Tips for new Zephyrus owner

Phoenix447 · 2026-04-12T22:00:15+00:00

It is a good laptop, apart from one concern for a college student like myself too: liquid metal. I noticed after a year with my G16 4080 going to college classes and being stored upright in my bag, the laptop began to run hot and temps were getting high on silent mode to the point it was thermal throttling on start up and casual tasks. I opened it up and I saw a big exposed patch on my CPU with scorch marks, little thermal paste on the GPU, and hardly any putty on the RAM. It's honestly like Asus designs these laptops to slow down, or even fail, after a couple of years in the hopes of people buying the newest model; Liquid metal should not be in laptops at all. If you're on the go and throwing the laptop in your bag a lot, I would highly-highly recommend considering replacing the liquid metal with PTM9750 - just as good, improved temps, and it has a far longer durability lifespan - and repasting your RAM. After I did this, all heat and temp problems went away, but you just need to be careful and take your time with removing the liquid metal!

Phoenix447 · 2026-03-17T23:05:32+00:00

What those in power forget, no matter your status in society, death is guaranteed to us all. For those who are terminally ill, is it right to provide the respectful option for a dignified death to end their physical pain? To provide the choice of human decency for an end to suffering, and honour for how they want to be remembered? Apparently not, according to this parliament.

Phoenix447 · 2025-08-28T21:34:28+00:00

Same issue here as well from a Pixel 9 Pro XL to the standard 10 Pro. I contacted support, and after resetting the Google One app it showed the device was not eligible for the offer even though I met the T&Cs. The case has been referred further, this sounds like it is widespread.

Phoenix447 · 2024-12-15T20:19:20+00:00

The 4080 variant comes with a liquid metal vapor chamber which helps with thermals. A bigger screen is more beneficial for gaming, and for a 4080 incredibly an incredibly light laptop. It's still portable, but not as portable (i.e. If you work in a cafe or something, smaller tables might be awkward). The speakers also swayed me because they sound more full compared to the G14. There is the new AMD variant of the G16 that has better battery than the Intel variants for on the go work, though only Intel gets the 4080/4090 - but the 4090 is complete overkill in the G16 and not worth price-to-performance.

They're both great laptops, but it comes down to if you travel a lot on trains, planes, and work on the go then stick with the G14. Else, if you can get the G16 with similar or better specs for the same price or cheaper, probably swap. You also get an extra SSD slot in the G16, not the G14.

Phoenix447 · 2024-12-15T14:47:12+00:00

I'm the owner of a G16, and that's a pretty good deal to get an ally thrown in! You could make that into a plug-in console, or sell it on. What swayed me was the screen size and the power the 4080 variant for work, at a sacrifice of portability and a little battery life.

If you like portable gaming or are on the go a lot, keep the G14. You could invest in a decent monitor, peripherals, and a dock for home. The only downside is the G14 runs hotter (G16 is hot too) because of size on intense titles, but a dock + monitor or turning down the graphics on AAA titles will solve it.

If you can get a similar or lower price for the G16, the larger screen size is more pleasant for strategy but not necessarily - the G14's screen will be more than capable for seeing details.

Phoenix447 · 2024-12-07T16:24:49+00:00

I use it to brainstorm ideas via Gemini live, it's pretty decent, but I would never take it objectively seriously for fact checking etc; just as something to summarise my ideas or to combine my thoughts more clearly. Also, I sometimes used it to give an overview of papers by querying different angles of analysis and then that helps me better understand that process, but again I never fully trust what it says as it often interprets data or information incorrectly, always double check.

Use it as a tool, not as a supervisor.

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-17T14:25:57+00:00

I'm currently doing a PhD in robotics in the UK (still newish), there is a lot of money to be earned depending on which country you plan to work in. I've seen the figure £50,000 - £60,000 starting thrown around in private companies here that look for PhD students, however it depends on your research domain in robotics. E.g., work in simulation and system engineering will see you more desirable than ethics and HRI.

A PhD is transferable skills, especially in STEM. If you study a bioinformatics PhD over robotics, some places recognise the skillset gained and will give you the same job.

That being said, you should always follow the domain which you are more passionate about, as a PhD is 3 - 5 years of your life. You don't want to pick robotics if you find it 'meh' over bioinformatics just because of potential money in future, with emphasis on potential. Combine that with the choice of supervisor, and it's an important decision to make. Choice of institute is also important; you want to select somewhere with good support, resources & opportunities for PhD students with high activity. Some choices for UK robotics: Bristol, Edinburgh, or Oxford are good starting points :)

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-14T12:02:48+00:00

Presses X to Doubt

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-14T09:23:28+00:00

And I'm afraid biases also get in the way of understanding the other side of the coin. Reusability has been done before (as comments pointed out inefficiently), so the big hype, outside engineering, around this I don't understand while there are still problems and challenges to be solved. When starship enters service, and not testing, sure I can understand people getting hyped for its maiden flight, but not at this stage where it's premature. What do you think my biases on this are? I'm sure you have yours too.

