Asus Goes Big On Slim Laptops at Computex (cnet.com)

At Computex, Asus announced a range of new laptops. From a report: The new ZenBook Pro takes center stage, featuring powerful hardware in a slim form factor -- an Intel Core i7-7700HQ as well as a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, while the world's thinnest convertible ZenBook Flip S lets you play around with its 4K display. But it's not all just flagship products, Asus also announced new VivoBooks meant for the mainstream market. The new VivoBook Pro packs Intel's seventh-generation processors and comes loaded with discrete graphics in the form of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1050. The VivoBook S15 features more modest specs but still packs Nvidia GeForce GTX 940 discrete graphics. You can real the full-specifications of aforementioned laptops here.

Comments

Slim laptops

[DontBeAMoran]

So... no removable batteries and soldered RAM with no RAM slots to upgrade?

Re: Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't help but wonder if Asus' success on the Chromebook front has had them myopically double down on the notebook-status-quo.

We randomly picked up an old Asus Chromebook flip for testing (edTech) and ended up falling in love with the little thing. So much so, it's what our CEO carries around now.

But I continue to share your skepticism - there is a clear market for thin, light, disposable. However there is a lot of powerful mindshare that wants something reasonably powerful, with long battery life that's also reasonably affordable and upgradable (storage/RAM) by perhaps we're dinosaurs.

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

And really small, really loud fans. Because everybody loves hearing the wheeeeeeeeeeeeee of tiny fans all the time.

Re:Slim laptops

[Ravaldy]

Get used to it. It's all heading that way and it will make more and more sense as they continue to move in that direction.

RAM slots are only needed if the device doesn't ship with enough in the first place. Better to solve the problem at the source and simply include more RAM. It's less expensive to manufacture the hardware without the removable RAM and it shrinks the footprint.

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

It's less expensive to manufacture the hardware without the removable RAM and it shrinks the footprint.

But it's more expensive to stock every possible combination of CPU/screen/disk/RAM. Plus, the threat of competition drives prices down.

So in the long run, removable parts are sold for less even though the socket costs something.

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

The idea that the manufactures milk the 'new' price of ram and stopping third-party providers or just allowing people to wait until the price drops or the get hold of more money or both.

Not gouging at all.

But it does make a lot of sense.

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you and fuck these shit "laptops". Just drop $100 on one of these and be done with it. They're upgradeable, cheap, plentiful, fast, light, thin enough, and you can collect them all for the price of one of these non-upgradeable, chiclet keyboard bearing pieces of trash.

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm more upset by the linux-hostile nature they've taken lately.
nVidia linux drivers will NOT work on the newer laptops because
the BIOS make it impossible to disable the on-board video (it
really isn't a GEForce display driver, it's a crippled hybird that
uses nVidia for the computational part of the display, but pipes
everything through the on-board INTEL video. Their latest models
do NOT mention this at all in their specs. So, basically, ASUS
have become Wintel boxes at best. Very annoying.

CAP === 'projects'

Re:Slim laptops

[Anonymous Coward]

and don't forget the piss-poor customer support and warranty service that asus is famous for. it's almost like they're the comcast of hardware manufacturers.

Re:Slim laptops

[thegreatbob]

Unless you really want to be able to play current generation 3D games on the road, Sandy/Ivy Bridge laptops should still be fairly future-resistant. My latitude E5430 is in the same ballpark; if I hadn't gotten a great deal on it at the time of purchase, I'd likely have one of those listed today.

Re:Slim laptops

[mallyn]

Or go to a place like Free Geek in Portland, Oregon and get a used laptop. I got one there at about Auguse of 2018 and it's still going strong!

Re:Slim laptops

[unixisc]

For them, they're probably on the relentless cost reduction crusade, which assumes that most customers would not be willing to pay for that added flexibility of expanding RAM or replacing batteries.

And I daresay they'd be right. /. posters are hardly typical of the market at large

Re:Slim laptops

[binarybum]

Dammit - I knew you guys in Portland had figured out time travel. Everyone thinks people there are so weird, but probably half them are just from the future and are misunderstood - am I right?

