AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS Torpedoes Intel's Core i9 Mobile Lineup, Fastest Mobile Processor

[TheLostSwede]

The noise isn't that bad for a thin gaming laptop (I wouldn't game on it without headphones anyway) even if it's not good either, and limited ports... meh. Two USB-C, two A and HDMI is enough for my uses.

No Ethernet... Big drawback imho. No memory card slot, a slight drawback. It's not as bad as MSI's Prestige models, but still...

 

[ARF]

No Ethernet... Big drawback imho. No memory card slot, a slight drawback. It's not as bad as MSI's Prestige models, but still...

It's like the design engineers run out of space in the pursuit of a WOW effect.
The space is dominated by the exhausts vents, the fans and the battery, effectively limiting the space for everything else.
The position of the fans is not good, too, on both end sides.

This is how it looks:

And this is how it could have looked:

 

[Cheeseball]

Yeah, especially when the poor webcam cost is a few dollar cents...

Well, that's the thing. If they would integrate a webcam, it should be of a higher quality. It wouldn't be worth it to just put it there for the sake of having one. It's another component that would just be sitting there if the main use of the laptop is gaming.

No Ethernet... Big drawback imho. No memory card slot, a slight drawback. It's not as bad as MSI's Prestige models, but still...

For me, I believe not having a built-in Ethernet port is a plus because I could always upgrade to a better one (e.g. like that 2.5 Gbps Plugable one that was released a few days back) and use it through a USB-C hub, considering that USB-C has the bandwidth. Integrating something high quality like the AQC11xU chipset would add to the overall cost of the laptop as well. At least the AX20x WiFi module can be swapped out as well.

The only disadvantage would be having to carry dongles/cables around, but at least you can upgrade them when the time comes.

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's like the design engineers run out of space in the pursuit of a WOW effect.
The space is dominated by the exhausts vents, the fans and the battery, effectively limiting the space for everything else.
The position of the fans is not good, too, on both end sides.

This is how it looks:

View attachment 149884

And this is how it could have looked:

View attachment 149883

Or not. You're comparing a 14" notebook to a 15.6" or 17.3" model there.
But yes, it seems like it could've been done slightly different to add even a second M.2 port, but alas.
Maybe the next model?

Also, FYI, Germany uses QWERTZ keyboards and ideally I want one with ÅÄÖ, so I can't just buy a computer anywhere...

For me, I believe not having a built-in Ethernet port is a plus because I could always upgrade to a better one (e.g. like that 2.5 Gbps Plugable one that was released a few days back) and use it through a USB-C hub, considering that USB-C has the bandwidth. Integrating something high quality like the AQC11xU chipset would add to the overall cost of the laptop as well. At least the AX20x WiFi module can be swapped out as well.

The only disadvantage would be having to carry dongles/cables around, but at least you can upgrade them when the time comes.

So what do you do when you forget the dongle and you end up stuck in a hotel that doesn't have Wi-Fi in the rooms, only Ethernet? Or when you're over at your mates trying to fix his router and you didn't bring the dongle? Dongles are all nice, but nothing beats built in Ethernet, as it's always there, no matter what.
If you want 2.5Gbps, the cheap options are Realtek or Intel these days, or even (dare I say) Killer (it's Intel based), as Aquantia isn't very price competitive on the 2.5Gbps parts.
I have the Realtek chip on my motherboard and it's actually rather good, but as I have a 10Gbps NIC in that PC...

 

[SL2]

The position of the fans is not good, too, on both end sides.

Why is that bad?
The G14 have no vents on the underside. Being a 14" model, chances are that you'll actually use it in your lap, and with no vents underneath you won't suffocate it. (you = anyone, not only people who knows what to not do with a laptop..)
It has heatpipes in both the exhaust and the intake. Moving the intake will reduce the real estate for heatpipes in total, easier said than done.

Besides, you're comparing it with a laptop that has only two heatpipes. This one have FIVE, and seven pipe ends are soldered to the heatsinks. Yeah, very easy to just move around..

