20 years in the Republic of Gamers, part three: ROG overturns all expectations for gaming on the go

10 years ago, gaming laptops had something of a reputation. Ask someone in the mid-2010s to conjure an image of a gaming laptop and they’d picture something heavy, clunky, hot, and loud. Portable? Technically, but not exactly svelte. ROG changed all that with its Zephyrus line, a transformative family of gaming laptops. What’s more, our work to provide gaming power in ever-smaller form factors has led to a new generation of portable gaming — from smartphones to tablets, external GPUs, and even AAA handhelds. 

This is part three of our multi-part ROG 20th Anniversary Retrospective. Click here to see the full series of articles.

2017: The first ROG Zephyrus  

In 2017, we introduced the ROG Zephyrus GX501: the world’s slimmest gaming laptop with an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080, the top dog of gaming graphics at the time. At only 1.79 cm thin, this was unheard of. You got monster gaming performance in a laptop that was portable and sleek, even professional looking.  

While other laptops may have had to make major performance sacrifices to fit into that kind of form factor, we did the impossible through clever engineering (a pattern you’ll continue to see through the years). The Zephryus featured our Active Aerodynamic System (AAS), which lifted up the bottom of the laptop as you opened the lid. With an extra few mm of room for air circulation, we were able to improve airflow by 32% and reduce fan noise. Elegantly engineered for performance all kinds — gaming, acoustic, and thermal — the Zephyrus kicked off a revolution that’s still churning today. 

2018: ROG Phone  

We didn’t stop at the Zephyrus. One year later, ROG introduced the world’s first true gaming smartphone. In an age where many felt mobile gaming was becoming more dumbed down, the ROG Phone took mobile gaming seriously — and elevated the entire smartphone experience in the process.

While the Snapdragon 845 chip was popular at this time, the ROG Phone elevated its abilities with our GameCool vapor chamber cooling system, allowing us to bin the fastest version of this processor for high-octane gaming. In a market where most flagship phones hovered around 4GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the ROG Phone gave no quarter to its competitors, offering 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage — not to mention a 90Hz display for smoother visuals. 

What really set the ROG Phone apart, though, were its innovative gaming-focused features. A side-mounted USB Type-C port allowed you to charge while holding the phone in landscape mode for gaming, while ultrasonic AirTrigger touch sensors gave you customizable, gamepad-like control. These were truly radical for the time, and they’ve become mainstay features that still grace modern ROG Phones to this day. 

2020: ROG Zephyrus G14 and ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 

Three years after the first ROG Zephyrus machine, the lineup took the world by storm with two new models that innovated beyond the slim 15-inch form factor. The ROG Zephyrus G14 took the Zephyrus ethos and shrunk it down into the world’s most powerful 14-inch gaming laptop, achieving new levels of compact performance.  

With a power-efficient AMD Ryzen processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics, and our first customizable AniMe Vision display on its lid, this laptop had it all: the performance you wanted in the form factor you needed, with style capable of both standing out and blending in. This laptop was such a hit that multiple publications named it the best gaming laptop you can buy, a title that sticks with it to this day. 

Meanwhile, on the other end of the Zephyrus spectrum, we took things in a totally different direction. The 2020 ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 took everything that made other 15-inch Zephyrus machines popular and added a second screen — an idea borrowed from the ASUS ZenBook line but adapted for the insane performance of our gaming family. Much like the original Zephyrus, this was only possible through innovative cooling: instead of the entire laptop lifting off the surface below, the Duo’s AAS Plus system raised the second screen to allow unprecedented access to fresh air underneath. This also made the second screen easier to see, giving you a one-two punch of usability. And today, the Zephyrus Duo lives on, now with two full-size screens that give you more multitasking real estate than ever. What once was relegated to weird CES proof-of-concept demos became a practical, useful, and mega-fun reality.  

2022: The ROG Mothership gives way to the ROG Flow Z13 

Speaking of CES product demos, 2020 also saw the production of the ROG Mothership — a unique 2-in-1 that put the gaming prowess of ROG laptops into a tablet with a detachable keyboard. While it wasn’t mass produced for off-the-shelf purchase, this machine did evolve into something very practical and very real inside of two short years. 

