A WOLF IN TACTICAL STREETWEAR

Few things come across the CRISP. desk that lands squarely in the intersection of our two loves – tech and high fashion – quite like this…unique piece of hardware.

The product of a collaboration between uber-cool fashion label ACRONYM and Republic of Gamers, the ROG ZEPHYRUS G14 ACRNYM RMT01 takes a top-spec Zephyrus and stuffs it with enough secrets and surprises to turn the head of the biggest hypebeast.

Style over substance, or the shape of things to come? Let’s take a look.

 

 

SPECS

Sharing much of the Zepyrus G14’s shell, the unit reviewed had an 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of RAM, so an impressive, gaming ready start for such a slender laptop.

When it comes to the display, we have a non-touch 14-inch QHD screen running at 60Hz (an interesting choice, we’ll come back to that) with adaptive sync.

Storage is 1TB of SSD PCIe 3.0 memory as well as a whopping 32GB of DDR4 RAM, making for quite the well-rounded piece of kit.

This G14 has connectivity to the heavens with two USB-A and two USB-C ports, as well as an HDMI port and headphone/microphone jack.

A great tip for one of those USB-C ports, it actually supports charging in addition to the main power supply – something we learned when briefly lacking a UK 3-pin charger…

The power button sports a fingerprint sensor, the keyboard is a fully backlit affair with decent travel distance, so far so ROG, right?

Well, look at the state of this thing!

 

DESIGN

Here we go.

 

ACRONYM co-founder Errolson Hugh was said to be heavily involved in the customisation of this ‘reality modelling tool’ as it’s been rebadged, and it shows throughout.

This thing feels more like a limited edition press kit rather than a retail unit, with every inch of outer packaging sporting a unique iconography and design evoking the lauded brand.

 

 

Before even getting to the laptop itself, you find it housed in this superbubble of a plastic Airpak sleeve, emblazoned with hyper-stylised wording and images, highlighting its reusable and recyclable nature.

May not be quite as practical as a traditional laptop bag, but definitely keeps the RMT01 safe and secure, as well as makes an incredibly strong first impression…

Moving onto the laptop itself, every inch of it has been laser-etched, painted and reforged to make it look every inch the hacker’s plaything from a cyberpunk fantasy.

 

 

The carbon black chassis is broken up by elements of magnesium and aluminium, making for a lightweight but very hardy laptop, weighing in at around 1.7kg.

The ‘WASD’ keys are painted, the ‘space’ bar has been renamed ‘VOID’, and it’s impossible to escape the litany of ACRONYM ‘A’s that have been plastered like technical schematics over almost every single key of this keyboard.

Being entirely honest it makes typing a little distracting at times, but is certainly a statement.

 

 

The entire lid of the laptop is pure (optional) pink LED wonderland, with over 6,000 tiny perforations enabling it to display custom dot-matrix artwork, graphic equalizers or even scrolling messages…

A version of the ‘AniMe Matrix’ rear display is on the stock G14, but the RMT01 truly is pushing the boundaries in terms of laptop aesthetics and design, just as its innards do for gaming on the go.

And we haven’t even turned it on yet…

 

SOFTWARE

 

 

Customisation – and the playful nature of ACRONYM’s efforts – continue onto the desktop experience itself, as this machine gets rid of the Windows boot chime and assaults you with a minimalist logo and electronic growl upon booting it up.

Stern text on the display informs that this ‘terminal’ is unconfigured, and requests the insertion of a ‘workgroup’ key…bringing back memories of fateful trips to escape rooms past.

Then, having scurried around the outer packaging once again, we found a nondescript manilla envelope containing a bespoke USB key filled with all manner of confidential files.

Plug it in and a bit of hunting around takes you on a pretty cool journey, which the lucky few owners can experience for themselves!

A bit gimmicky? Perhaps, but there’s no denying that it’s unlike any other experience we’ve had with a laptop in for review, and we’re glad that bit of discovery will be one that’s shared by prospective owners of this device.

 

PERFORMANCE

The G14’s origins of this laptop certainly come back into perspective when talking about how it actually runs – a hefty CPU and GPU naturally make short work of basic tasks, and the dedicated ASUS ‘Armoury Crate’ menu enables all manner of tweaks and customisations to make this thing purr.

 

 

Set to ‘silent’ by default, we found that it had a tiny bit of trouble running games at 1080p and 60fps at the outset, but moving things to a slightly more aggressive ‘Performance’ mode sparked the RMT’s fans into life and deftly handled modern titles we had to throw at it (Red Dead II at 75fps, Control at 55-60fps at 1440p), complete with the ray-tracing features that the 2060 GPU offers you.

So this mysterious laptop both runs nicely as a daily driver, and can kick things up a gear for when you want to get serious.

 

DISPLAY

Interesting one here…as we’ve touched on, the RMT01 comes equipped with a 14-inch, 1440p display which pushes pixels at a 60Hz refresh rate – sounds decent.

As it is, the display performs fairly well under heavy testing, with the stark, ray-traced walls of Control’s Oldest House looking pin-sharp with rich blacks and running at (a slightly frame-y) 60fps on high settings.

However, there are some configuration options on the standard G14 which means you can choose either the QHD effort you get here, or opt for a lower resolution (1080p) but faster FHD panel with 120Hz refresh rate…the latter often being the gamers’ choice.

The lack of an option to sacrifice pixels to enjoy a faster refresh rate is a bit of a shame.

There’s a wealth of other use cases – web development, video editing, animation – that will appreciate the RMT’s more crisp and responsive display, yet there’s a tradeoff in lower battery life and a GPU just shy of handling 1440p gaming that suggests we might have gone another way if given the option.

 

VERDICT

 

There’s no denying that the Asus x ROG RMT01 is one of the most mysterious, strange and engrossing ‘tools’ on the market.

This collaboration is deeper than most – ACRONYM’s Hugh and UK designer David Rudnick has hidden a lifetime’s worth of aesthetic Easter Eggs to discover – but has also delivered another luxury crossover trapping – a steep price tag.

This device is available (and has nearly sold out) on LabStore London for £2,499 – a marked premium on the original G14 laptop.

Whether the custom graphics, limited edition styling and bespoke case justify the difference in cost is a personal decision – but this is certainly a rare and exciting moment in tech collaborations to make it well worth a closer look.

Those who do brave the crazy cyberpunk world of ACRONYM and ROG’s first effort certainly won’t forget it in a hurry…DELETE EVERYTHING.

 

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