This rugged laptop has been designed for professional workspaces away from the comfort of office life.

The Durabook S15 is a rugged laptop designed for professionals needing a computer that will work in environments that aren’t always ideal for normally delicate computing equipment, and it can do this without compromising on performance. Its robust construction, complying with MIL-STD-810H standards, ensures reliability in challenging environments, while the high-performance Intel Core processor offers decent computing power. The large 15.6″ FHD DynaVue sunlight-readable display enables easy outdoor screen visibility. Unlike other rugged laptops, the Durabook keeps things lightweight and relatively slimline, making it highly portable, especially with the carry handle. Overall, the S15 is a versatile, durable, and powerful enough computing solution for field and industrial professionals.

Pros

• +High-end performance
• +Durable design
• +Bright display for outdoor use

Cons

• -Not waterproof
• -Average camera
• -Limited processing power

DURABOOK S15: 30-SECOND REVIEW

SPECS:-

• CPU: Intel Core i5 (12th Gen)
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe; Optional NVIDIA Quadro T1000
• RAM: 32GB – Up to 64GB (4800 MHz DDR5)
• Storage: 500GB (256GB-2TB NVMe PCIe SSD; Optional 2nd/3rd storage)
• Rear Ports: Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 (Type A/C), HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, Serial, Nano-SIM, DC-In
• Front Ports: Audio in/out, microSD card
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth V5.3; Optional GPS, 4G/5G
• Audio: Integrated microphone, High Definition Audio, Speakers
• Camera: Optional 2.0/5.0 MP; IR for Windows Hello
• Size: 375mm x 273mm x 29.5mm; Weight: 2.6kg
• OS installed: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit
• Accessories: Various, including SSDs, Docking Stations, Adapters

The Durabook S15 strikes a fine balance between rugged durability and a sleek, slimline design. Its build quality is reassuring and reinforces its capability to withstand challenging conditions; it’s also a reflection of its rugged aesthetics.

WIth plenty of experience testing the best rugged laptops, one aspect that really stands out is how this model is impressively adaptable, offering customisation options, including CPU and GPU variations at the time of purchase. Our test of the base model, equipped with an Intel i5 CPU and Intel Iris XE GPU, demonstrated sufficient flexibility with ample RAM, 32GB, and storage expansion options. Despite not being waterproof, its IP5X rating highlights its resilience in tough environments.

In use, the S15 effortlessly handles office tasks and internet browsing, with Windows operating smoothly across various applications. However, its base GPU does show limitations when pushed with graphically intensive tasks, a gap filled by the optional NVIDIA Quadro T1000 variant for those needing extra power. Durability tests, including repeated drop tests, underscore its robustness, easily surviving falls from typical working heights.

In essence, the Durabook S15 very much feels like that link between the refined style of the best business laptops we’ve tried and the durability of full-on rugged models. While it may struggle with high-end gaming or demanding CAD applications, its core strength lies in its tough build and operational flexibility. Durabook offers enhanced versions if you are looking for additional power, which makes the S15 a versatile choice for professionals who require a durable yet capable laptop.

DURABOOK S15: PRICE & AVAILABILITY

The Durabook S15 Semi-Rugged Laptop is available online from both the official Durabook site and elsewhere. Expect prices of around $2000 / £1800 plus.

Score: 4/5

DURABOOK S15: DESIGN & BUILD

The Durabook S15’s design is instantly recognisable as rugged, with the style highlighting the durable nature of the machine and how it is tailored to demanding field environments. Its exterior is notably tough, featuring a large, easy-to-use lever lock on the lid that ensures the laptop remains closed even when dropped, and it’s designed in such a way that it’s unlikely to be accidentally released.

The laptop’s build quality is reflected in design elements such as the toughened corners and overall sturdy construction. It is designed to withstand a significantly higher degree of physical stress compared to standard laptops, including resistance to knocks, scratches, and bashes, of which it sustained quite a few through the test.

This durability is not just superficial; the attention to detail extends to the protection of vital components. All ports on the S15 are safeguarded by strong plastic doors, ensuring they remain free from dust and damage. This includes the expansion slot, which is versatile enough to accommodate traditional optical drives or a range of other drive types, such as NVMe SSDs. The laptop even supports RAID array configurations, demonstrating Durabook’s commitment to providing flexible and practical solutions for field use.

One user-friendly feature is the inclusion of a convenient carry handle, making the laptop extremely easy to transport. This may seem like a minor addition, but for professionals working in field conditions, such convenience is invaluable. Overall, the Durabook S15’s design and build quality clearly reflect a deep understanding of the challenging environments it is intended for, offering a highly functional and robust computer for on-site professionals.

Design: 4.5/5

DURABOOK S15: FEATURES

The Durabook S15 is a decent blend of rugged durability and computing power, designed to meet the needs of professionals in demanding field environments. One of the standout features of the S15 is its incredibly thin and light profile, which is unusual for a rugged laptop. Despite weighing just 2.6kg and being only 29.5mm thin, it does not compromise on strength. It can endure a 4-foot drop and is both IP5X and MIL-STD-810H certified, ensuring reliability in challenging field conditions.

When using laptops outside, being able to see the screen clearly is essential, and here, the S15 features a 15.6-inch Full HD DynaVue sunlight-readable display, offering up to 1,000 nits brightness, making it perfect for outdoor use. Inside powering the graphics is Intel Iris Xe graphics, offering the average graphics processing speed that’s required for standard Windows operation. For professionals needing more graphics power, such as in rendering or CAD applications, there’s an option to upgrade to the NVIDIA Quadro T1000 at the time of purchase.

