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Asus Zenbook S 14 review: the Lunar Lake laptop delivers power and beauty at a price

10:27 pm | September 27, 2024

Asus Zenbook S 14: Two-minute review

The Asus Zenbook S 14 with its lid closed on a desk next to a cactus — Thin and powerful (Image credit: Future)

The Asus Zenbook S 14 has given us our first real look at what an Intel Lunar Lake laptop is capable of, and we’re definitely impressed by what we’ve seen.

Its ceralumium design is stunning, with the material boasting a rugged nature in a lightweight and slim package (coming in at 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and a thickness of 1.2cm / 0.5 inches). Best of all, it doesn’t get easily ruined by fingerprint smudges – something which can’t be said for many other laptops we’ve tested.

The 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display is also beautiful, offering a fluid experience as you scroll through page after page, and a great screen for watching a film after a busy day of work. Unfortunately, the 14-inch screen size can feel a little cramped the moment you want to run two windows side-by-side.

I also wish it had a few more ports. The five the Zenbook S 14 offers isn’t always enough, and I would have been happy to sacrifice some sleekness to sneak in an extra USB port and maybe an SSD card slot.

Performance-wise there’s less to complain about. In our benchmarks and real world tests, the Asus Zenbook S 14 performed very well, and we have no doubt it’ll serve you well as a productivity machine – even when you’re trying to complete several tasks on the PC at once.

Though if you’ve been drawn in by Intel’s boasts about Lunar Lake’s gaming performance, don’t get it twisted. While this machine can run titles like Cyberpunk 2077, you're not getting any higher than the lowest graphical settings, so if gaming prowess is something you value I’d highly recommend looking elsewhere (especially at this price - more on that in a moment).

The AI side of things are a little trickier to test right now, because while this machine is Copilot+ ready thanks to Lunar lake’s superb NPU, Copilot+ itself isn’t ready – the new features don’t arrive until November. Though when they do arrive, this laptop should have the specs to handle everything Microsoft wants to throw at it.

However this power and beauty comes at a price – $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399 for the standard Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD storage model to be precise. And in the UK things can get even pricier; this review has us testing out the £1,749 model, which boasts a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, and an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V Processor.

Asus Zenbook S 14: Price and availability

How much does it cost? Starts at $1,499.99 / £1,299 / AU$3,399
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The Asus Zenbook S 14 has a few model variants depending on where you live. The standard model available in the US, UK, and Australia costs $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399 and nets you an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

In the UK you can also find a more affordable £1,299 model which sports an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V Processor , 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. There's a top of the line model as well with a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, and an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V Processor which costs £1,749. At the time of writing, there’s no word yet when these models (especially the souped up Ultra 9 model) will make it to other regions.

This review was conducted using the top of the line specs, so I can get a feel for what Asus’ best Zenbook S 14 model is capable of.

Asus Zenbook S 14: Specs

Asus Zenbook S 14: Design

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from behind, showing off its back shell — Fingerprint free (Image credit: Future)

Ceralumium finish looks beautiful
Lightweight and durable
Too few ports

This slim and lightweight laptop (weighing in at 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and measuring just 1.2 cm / 0.5 inches thick) is ideal for sticking in your rucksack and carrying with you all day with little challenge.

But being lightweight doesn’t mean it isn’t durable. The Zenbook S 14 is clad in Asus’ new ceralumium material which it says combines the best properties of ceramic and aluminum to create a portable yet resilient laptop, which also looks gorgeous. Our Computing Editor Christian Guyton likened the laptop’s look and feel to an ancient Roman tablet in these regards and I can absolutely see where he’s coming from. Oh, and did we mention ceralumium is 100% recyclable, which Asus says is part of its more sustainable approach to making tech.

Beyond aesthetics, one of my favorite aspects of the new ceralumium finish is that it doesn’t get easily marked by fingerprints. My partner uses an older Asus Flip and the back is always looking smudgy. The Zenbook S 14 on the other hand is looking as clean as the day I unboxed it – if you ignore the touchscreen.

Speaking of, I love the touchscreen. I like to pretend I’m a laptop purist who just wants to rely on a classic mouse (or trackpad) and keyboard to navigate menus, but every time I try a touchscreen PC I find it so convenient, and I got so used to it with the S 14 that when I swapped back to my personal PC I actually tried to swipe on my regular monitor like a fool.

It’s time for me to accept that touchscreen laptops aren’t just a gimmick, though remember to clean your screen every so often.

And it’s worth keeping the screen clean as the 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display looks beautiful. It’s perfect for watching a movie or show after a long day’s work – with the OLED providing perfect contrast in those dark scenes that are tough to follow on typical LCDs – and the refresh rate makes scrolling through pages a more fluid experience. Though if you’re trying to run two windows side by side the 14-inch screen can feel a little cramped.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from the side to show off its HDMI, USB-C, and audio jack ports — Not too bad for ports on this side (Image credit: Future)

Ports-wise, the Asus Zenbook S 14 boasts five of them – an HDMI 2.1 port, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm audio port on the left, and a 3.2 Gen 2 USB Type-A port on the right.

I would have liked at least one more USB Type-A port so I wouldn’t have to unplug my mouse whenever I want I want to use an external drive, and don’t feel the extra couple of millimeters it would have added would ruin the S 14’s sleekness. Granted, you can always supplement the Zenbook's ports with one of our picks for the best USB-C hubs as a simple solution.

Design score: 4/5

Asus Zenbook S 14: Performance

Lunar Lake performs well even under pressure
Ready for Copilot+ to launch

The Asus Zenbook S 14 I’ve been testing is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chipset from its latest Lunar Lake chip release. Throw in 32GB of RAM and it’s no wonder this laptop was able to perform well in our benchmarks – save for an oddly disappointing Geekbench score, I ran it a few times and it performed consistently at this level.

Asus Zenbook S 14 review: Benchmarks

Here's how the Asus Zenbook S 14 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 28,199; Fire Strike: 7,124; Time Spy: 3,619
Cinebench R23: Multi-core: 9,195; Single-core 1,822
Geekbench 6.3: Multicore: 10,615; Single-core: 2,565
PCMark 10: 6,954
Crossmark: Overall:1,759 ; Productivity:1,596 ; Creativity: 2,127 ; Responsiveness: 1,334
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 20 hours, 22 minutes

Regardless, the Asus handled everything I threw at it with aplomb – even that one time I was listening in on a video team meet, while also running Lofi Girl’s YouTube livestream for some relaxing tunes, and had plenty of other tabs open in the background that I needed to help me research an article I was typing up.

It’s responsive too, booting up speedily and opening up apps without leaving me waiting around for noticeable periods. Though I did have some issues loading up some of the benchmarking tools when I started testing it – since then however, I can report I faced zero hiccups.

You’ll also find this machine is equipped with a powerful NPU (it can perform 48 trillion operations per second) for handling AI tasks, plus a dedicated button for calling on Windows Copilot (and Copilot+ when it launches later this year) when you want to talk with the chatbot. Asus says this NPU helps to deliver a 173% better AI performance compared with last gen’s Intel chips, so if you care about onboard AI efficiency, it’s an important factor to consider.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from its other side to show off one USB port — Another USB port wouldn't hurt (Image credit: Future)

While this laptop is not a gaming machine, I did give it a whirl with a few personal favorites including Marvel Snap and Cyberpunk 2077 to see how well it could do – the latter of which was the title Asus used in its announcement presentation to explain the performance improvements offered by the new Lunar Lake chipset.

With every graphics setting at its lowest option – at higher settings things were noticeably choppy – and my PC’s power settings at Best Performance, I was able to successfully explore Night City and complete a few missions without much issue. A dedicated external mouse is a must, and the laptop did run hot, but it did work even if the experience was a little rough around the edges.

If gaming is a priority, you’ll be far better served by the best gaming laptops, but if you like to occasionally amuse yourself every so often and aren’t concerned with graphical or performance excellence this Zenbook does a passable job.

Performance score: 4.5/5

Asus Zenbook S 14: Battery

When Asus announced its latest range of laptops, one standout feature was the Zenbook’s battery life, which under the company’s offline movie test conditions achieved a total runtime of 27 hours. In our version, we didn’t get quite as much juice out of it, but it was still phenomenally impressive – clocking in at 20 hours and 22 minutes.

In a more real world test, once it was back up to 100% battery I took it out on a press trip which had me traveling all day. I took my charger with me just in case, but ended up not needing it. The laptop easily survived the day trip, and went until about 3pm the next day, at which point the Zenbook S 14 alerted me that it was time to plug it back in because its battery was starting to run low.

Battery score: 5/5

Should you buy the Asus Zenbook S 14?

Buy it if...

You need a big battery
If you need a laptop that can easily go a whole working day without needing a recharge then this machine will serve you well.

You need something light and powerful
At 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and just 1.2 cm / 0.5 inches thick, this Asus machine is super portable, yet still manages to deliver a punchy performance.

You care about AI
Intel’s Lunar Lake chips pack a serious AI performance upgrade compared with last gen’s models. If this is an area you care about you’ll want a laptop that packs one like the Zenbook S 14.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
While this PC has a solid performance to back up its price tag, $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399.00 isn’t cheap. If you’re on a budget you’ll need to wait for a sale or find a different laptop.

Gaming is a priority
Yes the Zenbook S 14 can technically run games like Cyberpunk 2077 (if you crank the graphics settings all the way down), but if gaming is near the top of your priority list, this ain’t the laptop for you.

You want plenty of ports
Slimmer laptops like this often sacrifice a few ports as they simply aren’t thick enough to accommodate them, and from my experience, one sole USB Type-A port can be inconvenient at times.

Also Consider

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M3)
The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch with M3 is one of the best lightweight laptops on the market, and its performance is top-notch too.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M3) review

Dell XPS 17 (9730)
If you want a powerful laptop and aren't so concerned with portability, then the Dell XPS 17 is one to check out.

Read our full Dell XPS 17 (9730) review

How I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14

I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14 laptop for two weeks
Tested it using productivity and creative applications and benchmarks
Stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

With any new laptop, I start by swapping it in for my work PC so I can get a feel for how it handles day-to-day workloads and get it warmed up. I then pass it through the gauntlet of TechRadar benchmark tests to see how its processor handles them, and get a sense for how long the battery lasts.

Because it's a portable laptop, I also made sure to take the Asus Zenbook S 14 on any press trips or when I commuted into the office to verify if it's lightweight enough for this task. I also made sure to keep an eye on its ventilation, and how hot the machine can get especially with high-stress tasks.

To round things off, I made sure to play a mix of games on the machine, something I was especially keen to try after seeing Lunar Lake's gaming credentials boasted about in several conferences.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed September 2024

LG Gram 17 (2024) review: a large, light laptop hamstrung by lots of noise and heat

6:56 pm | September 23, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: PC | Comments: Off

LG Gram 17: Two-minute review

The LG Gram 17 is a large but super-light and thin laptop, promising premium productivity performance in a portable package.

Design-wise, the LG Gram 17 is clean and sleek, keeping all its angles and surfaces as minimal as possible. As for build quality, the plastic body doesn’t inspire much confidence, although there’s no denying it saves weight. I found the hinge for the lid very loose, resulting in the display repeatedly rebounding on opening the laptop, which in my mind casted doubt over its durability.

The IPS display is certainly large, but it isn't exactly vibrant. Colors are rendered perfectly well, but LED and OLED displays are usually more impressive, even those with the same 2K resolution of the LG Gram 17. However, it does excel at preventing glare, as per LG's claims; I tried using it in various areas around my living space to produce some unfavorable angles for sunlight, and couldn't catch it out – it remained clear in most conditions.

In terms of performance, the LG Gram 17 handles the tasks it’s designed for with aplomb. The model on test was equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 and 32GB of RAM. It made short work of spreadsheet creation and word processing, and could deal with light photo editing. It also played back HD and 4K video content with ease.

During our benchmarking, it outperformed many of the best laptops – such as the Microsoft Surface 7 – for productivity. However, it wasn’t as impressive when it came to GPU workloads, including gaming. The Intel Arc GPU can’t match other high-end GPUs, such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 in the Dell XPS 17 (9730) we tested.

Mercifully, the LG Gram 17 is mostly free from the bloatware that can plague other Windows laptops. LG’s software suite is mixed in terms of usefulness, but it wasn’t too intrusive or resource-heavy. The most egregious app was LG Recovery and Update, but this only popped up occasionally, and offered desirable updates when it did – although it did fail to make clear that some updates will cause the system to shut down without notice.

The most useful tool in the suite is LG Gram Link, which allows you to connect mobile devices to transfer files and mirror screens both ways. You can also use it to control your mobile device with the LG Gram 17’s trackpad and keyboard. For the most part, all these functions work as intended, although lag and slowdown can be an issue at times.

The battery is very good for this class of laptop, lasting more than 12 hours in our tests, which involved a battery benchmark using PCMark, in addition to running a 1080p 30fps video on a continuous loop. For comparison, the Dell XPS 17 (9730) only managed a little over nine hours, while the Microsoft Surface 7 quit after 10 hours.

