Xiaomi Mi NoteBook Ultra Review: Best laptop in this price range

The Mi NoteBook Ultra also outperforms some other expensive ultrabooks while costing a fraction of their price. This is a solid upgrade for those using an older machine or even the Mi NoteBook 14 that came out last year. It's also a no-brainer to spend a little extra and get the Mi NoteBook Ultra or the Mi NoteBook Pro over the RedmiBook 15 Pro that came out not too long ago. The Realme Book (Slim) stands as one of the main competitors in this price range, but there are some noteworthy differences that you might want to consider, such as a smaller display with an unusual aspect ratio and more. That being said, the Mi NoteBook Ultra is indeed the laptop to beat in this price range and I can already see this particular machine making it to a lot of our recommendation lists.

The Mi NoteBook 14 marked Xiaomi's entry into the laptop space in India last year. While we did get new RedmiBook laptops from the company a few months back, but the new Mi NoteBook Pro and the Mi NoteBook Ultra are the true successors of the Mi NoteBook 14 we all were waiting for. Both the Mi NoteBook Pro and the Mi NoteBook Ultra are solid upgrades over the Mi NoteBook 14 with a lot of noteworthy improvements.

I've been using the Mi NoteBook Ultra as my primary laptop for the better part of the last month, and I think it's a fantastic option for anybody who's looking to buy a new laptop under Rs 60,000 in India. In this review, I will be diving deep into some key aspects of the laptop that should help you get a better understanding of the laptop.

Mi NoteBook Ultra Specifications

The Mi NoteBook Ultra review unit that I tested comes fitted with Intel's 11th gen Core i7-11370H CPU but the base variant of the laptop comes with an H-series Core i5 processor. I will be talking about the performance of this laptop in detail but before that, let's take a quick look at the specifications -

Processor: Intel Core i7-11370H 3.30GHz base clock and 4.80GHz max turbo, 35W Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics with 96EU RAM: 16GB DDR4 RAM 1600MHz Storage: 512GB Kioxia NVMe SSD Display: 39.6cm (15.6) Mi TrueLife+ Display, 3.2K resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio

Mi NoteBook Ultra Performance

The Mi NoteBook Ultra given to us for review is powered by the Intel Core i7-11370H CPU. It's a high-end quad-core CPU that is usually seen in some thin and light gaming laptops. It's an interesting choice to use this SoC instead of an i7 from the U-series. The result? Well, it makes the Mi NoteBook Ultra way more powerful than some other ultrabooks on the market. Obviously, this comes at the cost of thermals, which we will discuss a bit later in this review.

The processor has 4 Willow Cove cores and 8 threads with support for Hyperthreading. The H-series chip inside this laptop is configured at 35W TDP with a base clock of 3.30GHz. It also has a single or two core boost of up to 4.8GHz whereas all cores and hit a max frequency of 4.3GHz. It is superior to the Core i7-1185G7 which has a lower TDP and subsequently, lower performance.

In Cinebench R23, the Mi NoteBook Ultra managed to score 5,539 in the multi-core test and 1,527 in the single-core test. The scores are higher than what we were able to get on both the newly launched RedmiBook 15 Pro and the Fujitsu UH-X Convertible laptops that are powered by the Intel Core i5-11300H and the Core i7-1165G7 respectively. Here, take a look -

The Mi NoteBook Ultra also managed to score 5,034 in PCMark 10, which is once again higher than some other ultrabooks on the market like the ASUS Expertbook B9400. Even outside of the world of benchmarking, the Mi NoteBook Ultra excels in putting up with my day-to-day workloads too. I was comfortably able to work with around 15-20 Chrome tabs along with some other apps like Lightroom, Spotify, etc. running in the background. The Core i7-11370H truly helps to bring the best out of this machine.

Not having a discrete GPU may sound like a deal-breaker but the Iris Xe Graphics with 96EU powering this machine is no slouch either. It handles most of the 3D workloads very well. I was able to play multiple games of Valorant on this laptop and it was indeed an enjoyable experience thanks to that 90Hz panel. Yes, you can play games on this laptop as long as you keep your expectations in check. The Mi NoteBook Ultra should be good for esports titles and even some AAA titles at low settings.

Here's a quick look at the 3DMark numbers that I managed to record on the Mi NoteBook Ultra. I also used the Mi NoteBook Ultra for creative workloads like photo and video editing and it delivered reliable performance. I was able to edit my usual test edit timeline in Davinci Resolve faster than I was able to on other notebooks like the ASUS Expertbook B9400. Adobe Lightroom was also able to export our test files without any issues. And did I mention that the 16:10 aspect ratio helps with creative workloads? It's hard to go back to a normal 16:9 panel after getting the taste of more screen real-estate.

Thermal Performance

Xiaomi seems to be hell-bent on using Intel's H-series chips even in its mainstream notebooks like the RedmiBook. I am not the one to complain as long as the thermals are well under control. So, what can you expect from the Mi NoteBook Ultra? Well, let's a look at some graphs before I answer that question.

Cinebench R23's multi-core test pushes the i7-11370H to its limits by hitting the max turbo frequency of 4.8GHz. The core clocks settle at around 3.3GHz throughout the test. As a result, I was able to record a max temp of 97°C initially before it settled at around 80°C throughout the test. I never saw the core temperatures going above the 85°C mark outside of benchmarking applications, which is good.

This is also true for gaming or running any applications that go heavy on the iGPU. So as long as you maintain a decent ambient temperature, the Mi NoteBook Ultra should be able to handle just about anything without having any major thermal issues. Yes, the laptop will throttle occasionally while running some resource-intensive application, but I am happy to report that it is not a common occurrence and it will not take away from the user experience.