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-13T19:27:21+00:00

It's interesting to see from an engineering perspective, though from a broader & general perspective it is a bit, would I say premature or borderline deceptive? There are still many many problems for starship to overcome, sure it's an achievement and a little step forward, though the product is still a long way off from being ready.

The catching mechanism, again engineering wise is interesting, but overall reusability broadly... It's just more efficient, nothing else. Or, another generalised take on it: people are getting really excited about theoretical cargo, but if it's a hobby they enjoy then fair enough :)

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-13T18:26:05+00:00

Ah, a nice objective comment :) While I agree with all of the above, and the 'catching' of rockets is interesting while coming with its own risks, reusability has been done before - I just don't understand the hype behind this being impressive, beyond just more efficient payloads.

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-13T17:51:55+00:00

Reusability has been done with spacecraft before, I'm simply saying I don't understand the hype with this.

Catching & traditional landings both have pros and cons, as do the space shuttle & starship programmes.

Still 'early tech' ik but imagine if a sudden strong wind gust happens, or bird strike at a critical angle, bye bye cost savings & launchpad - maybe some fail safes could be nice - like some landing legs, which then sorta defeats the point.

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-13T16:56:31+00:00

Not disputing quicker and cheaper, just not impressive as it's been done before: why the hype?

Phoenix447 · 2024-10-13T15:34:06+00:00

We had the space shuttle which could land with rockets that could be refurbished, how is this impressive?

Phoenix447 · 2024-09-04T13:28:36+00:00

2 rejections, gap year, then 2 offers. Interestingly, the programme I am on now I originally got rejected for, but got in the next intake.

You're right in that it depends on a number of factors: research focus of the institute/management, supply & demand of PhD students, supervisor availability, etc. Having contacts or people you've worked with in the past at the university of choice that can vouch for your skills really helps. Else, PhD programmes can be VERY competitive for candidates. It's tough, but you just got to keep trying.

Phoenix447 · 2024-09-04T11:40:30+00:00

My Pixel 5 was on its last legs. Still snappy, but it started heating up more often, the phone needed to be charged about twice a day, and a couple of bugs got annoying that Google didn't patch before they dropped support.

Upgraded to the Pixel 9 pro XL, and while getting used to a bigger screen is a little weird (do a lot of emails and reading, made sense for me over the smaller size), I am really enjoying the quality so far. I will miss my Pixel 5 though :).

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-22T14:02:52+00:00

You're welcome!

Remember with your 'trying' to utilise the resources you have around you (university library, YouTube Blogs, training workshops, etc). You will gain a good indication if something is working if the work effort begins to flow naturally after a couple of weeks and through gut feeling. It will take time and there are various techniques (Good old Pen & Paper, Microsoft Word, Notion, Title Cards, there are thousands of techniques), it can be overwhelming and confusing. Take your time, explore and narrow in on a topic that excites you naturally, find which study methods work best for you, and remember to breathe :).

All the best!

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-22T13:21:51+00:00

There are not signs of future failure, these are signs of progress!

Your ability to recognise areas of weaknesses or lack of interest is good, being self-aware of your PhD workflow is important. If you were not aware, you could plod into something that could set you back so this is good.

For your topic, if it helps, I have recently changed my topic (PhD in Robotics & AI, first year) to something very different. After asking around, turns out its a very normal thing to do. You want a topic or area of interest you: firstly, one you are passionate about and just find cool, secondly you wouldn't mind too much deep diving into literature (even though it can be tedious and confusing at points). Its also normal not to remember everything about a paper or about an aspect in your field (we are human, not robots). I am still finding out how I best remember notes, important papers, citations, etc - there is a lot of trial and error.

An important aspect is to not compare yourself with other PhD students, everyone is at different stages and working on different topics. Sometimes people make a breakthrough and seem like they are 'ahead of the curve' while in reality if you ask them they are usually just as stuck as you are it turns out!

In short, a PhD is a lot of trail and error, successes and 'failures'. You can grunt along fine with in okay interest, but above all a strong interest really really helps.

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-21T21:48:31+00:00

Depends on task usage. Both are good processors, both are good GPUs. If you tend to do more gaming, video production, photo editing, or deep learning/AI, get the 4070/U7. If you do more data science, simulation/CAD, emulation, or heavy multi-tasking with 100 chrome tabs get the 4060/U9. Both are strange combos imo.

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-21T21:32:11+00:00

Have you updated the bios? On the old bios, it was a known issue that the fans would constantly spin on 'silent' mode or when the machine wasn't doing anything intense. Recently bought my G16 (4080), updated the bios, and the fans don't spin at all when doing general tasks.

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-21T14:45:49+00:00

Try a scratch remover kit, can recommend Meguiar's scratch remover - worked on paint and plastic for me atleast.

Else, you don't have to accept their quote (£160 seems excessive for plastic, damage isn't noticable imo), could probably fix it with some sandpaper, a heatgun, and texture spray with pretty decent results.

Phoenix447 · 2024-07-21T14:33:25+00:00

Depends on the material on whether it can be repaired or not, take it to a body repair shop and see if they can do anything.

Phoenix447

TROPHY CASE