Tag: asus

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus ROG Ally rumoured to cost $699.99, feature AMD Z1 Extreme chip

It’s been rumoured that the upcoming Asus ROG Ally will cost $699.99 USD (approximately $952 CAD) and feature an AMD Z1 Extreme chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

That would put the model at around $51 more than the 512GB Steam Deck, making the handheld gaming PC a serious contender when it releases in May.

The news comes from reliable gadget leaker Roland Quandt, courtesy of SnoopyTech, as well as an early Best Buy screenshot from Wickedkhumz. That’s a lot of sources for a potential leak. Even the product number associated with the ROG Ally connects to the Z1 Extreme model with 512GB of storage.

 

So, if the Z1 Extreme could cost $699.99, what about an Ally with a vanilla AMD Z1? We don’t know for sure, but to really pen itself a Steam Deck killer, it would have to rival its $399 starting price point.

Specs-wise, the ROG Ally is 11.02 inches wide, 4.37 inches tall and only weighs 1.34 pounds. Features may include a Gorilla Glass DXC-protected screen and could complete half of a full charge in just half an hour.

Although the Steam Deck is currently a popular choice in the gaming community, especially in the world of handhelds, Valve must be keeping an eye on these rumours.

The Asus ROG Ally is set to release on May 11th, when its official price will be revealed.

Image credit: Asus

Source: @_snoopytech_ Via: The Verge

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus ROG Phone 7 features AI that detects ‘kills, deaths and victory moments’ in games

Taiwanese electronics company Asus aims to capture the attention of mobile gamers with its new mobile gaming phone, the ROG Phone 7, which marks the first instance of A.I. for automatic gaming capture.

The A.I. feature can be found in the phone’s “Game Genie” dashboard and is known as ‘X Capture.’ Based on the company’s own A.I. pattern recognition system, the tool can detect key events in supported games, such as “kills, deaths and victory moments.”

Another new tool known as ‘X-Sense’ also makes its debut on the phone, using the same algorithm and notifications to help the user make live, in-game decisions.

While this all sounds pretty useful for enhancing mobile gaming experiences, unfortunately, both AI  features currently only support the title Arena of Valor and only in markets such as Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand. Still, the product team is apparently already working on supporting more titles.

As for other features, the clip-on cooler from previous models is back and with an upgrade. It now doubles as a subwoofer — giving the phone a big push in terms of sound quality by allowing its stereo speakers to shine. ‘Vibration mapping’ has also been added, allowing users to add tactile feedback to their designed buttons.

Bundling everything that worked with the previous ROG Phone 6 and improving on it, including improved thermal cooling, an upgraded front camera and improved brightness for better viewing, the ROG Phone 7 looks to be hitting all the marks when it comes to a great mobile gaming phone.

The Asus ROG Phone 7 will have select models available for pre-order in Europe and Taiwan on April 13th, with Asus confirming that the ROG Phone 7 series will eventually be launched in the U.S., with no information on the date or pricing yet. It’s unclear if the device will make its way to Canada.

Image credit: Asus

Via: Engadget

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus reveals the ROG Ally, its own Steam Deck-esque PC gaming handheld

On April 1st, Asus dropped a trailer for a Steam Deck-esque new gaming PC handheld called the ROG Ally. Naturally, people thought this was just an April Fool’s Day joke, but now, Asus has confirmed this is an actual product.

The Taiwanese electronics giant says the ROG Ally runs on Windows 11 and features a custom APU that’s AMD’s fastest to date. Further, it sports a dual fan design and support for the ROG XG Mobile eGPU to stream your ROG Ally games to a TV.

In a hands-on video, YouTuber Dave2D revealed a few more specs, including a 7-inch display, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 500 nits of brightness and a 120HZ refresh rate. Button-wise, the ROG Ally sports a standard dual-thumbstick, four-face button setup.

However, there are a few big questions remaining — namely, pricing and games. The former remains entirely clear, while the latter is fairly vague. In the reveal video, we see High on Life, Golf With Your Friends and Ghostrunner being played, but Asus simply says it “allows you to pick up and play your favourite game libraries” without naming any.

For now, Asus is simply directing people to a U.S. Best Buy landing page that provides no further details. You can also register for email updates on Asus’ website. Given the lack of information at the moment, it remains to be seen just how much interest people will have in the ROG Ally.

Image credit: Asus

Source: Asus

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 is a Surface for gaming

I’ve tried a few gaming laptops over the years and generally arrive at the same core issue: you give up too much performance for not enough portability. However, Asus’ ROG Flow Z13 2-in-1 is a gaming laptop I wouldn’t mind carrying around.

