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hey how's it going Dave 2d here this is
the Asus Zephyrus M the GM 5:01 we saw
the original Zephyrus last year it's
kind of thin and light GTX 10 80 max Q
laptop really powerful but really
expensive this is a much more affordable
version of that whole design very
similar in exterior aesthetic to the
original zephyrus but they've made quite
a few changes on the inside it's still a
really well-built laptop the top panel
is fully aluminum and the bottom section
is really durable polycarbonate the rog
on the logo up top still lights up red
it's not like a super obnoxious red it's
very subtle but it does light up and the
whole top panel has this brushed texture
to it actually looks pretty nice okay
going around the sides the port
selection is OK not amazing it's got a
lot of use ba four of them which is
great and a thumb l3 but it doesn't have
an SD card slot and also does not have a
mini DisplayPort so I recently did a
video on the vive pro with beat saber
and I wanted to do that whole video on
this laptop because the GPU can support
it it's running on gtx 970 but because
it didn't have a mini DisplayPort I
couldn't use this you might be able to
adapt it through the federal 3 port but
I wasn't able to test that out the AC
adapter is also not in a great position
it's running out the middle of the side
and then your cable just kind of runs
along the length I don't love that but
the port selection overall is fair
ok let's go to the inside we're looking
at a pretty big change on the input
devices so the keyboard and the trackpad
from the original zephyrus didn't have
the best position they were shifted to
the bottom of the keyboard deck to allow
for better cooling for the 1080 this new
Zephyrs M is significantly improved it's
more traditional layout of everything
keyboard is great very easy to get used
to this thing comfortable to use the
spacing is good and the keystrokes are
responsive the tiny arrow keys and the
narrow number pad might be weird to look
at but actually found them pretty
comfortable to use granted I'm not a
huge number pad user if you're used to
like a regular full-size number pad it
might take a while to get used to this
but it is comfortable for me the
backlighting on this keyboard isn't
super customizable or bright it's more
of like a subtle glow which I actually
like the trackpad is also solid it's got
winners precision drivers it's got a
glass texture in the button mechanics
are on point it'd be nice if the
trackpad was a little bit larger
not that it's small but I feel like in
this genre of laptop like that 15
gaming laptop this is one of the smaller
ones but overall inputs are good the
display I have mixed feelings about it
it's a great panel really fast at 144
Hertz of all the six core gaming laptops
that I've used so far so that's the msi
gt80 NEX and now this is FSM I think
this has the best panel for gaming
they're all 144 Hertz they're all 1080p
but this is the one that has the fastest
response rate three millisecond the
other ones are rated I think at seven
millisecond but it's not just that it's
the colors they're a little bit more
vibrant and just games look really good
on this panel the bezels are
unfortunately quite big and that's
probably my biggest issue with this
screen it's not that they're really
really thick but they're thicker than
the competitors and like it just doesn't
look as nice the truth is and this is
like an honest opinion I've been using
this for about two and a half three
weeks at this point and when I first
opened it up I was like wow if these
bezels are thick but after using it for
a while like they just don't matter if
you're gonna actually purchase this
thing and use it the bezels will
probably a non-issue in a couple of
weeks the color accuracy however is less
impressive the srgb is usable if you
calibrate it and it worked on a couple
of videos on this panel but if you're
looking for something long-term and you
kind of do a lot of photo or video work
then you're gonna need an external
monitor or just kind of skip on this
laptop completely but the screen is
excellent for gaming the webcam is
located in the normal position up top
it's a pretty generic 720p image one
other thing this laptop can switch
between Nvidia g-sync and Nvidia Optimus
3 software so normally you'd have to
choose one or the other and your laptop
wouldn't be able to have both this one
can switch between the two so if you
know what those are g-sync is this tech
that allows your laptop to kind of
reduce visual artifacting when it's in
games so it just kind of smoothes out
the gameplay it looks nice at lower
frame rates Nvidia Optimus is this tech
that enhances battery life or extends
battery life so instead of using the GPU
like the discrete GPU the 1070 it'll
switch over to the weaker onboard GPU
when it's not doing something intense
and it just kind of extends battery life
so this laptop can switch between the
two in software and I think this is the
first one I've ever used that could do
this so it's pretty cool in theory but I
wasn't able to get great battery life
you'll see in a little bit and to get
inside this thing it's pretty simple you
just need to remove the screws and the
panel
you get to ram slots to drive bays one
of those nvme one of them's tuned 1/2
inch SATA and the Wi-Fi card is this new
intel 9 265 it's an awesome card the
battery is quite small 55 watt hours
it's a little disappointing on a device
like this I'm getting around
three-and-a-half hours of battery life
that's what the screen at 250 nits and
that's with Nvidia Optimus if I had this
on g-sync it's even less it's like two
two and a half hours the thing is it's
got a really small battery so all that
tech that I was talking about before
like the ability to switch between
Nvidia Optimus and gsync like it just it
would have made a much bigger difference
if this battery was bigger but because
of the two and a half inch drive there's
less space so the battery smaller which
is unfortunate because a lot of the
laptops on this segment just have to
nvme drives which is more space
efficient but this one does not okay
performance on this laptop is really
good GTX 970 with the new six core CPUs
from Intel it's a really good
combination the CPU is excellent for
multi-core applications and I'll leave a
link below if you want more details the
GPU is also really good it's basically
the third most powerful GPU for laptops
on the market right now you're gonna get
really good frame rates across any of
the titles at 1080p and when you pair
that with 144 Hertz green stuff just
looks awesome and because it's a regular
gtx 1070 and not a max q version the
thermal output should be a little bit
higher but the Zephyrus has this feature
where when you lift the lid the bottom
panel opens up and it gives it better
thermal characteristics the temperatures
and benchmarks and in games are actually
a little bit lower than the competitors
not by a lot but it is noticeable
especially on the stress tests the fans
can actually be really quiet if you want
you get software control on balance mode
it's reasonably quiet but on overboost
the fans can get quite loud you do get
better temperatures though the speakers
on this laptop are located on the bottom
and actually sound better than I thought
they're in the best location I never
like speakers on the bottom but actually
sound good and the bass is way better
than expected so with the Zephyrus mi
feel like you're getting a device that
is a better value this year than it was
with the original Zephyrus you're just
getting really strong performance for a
lot less money compared to the previous
generation overall really good laptop
there are a few things I don't love
about it like the bezels on the screen
and the smaller battery life but if
those things aren't like deal-breakers
for you this is a really good pick I
actually think this
is a better builds laptop than the other
two so I think it's better built than
the arrow and the GS 65 they're all like
good but this is probably the best in
build quality okay hope you guys enjoy
this video thumbs if you liked it
subs you loved it see you guys next time
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