eyes.
It also has a wicked battery life, especially for a gaming laptop. In terms of multi-tasking we found we were going from watching a series, doing work and playing a quick game of Valorant without a stutter (thanks AMD CPU) over six hours, and battery gone down to only 40 percent. Now that’s impressive, and it has an 11-hour battery life. Of course, playing higher demanding games such as Battlefield V took more of a toll, but still got around an hour of game time.
Another neat feature (and button) the ACRNM Special Edition adds is The Brain. Made by Errolson’s brother, Harlan Hugh, it acts as a task manager of sorts that aims to map your brain – from to-do lists at work to planning your next vacation. We didn’t use it to its full potential, but we can definitely see this as a fantastic aid to independent workers and content creators, as we could add designs, graphics and documents to work on, and easily jump out into another, erm, brain tree to get something else done. It’s a cool and handy function.
The Bottom Line
We think of the it like this: you know that stand-out jacket or dress you got for a pretty dirham that you always adore wearing? That’s the ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM in laptop form. Its design may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s always going get second glances. It’s a joy to use, and a powerhouse of a rig that we’re sure will stand the test of time, making every dirham worth it.
Key Facts:
14-inch chassis, 20mm thin
14-inch IPS-level QHD 60Hz display (2560×1440)
AniMe Matrix LED display
8-core 16-thread AMD Ryzen 9 CPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with Max-Q design
32GB DDR4 SDRAM
One HDMI port, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C (one display port), one USB 3.2 Gen 1 port
Time Out receives products on loan for review. Time Out’s product reviews are not influenced by external sources.
Available across UAE Virgin Megastores for from Dhs9,999. www.virginmegastore.ae.
For more information on the ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM, click here.
