Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition review

If there’s one company I trust to do a good job with utterly ridiculous computer ideas, it’s Asus. Last fall, the company worked with cyberpunky fashion designer Acronym to make possibly the weirdest-looking gaming laptop I’ve ever seen (the ZPHYRS G14 ACRNM). This year, it’s partnered with popular DJ Alan Walker to create a less avant-garde, more musical version of the same device. This is the Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition, a laptop for gamers, DJs, and (ideally) gamer DJs.

The insides of this laptop are nothing ROG fans haven’t seen before. There’s only one configuration, selling for $1,999.99, which includes an AMD Ryzen 5900HS processor and a low-end GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, as well as a QHD 120Hz screen, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. So, just to be clear, this isn’t really a sensible purchase unless you’re an Alan Walker superfan, because that same price can get you a non-Walker G14 with a more powerful RTX 3060 GPU, as well as 32GB of RAM.

Still, it’s a pretty cool device. The lid is laced with a reflective belt commanding passersby to “JOIN THE REPUBLIC” and “JOIN THE WALKERS.” Alan Walker’s logo — resembling an A superimposed over a W — is printed in various places, including the A and W keys as well as on the nameplate. There’s a diagonal line print on the touchpad meant to resemble music equalizer patterns, and there are splashes of bright blue — Walker’s favorite color — across the keyboard as well. It’s not an obnoxious aesthetic, like these special editions sometimes have — it looks more like a standard G14 with some colorful tweaks.

Walker says the design reflects the look he’d want his personal device to have. “They approached me and asked, what are your expectations for the laptop, what do you look for in a laptop if you were to pick one yourself?” he told The Verge in an interview. “It was a lot of back and forth — like, a lot.”

The other cool thing is that the packaging this G14 comes in becomes a DJ deck when connected to the laptop via USB-C. It’s not the most high-tech affair — if you lift up the paper floor, you’ll see a nest of wires taped to the bottom of the box.

“That’s one of those crazy ideas where we ended up debating, would this be possible?” Walker said of the DJ box. “Asus is like ‘Yeah, cool, we can maybe think about something, figure something out,’ and then they came back with a box.” He added, “It’s so weird how it even works.”

I expected this to be complicated to set up for a non-DJ like myself, but it was a breeze. Plug the box into the G14, and a preloaded software called ROG Remix opens automatically. You can play a song within that program, and then tweak it by pressing various buttons on the box. There are buttons for things like speed, start / stop, and a few basic effects.

This was — caveating, again, that I’m not a DJ — a lot of fun. The buttons all worked, and the effects sounded very cool to my untrained ears. It seems like something you could easily use at a party, especially since the G14’s speakers are fantastic. The music was crackling a bit at the beginning, but that seemed to sort itself out after a few tracks. Mostly, I’m impressed that this is all coming out of a plastic box.

Walker agrees that his G14 is a better purchase for people like me than it would be for actual DJs. “It’s not necessarily the number-one gadget to get if you want to start with DJing, but it’s definitely a cool starting point,” says Walker. “I hope that people will use it to be creative and play around with music.”

He does, however, expect that he’ll use the G14 on his next tour. “It’s got everything that I need, basically, to work and prepare for my shows,” Walker says. “I can easily foresee myself using it every day.” He says he might use it to plan his set lists prior to performances, and to work on the visuals as well.

He might also use it for some gaming in his spare time. “Lately I’ve been playing Call of Duty,” he says. “Also some Valorant.”

The ROG Zephyrus G14 Alan Walker Edition is available for preorder now on Asus’s website for $1,999.99, and will be available soon at SSENSE.

Update, 5:20PM ET: Article updated to include purchase links.