ASUS Announces the Transformer 3: Here’s a Kaby-Lake 2-in-1

One of the surprises of ASUS’ Zen press event today, aside from the surreal nature of the anthropomorphic Zenbo, was the first announcement of a Kaby Lake-based 2-in-1 device that takes an obvious upgrade to the Transformer Book T100. The T…

ASUS Announces the Zenbook 3: A Macbook Competitor with Core i7, 16GB DRAM and 1TB SSD

Computex is already a whirlwind of announcements even for day zero. At the ASUS Zenvolution press event today, the lid was lifted on the next generation of premium ASUS Zenbook: the Zenbook 3. No release date was placed, but the specification list and feature set puts it squarely in line to compete against very popular notebooks, albeit on the premium side.

The Zenbook 3 comes in at 11.9mm thin, weighing 910g, and gives a 12.5-inch display at a 1920×1080 resolution using a thin bezel display. This is similar to the XPS 13 (I’d give a nod more to the XPS 13, but it’s pretty close), but uses an aerospace grade aluminium body design similar to a Macbook but featuring a full Core i7-6500U with 16GB of LPDDR3-2133 memory. The use of a 15W Skylake-U processor means that the memory is limited to LPDDR3 rather than DDR4, which means 1.35V rather than 1.2V, but the faster 2133 MT/s memory should assist in a good number of daily tasks reliant on memory speed, such as gaming.

Storage options run up to 1TB of PCIe 3.0 SSDs (we’re double checking if these are NVMe, or SM951s), however the peak bandwidth is limited to 1700 MB/s sequential reads similar to the how Ganesh found the Intel Skylake NUCs SSD limitations – in this case the On Package Interconnect between the CPU and the integrated chipset is limited to PCIe 2.0 (though it’s worth noting that sustained writes are difficult to get above 1600 MB/s anyway).

The device will have a sole USB 3.0 Type-C port which will allow for charging and IO connectors which sounds like a Macbook, but as a difference ASUS has engineered the keyboard to allow for 0.8mm of key travel, compared to 0.4mm of the Macbook. The Zenbook 3 will have a 40 Wh battery, which ASUS rates for 9 hours of battery life but offers Quick Charge 3 which was presented as offering 60% battery charge in 49 minutes.

Other features in the mix include fingerprint login through the touchpad, a harmon/kardon enhanced audio system, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 display and the colors offered will extend to Royal Blue, Rose Gold and Quartz Grey.

One of ASUS’ issues here will be that their Zenbook UX305 line, at $700, represents a nice product for most of their intended customers. The Zenbook 3 is supposed to be the stylish alternative, that also gets a significant specification boost for users that need the power. At the show, ASUS showed three different models and their price points:

Intel Core i5-6200U, 4GB LPDDR3-1866, 256GB SSD: $999
Intel Core i7-6500U, 16GB LPDDR3-2133, 512GB PCIe SSD: $1499
Intel Core i7-6500U, 16GB LPDDR3-2133, 1TB PCIe SSD: $1999

The entry point is aimed at users who want the style but do not need much machine – the DRAM is severely cut back, and the SSD moves down to a SATA based M.2 SSD. The Core i7 models, from $1499-$1999, means that to get the power it can get expensive, bridging the cost between the cheaper Macbooks using Core M, the Dell XPS 13, and the more powerful Core i-based notebooks moving into higher power processors. The $1999 unit comes across as a lot, especially as an upgrade over the $1499 unit (because $500 for 500GB of PCIe SSD is a bit steep), however ASUS is hoping that the style will sell.

Personally, I run a self-purchased Zenbook Infinity (Haswell i7) that is showing its age and it actually ran out of power during the ASUS Zen press event (my 3^rd of the day). On some level I think the drive to thin and light and powerful can detract from what power users might need: if ASUS makes a Zenbook 3 like device with a separate sheet battery to make it 90 Wh, I might be interested.

Some users might state that a Core i-series based device and a Macbook are in two different product categories. However, during ASUS’ presentation, it was constantly compared to the Macbook, and the low end price of the base model is certainly encroaching into Macbook territory. The most expensive Macbook comes with 512GB of PCIe storage and 8GB of memory for $1599 – ASUS’ Zenbook 3 will give you the same storage, double the memory, ever so slightly lighter, and a full Core i7 for $100 less, although battery life is an hour in the Macbook’s favor.

ASUS didn’t specify release dates, and I was told that exact US pricing is yet to be finalized, but we should expect sampling during the second half of the year. When we visit the ASUS Computex booth tomorrow, we should get a chance to see the device up close.