Mobility is a key aspect of the S15’s design, with options for 4G LTE or 5G cellular connections, along with Bluetooth V5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. For remote workers, the optional built-in GPS is a great addition, providing accurate location tracking. The laptop also features a long-life battery, capable of operating up to 12 hours of standard use, and the option of a bridge battery for swapping in the field, which is crucial for many industries.

Beyond just being a laptop, the S15 can transform into a mobile workstation. It can be equipped with up to three storage drives, supporting RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. The flexibility extends to its media bay, which can be converted into an ExpressCard 54 slot, broadening its use.

The connectivity and security features of the S15 include an array of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Type-A/-C, HDMI, and VGA, ensuring easy connection in any work setting. Security is paramount, with multi-factor authentication options like Windows Hello webcam, RFID/NFC, smartcard, and fingerprint readers safeguarding sensitive data.

The ergonomic design of the S15 includes a 98-key membrane keyboard with a dedicated numeric keypad and optional LED backlight. Finally, the S15 offers expandability, and it can be configured with a dedicated graphics card for specialised tasks like graphics rendering and CAD programs and configured with additional connectivity options like a 2nd RJ-45 and a 2nd RS-232 port, making it an adaptable tool in an evolving mobile work environment. These are all added at the time of purchase and are not additions to the laptop you can make later.

Features: 4/5

DURABOOK S15: PERFORMANCE

BENCHMARKS

• Crystal Disk Read: 3647.40MB/s
• Crystal Disk Write: 2200.13MB/s
• GeekBench CPU Single: 3970
• GeekBench CPU Multi: 1871
• GeekBench Compute: 8727
• PC Mark: 4314
• CineBench CPU Multi: 4147
• CineBench CPU Single: 1374
• Fire Strike Overall: 2581
• Fire Strike Graphics: 3053
• Fire Strike Physics: 9825
• Fire Strike Combined: 791
• Time Spy Overall: 929
• Time Spy Graphics: 830
• Time Spy CPU: 2895
• Wild Life: 5757
• Windows Experience: 8.1

The Durabook S15 delivers a robust performance across various benchmarks, indicative of its capabilities in handling a range of tasks from basic to moderately demanding applications.

In terms of storage performance, the Crystal Disk scores are quite impressive. The read speed of 3647.40MB/s and write speed of 2200.13MB/s suggest that the S15 is more than capable of handling large files and data-intensive operations swiftly, making it suitable for applications that require quick data access and processing.

The Geekbench scores offer a glimpse into the CPU’s capability. A single-core score of 3970 and a multi-core score of 1871 demonstrate that while the S15 is competent in handling everyday tasks efficiently, it might face some limitations in heavily multi-threaded applications. The computed score of 8727 further underscores its adequacy for general computing tasks.

In the CineBench tests, which are more focused on the CPU’s rendering capabilities, the S15 scores 4147 in multi-core and 1374 in single-core tests. These scores reflect its ability to manage moderately demanding rendering tasks, although it may not be the top choice for highly complex rendering work.

The graphics performance, as indicated by the Fire Strike and Time Spy benchmarks, shows a decent capability with overall scores of 2581 and 929, respectively. The laptop seems to handle standard graphical tasks well, but it might not be optimal for high-end gaming or advanced 3D rendering. The Wild Life score of 5757 further reinforces this perspective.

Lastly, the Windows Experience score of 8.1 is a good indicator of the laptop’s overall capability to provide a smooth user experience for most typical applications and tasks.

The Durabook S15 appears to be a solid performer for everyday professional tasks, including data management and basic graphical applications. It offers quick storage speeds and decent CPU and GPU performance, making it a reliable choice for professionals who require a rugged laptop with balanced performance features. However, for highly demanding graphical or rendering tasks, it might be worth considering models with higher-spec CPUs and GPUs.

As well as the standard computing performance test, this is a tough laptop, and as such, the durability of the S15 also needed to be tested. In the product description, Durabook highlights that the laptop is IP5X rated and drop-proof to 4 feet.

In the first test, the laptop was used in a CNC, laser and 3D print workshop, left between the Bambu Labs A1 and the SnapMaker Artisan with CNC tooling. It was left open to the debris created by the two machines. While most laptops will withstand this amount of dust, it can render keys and ports blocked. Here, due to the design of the keyboard, the dust was not an issue, and a quick shake and vacuum quickly returned the machine to an almost new condition. Likewise, the plastic port covers did their job of keeping dust out.

The next test was to see how the laptop would cope with being used in light rain. It’s worth noting that this is not a waterproof laptop, so time in the rain was kept to five minutes. Here again, the laptop functioned without issue and continued to work after the product shot without issue.

The final test was the drop test here, measuring four feet off the floor. The laptop was dropped, then dropped again, rotated, dropped, etc. and aside from a nasty crack as it hit the stone and then the wooden floor on countless occasions, it seemed to be absolutely fine.

Performance: 3.5/5

SHOULD YOU BUY THE DURABOOK S15?

Deciding whether to purchase the Durabook S15 hinges on your specific needs. Its rugged design, MIL-STD-810H and IP5X certifications make it an ideal if you’re a field professional working in uncontrolled environments, workshops, warehouses and factories.

The inclusion of a 15.6” Full HD DynaVue display and options for Intel Iris Xe or NVIDIA Quadro T1000 graphics make it versatile for a range of professional tasks. Moreover, its lightweight and slim profile defies the typical rugged laptop stereotype, enhancing portability.

However, the S15 might not be the best fit for those requiring a machine for advanced gaming or intensive multimedia tasks like high-end video editing or 3D rendering nor should it be as that’s not it’s key market. While it performs well in standard and moderately demanding applications, its capabilities in handling extremely graphics-intensive tasks are limited. Additionally, the investment cost, which starts relatively high, should be considered, especially if your requirements are more aligned with general computing rather than rugged field use.

