ZEPHYRUS S17
Asus’s ultimate laptop,aptop beauty at a price
THE NEW ZEPHYRUS S17 is a beast of a gaming laptop with an interesting USP; a keyboard that tilts up toward the user. At first glance, it’s a minor alteration to make typing more comfortable. But while this isn’t an inaccurate assessment—the gentle angling of the keys and space to rest your wrists beneath the keyboard make for a pleasant experience—there’s more to it than that.
That keyboard lifts away from the chassis to uncover additional vents, allowing the S17 to draw in cool air from the top and bottom of its casing, before expelling it through the rear and sides. A liquid metal cooling compound inside the laptop, combined with two impressively quiet fans, results in a laptop with stellar thermal performance, even with the most demanding games. We wonder about the potential for a build-up of dust and dirt below the keyboard mount, though, which could hinder long-term performance.
The S17 has no trouble handling games, thanks to an RTX 3080 GPU combined with an octa-core i9-11900H processor and a hefty 32GB of high-speed memory. It powers through games of any resolution, making the most of its gorgeous QHD display.
The screen rocks a 165Hz refresh rate and a 3ms response time. Color reproduction is sharp and vivid, and the 17.3-inch panel has a thin bezel for such a beefy laptop. As part of Asus’s ‘Republic of Gamers’ line, the Zephyrus S17 was designed with gaming in mind, so the display is excellent, whether you prefer fast-paced shooters or thoughtful strategy titles. CPU-bound titles excel here thanks to the speedy Core i9-11900H.
We found that 1440p was a comfortable resolution, with few dips below 60fps in even resource-intensive games. Esports titles have no trouble hitting the display’s refresh rate; a version of the S17 with a 120Hz 4K screen is also available if you value resolution over framerate. Raytracing performance is as good as we’d expect from a laptop RTX 3080, by which we mean it’s a definite option, but comes with a pretty heavy performance tradeoff.
One standout element is the SSD, which we don’t often say about laptops. It’s a 2TB Gen4 NVMe drive, and transfer speeds are nutty; we’re talking upwards of 7GB/s sequential reads. Load times are trivially brief, so be prepared to load into a
RainbowSixSiege match a full 30 seconds before your squadmates. There’s space to add two more NVMe SSDs, and the memory is upgradeable too (the latter is a holdout from the 16GB models, though; 32GB is more than enough).
In terms of aesthetics, the Zephyrus S17 might not be for everyone. The allmetal body is covered in sharp detailing, and the per-key RGB is wonderfully vibrant, red light spilling across the keyboard when you boot the S17 up. It’s not exactly lightweight, but we wouldn’t expect that from a 17-inch gaming laptop.
The S17 keeps it simple in terms of additional features. A sturdy volume roller rests above the function keys, and a standard 720p webcam nestles in the screen’s upper bezel. Connectivity is cutting-edge, with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 alongside the physical ports, including high-speed Thunderbolt 4 and the increasingly elusive SD card reader.
Construction is sturdy, with no wobble on the raised keyboard deck. The keys are optical mech switches with an audible click but not much travel. This could be a sticking point for potential buyers; it’s not as loud as conventional clicky blue switches but clatters during rapid typing. The trackpad is luxurious, with a firm click and perfect responsiveness.
The S17 is power-hungry, so while the battery does an admirable job, we wouldn’t recommend lengthy gaming sessions without a mains plugin. Sound quality is stellar; a six-speaker setup including force-canceling woofers uses Dolby Atmos to excellent effect, among the best we’ve seen in a gaming laptop.
This is a killer machine, adept for both desktop replacement purposes and onthe-go gaming. The $3000+ asking price (dependent on SKU) is eye-watering but in line with many other laptops. If you have money burning a hole in your pocket and need a new gaming rig, the Zephyrus S17 is a brilliant choice.
VERDICT
Asus ROG Zephyrus S17
GALE FORCE Great all-round performance; quiet and cool; excellent monitor.
GENTLE BREEZE Fairly expensive; dust build is a concern; keyboard can be noisy
$ 3,299, rog.asus.comx. com