ASUS Zephyrus M Review: A Super-slim Gaming Workhouse

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ASUS Zephyrus M: At First Glance

As a result of the groundbreaking success of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GX501, ASUS decided to go for an upgrade. Therefore, ASUS released the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 in 2018.

In addition to other improvements, the Zephyrus M GM501 features a larger memory capacity than the previous Zephyrus M model. It also features the Nvidia G-sync technology, which helps to synchronize the display’s refresh rate with the graphics frame rate for a seamless motion performance.

Thankfully, ASUS has managed to deliver the Zephyrus M GM501 at a lower price than its predecessor. Speaking of the price, at the time of writing this review (March 2022), it starts at $1,899.00, while its predecessor starts at $2,199.00.

In this section, I have mentioned a few areas where ASUS made an improvement on the Zephyrus M GM501. However, if you are curious about the other aspects where this laptop improves, you need to read on.

ASUS Zephyrus M: Design, Dimension, and Weight

The ASUS Zephyrus M still has its chassis made of brushed aluminum, like its predecessor. It also maintained the black color, which ASUS dubbed as the “Black Titanium.”

Unfortunately, its metal chassis gets dirty rather quickly and registers fingerprints easily. Hence, you will have to steadily wipe the case to keep it clean.

Also, like its predecessor, the laptop’s lid comes with two halves diagonally separated. One of the halves has vertical lines patterns, while the other one has horizontal lines.

Interestingly, the lid’s design gives it some sort of two-tone effect. Additionally, the lid also has a large ROG logo sitting in the left corner.

The logo glows in a red light when the laptop is on; with this, no one will miss the fact that the ASUS Zephyrus M is a gaming laptop. In addition to the backlit ROG logo, there is also a “Republic Of Gamers” insignia on the lid which is also backlit.

Having exhausted the features on this laptop’s lid, let’s proceed to open it to see more.

Opening the laptop’s lid reveals the 15.6-inch display, which is surrounded by not-so-slim bezels. However, the side bezels are slimmer than the top and bottom bezels.

Unsurprisingly, the top bezel houses a 720p HD resolution webcam that is comfortable for engaging in video chats. Meanwhile, the bottom bezel houses a large ROG logo.

Now that we have talked about the bezels, let’s proceed to the display. The 15.6-inch display has an FHD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Thanks to the FHD resolution, images are decently sharp.

Additionally, this display has a refresh rate of 144Hz. By refresh rate, we mean how many times per second a display is able to update images.

Thankfully, the 144 Hz refresh rate recorded by this laptop is impressive, and it implies that there will be a smooth transitioning of display content. More impressively, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501’s display also supports Nvidia G-Sync technology.

The Nvidia G-Sync technology delivers a more seamless gaming experience by synchronizing the display’s refresh rate with the GPU’s frame rate.

Again, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501’s display impresses with its 178-degree viewing angle. This implies that you will be able to view the screen from any angle without experiencing distortions or color loss.

Unfortunately, for screen brightness, the laptop fails to reach the 288 nits category average. However, its 286 nits maximum brightness makes it bright enough for outdoor use.

Speaking of outdoor usage, it is also important to discuss the reflection handling ability of the laptop’s display. In that regard, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501’s display has an anti-glare coating which makes it resistant to light reflections.

Hence, you can use this laptop under direct sunlight without having to worry about reflections.

Overall, the display of the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 is great for watching movies as well as playing games.

Before we proceed to the keyboard area of the laptop, let’s talk about the hinges that hold the lid. The hinges on this laptop are one area where I think ASUS could have improved.

This is because the hinges are a bit shaky. However, they still manage to keep the display in position.

Now, we can proceed to the keyboard. In this aspect, it is good to see that the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 is an improvement over its predecessor’s keyboard.

This is because the predecessor was plagued by a weird layout and mushy feedback. Thankfully, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 has a better keyboard.

Speaking of which, the keys have a key travel of 1.7mm which gives decent feedback. The noise produced when typing is also decent, it does not get too loud, nor does it get too quiet.

Hence, many people will have a satisfying typing experience with the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501.

Earlier, I mentioned “key travel,” which means the distance from a keyboard’s key resting state to how much it dips when pressed.

Back to the features of the keyboard of this laptop, you will enjoy three-level backlighting, which can be adjusted using the arrow keys. However, the lettering on the keys is relatively faint even when you turn on the backlight.

Interestingly, ASUS also included four additional keys above the keyboard. These keys allow you to change the volume, put off the microphone, and access the Gaming Center.

Another noteworthy feature of the ASUS Zephyrus M GX501’s keyboard is that it has a number pad, but the keys are somewhat narrow.

For the touchpad, the predecessor, ASUS Zephyrus M GX501, featured a touchpad with dedicated keys, but ASUS gave the GM501 an integrated touchpad.

Unfortunately, these integrated mouse keys produce pronounced rattling noises when using them. Furthermore, the precision on this touchpad is not as accurate as I expected.