Buy it if…

You’re working in the field.

If you’re a professional working in demanding field conditions or rough environments, the Durabook S15 is an excellent choice. Its rugged design, reliable performance, and durable build make it ideal for handling the rigours of outdoor or industrial work.

You have expansive storage needs.

If you require a laptop with versatile storage options, the Durabook S15 is a great choice. It supports up to three storage drives, including options for NVMe PCIe SSDs and traditional SATA SSDs, providing ample space and fast data access.

Don’t buy it if…

You need a machine for advanced gaming and graphics.

The Durabook S15, while robust and efficient for standard tasks, isn’t built for advanced gaming. Its graphics capabilities are limited, making it unsuitable for high-end gaming experiences.

You’re creating complex multimedia projects.

Professionals in fields requiring intensive multimedia creation, like high-resolution video editing or 3D rendering, might find the S15’s performance restrictive. It’s designed more for durability than for high-end creative tasks.

The post Durabook S15 Review appeared first on Review Products.

Dell’s Inspiron range of laptops has long been a popular choice for many buyers thanks to its approachable pricing and features. The company’s new 16-inch series of Inspiron laptops aims to deliver a more premium experience for productivity and entertainment. We have with us today the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 laptop which boasts of a taller 16:10 aspect ratio display, four speakers, and the ability to unfold into a tablet. Dell is pitching it as an entertainment and productivity solution, so let’s see if it achieves that goal.

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 price in India

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 starts at Rs. 1,00,990 in India for the base variant, which has an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a full-HD resolution display. The other configuration is priced at Rs. 1,40,990 and this gets you an Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, an Nvidia GeForce MX550 GPU, and a 4K resolution OLED display.

The metal body of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 looks and feels premium

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 design

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 has a minimalistic design and looks slick in the Platinum Silver colour. The back of the metal lid is plain with just a Dell logo etched on the surface. It is a heavy laptop, weighing a little over 2kg, and it takes up a lot of space on a desk or in a backpack. Even so, Dell has managed to keep the thickness under 20mm so it doesn’t feel like you’re carrying a thick slab of metal in the hand.

The sides of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 are very angular but have soft edges so nothing really digs into your skin when using it. The base of the laptop has ports on either side, and these include a full-sized SD card slot, two USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-A ports, a headphone jack, HDMI 1.4 (up to 1080p 60Hz output), and two Thunderbolt 4.0 ports.

The palm rest area is large and spacious and the same goes for the trackpad. Despite the size of this laptop, you don’t get a full keyboard layout, but the keys are spaced well and the backlighting is easily visible through the grey keycaps.You get two large speaker vents on either side of the keys, similar to Apple’s MacBook Pros. The power button also houses a fingerprint sensor, and the higher-end variant comes with an infrared camera for Windows Hello authentication.

You get a decent number of ports on the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1

The 16-inch display looks massive up-close and is taller than the usual 16:9 aspect ratio. It supports touch input, and has a 60Hz refresh rate and a full-HD (1920×1200) resolution. The display is rated to deliver up to 300 nits of brightness, which seems more than adequate for home use. The display bezels on the left and right are thin but the top and bottom are slightly thicker. There’s a 1080p webcam above the display with a physical privacy shutter. The bottom of the display has a fabric layer which covers the two front-firing speakers.

The base variant of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 which was sent for this review ships with only a 65W power adapter and some documentation. You’ll need to buy Dell’s stylus separately if you wish to use it with this laptop.

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 specifications and software

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 comes with Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs and this base variant has an Intel Core i5-1335U processor with 10 CPU cores. There’s 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage. The laptop also features a 6-cell, 86WHr battery, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth.

The laptop ships with Windows 11 Home and comes with some of Dell’s own apps preinstalled such as SupportAssist and MyDell. You also get a full license for Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 and a 15-month subscription to McAfee Antivirus.

Tent mode is convenient if you need to watch content and save some desk space

Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 performance and battery life

The performance of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 during this review was very good. The large vents on the bottom and between the two hinges ensure there’s good airflow in and out of the system. The laptop ran silently and cool with most casual tasks, and I only heard the fans when performing intensive tasks such as running benchmarks and gaming. Since this is a convertible laptop, you can use it in a variety of positions. Tent mode is something I used often when watching video content and if I wanted to save some desk space. The only issue I faced was volume control, which required using the touchscreen since there aren’t any physical buttons on any side of this laptop.

Video looks great on the large display, however reflections can sometimes be an issue. The speakers sound very good and produce clean highs and decent bass, although I felt that the maximum volume could have been better. This variant of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 isn’t really designed for gaming since it only has onboard graphics, but you can still play casual games from the Microsoft Store. Webcam quality is decent but the picture gets grainy in low light.

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 posted strong benchmark scores relative to its configuration. Cinebench R20 returned 631 and 3,056 points in its single- and multi-core tests. PCMark 10 returned 4,915 points, while 3DMark Time Spy managed 1,351 points. Results from real-world tests were good too. It took just 56 seconds to encode a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265 MKV, while the BMW test scene in Blender took 7 minutes, 4 seconds to render.

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 runs cool for the most part thanks to good airflow

Battery life of the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 was pretty stellar. The laptop conforms to the Intel Evo platform, which guarantees a certain level of performance and all-day battery life. The laptop ran just shy of four hours in the Battery Eater Pro test, which is a solid number and well above average. This translates to very good real-world battery life too, and I was generally able to average a good eight to nine hours of usage, while taking a few short breaks in between.