One of the major problems with the LG Gram 17, though, is the noise and heat it generates under load. This was apparent even during setup, with the fans whirring up near the start of the process. The low-pitched hum would then elevate during heavy workloads, to the point of becoming distracting. The underside and the keys also became very hot to the touch, giving me cause for concern.

Another issue that severely hampers the LG Gram 17 is the keyboard. Although I usually welcome the inclusion of a number pad, here it forces the character keys too far to the left, creating an awkward typing position. It also means the palm of your right thumb rests on the trackpad, with movements being registered as cursor swipes and sometimes even taps. In addition, the keys, while they feel satisfying and pleasant to tap, can sometimes fail to register, especially the "o" key, which caused me no end of frustration.

This is a hotly contested space, and you'd expect the LG Gram 17 to deliver on its premium promises given the price it commands. However, there are simply better value alternatives that offer not just lightning performance, but also a better design and user experience.

If you’re after a large laptop with plenty of power, then the Dell XPS 17 (9730) is a solid choice. If you want a smaller form factor but still want performance, then our current pick as the best laptop around, the Microsoft Surface 7, would be a great alternative.

LG Gram 17: Price & availability

back of LG Gram 17 — (Image credit: Future)

£1,999 (about $2,640 / AU$3,910)
Available in three colorways
High-end specs

The LG Gram 17 costs £1,999 (about $2,640 / AU$3,910) and is available now. It arrives in your choice of three finishes – black, white, or charcoal gray – and it can be had with between 16-32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and a 1TB or 2TB NVMe SSD. As for graphics, you have a choice of either an Intel Arc or Intel Iris XE Graphics GPU.

At this price, the LG Gram 17 is competing in the premium sector, rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 – which, in our view, is the best business laptop . That machine is superbly built with an excellent keyboard and display. Specs-wise, it does come in behind the LG Gram 17, and so do its costlier range-topping variants. However, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 is durable and built to last, delivering your money’s worth.

At the other end of the market sits the Acer Travelmate P4, which can be had for as little as $400. For that, you do get lesser specs, with older CPUs and no NVMe SSD options, but we still found it to be a very competent performer.

If you desperately want a 17-inch display, then we think the Dell XPS 17 (9730) is the best laptop with a large screen. It’s also replete with Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, perfect if you’re after serious gaming and content creation pedigree.

LG Gram 17: Specs

LG Gram 17 closed on desk — (Image credit: Future)

LG Gram 17: Design

Close-up of LG Gram 17 trackpad — (Image credit: Future)

Very light for a large laptop
Number pad compromises ergonomics
Keystroke and trackpad issues

As with many Windows laptops in recent years, the LG Gram 17 takes design cues from Apple’s MacBook line. It keeps to a minimal aesthetic, with clean edges and surfaces unsullied by unnecessary bulges or protrusions.

However, almost immediately on opening its lid my confidence in the build quality of the LG Gram 17 was sapped. The hinge is incredibly loose, meaning the display ricochets like a pendulum. It could be argued this is the price you pay for such an effortless mechanism, but I don’t think this bodes well for its longevity.

In fact, the premium feel is lacking from the entire chassis – although, again, this may be the sacrifice for keeping the LG Gram 17's weight down. And for a 17-inch laptop, it's impressively light and thin, which makes traveling with it far less hassle than it otherwise would; it slotted nicely into my backpack for my commute to the office, and I didn’t feel overburdened. There’s no doubt that as large laptops go, the LG Gram 17 is one of the most portable around.

The keys are compact and well made. The trackpad is highly engineered and large, too, with a very smooth surface that creates little friction. This makes for pleasant and precise swipes and gestures.

As fond as I am of number pads, incorporating one in the LG Gram 17 does compromise its ergonomics. It means the character keys are forced over to the left, which I found made the typing position more awkward, with my right hand closer to the left than I’m used to.

It’s welcoming to see a large screen that isn’t compromised by a thick bezel. What's a shame, though, is how much the bezel protrudes on the LG Gram 17, with the display itself set quite far back – another area where you can tell corners have been cut, and where it fails to live up to the sleekness of Apple’s laptops, despite its attempts to emulate their style.

LG Gram 17 keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

The display itself uses IPS technology, which produces a fine enough image. However, it fails to impart a level of sharpness you'd expect from the 2L/ WQXGA resolution. On smaller screens that same resolution looks sharp and sleek, but that fidelity starts to deteriorate once it’s stretched out to 17-inch. However, what can be said in its favor is its anti-glare properties, which do indeed help to retain visibility even in bright sunlight.

As for port selection, the LG Gram 17 has two USB-C and two USB-A ports, the former pair on the left and the latter on the right. There’s also a headphone output, a microSD card slot, and an HDMI port. Oddly, the latter is located before the USB-C ports, meaning that your charging cable will be plugged in closer to the front than you'd expect, which might upset those who are particular about cable management.

The keys are well damped with just enough travel, making for a snappy and satisfying feel. However, all too frequently my keystrokes would fail to register, in particular when hitting the "o" key, for reasons I struggle to fathom. As a conservative estimate, I'd say that more than half the time presses would result in nothing appearing on-screen.

Another typing issue is the aforementioned position of the character keys. As well as making the hand position awkward, it also resulted in my right thumb palm resting on part of the trackpad. Occasionally, this would cause swipes and taps to register.

For any laptop, these two issues pose a major obstacle for getting work done. However, for one such as the LG Gram 17, designed with productivity in mind, it’s close to unforgivable. These may just be personal issues, with others unaffected; but I’ve never had typing issues to this degree on other laptops I’ve tried.

Conversely, I also experienced too many occasions where the trackpad would fail to register taps I performed deliberately. However, in other aspects, the trackpad is great to use. It’s smooth and accurate, while swipes and gestures are easy to perform consistently, thanks to the responsiveness.

LG Gram 17: Performance

The LG Gram 17 is fast when it comes to performing most productivity tasks. Everything from knocking out spreadsheets and word processing to low-key photo editing is within reach. And, when it comes to downtime, video playback is fast and smooth, even with 4K content. The Intel Core Ultra 7 certainly appears to live up to expectations.

LG Gram 17: Benchmarks

3DMark: Night Raid: 16,752; Fire Strike: 6,131; Time Spy: 2,908
Cinebench R23: 1,595 (single-core); 9,746 (multi-core)
GeekBench 6.3: 2,198 (single-core); 11,358 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home test): 6,039
PCMark 10 (Battery test): 5,477
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 12 hours, 12 minutes

For more intensive workloads, the LG Gram 17 is somewhat inconsistent. In our benchmarking tests, it scored well on office-based tasks. It beat the Microsoft Surface 7 in the PCMark Home test, although it did lose to it in GeekBench single- and multi-core tests with considerably lower scores.

For more graphics-heavy workloads, scores weren’t so great either. The LG Gram 17 still beat the Surface 7, but in our Dell XPS 17 (9730) review, this laptop performed far better – not exactly surprising, given the LG Gram 17 I had to test came with an Intel Arc GPU, rather than an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 featured in the XPS 17 (9730) we tested.

Thankfully, the LG Gram 17 keeps the bloatware to a minimum, with only a handful of LG apps preinstalled. Most of these function well for the most part, and refrain from eating into performance or bombarding you with notifications. The LG Recovery and Update can intrude at times with notifications; but, thankfully, most of them are worthy of your attention.

Other LG apps include ThinQ, which, quite frankly, seemed redundant, only letting me contact support; and LG Gram Link, which lets you connect with your mobile device, allowing for file sharing to screen mirroring. Both function well, although the mobile app did have trouble connecting to my network until an update fixed the issue.

LG Gram 17 right side ports — (Image credit: Future)

Mirroring my phone screen on the LG Gram 17 worked well, but keyboard and trackpad inputs were sluggish. You can also duplicate and extend the LG Gram 17 display on your smartphone, and this is more responsive, although I think it would be better to mirror on a tablet than a small smartphone screen. Using the keyboard and trackpad to control my phone was also responsive during my tests, although for some reason I wasn’t able to scroll web pages on the Chrome mobile app.

One of the chief annoyances I had with the LG Gram 17 was the noise. Occasionally – and especially when setting up – there would be a low-end hum, elevating to a higher pitch and louder volume under more intensive workloads. I was almost convinced it was the sound of a hard disk, as it sounded very similar.

After the initial setup, fan noise became less frequent, but would still rear its ugly head from time to time. In addition, the base of the LG Gram 17 would also on occasion become hot, which would be uncomfortable if using the machine on your lap. Sometimes, even the keys themselves became hot to the touch. This was a real cause for concern, and didn’t instill me with much confidence to use the LG Gram 17 for heavy workloads over long stretches.

As far as the speakers go, they perform well enough, offering a balanced sound without distortion. They don’t have much impact, but compared to most other laptops, they acquit themselves admirably.

LG Gram 17: Battery

LG Gram 17 left side ports — (Image credit: Future)

Although LG doesn’t provide a figure for the battery life of the Gram 17, it does claim it to be “ultra-long”. During my tests, I found it could handle more than a whole day’s worth of work.

I tested the battery life by using the 3DMark benchmarking tool, as well as playing a 1080p 30fps video on a loop. From a full charge, the LG Gram 17 lasted an impressive 12 hours and 12 minutes before shutting down.

This means the LG Gram 17 eclipses the Microsoft Surface 7, our current pick as the best laptop overall, which lasted about 10 hours during our tests. It also beats our pick for the best large laptop, the Dell XPS 17 (9730), which managed 9 hours and 5 minutes.

Should you buy the LG Gram 17?

LG Gram 17 Intel Evo sticker — (Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

You want something large but light
It’s impressive how the LG Gram 17 manages to fit a big display in such a light package, making it a lot easier to travel with than you might expect.

You’ll be using it for work
The LG Gram 17 handles office-based tasks well, including intensive ones. It’s also very capable of entertaining you with its hi-res content streaming pedigree.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
There’s no getting away from it: the LG Gram 17 is expensive, and there are cheaper alternatives out there that offer the same performance.

LG Gram 17: Also consider

How I tested the LG Gram 17

Tested for one week
Performed various tasks and benchmarking
Plentiful experience with PC laptops

I tested the LG Gram 17 for about a week, trying out its features and functions. I used it for a variety of tasks, from streaming video and editing photos, to general productivity and browsing. I also worked with it on a desktop and my lap on a sofa, and in various lighting conditions, too. I commuted with it to test its portability.

I put the LG Gram 17 through TechRadar’s benchmarking procedure, which involves using multiple tools repeatedly to test laptops and desktops as thoroughly as possible. These emulate various workloads, from productivity and content editing to gaming.

I have plenty of experience with laptops of all varieties, from Windows machines, MacBooks and Chromebooks. I also have experience testing tablets and using desktop PCs for gaming.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Two-minute review

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i solves a problem for that small subset of users always frustrated with the limited amount of screen most laptops offer. And while using an external monitor is the easiest and most mainstream way to solve that problem, you’re either dealing with one that stays at home, or is an extra item to carry with you as is the case with the best portable monitors.

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i then is probably among the best laptops for those who want to be able to compose an email or article without having to switch over to a different window to look something up. It’s also great for anyone looking to do some light photo editing that feels restricted on a regular notebook.

Though it’s among the best Ultrabooks, in my estimation at least, it’s not the most powerful. Since it utilizes integrated graphics, it’s not quite there for those hoping to also edit videos on the road. And that’s a pity considering the price tag that this comes with, but that’s also the price you pay for having two gorgeous screens, a chic aesthetic, and a bunch of accessories that can turn this laptop into a pseudo-desktop experience.

Basically, this laptop is a fantastic computer experience that some will absolutely love and most will find to be too much computer. For me, it’s just about perfect.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Price and availability

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop closed — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

How much does it cost? Starting at $1,980 / £1,965 / AU$4,499
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK and Australia

In short, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is expensive. Yes, you’re paying for not one, but two OLED touchscreens with high resolutions, as well as the unique form factor. There’s also been plenty of care put into its design and aesthetics, not to mention that it comes with a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus along with a keyboard carrying case that turns into a stand.

But, its under-the-hood specs are not that of a $2,000 / £2,000 computer, so it does feel overpriced, even if OLED panels are going to increase the price of any computer that they come with. At least, the upgrades are fairly benign as going from 16GB of RAM to 32GB is $57 difference and going from a 512GB to a 1TB SSD is just $30.

Of course, if you’re in the UK, you have to accept both upgrades in tandem, but it’s only a £55 difference. If you’re in Australia, you’re unfortunately limited to the most basic model.

Currently, there’s really only one laptop to compare the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i to (discounting its previous iteration that’s basically the same thing with a slightly weaker processor and different port selection). That laptop is the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED. It starts at basically the same price point – $1,999.99 / £1,999.99 (about AU$3,134.28) – but has a slightly different approach to the whole two-screen setup, where one is smaller than the other and you can’t switch between a landscape and portrait mode like you can with the Yoga Book 9i. If you want to a deeper dive between the two models, we did put the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo and the Yoga Book 9i’s previous version in a head-to-head comparison.

