Links/Cost Talk

Important Points/Summary

Asus is testing the market with this laptop to see if people are willing to pay a lot more for a budget laptop and therefore at the same price even Asus' own premium laptops exists. If it succeeds and people buy these laptops at the given price, Asus will increase the prices for it's premium lineups also. You decide what to do here.

• Only buy the 32GB RAM Variant. Ignore 16GB completely even if your use case is very low.
  • Windows is becoming more and more bloated everyday. Having an AMD CPU means that you will not have any RAM left because both your CPU and Windows will eat up the RAM even before you have opened up a single program to run.
• Wait for laptop to get as close to 125k as it can:
  • The 32GB Variants on Asus India or Amazon India shows an MRP of over Rs.200k and started selling at Rs.170k which is absolutely not worth it. Yes, even for a thin and light 14" AI HX 370 CPU with a dedicated graphics card. If this was a "proper" premium device for the same specs, I would have been all for it. But for this budget laptop, no. Let it drop to as close to Rs.125k as it can, yes a 50k discount on the given price. This is still a TUF series, a budget laptop with it's budget problems like high temps, lower quality components and internal plastic body which will be apparant a few years later.
• This is for a specific use case: Thin low GPU usage on the go and high GPU usage at home.
  • This is not a laptop for the masses. It's for people who want a thin and light laptop low gpu usage laptop with a small PD Charger(buy separately) on the go but also have a decent dedicated GPU when they can carry the huge 200W charger with them.
  • Those features come at huge costs like high thermals and soldered RAM.
• Alternatives:
  • This above use case is quite common and Lenovo's Legion 7 have been actually known for these use cases and in fact Asus' own Zephyrus lineups are a much better alternative if available which don't cost that much more than this.
• Don't get it without ADP:
  • Get ADP/LADP of three years for Rs.5000 from Asus itself if you're considering buying it from asuspromo.in due to reasons.

Videos

16GB Soldered RAM Talk

16GB soldered RAM can't really be put in pro or con. It's a deal-breaker for many. If you're an engineering student, completely avoid the 16GB Variants, in fact I would go so much so that avoid all laptops with soldered RAM of less than 32GBs and if you're thinking of high RAM usage work like Virtual Machines, 3D modelling and large spreadsheets and a lot more, avoid any laptop with soldered RAM completely. The problem is most people don't know what they will do in the future, what they might want to run or not run, so it's better to get something that's more future proof than this. Soldered RAM is bad in itself but getting 16GB Soldered RAM is just not future proof now. Windows 11 is getting bloated and bloated and you will want to install that for software compatibility, gaming and 

Pro et contra

Pros:

• Very Light: Only 1.5kgs.
• Full work day on a gaming laptop:
  • Best battery life in a gaming laptop on Integrated Graphics due to the CPU and the smaller display size.
• Two M.2 SSD Slots.
• Big glass trackpad.
• Doesn't look like a gaming laptop so you can take it to work.
• Keyboard is good.

Neutral:

• Even though the laptop heats up, the high temperatures aren't near WASD keys.
• Good Typing Experience.
• Windows hello so face unlock.
• Good Port selection.
• 4060(75+25W) gives 90% of the performance of a proper 4060 (115W) which is alright considering it's a smaller device.
• 1600p 165Hz IPS Display.
• USB 4 port with Display Port output. 
• Smaller micro-SD card reader and not a  full one.
  • Slow SD Card. Almost 1/4th the speed of a normal one.
• Included adapter is a huge bulky brick but you can use a PD charger on the go which will automatically use iGPU instead of dGPU for better battery life. → This needs solid confirmation, about the being charging on the go bit.
• ?USB 4 is there but no mention of thunderbolt?
• Webcam is okay in good light.
• When using a lighter 100W PD charger both windows and Asus will complain as shown in pictures.
• No PWM so good and less reflective panel so 400 nits will suffice.
• Both SSD are full size so good.
• Turbo mode is very loud.

Cons:

• Soldered RAM.
• Budget laptop so build quality issues.
  • Flimsy Hinges
    • Hinges make sound during adjustments.
  • Thermals aren't great.
    • The keyboard part heats 10°C more than other laptops under load and also under normal load reaching 50° under high load.
  • Speakers are pathetic. Low Volume.
  • Main body is of plastic, some parts are metal.
    • Bottom Plate and outer lid is aluminum.
    • Keyboard Deck and Palm rest is plastic.
• CPU reaches 92 degrees in high work load.
• Indicators are at the back.
• 81% DCI-P3 so not for people looking for color accurate work.
  • Also no HDR.
  • Display isn't calibrated out of the box.
• No camera shutter.
• Lowest Wifi Speed in the class.

Benchmarks

CPU/GPU:

• Geekbench: 2900 13800
• Cinebench 2024: 1090
• 3D Mark Steel Nomad: 2388
• 3DMark Time Spy Overall: 10518 CPU: 10930 GPU: 10449
• PCMark 10:
  • Overall: 10021
  • Essentials: 10125
  • Productivity: 11801
  • Digital Content Creation: 12449
  • Gaming: 18322

Battery Life: 

• 50% Screen Brightness Browser/Video Test: 10 hours ^[3]
• 50% Screen Brightness iGPU Gaming Hades 2 - 1200p - High: 3:19 hours ^[3]

Specs:

From Asus India.

Pictures:

Warning on using smaller charger:

Outside Pics

Ports:

Display Specs/Benchmarks:

GPU Specs:

SSD:

Wifi Card:

Internals:

References

1. Amazon India Verified Reviews Only
2. Notebook Check Reviews
3. ETA Prime Youtube Review
4. Alex Kidman Youtube Review
5. Zitseng
6. Laptop Media
7. Eftm
8. Digit.in
9. Gadgets360