Gallery: ASUS Announces the Zenbook 3: A Macbook Competitor with Core i7, 16GB DRAM and 1TB SSD

Apple Refreshes MacBook with Skylake-based Core M and New Rose Gold Color

Today Apple has introduced its new generation of its MacBook laptops. On the specification sheets, this generation introduces Intel Skylake based Core m processors, updated integrated graphics, a faster storage solution (either controller or NAND), faster DRAM and bigger batteries. The new notebooks use the same thin chassis and retina-class display as the Broadwell-based MacBooks released last year, but in using the new Skylake silicon the new models are are expected faster and more energy-efficient, and combined with bigger batteries should mean longer battery life. Apple is also expanding the color options, bringing the popular Rose Gold option from the iPhone line to the Macbook.

The new Apple MacBook line is based on the dual-core Intel Core M processors based on the newest Skylake microarchitecture as well as the ninth-generation of Intel’s integrated graphics (HD 515, Gen9) with improved media playback support. The new processors are the Core m3-6Y30, the Core m5-6Y54 and the Core m7-6Y75, but are upgraded from their listed base frequencies due to Apple using them in a ‘configurable 7W TDP up’ mode. This adjusts the base frequency up by 100-200 MHz and offers more TDP headroom for longer turbo periods. The latest microarchitecture and increased frequencies should increase the base performance of the new laptops in general-purpose applications whereas hardware-accelerated playback of HEVC and VP9 video streams should improve battery life in video streaming scenarios. Just like predecessors, the new laptops use 8 GB of memory, using LPDDR3  to minimize power consumption of memory sub-system. This time, Apple uses LPDDR3-1866 memory for its MacBook, which is a tad faster than the LPDDR3-1600 DRAM it used last year. This should have a knock-on effect on the integrated graphics performance as well.

Since the chassis and the monitor essentially remained the same as last year, we are still talking about a machine with 12” IPS display panel with 2304×1440 resolution and a full-size keyboard. The maximum thickness of the new MacBook is 1.31 cm (0.52”) and the weight is 0.92 kg (2.03 pounds), similar to the first-gen model.

Apple claims that the new MacBook laptops feature upgraded solid-state storage, which relies on the PCIe bus, but it offers higher performance than the previous-gen SSD the company used on its 2015 MacBook. Last year the company essentially used its own SSD with its own controller, based on iFixit.com’s findings. Perhaps, this year Apple uses a new-gen SSD design developed in-house. Unfortunately, the company remains tight-lipped regarding the nature of its SSD improvements, but only discloses that they are faster than the predecessors. Last year’s MacBook used a PCIe 2.0 x4 NVMe interface – moving to Skylake Core M and the fact that Skylake’s PCH supports PCIe 3.0 by default means that the new drive is most likely PCIe 3.0, but we’re not sure if it is still x4, or if something else has changed. We are asking about this!

In addition to the new components, Apple also uses larger 41.4-watt-hour lithium-polymer terraced battery, compared to a 39.7 watt-hour battery used on the previous-gen model, which should enable longer battery life. Apple itself declares up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback, which is an hour longer than before. 

The laptop still features a single USB Type-C port with 5 Gbps transfer rate, which can be used for charging, connection to an external display (up to 3840×2160 resolution at 30 Hz refresh rate is supported) and so on. The notebook also has two microphones, a TRRS connector for headsets and a 480p FaceTime camera. Wireless networking capabilities of the notebook also remained untouched: the notebook supports dual-band 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 4.0. 

One element worth noting is that the use of Skylake Core M should open up features such as Speed Shift to Apple, where the system has the ability to respond quicker to CPU demands up to 30x and finish quick tasks faster than the previous generation even recognizes the request for a high-performance mode. This becomes significant for responsiveness and user experience, but Speed Shift requires specific OS support. Intel worked closely with Microsoft to enable it for Windows 10, and at this point Apple has not stated publicly if the new MacBook will support Speed Shift out of the box or will be in a future OS update.

The new Apple MacBook laptops are available from Apple directly starting today and from its partners starting April 20, 2016. The most basic Apple MacBook model with Intel Core m3-6Y30 SoC, 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of solid-state storage costs $1299. The more advanced model featuring the Core m5-6Y54 and 512 GB of storage retails for $1599. The Core m7-based model is built-to-order and its price will be higher although we expect it to be similarly priced to the upgraded Broadwell model.

Gallery: Apple Macbook 2016 (Skylake)