Mi NoteBook Ultra Display

The Mi NoteBook Ultra not only has one of the best displays you can find on a laptop in this price range, but I think it's also one of the best laptop displays I've ever used. Yes, other OEMs offer laptops with both bigger and higher resolution panels but the Mi NoteBook Ultra's 15.6-inch 3.2K panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio hits the sweet spot for me. It's a fantastic display and is easily one of the best things about this laptop.

I managed to compare with Realme Book's 14-inch 2K panel to see which one's a better option and you can check out this video right here to see the detailed comparison - 

The video also highlights other aspects of the Mi NoteBook Ultra's display, so be sure to check it out in case you want to learn more about the panel itself. 

Mi NoteBook Ultra Keyboard, Trackpad & IO

Before we jump into the design and build quality section, let's talk a little bit about the trackpad, keyboard, and the IO situation on the Mi NoteBook Ultra. Just like its design, the Mi NoteBook Ultra's keyboard deck will instantly remind you about the MacBook. You are looking at a traditional laptop keyboard layout with generous space between the keys.

Xiaomi says it is using the scissor mechanism for the keys and they feel similar to the keys on a MacBook. I'd honestly say the keys on the Realme Book (Slim) come close to the MacBook keys but the Mi NoteBook Ultra comes close if that's even a metric to look at. That being said, they're very comfortable to type on with 1.5mm deep key travel and I personally got used to them in no time. The good thing about the keyboard is that it comes with backlighting which was missing on both the Mi NoteBook 14 and the RedmiBook 15 Pro.

Moving on to the trackpad, this is clearly a bigger surface now compared to the one we saw on the last year's Mi NoteBook 14. It's also slightly better than what we saw on both the Mi NoteBook 14 and the RedmiBook 15 Pro, but I still think there's room for improvement. The smooth finish helps with gestures and tracking, but clicking the bottom half of the trackpad still feels "budget-ty" for the lack of a better word. It's certainly not a deal-breaker, but something I wanted to mention.

One thing do I like about the Mi NoteBook Ultra is the wide variety of port selections on offer. While most laptops in this range, including the Realme Book (Slim), come with only a couple of USB Type-C ports, the Mi NoteBook Ultra gives you a bunch of options. You get a Type-C USB port and Thunderbolt 4 for charging and two USB Type-A ports out of which one is a 3.2 Gen 1 port whereas the other one is USB 2.0. Additionally, you also get an HDMI port and a 3.5mm combo jack.

Mi NoteBook Ultra Design & Build Quality

It's no surprise that the Mi NoteBook Ultra resembles the MacBook Pro both from the outside as well as the inside on the keyboard deck as I mentioned earlier. And for its all intents and purposes, it's not a bad thing at all, in my honest opinion. In fact, I think it's one of the best laptops you can buy in this price range strictly speaking from a design and a build quality perspective.

The chassis is made out of Aircraft grade Series 6 Aluminium and it weighs  1.7Kgs. It's definitely not as wafer-thin or lightweight as, say, the MacBook Air, but it screams quality. There's also a 'Xiaomi' branding on the lid giving it a bit more personality which the RedmiBook 15 Pro lacked. The overall build quality is very premium and makes it stand out in this price range.

Other additional features like the built-in fingerprint scanner on the power button make it very convenient. Not to forget, there's also a webcam now on top of the display, something which was missing on both the Mi NoteBook 14 and the RedmiBook 15 Pro. The laptop is also fitted with dual 2W stereo speakers with support for DTS audio processing app. The speaker quality is no match to some other ultrabooks on the market, but it gets loud enough to fill a small room with decent audio quality.

The lid is also super easy to open thanks to the fantastic that lets you open the lid with just one finger. Opening the lid reveals the beautiful display with all its bells and whistles that we talked about in the video embedded above.

Mi NoteBook Ultra Battery Life

The Mi Notebook Ultra packs a 69,993 mWh battery, which Xiaomi says can last for 12-hours worth of usage. It charges via a 65W Type-C power adapter which makes it convenient. In terms of battery performance, the Mi NoteBook Ultra managed to last for around 7 hours and 20 mins with brightness set to 100-percent. This is one of those machines that can easily last you for an entire day before forcing you to look for a charger. Obviously, your mileage may vary but I still think it's commendable given the fact that it sports a 3.2K panel with a 90Hz refresh rate.

Mi NoteBook Ultra Verdict

Xiaomi has launched the Mi NoteBook Ultra for a starting price of Rs 59,999 in India. At this price, you are looking at the base variant of the machine with an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM. The variant I tested for this review is the most expensive option priced at Rs 76,999. For that price, you are looking at a fantastic laptop that comes with one of the most beautiful displays, a powerful 11th generation Intel Core H-series processor, and an extremely well-built machine that's usually unheard of in this price range.

The Mi Notebook Ultra also outperforms some other expensive ultrabooks while costing a fraction of their price. This is a solid upgrade for those using an older machine or even the Mi NoteBook 14 that came out last year. It's also a no-brainer to spend a little extra and get the Mi NoteBook Ultra or the Mi NoteBook Pro over the RedmiBook 15 Pro that came out not too long ago. The Realme Book (Slim) stands as one of the main competitors in this price range, but there are some noteworthy differences that you might want to consider like a smaller display with an unusual aspect ratio and more. That being said, the Mi NoteBook Ultra is indeed the laptop to beat in this price range and I can already see this particular machine making it to a lot of our recommendation lists.

from Laptops Reviews https://ift.tt/2Y2P9xm

FUJITSU UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop Review: Lightweight, versatile, and well-built

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop is a great proposition if you're looking for a hybrid business laptop with snappy performance. The model we tested costs a little more than Rs 1 lakh, however, you can get the same variant with all its important features in a lower-spec version which has a starting price of Rs 86,990. The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 fares well in terms of everyday performance, portability, design, build quality and overall value from money.