Value: 4 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Specs

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is fairly limited in upgrades. There’s just one CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U, as well as its integrated graphics on offer. The only real customizations or upgrades available are with the RAM and SSD, where you can choose between 16 or 32GB and 512GB or 1TB, respectively.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Design

Gorgeous inside and out
Comes with bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus
Limited amount of ports

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i open in landscape mode with one monitor atop the other — The Yoga Book 9i can be used in landscape mode (pictured) or portrait mode. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Whether opened or closed, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is gorgeous. Its metallic Tidal Teal colorway covers not only the outer shell of the laptop itself, but the Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus that come with. The whole setup is almost as pretty as its two bright, vibrant OLED screens, connected by a thin panel housing the dual two-watt speakers.

Speaking of, those panels are touch-sensitive. This allows you to interact with it digitally (as in your fingers), with the stylus, or to place it in “laptop mode” so that the lower screen sits where a keyboard would typically sit. This way, you don’t have to carry all the extras with you if you don’t. You would just use a particular eight-finger tap gesture to pull up a virtual keyboard.

To go along with the touchscreens, this is essentially a 2-in-1 notebook, so you can flip into tablet mode, which disengages one of the screens, or place it in tent mode, etc. However, I prefer using the stand, which doubles as the keyboard cover and carrying case to prop up the two screens. You can use the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i in either landscape mode, where one screen sits atop the other, or in portrait mode, where they’re side-by-side. I prefer the former, though I can see the latter being very useful to programmers or anyone needing to see two different windows next to each other.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop in portrait mode, with one monitor next to the other — Yoga Book 9i in portrait mode (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

It’s a unique experience, really only hampered by its price. And while I’ve heard of some having issues with the previous generation when in laptop mode, because programs would pop up in front of the virtual keyboard, I have not had that happen to me.

Laptop mode really only falls short insofar that using a virtual keyboard kind of stinks. There’s no tactile feedback and you’re probably going to have to look at it to know where all the keys are. At least it pulls up a virtual trackpad as well.

The Bluetooth accessories, however, are a pleasure to use. The keyboard is compact and clips on to the stand magnetically to stay stable. And though it’s tiny, its keys are not, so I never felt cramped typing on it. It’s not going to match up with the best mechanical keyboards, but it’s good enough to type up this article.

The mouse is fairly minimalist, but works as needed, not to mention feels fairly accurate. It also has the added benefit of being able to wirelessly connect to two devices, so you can use it with other laptops or computers if you like.

While I’m not a big stylus user, it was nice to the touch – they all have that textured aluminum feel - and seemed responsive during use.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop, closed, next to its Bluetooth accessories — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The port selection here is a little bit of a letdown, especially considering that the previous iteration had a decent amount of variety. This version of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i falls squarely into the MacBook Air-style less is more camp with its three Thunderbolt 4 ports. There’s not even a headphone jack.

As far as physical controls go, there are just two – a power button and a privacy shutter button, the latter of which I appreciate being included.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Performance

Great for day-to-day tasks, not so much for demanding ones
Two equally visually stunning screens
Surprisingly good sound for a laptop

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Fire Strike: 4921; Time Spy: 2208; Night Raid: 18128

GeekBench 6.2.2: 2317 (single-core); 8887 (multi-core)

25GB File Copy: 16.37

Handbrake 1.6.1: 9:23

CrossMark: Overall: 1361 Productivity: 1386 Creativity: 1391 Responsiveness: 1206

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p): 19.421 fps

Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 7:38:10

When it comes to the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i’s performance, it’s quite excellent for day-to-day tasks, powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and 16 or 32GB of RAM. I was able to have multiple tabs open at once, including having streaming video playing at the same time as I was doing work.

But, since it just has integrated Intel Arc graphics, it can’t do a whole lot of heavy lifting. If you think of this laptop as a unique Ultrabook with extra screen real estate, that’s not really an issue. If you want to do demanding tasks, such as video editing, you’re not really going to do it.

While you can certainly take a look at our benchmarks to confirm this, I did a little testing with video games. I found out that this laptop even struggles with older titles. Consider the fact that it manages under 20 fps in Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

Now, no one looking at this computer is going to think "gaming laptop," but it’s just a good way to test how much power this laptop has. If you do photo editing, you’ll be fine as long as you’re not converting or editing batch files. If you want to do video editing, this is probably not the way to go.

And that’s a shame because the two 13.3-inch OLED screens look so good. Not only does it have color coverage of 191.2% sRGB and 135.4% DCI-P3 through testing (Lenovo actually rates it 100% DCI-P3), but it has an incredibly accurate screen with a Delta E < 0.27 (the closer to zero the better).

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop on a desk — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The screens also have a VESA-certified DisplayHDR True Black 500 rating, so the contrasts in shadows really pop out. Both screens are pretty bright at 400 nits. If you want superlatives, the two panels look gorgeous, with an eye-poppingly wide range of colors.

Surprisingly, the sound quality is pretty good for a laptop. No, it’s not going to compete with external speakers, but typically laptop speakers sound hollow and like they’re coming from a small, thin box (because they are). Here, the sound is actually fairly full, just missing some low end.

If you’re considering this laptop for work and do a lot of video conferencing, know that the webcam is pretty sharp, though not the smoothest with a 1440p resolution at 30Hz.

Lastly, like every laptop these days, you have some AI functionality such as Copilot built in. The AI elements that anyone will notice are more of a Windows thing, and is still somewhat half-baked, so don’t use that for too much consideration when looking at this laptop.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Battery life

Decent but not great battery life
Slight drop in battery life going from laptop mode to dual-screen

When one thinks of Ultrabooks these days, long battery life is usually a given. However, with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, you can’t quite expect to get 13 or 14 hours of use on a single charge. And if you think about it, it’s not surprising given that it’s powering two screens. On top of that, in my (anecdotal) experience, OLED panels seem to require a little more juice.

Still, the seven and a half hours that it can reach up to in laptop mode is pretty decent when keeping that in mind. The battery life drops down to six hours and 45 minutes in two screen mode, which is surprisingly minimal. You need to remember, however, that the second screen is still on and in use in this mode, though it’s usually just showing the virtual keyboard instead of something more active or vibrant.

Battery life: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i?

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i in laptop mode — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Buy it if…

You want gorgeous screens

Two OLED screens are better than one, and the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i proves it. Plus, the extra screen real estate might be a game changer for certain people who need to have multiple tabs open at once.

You need extra screen real estate

You could get an external, portable monitor to pair with your laptop, but that’s cumbersome. With this laptop, you have two 13.3-inch screens that you can use in multiple modes.

You want something shiny

Let’s be honest, most of us want a device that looks good. If you’re willing to splurge, this laptop is an eye-catcher. No doubt, it will be for others if you pull this out at a cafe.

Don’t buy it if…

You don’t want to spend two grand

If you’re not willing to splurge or need to stretch your cash, this is not the laptop for you. A lot of what you’re paying for is the unique layout and two OLED panels.

You don’t want to deal with extra devices

While you can use the Yoga Book 9i in laptop mode, it really comes alive with all its accessories. However, if you want to travel light and not worry about keeping track of them all, get a more traditional means of computing conveyance.

Also Consider

If our Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED takes a slightly different approach to the whole two-screen thing. If you want a laptop without the need of carrying a mouse, keyboard, stylus, and stand, this might be the way to go. Unfortunately, it’s just as pricey.

Read our full ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED review

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3)

If that second screen is a nice addition but not that important, the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) might be a better way to go. It has excellent performance with a long battery life, and is a great looking laptop that’s incredibly lightweight.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) review

How I tested the LenovoYoga Book 9i

Tested for three weeks
Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
Used it in different modes

I used the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i for three weeks in a number of different ways. I broke it out it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some light gaming, mainly running such as Poirot: The London Cases and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst (which it basically couldn’t run). I used the different modes to see how the experience would change, played around with the HDR, and took the webcam for a whirl.

After spending time with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, it’s clear that this is perfect for those who want extra screen real estate without dealing with an external, portable monitor or those who want something a little different, whether as a status symbol or just something that offers a different experience.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

First reviewed August 2024

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge review: zippy performance with a great display

7:00 pm | August 28, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: Microsoft Surface Laptop | Comments: Off

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Two-minute review

As Samsung's first Windows 11 Copilot+ PC, the Galaxy Book4 Edge has a lot going for it, including momentum in the space with more applications rolling out support. Still, though, the Book4 Edge has some pretty tough competition - some of which has the laptop beat in terms of design and battery life.

The Galaxy Book4 Edge impressed with its lightweight and thin build for the more prominent 16-inch size that we tested. The star, though, alongside plenty of ports, was the vibrant and immersive AMOLED display, which was great for word processing, image editing, building stories, and editing images – as well as for watching movies and TV shows or the occasional video call.

Performance, as we've come to expect from the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, was very impressive and made any task, aside from gaming, run smoothly. It also fixed the problem of a long wait to wake the laptop up from sleep. However, the Book4 Edge lacks overall battery life, so if you need a road warrior, you'd be better served by a Dell XPS 13 or Surface Laptop 7.

Even so, if you're after a big screen, the Galaxy Book4 Edge offers fast performance and deep integration with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, which other Copilot laptops cannot match. It's also heavily discounted, making the 14-inch or 16-inch models much more affordable.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $1,349.99 / £1,399 starting for the 14-inch or $1,449.99 / £1,499 starting for the 16-inch
When is it available? Available now
Where is it available? Available in the US and UK

Samsung's Galaxy Book4 Edge is currently available directly from the technology giant and authorized resellers like Best Buy in either a 14-inch or a 16-inch size. Know that if you want 1TB of storage or the faster 3.8GHz Snapdragon X Elite processor, you'll need the 16-inch size.

The 14-inch with 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and the 3.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite starts at $1,349.99 / £1,399, while the 16-inch with the same specs starts at $1,449.99 / £1,499. You'll need to pay more for the 3.8GHz processor and 1TB of storage at $1,749.99 or £1,699. For either model, though, Samsung is offering some substantial discounts.

It is also worth considering the Surface Laptop 7 since the 13-inch and 15-inch models are cheaper and have similar specs.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Specs

Specs: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Design

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge laptop's keyboard and trackpad — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

A big, expansive display housed in an ultra-slim, lightweight build
Plenty of ports
AMOLED screen is immersive and super punchy with colors

With a sleek aluminum build in a shade that Samsung has coined Sapphire Blue – truthfully mostly gray and silver with a dash of blue – the Galaxy Book4 Edge looks right at home alongside its other laptops. Mirroring Microsoft’s Surface Laptop lineup or many of Apple’s best MacBooks, the Book4 Edge also comes in two sizes: 14-inch or 16-inch.

I’ve spent several weeks with the bigger 16-inch, and while it offers an immersive experience from an AMOLED display, it’s strikingly lightweight and thin. Even with that large screen, it still feels very portable, thanks to a thin, tapered frame that allows for a good mix of ports. It's 0.48 inches thick and weighs just 3.4 grams, which makes it pretty lightweight for a laptop of this caliber. Furthermore, it’s a balanced weight that makes it easy to lift with just one hand and place on your lap for working on the fly.

However, with the 16-inch display, I’d say place it on a table at home or
a tray if you're out and about on a train or plane. The display here is one of my favorite aspects; Samsung has never been a slouch. Like Apple’s Mini LED Super Retina XDR displays on MacBook Pro, this AMOLED here is vibrant and punchy with colors but also delivers crisp, inky blacks for text. Everything pops, and if you’re into watching films or content on a laptop, it flies here well. It’s pretty accurate for image editing, and the boon over a Mac and competing laptops is the touch-enabled screen.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge's left-side port selection — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

You can easily connect to an external monitor if you need more real estate, though, as Samsung didn’t skimp on any ports here. The left side has an HDMI and two USB-C ports, while the right has a micro SD card slot, headphone jack, and USB-A port. The latter is nice to see on a modern, ultra-thin laptop in 2024.

Under the display in the main hull of the Galaxy Book4 Edge is a full-size keyboard with a function row and a number pad that feels cramped on the right hand side. It seems like a last-minute addition that didn't shake out in practice. The rest of the keys are a bit more expectedly sized and comfortable enough to type on, but there is significant travel here. To that effect, the keys don’t recoil a tremendous amount.

On the other hand, the trackpad is quite spacious and easy to navigate around the 16-inch AMOLED screen. With one swipe, you can quickly move a file from the top left to the bottom right.

So yes, any 16-inch laptop will be a behemoth, but Samsung’s approach was to slim it down and cut the weight. That’s effectively done here, so while the 16-inch Galaxy Book4 Edge is large, it has a bit of grace thanks to its lightweight and ultra-slim build that reminds me of Windows Ultrabooks from yonder.

