ASUS Announces The ROG Zephyrus S: Slimmest Gaming Laptop Available
by Brett Howse on August 16, 2018 9:01 AM EST
Today ASUS is announcing a new laptop in their Republic of Gamers series, which is the Zephyrus S (GX531). ASUS is marketing it as the world’s slimmest gaming laptop featuring the GTX 1070 Max-Q or GTX 1060, and at 14.95 to 15.75 mm thick, this should be a gaming laptop that is incredibly portable.
Powering the Zephyrus S is the Intel Core i7-8750H processor, with six cores and twelve threads, with a base frequency of 2.2 GHz and a maximum turbo frequency of 4.1 GHz. This is a 45-Watt Coffee Lake CPU. GPU options are either the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q in the GX531GS, or the GTX 1060 in the GX531GM model. There’s storage options from 256 GB to 1 TB based on NVMe SSDs, although one 512 GB model will be PCIe 3.0 x2, while other options are all x4 drives.
As for RAM, there's 8 GB soldered in, and one SO-DIMM slot available, which allows both models to support up to 24 GB of DDR4-2666.
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus S | |||||
| Component | GX531GS | GX531GM | |||
| CPU | Intel Core i7-8750H 6 core, 12 thread 2.2 - 4.1 GHz, 9MB Cache 45W TDP |
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| Graphics | NVIDIA GTX 1070 Max-Q 2048 CUDA Cores, 128 TU, 64 ROPs 8GB GDDR5 256-bit |
NVIDIA GTX 1060 1280 CUDA Cores, 80 TU, 48 ROPs 6GB GDDR5 192-bit |
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| Memory | Up to 24 GB DDR4-2666 8GB Soldered in and one SO-DIMM Slot |
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| SSD | M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x2 512 GB SSD M.2 NVMe PCIE 3.0 x4 256GB / 512GB / 1TB SSD |
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| Display | 15.6-inch 1920x1080 AHVA Display 144 Hz refresh rate, 3ms response, 100% sRGB |
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| Keyboard | RGB Backlight front-mounted keyboard Marked WASD keys N-key rollver 4 zone RGB 1.2 mm key travel |
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| Audio | 2 x 2W speakers Array microphone |
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| I/O | 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 TypeA 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x HDMI 2.0 Headset Jack |
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| Power | 230W Power Adapter | 180W Power Adapter | |||
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac 2x2:2 Wave 2 Bluetooth 5.0 |
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| Dimensions | 360 x 268 x 14.95-15.75mm 14.2 x 10.5 x 0.59-0.62 inches |
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| Weight | 2.1 Kg | ||||
| Availability | September 2018 - prices to be finalized at launch | ||||
The Zephyrus S features a 15.6-inch 1920x1080 display, and as a gaming system, ASUS has outfitted it with a 144 Hz panel from AUO, but unlike some gaming laptops with a high refresh, the Zephyrus S comes with an AHVA panel from AUO and not a TN, so image quality should be quite good. ASUS has stated it covers 100% of the sRGB gamut, and the response time is just 3 ms.
The display is in a thin-bezel design as well, which further shrinks the footprint of the laptop, with ASUS stating this new laptop is a 15.6-inch display in a chassis just a bit bigger than a typical 14-inch model.
Cooling is going to be a big concern on any gaming system, but especially when pushing the limits on device thickness as this one is. ASUS uses their Active Aerodynamic System (AAS) which opens a vent on the bottom of the laptop when the lid is lifted, and the vent stretches across the entire back of the body. The company says this improves airflow by 22% over a conventional design. There’s five heat pipes inside that pull heat from the CPU, GPU, and VRM, and the cooling is designed to keep the power components under 80°C for reliability. There are four heatsinks at the rear corners, which is double the number from the original Zephyrus.
ASUS uses self-cleaning fans to keep dust from becoming the enemy, and the fans themselves have 83 blades each, with the fan speed of course controlled based on cooling profiles, with silent, balances, and overboost modes to choose the amount of cooling and noise you’ll see.