 

Japanese engineering is second to none, most of the time. I own a 2020 Suzuki IGNIS and it is as refined and long-lasting as they come. Similarly, when Fujitsu sent over its “made-in-Japan” laptop, I was intrigued and excited, to say the least. The unit is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop featuring a touch-screen and a 360-degree hinge. 

Fujitsu plans to market its laptop based on its excellent build quality, built-in touch screen, high performance and a plethora of features. After using the device, I have to admit that the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible ticks all the right boxes. However, some caveats become apparent in this otherwise all-rounder machine after using it for a longer duration. Here’s everything you need to know about the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible laptop. 

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop: Specifications

Processor: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 4-core/8-thread, 2.80Ghz base clock, 12MB Intel Smart Cache, 28W configurable TDP Integrated GPU: Intel Iris Xe graphics processor RAM: 16GB LPDDR4X RAM (2133MHz) Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD Display: 13.3-inch 1080p Anti-Glare touchscreen display with 400 nits of brightness Weight: 997g OS: Windows 10 Home

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop: Performance

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible is a solid performer. It comes with a powerful 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor featuring 4-core and 8-threads. It is based on Intel’s latest 10nm process and packs in more transistors than the previous gen. Consequently, you’ll notice this upgrade when booting up the machine, closing or opening different apps, browser tabs etc. The laptop does not feel sluggish even if you’ve multiple tabs and windows opened simultaneously.

In order to get an in-depth look at the performance of the Intel Core i7-1165G7 chip in this laptop, I ran it through a couple of benchmarks and compared the resulting scores with some other similar laptops. On Cinebench R20, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 scored 1773, which is amongst the top-level scores this particular Intel chip can achieve. The score is pretty close to ASUS Expertbook B9400, which also uses the same chip.

The difference in scores could be due to some thermal issues. The Magnesium Alloy chassis of UH-X 2-in-1 is great in terms of build quality, about which I’ll talk later in the article, but doesn't seem to provide a great cooling performance. Mind you, the temperature remains stable under normal usage, but while benchmarking, it spiked to more than 95°C several times and touched almost 100°C in a few tests as well.

To its credit, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop is dead silent. It has two vents, one at the far end of the keyboard and another one underneath the laptop. In a Cinebench R23 single-core test, the Intel Core i7-1165G7 scored one of the highest points. The testing software also indicated that the same Intel Chip occupies the top four spots in this category. 

The multi-core performance of the Intel Core i7-1165G7 seems average as per its Cinebench R23 multi-core score. However, in everyday tasks, the UH-X 2-in-1 convertible laptop fared pretty well. I use Vectr for photo editing and the laptop handled it without any hiccups. Here, I’d also like to praise the built-in touch screen of the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop for its snappy response time. This specific Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 model came with a 1TB NVMe SSD, which seems decent. I tried to transfer a 35GB file from my smartphone to the laptop and it took 20 minutes to complete the whole process.

The Iris Xe graphics chip onboard is good enough for light gaming. I tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider at the lowest possible graphical preset and the laptop managed 33FPS on average.

I used PC Mark 10 to benchmark the laptop’s performance in everyday office tasks like document editing, video conferencing etc. The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 scored 4646, which is pretty decent. In this case, the Intel Core i7-1165G7 scored only a bit higher than the Intel Core i5-1135G7 powering an HP Pavilion Laptop 13. 

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible: Battery Life

The tests helped me to form an overall picture of the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop. Its main aim seems to be to deliver optimal performance in day-to-day tasks by keeping an extensive focus on efficiency. To confirm my hypothesis, I did a battery test on the laptop focused on Microsoft Office, which I think this laptop will be mostly used for. For reference, the laptop has a 50Wh battery. After an overnight test, the test confirmed my theory by showing that the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 has a battery life of 9h 58 mins.

I started the benchmark with a completely charged laptop at 100% and the test automatically ended when the battery charge reached 5%.

Meaning the idle battery life of the laptop would be even higher. Still, with a continuous battery backup of almost 10 hours, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 convertible can take care of your everyday tasks with ease. The laptop has a conventional charging port and also a USB Type C port. It takes around 1.5 hours to completely charge from 16%. Furthermore, in case of emergencies, you can also use your smartphone to reverse charge your Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 convertible laptop. 

When left idle, the laptop drops battery percentage ever so slowly. At the time of writing this article, my battery is 18% and the laptop indicates that it can still run for 1hr and 21min. I am primarily using Google docs and playing some music. Your mileage may vary if you choose to play a video on YouTube or Stream a movie while using the laptop at the same state of charge.

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible Display

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 convertible laptop comes with a 13.3 inch 60Hz FHD IPS Anti-Glare panel. Fujitsu claims a peak brightness of 400 nits for the laptop display. In our tests, the peak brightness of the laptop came out to somewhere around 350 nits. Most of the time I kept the laptop’s screen brightness around 75%. The screen is readable under bright studio lights, and while I didn't test this laptop under the sun; with a good anti-glare panel, I don't think you'd face much trouble outdoors as long as you're not sitting directly under the sun.

