The Asus ROG x Acronym laptop is a $2,500 cyberpunk dream machine

Acronym, the streetwear brand inspired (and loved) by Neuromancer author William Gibson and known for its ingenious, expensive, almost-always-black, tactical and technical clothing, has teamed up with PC-maker Asus for a gaming laptop fit for a bonafide cyberpunk. Part of Asus's Republic of Gaming (ROG) lineup, the Acronym x Asus laptop is a Zephyrus G14 with added Acronym stylistic touches... and a higher price.

The device is (fittingly, if a little strangely) available from hypebeast merchants Ssense and Bodega, which might be a first for a gaming laptop. You'll need to be ready to lay down $2,500 for this slice of futuristic-tinged art-meets-hardware — which is 20% more than a non-collab machine with the same specs — and Bodega warns that, because its a limited release, returns aren't possible. But this isn't exactly the sort of thing most people buy on a whim, so that likely doesn't matter. Also, by the time you read this, it might be sold out.

The ROG Zephyrus G14 ACRNM RMT01 (to use the official parlance) comes in pitch-perfect designer bubblewrap made of AIRPCS it'll break your heart to have to open if it's sealed. Fortunately, like the box it comes in, all the packaging is designed to be sustainable and reusable. We're inclined to flatten it out and frame it, frankly.

From the founder's desk to yours — Acronym founder Errolson Hugh led the project, and he's no stranger to gaming — his J1A-GT jacket and CP2-S vest-meets-cape both make appearances in Death Stranding, and he consulted on the apparel in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In addition to the impossible-to-miss "A" letter logo on the corners of almost every key on the keyboard, there are select colored keys in the sort of subdued hues usually anathema to gaming rigs. And for added attention-grabbing charm, there's a dot matrix display in the laptop's lid that can display glowing graphics, including a headshot of Hugh.

The spec fest — Like it's non-streetwear styled equivalent, the laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen R9-4900HS processor (which can be overclocked to 4.4GHz) There's also an Nvdia GeForce RTX 2060 GFX card under the hood, along with a 1TB SSD and 32GB of RAM. The 14-inch WQHD display has a refresh rate of 60Hz and, as you'd expect from something affiliated with cutting edge design (and the puffery of fashion), the display is "Pantone validated." Does that make it the best gaming laptop you can buy for $2.5k? No. But none of the other options look like this, do they?

Cyberpunk 2077 ready — At the best of times, a Zephyrus G14 can handle the most demanding games with pretty much all the settings maxed out. The minimum requirements for CD Projekt Red's forthcomingCyberpunk 2077 — the ideal companion game for this portable gaming rig — are decidedly on the low-end of the spectrum, so you'll be ready for action. Except, we'd stick to playing at home, because doing so with this laptop in public will likely see you bothered by strangers incessantly, each wanting to dole out compliments and coo over your gaming weapon of choice. Allegedly, you can even do work on it if you so choose.