 

[ARF]

Also, FYI, Germany uses AZERTY keyboards and ideally I want one with ÅÄÖ, so I can't just buy a computer anywhere...

German keyboards are QWERTZ with the German Umlauts Ä, Ö and Ü.

Some bookshops sell special alphabet stickers which you can put on top of your keys and there you go

 

[TheLostSwede]

German keyboards are QWERTZ with the German Umlauts Ä, Ö and Ü.

Some bookshops sell special alphabet stickers which you can put on top of your keys and there you go

True, mixed it up with the French ones there for a second.
And stickers doesn't fix that...

 

[moob]

Just five games?

This does depend on the user's gaming habits so no argument here. With that being said, I believe that a bigger SSD would take higher priority than a webcam, especially for mobile gaming purposes.

100% agreed. It'd certainly be a higher priority for me as well.

And believe it or not, 5 games is a lot for me. I usually only have 2 or 3 games installed at a time. Once I finish it, I uninstall it. But with Control I'm waiting for the DLCs (well, second DLC now) and with Ori I gotta do some of the time trials.

So what do you do when you forget the dongle and you end up stuck in a hotel that doesn't have Wi-Fi in the rooms, only Ethernet?

Is that a thing? I've never been in a hotel room where ethernet was the only choice. Scratch that, I don't think I've ever been in a hotel room where ethernet was a choice at all, at least here in the US. Some places have the jack, but it's not in service.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Is that a thing? I've never been in a hotel room where ethernet was the only choice. Scratch that, I don't think I've ever been in a hotel room where ethernet was a choice at all, at least here in the US. Some places have the jack, but it's not in service.

You'd be surprised what you end up with sometimes. It's only happened once to me, but it has happened. Also, some hotels have much faster internet access over Ethernet compared to their slow 802.11g Wi-Fi with half a bar signal, as they were too cheap to buy enough Wi-Fi AP's...
Then again, some hotels have free Wi-Fi, but charge if you use the Ethernet route...

 

[Valantar]

No Ethernet... Big drawback imho. No memory card slot, a slight drawback. It's not as bad as MSI's Prestige models, but still...

Ethernet would be nice, but it's not a must for me. Where do you find hotels in 2020 without WiFi in the rooms? I've travelled quite a lot, and WiFi is ubiquitous and has been for years. In an emergency I would just tether my phone, though I always have a dongle in my bag. I also have both USB-A and USB-C memory card readers, so no worries there. A lot of the integrated ones lack UHS-I support or even connect through USB 2.0, so I don't trust built-in readers anyhow - no use making one a criteria for laptop choice when 70% don't have one, and more than half of the ones that do have bad or useless ones. Beyond that I just think we have different frames of reference. This has excellent I/O for a thin-and-light in 2020, even if at 1.6kg it is ~.3kg heavier than most (and not that thin). I haven't used a big laptop for more than a decade, so this would not be problematic for me whatsoever.

It's like the design engineers run out of space in the pursuit of a WOW effect.
The space is dominated by the exhausts vents, the fans and the battery, effectively limiting the space for everything else.
The position of the fans is not good, too, on both end sides.

This is how it looks:

View attachment 149884

And this is how it could have looked:

View attachment 149883

So you are comparing it to a much larger laptop that has fewer heatpipes and noticeably less surface area for its cooler, not to mention fewer exhausts = less airflow from the fans, and you would prefer them to have gone more in the direction of your comparison? Why? Your example is clearly a much worse cooler. No wow effect here, what you are describing is the opposite of that, function over form. Vents in the back, power in the front, I/O where ever it fits. It's not ideal, but with the components used that is the only sensible design priority.

 

[Cheeseball]

So what do you do when you forget the dongle and you end up stuck in a hotel that doesn't have Wi-Fi in the rooms, only Ethernet? Or when you're over at your mates trying to fix his router and you didn't bring the dongle? Dongles are all nice, but nothing beats built in Ethernet, as it's always there, no matter what.
If you want 2.5Gbps, the cheap options are Realtek or Intel these days, or even (dare I say) Killer (it's Intel based), as Aquantia isn't very price competitive on the 2.5Gbps parts.
I have the Realtek chip on my motherboard and it's actually rather good, but as I have a 10Gbps NIC in that PC...

