If you thought it was just a CES concept that Asus would kill with fire, I’m sorry to bring bad news: the Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI has arrived for $900 at Best Buy. It’ll be at Newegg tomorrow. It’s “just” a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 device, so AI is the “draw” here.
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There’s been a bit of backlash to the Xbox Ally handheld’s $999 price tag, which will be a stiff test of consumer interest in expensive console hardware. But it’s also a test of Microsoft’s “everything is an Xbox” philosophy, because this sure is expensive for an Xbox that only plays PC games, and not everyone is sold:
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Only Microsoft can release a thousand dollar device branded “Xbox” that can’t play Xbox games. Only a millionaire executive at this specific company could have hallucinated this.
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Asus launched a new entry-level gaming laptop called the V16 as well as a grab bag of new Vivobooks. Many of them are configurable with a last-gen RTX 4050 GPU and now available in the US.
The V16 starts at $949.99 for a 16-inch 144Hz display, Intel Arrow Lake chip, and older RTX 3050. Meanwhile, the Vivobooks come in various sizes and styles with AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm processor options.
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Verge Score
The niche gaming tablet makes the switch to integrated graphics and, amazingly, is better for it.
Asus’s new ROG Flow Z13 is available for preorder. I tested a preproduction model as a ridiculous gaming handheld, and I’m working on a review of the final hardware.
As a 13-inch gaming tablet starting at $2,099.99 ($100 more than announced), the Z13 is a pricey, niche machine that falls somewhere between the Steam Deck and a full-sized gaming laptop. But it’s charming, with impressive real-world performance.
Stay tuned for the review.
Asus just launched its first ‘Fan Edition’ phone, in Thailand only for now, and unlike Samsung’s stripped back FE handsets the ROG Phone 9 FE doesn’t give up much. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is slightly slower than the regular model’s 8 Elite, and at 5,500mAh the battery is a bit smaller, but everything else is the same.
That also means it appears similar to the leaked Zenfone 12 Ultra, which launches tomorrow.
I added controllers to a 13-inch gaming tablet and I don’t regret it.
Called the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI Plus, it’s basically the NUC 14 Pro AI in a translucent case. That color E Ink display on top is customizable, as Good e-Reader calls out. Asus says users “can generate AI images” on the display using a built-in app.
We’ve asked Asus for more info on its availability.
Asus made a laptop that transfers its heat to an air diffuser on the back lid. You won’t be stuffing run-of-the-mill Glade gel packs in these; instead, the Asus Adol 14 Air Fragrance Edition has its own replaceable inserts with conceptual descriptions... like “Be a new her.”
Asus didn’t announce any huge changes for these beloved laptops at CES, with the new Zenbook Duo just being bumped to a series 2 Intel Core Ultra 9 processor.
Meanwhile, the ROG Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G16 gaming laptops are being refreshed with AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Intel Core Ultra 9 285H CPUs, respectively, alongside Nvidia 50-series graphics.
The Zenbook S 14, Vivobook S 14, Vivobook 14/16 Flip, and ExpertBook P5 each have the new Core Ultra 7 and cost between $1,000 and $1,500. You can pre-order the Zenbook today from Asus; the Zenbook and Vivobook should go live at Best Buy in the next couple days. The Expertbook and Vivobook Flips are coming later this year.
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Verge Score
AMD stands up to Qualcomm with its new Ryzen AI chips, showing it’s nowhere near out of this race.
Can a Windows handheld beat Valve’s Steam Deck OLED? This sequel to last year’s ROG Ally answers with more storage, faster RAM, double the battery, and USB4. We’ll need more time for benchmarking and battery testing before we can publish our review, but if you can’t wait, it is available now from Asus and Best Buy.
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I’m the only one outside Asus to have touched one (don’t ask me why!) and Asus wouldn’t let me publish pics that day... but this new leaked image is exactly the device I touched, minus new texturing. The new leak also corroborates a doubled 80Wh battery — and claims it’ll last 3 hours of heavy gaming.
Microsoft’s big AI PC event is just days away, and we’re seeing more leaks of Arm-powered Windows PCs with Qualcomm’s new chips inside.
This post from WinFuture’s Roland Quandt shows that, like Dell and Lenovo, Asus’ plans include a version of the Vivobook S 15 OLED that’s ready to battle Apple’s M-series laptops.
Where the Blade comes ahead in performance, the Zephyrus wins on value.
Small design variations make a big difference.
