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ASUS' ZenBook 3 Is Thinner, Lighter and Faster Than the MacBook (engadget.com)
At the ongoing Computex trade show in China, Asus unveiled the ZenBook 3 laptop. The ZenBook 3's chassis measures 11.9mm while the whole body weighs 910g. At the event, the company's executive said that ZenBook 3 is better than both MacBook Air and the 12-inch MacBook. As for the specifications, the ZenBook 3, which is crafted from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, sports a 12.5-inch full-HD display (1920x1080 pixels), and offers up to Core i7 processor, 16GB of 2133MHz RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD, a next-gen USB Type-C port (for power and data transfer), powerful quad-speaker audio by Harman Kardon, and a fingerprint scanner. Do note that there is only one USB port on the device. The entry-level variant featuring Core i5 processor, 256GB of SSD and 4GB of RAM is priced at 999, while the top-of-the-line model will set you back by $1,999. Asus also had nice things to say about the keyboard, though Engadget's reporter was not impressed. More details here.
Personally I think laptops are thin enough, maybe too thin. I like the slightly thicker laptops because I find them easier to handle, plunk down, and open the lid. The macbook air amost requires a fingernail to open. Why not make the laptop 1/2" thick and stick a bigger battery in it? Thinness seems to be the latest trend in ADD fashion.
I also don't want my phones to get any thinner. I always buy a case for my phones these days not because I need to protect the phone, but I want to make it a bit thicker so it's easier to handle and use.
The MacBook already has mediocre battery life, and its case is pretty much solid battery except for the tiny logic board.
So ASUS comes along, shrinks the case and puts in bigger and more power hungry CPU / RAM / SSD plus extra components like the mini CPU fan and Thunderbolt controller. Guess what's gonna give?
It sounds like the original MacBook Air; great on paper but in reality a bunch of overpowered components packed in too little space, leading to crappy battery life, overheating and throttling.
I realize everyone wants ultra-mobile devices these days, but if you're tethered to a charger it's not so mobile anymore, is it?
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Ten or so years ago I could not have imagined that someday I would not be a Mac user. OS X was part of my holy trinity of favorite operating systems. Linux had long since established it's mainstay, while FreeBSD was and is just plain fantastic as a server os.
People argue that Apple's whole lineup was and continues to grow stale. This is true, but I personally have no allegiance to brands that put out an OS, I have allegiance to the operating systems. As the first few years of my fling with Apple OS, X seemed to be getting better and better. Minor UI tweaks, smaller and smaller OS. I'm going to get to into because I'm not here to give a review but there was a point for me personally where I felt they just kinda fucked up the whole gui. I was out.
I am very particular of operating systems. I recently got a BlackBerry Classic (and yes I get maid fun of ) Everyone has asked why I didn't get the Priv. Then they are confused since I "Like BlackBerry" yet tell them if I was going to get an Android it would be a Samsung. I try to explain how it all about the os and what that means, but I only receive blank stares.
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the following connectors embedded/extensible and accessible with dongles - power, 2 X Display Port 4K , multiple 10GE connections, as many USB 3 as you might want as well as extension of the system PCIe to even allow external graphics adapters (Although I think the internal Core i7 Skylake graphics will be pretty good) and huge amount of direct connect NVMe (direct to processor cache) external SSD drive support. That little USB-C port is why you don't need any other ports.
I care about lighter, but not thinner.
People don't buy Macbooks because they are lighter, or thinner, or faster. They buy them because they run Mac OS X.
Dot buy new. go find a used 2012 and get the best macbook pro ever made.
My 2012 is as fast as anything sold today. and it is faster than the Piece of shit Lenovo 5th gen i7 laptop work bought me. Sad that lenovo only makes garbage now.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.