ASUS ROG Zephyrus S GX502GW Laptop Review

Acoustics & Temperatures

With high-performed laptops, there is often concerns over just how hot they will run and, by proxy, how hard the fans will need to work to keep it cool. This can cause a proxy problem of making a laptop exceptionally noisy when pushed to its limits.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus does have some solutions to that problem with nice large exhaust vents and that ‘open plan’ design to the rear. Does it help keep things cool and quiet though? The short answer is, not really.

CPU Temperatures

Achieving a maximum temperature of 95c, while this isn’t massively concerning in general laptop terms, it is significantly warmer than you would hope or like.

Even the idle temperature is quite notably hot and, as such, the lack of any strong passive airflow is clearly playing a significant role here. Particularly since, as above, this is a very slim design with some very powerful components.

GPU Temperatures

Fortunately, the graphics card temperature is significantly lower than the CPU and we can only presume that this component must be located closer to the intake/exhaust points.

Achieving a maximum temperature of 79C is, however, still a little on the warm side, but certainly not at a concerning level.

Acoustics

With the CPU running so hot, it’s hardly any surprise that this is one of the noisier laptops we have encountered. While not unbearably so, you can be pretty certain that if you start asking your laptop to work, it is going to put a voice to the action. It does make you wonder how much worse it would’ve been without that clever ASUS vent design.

While not obnoxiously noisy, it is on the borderline. As such, it will definitely play a factor when you ask it to work harder. Headphones for gamers would strongly be advised here!