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible laptop display tested on Calman Ultimate

The 13.3-inch display has a lot to like about. First of all, it rarely attracts any fingerprints. It has a matte finish which also makes using its touch screen a smooth experience. This combination of touch screen and matte display made me want to use the touch screen more and I am not an ardent fan of such 2-in-1 hybrid laptops in the first place. In other tests, we found that the laptop’s screen covers 100% sRGB, 73.8% Adobe RGB and 73.4% DCI-P3 colour spaces.

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible laptop display tested on Calman Ultimate

Additionally, during the ColorChecker analysis the Average DeltaE came out to be 3.6 and Max DeltaE was 9.6. It means that the screen is not highly colour accurate. 

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 comes with a 360-degree hinge, meaning you can use the laptop conventionally, upside down, as a drawing tablet, in portrait mode and in any other way that you want. The laptop’s screen has excellent viewing angles which also helps in content consumption. The touch screen is snappy enough that it encourages you to extend your arm and reach it every time you need to scroll down a page or close a tab. 

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Keyboard, Trackpad, I/O, Speakers And Camera

According to Fujitsu, it has meticulously designed the physical features of their laptop like the keyboard, the trackpad and the I/O. It is correct to a certain degree as well. The keyboard on the UH-X 2-in-1 convertible laptop uses concave-shaped keys that have 19mm key pitch and 1.5mm stroke length. Meaning the keys offer a very satisfying press and are intuitively placed to offer a great typing experience.

My only issue with the keyboard is the placement of arrow keys. The four of them are placed adjacent to PageUp and PageDown keys and oftentimes, while editing a doc, I end up going to the end of the page when I just want to navigate to the next line. 

The trackpad comes with distinct left and right-click buttons, which is a win in my book. However, the trackpad itself is a bit smaller in size. During most of my time using the UH-X 2-in-1, I did not use an external mouse. Even during the morning rush when I have to resize and edit multiple photos, jump between several tabs, the trackpad felt sufficient.

In terms of I/O, the sheer choice of ports available on the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop is astounding. You get an ethernet port, a microSD card, two USB type A and two USB Type C ports, one HDMI and a 3.5mm jack. FUJITSU nailed the I/O placement and I highly doubt you’d require any additional USB dock on the laptop during your day to day usage. 

The speakers on the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 are serviceable, at best. They aren’t loud and you can also feel some vibrations on the palm rest area which can become annoying after 20 mins of listening to a playlist. Regardless, I’d suggest using good quality headphones with the Fijitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop. 

The laptop comes with a 2MP front camera with Windows Hello feature and a 5MP rear camera which according to Fujitsu makes media sharing easy as all your photos are on a single device. The “rear camera” is placed slightly above the function keys and can be used when you fold the screen all the way backwards. 

In my experience, the front 2MP camera is a breath of fresh air. It is great for video conferencing and the inbuilt mic works pretty well. The image from the 2MP lens looks clear and relatively less grainy as compared to webcams on laptops with a smaller camera lens. 

I also tried using the 5MP rear camera. It works as intended but I did not find a specific use case for it. For taking notes, my natural instinct was to use my smartphone. However, the rear camera works as intended, the quality is decent for a 5MP lens and it does not lag or stutter. 

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible: Design And Build Quality

The build quality of Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 is top-notch. The laptop’s chassis is made from Magnesium Alloy and has no flex at all. The deck area has a very grippy finish which improves the overall typing experience. The same grippy finish also continues over its lid and extends to other parts of the laptop as well. This along with the ultra-lightweight of 997g makes the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 easy to hold and extremely portable. The laptop also has additional protection in the form of elastic resin on all four corners. I found it very useful because I am a clumsy person and tend to drop or scratch my devices a lot.

In terms of design, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 looks distinct from other laptops in its class. It is loos very stealthy, has an all-black matte finish on its entire body, is as slim as other laptops in this segment but feels way more sturdy. 

According to the official claim, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 can handle 35kgf single point pressure and 200kgf full surface pressure. The Fujitsu laptop can also survive a 76cm drop test, as per the official claims. I did not test these claims myself and looking at the overall build quality, I think I'd like to take Fujitsu's word for this.

One additional point I’d like to mention is that the 360-degree hinge of the laptop is very tight and you need two hands to open its lid. Fujitsu knows that the UH-X 2-in-1 laptop will be used in several different modes, therefore a sturdy and tight hinge seems necessary. 

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible: Price

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 laptop is powered by an Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16GB LPDDR4X RAM, and 1TB SSD is available for purchase at a price point of 1,07,990.

Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 Convertible: Verdict

The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 stands tall when compared to the competition in terms of build quality and overall features. The Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 does everything really well, besides a few caveats. However, I don’t think the buyers in this category would mind these quirks as they are getting a no-nonsense laptop that does what it’s supposed to very well.

With great battery life, a rich selection of I/O ports, and sturdy build quality, the Fujitsu UH-X 2-in-1 convertible laptop becomes a good proposition for business users. Sure it is not an editing powerhouse featuring an ultra-powerful CPU, but it is the business laptop that’ll last you for years to come and be your money’s worth. 

Some other options in this price range also include the Dell Inspiron 13, which is powered by an Intel Core i7-11370H CPU and an Nvidia Geforce MX450 GPU. Additionally, the ASUS Expertbook B940 powered by the Intel Evo platform can also be another viable option.

from Laptops Reviews https://ift.tt/3y2fhnP

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Review: Not your average 15-inch laptop

The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED is not your average 15-inch notebook. And that's the obvious takeaway when you look at its eye-watering price tag and its elusive form-factor with dual touchscreens. It's a power-packed machine that will prove to be a great tool for creative professionals and even gamers looking to get their hands on a unique laptop. As much as this machine has improved upon its predecessor, there are a lot of caveats that make it somewhat of a weird recommendation. 

