New Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 uses a rising keyboard mechanism for enhanced cooling, gets upgraded to Tiger Lake-H and Ampere RTX 30 Laptop GPUs

The 2020 Asus ROG Zephyrus S17 had a unique chassis design with the entire top deck of the base designated for thermals, which meant the keyboard was relegated to the bottom edge making typing somewhat inconvenient. With the 2021 ROG Zephyrus S17, Asus seems to have gone back to the drawing board for a more traditional design but one that still offers enhanced air flow.

At the heart of the Zephyrus S17 is the latest Intel Tiger Lake-H processor with Asus offering a choice between the Core i9-11900H and the Core i7-11800H. The company said that the Core i9-11900H is configured to use up to 50 W of sustained power with the GPU active and 90 W on its own. The CPU can be paired with up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU that is configured to consume up to 140 W via Dynamic Boost. As has been the norm this year, Asus uses liquid metal as the thermal interface material on the processor. 

Unlike the 2020 Zephyrus S17 which had lifted its base in order to provide for more airflow, the 2021 Zephyrus S17 lifts the keyboard deck by a 5° angle thereby allowing for both enhanced typing comfort and better cooling at the same time. The Zephyrus S17 uses optical-mechanical key switches for longer life and low latency. Asus also said that it has increased the trackpad by 125% compared to the previous generation.

Buyers can choose between two 17.3-inch panels — a UHD 120 Hz Pantone-validated 100% DCI-P3 display with Adaptive Sync and a QHD 165 Hz Pantone-validated 100% DCI-P3 display with Advanced Optimus and NVIDIA G-SYNC. Asus seems to have shunned the FHD 300 Hz panel this time around.

Other features include a six-speaker Dolby Atmos system, 3D microphone array with cardioid and omnidirectional modes, two-way AI noise cancelation, a webcam that uses a combination of 2DNR And 3DNR technologies, and a 90 WHr battery with fast charging. Pricing and availability will be disclosed at a later date.

Buy the 2020 Asus Zephyrus S17 on Amazon