Yeah, that's the disadvantage with having the dongles. This is why I would always just jam one in the laptop bag too.

Dude the hotels you stay at suck if they don't offer WiFi as an amenity. LOL. But yeah Ethernet will always be superior in terms of stable latency and bandwidth.

 

[Totally]

Tell me again 5.0 Ghz turbo is more than stupid marketing...

Tell it again. I dare you, I double dare you!

Oh I totally will, it's stupid marketing, when a laptop equipped with such a CPU can't maintain those speeds throttles very quickly, and in order not to has to be some monstrosity a la Acer Mothership.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Naughty Asus, doing ANSI layout with ISO languages... Not cool, not cool at all.

Ethernet would be nice, but it's not a must for me. Where do you find hotels in 2020 without WiFi in the rooms? I've travelled quite a lot, and WiFi is ubiquitous and has been for years. In an emergency I would just tether my phone, though I always have a dongle in my bag. I also have both USB-A and USB-C memory card readers, so no worries there. A lot of the integrated ones lack UHS-I support or even connect through USB 2.0, so I don't trust built-in readers anyhow - no use making one a criteria for laptop choice when 70% don't have one, and more than half of the ones that do have bad or useless ones. Beyond that I just think we have different frames of reference. This has excellent I/O for a thin-and-light in 2020, even if at 1.6kg it is ~.3kg heavier than most (and not that thin). I haven't used a big laptop for more than a decade, so this would not be problematic for me whatsoever.

Personally I don't like to travel with a bag full of "crap" to be able to use my computer.
Then again, I used to be a tech journalist and every gram truly counts when you're at a trade show, as after a week, your back is seriously messed up as it is. I once grabbed a random notebook that was in the office for review before heading to CeBIT, I dumped it at a friends booth the first day and never brought it to the show after that, as it was a 2.5kg beast.
I have a Thinkpad X250 and even it is on the heavy side when travelling imho and it weighs in at 1.5kg with the extra large battery. It has Ethernet and a PCIe connected SD card reader and it's smaller than the Asus. That said, it doesn't have a dedicated GPU.
I think you're out of touch when it comes to thin and light, they're down to 995g and less these days... This is a "regular" notebook in 2020.
Also, compared to this sub 1kg notebook, Asus has poor connectivity. They even managed to fit a web cam...

VAIO SX

us.vaio.com

Yeah, that's the disadvantage with having the dongles. This is why I would always just jam one in the laptop bag too.

Dude the hotels you stay at suck if they don't offer WiFi as an amenity. LOL. But yeah Ethernet will always be superior in terms of stable latency and bandwidth.

The last hotel I stayed at that didn't have free Wi-Fi was in the US... Then again, they didn't have free internet of any kind. In fact, it was cheaper and faster to turn on roaming on my phone and use that, their their 2Mbps Wi-Fi service...

 

[r9]

So what do you do when you forget the dongle and you end up stuck in a hotel that doesn't have Wi-Fi in the rooms, only Ethernet?

You jump back into the time machine and travel back into the present ?

 

[SL2]

I think you're out of touch when it comes to thin and light, they're down to 995g and less these days... This is a "regular" notebook in 2020.

Except for gaming notebooks tho. Very few models have this low weight and size together with GPU power like this one.

Out of over 300 models up to 14" under 1.7 kg with a dedicated GPU, there are only FOUR models that tops out at 1660 TI Max-Q, and those are the new G14.

Notebooks mit Display-Größe bis 14.1", Grafik-Hersteller: AMD/NVIDIA, Gewicht bis 1.7kg Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

Preisvergleich und Bewertungen für Notebooks mit Display-Größe bis 14.1", Grafik-Hersteller: AMD/NVIDIA, Gewicht bis 1.7kg

geizhals.eu

This model is tiny and light for a gaming laptop. Edit: Oh, maybe you were just referring to connectivity, idk..

 

[watzupken]

That's storage. 1 TB is not enough space nowadays, especially for games (and VS projects lol). 512 GB is fine to get by for office work (256 GB even).