While likely not everyone agrees, for me, I find it a tough tradeoff to make. Generally, I want my laptops to be as portable as possible — thin, light, small, etc. I expect lower performance accordingly, but that’s okay since I make up for it with a large, bulky desktop with tons of performance for when I need it. Gaming laptops tend to walk a fine line of being technically portable while also managing to be obnoxious to carry around. They’re big, heavy, loud, and the battery dies if you spend more than an hour away from an outlet. They tend to be covered in gaudy RGB, giant fan grilles and sport weird designs. None of these things are explicitly bad, but I don’t look for them on a laptop.

At the same time, these things are getting better thanks to improvements in Intel’s recent 12th and 13th Gen chips. Still, in most cases, getting a mobile chip will mean trading performance for improved thermals and energy use versus comparable desktop chips, both of which are important in laptops. The same generally holds true for GPUs.

This is where Asus ROG Flow Z13 comes in. I’ve had the opportunity to play around with one for a few weeks and generally was impressed by its portability. The Flow Z13 offers a similar form factor to Microsoft’s excellent Surface Pro 2-in-1, but significantly more power. Enough to actually play games, although maybe not at the highest visual settings.

The Flow Z13 does still suffer from a major affliction of ‘gamer aesthetic,’ but it manages to be less in-your-face than other gaming laptops. Plus, the rear window showing off some of the internal components plain looks cool.

A brief look at performance

On the inside, the Flow Z13 I played around with sported a 12th Gen Intel i9-12900H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU. It also features 16GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 13.4-inch UHD+ 3840×2400 pixel 60Hz display. The screen looks great, although admittedly having such a high resolution seems like a bit of a waste on such a small screen. Plus, in some games, hitting the coveted 60fps target was hard when running at the higher resolution. It’s also worth noting Asus offers other variants of the Flow Z13 with i7 or i5 CPUs, although the i5 variant only offers Intel Xe graphics, which I don’t recommend for anyone wanting to do serious gaming.

You can view the full spec page for the ROG Flow Z13 here, but I do want to highlight the weight at 1.18kg (2.6lbs). That's quite a bit lighter than the similarly specced MSI Raider GE76 I tested earlier this year, which weighed 2.9kg (6.39lbs). The Flow Z13 is still heavier than the almost 880g Surface Pro 9, but that gap is much narrower.

Speaking of the Raider GE76, it's currently the top dog in our archive of laptop benchmarks. It sports an i9-12900HK and 32GB of RAM, meaning it has slightly more power than the 12900H and 16GB of RAM in the Flow Z13. On the GPU side, it's a 3080 Ti Laptop GPU versus the Z13's 3050 Ti Laptop edition. In CPU benchmarks, the Flow Z13 was close to the GE76, but it fell further behind in GPU benchmarks thanks to the less capable 3050 Ti.

Still, in the games I played, the Flow Z13 did well enough that I'd be happy gaming on it, although I sometimes had to tone down graphics settings to keep a consistent 60fps. I had a blast playing my go-to game at the moment, Destiny 2, on the Flow Z13, while newer titles like Hitman 3 averaged about 55fps on high settings (with some tweaks, 60fps is well within reach). Of course, like any other gaming laptop, performance falls off a cliff when running on battery power, not that the battery will last long enough for a good gaming session anyway.

Will the Flow Z13 blow you away with incredible game performance? No. But it does well enough, and, for the size, I was content with the trade-offs I was making.

A note about accessories

Surface Pro (left) and ROG Flow Z13 (right).

One area where the Flow Z13 differs from 2-in-1s like the Surface Pro is that it comes with the keyboard. Given that keyboards are an integral part of PCs, it's good that Asus didn't make this an extra cost. However, one accessory that you may want isn't exactly readily available.

The Flow Z13 is compatible with the ROG XG Mobile eGPU, which acts almost like a dock for connecting the device to an external monitor. According to Asus' website, the XG Mobile can feature either a GTX GeForce RTX 3080 or 3070 Laptop GPU, further boosting performance. But, the XG Mobile eGPU doesn't appear to be available for purchase in Canada, except as a bundle with a different Asus gaming laptop.

To be fair, the XG Mobile isn't necessary for external monitor use -- I was able to get the Flow Z13 to output to my desktop monitor using a USB-C to HDMI adapter, but ultimately the XG Mobile would be a more elegant solution if it were available. It'd also make it easier to recommend the other Flow Z13 devices with less powerful GPUs since you could make up for that with the eGPU.

The i9-equipped ROG Flow Z13 clocks in at a pricey $2,499.99 in Canada and is available at Best Buy and Amazon. Given how unique the 2-in-1 is, though, if you're looking for a laptop to pull double duty between gaming and portable productivity, this is a great option.