Design: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Performance

An open Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge resting on a countertop — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Copilot works well here
Deep integration with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets for some really handy functionality
If the app is compatible, performance will fly

Like other AI PCs – including Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 or Dell’s XPS 13 – the Galaxy Book4 Edge is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest, the Snapdragon X Elite. In short, Windows 11 really moves here. It’s faster to wake from sleep, it can last a heck of a lot longer in multi-day standby, optimized applications open much faster, and it feels a lot more instantaneous in everyday use.

Of course, aside from general performance, the chip is also here to power some of the new AI features under the Copilot brand; there is even the dedicated key sandwiched between “ALT” and the number keys. Pressing it instantly (I’d say well under a second) brings up the Copilot app, which lets you chat with the assistant. From there, you can select a style for conversation – creative, balanced, or precise – and you’re off. Copilot was quick in my testing to provide topical answers on events, fast calculations, and even less specific ones. It will also employ “Designer” using DALL-E-3 to create images, be it a turtle underwater or a particular style of art recreation of a favorite city. Regardless of the answer, you’ll want to double-check it, though, since it’s AI and misinformation is possible.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge screen open to Copilot features — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

One Copilot feature that’s missing is Recall, though, as Microsoft is still working on it. With this promised feature, Windows will take screenshots and create a history of sorts. In its original form, this would have happened automatically, which caused some outcry, especially from a privacy perspective. If you’re keen to try it now, it’s available via the Windows Insider Program, but it’s still in beta and isn’t designed for everyday use. When it does roll out, you’ll be able to opt in or out of it.

Performance here is mostly in line with other Copilot laptops, namely thanks to a similar, if not the same, Snapdragon X Elite processor inside. Applications open quickly, and tasks are completed promptly, especially for optimized software. You will still encounter applications that aren’t, though, even to the degree where you might not be able to install them. The hope is that adoption will continue to grow, and that developers will roll out updates; Adobe is already working on updating its suite beyond Photoshop.

Samsung did some legwork here, though, and rolled out some really nice ecosystem features. If you have a Galaxy phone, this likely makes the Galaxy Book4 Edge the best AI PC to invest in – that can be doubled down if you have a Galaxy Tab since that can be used to extend your screen – no cables required.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge screen open to Samsung apps — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Benchmarks

Here's how the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Steel Nomad: 586; Fire Strike: 6,003; Time Spy: 2,174; Wild Life Unlimited: 29,078
GeekBench 6.3: 2,935 (single-core); 15,818 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 24.59 seconds
HandBrake 4k to 1080p encoding: 5:00 minutes
CrossMark Overall: 1,485; Productivity: 1,411; Creativity: 1,590; Responsiveness: 1,409
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 9:56:24
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Ultra): 24 fps; (1080p, Low): 21 fps

These Samsung apps are built-in, but you can find them under the Galaxy Book Experience. Folks with a Galaxy Z Flip or S will be right at home with Samsung Notes, Studio, SmartThings, Quick Share, and Phone Link. This lets you seamlessly bring elements from your phone to your laptop, like texts appearing on both, using your keyboard to respond on either, and even quickly sharing files between the two devices.

It all works pretty seamlessly, but the star is being able to control your Galaxy phone on the Book4 Edge, just like the forthcoming iPhone Mirroring app for macOS Sequoia. It wasn’t without a hitch, and I did experience a crash, but when it works, it’s convenient, especially if you left your phone charging in another room.

Even with this Galaxy-specific experience running alongside other Windows apps, you’ll be hard-pressed to make this laptop slow down or get overly hot. As you’d expect from a Windows laptop with the latest Qualcomm chips, performance is fast, and that goes for productivity or creative experiences. This means that the Book4 Edge is suitable for work and play if compatible.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Battery

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge's numpad and stickers — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Doesn't last as long as other Copilot laptops

Performance boosts aside, the other promised advantage of a Copilot laptop is greatly improved battery life. The Surface Laptop 7 in our review hit the mark with 15 hours in our battery test, while the Dell XPS 13 hit up to 20 hours. The latter is the best we’ve tested out of these new Windows laptops and beats out the Galaxy Book4 Edge by quite a bit.

In our standard video playback loop to test battery life, Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge lasts just shy of 10 hours at 9 hours and 56 minutes. It could be the AMOLED display, the larger size, or a smaller battery cell inside, but that is not the longest battery life by any stretch of the imagination…especially at this price point.

However, in qualitative use, you can get a full workday out of it if you can top it off at some point, mainly if you’re pushing it a bit harder with specific applications, as that will drain the power faster.

One big advantage, though, as I noted above, is that it does wake up pretty instantaneously from sleep, whether that be after a few minutes, hours, or days. Gone are the days of waiting for this to reboot.

Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge?

Buy it if...

You want a big, vibrant screen
If you're looking for a large-screen laptop with excellent visuals, look no further than the Galaxy Book4 Edge. Its vibrant and punchy AMOLED screen looks great in nearly any viewing condition.

You're in the Samsung ecosystem
Unlike any other Copilot PC, the Galaxy Book4 Edge offers custom-made functionality that works with Galaxy phones and tablets.

Don't buy it if...

You want long battery life
If you want a long runtime that can easily last a day, even with more intensive use cases, you'd be better served with a Surface Laptop 7 or Dell XPS 13.

You want a smaller screen

If you don't need a large display, you'll save some money by opting for a 13-inch Copilot laptop like the Surface Laptop 7.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Also consider

If you're aren't sold on Samsung's Galaxy Book4 Edge, consider these three alternative laptops.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

Just like the Galaxy Book4 Edge, the Surface Laptop 7 comes in two sizes – 13-inch or 15-inch – with excellent performance from the Snapdragon X Elite chip, all packaged in a slightly more premium build.

Check out our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review.

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge

I've spent nearly a month using the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge for work with applications like Edge, Slack, AirTable, the Microsoft Office Suite, and Google Chrome, as well as for play with countless applications. TechRadar ran a set of qualitative benchmarks to gauge performance. I matched those with my everyday performance in several scenarios, including being connected to power or running off battery indoors and outdoors.

To get a feel for the design, I used it in various locations and tested traveling with it with three backpacks to get a sense of versatility. I also wrote this review and countless other stories using the integrated keyboard and viewing them back on the display. I paid close attention to the Copilot experience and others that use the NPU in the Snapdragon X Elite processor.

To get a sense of the ecosystem integration, I used the Galaxy Book4 Edge alongside a Galaxy S24 Ultra, a Galaxy Tab, and a Galaxy Z Fold 5 to test the functionality with experiences like Quick Share, working with Samsung Notes, and mirroring my phone screen to the laptop.

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) review: incredible versatility and screens, held back by poor cooling

7:00 pm | August 25, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: CPU, OLED, SSD | Comments: Off

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Two-minute review

The Zenbook Duo has always been a bit of a curious laptop. These Asus portables lie on the fringes of what you’d expect from high-end premium notebooks, bringing something of a gimmick to the forefront to differentiate the Zenbook.

For the uninitiated, the Duo in the name refers to the fact that this Zenbook packs two separate screens. Now this specific edition for 2024 has twin OLED panels, both offering a 2,880 x 1,800 resolution at a 120Hz refresh rate. Both screens are 14 inches, and both are fixed together, with the laptop’s internal hardware interlinked between the two displays. Keyboard and mouse support is provided by a Bluetooth solution that can simultaneously pseudo “wirelessly” charge off the bottom display as well (there’s a pin connector basically).

The Asus Zenbook Duo laptop photographed on a wooden desk. — (Image credit: Future)

It’s a very different laptop design, then, and one that brings some major caveats with it. In particular, cooling with the Zenbook Duo takes a hit because of the real-estate that those twin screens take up, and the need for this device to be relatively thin. Higher spec models of the Zenbook Duo (2024), like the one we’re reviewing here, are decent enough in short-term bursts of activity, but struggle with any form of prolonged and demanding CPU workloads. Gaming in particular feels sluggish and is often on the verge of being unplayable, even at 1080p resolution with medium settings.

Still, pricing isn’t entirely unreasonable. In the US the Zenbook Duo (2024) retails on average for around $1,829, and in the UK about £2,000 or so, and you get some serious hardware in the laptop. It is, however, still more of a MacBook alternative rather than a serious work machine, and certainly not one of the best laptops around. For that, you’ll need to look at the Asus Zenbook Pro instead.

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Price and availability

How much does it cost? $1,829 / £2,000
When is it available? It's on sale now
Where can you get it? Newegg in the US, or Currys in the UK

At least on the surface, the Zenbook Duo appears to be remarkably good value for money. In our review model, Asus crammed in an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (Meteor Lake) processor with six performance cores, eight efficiency cores and two low-power cores (22-threads in total). This CPU has a rated maximum clock speed of 5.1GHz, and sports a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for accelerating AI tasks. You get 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM (soldered, of course), and for storage you’re looking at a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The biggest selling point, though, has to be those twin OLED displays. They’re vibrant, punchy, and really do make this laptop a joy to use, helping to justify the price tag.

There are a number of different Zenbook Duo (2024) models out there right now, and you can pick up one with a Core Ultra 7 processor, and a 1TB SSD plus 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM for a lot less than our review model here. Although be warned that lower-end variant does come with lower resolution (1080p) screens (and a slower refresh rate).

Price: 4 / 5

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Specs

Here are the specs for the Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) at a glance.

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Design

OLED screens are phenomenal
It all feels impressively premium
Some interesting hardware decisions

Okay, let me be clear here. I’ve been testing laptops for years, and have toyed around with a number of top-tier premium solutions, many of which have been Asus devices. The Zenbook Duo, from a purely physical perspective, is an absolutely outstanding notebook. Those dual screens are beautifully crisp, with an impressive response time (7.6ms MPRT when tested), and a buttery smooth refresh rate to cap it all. They’re bright, colorful, and gorgeous to behold.

The Duo’s not short on ports either, certainly not for a slim laptop. You get two USB Type-C, one USB-A (rated at 5Gbps), HDMI out, and a 4-pole 3.5mm analog jack as well. The keyboard (plus trackpad) is a Bluetooth affair, and, although not exactly thrilling with a simple design, it’s got an impressive battery life, and connects seamlessly to the Duo via magnets (and also charges pseudo-wirelessly via a pogo-pin off the Zenbook, as well).

The internal hardware is a little bit on the curious side, however. This particular model comes with the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, which is quite a thirsty – and toasty – chip. It has an NPU built in, making the processor somewhat more potent at handling AI operations (although nowhere near as powerful as a dedicated GPU), but it does require some serious cooling to keep all that potency in check. I’ll talk a little bit more about that later.

Other specs include 32GB of LPDDR5X soldered memory clocking in at an impressive 7,647MHz, and a 2TB WD SN740 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, which although hefty in capacity, does lack in some respects in terms of performance (I’ll come back to that, too).

Overall build quality is impressive, with tiny screen bezels, and the integrated webcam isn’t obtuse by any means. Asus has really done an incredible job of making this feel and act like a premium device.

You can use the Zenbook Duo in all manner of configurations. Detach the keyboard and run it wirelessly and you’ve got a flat screen on your table, and one propped up in front of you. Alternatively, you can pop the stand out on the bottom screen (the underside of the laptop) and perch both screens up on a table fairly seamlessly. You can also disable that bottom screen entirely by positioning the keyboard on top of it too, and even flip it onto its side, and run both displays in portrait mode, side-by-side.

It’s just a fantastically seamless experience all round really, and it’s a party trick that never quite gets old. Although one thing to note: if you do flip the Zenbook so both screens are portrait, you lose access to at least some of those ports on the bottom.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Performance

Day-to-day use is fine
CPU throttles during longer more intense workloads
SSD performance is underwhelming

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) benchmarks

Here's how the Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) performed in our suite of industry-standard benchmarks and game tests.

Geekbench 6:
Single - 2,330
Multi - 11,645
3DMark:
Night Raid - 23,008
Solar Bay - 11,989
CrossMark:
Productivity - 1,533
Creativity - 2,060
Responsiveness - 1,350
Overall -1,709
Cyberpunk 2077:
1080p - 17.8fps (Medium)
Total War: Warhammer III:
1080p - 16.3 (Medium)
Final Fantasy XIV:
1080p - 37.3 (Medium)
CrystalDiskMark:
Read: 5,242MB/s
Write: 4,813MB/s
Cinebench R24:
Single-core - 106
Multi-core - 429
PCMark 10 Battery Test: 8h 4m

I ran the Zenbook Duo through a gamut of tests to really weigh up its worth and see just how it performs, covering everything from longer creative CPU workloads, to gaming, to AI operations and everything between. Across the board, the Asus laptop is pretty average, which is a challenging thing to say when looking at an $1,800 laptop. Clearly the bulk of the manufacturing cost is spent on the displays.