Firstly, it is difficult to find a laptop with more than 1TB SSD at this point. Some manufacturers give you the option of 2TB, but at a substantial cost.

Secondly, even the new game consoles from Microsoft and Sony are not featuring any more than 1TB built in based on the rumors floating around. If there is ever a need for more, then either you DIY and change to a higher capacity drive, or use an external storage. So no difference on a laptop as well.

Lastly, I feel it is a matter of an individual's effort to clean up on games they don't play. I actually don't think you need like 10 games on your hard drive at any point in time since most have their few favorite games they play all the time. Even if you have a 4TB SSD, you will eventually run out of space installing all the games that you don't play.

If its for storing photos, videos, other files, it may be better to store them in the cloud, or get NAS, which will be more cost effective than storing in SSDs.

Except for gaming notebooks tho. Very few models have this low weight and size together with GPU power like this one.

Out of over 300 models up to 14" under 1.7 kg with a dedicated GPU, there are only FOUR models that tops out at 1660 TI Max-Q, and those are the new G14.

View attachment 149912

Notebooks mit Display-Größe bis 14.1", Grafik-Hersteller: AMD/NVIDIA, Gewicht bis 1.7kg Preisvergleich Geizhals EU

Preisvergleich und Bewertungen für Notebooks mit Display-Größe bis 14.1", Grafik-Hersteller: AMD/NVIDIA, Gewicht bis 1.7kg

geizhals.eu

This model is tiny and light for a gaming laptop. Edit: Oh, maybe you were just referring to connectivity, idk..

Because it is really difficult to cool the components in a thin chassis. Light weight means there will be compromise either with the battery and/or the cooling solution. Most if not all of these thin and light "gaming" laptops will throttle badly due to insufficient cooling. Also higher end components will mean a big and heavy power brick to go along to keep up with the power requirement.

Personally I don't like to travel with a bag full of "crap" to be able to use my computer.
Then again, I used to be a tech journalist and every gram truly counts when you're at a trade show, as after a week, your back is seriously messed up as it is. I once grabbed a random notebook that was in the office for review before heading to CeBIT, I dumped it at a friends booth the first day and never brought it to the show after that, as it was a 2.5kg beast.
I have a Thinkpad X250 and even it is on the heavy side when travelling imho and it weighs in at 1.5kg with the extra large battery. It has Ethernet and a PCIe connected SD card reader and it's smaller than the Asus. That said, it doesn't have a dedicated GPU.
I think you're out of touch when it comes to thin and light, they're down to 995g and less these days... This is a "regular" notebook in 2020.
Also, compared to this sub 1kg notebook, Asus has poor connectivity. They even managed to fit a web cam...

VAIO SX

us.vaio.com

The last hotel I stayed at that didn't have free Wi-Fi was in the US... Then again, they didn't have free internet of any kind. In fact, it was cheaper and faster to turn on roaming on my phone and use that, their their 2Mbps Wi-Fi service...

I won't like to resort to dongles as well if possible. However it is more likely you will find WiFi more than you can find Ethernet port outdoors nowadays. Most hotels I visit will either give free WiFi or you will end up having to pay for any form of internet connection. And just like you mentioned, it would be easier if you just tether data directly to your laptop, especially when you are on the go. Bu the way, I don't deny the benefits of direct wire connections and would like one here as well. But if it is not there, it is still not a deal breaker in my opinion.

 

[KarymidoN]

After watching der8uer video i'm sure this thing is amazing, for a 14" model for 1500$ this is a monster price/Performance machine, not perfect for sure, but it really fills a lot of important boxes for a lot of people that need small, thin and powerfull machines on the go.

 

[Valantar]

Naughty Asus, doing ANSI layout with ISO languages... Not cool, not cool at all.

I believe all review units sent out are US units, your picture is clearly that.

