What is everyone's thoughts on the Asus A16 with elite extreme processor?

[pshufd]

Touchscreen is a requirement for any display for me now. I use it on my desktop and notebook daily. I have 2 24s on my desk now, one is touchscreen, and they are going to get replaced with 2 27 in or 2 32 inch Alogic or Kuycon displays when we get in our new house and got our office setup.

I don't get all the moaning about fingerprints either. I have a cloth to wipe down the display. The same people also have ipads, phones tablets etc and touch them constantly without complaints.

I think that a lot of Mac users don't understand the attraction of touch screens and I'm in that camp.

Fingerprints aren't really an issue at 400 nits or higher. Not even sure they're a problem at 300 nits but I don't have any screens that low.

I keep a microfiber cloth near me for laptops to clean the trackpad and keys and I can clean the screen too.

My Yoga has a touch screen but I don't use it. I bought the Yoga for the ports - for some reason, the touch screen model has a better selection of ports than the Yoga Slim.

 

[Steve Adams]

I watched the video, and first lets get the elephant out of the room, he's very much pro apple, so we have to understand there's a bias.

On the dell xps, I felt in many respects he was nit picking, he needed to find the negatives, to help justify his point. With that said, his criticisms against Windows is absolutely correct. His point that many ddifferent companies needing to come to together and each fully succeeding is a whiff. I don't think he really proved his point, simply because the XPS is an excellent laptop - hampered only because it was running windows.

As for the low end, I do agree, the neo is disrupting that segment. but I would also go out on a limb and say the people who watch Margues are generally not the targeted audience for the Neo.

In short, I can see Mac users making claims that there's windows laptop issues, but for folks who use PCs, I don't believe that's largely the case. The Neo is perhaps the exception, at least for students and people who only want to spend 600 dollars and don't do much with their laptops.

You hit the nail with marques. He, as most youtube personalities are Apple fanboys/girls. I have no issues with windows, pc, etc. My laptop is 5 years old now, used for multiple hours per day and while it has some issue with the motherboard, that is intermittent. 90 percent of the time it works fine, it's still fast enough at the moment being close to the M1 processor/graphics.

The Neo is not going to move the needle in the mass education market where Chromebooks rule, because the fact is that school boards purchase thousands of Chromebooks for like 100-150 a pop, Apple is not going to give the neo away like that. No matter how much "better" the neo is. My son's Chromebook, while "plastic" does not feel cheap or crappy at all. Plus, if he does drops it, it will bounce, and be fine. Drop the Neo and it's scratched and dented very easy.

Now, University students, with 600-800 budget for a system. Now, they have their apple option. But there are plenty of great Windows/Linux options too. I am not in that market, but a lot of people are. I bought my mother 2 acer 15 inch laptops from Walmart for 279.00 Canadian in January and they are great for basic use. 8gb of ram, ryzen processors equivalent to the i5 intel chips of the same era. Display is bright and clear and battery life is around 8-10 hrs. For 279.00 I cannot fault anything on it.

 

[throAU]

I agree, especially if you consider Intel's latest processors. I think Panther Lake is a great option both for computational power, but also GPU power. The arc integrated gpu being used surprising a lot of people (including me) over how well it does in laptops

Even in the battery category Panther Lake holds it own against the MBP, so personally, I'd go with an X86 processor over a more limited less compatible snapdragon processor.

The only PC laptop I'd consider is something with AMD Strix Halo (decent GPU and unified memory just like my max!), but thats about the same cost as a MacBook anyway really and.... windows. Or linux. Both of which feel like a step back.

And that's if the machine you're considering that contains that chip is even built nicely rather than slapped together by the lowest paid virtual slave labour available.

 

[throAU]

I think that a lot of Mac users don't understand the attraction of touch screens and I'm in that camp.

Oh, I understand - but I don't carry my MacBook around like a tablet.

I don't use the touchscreen on my iPad when its on a desk with a keyboard case either.

 

[maflynn]

Now, University students, with 600-800 budget for a system.

My daughter is in college and STEM majors, the school highly recommends a PC. For non-stem, I think the Neo is just too under-powered for anything other then simple word processing/light spreadsheets.

 

[Steve Adams]

My daughter is in college and STEM majors, the school highly recommends a PC. For non-stem, I think the Neo is just too under-powered for anything other then simple word processing/light spreadsheets.

It's actually not. Go find Space Design Warehouse on YouTube and watch his review of it. He uses apple, but he's not a sensationalist apple fanboy. He's very good at being non bias.

 

[maflynn]

It's actually not. Go find Space Design Warehouse on YouTube and watch his review of it. He uses apple, but he's not a sensationalist apple fanboy. He's very good at being non bias.