Verdict

The Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 is a well-built and good performing convertible laptop which also delivers great battery life. It’s a little too expensive, but it’s a convertible and has a touchscreen display, so if you don’t really need these features then you should look at the standard Inspiron 16. Other 16-inch laptops with a similar configuration are also generally less expensive. I feel that at this price and configuration, Dell should have bundled a stylus along with the laptop. There aren’t many other negative points for the Inspiron 16 2-in-1, other than the fact that it’s a little cumbersome to carry around and perhaps physical volume buttons on the side would have been convenient when using it in other modes.

The post Dell Inspiron 16 | 2 in 1 Review: Keeping It Classy appeared first on Review Products.

India isn’t seen as a huge market for handheld gaming consoles. Nintendo doesn’t have an official presence here at all, Sony never really promoted the PS Vita, and there’s no hope of the Steam Deck coming in anytime soon. There clearly is some demand, evidenced by the easy availability of grey-market Nintendo Switch units, online listings for niche Chinese manufacturers such as Ayaneo, and even small yet vocal crowds of retro console enthusiasts in forums online. However, they’re a microscopic niche compared to smartphone gamers here, with PUBG/BGMI becoming a cultural phenomenon and even casual titles making enormous money. Over 500 million Indians are estimated to play games on their smartphones; double what the figure was just five years ago. That’s incredible in terms of sheer market potential.

But what games are these people playing, how much are they willing to spend, and how does the hardware and software fit into their lives? Is there space for a dedicated portable gaming device in the Indian market? And can the new Asus ROG Ally, which costs more than some entry-level gaming laptops, fill it? After spending some time with the device, and some conversations with Asus, here’s what I think.

Asus ROG Ally price in India

Internationally, there are two variants of the ROG Ally, and the only difference is the choice of SoC – AMD’s new Ryzen Z1 powers the lower-end one, while the more capable Ryzen Z1 Extreme can deliver better performance in games. Asus has brought only the higher-end version to India, at least for now. This makes sense, because it isn’t competing with anything on price and you might as well make a good impression with the best possible performance. It costs Rs. 69,990 which isn’t bad considering the specifications.

You don’t get very much in the box – just a fairly oversized charger and a power cable. It’s particularly disappointing that there’s no case, since this is by nature a portable device. Asus does sell a case which has compartments for microSD cards and can function as a stand, but that’s an added cost. Third-party alternatives should be available soon.

The ROG Ally’s 7-inch screen is just the right size for comfortable gaming

Asus ROG Ally: What it is and who it’s for

Appearance aside, the ROG Ally is much closer to a full-fledged computer than a handheld console. It has a standard processor with an integrated GPU, and all the components you’d expect except a keyboard and trackpad. It boots up just like a PC and runs Windows 11 Home. This is its greatest strength, because it can run pretty much any PC game including plenty of free ones – but also its greatest weakness, because you’re using software and hardware in ways they might not have originally been designed for. We’ll get into this in much more detail soon.

You can run almost any PC game, and most recent ones actually work surprisingly well. Asus isn’t interested in creating its own ecosystem to compete with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony, so there’s no custom hardware or software and no tie to a specific game store. You can download anything from the Internet, including through the Steam, Epic, EA, etc stores. You can install any company’s launcher, use cloud or subscription services, and even hook up an external drive via USB to copy files over. That also opens up a huge world of free games (and ones obtained in less-than-ethical ways). Besides, titles usually cost far less on PC than they do on consoles, and older games are often heavily discounted.

But then there’s that Rs. 69,990 price – if you’re a mobile gamer looking to get to the next level, you probably want a gaming laptop. The ROG Ally isn’t a replacement or alternative, unless you have extreme space constraints plus a computer that you already use for non-gaming tasks.

The buttons and sticks on the ROG Ally are modelled on Microsoft’s Xbox controller layout

Asus imagines that people will use the ROG Ally not only as a handheld, but also docked with a TV. You could even pick up one of the company’s XG Mobile external GPUs, which start at around Rs. 80,000 in India and go up to Rs. 1,82,990 for a GeForce RTX 4090) to turn the ROG Ally into a full gaming setup with up to a 4K monitor or TV.

Other than price and size, two big considerations are battery life and performance while running on battery power, which we’ll test soon. Another thing to remember is that a lot of PC games require always-on or periodic Internet connectivity, so the ROG Ally might not be all that suited for those who want to play games on a long flight or while commuting.

And then there are non-gaming use cases too – you definitely won’t want to browse the Web or type office documents on the tiny 7-inch touchscreen, but it’s better than a phone for watching movies on. Plus, a cheap USB dock and some peripherals could make the ROG Ally quite versatile in many situations.

The ROG Ally seems to be something you’d have in addition to a more traditional gaming setup – a bit of an indulgence, maybe for a student who wants to keep it hidden in a dorm, a frequent traveler, or a very committed couch potato. It’s hard to imagine choosing the Ally instead of a similarly priced laptop. Hopefully in the future, prices will go down and devices like this will make up a new, more affordable tier of gaming PCs.

You get a simple stand in the box, but a carry case would have been much more appreciated

Asus ROG Ally design and capabilities

Physically, the ROG Ally is a little bigger than the Nintendo Switch and quite a lot smaller than the Steam Deck. The general layout of buttons and controls is deliberately modelled on an Xbox controller, to make gaming on Windows as seamless as using Microsoft’s own hardware. Asus says it focused a huge amount of engineering effort on keeping weight down, and the final 608g was achieved through some very creative structural work as well as paying attention to every little detail, down to the design of the fan blades and every last hardware choice.

It’s comfortable to hold, and the weight is fine. My index fingers sat naturally on the triggers and my ring fingers found the macro paddles on the back. The front-firing speakers aren’t obstructed by a user’s palms at all, and sound is surprisingly rich and clear. There are also stereo mics with noise cancelling. A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button on the top.