The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED looks very similar to its predecessor. But, there are a lot of improvements this time around and most of them include something that we've always wanted this machine to have. While the primary OLED is the highlight here, the secondary IPS panel is also a great addition that will allow you to take full advantage of the powerful internals it comes with.

Well, I have been using the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED as my primary machine for a couple of weeks now, and I think I am ready to share my experience and thoughts about this laptop that should help you decide if this is something that you should buy -

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Specifications

I was a little bummed to know that the new ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED this year doesn't actually come with an 11th Gen Intel Core processor. Instead, there's a 10th gen processor inside this machine to handle the load. It's still a powerful processor at heart, but I think it's something you should keep in mind while shopping for laptops this year.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i9-10980HK Processor 2.4 GHz (16M Cache, up to 5.3 GHz, 8 cores) Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 3070, With Boost up to 1440MHz at 90W (110W with Dynamic Boost),8GB GDDR6 RAM: 32GB DDR4 onboard Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 Performance SSD Display: Touch screen,(39.62cm)15.6-inch,OLED,4K UHD (3840 x 2160) 16:9,Glossy display,440nits,DCI-P3: 100%,Pantone Validated Secondary Display: ScreenPad Plus (14" 3840 x 1100(4K) IPS-level Panel Support Stylus)

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Display

I am going to jump straight into the display section this time because those dual touchscreens are the main selling points of this laptop. As the name suggests, the main screen that you see here is an OLED panel that measures 15.6-inches and has 4K resolution. The secondary display, which is also called ScreenPad Plus, is an IPS panel. ASUS has gone with the same ultrawide 32:10 implementation. It measures 14-inches and is half-4k, which means it's going to be just as crispy and beautiful-looking as the main display.

Both displays support touch and pen input, but the main screen is a glossy panel whereas the bottom one has an anti-glare coating to prevent the reflections from the main display.

In terms of the image quality, there's a huge difference between the two for some obvious reasons. It's quite noticeable even by looking at the laptop with both displays turned on. The hinge mechanism for the ScreenPad, which was missing on the predecessor, does help a little bit but you will still be looking at this display at an angle all the time, so there's bound to be some issues with the viewing angles.

Now, for the display test, I did run our usual set of tests on the primary OLED screen, but I skipped those for the Screenpad display. That's because I think if you are buying this laptop, you should run all your day-to-day workflows on the primary display only. For example, if you are a photo or a video editor, doing some colour sensitive work, then you should be running those only on your primary display and use the Screenpad only as an extension for your side apps running in the background. So yeah, just keep that in mind, and you should be good.

So the OLED panel here is bright and vivid with excellent colour coverage and viewing angles. As per my testing, the display covers 100% of the sRGB and 99.5% of DCI-P3 colour space, which is more in line with what ASUS claims. That being said, the ColorChecker analysis tells me that there's a lot of discolouration happening here. It gave me a DeltaE value of 7.5, which is a lot, and even a manual colour calibration couldn't entirely fix this issue. 

On the plus side though, the display gets adequately bright even though it's not on par with what ASUS claims but it has great contrast ratios and inky blacks. Overall, I think this laptop has a fantastic primary OLED panel. But I am sceptical about how the colours deviated from the target values with the max deltaE value being as high as 12. It means it's not the best for colour sensitive work even though both the sRGB and DCI-P3 colours spaces are completely covered. That being said, it's an incredible display for content consumption and even for gaming since the colours pop and everything looks vibrant.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Performance

My review unit is a top-specced configuration that's kitted with a 10th gen Intel Core i9-10980HK, which is a Comet Lake processor with 8 cores and 16 threads. This particular processor has a base clock of 2.40Ghz and a max turbo frequency of 5.3Ghz. This is a 45W TDP CPU that can be configured with up to 65W by the OEMs, provided that the chassis and the cooling solution allows it.

For memory, you get 32GB of DDR4 RAM running in Dual-channel and you also get a 1TB NVMe SSD with great read and write speeds. For graphics, you get an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a base TGP of 90W, but it can jump up to 110W depending on the title and in performance mode.

InCineBench R23 test, I noticed that the Core i9-10980HK CPU did hit the 5Ghz mark but there was a lot of fluctuation happening in the clock speeds as you can see here in this graph below. This isn't unusual on the machines that throttle due to either power or the temperatures, but I am glad that it at least delivered the results despite this behaviour.

The laptop managed to get a single-core score of 1276 and a multi-core score of 10180 in Cinebench R23. It is on par with the 2020 Zephyrus Duo, but the multi-threaded performance is lacking when compared with the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 running the Ryzen 9 5900HX. I got similar results on the Cinebench R20 as well. On PCMark 10, the ZenBook Pro Duo managed to score 5931, which is actually less than the ASUS Zephyrus G15's score of 6927 running the Ryzen 9 5900HS. In fact, it's less than the score of the MSI Pulse GL66 that we tested running the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H CPU. So, the older CPU is definitely showing its age here.