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though MobileSyrup may earn a commission on purchases made via these links.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Google announces new Chromebook powered by cloud after killing Stadia

Google is announcing a brand new line of Chromebooks. The three new devices, developed in partnership with a number of manufacturers, are said to utilize the power of the cloud for gaming. News of the products come not long after the same company pulled the curtain on Stadia.

Google’s new Chromebook selection includes Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE, the Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and the Ideapad Gaming Chromebook from Lenovo. Each laptop touts high framerates and RGB keyboards. Most prominently, each new Chromebook is built for cloud gaming.

We’ve compiled a quick overview of each device. The Acer Chromebook 516 GE offers a 120Hz WQXGA display, RGB anti-ghosting keyboard, and WiFi 6E connectivity. It is also built on an Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB+ RAM.

Meanwhile, the ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip supports a 144Hz FHD display and is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop. Once again, this device includes an RGB anti-ghosting keyboard and an Intel Core i5 processor with 8GB+ RAM. It is paired with Harmon Kardon-certified dual speakers with WiFi 6 connectivity enabled.

Finally, the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming Chromebook supports a 120Hz WQXGA display, an RGB anti-ghosting keyboard and WiFi 6E connectivity. Additionally, it includes a 4-speaker system with Wave audio tuning plus an Intel Core i3+ processor with 8GB+ RAM.

While each device offers modest specs, it’s Google’s emphasis on cloud gaming that stands out the most. Even in the blog post, Google highlights the respectable number of games available on the cloud via the above video. Google is teaming up with Nvidia to bring its GeForce Now cloud-based gaming feature to each Chromebook. Each device is built to support Nvidia’s highest performance RTX 3080 tier. Members of the RTX 3080 tier are able to play AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite and Crysis 3 Remastered at up to 1600p @120fps.

Additionally, Google is partnering with Xbox to bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to Chromebook via an installable web app to give subscribers of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate even more flexibility. Xbox Cloud Gaming supports a wide array of first-party titles and third-party games available on Xbox Game Pass.

The timing of this announcement is quite unfortunate. The performance of each Chromebook does set itself up to be a cloud-gaming workhorse. However, Google recently shuttered Stadia, its own cloud-gaming service. Had it not, the narrative of these new Chromebooks being Stadia-powered writes itself. Though, as of January 18th, 2023, Stadia and its servers will be taken offline. For those in the Google ecosystem, refunds on hardware and software will be given through the Google Play Store.

As for the new Chromebooks, each device will be available this month.

Image credit: Google

Source: Google

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Alleged Asus ZenFone 9 renders surface online

Full press renders of the Asus ZenFone 9 have appeared online.

The renders were revealed by SnoopyTech, who has leaked accurate renders of several flagship handsets in the past.

According to a previous leak from TechGoing, Asus is making another device with a 5.9-inch display, AMOLED panel with a hole-punch selfie camera and 120Hz refresh rate. This power-heavy device will sport a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor and a 4,300mAh battery alongside IP68 water resistance.

Camera-wise, the handset will sport a 50-megapixel primary shooter attached to a “gimbal module” for stabilization. There’s also a side-mounted fingerprint sensor in the power button, dual stereo speakers and even a headphone jack.

The phone is expected to launch sometime this summer.

Image credit: SnoopyTech

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Here’s why Asus’ ZenFone 9 should be on your radar

I think Asus makes great phones.

I know, you weren’t expecting me to say this, but hear me out. Over the years, I’ve probably used a larger variety of devices than any other member at MobileSyrup. I’ve reviewed handsets from Sony, Motorola, Samsung, Google, LG, HTC, Huawei, Unihertz and have used several OnePlus and even Apple smartphones. I don’t say this to brag, but just to show the diversity of brands I’ve used in the past five years.

I’m not here to say that Asus, makes the best Android devices out of all of these brands (this award would go to Samsung and Google), but I really believe Asus knows what it’s doing. Though the company doesn’t generate very much hype it’s still making some pretty interesting devices.

I, unfortunately, haven’t been able to review a ZenFone since the 6, which came with a pretty awesome flip-up camera. The premiere selfie experience, the display without an annoying camera hole and the ZenUI almost stock experience made the ZenFone 6 an awesome phone to use and abuse.

Now, last year’s ZenFone 8 was a head-turner. The handset had a small 5.8-inch display, it lacked the flip up camera and looked rather bothering, but still it reviewed rather well.  I didn’t get the chance to review it because it wasn’t readily available in Canada, but here’s what some others said about the device.

“All that said, the ZenFone 8 will be the right fit for a specific type of person, and I can heartily recommend it to my fellow small phone fans. You’ll get flagship-level build quality and performance quite literally in the palm of your hand.” The Verge.