The ROG Mothership was much more than a cool concept — it actually offered a very real advantage in terms of 2-in-1 flexibility by putting the internal components in a vertical orientation behind the display, rather than close to the ground. This, once again, gave the device way more access to fresh air intake, allowing us to really make the most of the chips inside. 

We later adapted that lesson to create the ROG Flow Z13: the world’s most powerful gaming tablet. Where the Mothership was noticeably thicker than your typical tablet, the Flow Z13 packed an Intel Core i9 processor and GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU into a 12mm thin chassis with a slim, detachable keyboard cover. And on top of that, it was built to work with our ultra-portable XG Mobile line of external GPUs, which eschew the large desktop dock for a compact unit about the size of a hardcover novel. 

Since the Z13’s introduction, the form factor has continued to evolve. Most notably, the release of AMD’s Strix Halo chip in 2025 brought powerful integrated graphics that offer better battery life while rivaling the performance of dedicated GPUs, making the Flow Z13 a truly unique gaming machine that still has a loyal following today. 

2023: The ROG Ally redefines portable play 

While the ROG Flow Z13 continues to evolve, the advantages of its vertical form factor also translated beautifully into ROG’s next big endeavor: handheld gaming. Handhelds were once relegated to playing last-gen games or spinoffs of major console franchises. But the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor inside the ROG Ally brought enough performance to play the latest AAA games in the palms of your hands. The Zero-gravity thermal system provided ample cooling in any orientation, pairing beautifully with the Ally’s comfortable controls and beautiful 1080p, 120Hz display with FreeSync Premium — something not common on most handhelds. And best of all, since it ran Windows 11, it could truly #playALLYourgames. From Steam to Epic to GOG and Xbox Game Pass, if it ran on Windows, you could play it on this handheld. For PC gamers with lots of games across multiple stores, this was an absolute godsend, and it’s changed the way many of us play. 

Today, the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X carry that dream even further, marrying the power and flexibility of Windows with the simplicity of Xbox. Power on the handheld and you head straight into the Xbox full screen experience, where your games are front and center and unnecessary background processes are frozen to dedicated more resources to what matters. The future of handheld gaming has never looked brighter. 

2024: The ROG NUC brings compact gaming back into the desktop space  

While cramming powerful components into smaller and smaller chassis usually benefits portable platforms the most, there are times when you don’t need mobility — but you still want an ultra-compact machine that doesn’t overtake your space. After buying the NUC product line from Intel, we wasted no time building the first ROG NUC: an insanely compact gaming “desktop” with plenty of power. 

With up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU in a 2.5 liter chassis, the ROG NUC can literally go anywhere. Whether you’re kitting out an esports center or hiding it behind a TV for an invisible living room gaming setup, the ROG NUC takes the small form factor (SFF) trend and takes to levels only ROG can. The 2025 model even saw an upgrade to a GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, proving that no matter what our past limitations, ROG is constantly looking for ways to boost beyond.  

How ROG is taking portable gaming into new territory in 2026  

In 2026, the entire landscape of portable gaming devices has changed. We’ve gone from heavy, clunky, hot, and loud to light, slim, cool, and quiet, and we’ve pushed forward on those fronts even as the power of modern components has scaled to new heights.  

The 2026 ROG lineup is as strong as ever, if not stronger. The all-new ROG Zephryus Duo shakes up the formula with two full-sized 16-inch displays. We’ve teamed up with KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS for a host of specialty gear, including the stunning ROG Flow Z13-KFP gaming tablet. We’ve refreshed the fan-favorite ROG Zephyrus G14 and G16 with the latest hardware, new Nebula HDR OLED panels, and a redesigned bottom panel that beefs up their ventilation.  

There’s a lot to love with our latest tech. Click here to check out all the new hardware that we announced for CES 2026. And since 2026 is the 20th anniversary celebration for ROG, there’s a lot more coming your way, too. Stay tuned.