As a matter of fact, the laptop’s touchpad does not respond quickly to gestures like scrolling and zooming. To worsen the situation, the size of the touchpad is quite smaller than I expected from a 15-inch notebook.

Moving to the audio, it is safe to say that ASUS did very well here. The speakers, which are mounted at the bottom of the laptop’s base, produce decent sound quality with enough bass.

In fact, even without a subwoofer, the ASUS Zephyrus M offers more bass than most of its competitors. Also, high and mid sounds are audible; hence, you do not really need a headset or external speaker to enjoy good sound.

Next up, let’s talk about the port selection of the ASUS Zephyrus M. The ports are distributed on the left and right sides of the laptop’s base.

Although ASUS made some changes from its predecessor, it still did not include an RJ45 port and a card reader. Nonetheless, all four USB ports available on the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 now support the modern USB 3.2 Gen 2 standard.

On the left side of the laptop, you will find the AC power connector, an HDMI port, three USB Type-A 3.1 ports, and a 3.5mm microphone/headphone jack.

Meanwhile, on the right side of the laptop, you will find one more USB Type-A 3.1 port, Thunderbolt 3 port, and a secure lock slot.

Furthermore, at the back of the laptop’s base, you will find the vent which opens up slightly when the laptop’s lid is opened. Meanwhile, for illumination, the interiors of the vent also have their fair share of backlights.

In addition to the vent, another feature you will find at the back of this laptop is a “Zephyrus” insignia.

To round up this design section, let’s talk about the weight and dimensions of the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501. In that regard, the laptop measures 384 x 262 x 17.5 – 19.9 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 2450 g.

From the statistics above, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 is not particularly light, but not as heavy as some gaming laptops. For instance, it is lighter than the Dell G7 15.

Precisely, the Dell G7 15 weighs 2560 g and measures 357.2 x 267.7 x 18.3 – 18.8 mm (W x D x H). However, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 is heavier than its predecessor – ASUS Zephyrus M GX501.

Specifically, the ASUS Zephyrus M GX501 weighs 2,200 g and measures 379 x 262 x 17.9 mm (W x D x H).

Finally, it seems ASUS took the criticisms of the ASUS Zephyrus M GX 501 seriously, thereby improving on the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501’s design. In light of this, I rate it an eight out of ten in this section.

ASUS Zephyrus M: Processor (CPU) Performance

The ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 is equipped with a 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor, which has a 9 MB cache memory. Not only that, but it also has 2.20 GHz as its base frequency and 4.10 GHz as its boost frequency.

From the specs above, the Intel Core i7-8750H processor is obviously a powerful processor that should handle intensive tasks well. However, to confirm its processing power on this laptop, let’s look at its result in the Cinebench R15 benchmark test.

For clarity, Cinebench R15 is a benchmark test that estimates the processor performance of a computer. Furthermore, the Cinebench R15 test is usually in two parts – the single-core and the multi-core tests.

The single-core test evaluates the processing power of a single processor core. Whereas the multi-core test shows the processing power of all cores (6 cores in the case of this laptop).

Meanwhile, it is important to note that the higher the score in these tests, the greater the processor’s performance. According to the tests, the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 had a single-core score of 170 points and a multi-core of 1168 points.

When compared with one of its competitors – the Acer Predator Triton 700 – ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 performed better. Specifically, the Acer Predator Triton 700 scored 156 points in the single-core test and 734 points in the multi-core test.

However, it is important to note that the Acer Predator Triton 700 uses a less powerful quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor.

To sum up this section, the CPU performance on this gaming laptop is very impressive. For this reason, I will be rating ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 a nine in this section of the review.

ASUS Zephyrus M: Memory (RAM) Performance

The ASUS Zephyrus M features a DDR4-2666 SO-DIMM RAM on two slots. Although the standard memory capacity on this laptop is 16 GB, it can be upgraded to 32 GB.

What this means is that the second memory slot on this laptop can accept an additional 16 GB of RAM.

In the aspect of performance, a model of this laptop that ships with the standard 16 GB memory can multitask excellently. As you might guess, upgrading the memory up to 32 GB will even improve the multitasking ability further.

To be precise, my test model was able to handle web surfing with 20 tabs opened while editing photos with Adobe Photoshop. In addition to that, it was also downloading 6 high-resolution images all at the same time.

To further highlight the memory performance of this laptop, I will discuss its result in a PC Mark 10. In case you don’t know, PC Mark 10 is a benchmark test that estimates the memory performance of a computer.

Similar to the benchmark test we discussed in the processor section, PCMark 10 also uses a higher score to determine better performance.

From the PC Mark 10 test, ASUS Zephyrus M scored 5194 points. Comparatively, the Acer Predator Triton 700 had a slightly higher score of 5277 points.

On the other hand, the MSI GS63VR 7RG-005 scored lower than the ASUS Zephyrus M GM501. Specifically, MSI GS63VR 7RG-005 scored 4542 points.

