ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) Review: A costly beast

ROG once again only updated their laptop portfolio during the first half of 2023. We didn’t get any crazy announcements like the Mothership or a gaming variant of that folding laptop. Even so, they still came up with a way to surprise their fans and consumers by going all out on one of their Zephyrus models. Currently taking that spot is this year’s M16, coming in hot with the latest Intel and Nvidia offerings with a whopping price tag. Is spending that much really worth it though or are you better off with a more affordable yet still powerful device? Let’s find out in our ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) Review.

Design

From a glance, this year’s M16 isn’t all that different from its predecessor. You still have that same two-tone lid and a relatively thin and light form factor. However, as with what’s happening with most of ROG’s offerings these days, the M16 got one extra gimmick. That’s the inclusion of the AniMe Matrix display, commonly found on the Zephyrus G series. Yep, looks like ROG continues to slap the AniMe Matrix around their products as we’ve seen with their peripherals last year.

However, as most of the design and construction of the laptop is the same as last year’s, so are the problems. The chassis is still a fingerprint and smudge magnet. Though not as much as before, it’s still a bother to wipe and clean, especially around the keyboard area. Plus, we still have that dangerous exhaust design I’ve been mentioning for years. The display overlaps the rear exhausts which is a recipe for disaster. Again, if not for these then the M16’s design and feel are top-notch.

Display and Audio

ROG brings back their famed Nebula display to this year’s M16 but with some good upgrades. It was already impressive but now it’s even better. That’s all thanks to a bump to 240Hz refresh rate, Nvidia G-Sync, and Nvidia Advance Optimus. The quality’s still amazing and the screen is vibrant, crisp, and everything just pops. You’ll definitely notice how good it is the moment you fire up the laptop.

You’ll even appreciate it more when gaming or consuming media. Brightness is still a little overwhelming but overall a killer quality display yet again. Audio, on the other hand, didn’t change at all. You do get above-average speakers but it’ll leave you wanting more. While not bad per se, we’d still recommend you use your audio gear of choice during intense gaming sessions. Yet for the casual media consumption, it’ll be more than enough.

Keyboard and Trackpad

If you’re coming from a laptop with a pretty wide keyboard layout or even left-shifted, you’ll need time to adjust to the M16. Its board is a little compact and center-focused. So, if you already have some typing habits, you’ll notice that some of the keys aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Aside from the learning curve, we get the standard gaming laptop keyboard — chiclet with good feedback and RGB lighting.

As for the trackpad, we have a lot of surface area in a glossy finish. Making it easy to glide your fingers across it for gestures. It’s also well-positioned, so you won’t have to worry about accidentally hitting it with your palms when typing or gaming.

Connectivity and I/O

Similar to last year, ROG was able to cram a respectable amount of ports in the M16 (2023). However, weirdly missing is an RJ45 port, despite the laptop more or less maintaining the same frame as its predecessor. On the right, we have a microSD reader, a Type-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. On the left, we have the Type-C with Thunderbolt, another Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 2, and the combo audiojack.

Performance

Alright, we did mention that the ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) packs the best the market has to offer, and we mean the best. Well, our review unit at least. This laptop is as maxed out as you can get when it comes to mobile computing. Under the hood, you have Intel’s i9-13900H processor, Nvidia’s RTX 4090, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage.

See what we mean by maxed out? There’s literally no more room for upgrades as there is nothing else to upgrade. There’s no questioning the power of the Intel Core i9-13900H as it handled everything we threw at it with grace. It scored a respectably high mark of 16,442 in Cinebench R23 and handled all our programs and games without hiccups.

For our synthetic benchmarks with the RTX 4090, well all we can say is “sheesh”. The card’s scores are quite high in 3DMark and Unigine. Heck, even the 2TB SSD slapped in here is a monster with read and write speeds of 7,039 and 5,141, respectively. However, those mean nothing if it can’t perform in actual tests right? Well, it’s actually quite embarrassing to benchmark games with it. All the titles we tested were able to hit above 60 frames with no sweat.

This is at QHD resolution with every possible setting and slider set to max. We’re pretty sure this setup is now overkill at 1080p. So, It’s safe to say that you’ll be able to run any game at comfortable framerates even at QHD. Sadly, we don’t have the gear to test it out but you may even be able to play at 4K, though not with all the settings at max. There really isn’t much to say except you’ll be able to play just about any game you’d want on the M16.

Thermals and Acoustics

This is where things get really interesting. With that amount of power under its belt, you already know containing it will be a gargantuan task. Sadly, ROG slightly dropped the ball here, especially with external temperatures. For internal temps on Prime95 the Intel i9-13900H reached maximum temps of 96°, while the RTX 4090 reached a maximum of 79° in FurMark. The CPU is on the hot side, while the GPU is around the average you’d expect under heavy loads. Gaming temps are close to these stress test results playing at around 5 – 10° lower for both CPU and GPU, depending on how demanding the game is.

As for the outside, well let’s just say you can’t use this laptop on your lap or even touch it comfortably for that matter. The rear exhaust area, both bottom and top parts, is scorching hot when in heavy workloads. Enough so that just touching it for a few seconds actually hurts. Plus, there’s that hot air constantly blowing over the lower part of the display. This also translates to acoustics as the fans of the laptop just roar to oblivion on heavy workloads. Its speakers won’t be able to drain it out, heck probably even a moderately loud one can’t. It’s one noisy machine for sure.

Verdict

Without a doubt, the ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) top variant is one hell of a beast. You’ve got the best the market has to offer, maxed-out specs, and a beautiful display. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows as we still have a few hiccups. Namely, the rear exhaust design, the fingerprint magnet chassis, noisy fans, and the scorching external temperatures. Not only that but this maximum performance spec will set you back a whopping Php 339,995 (~$6,100). That’s almost close to an automobile price here in the Philippines and not to mention maybe two high-end desktop setups.

So, is it really worth it to have the power to play most if not all games at max settings in QHD while having the flexibility of a laptop? From my perspective, no. You’ll have a lot of other great options for half the price that can perform relatively close to what the maxed-out ROG Zephyrus M16 (2023) can offer. However, if you do have that much money then what’s stopping you right? The freebies are also nice as you get a complete package of a headset, mouse, and bag. So, at least you’ll squeeze a bit more from that Php 300k you’re shelling out. In the end, this is a mobile device with insane power for the deeply pocketed, a truly costly beast.

Product Page for Zephyrs M16 — https://ph.rog.gg/2023ZephyrusM16

Specifications