hardware

Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 (2026) impresses on specs and battery but is hamstrung by high price

The 2026 Asus ROG Zephyrus G16 is a well-built 16-inch gaming laptop with a 240 Hz OLED screen, strong portability and excellent battery life, and it can beat the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ in some gaming benchmarks. However, flagship configurations are very expensive: a 64 GB DDR5 model with an RTX 5080 is listed at $4,800 and a 32 GB/1 TB variant at $4,400. A similarly equipped Razer Blade 16 with the same Intel Panther Lake chip and RTX 5080 is $400 cheaper, and ongoing memory shortages are keeping prices high. That price gap makes the G16 hard to recommend until it appears at lower sale prices.

• 64 GB DDR5 + RTX 5080 configuration is listed at $4,800.
• 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD configuration is listed at Best Buy for $4,400.
• Hardware highlights: 16-inch 240 Hz OLED display, strong chassis design, excellent portability and long battery life.
• Competitive note: Razer Blade 16 with RTX 5080 and the same Intel Panther Lake CPU is $400 cheaper; G16 outperforms the MSI Stealth 16 AI+ in some benchmarks.