Of course, front and centre we have the 7-inch full-HD display. I think Asus got the size and proportions right – I never had to hold the ROG Ally too close to my face. Viewing angles aren’t the greatest and colours are fine, but don’t pop especially. That said, Windows 11 was clearly not designed for this screen size, and some text elements can be hard to read. Text input is the most painful, particularly during the Windows 11 setup process. The virtual keyboard can take up half the screen when docked, and cover what you’re trying to do when floating. I found myself using a stylus rather than trying to finger-pick letters, and it felt like typing on an old-school PDA at times. You can use the macro paddles on the rear to trigger several common Windows functions, but that requires memorising them.

There are two small buttons on either side of the screen – you might recognise the Menu and View buttons if you’re an Xbox user, and that’s exactly what they’re for in games. There’s also a button for Asus’ custom control panel on the left, and an Armoury Crate software shortcut on the right.

The power and volume buttons as well as all ports are on the top of the ROG Ally

The ABXY buttons are colour-coded but in a very muted palette. Button quality is decent; not much different from a console controller. The trigger buttons use Hall effect sensors and allow for analogue control based on how far you press them. Asus hasn’t announced plans for swappable buttons, triggers and sticks like you might find on some high-end console controllers. There’s also a 6-axis gyro sensor and vibrators in each grip, which some but not all games can take advantage of.

Asus has shown many design prototypes it experimented with before settling on this design. Overall, it’s pretty plain. It doesn’t scream “gamer” with any sharp lines or bright accents but you do get a bit of RGB flair around the analogue sticks and a reflective strip on the back. The diagonal slash matches the current ROG series aesthetic. The company says it has gone with textures that work well for grip and allowing sweat on your palms to evaporate. The Ally is only available in white, and I hope the plastic doesn’t get discoloured after long months of gaming with sweaty palms.

Build quality feels pretty good – even with vigorous button mashing and the inevitable bending and twisting that happens when caught up in the action of a game, the ROG Ally never felt delicate or cheap. The display uses Gorilla Glass Victus with an anti-reflective coating. There’s no IP rating because the active cooling requires open air vents, although Asus says they are filtered to prevent dust ingress. One negative is that the ports and slot on the top aren’t protected; a rubber flap would have been appreciated.

The paddles on the rear let you trigger macros when pressed in combination with other buttons

Asus ROG Ally specifications and software

At the heart of the ROG Ally is the new AMD Ryzen Z1 series of SoCs. These are slightly trimmed versions of the Ryzen 7040 series chips, codenamed “Phoenix” and originally designed for premium ultralight laptops. They’re based on the current Zen 4 CPU and RDNA 3 GPU architectures. The Ryzen Z1, which we won’t see in India yet, features six CPU cores and four GPU compute units, while the Ryzen Z1 Extreme steps up to eight CPU cores and 12 GPU units. Maximum boost clock speeds are 4.9GHz and 5.1GHz respectively, Both have 9-30W TDP ranges.

That’s a surprising amount of power and explains the need for a dual-fan cooling system. What we have here is essentially an entire laptop’s worth of hardware packed into a thick rectangle rather than a clamshell. It’s surprising that AMD is marketing both these chips as explicitly optimised for handheld gaming, since they could power various types of miniature PCs.

Back to the ROG Ally though, we also have 16GB of LPDDR5 memory which is of course soldered and not upgradeable. The SSD is a 512GB PCIe 4.0 unit and is socketed, though the smaller M.2 2230 form factor isn’t very easily available. Asus says ROG Ally owners are free to perform an upgrade, but it will void their warranty so it’s best to have trained service centre staff do it.

Asus went with a 7-inch, full-HD 120Hz “IPS level” display. It supports AMD Freesync Premium, brightness is rated at 500nits and colour reproduction is 100 percent sRGB. The battery capacity is 40Wh which is understandable for a handheld. You get a 65W USB-PD charging brick, which is surprisingly bulky and seems to be the same one that the company ships with some of its laptops. There’s no mention of quick charging.

Asus’ Armoury Crate SE software lets you tweak the controller inputs and set system-wide options

You get just one USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) Type-C port for charging and connecting peripherals such as a portable SSD. It can also be used for an external display over DisplayPort 1.4. This port is part of Asus’ proprietary XG Mobile Interface, which essentially lets you route PCIe lanes externally. The XG Mobile docks, initially designed for the ultra-compact ROG Flow laptop series, give you a huge boost in GPU power and multiple additional ports including Ethernet, USB, and multiple display outputs. There’s also Wi-Fi 6E (which isn’t technically licensed to work in India) and Bluetooth 5.2.

The ROG Ally also has a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot. Asus states that you can install almost any game onto a microSD card and it will only be marginally slower than using the SSD, which in theory would be a great way to carry more games and content around with you. Unfortunately recent reports have confirmed that microSD cards are prone to failure due to the slot’s proximity to a hot air vent.

One big challenge for Asus was making the Windows 11 UI manageable on such a small screen, and so the Armoury Crate SE software acts as a launcher, with your games front and centre. It also has a bunch of options for customising everything from the analogue stick responsiveness to Aura Sync lighting and checking for firmware updates. You can use it to launch individual games as well as storefronts such as Steam and the Xbox app if you have a Game Pass subscription.

The Command Centre overlay can be called up within games, and gives you big, touch-friendly buttons. You can control brightness and volume, but more importantly toggle between performance modes (30/25W, 15W and 10W), change game profiles, and pull up useful tools. You can fully customise its layout and add shortcuts for the Windows desktop, on-screen keyboard, and task manager. For power users, there are controls letting you cap screen resolution and refresh rate on the fly, toggle an FPS limiter and use AMD Radeon Software features such as Radeon Image Sharpening and Radeon Super Resolution upscaling.