The Core Ultra 9 185H is a hot and hungry CPU by its very design. Run the Zenbook Duo through any relatively short benchmark, like Geekbench 6 or CrossMark, and it’ll typically spit out some fairly decent numbers. Geekbench gives it a score of around 11,645, and by comparison, Asus’s Vivobook S 15, with its Arm-based Snapdragon X processor, flirts with 13,864 (19% faster) in that test. The Acer Swift Go 14, with its Core Ultra 5 125H, manages 10,809 (7% slower) as well.

Throw something a little more intense at the Duo, though, and soon enough the heat issues become apparent. In Cinebench 2024 the Zenbook Duo scored a paltry 429 in the multi-core test. The Core Ultra 5 in the Acer Swift managed 636, and the Vivobook S 15 an impressive 925 by comparison. That is a big difference, and it’s mostly down to clock speed falling off a cliff as the Zenbook throttles under the thermal load.

Then there’s the storage. Top-line sequential figures generally come out fairly well here. The 2TB drive produces 5,242MB/s read and 4,813MB/s write speeds, about on par with an average PCIe 4.0 SSD in a laptop, most likely due to a larger onboard cache. Where it falls apart a little is in the random 4K writes. The SN740 managed only 120MB/s whereas the 500GB Kingston drive in the Swift hit 227MB/s, and the drive in the Vivobook S reached 211MB/s. Random 4K benchmarking reflects Windows and game-loading performance, so that’s not so great to see here.

Speaking of gaming, at 1080p on medium presets, it is possible to eke out some semi-tolerable performance. Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail managed 37.3 frames per second (fps), but Total War Warhammer 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 (without XeSS and no ray tracing) were both under the 20 fps mark. Enable XeSS and Cyberpunk jumps up to a 26 fps average, but it’s still not exactly comfortable for many modern titles. The results are predictably worse at the Duo’s native resolution on low graphical presets, with even Final Fantasy’s Dawntrail benchmark clocking in at just 22.1 fps.

For AI testing I used UL Procyon’s AI Computer Vision benchmark with Float16 accuracy. Under CPU power alone, and in Windows’ Machine Learning API, the Zenbook Duo scored just 28, whereas again the Core Ultra 5 in the Swift Go managed 32 by comparison. Matters do improve if you switch to using the integrated GPU in that scenario, with the Zenbook landing 230 versus the Swift’s 194, but it’s still not a patch on a dedicated GPU which typically reaches well above the 1,000 mark, if not much higher (an RTX 4080, for reference, nets a score of around 1,940).

For day-to-day work then, the Zenbook Duo is a good pick. Its crisp displays and smooth desktop experience are beautiful to behold. However, if you are looking at any major rendering operation, or something that involves consistent workloads over a longer period of time, you are going to be severely limited by that Core Ultra 9 chip. Unfortunately, the difference between the Core Ultra 7 and the Ultra 9 mostly comes down to professional-grade features, rather than a reduction in core count, so you’re not likely to see improved performance with lower spec models either.

Performance: 2.5 / 5

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Battery life

Battery life is solid
Intel chips still lag behind Arm, though

The Zenbook Duo comes with a 75WHr battery as standard, paired with a 65W charger. It’s rapid enough to charge up, although not the fastest by any means. I used the Zenbook Duo as my daily driver for around two weeks or so, and found it to be more than adequate for holding a day’s worth of charge in the office.

I also benchmarked it utilizing a mixture of tests in PCMark 10. The video test in particular, with 50% screen brightness and no audio, managed just over eight hours before the device hit 3% charge. Gaming, as you’d probably expect, was far more demanding (and tested at 75% screen brightness), lasting for only a smidge over two hours before meeting the same fate.

That’s not bad, all things considered – and the fact Asus has even managed to cram in a 75WHr battery is nothing short of impressive. The Acer Swift, which has a 65WHr battery (about 13% smaller), only lasted for six hours in PCMark’s video test. Still, in both scenarios those are solid numbers, certainly for laptops with x86 chips. Neither of them, however, hold a candle to the Snapdragon X Elite in the Vivobook S 15, which lasted a phenomenal 12 hours.

Battery: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus Zenbook Duo (2024)?

Buy it if...

You’re looking for a versatile notebook with stunning screens
There’s no denying those twin 3K OLED panels are phenomenal to look at, with high refresh rates, a solid response time, and beautifully crisp colors. These screens themselves make the Zenbook Duo a tempting proposition.

You want a premium notebook ideal for office productivity work
The Duo is perfect for those looking for a Windows alternative to a mid-range MacBook. It might not have the clout of an Arm processor, but if you’re not into that, this Zenbook will have you covered.

Don't buy it if...

You’re a creative with longer, more demanding, workloads
Rendering video? Working with large datasets? Managing AI workloads? This isn’t the laptop for you. Thermal throttling seriously hinders its overall performance by no small margin.

You’re looking for the best battery life
Similarly, Intel’s Core Ultra series may be better than its past mobile CPU offerings, and those from AMD, but Meteor Lake still doesn’t hold a candle to the Snapdragon processors now out in the wild.

Asus Zenbook Duo (2024): Also consider

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+
It’s the Arm-based Snapdragon chip in this notebook that really dominates in performance terms, but it’s all bundled together with a beautiful design, plus phenomenal pricing.

Read the full Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ review

Acer Swift Go 14
This laptop is far more affordable than the Asus Zenbook Duo. What it lacks in extra screens, it makes up for with stellar performance for the price – plus it’s still an OLED display here, too.

Read the full Acer Swift Go 14 review

How I tested the Asus Zenbook Duo (2024)

Used the laptop for two weeks as my daily driver
Tested it for work and gaming
Ran a whole gamut of benchmarks

With all the laptops I get in for review, I aim to use them for at least two weeks as my daily driver, answering emails, using them for work, doing a bit of light content streaming (Netflix, YouTube and Spotify), as well as some light Photoshop work and gaming too. I also run them through a myriad of benchmarks designed to push the laptops to the absolute limit of their potential, to ensure that they perform well in any scenario, not just day-to-day office use.

I’ve been reviewing laptops and PCs for well over nine years now, and have evaluated many, many devices in that time. Intel’s Core Ultra chips are certainly a step in the right direction, but I can’t help but feel that the time of x86 chips might be coming to an end.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2024

MSI Modern 14 H review: An affordable business-ready laptop

8:04 am | August 6, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: RAM | Comments: Off

MSI MODERN 14 H: Two-minute review

The MSI Modern 14 H is a low-cost, business-focused laptop that aims at providing bang for buck rather than trying to pack in every last feature. The laptop has a 14-inch frame with 31.4 x 23.6 x 1.9cm (12.4 x 9.3 x 0.73 inches) dimensions and weighs 1.6kg (3.53 lbs), making it quite portable but larger than very slim or ultralight models.

The Modern 14 H configuration featured in this review (D13MG-045AU) boasts a relatively powerful Intel i9-13900H CPU with 14 cores, 20 threads and a boost frequency up to 5.4GHz. It also has 16GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM (upgradeable to 64GB), a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD and a 53.8Wh battery. The 14-inch display has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 (16:10 ratio) and uses a 60Hz IPS panel with a matte coating and no touchscreen.

Along the left edge, the Modern 14 has the DC power input, a USB-C port (40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort and 100W PD charging), a single USB 3.2 Type-A port and a 3.5mm headset jack. The right side has a vent and a Kensington lock, while the rear has HDMI 2.1, a 1Gb Ethernet connection and two USB-A ports. While I wish there was a USB-C connection on the rear as well as the side, the overall layout of the ports is quite neat. The top and bottom panels are metal, but the rest of the laptop shell is a surprisingly rigid, robust-feeling plastic. The included 90W power brick is a little chunkier than expected, but not outrageously large.

MSI doesn't provide the display brightness or color accuracy, but the screen is perfectly usable for office tasks. It can be laid down almost flat (but not quite a full 180º) and, when combined with the display flip hotkey, makes it easy to show what's on the screen to a person sitting across from you. The 720p webcam is serviceable (and has a physical shutter), but does not support facial recognition and there's no fingerprint reader for fast, secure logins. The keyboard is backlit and comfortable to use despite a little flex, while the trackpad is reasonably large and accurate. The speakers are nothing special but give clear audio and work well for tasks like video meetings.

Equipping the Modern 14 with an Intel i9-13900H is an interesting move, as this slightly older (2023) but relatively powerful CPU isn't often seen in more affordable laptops. Of course, real-world performance also depends on cooling, but the Modern 14 H system allows the the i9-13900H to sustain near-full CPU power in heavy workloads. While normally near-silent, the the fans become audible under load, but aren't too intrusive. The included MSI management software is straightforward and easy to use, and gives a reasonable depth of settings.

The 53.8Wh battery is not especially large, but the MSI laptop can manage a pretty decent 6 hours and 23 minutes unplugged when doing office tasks. Performance is limited to 30W on battery – though it will run at full speed on USB-C. A full charge takes up to 1.5 hours, but 50% capacity can be reached in just over 30 minutes.

Viewed from above, the MSI Modern 14 H screen folded flat — (Image credit: Future - Lindsay Handmer)

MSI Modern 14 H: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $999 / £999 / AU$1,599
When is it available? Available now
Where is it available? Available in the US, the UK and Australia

The i9-13900H MSI Modern 14 H (D13MG) tested is still hard to buy in the US and UK and costs $999 / £999 where available. It's a little more widely available in Australia, where it will set you back AU$1,599 at full price.

When shopping around, keep in mind that there are many MSI Modern 14 variants that don’t have the mighty Intel i9-13900H CPU. Models equipped with an Intel Core i5, i7, or AMD Ryzen CPUs are still great laptops, but only the H spec offers higher-end performance and 13th Gen CPUs like the i7-13620H and i9-13900H.

For those who want a larger screen, the MSI Modern 15 H (B13M) can be found for a very similar price ($999 / £999 / AU$1,599) and otherwise near-identical spec. Again, the 15 H with the i9-13900H is easiest to buy in Australia, but is available in the US without too much trouble and in the UK from limited retailers.

In Australia, the Modern 14 H stands out as excellent value amongst its often feature-packed but more expensive peers. The comparatively limited availability in the US and UK means the Modern H is often not as price competitive.

Value score: 4.5 / 5

MSI Modern 14 H left side side ports showing the DC input, USB-C, USB-A and 3.5mm audio — (Image credit: Future - Lindsay Handmer)

MSI Modern 14 H: Specs

The Modern 14 H doesn’t have a huge number of configurations, and even then not all are for sale. The main difference are the CPUs available, and the H spec laptops can have the i9-13900H, the i7-13620H and i5-13420H – though only the i9-13900H gets Intel Iris Xe graphics.

Below is the list of specs for the configuration tested for this review:

Specs score: 4 / 5

MSI Modern 14 H screen folded flat and flipped for sharing — (Image credit: Future - Lindsay Handmer)

MSI Modern 14 H: Design

Fold-flat screen
Thunderbolt 4
100W USB-C charging

The Modern 14 does an admirable job of keeping the design simple, with a focus on higher performance at an affordable price, so the lack of an IR webcam for facial login support and no fingerprint reader are minor frustrations. I wish there was a 32GB model available, but at least the laptop uses upgradeable RAM.

The Modern 14 H measures in at 31.4 x 23.6 x 1.9cm (12.4 x 9.3 x 0.73 inches), and while it does have chunky rubber feet to ensure adequate cooling space, they don’t cause any issues with even very slim laptop bags. The laptop's 1.6kg (3.53 lbs) feels very light in hand compared to the overall size.

The Modern 14 H layout is quite clean, and I appreciate the way the ports are all on the left and rear (though left handers may feel the opposite!). Still, having an extra USB-C port (with PD charging) on the rear would have been handy. The lack of SD or microSD card reader may also frustrate some buyers. On the plus side, the choice to have the USB-C port support Thunderbolt 4 with 100W PD charging means the Modern 14 H is ideal for connecting to a dock with an extra monitor or other high-speed external devices.

The Modern 14 H has a mostly plastic body, with metal top and bottom panels. The plastic is quite stiff itself and, combined with the metal, the 14-inch form doesn’t exhibit much flex at all. MSI also reports the laptop is rated to the MIL-STD-810H Military Grade Standard for toughness, and I didn't find any compromises that could result in premature failure or wear.

The Modern 14 H uses a 16:10 ratio display to give a small but welcome amount of extra vertical space compared to a 16:9 screen. The resulting resolution is 1920 x 1200, and while that may seem low, the display is quite sharp and perfectly usable in the 14-inch size. The (almost) 180º fold-flat screen is a nice addition, as well as the hotkey for flipping the display orientation to show it to someone sitting opposite. The fold-flat screen also means the laptop works great with a dock and vertical stand, though I do wish the hinge allowed a bit of extra folding so it could lay fully flat.