Re:Slim laptops

[DontBeAMoran]

What the fuck are you talking about? 2018 is... oh wait, your point of view.

Forget everything you just read. Or else.

Re:Slim laptops

[thegarbz]

challenge you to find a person who doesn't regular Slashdot who knows that laptops have upgradable RAM.

The battery is still an issue but people rarely if ever considered laptops to be upgradable and they didn't do exactly that. It's a wonder why these things were modular for as long as they were, and not at all surprising that it didn't last.

New competitor for the MS Surface Pro?

[Eloking]

I like the new ZenBook Flip S and I would consider it to replace my old Surface Pro (the old one). I prefer a real (keyboard included) laptop over "cover keyboard" of the Surface Pro line. And one of the most important point for me : Two (not one) USB-C port.

My problem though is that they only talk about the High-End specs (Intel Core i7-7500U) and the Low End Price ($1,099). So we have no idea how much the High-End will cost and we got now idea what are the specs of the 1100$ low-end one. Futhermore, I would personally prefer a "pro" version of the flip. A little thicker and some more power inside (in other word, dedictated graphic card).

Re:Following orders

[Anonymous Coward]

because disobedience might leave you starving in the street without a job?

Laptops like phones...

[sqorbit]

So now laptops are just as bad as mobile phones. No removable battery for easy reset/replacement, no upgradable parts. We now use devices for a year so and toss them. This might sound like a "get off my lawn" comment, but please leave my hardware alone. Let me decide how much memory I need or what parts can be replaced or upgraded rather than buying a new device.

Re:Laptops like phones...

[Ravaldy]

This is for Thin laptops which I'm personally ok with. And even if it was for all laptops, if there's a true demand for modular laptops to remain, someone can put out a product and hope to cash out on it. If they can't then that just means we are a minority and won't get our way.

Regular-sized laptop (15")

[CanEHdian]

How about a regular-sized laptop with:
- long life, exchangable battery with 12-16 hours of regular use
- plenty of USB ports (6 minimum)
- plenty of other useful ports
- line-out (analog) and SPDIF (digital) audio ports
- a VGA port to support old beamers.
- a physical 'off' switch for the internal microphone
- a large, very quiet chassis cooling fan
- a firmware that supports emergency recovery flashing from USB stick
- relatively easy to access and replace RAM and GPU board
- an easy way to support an external WiFi antenna
- etc.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[TeknoHog]

- a large, very quiet chassis cooling fan

While I agree with most of your points, I've had particular worries about cooling in laptops. My Thinkpad X220i doesn't have enough fan power to keep it cool during intense graphics demos (CPU + GPU), so it starts throttling down the clocks over time. It feels like a fundamental design error if you cannot actually use all the hardware -- I wouldn't mind something like extra noise at such times.

For my last gig, I hauled around a Mini-ITX machine, though I also needed more GPU power anyway. I sometimes look at gaming laptops for these purposes, but I could do without all the "gaming" extras, I just need a laptop with a strong GPU and decent display outputs.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Anonymous Coward]

Just build a desktop already. You are not going to find a laptop with all that.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Ravaldy]

Sounds like you need a desktop.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Ravaldy]

For my last gig, I hauled around a Mini-ITX machine,

Exactly. At some point the requirements out-scale the intent of the laptop. The majority of users do not require the specifications he requested. Some of his specifications are already handled in the more expensive work books and some of his requirements are a matter of setting up software to do what he wants.

Re: Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Anonymous Coward]

Try the DELL XPS 15
thin understated 11h battery gtx 1050ti replaceable battery and RAM

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Anonymous Coward]

- sufficient space to plug in both VGA and HDMI cables at the same friggin' time

It is not like the onboard Intel graphics can't support triple monitor. It is one of my pet peeves with my current ASUS laptop from work.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[R3d M3rcury]

Indeed.