Personally I don't like to travel with a bag full of "crap" to be able to use my computer.
Then again, I used to be a tech journalist and every gram truly counts when you're at a trade show, as after a week, your back is seriously messed up as it is. I once grabbed a random notebook that was in the office for review before heading to CeBIT, I dumped it at a friends booth the first day and never brought it to the show after that, as it was a 2.5kg beast.
I have a Thinkpad X250 and even it is on the heavy side when travelling imho and it weighs in at 1.5kg with the extra large battery. It has Ethernet and a PCIe connected SD card reader and it's smaller than the Asus. That said, it doesn't have a dedicated GPU.
I think you're out of touch when it comes to thin and light, they're down to 995g and less these days... This is a "regular" notebook in 2020.
Also, compared to this sub 1kg notebook, Asus has poor connectivity. They even managed to fit a web cam...

VAIO SX

us.vaio.com

Oh, I know full well that there are <1kg ultrabooks out there, they just don't appeal much to me. The LG Gram series is reportedly very good, but not available in the Nordics. That Vaio you linked is the standard "I'm from Japan, I have all the I/O" thing which is pretty nice, but sadly it falls flat in other aspects (build quality, cooling). Not to mention the astronomical prices. Well-performing mainstay ultrabooks like the XPS 13 series are still mostly around the 1.2-1.3kg range. My current work laptop, a Latitude 7390 2-in-1 is 1.44 kg, and that's perfectly fine (if a tad heavy for tablet use) though it has other issues. And for me, I've accepted that dongles are a part of life these days. Sure, they're a hassle (especially when you don't remember to bring one), but one that a bit of preparedness can account for. And thankfully my life doesn't involve schlepping around a heavy backpack at trade shows, and while days at academic conferences can be long and tiring there isn't much walking involved, and there are no more than 1-2 of those a year. As I said, I think we mainly have different frames of reference. My strict adherence to (what was then) light laptops came from owning a HP TouchSmart TX2 back in the mid-2000s - a 12.1" convertible that weighed a good 2.1kg. Dragging that thing to school every day was horrible, so then I told myself to never get anything even close to that heavy. When it died I moved to the X201, and kept that for ... oh, nearly a decade. Got my current laptop from work, but I'm not all that happy with it and my use has changed some, so I would like the option for some gaming on the go, and 1.6kg is still well within acceptable for me. Of course the fact that I drag around a lot of photography equipment every time I travel privately does play into that - on its own the difference between 1kg and 1.6 is big, but not when you're carrying 2-5kg of camera gear. Of course that argument can probably be extended at least to 2kg, but again that's too heavy for daily use for me. So 1.6kg is an acceptable compromise all in all, though I wouldn't go any heavier.

 

[Dredi]

I believe all review units sent out are US units, your picture is clearly that.

check the keys more carefully. That model is customized to the uk market, and should have ISO layout but does not. All they did was split the left shift and even that split line looks like shit.

 

[SL2]

Because it is really difficult to cool the components in a thin chassis. Light weight means there will be compromise either with the battery and/or the cooling solution. Most if not all of these thin and light "gaming" laptops will throttle badly due to insufficient cooling. Also higher end components will mean a big and heavy power brick to go along to keep up with the power requirement.

You missed my point. I was just saying that 1.6 kg is NOT average for a gaming laptop with a GPU like this.

 

[ARF]

Why is that bad?
The G14 have no vents on the underside. Being a 14" model, chances are that you'll actually use it in your lap, and with no vents underneath you won't suffocate it. (you = anyone, not only people who knows what to not do with a laptop..)
It has heatpipes in both the exhaust and the intake. Moving the intake will reduce the real estate for heatpipes in total, easier said than done.

Besides, you're comparing it with a laptop that has only two heatpipes. This one have FIVE, and seven pipe ends are soldered to the heatsinks. Yeah, very easy to just move around..

It looks as if it has only 2 heatpipes because it's with a 15-watt APU, so it's fine.
Don't you see all the space around that you can put 20 heatpipes if you wish.

The Asus design is awful, I would ask their engineering team to rethink their philosophy of using soldered RAM and so inefficiently positioned cooling.

 

[micropage7]

It's like the design engineers run out of space in the pursuit of a WOW effect.
The space is dominated by the exhausts vents, the fans and the battery, effectively limiting the space for everything else.
The position of the fans is not good, too, on both end sides.