Design score: 3.5 / 5

MSI Modern 14 H keyboard and trackpad showing the white key backlighting — (Image credit: Future - Lindsay Handmer)

MSI Modern 14 H: Performance

Powerful CPU
Not too noisy
Fast 1TB SSD

MSI Modern 14 H: Benchmarks

Here's how the MSI Modern 14 H performed in the TechRadar suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Time Spy: 1,809

Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 13,337 points; Single-core: 2,029

PCMark 10: 6,510

CrystalDiskMark 8 NVMe: 5,000 MB/s (read); 3,576MB/s (write)

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Ultra): 25fps

PCMark 10 Battery life: 6 hours and 25 minutes

1080p video playback battery life: 6 hours and 57 minutes

It’s important to remember the relatively affordable nature of the MSI Modern 14 H when considering the performance. It’s not common to see a higher-end CPU like the Intel Core i9-13900H CPU in a thin and light chassis, though the Modern 14 H opts for DDR4 RAM over DDR5 (both are supported by the CPU) to help keep costs down. The RAM runs at 3200MHz and, in this case, faster DDR5 wouldn’t give much of a performance boost.

The MSI Modern 14 H benchmarks results are excellent and it bested more expensive laptops – even those with the same or a similar CPU. This largely comes back to the MSI engineers making sure the i9-13900H is kept cool enough to run at or above its 45W thermal design power. Unfettered, the CPU can boost up to 115W, but that’s reined in and total system power is limited by the 90W adapter.

The laptop vents hot air out the rear and right side, and at full power that can result in a warmer-than-usual mousing hand. That's delightful in winter perhaps, but not as nice in a hotter environment. The MSI software in 'AI' mode does an admirable job of keeping the laptop as quiet as possible without limiting performance when needed. For those who like manual control, in performance mode, the CPU can sustain the 45W TDP for extended period, and under load the fans are plainly audible but not excessively loud.

Balanced mode drops the CPU power back to 30W, and even with heavy use, the fans are only just able to be heard. Quiet mode limits the CPU to a much more modest 20W, ensuring that even under sustained load the fans never spin fast enough to be audible. Super battery mode limits the CPU to just 15W, making many apps noticeably slower, but it still works well if maximizing battery life during lower impact tasks like video playback.

On battery, the system automatically limits the CPU to 30W – though the impact of this is only noticeable in very CPU-heavy apps. The Modern 14 H doesn’t throttle performance at all when connected to a 100W USB-C charger, and peaks at just over 90W when pushed hard.

The Modern 14 H SSD is reasonably fast overall and the laptop is well suited to work that demands higher-than-average performance. Despite the decently powerful Intel Iris Xe graphics, the overall cooling of the laptop does mean gaming performance is limited. This is expected for a business-focused laptop, but nevertheless you can still get playable frame rates out of older or less demanding games.

Performance score: 4 / 5

The MSI Modern 14 H power brick sitting behind the laptop as a size comparison — (Image credit: Future - Lindsay Handmer)

MSI Modern 14 H: Battery life

6 hours and 25 minutes work when unplugged
6 hours and 57m of video playback

The Modern 14 H has a fairly normal sized 53.8Wh battery and it gives decent but not outstanding battery life. Connected to Wi-Fi, I managed over 6 hours of office work on battery. This isn’t quite enough to get through a full day's work without a charger, but is more than enough to spend plenty of time unplugged. For less demanding tasks like video playback, the Modern 14 H can just reach 7 hours. If working the CPU hard, expect as little as 2 hours on battery, or 3 to 4 hours with medium level workloads.

The Modern 14 H will fast charge on USB-C or using its power adapter, and from 4% charge it can hit 50% in not much more than 30 minutes. A full charge takes around 1.5 hours. The battery charge efficiency is above average, and from 4% capacity it took 59.5Wh to charge the 53.8Wh battery. This means you can fully charge the laptop on a suitable 20,000mAh (74Wh) or larger power bank.

The Modern 14 H doesn’t throttle performance when connected to USB-C – meaning you can get full performance for heavy workloads when on the go by using a power bank. In my testing, a 20,000mAh (74Wh) power bank gives an extra 5 hours or so of demanding work, like video editing.

Battery life score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the MSI Modern 14 H?

Buy it if...

You need above-average performance
Thanks to the powerful Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, the Modern 14 H offers better performance compared to several more expensive laptops.

You use a USB-C dock
The Modern 14 H runs at full performance on USB-C, and has a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 connection with DisplayPort, so is ideal for use with a dock.

You want value for money
Despite the modest price tag, the Modern 14 H offers a mix of features that mean it is well suited to handling heavy workloads.

Don't buy it if...

You need all-day battery life
6 hours on battery is nothing to sneeze at, but it won’t get you through a full day's work without charging along the way.

You can't live without a fancy screen
The Modern 14 H display is perfectly fine for office use and folds back through 180º, but doesn’t wow compared to much more expensive OLED or higher-resolution panels.

You need 32GB of RAM
The MSI Modern 14 H doesn’t have a configuration equipped with 32GB of RAM – though the memory is user upgradable.

MSI Modern 14 H: Also consider

If our MSI Modern 14 H review has you considering other options, here are some other gaming laptops to consider...

How I tested the MSI Modern 14 H

I tested the MSI Modern 14 H for two weeks
I used it both on a desk with a dock, and when on the go
I tested it with benchmarking tools, as well as battery and power logging

I ran the MSI Modern 14 H through the usual comprehensive array of TechRadar benchmarks, as well as using it for actual day to day work.

I used the TechRadar movie test for assessing battery life during video playback, as well as running productivity-focused battery benchmarks. I also logged power use in a variety of scenarios, including when charging from USB-C, or running from a power bank.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed May 2024

Dell XPS 13 9345 review: the best XPS 13 ever

10:15 pm | August 2, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: Australia, UK, US, XPS | Comments: Off

Dell XPS 13: Two-minute review

The Dell XPS 13 is generally a pretty good series of laptops, usually scoring a four out of five stars rating, though 2022's Dell XPS 13 Plus received a lower score thanks to build quality issues. But how does the latest one stack up, equipped with the powerful Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite CPU? Quite well actually, as it's now one of the best Windows laptops and best laptops of the year, coupling its already stellar design and portability with much-improved battery life and performance.

The design is sleek and smooth as you'd come to expect from the XPS line, starting at a mere 2.59 pounds and measuring only 14.8 mm thin. Thankfully, this version also has a high build quality made from machined (CNC) aluminum, ensuring that it can withstand punishment and the daily wear and tear of commutes. It's available in Platinum or Graphite with a lovely finish that's surprisingly fingerprint-resistant.

black gaming laptop on wooden table — (Image credit: Future)

The XPS 13 has three different display types to choose from, including a 3K+ OLED touch display option, which is beyond stunning for a 13.4-inch screen. The bezels are ultra-thin and yet still able to support a 1080p FHD webcam, which sports generally good picture quality.

Sound quality is incredible, largely due to the 360-degree spatial audio with quad speakers and Dolby Atmos. You can clearly hear each instrument, separate from each other and any vocals, while heavy bass loses very little in terms of integrity even at higher volumes.

The new Dell XPS 13 is based on the Plus in terms of its keyboard, with an edge-to-edge design achieved by removing the lattice and a touchpad and wrist rest made entirely from Gorilla Glass with no visible boundaries. The touch-based toolbar also makes its return which, while visually impressive, is just as inaccessible as it's always been. Both the touchpad and toolbar use haptic feedback in order to give the feeling of pressing a button. But while it can generally work for the former, the latter makes it impossible to know if you hit the right 'button' unless you can see it.

Port selection is still absolutely abysmal as it only has two USB Type-C ports, with no combo jack to speak of (RIP if you do audio editing because only Bluetooth works here). It does come with an adapter for the Type-A port but Dell could have easily fit at least one of those and a jack on the actual laptop.

Like other AI PCs, the Dell XPS 13 features AI Copilot+ integration and the infamous Copilot key that Microsoft shoehorned into all its AI laptop keyboards. This key works and automatically connects you to the general Copilot chatbot - a nice little trick but ultimately not very useful.

Dell XPS 13 9345: Benchmarks

Here's how the Dell XPS 13 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Steel Nomad: 501; Fire Strike: 5,635; Time Spy: 1,925; Wild Life Unlimited: 16,819
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 11,128
GeekBench 6.3: 2,797 (single-core); 14,635 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 5,495
25GB File Copy: 20.01 seconds
HandBrake 4k to 1080p encoding: 4:47 minutes
CrossMark Overall: 1,396; Productivity: 1,300; Creativity: 1,564; Responsiveness: 1,232
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 19:26:24
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 17 hours, 24 minutes
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Ultra): 21 fps; (1080p, Low): 22 fps

Testing out the Copilot feature on the Dell XPS 13, it works as well as other AI PCs I've tried out so far. The chatbot has three levels - creative, balanced, and precise - and all three work quite well. I used my standard testing parameters including math questions, a mock interview, and a novel outline, and each answer cited several sources and made logical sense. There are also other plugins for additional tasks like other conversation types and shopping help.

There are two other features included in Microsoft Paint, Cocreator and Image Creator, that are both powered by AI models. The former turns your drawings into an AI-generated picture, which varies based on the style you choose and the level of 'creativity' (how much the finished product is based on your own art versus AI generation). Image Creator, the standard AI image generator, uses a credit system that awards you 50 credits upon sign-up and requires you to pay for more. You're better off just using the free Cocreator as it's essentially the same.

The Windows 11 AI Recall, which was set to launch along with Windows AI PCs, is still unavailable as of this writing due to being kicked back to the Windows Insider Program once the manifold security issues were exposed.

Recall works by creating a database of information on your PC through screenshots automatically taken every few seconds, building up a library of images you can search through AI. However, the Recall database, containing all the data from those screenshots and the overall history of your PC usage, is stored in plain text (in an SQLite database).

This makes it almost effortless for hackers to obtain highly sensitive information such as finances, passwords, work data, and more. It remains to be seen whether this feature will make a comeback, but that solely depends on if Microsoft can fix these massive security issues.

The Dell XPS 13's benchmark results are very impressive, standing neck and neck with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7's own results. The Qualcomm CPU alone carries the laptop, maintaining high levels of performance regardless of the amount of tasks being carried out in the background. Each of these benchmark scores showcases the full range of this laptop in terms of handling productivity work, conference calls, streaming, and more.

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Like the other AI PCs released in 2024, the Dell XPS 13 laptop I tested had a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU. It not only delivers amazing results in benchmark testing but then translates those results into performance that far outstripes that of earlier XPS 13 models.

While I personally never experienced the same level of performance issues as with the Surface series before the Laptop 7, the Del XPS 13 line did have some hiccups here and there. For example, the XPS 13 Plus I previously reviewed had severe overheating problems that resulted in some sections of the laptop reaching scalding high temperatures. This also impacted performance as it would throttle the CPU.

Thankfully, while this most recent XPS 13 does get a bit warm when pushed to its limits, it doesn't approach the extremes of before. This means that performance remains consistent no matter how long you run your laptop, perfect for handling heavier workloads.

black laptop on wooden table — (Image credit: Future)

The battery life for the Dell XPS 13 is by far the best out of the Snapdragon-powered laptops that I've tested. Under normal use, the battery lasts up to 20 hours with a 'low' of over 18 hours.

When continuously video streaming, the battery lasts on average for 17 and a half hours. The fact that a Dell laptop can match and even surpass many of the best MacBook models in battery life is something I would have never expected, but it's clear Qualcomm has truly outdone itself.

The only downside to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite CPU is that the ARM support, while incredible compared to prior iterations, still has a few compatibility hiccups - mainly dealing with gaming. But even that improves constantly and the vast majority of users won't even notice the hiccups as it doesn't impact everyday use.

Dell XPS 13: Price & availability

How much does it cost? starting price is $1,299 / £1,099 including VAT / AU$2,299
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The starting price for the Dell XPS 13 13.4-inch model is $1,299 / £1,099 including VAT / AU$2,299, netting you a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage in the US, UK, and Australia. Other configurations go up to 64GB/2TB in specs, which will cost $2,499.99 / £1,823.99 including VAT / AU$3,999.60.

It's far pricier than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 and M3 MacBook Air 13-inch but comes with overall much better specs including a superior processor, so if you're looking for more of an Ultrabook, then this is the choice for you.

Dell XPS 13: Specs

The Dell XPS 13 13.4-inch model starts with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage with an FHD+ (1920 x 1200) touch display. The highest configuration goes up to 64GB RAM and 2TB in storage with a 3K OLED (2880 x 1800) touch display.

Should you buy the Dell XPS 13?

Buy the Dell XPS 13 if...

You want solid productivity performance
This laptop handles productivity work like a champ including video calls, documents, web surfing, and more - while never sacrificing performance.

You want excellent battery life
The battery life on this laptop is astounding, lasting for up to 20 hours during normal web surfacing use and about 17 and a half hours with video streaming.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
This is an Ultrabook priced like an Ultrabook, meaning you need to expect to pay quite a bit of money for even the base model.

Dell XPS 13: Also consider

If my Dell XPS 13 review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Dell XPS 13?

I tested the Dell XPS 13 for a week
I tested it using productivity and creative applications
I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Dell XPS 13 by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to thoroughly test out the new Qualcomm processor. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions.

