ASUS NovaGo hands-on: Your laptop is now a smartphone

When y'all're in Hawaii, you don't desire to be stuck inside, so perhaps information technology was the perfect location for Qualcomm and ASUS to unveil the world'southward first gigabit laptop, the NovaGo.

Microsoft reveals 'Ever Continued PCs' from HP and ASUS with Windows 10 on ARM

The "Go" in the laptop's proper name denotes both a sea alter for ASUS — a company that was among the first on a number of well-received innovations, from the ultrabook to the 2-in-ane to the netbook itself — and, perhaps, the mobile industry.

Run across at ASUS

I say "mobile industry" on purpose, because the two devices being appear at Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit — the other beingness the HP Envy x2 detachable — are essentially smartphones running Windows 10 South. They may look the part of a laptop, and in the case of the NovaGo a fairly unremarkable convertible, merely they offering all the benefits of your average smartphone. From Windows Fundamental Executive Editor Daniel Rubino's summary of the "Always Connected" PC category:

The main benefits of Windows 10 on ARM and Always Connected PCs comes downwardly to iii principal features:

• Instant on — Like your smartphone, Always Continued PCs don't hibernate; instead, they just turn on instantly even after hours of being on standby.
• Always continued — Again, like a smartphone, there is no need for either the Wi-Fi or LTE network to disconnect with Windows x on ARM; these PCs will get notifications, alerts, and pull data without ever disconnecting.
• Battery life — Smartphones already get all-day battery life, but an Always Continued PC is at least iv times the size, meaning larger batteries to match the same hardware. so pushing a whole week of usage without recharging is likely not out of the question.

On their own, these three elements probably aren't worth giving upwardly the native advantages of Windows 10 on x86, but together y'all outset to see a blueprint emerging, and it has the same cardinal advantages that netbooks offered years ago, and ultrabooks a few years afterward that: flexibility.

Intel has made strides in thermal efficiency, merely nothing comes close to ARM right at present.

Despite the battery life advantages inherent to eighth generation Intel Core fries — you're hearing about 20+ hours of battery life on really high-terminate hardware these days — nothing Intel builds today comes close to the thermal efficiency of an ARM chip. Add together LTE and the potential for ever up-to-appointment apps and services (background refresh happening anywhere, not just when the computer is connected to Wi-Fi) and the proposition is pretty compelling.

ASUS NovaGo specs and design

This brings united states to the first production that volition showcase Microsoft'due south and Qualcomm's vision for the ACPC: the NovaGo. Available in the spring of 2022 starting at $599 for the 4GB/64GB model, the laptop is, by all accounts, adequately pedestrian. Here's what the spec sheet looks like:

• Windows 10 S (upgradeable to Windows x Pro)
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 platform @ 2.6GHz
• Adreno 540 GPU @ 710MHz
• xiii.3-inch Full Hard disk (1920 x 1080) LCD panel with 100 percent sRGB color gamut
• 4GB/8GB 1866MHz LPDDR4x RAM ($599/$799)
• 64GB/256GB UFS two.0 storage ($599/$799)
• HD camera (1280x720)
• 802.11ac Wi-Fi (2x2 MIMO) / GPS
• Snapdragon X16 modem (1Gbps DL / 150Mbps UL, 4x4 MIMO)
• 52Whr LiPo battery (22 hours max.)
• 12.44 in. x 8.vii in. 10 0.59 in
• three.06 pounds
• Backlit keyboard
• Glass-covered Precision Touchpad
• Fingerprint sensor (Windows Hello)
• Ii USB 3.ane Blazon-A, one HDMI, one DC in
• one audio jack, one nanoSIM slot, i microSD card reader

So you lot tin run into, it's not going to interruption any spec records. I had a adventure to use the laptop, and it's solid — mayhap a trivial chunky and heavy, but information technology looks like it'll stand up to a chirapsia.

The keyboard and touchpad are excellent, with clicky keys and responsive tracking, respectively. The touchscreen is expert enough for indoor employ, though information technology lacks enough brightness for prolonged outdoor exposure. The port option is acceptable, though I'd substitute the HDMI for a DisplayPort myself. A fingerprint sensor on the trackpad is a nice, ahem, touch, besides.

Finally, the hinge to tent or turn the laptop into a tablet is extremely stiff and lives up to ASUS's legacy of excellent hardware quality. Kudos.

ASUS NovaGo Snapdragon

Here'due south where things get interesting. The NovaGo runs a Snapdragon 835 SoC at 2.6Ghz, some 5.8% greater than the fastest clock speed found on an Android phone running the aforementioned silicon.

Windows on ARM has been a long time coming, and Windows 10 feels ready to take on the challenge.

Given the larger chassis of a laptop, the 10nm-built fleck has more thermal headroom and is less likely to throttle from those loftier speeds as a result. (The Adreno 540 GPU, on the other hand, remains at the standard 710Mhz of the chipset.)

Qualcomm and Microsoft accept been working on optimization Windows on ARM for a twelvemonth now, and the companies say that users probably won't notice a big operation difference when running Win32 applications; the main departure is that, on initial kick, the emulated app is compiled and kept in memory, so some boosted loading time is to be expected.

Of course, the NovaGo's and so-called 22 hours of bombardment life is contingent on the laptop running ARM-optimized apps; despite what Microsoft claims, there should be a battery bear on when running Win32 apps in emulation. How much impact, however, remains to exist seen.

Qualcomm is as well confident that its Adreno 540 GPU will be able to maintain a certain performance threshold while playing games or engaging in other graphics-intensive activities since the thermal output is much lower than Intel's HD Graphics components.

The move to a single SoC also makes room for a larger battery and brings with it other meaningful sensors and radios, like GPS, which will assistance more quickly locate the laptop when using mapping applications.

ASUS NovaGo Cellular and Sprint

Sprint is the sectional carrier launch partner for the NovaGo and other ACPCs in the U.S., and the visitor says that it wants to brand the purchase and activation process equally simple as possible.

Eventually, Sprint says, it intends to use eSIM technology to permit buyers to activate LTE service at whatever time — even on an as-needed, temporary basis like you discover on today's iPad Pros. That's the future, though: the NovaGo has a typical nanoSIM slot, and Sprint intends to offer dedicated data plans for ACPCs. It's unclear if other carriers in the U.S. will offering support, though Qualcomm says that providers in People's republic of china and many other countries volition have their own LTE offerings next year.

The main value proposition of having LTE on a laptop is to be able to pick upwards work wherever, whenever, without needing a Wi-Fi indicate. Microsoft also believes there are security benefits hither, also: many public Wi-Fi signals are not properly secured and may open up up devices to man-in-the-center attacks.

But information technology's unclear whether users, almost of whom will already have a smartphone with hotspot back up, want to invest in a separate plan, or are willing to potentially give up a pregnant amount of performance for the benefits of Qualcomm's SoC.

Moreover, will Windows 10 S behave the style a smartphone behaves — the way iOS, Android, and Windows ten Mobile were built — to constantly and intelligently update apps and services behind the scenes so versions are ever electric current and synchronized? Applications will need to be updated to accommodate these new user behaviors: you're non necessarily going to want Dropbox using LTE to keep your files up-to-date, especially if y'all don't have an unlimited plan.

ASUS NovaGo: An exciting time

The NovaGo isn't ASUS's near heady laptop, but it represents an exciting new time in mobile computing. There'southward no question that with Qualcomm becoming more involved in the Windows 10 story, and helping push laptops, convertibles, and detachables into the world of ubiquitous connectivity, it's a good time to be in the Microsoft ecosystem.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/asus-novago

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