I bought a 17" MacBook Pro back in 2010 to replace my desktop and it worked out wonderfully. It was, as I called it, transportable. No, I wasn't going to use it flying in coach (I did use it once when I got bumped to business class and it worked okay). I wasn't going to whip it out in the chic little coffee shop. But it was a life-saver for getting real work done in hotel rooms and the like.

The MacBook Pro has had mostly storage upgrades--from a 5400 RPM hard drive to a 7200 RPM drive to a Flash drive. Memory came maxed out, but if I could have, I would have upgraded the memory. Plenty of ports for external devices for when I was at home or in case I needed something on the road.

I'm fine with a larger laptop which is upgradable--a transportable desktop replacement. Within certain realms of reason, I'm happy to sacrifice weight for a degree of upgradability, a large number of built-in ports, and a decent sized screen (with high-definition screens, I can get away with a smaller screen with a higher resolution as long as my eyes hold out).

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Anonymous Coward]

Where can I find a desktop with a 12-16 hour battery life?

Re: Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Anonymous Coward]

What about a gaming laptop? They are 15" typically and they weight 2 kg...

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[thegarbz]

Sounds nice but if they are building a laptop for just you instead of a wider audience it would get very expensive very quickly.

A large portion of what you quoted (SPDIF out, WhatTF!, an upgradable GPU, WhyTF!) is of interest to virtually no-one.

Re:Regular-sized laptop (15")

[Hydrian]

I think you need to your asking too much and forgot some important aspect. No one cares about SPDIF. Also GPU repleacement... really? "Plenty of useful ports." What the heck does that mean? This is a laptop, space is limited, 'unlimited space' is the realm of mid-towers.

Here are some things I'd love to see in a laptop.
- Long, exchangeable battery
- At least 4 USB ports. One still being USB 2.0 for those damn non-forward compatible devices
- 4-ring analog input/output (if you need more audio options, get a USB / Thunderbolt DAC/ADC.) Hardware disable switch
- Thunderbolt based Docking port. None of this proprietary crap.
- Replaceable RAM, Hard drive with industry standard connections.
- Latest in WiFi technology
- A DAMN pointing stick/trackpoint option
- Optional numpad keyboard layout
- A high DPI/PPI screen. I don't have to be the latest and greatest, but you need at least 300. This is to reduce eye strain.
- Optional High Dynamic Range color gamut without going to 4K screens. HDR give a better screen quailty. That doesn't mean you need the expense of the extra resolution and the bigger batter drain because of it. I'd love to see 1080p HDR screens.

I have to ask

[FudRucker]

Does it run Linux?

Re:I have to ask

[Anonymous Coward]

See my comment above about the nVidia Linux driver support...
Short answer - No, you will never get a working display under linux.
(I bought and returned two ASUS laptop trying to run Fedora and
could not get the nVidia driver to work under linux.)

CAP === 'policing'

Re:I have to ask

[The Wild Norseman]

You sure? I just got a new GTX 1050Ti for my desktop running Linux Mint 18.1 and the proprietary NVidia drivers work great.

Hey look!

[Anonymous Coward]

An advertisement...

Pentium III?

[Anonymous Coward]

The new VivoBook Pro packs Intel's seventh-generation processors

How do we count Intel processor generations these days?

Re: Pentium III?

[PixetaledPikachu]

It's a 7th generation Intel Core i series

airline bans

[bugs2squash]

maybe they should ask the (worthless) TSA what the maximum allowable volume for carry-aboard electronic device is and then figure a way to distributing the functionality of a laptop into a few small devices that fit inside that limit.

think "man with the golden laptop"

Re:airline bans

[thegreatbob]

If I hadn't posted before I saw this, I'd mod up! Fully modular, portable computing devices are something in desperate need of a renaissance.

It fucking sucked

[Anonymous Coward]

To have to remove the motherboard to replace the 4 gig ram with 8 so I could use a VM on my i3 x501a.
No ram door. If it cam with the core I9 for 500.00 I still would never buy another ASUS.
Horse shit along with Windows nonsense I bought a Mac Pro 5,1 for 100.00 on CL upped the ram, SSD on pcie and a usb3.1 card.
All set.