“The Asus ZenFone 8 offers a crisp display, flagship performance and a great camera set-up, all for an extremely competitive price – managing to outpace its sister phone, the ZenFone 8 Flip. The smaller design is a solid option for those who don’t want to settle for a big phone.

The battery life isn’t great, but providing you’re happy to use it in durable mode and can savour that 120Hz display, you can make it last through the day. Overall, this is a contender in the smartphone market for 2021.” – Tech Advisor

The ZenFone 8 got a lot of praise and though it wasn’t perfect it seemed generally good.

With all that said about the ZenFone 8, the 9, according to rumours, will be even better. The 9, will sport a slightly larger battery, which should help with power complaints. Asus is said to use a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor which is good for low light and optical image stabilization and pair it with a gimbal to really help with stabilization. This time around the device is expected to feature the Snapdragon 8 + Gen 1, which will make it one of the most powerful phones on the market, even ahead of Samsung’s S22 Ultra. It’s even rumoured to have a headphone jack, which is unbelievable for a flagship handset.

So, if you’re someone who likes (or doesn’t mind) a smaller 5.9-inch display phone you should definitely keep this one in mind, even though carriers won’t have it readily available.

Best Buy marketplace, Amazon and other places will definitely be your place to head to.

The phone is expected to launch pretty soon, so keep an eye out.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus ZenFone 9 leak shows off compact size and headphone jack

Asus is still making handsets for those small-phone lovers.

According to a new leak from TechGoing, Asus is making another device with a 5.9-inch display, AMOLED panel with a hole-punch selfie camera and 120Hz refresh rate.

This power-heavy device will sport a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, and a 4,300mAh battery alongside IP68 water resistance.

Camera-wise, the handset will sport a 50-megapixel primary shooter and is attached to a “gimbal module” for stabilization. There’s also a side-mounted fingerprint sensor in the power button, dual stereo speakers and even a headphone jack.

Asus is launching new accessories with the device, a kickstand case and a “Smart Backpack Mount,” which allows for hands-free recording and a tether attachment. There’s also a smart key to make scrolling through Instagram and TikTok easier.

It’s like Asus will officially reveal the device in late June. It’s unclear when the device would hit the Canadian market though. The ZenFone 8 never actually made it across the border.

While TechGoing isn’t all that well-known, I’d say this leak is pretty accurate considering the publication was able to post a full video of the device that Asus reportedly had taken down.

Image Credit: TechGoing

Source: TechGoing

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Amazon Canada discounts select Asus laptops up to 34 percent off

Amazon Canada currently has several Asus laptops on sale up to 34 percent off.

Not every Asus laptop is on sale, but those that are cover a nice range of prices and use cases, including Chromebooks, thin-and-light Windows laptops and powerful gaming laptops. Check out the offers below:

You can check out the Amazon Asus sale here.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus unveils 17-inch foldable PC, laptops, gaming peripherals and more

Asus unveiled several new products at CES 2022, including laptops and accessories. Among the more interesting of Asus’ announcements include a new 17-inch foldable PC.

Starting with the laptops, there are quite a few interesting options. First up is the ROG Strix SCAR and Strix G, two gaming laptops powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H and AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX respectively. Both laptops also sport Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPUs for excellent gaming performance.

Asus also unveiled its new ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, featuring the company’s ‘ScreenPad Plus’ secondary display, as well as the ROG Zephyrus G14, G15 and M16 ultraportable gaming laptops sporting the company’s new ‘Nebula’ display.

Next up are the Zenbook laptops, which include the impressive-looking Zenbook 17 Fold (pictured above). And yes, it does look like a bigger version of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold from last year. Hopefully, Asus’ take on a foldable PC works better — the X1 Fold was a neat first try, but an exorbitant price tag and significant issues with performance and battery life made it a no-buy.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

Alongside the Zenbook 17 Fold, Asus unveiled some regular clamshell Zenbook laptops with OLED displays.

Rounding out the company’s announcements were a series of gaming accessories, including ROG Swift OLED monitors with up to 4K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, ROG Fusion II 500 and 300 gaming headsets, the ROG Chakram X gaming mouse and the ROG Strix Flare II Animate gaming keyboard.

Asus showed off its Rapture GT-AXE16000 gaming router too, calling it the “world’s first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E gaming router.” As the name suggests, the Rapture broadcasts a 2.4GHz band, two 5GHz bands and a 6GHz band, with the 5GHz or 6GHz bands available as wireless backhaul if you want to set up a mesh system.

Those interested can learn more about Asus CES announcements here.

You can check out more news from CES 2022 here.

Images credit: Asus