I've seen reviews from other non-mac YTers and my take away is that it throttles almost instantly.

 

[Steve Adams]

It does, that's fixed with a 10 dollar thermal solution. after that it's good to go. I am not a fan of apple, but it's really good for the price.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

It does, that's fixed with a 10 dollar thermal solution. after that it's good to go. I am not a fan of apple, but it's really good for the price.

I've seen that thermal solution. I don't think the target audience is comfortable opening the Neo with its Torx T6 screws and applying thermal paste.

Either way, both things can be true. My daughter (an Art major in college) would be mostly fine with a Neo. It isn't raw performance, but the way I look at it now is if you would have been fine with the OG 11" Macbook Air, then you would be fine with a Neo.

The problem is that people change. And the Neo is pretty limited. That's the risk you run.

 

[maflynn]

It does, that's fixed with a 10 dollar thermal solution. after that it's good to go. I am not a fan of apple, but it's really good for the price.

I get what you're saying but on one level that doesn't seem right. I buy a new computer and I have to open it up and perform surgery just so it doesn't over heat? Even then the thermal pads only drop the temps down a few degrees - doing more then office will still cause it throttle, just not as quick

 

[Steve Adams]

I get what you're saying but on one level that doesn't seem right. I buy a new computer and I have to open it up and perform surgery just so it doesn't over heat? Even then the thermal pads only drop the temps down a few degrees - doing more then office will still cause it throttle, just not as quick

I completely agree. Apple did that for the people not like you and me so they will get the more powerful air after their neo is throttling.

 

[Steve Adams]

Well, I was looking at samsungs website via my EPP portal with them. The Book 6 Ultra is available to me at a big discount. It's still bonkers expensive, but much cheaper than the XPS 16 of the same setup. It has the X7 ultra intel chip with the good arc graphics. It's got the ports I want, the display is great.

The only thing wrong is that its 16 inches, and still above 3g canadian. But when you look at it, it's only a few hundred more than the very inflated price of the A16. It's also 2000 dollars less than the ProArt P16 I was looking at as well.

I guess I am going to take advantage of my Samsung EPP a lot this year.

 

[throAU]

It does, that's fixed with a 10 dollar thermal solution. after that it's good to go. I am not a fan of apple, but it's really good for the price.

Thing is that dumps heat into the bottom case which will then potentially cause discomfort/burns to your legs if actually used as a laptop.


People need to understand: every machine on the market is thermally constrained to a degree, even top flight desktop intel core - put then on liquid nitrogen and they run faster.

The design on the neo is fanless and cheap and designed to not burn you. There are tradeoffs.

 

[Steve Adams]

Thing is that dumps heat into the bottom case which will then potentially cause discomfort/burns to your legs if actually used as a laptop.


People need to understand: every machine on the market is thermally constrained to a degree, even top flight desktop intel core - put then on liquid nitrogen and they run faster.

The design on the neo is fanless and cheap and designed to not burn you. There are tradeoffs.

I have known many people who did this on their macbook air and never suffered any burns. That's a bit over exaggerated imo. Might get a deg or two warmer but not into burn territory at all.

 

[maflynn]

have known many people who did this on their macbook air and never suffered any burns.

Burns, no, but uncomfortable, definitely. I've used laptops that have dumped heat on the bottom of the laptop and having it on my lap for extended time is very uncomfortable. I have no idea at how how the neo will get, but the cpu will be around 90c, and that heat is now being radiated to the bottom of the case.

 

[throAU]

Burns, no, but uncomfortable, definitely. I've used laptops that have dumped heat on the bottom of the laptop and having it on my lap for extended time is very uncomfortable. I have no idea at how how the neo will get, but the cpu will be around 90c, and that heat is now being radiated to the bottom of the case.

Yeah exactly.

Can you dump heat into the case to run the neo faster?
Sure.

Should you? its already faster than anything in its class, and NOT dumping heat into your crotch.

🤷‍♂️


Even if we don’t consider that - you’re sinking heat into the bottom case, which is in close proximity to the battery pack. You’re going to degrade the battery faster by heating it.

There’s more to consider than outright cpu performance in this form factor, and trade-offs were made. If you don’t agree with said trade offs - go nuts. Modify your machine.

But don’t just assume apple are crippling the performance by deliberately throttling it or whatever. it is what it is within the set of design trade offs. Performance that 99% of people buying this device will never miss (outside of running benchmarks) at the cost of making the case hot (making it less comfortable to use and likely degrading the battery) is a trade off apple did not decide to make.

 

[pshufd]

My daughter is in college and STEM majors, the school highly recommends a PC. For non-stem, I think the Neo is just too under-powered for anything other then simple word processing/light spreadsheets.