You can pull up this panel at any time to change system performance parameters

Asus ROG Ally usage and performance

There are loads of system settings you can tweak, and so performance can be tricky to measure. I noticed that the 30W Turbo mode was only available when using the ROG Ally with its bundled 65W charger – the TDP was capped at 25W when on battery power and even when using a third-party 61W adapter. More interestingly, plugging in a USB Type-C dock and routing power through that also limited the Ally to 25W. This was a bit of a surprise, and you’ll probably encounter this too, since most docks don’t specify their passthrough power ratings.

Speaking of docks, I found mine to be indispensable when setting up the ROG Ally and performing general tasks in Windows. A fast wired Internet connection really helped when downloading 100GB+ games. In fact, I had to daisy-chain two hubs because I needed at least one USB port for an external SSD and one each for a keyboard and mouse, plus pass-through power. Wireless peripherals will take some of this load off but the Ally really needs at least one more USB port – it is after all a full Windows PC. If you’re planning to use a desktop monitor or TV, output resolution and refresh rate might also depend on the chain of docks and cables or adapters you use.

The 30W mode is what you should be using for gaming when plugged in. This unlocks the Ryzen Z1 Extreme’s full performance, and also reveals one of its biggest limitations. You can’t use the full potential of the ROG Ally unless it’s plugged in to a power source – this is normal for laptops, but a bit frustrating for a handheld.

The supplied power brick is quite large by today’s standards

Battery life is also greatly affected when the higher power modes are enabled. As you’ll see from the benchmark test and game performance scores below, you can get decent enough performance in heavy games at 30/25W but 15W is more sensible for battery-powered gaming. FPS numbers drop drastically and disproportionately at the 10W setting, so this is only really advisable when you’re doing things like watching videos or running non-game software.

You can expect 1-2 hours of gaming at reasonable settings, using the 15W mode. This of course depends on which game you choose, but that still isn’t a lot. Asus rates video playback time at 6 hours using the 10W mode. Our graphics-heavy Battery Eater Pro test ran for 2 hours, 23 minutes at 10W. This won’t get you through a long road trip but most plane seats have power outlets these days so that’s at least one possibility. Charging isn’t particularly quick – I noted a 20 percent battery level after 10 minutes of charging when completely switched off.

All games and tests were run at the 25W setting to gauge maximum performance under ordinary conditions, except where noted. Starting with general performance tests, the ROG Ally scored 6,886 points in the synthetic PCMark benchmark’s standard run, and 6,891 points in its Extended run. Geekbench 6 managed a single-core score of 2,521 and a multi-core score of 11,570. Cinebench R23 is another popular standardised test, and it completed its render workload with 1,761 points with a single active thread and 14,108 points with all threads active.

The ROG Ally should have had at least one more USB Type-C port for charging while peripherals are plugged in

The POVRay render test finished its default benchmark in just 52 seconds. The browser-based Webxprt 4, Basemark Web, and Jetstream 2 tests returned scores of 282, 1969.65, and 273.372 respectively. Compressing our standard 3.24GB folder of assorted files with 7-zip took 1 minute, 28 seconds and transcoding a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265 using Handbrake took 41 seconds.

At 25W, all these scores are roughly on par with or better than what you can expect from the recently launched 15-inch MacBook Air, although Apple’s M2 SoC only needs passive cooling. The ROG Ally also handily beats a current-gen Windows-based ultraportable, the LG Gram 14 (14Z90Q), with its low-power Intel Core i7-1260P processor. Most of that is down to AMD’s beefy integrated GPU.

For the sake of comparison, I ran some tests again in the 10W mode. Geekbench 6 scores dropped to 1,840 and 6,869 for the single- and multi-core tests respectively. 7zip took 2 minutes, 29 seconds for the exact same compression task, and video transcoding took 1 minute, 35 seconds.

Of course graphics and gaming test results are what everyone’s been waiting for. The trusty 3DMark posted scores of 1,477 in 3DMark’s Port Royal ray tracing benchmark, 3,138 in the DX12 Time Spy test, and 7,203 in the legacy Fire Strike test. That’s far better than what we’ve seen from laptops such as the Xiaomi Notebook Pro 120G with its entry-level GeForce MX550 GPU, and slots in neatly below the mainstream GeForce RTX 3050, as seen in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Pro X.

You can set up a desktop with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, but it doesn’t seem practical for gaming

The Unigine Superposition test managed a score of 5,004 with a 37.43fps average at the 25W setting, and that came down to 3,958 points with an average of 29.6fps at 10W. Both runs used the 1080p Medium preset. The difference in absolute values as well as overall consistency shows how performance scales down when trying to save power. Gears Tactics has a fairly intense built-in benchmark which managed a 53.5fps average at 25W but only an unplayable 16.5fps average at 10W, also using the same 1920×1080 resolution and High quality preset.

We have some more in-game benchmarks lined up, since these let us compare performance across devices and platforms under identical conditions. GTA V is now quite old but still popular, and a great example of what I’d like to play on a portable console. While it was fun, graphics quality was not great. Even at 1280×720 resolution, most graphics quality variables were disabled or set to Low by default. The built-in benchmark averaged 30.24fps with the minimum dropping to just 11.44fps.

Other games fared considerably better. The classic Rise of the Tomb Raider ran fairly well at 1080p using its Medium preset. The benchmark average was 41fps which is good enough. Far Cry 5 is another of our regular benchmark tests, and this title managed an average of 43fps at 1080 using its High preset. You might encounter stutters and slowdowns in intense sequences in-game, but there’s no doubt that they’re playable and enjoyable.