The Dell XPS 13 is meant to be a portable laptop with a thin and light chassis. I had to spend a good amount of testing not only on performance issues but also looking for any ventilation issues. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.

I've tested plenty of gaming PCs and laptops, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2024

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ review: beautiful laptop, half-baked AI

5:54 pm | July 4, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Comments: Off

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Two-minute review

The new Copilot+ PC edition of the Asus Vivobook S 15 is an absolutely exceptional piece of kit. The overall aesthetic and design style is extraordinary. It’s clean and crisp, with a beautiful metal finish complete with exceptionally subtle Asus branding. This is a professional device at its core, and it really does show.

Open up the Vivobook and you’re greeted with an outstanding OLED display, with sharp vibrant colors, and a snappy 2880x1620 resolution, all hurtling along at 120 Hz. That’d be good enough, but Asus has color-calibrated this thing as well, so the contrast and vibrancy are stunning. Combine that with sound developed in conjunction with Harman/Kardon (which is honestly some of the best audio I’ve heard coming out of a laptop ever), and the Vivobook S 15 is lining itself up to be an absolute winner.

The Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ in silver pictured on a wooden desk. — (Image credit: Future)

For hardware, the most interesting element is the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. It’s an Arm-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) similar to Apple’s M3 line of chips found in the MacBook Air, and features an incredibly low 45W power draw. That’s been paired with 16GB of 8,440 MHz DDR5 memory (a phenomenally high speed even given current desktop PC standards), and a solid 1TB of PCIe 4.0 storage. Combine all of that with a bevy of connectivity options, plus a relatively affordable price tag, and all of a sudden you’re looking at one of the best laptops out there for general day-to-day work.

It’s not flawless however, it still struggles in games with no dedicated GPU (although AI upscaling does help a ton here), and the general AI features are (right now at least) somewhat limited, with only Microsoft Copilot and Co-creator being the most fleshed out features of the lot.

Still, AI aside, the Vivobook S 15 is just an utterly almost flawless thing. As traditional laptops go, it’s outstanding, easily competing with the likes of Dell’s XPS line, and far above and beyond the likes of Huawei’s MateBook D16. For the price you’re paying, there’s little not to love.

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Price and availability

How much does it cost? $1,299.99 / £1,299.99 / AU$2,699
When is it out? Available now
Where can you get it? Available now in the US and the UK

When it comes to the price, the Asus Vivobook S 15 is impressively affordable for what you’re getting. Rolling in at $1,299.99 (£1,299.99 / AU$2,699), it packs in some serious hardware for that cash. There's also a variant with the slightly less powerful Snapdragon X Plus chip for $1,099.99 in the US, although the availability of that model in other regions is unclear at the time of writing.

Not only do you get a decent processor for day-to-day work and streaming, plus 16GB of ridiculously high spec memory, and a TB of PCIe 4.0 storage, but it also features one hell of an OLED display, with a 3K resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate, and enough color accuracy (and vibrancy) to keep even the most eagle-eyed of graphic designer happy.

This is one of the first Snapdragon X laptops out there, and as such it is a little unproven mind you. It does lag behind in more traditional PC benchmarks, such as GeekBench and CineBench, but for general office work, web browsing, and daily activities it’s far more than capable. Just don’t expect a super seamless experience all the time.

There are very few laptops out there, that pack in so much hardware for such little outlay. There’s AI capacity here too, of course, being one of the main selling points of the S 15 (more on that in a bit), but even without it, the S 15 is absolutely outstanding.

Value: 4.5 / 5

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Specs

The Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ comes in one main configuration with the 12-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip, although a model featuring the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus SoC is also available for a slightly lower price in some regions.

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Design and Features

Outstanding Screen
Material choice is stunning
Broad range of ports

As you’ve likely guessed by this point, the Asus Vivobook S 15 is an absolutely beautiful professional laptop or workbook. The satin metallic gray chassis is crisp and sharp, with nice smooth rounded edges. The Asus branding, what little there is, is a simple sans serif typeface, either just below the screen or engraved gracefully into the rear lid. The bezel on the screen is slim and almost nonexistent. Similarly, the keyboard, which is chiclet by design, provides a sublime typing experience, and the trackpad likewise does its job admirably too.

The I/O certainly isn’t lacking either. For your money, you get two USB 4 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a Micro-SD card reader, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, and an HDMI out as well. It also comes with a fairly admirably built-in microphone, along with a decent built-in FHD webcam as well.

In general, it’s actually just a very well-built laptop. There’s no gimmicky folding display, or 2-in-1 design here for you to get used to, no touch-screen capability, or pens, just a simple, clean design. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, seems to be the motto.

Under the hood, you of course get that Arm-based Snapdragon processor. This is the X Elite X1E 78 100 chip (catchy), running at 3.4 GHz, and it features 12 cores, no hyperthreading, and a 42 MB cache as standard. Asus touts that this thing has a total AI processing power of around 75 TOPs to help with the on-board AI capabilities the Vivobook S 15 has, that’s paired with a dedicated “Neural Processor” as well (Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU) which adds an additional 45 TOPs to the equation.

That’s been paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X memory rated at a whopping 8,440 MT/s. That’s ridiculously quick, even by some of the best desktop PC standards, and quite a curious addition, that suggests that both AI tasks and these Snapdragon chips really do benefit from high-frequency memory, perhaps even more so than the likes of AMD and its Ryzen processors (which generally benefit from higher frequency kits thanks to their Infinity Fabric interconnect being tied to the memory speed). The only minor downside here is that the Vivobook S 15 has soldered LPDDR5X, and there are no alternative models either, so 16GB is your lot sadly.

Because at its heart, the Snapdragon is an Arm-based chip, running off a different architecture compared to traditional processors found from AMD and Intel (which typically operate on an x64 architecture design), support is a bit mixed when it comes to general application use. That generally means you are going to find a lot of programs listing the CPU as “emulated”, Windows is effectively forcing the Arm processor to emulate and behave as a traditional x64 chip in certain programs, to ensure they operate correctly. That will have a minor detrimental effect on overall performance, but it shouldn’t be that noticeable if I’m honest. Arm and Asus clearly learned from the troubles Apple encountered with its first M1 processors, and compatibility is far greater now than it was back then for Arm-based processors because of it.

As for the less volatile storage, Asus has popped in a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, and it does a pretty good job when it comes to sequential transfers, although more on that in a bit.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Performance

For day-to-day usage, this is flawless
Priced just right for what you’re getting
Gaming is still nowhere near a dedicated GPU

The Vivobook S 15 might have a bit of an oddity when it comes to its processor, but it still holds its own with some of the best out there to date. In general day-to-day use, the S 15 was cool and quiet, zipping along nicely. A particularly enjoyable experience with that screen. Cooling was handled well, and noise was minimal, one of the big benefits of the super-efficient Arm chips.

In benchmarks however, it is admittedly a bit of a different story, compared to something like Huawei’s MateBook D 16 (admittedly not available US side) with its Intel Core i9-13900H, the Vivobook did struggle in certain benchmarks, although perhaps not by as much as you’d think. GeekBench 6.2.1 provided the most intriguing results of the bunch, with the Snapdragon X landing a score of 2,444 in single core, and 9,008 in the multi-core test. Compare that to the i9-13900H, which scored 2,605 in single-core and 12,568 and you start to get a picture of just how close Arm is getting in terms of performance, particularly given it's often running an emulated version of the program on top of that.

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ benchmarks

Here's how the Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+ performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Geekbench 6:
Single - 2,444
Multi - 9,088
3DMark:
WildLife Extreme: 6,091
Solar Bay: 9,933
CrossMark:
Overall - 1,181
Productivity - 1,050
Creativity - 1,377
Responsiveness - 1,062
1080p movie playback battery life: 14 hours 18 minutes
CrystalDiskMark 8:
Read: 5,024MB/s
Write: 3,623MB/s

That multi-core difference does give Intel the edge there of course, by a healthy 28%, but you’ve got to bear in mind that it’s scoring that with 20 total threads, compared to the Snapdragon’s 12. All while consuming more power, operating at 5.4 GHz, and running at hotter temps as a result. The gap is starting to close between Arm and x64 and that’s incredibly exciting.

Graphically however Intel still has the edge, with its Iris Xe graphics performing considerably better in our benchmark results. 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme for example scored just 6,091 with the Snapdragon and its Qualcomm Adreno chip, versus a staggering 13,731 with Intel. Similarly, in games at their native resolutions, Total War Warhammer 3 on Low scored 33.9 fps on Intel’s chip, versus just 13.7 on the Adreno.

But there’s a catch here, and that’s the AI upscaling tech that’s built natively into the Vivobook S 15. You can actually drop the resolution scaling to 50% in Total War Warhammer 3, let the notebook do its thing (it’s automatically applied to all titles), set the graphical profile to Ultra, and watch the game run at 20fps instead. Sure, that’s not playable for this kind of title, but that’s a significant improvement particularly given you’re now running the game on Ultra and not the lowest profile. Although admittedly it still doesn’t look the best, and needs significant antialiasing improvements, it’s a start.

Traditional performance aside, this is after all one of the first Copilot+ AI laptops out there, and there’s a lot to report here too. Copilot generally is very similar to any other LLM you may have used, such as Google Bard or Chat GPT. There’s a button on the keyboard to open it up, or you can click next to the Start Menu, and open up a window to chat. It’s limited to a number of queries per 24 hours, unless you sign in, and behaves like pretty much every other LLM. It doesn’t have access to your system directly, so can only suggest what you can do.

Live captioning is also heavily touted on the product page. It’s meant to be able to give you captions on any content (regardless of web browser or media format), and live translate from one language to another. I found it was generally very laggy and slow to use, even in English-to-English. Live translation was also much worse, with Japanese or Norwegian, often missing out entire sentences, or translated sentences appearing five to ten seconds after the content had occurred. It also struggled with accents and regional dialects, particularly with variants of British English. Recall (where Windows can find a file based on a description) is also not currently implemented and is “coming soon” in a Windows side update.

Moving away from the software side, when it came to the Display, and particularly the audio, the experience was outstanding. That screen is absolutely gorgeous, with a 15.6-inch OLED panel at 2880 x 1620, you get a 211.82 PPI density, and the colors are just phenomenal. Combine that with a buttery smooth 120 Hz refresh rate, along with adaptive sync as well as a color-calibrated profile from Asus and it’s just dreamy.

Likewise, the audio experience is exceptional too. Asus has worked with Dolby Atmos and Harman/Kardon on the built-in speakers, and they’re some of the best I’ve heard on a laptop at this price. Trebles are crystal clear, there’s plenty of mid, and a relatively well-rounded bass as well. You’re still going to get better results from some of the best headphones out there of course, or a decent speaker system, mixed with a decent subwoofer - but for a laptop? Nah, this is shockingly good.

Performance: 4 / 5

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Battery life

Can last for multiple days of work and holds charge well
Bundled fast-charger

Asus rates the Vivobook S 15 at 70WHrs for its battery capacity, and it comes with a fast-charging 90W AC USB Type C adapter as well. It reckons you should be able to get around 18 hours of total battery life in general day-to-day use. In my testing, it landed around the 17-hour mark or so, more than enough for several days of office work and presentations without charge.

That figure did dip a bit when I was watching content on YouTube and in video calls, but otherwise, the Vivobook S 15 fell exactly where I expected it to in that regard. There was never a moment where I was particularly concerned r.e. the battery life on this thing that’s for certain.

Battery life: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+: Also Consider

How I tested the Asus Vivobook S 15 Copilot+

As usual with laptop reviews, I replaced my daily driver with the Asus Vivobook S 15 for a week, testing out all my usual work duties including web browsing, word processing, and answering emails. I also used it for a bit of leisure time too - watching Netflix and YouTube, and trying my best to play some games (though it struggled a little in that area).

I've been reviewing computers of all sorts for years, and I've used a wide variety of laptops for my own work throughout that time. To see Qualcomm push ahead with its own Arm-based chips in such a successful way is the real game-changer here - no matter what Microsoft might tell you about AI. Arm is here to stay, folks.

First reviewed July 2024

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024) review: a great, if not mind-blowing, refresh

12:08 am | June 29, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Chromebooks Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: GE, US | Comments: Off

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Five-minute review

In early 2023 I reviewed Google's first dedicated gaming Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, and it changed my mind about Chromebooks and gaming. So I was excited to get my hands on the long-awaited refresh, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024).

The Chromebook has been upgraded in every meaningful way, from the display to the specs, and even has new AI features included for those looking to double it as a productivity machine. Unfortunately, there are a few aspects that have been left in the dust in the meantime, which could impact whether this is a truly robust refresh worth reinvesting in if you already have the original model.

The screen is a 16-inch IPS display with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and 350 nits of brightness. The refresh rate is a lovely 120Hz, making it perfect for most video games, while the sRGB 100% color gamut pairs well with the Chromebook's AI tools for creative and editing projects.