There have been a lot of Reddit posts on this topic from college students wondering if it will be enough. As usual, it depends on what they will be doing with it and a lot of college students don't really know.

 

[maflynn]

There have been a lot of Reddit posts on this topic from college students wondering if it will be enough. As usual, it depends on what they will be doing with it and a lot of college students don't really know.

Let me expound a bit more, for students entering a STEM major, its not whether the Neo, or more generally a Mac would be good, its that the software they'll be running is Windows based. There's accommodations, like using university resources but those students with Macs have had to deal with more headaches simply because they didn't have a windows machine.

Of course each college is different, but for my Daughter's school, they highly recommend windows machines for engineering students.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/ultrabooks-ultraportables/asus-zenbook-a16-snapdragon-x2-elite-review

 

[maflynn]

https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/ultrabooks-ultraportables/asus-zenbook-a16-snapdragon-x2-elite-review

View attachment 2622296

Not for nothing, but if I'm going to go for an ARM based laptop, it will be a Mac. I don't think Snapdragon is on par to Apple Silicon, Windows on ARM is most definitely not a great experience, and Microsoft's x86 emulation is inferior to Rosetta 2, which truth be told, is very surprising.

In short, I think a MBA/MBN/MBP are better options for both long and short term.

Of course if the need to run windows is required then that eliminates the Mac, but I think there's better more compatible options, i.e., Panther Lake.

 

[pshufd]

Not for nothing, but I'm going to go for an ARM based laptop, it will be a Mac. I don't think Snapdragon is on par to Apple Silicon, Windows on ARM is most definitely not a great experience, and Microsoft's x86 emulation is inferior to Rosetta 2, which truth be told, is very surprising.

In short, I think a MBA/MBN/MBP are better options for both long and short term.

Of course if the need to run windows is required then that eliminates the Mac, but I think there's better more compatible options, i.e., Panther Lake.

Same here. If I wanted ARM, I'd get a Mac.

Apple has fully embraced ARM while Microsoft has hedged their bets meaning that there's less incentive to port x86 program to ARM as you can run in compatibility mode. I think that Lunar Lake is great though it is not a high-performance architecture. I've heard very good things about Arrow Lake Refresh which fixes the bugs in Arrow Lake. I think that Panther Lake is going to be great (need more hardware out there for more reviews), and I have good expections on Nova Lake.

 

[Steve Adams]

Space Design Warehouse's MacNeo heatsink mod. A great watch.

 

[maflynn]

Space Design Warehouse's MacNeo heatsink mod. A great watch.

this is better 😛

In all seriousness the pads have generally been the way to help cool the MBN, but just to be painfully obvious. Those pads help conduct heat from the SoC to the bottom of the case, making the case hotter. So you're SoC will be a few degrees cooler, but at the expense of your comfort if you use it on your lap. The Neo will still throttle, its just delayed a little bit with those thermal pads.

 

[throAU]

this is better 😛

In all seriousness the pads have generally been the way to help cool the MBN, but just to be painfully obvious. Those pads help conduct heat from the SoC to the bottom of the case, making the case hotter. So you're SoC will be a few degrees cooler, but at the expense of your comfort if you use it on your lap. The Neo will still throttle, its just delayed a little bit with those thermal pads.

Oh jake… i know you did it for clicks but you spent way more than just buying an air to get worse performance (yeah i watched it last week) 😀

 

[KPOM]

Let me expound a bit more, for students entering a STEM major, its not whether the Neo, or more generally a Mac would be good, its that the software they'll be running is Windows based. There's accommodations, like using university resources but those students with Macs have had to deal with more headaches simply because they didn't have a windows machine.

Of course each college is different, but for my Daughter's school, they highly recommend windows machines for engineering students.

Out of curiosity, does the STEM software run on Windows ARM? If so, then an M5 MacBook Pro (particularly with the M5 Pro or Max) would be able to run the apps in a virtual machine. Obviously there is the added overhead of a second operating system and shared resources, but it could be done.

Since this is ostensibly a thread about an ARM-based Windows PC, it’s worth discussing how serious Microsoft is about Windows ARM. The Copilot PC experiment seems to have been a failure, at least to date, but as this ASUS PC shows, Qualcomm is capable of designing a very good chip capable of powering a premium PC. But if this or other Windows ARM PCs don’t sell, then there is little motivation for Qualcomm to continue developing consumer-focused ARM processors. With Panther Lake and access to TSMC’s advanced processes, x86-based chips have considerably closed the gap on performance per watt with newer ARM chips. Are there other compelling reasons for Windows ARM to exist?