Doom Eternal looks great and is incredibly fast-paced, but is also known to be forgiving when it comes to hardware. Using its on-screen diagnostic counter, I was able to test the ROG Ally at three different power settings across a level that included navigating some simple passages followed by a major fight sequence. When plugged in and running at its 30W Turbo setting, I was able to play at 50-70fps and there was no issue other than fan noise. The 15W mode took performance down to about 45fps which was also fine – this is what you should expect when playing on battery power. However, the game ran at an excruciating 20fps and fight sequences were impossible, when I tried the 10W mode. The resolution was set to 1080p throughout, and the quality setting was Ultra.

Casual games run well on battery power and are fun to play on the ROG Ally

Superhot is not as graphically intense but seems well suited to the form factor of the ROG Ally. Using the game’s High preset and the console’s 30W setting, I was comfortable with the 100fps or so that Asus’ overlay showed. at Sadly, that dropped to just about 30fps at 15W.

And what about casual games? I did manage to have fun with simple titles such as Portal 2, Slime Rancher, and Rayman Legends. These ran poorly at the 10W setting but seemed to be manageable at 15W. Games such as these are designed to work with a controller, and detected the ROG Ally’s hardware as a standard input device, letting me tweak button assignments in-game. Many PC games these days are console ports anyway, so the UI and controls just worked. Civilization VI felt too constrained on the tiny screen and controls were quite painful – I can’t imagine spending much time with simulation or strategy titles on this device.

For games that don’t just work with a controller, Armoury Crate SE can be used to create per-game profiles and manually map keyboard or mouse inputs to the Ally’s buttons and sticks. This isn’t always smooth, since using an analogue stick is very different to using a mouse. I tried one fairly old game, Mirror’s Edge, in order to gauge the controller experience here because I had enjoyed it very much on an Xbox 360, but it crashed on launch and just refused to run.

Beyond that, many casual Windows games are designed either for mouse-and-keyboard input or a touchscreen, and I found that Bloons TD6, Mini Motorways, and games of that sort worked best with touch input, ignoring the controller hardware altogether. The touchscreen isn’t very responsive, and these games really don’t do justice to the ROG Ally’s hardware, but if you have a portable computer then why not!

The ROG Ally’s fans are not exactly quiet when running games at the 30W setting. The sound isn’t too distracting but it is noticeable. Hot air rushes out the vents, thankfully away from your hands though.

Asus says it had to do a lot of work to achieve the final size and weight of the ROG Ally

Verdict

The Asus ROG Ally is a fascinating product. It’s genuinely new and fresh, and there’s clearly a market for it. However, I’m not quite sure it’s ready for mainstream adoption, and those who are immediately drawn to the concept should really consider a few key points about how and where they will end up using it. First of all, this isn’t a traditional handheld console – it’s a mini PC with a screen and a physically integrated controller. It doesn’t have its own ecosystem of games that just work, a game store, or a seamless UI. PC games won’t all run smoothly and working with Windows 11 can be annoying.

Moreover, the sheer number of variables you have to deal with manually can be daunting for casual gamers. You have to know what power profile is active, you can change the screen resolution and refresh rate, and I just didn’t have time to get into what’s possible with Radeon Super Resolution upscaling. During the review period, there weren’t many times that I actually saw any benefit in plugging the ROG Ally into a TV or using it at a desk with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I also don’t think an XG Mobile dock with a much more powerful GPU would be good enough value for money, for the use I got out of it.

PC games might expect always-on Internet access, so gaming on the go can be tricky. Adding a cellular data modem would have compromised battery life further, so it’s understandable that Asus didn’t implement that. The problem is there are places you can’t even tether, such as on a plane, which is exactly where you’d want a portable gaming machine to work.

You get the convenience of a fingerprint sensor and of course programmable RGB lighting effects

Battery life is very limited and you only get the best performance when plugged into a power source that can deliver 65W. For that reason I found myself using the ROG Ally most often when lounging at home. In that sense, it’s nice to have but it’s definitely an indulgence. If this is the main use case, rather than gaming while outdoors or traveling, I’d prioritise buying a gaming laptop and a capable smartphone before spending money on this device.

I’m surprised that other manufacturers haven’t yet announced their own versions of the same thing, but I can’t say whether that’s because AMD’s Ryzen Z1 series isn’t widely available to OEMs, they were caught off guard and need more R&D time, or they’re choosing to wait and watch. Asus is clearly confident enough to launch the ROG Ally worldwide – and has created quite a lot of resources including guides on its website to help you optimise game settings and get familiar with it. I’m fascinated to see whether this will end up as a one-off, like many of Asus’ most inventive products, or whether we’ve just seen the birth of a whole new market. As for the Ryzen Z1 series SoCs, I’d love to see them in a variety of compact form factors beyond handheld gaming consoles.

Unlike the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, the ROG Ally is officially available in India. Just the fact that you will get authorised support for it makes spending Rs. 70,000 seem palatable, but you have to know exactly what you’re getting into. This isn’t a simple game console that you can just pull out of your bag to kill time with wherever you are. It also isn’t a low-cost gaming PC. It’s more of a plaything for enthusiasts who already have good PCs and who will find joy in the device itself, not just the games they play on it.

Asus ROG Ally

Price: Rs. 69,990

Pros:-

• Innovative and unique
• Powerful hardware
• Reasonable weight, good build quality
• Runs a wide variety of PC games

Cons:-

• Very limited battery life
• Only one USB port
• Windows UI is hard to use
• Carry case not included

Ratings (Out of 5):-

• Design: 4
• Display: 3.5
• Software: 3.5
• Performance: 5
• Battery life: 3
• Value for Money: 4
• Overall: 3.5

The post Asus ROG Ally Review: The Start of Something New? appeared first on Review Products.