This is how it looks:

View attachment 149884

it looks they try to catch symmetry especially when gaming style now make everything following supercar or ship or aircraft pattern with sharp edge, unconventional cut and like that
like that design it might be good for looks but you right hand will hit by exhaust

 

[SL2]

It looks as if it has only 2 heatpipes because it's with a 15-watt APU, so it's fine.
Don't you see all the space around that you can put 20 heatpipes if you wish.

The Asus design is awful, I would ask their engineering team to rethink their philosophy of using soldered RAM and so inefficiently positioned cooling.

Well done, you think you know better than a engineering team at Asus. I'm not saying that they never do any mistakes tho. Stop being so naive. Maybe they know something about this that we don't? Maybe the engineers doesn't call all the shots about what the product should be like. Maybe they have to consider things like production cost, something buyers never get to know about.
Here we have a very price competitive product with high performance, low weight, and small size, and you're complaining about compromises? Then buy something else, or better yet, try to find something similar, at all.
If it's that bad, show me something similar that works better. Even if you don't like it, you have to admit that the price is extremely competitive.

It's very difficult to make the cooling work sufficiently when the case is that thin.
Size: height x width x depth (in mm): 17.9 x 324 x 222 ( = 0.7 x 12.76 x 8.74 in)

There's no room for what you suggest, and you still haven't answered why this design is bad.

 

[ARF]

Well done, you think you know better than a engineering team at Asus. I'm not saying that they never do any mistakes tho. Stop being so naive. Maybe they know something about this that we don't? Maybe the engineers doesn't call all the shots about what the product should be like. Maybe they have to consider things like production cost, something buyers never get to know about.
Here we have a very price competitive product with high performance, low weight, and small size, and you're complaining about compromises? Then buy something else, or better yet, try to find something similar, at all.
If it's that bad, show me something similar that works better. Even if you don't like it, you have to admit that the price is extremely competitive.

It's very difficult to make the cooling work sufficiently when the case is that thin.
Size: height x width x depth (in mm): 17.9 x 324 x 222 ( = 0.7 x 12.76 x 8.74 in)

There's no room for what you suggest, and you still haven't answered why this design is bad.

I will have to escalate the case to Asus support.

You are right only about thing - that Asus is free to make in whatever shape they want.

It will be, however, on the customers' side to decide and assess it.

I have a camera and a phone that work with memory cards, and I have the need to have a working webcam.
If the notebook really has no solutions of these missing items, then I'm sorry, but Asus have just lost another potential customer.


And how dare you to say to a customer - do you think you know better than our engineers?

 

[Vayra86]

Well done, you think you know better than a engineering team at Asus. I'm not saying that they never do any mistakes tho. Stop being so naive. Maybe they know something about this that we don't? Maybe the engineers doesn't call all the shots about what the product should be like. Maybe they have to consider things like production cost, something buyers never get to know about.
Here we have a very price competitive product with high performance, low weight, and small size, and you're complaining about compromises? Then buy something else, or better yet, try to find something similar, at all.
If it's that bad, show me something similar that works better. Even if you don't like it, you have to admit that the price is extremely competitive.

It's very difficult to make the cooling work sufficiently when the case is that thin.
Size: height x width x depth (in mm): 17.9 x 324 x 222 ( = 0.7 x 12.76 x 8.74 in)

There's no room for what you suggest, and you still haven't answered why this design is bad.
View attachment 149933

Well... in ARF's favor, if they had rotated the whole cooling solution and heatpipe pathing towards the back end of the case, things would have been a lot more comfortable to use. Doesn't look impossible, its the same cross style heatpipe design really.

Do we know better, no, you're right we often don't know all the considerations of engineers. But we do know what we like and want as customers and I think that is what ARF is getting at. For good reasons too. I've had my share of laptops and its really, really hard to get everything right, but its still possible. Its a choice of where to compromise. A few mm more thickness to have a great cooling solution to me and many others is a no brainer, but for many engineers its apparently a crime.