Apparently, the Acer Predator Triton 700 has a stronger memory performance than the ASUS Zephyrus M. Regardless, the ASUS Zephyrus M still has quite an impressive performance, and it supports memory upgradability.

All things considered, I will be rating ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 a nine in this section of the review.

ASUS Zephyrus M: Storage Options and Performance

The ASUS Zephyrus M offers a single-slot storage option of either SATA FireCuda SSHD or SSD.

The SATA FireCuda SSHD has a maximum of 1 TB storage capacity, while the SSD offers a maximum of 256 GB storage capacity. Unfortunately, ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 does not offer an SD card slot for external storage expansion.

Personally, I don’t find the storage options impressive, as this is a gaming laptop. Having just one storage slot with just a maximum of 256 GB or 1 TB limits the user’s ability to save lots of games.

Regardless, performance is just as important as storage size. Hence, to evaluate the performance of the storage of this ASUS gaming laptop, I will highlight its result in the Crystaldiskmark benchmark.

Curious as to what the CrystalDiskMark benchmark is all about? It is a benchmark test employed to measure the performance of a computer’s storage by assessing its read and write speed.

In case you’re wondering what “read” and “write” speeds mean, I will explain. As a simple illustration, when you open a file on your computer, the speed at which this happens is known as read speed.

On the other hand, the speed at which files save to your computer is known as write speed. Needless to say that you will have a good experience when your computer can open and save files speedily.

Therefore, higher read and write speeds in the CrystalDiskMark test mean better performance. Meanwhile, you should note that the test result below is based on the performance of an ASUS Zephyrus M GM501 with 256 GB SSD storage.

Speaking of the test result, the ASUS Zephyrus M had a sequential read speed of 3157MB/s and a sequential write speed of 1659MB/s. Comparatively, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S15 had a lower read speed of 1294MB/s but a higher write speed of 2612MB/s.

What this means is that the ASUS Zephyrus M will open files faster than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus S15. Meanwhile, ASUS ROG Zephyrus S15 will save files faster than ASUS Zephyrus M.

Irrespective of ASUS Zephyrus M’s good performance, I am not impressed by the lack of a storage expansion option. For that reason, I rate it a seven out of ten for its inadequate storage options.

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ASUS Zephyrus M: Graphics Card Performance

As expected of a gaming laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus M comes with a dedicated graphics card. Dedicated graphics are independent graphics cards that operate separately from the CPU.

Moreover, dedicated GPUs come with their own VRAM; hence they do not have to share the computer’s RAM with the CPU. This results in excellent gaming and overall graphics performance.

However, dedicated graphics consume a lot of energy and generate a lot of heat because of the heavy task they perform.

Specifically, the ASUS Zephyrus M features an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card with a 6 GB GDDR5 dedicated VRAM. Additionally, this graphics card comes with a 1506 MHz base frequency and 1708 MHz boost frequency.

For performance evaluation, let’s consider the result of this laptop in a 3DMark Firestrike test. 3DMark Fire strike is a benchmark test for assessing discrete graphics cards, mobile GPUs, and integrated graphics performance.

Once again, a high score in this benchmark test denotes better graphics performance. In this test, the ASUS Zephyrus M scored 17046 points.

Impressively, this score is higher than that of the MSI GS63VR 7RG-005. Specifically, the MSI GS63VR 7RG-005 scored 14394 points.

Based on the test result, the GPU on this laptop is powerful enough to play all modern games on medium or maximum settings.

Speaking of games, using this laptop to play The Witcher 3 at ultra setting achieved a frame rate of 59.4 fps. Also, using it to play Dirt 4, you will enjoy this game at a frame rate of 78.4 fps at ultra settings as well.

As a gaming laptop, the ASUS Zephyrus M meets my graphics expectation; hence, I rate it nine.

ASUS Zephyrus M: Battery Life and Performance

For battery, ASUS Zephyrus M features a 4-cell 55 Whr, Li-Ion battery, but ASUS did not state the battery life. However, we will have to include that so that you can make a good judgment about the battery power of this laptop.

Therefore, according to a battery test performed by pcgamer.com, the battery lasted for just three hours. The test involved continuously playing a video until the laptop goes off.

We all know that long battery life is usually an uncommon feat for gaming laptops. However, because ASUS had put so much emphasis on improving this laptop’s battery I was expecting a better performance.

Disappointingly, the battery performance of the ASUS Zephyrus M is still not outstanding. To make matters worse, it did not perform as well as the Dell G7 15, which uses a 3-cell 56 WHr battery.

Specifically, the Dell G7 15 lasted seven hours in the same test.

In conclusion, I will rate the ASUS Zephyrus M a six out of ten in this battery performance review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501 proves to be a worthy upgrade from the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GX501. However, instead of the Max-Q processor on its predecessor, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501 uses a standard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU.

Thankfully, the performance of its GPU makes it competent for playing modern title games. Unfortunately, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501 does not offer a very long battery life.

Nevertheless, gamers who want a high-performance laptop at a significantly lesser price compared to other competitors can consider the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M GM501.

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