Before I move on to the creative workloads, I want to talk about the gaming performance of this laptop because I think a lot of people will play games on this machine even though it's not exactly a gaming laptop. The RTX 3070 will get you some good gaming performance and below are some benchmark numbers that I managed to record -

Even though it has a 4K display, I will still suggest you play games either at 1080p or 2K resolution only. Running games at 4K will force you to tone down graphics settings to hit that sweet 60FPS mark. Moving over to the 3DMark test results, the ZenBook Pro Duo managed to score 9,137 on the Time Spy test, 4,463 on Time Spy Extreme, and 18,351 on the FireStrike test. The scores are nothing extraordinary and are pretty much what you'd expect from an RTX 3070 GPU.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Creative Workloads

The ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo can mainly be seen as a creator centric laptop. Those dual touchscreens are great for multi-tasking and they give more room for creative workloads apps for photo and video editing. But how does it perform? Let's take a look - 

I started with some Workstation related loads with the Blender test and those numbers are displayed right below. To test the creative workloads, I fired up the Adobe Lightroom to export from RAW files and the laptop managed to export 50 RAW files in 2 minutes, 100 RAW files in 3 minutes and 45 seconds, and 200 RAW files in 7 minutes and 16 seconds. When it comes to Davinci Resolve, the ZenBook Pro Duo managed to export a 5 minute 4K project in 4 minutes and 45 seconds, which is not bad.

So, overall, the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo OLED performs just about how I expected the Core i9 and an RTX 3070 combo to perform. The laptop did manage to impress me with high power allocations and high clock speeds in longer duration loads, but there's only so much that an i9-10980HK can do when it goes head-to-head with newer CPUs on the market, so there's that.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Thermals

As for the thermals, the CPU runs hotter than the RTX 3070 here in this case. The CPU was hitting its TJMax temperature of 100°C more often than I thought. Due to this, I noticed a lot of clock speed fluctuations and thermal throttling. The GPU, on the other hand, ran surprisingly cool throughout the testing process. The GPU was constantly under 80°C regardless of the load, and I only saw it go past that while running games at 4K.

ASUS changed the design a little bit to add two huge vents on the sides to push hot air out of the chassis. And since I was running the laptop on Performance mode throughout the testing, the fans kicked in almost immediately and they got super loud.

But thanks to that, the surface temperatures were well under the acceptable limits. And since the keyboard is shifted towards the bottom, away from the internal cooling solution, I was only recording temperatures under 40°C on the keyboard deck. So, no complaints here whatsoever.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Keyboard, Touchpad, & I/O

The keyboard on the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo has a standard layout with an extra set of keys on top of the clickpad. The typing experience, I'd say, is okay-ish at best. The keys have 1.44mm of key travel but they are very similar to the rubbery keys seen on other ZenBook notebooks. Yes, they are comfortable to type but don't expect much from these chiclet-style keys with limited travel if you are coming from a mechanical keyboard.

One of the main issues for me is the keyboard placement on the laptop. ASUS has shifted the keyboard to the bottom of the deck to make room for the ScreenPad. That's understandable but I was never a fan of this keyboard style and it hasn't changed. Do not expect to comfortably type while using the laptop on your lap, or in cramped spaces. You will need a spacious desk with a palm rest to get any meaningful usage out of it.

The same is the case with the touchpad. I can never get used to this touchpad placement, and frankly speaking, I don't want to. It's a really bad experience, so please get yourself an external mouse. Yes, it's a great surface to use gestures and it has Windows Precision drivers. It even doubles up as a NumPad thanks to the white LED Numpad layout that looks similar to the white keyboard backlit colour. But none of that could make me get used to it.

Moving on to the ports selection, I like how the ports are all distributed on both sides. But sadly, there's not enough space to accommodate a lot of them due to the huge vents that we talked about earlier. On the right side, you get 2 USB Type C Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 port. Moving over to the left side, you have an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3,5mm stereo jack, and a port to charge the laptop. The thing that's missing here is an SD card reader, which is very weird since this is a creator centric laptop, after all. And don't get an RJ-45 connector either, so keep that in mind.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Design & Build Quality

Anyway, let's talk about the design and the build quality now. ASUS hasn't changed the design much from its predecessor. The design, with all its angles, colours, and even the materials is pretty much identical to last year's ZenBook Pro Duo 15. Even the lid has the same concentric circles textures as the ASUS logo and is still prone to fingerprints.

The main difference this year is the addition of this new hinge mechanism for the secondary display. The secondary display now lifts up more as you lift the laptop's lid. The mechanism, honestly, looks a bit fragile. It even shows signs of flexing when you press down on the secondary display, but I can assure you that it's tough and won't break down that easily. In fact, the overall stability of the chassis is very good. BTW, the ASUS Ergolift mechanism is still there, which means the chassis still lifts off the ground as you open the lid.

As I mentioned earlier, ASUS has also added more vents to the chassis for better airflow. I wouldn't say it's a compact laptop by any means, but it's slightly thinner than the predecessor. The laptop weighs almost 2.5Kgs, which means it's comparable to some beefier gaming laptops and workstations and you should consider resting it as a desktop replacement. 

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED Battery Life

You can't expect much from a laptop's battery when you're looking at some powerful internals like the ones that this machine packs. Not to mention, there are two 4K displays as well. Well, the ZenBook Pro Duo OLED packs a 92Whr battery inside, which is quite bigger than what the predecessor had. In PCMark 10's Battery Life test, the laptop only managed to last for around 3 hours, which I am honestly not surprised by.

In day-to-day usage, you'll only be able to get around 4-5 hours of usage at max, that too when the brightness isn't set to its max value. I suggest you turn off the ScreenPad display when it's not in use to save battery and even switch to Dark Mode and use black-coloured themes since this is an AMOLED display and your mileage will vary based on what's displayed on the screen.

ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED The Final Say

So, my closing thoughts on this laptop. Well, let me tell you that it's not your average 15-inch notebook. That should be very obvious looking at the price tag of this machine; coming in at Rs 2,39,990, as well as the form factor. But you are paying a premium here for the kind of engineering that's put into this device, its high-resolution dual touchscreens, the OLED panel, and the powerful internals.

But at the same time, it also has its fair share of compromises w.r.t to its weights, size, and the overall practicality of using it as a laptop. For starters, it's fairly chunky for a 15-inch laptop. There are much more portable laptop options out there that are similarly specced such as the ROG Zephyrus G15 that I reviewed not too long ago. It's also not very practical to use without a desk due to that down-shifted keyboard. Not to mention, it also only has a 10th gen processor. It should be enough to handle just about anything and everything, but I would've loved to see an 11th Gen processor.

So if you are looking to buy this laptop, then I'd suggest you take a look at some other options like the ROG Zephyrus G15, or even the ROG Zephyrus Duo which also has two screens like this. So the whole idea of having dual screens is not exclusive to this laptop alone, which by itself makes it a weird recommendation. Alternatively, you can also check out the MSI Pulse GL66 gaming laptop that I tested recently. Yes, it doesn't have the same appeal when it comes to the form factor, but it comes with one of the new Tiger Lake H45 processors that can handle creative workloads very well. That being said, I am very excited to see where ASUS will take this series next year with the newer iterations. 

from Laptops Reviews https://ift.tt/3jI3pns

MSI Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop Review: Hits the sweet spot for 1080p gaming

The MSI Pulse GL66 is a great gaming laptop that can be used reliably for both gaming as well as creative workloads. The Intel Core i7-11800H and the RTX 3060 combo works very well to deliver solid performance numbers to compete with the best when it comes to 1080p gaming. I did find the display to be a little disappointing on our review unit, and the fans get overly loud to keep the temperatures in check. But besides that, the MSI Pulse GL66 hits the sweet spot for 1080p gaming.

MSI Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop - Detailed Review

The arrival of Intel's new H45 processors sparked a new level of excitement amongst laptop enthusiasts. I had been waiting for the new crop of laptops with these processors to show up on the Indian market since the announcement, and MSI ended up being the first one to pull that trigger to make it happen before the other manufacturers.

The MSI Pulse GL66 is powered by the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H with 8 cores and 16 threads. But besides just the processor, the MSI Pulse GL66 appears to be a well-rounded package for gamers who are eyeing 1080p gaming on their laptop. Does it deliver on that front? Let's check out this full review of the laptop to know more.

Note - The MSI Pulse GL66 unit that we received for this review is an engineering sample which means the performance can be a bit off. It could either be slightly better or worse than the retail version that you'd end up buying on the market.

MSI Pulse GL66 Specifications

The MSI Pulse GL66 gaming laptop brings a solid set of specs to the table. The 11th gen Intel Core i7-11800H is coupled with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB VRAM to deliver some promising results on the gaming front. Here's a quick look at the specifications of the MSI Pulse GL66 gaming laptop -

Processor: Intel Core i7-11800H - 8 cores and 16 threads. Base clock - 3.1Ghz & boost clock of 4.2Ghz. Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM. Up to 1485MHz Boost Clock, 85W Maximum Graphics Power with Dynamic Boost. RAM: 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz Storage: 2x M.2 SSD slot (NVMe PCIe Gen3) Display: 15.6" FHD (1920x1080), 144Hz, IPS-Level

MSI Pulse GL66 Performance

The MSI Pulse GL66, as mentioned earlier, is powered by one of the newer H45 processors from Intel. It's the Core i7 11800H in this case which has 8 Willow Cove cores and 16 threads. You are looking at a base clock of 3.1Ghz at 45W and it can achieve a single-core Boost of up to 4.6Ghz while all cores can run at up to 4.2Ghz. For graphics, it has an RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB VRAM and it's got a TGP of 80W  with 5W more for boost. Additionally, you get 16GB DDR4 RAM on board, 1TB NVMe drive, and a 1080p display with a refresh rate of 144Hz.

Starting off with the gaming performance, I ran a handful of games on this laptop ranging from GTA V to even some of the relatively newer titles like Control and Metro Exodus. Here's a quick look at the frame rate graph that should give you an idea of the kind of performance you can expect from this machine - 

As you can see, I was getting similar performance even on other titles across the board like Metro Exodus, Shadow Of Tomb Raider, Apex Legends, etc. and all were running at upwards of 100FPS and some even hitting the 144Hz mark, which is the kind of performance you can expect from an RTX 3060 that's configured to run at around 85W TGP.

For content creators, the 8 cores on the Core i7-11800H and the 3060 will deliver reliable performance too. For example, I was able to export 5 mins 1080p project in just a minute 41 seconds in Davinci Resolve. Moving over to Lightroom, the laptop was able to export 50 RAW files in 1 minute 35 seconds, 100 RAW files took just a little over 3 minutes, and 200 RAW files were rendered in just a little under 6 minutes. These render times were faster than what we saw on the ASUS Strix15 powered by the Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU.

In the 3DMark tests, MSI Pulse GL66 scored 4,643 in FireStrike Ultra, and 7,271 in the Time Spy test. The scores here are slightly less than what the Zephyrus G15 managed to score recently when I reviewed it but the RTX 3060 GPU on that one is configured to run at a higher TGP. This is precisely why we put more emphasis on the TGP values of the mobile GPUs on these laptops these days.

