I dunno... sound to me more like an extremely expensive with not so extremely high standard. For such a pricey machine, I didn't expect to hear this many complains from a review.
I hope they bring out a non-oled version of this laptop as well. My primary OS being Linux where we don't have pixel shifter yet, I fear screen burn in will definitely happen soon.
I just have a question does it feel like a 1300$ in terms of build quality? I have the Asus Zenbook 14 2022(which has the same designto this one) with 8/256, and the fans on my laptop turned on even on simple web browsing and while watching YT videos. So does it happen with this laptop as well?
I know it isn't on you but I really dislike how the intro (And again, this is basically on Asus) *still* implies that AMD is the budget option and that the high end option you need intel: I'm sorry but I'd like things like actually usable video drivers for the integrated graphics so even if I wanted a high end product I wouldn't pick even the newest Arc based intel chips: them getting better drivers now still means its usually ok but often non-functional drivers depending on the game for example. I'm just tired of companies like Asus always doing this kind of stuff with their huge allocation of AMD chips instead of letting those go to companies that would actually do AMD justice as a legitimate, high end option that's almost always competitive and in some areas flat out superior to intel chips still today.
With respect to AMD, it's started to change, but in general I agree with you, a few years ago, AMD processors were always put in the "budget" versions. Now that's not always the case. Should never have happened in the first place though.
I'm not sure why Asus thought they'd be well served bumping these up into the 1200-1500 competition. They owned the budget option premium thin and light the last couple years. Just giving that up doesn't make sense
It gets very hot, and I had a few crashes actually where the screen went black with just the mouspointer visible and I had to do a hard reboot. Returned it.
This model is reasonably priced in the UK at £1400 for Core Ultra 9/1TB/32GB. It is expensive for a machine with no dGPU, but it remains cheaper than premium ultrabooks like the XPS 14, MB Air M3, and Galaxy Book 4 Pro, which have similar specs. I prefer an IPS option for increased battery life and the peace of mind of having no burn-in potential. But the market has swung to OLED, so it is what it is. Battery life is okay, but when I regularly get 14-16 hours SOT on my MB Air M2, which includes standby time of 2-3 days, The ASUS would be a big downgrade in that respect. But it is a lot cheaper than the MB Air. Hard to be anything but positive about this. As far as mid-range ultrabooks go, it is expensive (versus previous years) but has a great spec. ASUS may even now be targeting this as the value premium ultrabook and is competitive versus Samsung, Apple and Dell.
they're going to be coming out with an amd version of this with 16gb of ram and half a terabyte of storage. Should be around 1k, which with inflation will put it at an amazing value proposition.
Love your reviews. In case you review the Asus Zenbook Duo 2024 I would appreciate the review of the Pen on the Duo. I am sure looking for a duo, or fold, 2-in-one laptop so I could sketch on one screen and see the reference on the other. I would expect these Duo type of laptops are the future.
Had this thing for a few days, but ultimately had to return it. It's an unreal fingerprint magnet. I'm not generally concerned about this, but Asus must have engineered the surface specifically to collect prints.
Many of these newer finishes will settle down about fingerprints after you've handled them enough to fill in the surface texture with oils from your hands. Not necessarily the case here, but for one example: the screen on my 2020 Ideapad felt terrible to draw on until it was evenly coated with oils, kind of like seasoning a skillet. The outer lid was also a print magnet until a couple months into owning it.
Awesome review! Thanks for sharing what works and what doesn't work as well. Would you still say it makes sense to buy last year's edition (with Interl or AMD CPU) given that this is now out? I intent to keep my device for 5+ years, mostly light office work and watching videos.
Lisa, I always feel bad for not being a regular viewer, but every few years when I'm looking for a new device, I binge your channel. Thanks for the excellent reviews!