Asus teases world's lightest Copilot+ laptop with 32 hours of battery life

Shawn Knight

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In brief: Asus is preparing to introduce what it claims will be the world's lightest Copilot+ PC. The portable, the latest member of the company's long-running Zenbook line, is said to be inspired by nature and minimalism, and affords an impressive 32 hours of battery life.

Asus is only teasing its new Zenbook at this time, so we'll have to wait until its formal introduction at the Always Incredible launch event on January 7 to get the full scoop. Given the battery life claims, however, it is likely that this new Copilot+ PC will be powered by a Snapdragon X chip.

Qualcomm's Arm-based platform is known to excel in terms of energy efficiency. In a recent Tom's Hardware review, Lenovo's ThinkPad T14s with a Snapdragon Elite X chip notched an impressive 21 hours in their battery test. While not quite the 24 hours that Lenovo promised, it is impressive nevertheless.

Speaking of battery life claims, it is not uncommon for real-world performance to fall short of manufacturer claims. As Tom's correctly highlights, PC makers test their machines in controlled environments that often involve light tasks, few background processes running, and low screen brightness. In reality, users often have many tasks running in the background and don't skimp on screen brightness, especially in brightly lit office environments or when working outdoors.

Again, Asus is keeping its cards close to the vest. As of writing, we don't even know what size laptop we are going to get. If we had to guess, something in the 13-inch range feels about right, and would put Asus in contention with other lightweight laptop makers like LG and Fujitsu. Pricing is also a complete unknown at this time, so we'll just have to wait and reserve final judgment until CES.

The Consumer Electronics Show kicks off on January 7 and runs through the 10th in Las Vegas. Media days, when most participants share their innovations for the coming year, will take place on January 5 and January 6.

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I really think most of these headlines should include "32 hours of batter life on Windows + Arm" because that should break the equation for a good half of the potential market here: It's going to be a terrible experience for power users and not to mention, HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE battery life numbers doing anything beyond watching a simple video and for more casual users that just want something nice to type with, a macbook is still a better choice than Windows + Arm.
 
for more casual users that just want something nice to type with, a macbook is still a better choice than Windows + Arm.
Sure, a MacBook... that only costs 2x+ the price of a Windows laptop, and none of your Windows apps will work on it. Yeah, that's what people want. And if you just want something nice to type with as you put it, then just about any low to mid-range laptop should do.
 
Sure, a MacBook... that only costs 2x+ the price of a Windows laptop, and none of your Windows apps will work on it. Yeah, that's what people want. And if you just want something nice to type with as you put it, then just about any low to mid-range laptop should do.
For one thing, you don't know how much this one will cost. For another, Macbook Air is not that expensive, you can get a new Macbook Air for just 1,200 USD. And the latest can run Windows very nicely, if needed. And Macbook Air is guaranteed the best quality, I've had all the latest ones, and they are superb machines.
 
While it is feasible to make it very light, but the question is what’s the compromise? It may sound great on paper, but impractical.
 
This could have been a better machine.
I couldn't care less about Copilot, so I shall just ignore that. However I think they should have made it with like 20-30% of the battery capacity, as that would still be plenty and it had saved weight, space and cost ie. a better machine for less money.
 
While it is feasible to make it very light, but the question is what’s the compromise? It may sound great on paper, but impractical.
Probably one tiny motherboard with everything soldered on it from RAM to SSD.
This design saves a lot of weight. Then also oled screen, thin keyboard.
And that is more than plenty to compete with Apple air or whatever their lighter laptop is called.
 
ASUS is on the "don't buy" list for me right now. Not because of their RMA department issues. It's the build quality. I have a ROG Zepherus G14 2023, and my son has a ROG Zepherus G14 2022. Both of them now have failed displays. Both were treated very nicely, always in backpacks on the move. I have yet to take them apart, I imagine they are using ribbon cables that have come loose. But I refuse to send them in for RMA. I'm not buying anymore until I hear about positive changes. Now where is my iFixit kit?
 
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