Re:It fucking sucked

[thegreatbob]

While the machine I will refer to wound up needing no repair, I discovered that a specific variety of laptop at my work requires near total disassembly to access two of the DIMM slots. Admittedly, a laptop with 4 DIMM slots is a pretty uncommon (the sucker, a Toshiba P875, supports 32GB RAM, and was made about 4 years ago!). Repairability isn't just a function of having many discrete parts, it's also about not having to jump through a million hoops to get it apart. Looking at you, Toshiba.

ThinkPads of yore

[thegreatbob]

TLDR: companies should stop pumping unrepairable trash into the market; consumers should stop tolerating unrepairable trash. Also, don't assume that I'm calling the products in the story trash, but 'slim' has become a dirty word in my book, basically synonymous with the conditions of the previous statement.

Two of the best (IBM) ThinkPads I've ever owned are the 770 and 600 series; the 770 series was a bit on the chunky side, ever for its day, but the 600 (600X in my case) seemed to be a very optimal travel machine. They really don't make them like they used to... they were completely rebuildable; the internal circuitry comprised several discrete mezzanine boards, so if anything got crushed/burned out/wet, you could order a replacement (or in my case, cannibalize another from the scrap heap) and be back in action in fairly quickly. Combine that with a very rigid chassis, they felt as expensive as they were. Ultrabay was also a nice concept, a hot/warm swappable multifunction bay that could accept CD/DVD drives, hard drives, or a second battery; 770 actually accepted the same battery type in both bays, which was very nice (600 needed a special pack for the bay). Oh yes, and docking stations. I have two 600Xs that are fully functional today, albeit of limited utility due to their age, and lack or replacement batteries. These are obviously a bad comparison against mainstream laptops of any era, costing 2000+ USD in the late 90s, but it just makes me feel shame on behalf of my species for having accepted the onslaught non-repairable crap on the market today as reasonable.

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[Anonymous Coward]

The fundamental problem of spending $2000 on a laptop is that if you spend $500 and use it for a quarter of the expensive laptop's lifespan, you can get a new laptop for $500 that is unimaginably better than the $2000 laptop is now.
Unless you've got so much cash that you don't know what to do with it and might as well spend it on a new $2000 laptop every year or so, if you buy expensive laptops you will most of the time be using an inferior laptop. Splurging on laptops makes no sense.

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[Ayanami_R]

"consumers should stop tolerating unrepairable trash"

Asking, not tolerating. That's why they are out there, the market wants them this way.

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[thegreatbob]

Here I was, trying to give consumers the benefit of the (my) doubt... but I guess, unfortunately, you're very correct.

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[thegreatbob]

That notion was quite accurate up until about 5 years ago, when Intel decided to just sort of kick back and rake in the dough with their incremental CPU improvements. (I know, I'm being a bit harsh on them, as they're wandering into some very interesting territory with transistor gate sizing).

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[thegreatbob]

Note that I am wandering around the subject of gaming laptops, as significant strides have been made in the GPU departement over the past 5 years.

Re:ThinkPads of yore

[Anonymous Coward]

Here I was, trying to give consumers the benefit of the (my) doubt... but I guess, unfortunately, you're very correct.

Customers don't deserve the benefit of the doubt; look at all the suckers buying overpriced, obsolete, disposable Apple shit.

Are the Touchpads any good?

[Amigori]

Seriously, its 2017 and why are the touchpads on PCs not ever equivalent to the Macs? Maybe these new ones have the Precision touchpads, but standard Asus touchpads aren't great. Plus, Linux support for more than PS/2 emulation would be nice.

Re:Are the Touchpads any good?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm using a Mac right now (15" MacBook Pro retina), and the touch pad is awful. I avoid it like the plague.

I guess

[fyngyrz]

Get used to it. It's all heading that way and it will make more and more sense as they continue to move in that direction.

Well, as it heads that way, I will keep choosing my computing hardware, both portable and not, based on computing power, connectivity, and display quality, while completely ignoring how "slim" the freaking thing is.