Acer introduced the Swift Go laptop series at CES 2023, powered by both Intel and AMD CPUs. The AMD Ryzen-powered laptop was launched in March of this year in India, and today we’ll be reviewing the base model of the Swift Go 14. It is aimed at the urban youth who would want a stylish and premium looking laptop which is portable and powerful. Let’s find out if the Swift Go 14 checks all the boxes.

Acer Swift Go 14 price in India

The Acer Swift Go 14 is available in Prodigy Pink and Pure Silver colours. On the Acer India online store, the laptop starts at Rs. 59,999 and is the variant we’ll be testing. This comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. For about Rs. 5,000 more, you can get the same configuration but with 16GB of RAM.

Acer Swift Go 14 design and features

The Acer Swift Go 14 features a metal chassis which is what gives it a premium look and feel. It’s also quite compact and lightweight measuring just 15.9mm in thickness and 1.25kg in weight. The pink variant actually looks nice and grows on you after a while. You get a good variety of ports for a 14-inch laptop and these include two USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-C ports for charging, HDMI, USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-A port, USB 2.0 Type-A port, headphone jack, and a Kensington lock. There’s no SD card reader of any kind, which I don’t think is a total loss. The right side of the laptop also has two LEDs for the power and activity status.

The Acer Swift Go 14 features an all-metal chassis and is fairly light

The backlit keyboard on the Acer Swift Go 14 is nicely laid out, and the keys themselves are responsive and not noisy. There’s a fingerprint sensor in the power button which wobbles when pressed, unlike the rest of the keys, but it works fine when it comes to authentication. The trackpad does a good job of tracking and you get a decent amount of room to rest your palms.

The 14-inch display has a 16:9 aspect ratio, making it ideal for watching most video content. The Acer Swift Go 14 uses an IPS display panel with a full-HD (1920×1080) resolution and comes with a matte, anti-glare finish. The display has a rated maximum brightness of 300 nits which I found to be more than adequate. The 1080p webcam is quite inconspicuous and is located just above the display. The Acer Swift Go 14 ships with just a 65W USB Type-C charger in the box.

Acer Swift Go 14 specifications and software

The Acer Swift Go 14 features an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU featuring six CPU cores. It’s part of AMD’s mobile CPU refresh which was announced during CES this year. However, this model is based on a refreshed Zen 3 architecture, unlike the 7040 series which uses the latest Zen 4 architecture. This is currently the only CPU configuration that Acer offers in India for the Swift Go 14 series. Storage is taken care of by a 512GB NVMe PCIe Gen3 SSD, and there’s 8GB of RAM. The laptop also features Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, and a 3-cell 50WHr battery.

The Acer Swift Go 14 features a good number of ports for a 14-inch laptop

The Acer Swift Go 14 ships with Windows 11 Home, along with the usual preinstalled programs such as Microsoft Office Home and Student, McAfee antivirus, and bunch of softwares by Acer for system diagnostics and keeping drivers up to date.

Acer Swift Go 14 performance and battery life

General performance of the Acer Swift Go 14 is very good. It runs cool and the fans are not audible when performing simple tasks, but you can hear them faintly during gaming. I found the typing angle to be quite ergonomic as the base is propped up a bit when the lid is open. The keyboard backlighting is also soothing and the display gets sufficiently bright even for daytime outdoor use. Applications are quick to load and I never really felt any lack of power.

The stereo speakers get loud but don’t sound all that great. Games run decently well with the onboard Radeon graphics. I was able to get smooth framerates in Fortnite with medium graphics and running at the display’s native resolution. In synthetic gaming tests such as 3DMark, the Acer Swift Go 14 returned a score of 1,268 in the Time Spy test suite, and 13,570 in Night Raid. CPU and SSD performance was also very good. The laptop scored 566 and 3,664 points in Cinebench R20, and returned an average read speed of over 1.5GB/s for both sequential and random tests in SiSoft Sandra. Write speeds were lower coming in under 900MB/s.

Video rendering and encoding performance was also quite good. The Acer Swift Go 14 took 45 seconds to encode a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265 MKV, while the BMW test scene in Blender took 6 minutes, 18 seconds to render. These were lower (better) times compared to something like the Intel Core i5-1335U CPU which we recently tested in the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1.

The keyboard on the Acer Swift Go 14 is comfortable to type on

Battery life is another highlight of the Acer Swift Go 14. Considering its size, it ran for an impressive 3 hours, 26 minutes in the Battery Eater Pro benchmark. With my daily workflow, I was able to get roughly 7-8 hours of non-stop use before the battery went below 10 percent. By these estimates, it should be possible to get even up to 10 hours of use on one charge (or more), if you don’t use it non-stop. The laptop can be charged fairly quickly using the bundled charger. You get roughly a 70 percent charge in an hour.

Verdict

It’s really hard to find fault with the Acer Swift Go 14 as it does everything you’d expect from a thin and light laptop, and this is before you even consider the price. At Rs. 59,999 (less during sales), you get a well-designed compact laptop with good performance and long battery life. The speakers are possibly the only thing that’s a little underwhelming, and the wobbly power button feels a little out of place in an otherwise well put-together laptop (or it could just be our unit). The Swift Go 14 is definitely worth recommending if you’re looking for a compact Windows laptop under Rs. 60,000 that doesn’t compromise on battery life.

The post Acer Swift Go 14 Review: Striking the Right Balance appeared first on Review Products.