MSI Pulse GL66 Thermals

Before talking about the surface temperatures, I want to give you some insights on the CPU and the GPU temps. Both CPU as well as the GPU, as you can see, were able to handle the loads very well. The CPU was sitting at around 90'C which is way under its TJMax limit of 100'C and even the GPU was running surprisingly cool in this chassis. I did notice the CPU hitting temps above 100'C which is above TJMax value and yes, it did throttle a bit but you know what? It wasn't a common occurrence in this laptop, and I didn't notice any heavy fluctuations in clock speeds as seen in this graph.

As for the GPU, the max temperature I recorded was around 85'C, which is way below its TJMax limit. These thermal values were also due to the fact that I was mostly running the laptop at 'Extreme Performance' mode which mercilessly kicks off the fans immediately irrespective of the loads and it gets super-duper load. 

Yes, the fans on this machine get very aggressively loud and there's no way you are going to hear the in-game audio or even anything from that tiny speaker setup on the laptop, so do keep that in mind. It literally sounds like it's about to take off any moment. You do get a huge vent at the bottom of the chassis, and the hot air exits the laptop from the two vents on the back and the single vent on the side here. Despite all that, I did record a surface temperature of around 55°C at the hottest point. Yes, it does run a little hot, but it didn't affect the performance of the laptop.

MSI Pulse GL66 Display

Now let's talk about the display on the MSI Pulse GL66. You get a 15.6-inch 1080p panel here with a 144z refresh rate. Now, my experience while gaming on this laptop wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It's a basic 1080p panel that's suited for gaming thanks to the higher refresh rate. The main issue, however, is with colour accuracy. I put this panel through its paces to see exactly how it performs and found out that it's highly uncalibrated out of the box.

The display showed heavy bias towards the blue colour and it was very evident looking at how much blue it was injecting. And because of this, the display ended up reproducing inaccurate colours, especially when it comes to the different shades of blue. A lot of other colours also ended up showing a huge variance and the DeltaE error I ended up recording was 4, which even a manual colour calibration couldn't fix beyond a certain limit.

Even the sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage were nothing close to what MSI claimed. Adding on to that, it also doesn't get bright enough which made it all the more difficult to use outdoors, but thankfully it's got a matte finish that made it a little easier on the eyes. Overall, this isn't a great panel, unfortunately, and I hope the issue is exclusive to my "engineering sample" and the ones which you will end up buying on the market will have a better quality panel.

MSI Pulse GL66 Keyboard, trackpad, I/O

Moving on,  we have the keyboard, trackpad, and I/O. I'll start with the keyboard which basically has a nice set of keys with white details on the keycaps, backed by RGB lighting. It's got a clean layout with a NumPad and the arrow keys aren't small either. The key travel on these keys, I'd say is decent but I found the feedback to be on the softer side.

The touchpad has some weird imprints, but they don't do anything nor do they light up. That being said, I am just happy that it's a responsive trackpad with Windows Precision drivers.

Coming to the ports, on the left side, you'll find the charging port along with a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and a USB Type-A 2.0 port. Switching to the right side, you will see an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, and an audio jack.

MSI Pulse GL66 Design & Build Quality

The MSI Pulse GL66 is mainly built out of plastic with the exception of the lid which, if I had to guess, is made out of aluminium. There are visible lines on the lid, trying to reflect the new "Pulse" naming but other than that, it has a fairly muted design. The base has a new honeycomb pattern that also makes room for more air to enter the chassis. Despite the plastic build, the chassis doesn't flex at all when stressed.

The lid can be opened with a single hand and the hinge feels nice and stable. The bezels are also quite slim around the display, but both the chin and the forehead are relatively more pronounced and packs a couple of mics and an HD webcam. Overall, I really like the simple design of this laptop. Coming in at just 2.25Kg, it's also not the heaviest thing on the market in the name of a gaming laptop, and there is no flashy RGB lighting anywhere on the body. Good stuff, MSI!

MSI Pulse GL66 Battery Life

The MSI Pulse GL66 packs a surprisingly small 53.5Whr battery inside its chassis that charges via the included 180W AC adapter. On PCMark 10's Modern Office battery test, it only managed to last for 3 hours and 17 minutes. Is that surprising? Well, not really, because it's a tiny battery at the end of the day that has to power hardware like an i7 processor and an RTX 3060 GPU. In terms of real-world usage, the Pulse GL66 managed to last for about 5-6 hours when I lowered the brightness a little bit while doing my day-to-day work.

MSI Pulse GL66 Verdict

Alright, it's the verdict time. So exactly how good is the MSI Pulse GL66? Well, I'd say it's a very capable gaming laptop. I've been waiting for the Intel Core i7 11800H CPU for quite some time now. It's an exciting CPU and the fact that it leaves the Ryzen 9 5900HX behind in terms of the rendering performance is crazy. I didn't have any issues with the gaming performance either.

Yes, the laptop runs a little hot but those super noisy fans will come rushing to save the day and keep the laptop from throttling all the time. I also like the simple design and the sturdy build quality, but I wish I had some nice things to say about the display beside the refresh rate for gaming. 

MSI has launched this laptop at Rs 1,39,990 in India, and at that price, I think it's a very capable machine that can be used reliably for both gaming and creative workloads. That being said, I'd also suggest you check the ASUS Zephyrus G15 gaming laptop which costs slightly less than this to trade the Intel processor with a Ryzen one and an RTX 3070/ 3060 with higher TGP.

from Laptops Reviews https://ift.tt/3x6Hs5H