ASUS Booth Tour at CES 2016: 10G Switches, External GPU Dock, USB-C Monitor and more
by Ian Cutress on January 19, 2016 9:00 AM ESTLaptops Laptops Laptops Laptops
Section by Brett Howse
ASUS didn’t have any really new laptops for CES, but we did get a chance to check out some that had been announced over the last couple of months with the launch of Skylake. The 15.6-inch ZenBook Pro is arguably ASUS’s flagship laptop, with a full aluminum chassis and 45-Watt Skylake CPUs. It also features an NVIDIA GTX 960M GPU, and PCIe storage. Optionally there is a UHD display with 100% Adobe RGB color space coverage. It’s a great looking laptop, and plenty powerful as well.
Moving down in price and performance is the UX303UA, which is a 13.3-inch Ultrabook with U series Skylake processors. It’s fairly light and thin, and is an incremental upgrade over the previous model. ASUS also had the UX305CA, which is the Skylake powered version of the UX305 that we reviewed in 2015, and ASUS sent us the new Skylake model to put through its paces so look for a review of this soon. The UX305 was one of our recommended Ultrabooks of 2015, as it offers more bang-for-buck at 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of SSD storage for just $699.
UX303UA
UX305CA
On the ROG side of things, I (Ian) saw the ROG GX700 laptop with the external water cooling graphics dock for the first time. Actually seeing the device (and how heavy it is), I finally understood the concept which didn’t come across that obvious before. The unit is a fully sealed graphics card and water loop, almost like a dock, which attaches firmly in place to the laptop and can’t be removed in use. When connected, it uses PCIe to interface between the CPU and GPU, much like other solutions such as the GS30.
What was perfectly clear is that this arrangement doesn’t come cheap. The laptop itself is a hefty number as well, making it less mobile than expected.
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SirKnobsworth - Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - link
I was under the impression that not all devices support all 4 lanes, but I might have been mistaken.extide - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
It IS coming from the GPU. As mentioned above, there is a multiplexer that basically unplugs the high speed lanes in the USB type C connector FROM the USB bus and then connects them TO the displayport signals directly. USB alternate mode doesnt use the superspeed usb bus. So it is basically displayport with a different cable/connector, but otherwise the same.JimmaDaRustla - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
Looking forward to the Z170 S - hopefully it is priced well. I kind of find it odd that it has like a dozen fan plugs, but only one M.2 slot though.damianrobertjones - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
The monitor shape looks like a Microsoft Surfa.... Nope, never, ever seen that design before.DanNeely - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
USB2 powered laptop screens with that sort of case have been around for longer than there was a surface. They might pre-date the ipad as well; I'm not sure exactly how long ago I first saw one.ddriver - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
I'd get one, at a good price and with touch input. This one doesn't seem to have touch, which is quite silly IMO. They target it as a second monitor for laptops and tablets, but I reckon it will be more useful as a touch display for a desktop system with a big non touch screen.zeeBomb - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
Wow these are dope!xthetenth - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
I definitely like the looks of the keyboard having a numpad but being able to move it. I'd prefer it to the left a lot of the time just because the keyboard and mouse are awfully wide otherwise.lucam - Tuesday, January 19, 2016 - link
Still no IPad Pro review in the horizon?Shadow7037932 - Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - link
Just like the Moto X review...