ASUS ROG Zephyrus Gaming Notebook Brings Max-Q GTX 1080 Graphics

Yesterday I talked some about a new gaming notebook design that NVIDIA was pushing and on stage at the Max-Q Design presentation the CEO of the gaming giant was using ASUS notebooks to show of how thin machines could be. ASUS has now given up a bunch of details on the Max-Q Design ROG Zephyrus gaming notebook and it’s odd keyboard.

The gaming notebook is very thin at 0.7-inches thick and weighs less than five pounds. That should mean a very portable package compared to gaming notebooks of old. The machine has a 15.6-inch screen that supports 1080p and G-Sync tech. The screen is an IPS panel and has up to a 120Hz refresh rate.

The keyboard is probably the biggest downside on the machine, it is a Aura RGB backlit unit but it is pushed all the way to the front of the notebook leaving nowhere for you to put your palms when you type. That means that you will be holding your wrists at an angle the whole time you type or game which isn’t ideal for most of us.

The reason the keyboard was pushed to the edges according to HotHardware was to give more room for cooling for that Kaby Lake CPU and the GTX 1080 GPU. The cooling system is an Active Aerodynamic System with AeroAccelerator tech with 3D curved fans. When the lid of the notebook is opened, the bottom of the chassis opens a 6mm gap for improved airflow by 20%.

Hardware inside the gaming laptop can be up to an Intel Core i7-7700HQ and up to 24GB of RAM. Storage is up to 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD. Connectivity includes WiFi, Bluetooth, Thunderbolt 3, a quartet of USB 3.0 ports, and a HDMI 2.0 port. Pricing is unannounced.