It's good to see that so much was invested in upgrading the display since it's the most important aspect of the gaming experience for the Chromebook Plus 516 GE.

black chromebook on wooden desk — (Image credit: Future)

The outer design is rather brand, identical to the original Chromebook 516 GE, though that tends to be a trait among budget gaming laptops in the first place. Despite that, it has a sturdy yet decently light chassis, especially for the screen size, which makes transportation that much easier.

Its keyboard and trackpad have been mostly left the same as well, which is a good thing as they were already quite solid on their own and needed little tampering. The webcam is very good, with 1080p at 60fps video, which is more than what many of even the best laptops offer. And while I do appreciate the physical switch on the side that turns the webcam off and on, the camera itself should have a physical shutter for added security.

The port selection is varied and includes two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, an ethernet port, and a combo jack. For its size, however, more USB ports as well as an SD card reader could have been added.

There's still a massive downside to its design, and that's the still abysmal sound quality. Google boasts that the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE features "cinematic sounds with DTS audio" and I can confirm that it's not the case. There's a tinny, almost muddiness to the sound, which shows through even with YouTube videos, and sounds even worse when playing games. You'll want to invest in the best PC gaming headsets if you get this Chromebook.

Like its competition, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024) has plenty of AI features built into the Chrome OS. But one of the more unique traits is that they use a combination of local and cloud storage.

The webcam, for instance, has a feature that automatically adjusts both picture quality and lighting when using the webcam. It's pretty handy for minor enhancements but don't expect any major improvements either.

There are plenty of other AI tools, which are mostly powered by Google Gemini. Help Me Write generates text based on prompts and lets you edit text based on tone and more, while Help Me Read summarizes PDFs and websites by simply right-clicking the text.

Focus is a tool that turns on a Do Not Disturb mode once you select a window of time, a Google Task you want to finish, and a YouTube Music playlist. There's Magic Editor which uses AI to enhance and correct images on Google Photos, or you can use generative AI to create unique wallpapers and video call backgrounds.

My favorite tool is Project Gameface, an AI-powered hands-free control with face and gesture tracking. This is a major accessibility feature, as you can custom-map out ways to control the entire OS through non-hand controls. While it's still in beta, what I was able to experience is quite impressive and I truly look forward to the finished product once it launches.

Game dashboard is the new tool that pairs the best with the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024). You have access to features like window resizing, screen capture, game capture, and control mapping, a great option for those who can't or don't want to invest in a game recording setup.

The game recording is fine, though naturally not as high as a premium capture card, but it does a surprisingly great job thanks to the screen quality. It's also easy, allowing you to avoid setting up a whole mess of wires. Control mapping is a standard feature but always appreciated, especially for games that don't come with it like mobile titles that rely on touchscreen controls.

Benchmarks

Here's how the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

TechRadar Battery Life Test: 6 hours and 57 minutes
Chromium Github Octane Benchmark: 93,523
Browserbench Jetstream Benchmark: 302
Kraken Benchmark: 415ms
WebGL Aquarium (30,000 fish): 85 fps

The upgraded specs of the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024) shine through in its benchmark scores, as these are some of the highest test results I've seen in any Chromebook and are solid improvements over the already excellent scores from the original Chromebook 516 GE model.

I was particularly impressed by the WebGL Aquarium, as it was able to maintain a high 85fps with the maximum amount of fish enabled.

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Image 2 of 2

The Intel Core CPU is certainly working overtime, which is great to hear from those interested in playing the best PC games through Steam or any Android titles. While you'll mainly want to game through a streaming service like Nvidia's GeForce Now or Amazon Luna, having the option to play locally is always a boon.

Just know that the Steam Borealis is still in beta, meaning you'll have to enable it through developer mode at your own risk. But in my experience, it runs quite well with little in the way of slowdown or bugs.

The best way to use this Chromebook, however, is through GeForce Now. If you're using the most premium subscription option and you have a solid internet connection, the experience is incredibly smooth and stutter-free. I played AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 with no issues at all. And thanks to the great display, the games look even better than in the original model and beat out most other Chromebooks.

battery closeup — (Image credit: Future)

The battery life isn't too shabby, lasting about seven hours when under heavy video use and a bit more under normal work conditions. While it's not the best for a Chromebook, it still outstrips most Windows laptops using an Intel Core CPU. The good thing is that you can play for quite a bit before running low on battery, making it way more portable-minded than other gaming laptops.

It lasts a little longer when it comes to productivity work, ensuring that you'll have a full work or school day worth of charge. And it charges pretty fact too, so you won't be stuck at an outlet for too long in case you need to juice up.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Price & availability

How much does it cost? starting price is $649.99 (around £515 / AU$980)
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US

The price for the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024) is $649.99 (around £515 / AU$980), which is the same price that the original Acer Chromebook 516 GE sold for at launch. While it's a steep price point for a Chromebook, for a gaming laptop it's a steal, especially for more casual gamers who don't require much firepower for the games they play, or those who only want to stream games instead of playing locally.

Currently, it's only available in the US through Best Buy, with no units available to purchase in the UK and Australia at the time of this writing.

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Specs

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE I reviewed came with an Intel Core 5 120U CPU with Intel Arc Graphics, up to 16GB of LPDDR4X SDRAM, and 256 GB PCIe storage. There aren't any options to upgrade your specs, and Chromebooks are notorious for poor self-repairability and no self-upgrade options.

Should you buy the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE?

Buy the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE if...

You want solid game streaming performance
This is a laptop made for game streaming and it does it well. The vibrant display also helps, as titles look clean and clear through near stutter-free gameplay.

You’re on a budget
This laptop is quite affordable compared to other gaming laptops with similar or worse performance and specs. If you're on a budget, this is an excellent choice.

Don't buy it if...

Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE: Also consider

If my Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (2024) review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE

I tested the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE for several weeks
I tested its gaming capabilities
I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to thoroughly test out its upgraded specs and compare them to the original model. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions.

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE is a gaming laptop that can also do productivity work, meaning I needed to test out both of those capabilities. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.

I've tested plenty of Chromebooks, making me more than qualified to understand benchmark test results and how to properly stress test machines to see how well they perform as a work machine.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June 2024

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review: makes me believe in the Surface series again

10:27 pm | June 26, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: Australia, Microsoft Surface Laptop, UK, US | Comments: Off

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Two-minute review

It's no secret that I'm not fond of the Microsoft Surface Laptop series, so even with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip and all the new Copilot+ AI bells and whistles attached to the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, I wasn't expecting much of an upgrade. But to my surprise, it's quickly turning into one of the best Windows laptops and best laptops of the year thanks to a sleek design, solid battery life, and excellent performance.

One of the most consistent aspects of the Surface Laptop series is its design. The chassis is always sleek and lightweight yet sturdy, there's a nice variety of colors to choose from, and the keyboard feels snappy and responsive while typing. Thankfully, the Laptop 7 doesn't change on that front but instead embraces its positives while focusing its efforts on enacting improvements it actually needs.

black laptop on white table — (Image credit: Future)

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 boasts a 13.8-inch (2304x1536) HDR-supported display with a high refresh rate of 120Hz - especially high for a non-gaming laptop. It weighs less than three pounds, ensuring its super portability - an absolute gem for any office worker or student who needs to transport it around between home and work offices or to and from school. I wish it also featured an OLED screen option but omitting it keeps the cost down, so it makes sense.

Its keyboard is also just as snappy and responsive as you'd expect, though the touchpad has minimal response issues that need to be rectified by adjusting the sensitivity settings. The webcam is the standard 1080p fare, nothing too shabby, but it lacks a physical shutter which for its price point is an oversight worth mentioning.

Port selection isn't the worst, as it comes with two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port, and a combo port. But it's certainly not well-balanced either, with it missing several important ports like ethernet, SD card reader, and an HDMI. Even worse, Microsoft still insists on that abysmal Surface Laptop connect charging port, which only serves to take up space that could have been given to literally anything else.

It has a solid sound quality as well, with instruments sounding clear and distinct from each other. Bass isn't too shabby as well, which is always surprising when it comes to a non-Ultrabook or gaming laptop.

Another defining feature of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is its AI Copilot+ integration, including the Copilot key that Windows AI laptop keyboards are now outfitted with. As of now, however, the Copilot key simply doesn't work and there's no way to reprogram the key to make it work either.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Benchmarks

Here's how the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Steel Nomad Light: 2,018; Fire Strike: 5,792; Time Spy: 1,893; Wild Life Unlimited: 25,590
Cinebench R23 Multi-core: 8,275 points
GeekBench 6.3: 2,809 (single-core); 14,426 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home Test): 5,495 points
25GB File Copy: 24.05
HandBrake: 5:02
CrossMark: Overall: 1,406; Productivity: 1,323; Creativity: 1,534; Responsiveness: 1,297
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 15:44:32
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 10 hours, 10 minutes
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Ultra): 21 fps; (1080p, Low): 21 fps

The Copilot feature does work and quite well I might add. I tested out the Copilot chatbot on all three levels - creative, balanced, and precise - and it performed quite well on all three. The answers, ranging from basic math to a mock interview to an outline for a novel, were well thought out and well sourced. You can also enable various plug-ins for more types of conversations or to help with shopping for a variety of products.

I also tried out two other features included in Microsoft Paint called Cocreator and Image Creator, both powered by AI model DALL-E. The former transforms your own drawing into an AI-generated picture, and you can choose between several styles as well as the level of 'creativity' (aka how much of the finished product is from you versus the AI). Unfortunately, Image Creator uses a credit system, in which you're awarded 50 credits when you sign up for the service and each image generation costs one credit, so you'd need to pay for additional images after you run out of credits.

There was one feature that I couldn't test out, the infamous Windows 11 AI Recall. Set to launch alongside Windows AI PCs, it was kicked back to the Windows Insider Program when its numerous security issues came to light.

Basically, Recall takes screenshots every few seconds, building up a library of images you can search via AI. But the issue is that the Recall database, which contains all the data from those screenshots and the history of your PC usage, is stored in plain text (in an SQLite database).

This makes it light work for hackers to obtain highly sensitive information like finances, passwords, work data, and more. So as of right now, Recall is not available for me to test out, and until Microsoft works out the safety issues it shouldn't be.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7's benchmark results are quite impressive, especially compared to its competition. Even without a GPU, the CPU does an incredible job of maintaining a high level of performance no matter which and how many tasks you're currently balancing. These benchmarks prove that the Laptop 7 can handle productivity work, conference calls, streaming, and more.

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The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 I tested featured a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite CPU and boy does it make all the difference. A common denominator between the past Surface Laptops is their poor performance, as they juggle a massive amount of tasks behind the scenes that result in major slow down, freezes, and even the aptly named 'Blue Screen of Death.'

But the Laptop 7's Qualcomm chip rounds out and fills in the numerous issues. It starts up and runs quickly, it's responsive when it comes to loading video websites as well as AI tools, and programs run as smoothly as they can. The latter is especially important as one of the biggest drawbacks was constant crashing when certain large programs booted up, including benchmarks like PCMark 10. But since I've been using it, there have been no performance hiccups in the slightest - in fact, I genuinely enjoyed my time with this laptop and would jump at the chance to make it my official work machine.

The battery life has also been rejuvenated, with an absolutely incredible 15 hours of off-AC power when it comes to regular use and just over ten hours with the TechRadar movie test. It's rare to find a laptop with that kind of lasting power outside of MacBooks these days, and coming from a Windows laptop it's even more unbelievable.

Another improvement is the ventilation system, as I never experienced any overheating even when the Laptop 7 had been running for several hours without break. Better vents also lead to better performance and less risk of crashes, going hand in hand with its superior battery life.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Price & availability

How much does it cost? starting price is $999.99 / £1,049.99 / AU$1,899
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The starting price for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch model is $999.99 / £1,049.99 / AU$1,899, netting you a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The 15-inch model starts at $1,299.99 and comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.

It's cheaper than the entry-level M3 MacBook Air 13-inch and matches the starting price of the M3 MacBook Air 15-inch, while the highest configuration roughly matches the price of the highest configuration of the MacBook Air.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Specs

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 13.8-inch model starts with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with 16GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. The 15-inch model starts out with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.

Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7?

Buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 if...

You want solid productivity performance
This laptop can handle plenty of productivity work including video calls, documents, web surfing, and more while never sacrificing performance on any level.

You’re on a budget
This laptop is quite affordable, beating out other laptops with similar or worse performance and specs. If you're on a budget, this is an excellent choice.

Don't buy it if...

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7: Also consider

If my Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

How I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7?

I tested the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 for a week
I tested it using productivity and creative applications
I stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

First, I tested the general weight and portability of the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 by carrying it around in a laptop bag. After I set it up, I ran several benchmarks to thoroughly test out the new Qualcomm processor. Finally, I used a variety of programs and applications to test out both battery life and general performance during work-like conditions.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is meant to be a portable laptop with a thin and light chassis. I had to spend a good amount of testing not only on performance issues but also looking for any ventilation issues. I also tested out battery life to see how long it could last off AC power.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed June 2024

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