ASUS has also moved the keyboard to the front of the device, which also helps with cooling. The keys offer 1.2 mm of travel, and the keyboard offers N-key rollover. As you’d expect, there’s support for RGB lighting as well through Aura Sync, although only with four zones.
If you’re in the market for a gaming laptop that needs to be portable, you’ll likely want to check this out. Prices will be announced when the laptop is launched in September.
Source: ASUS
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Dragonstongue - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
I got a great idea for smartphone and laptop makers, cut back on the RGB disco light craze and make them "proper thickness"" so cooling is very unlikely to be an issue I really hate the "modern" have to make thinner and thinner, more and more lights, and more and more glass approach pretty much all of them are doing lately.I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(
rhx123 - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
I recently bought a used Dell Precision M6700 and upgraded the GPU to a 980M from AliExpress. Even under heavy gaming, the CPU and GPU staysin the mid 70's, and the fan noise is reasonable.It appears to beat a 1060 Max-Q in benchmarks and OC'd (still runs at reasonable temps) nips at the heels of a full 1060 laptop. For an all in cost of about half what a 1060 laptop costs new. No RGB, wonderful understated design, and heaps of cooling. It's a breath of fresh air.
kaidenshi - Saturday, August 18, 2018 - link
That was a smart move, the Precision line are solid workstation laptops and it's easy to find parts for them as you've seen. I'd trust one of those over a "gaming" laptop for longevity and TCO.DanNeely - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
Especially with the 1070 GPU I agree because at that TDP it's going to thermal throttle so hard. OTOH at the 1050 level I like the idea of a laptop that can pass as a normal PC but still has significantly more gaming capability than with just an IGP, on the infrequent times when I'd be gaming on it instead of a desktop it'd be louder than a thicker model but is still cool enough that performance shouldn't be badly hit. The 1060 I'm less sure about because its power it getting up there, has anyone done a good perf/thermals review of it in an ultra thin?moozooh - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
> I miss laptops from a dace back or so ago where they were actually thick enough to seriously injure someone if they were clubbed with it AND pretty much never had a chance of overheating because they used a good thickness cooling solution :(On one hand I understand what you mean, but on the other find this summary a bit too rose-colored. The laptops from a decade back, unless they were from very specific (and expensive) series, were made from plastic, lasted a whopping 2–4 hours on battery on average (regardless of the load!), and were prone to overheating to the point of warping the keyboard. I've seen that many times in the 2000s. These days it's only the gaming laptops with extreme specs that actually get hot enough to keep on your lap under load. I miss the old keyboards—perhaps the most unduly degraded part of the laptop these days—but I would never go back to plastic bodies.
ZeDestructor - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
This is only slightly less true now than it was then (just look at an Inspiron 3000 machine: it's still plastic crap, while the higher end inspiron 5000 and 7000 have nice alu chassis). We're just a bit more insulated from it now because these days we have high-end consumer Windows laptops (and the market to support em), instead of the narrow choice of plastic consumer junk, good enterprise laptops and Apple like we did in the old days.Dell buying Alienware, retargeting XPS, and the design study that was the Dell Adamo were by far the biggest influences on this shift if you ask me.
Flunk - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - link
Inspiron 5000s are also plastic, they just LOOK like they're aluminum. I'm not sure about the 7000 series as I haven't seen the current one in person.Dell has recently bought out a new line of gaming notebooks that fit in above their normal consumer line and below Alienware. For anyone who liked the old XPS systems, those are a good bet.
Flunk - Tuesday, August 21, 2018 - link
Some of the business-marketed notebooks are a little thicker and use the space for a decent keyboard. Thinkpads (except the really skinny ones), Dell Latitudes (once again, the thicker ones), etc.Diji1 - Friday, August 17, 2018 - link
I'm not really sure what you're talking about, there's plenty of massive laptops with jet engine cooling noise still.PeachNCream - Thursday, August 16, 2018 - link
Eh, no thanks. I'd prefer a thicker laptop with a simpler cooling system that doesn't have such a gaudy look.