Asus’ new 14-inch business laptop is even lighter than Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Carbon – The Verge

Along with a slew of other PC announcements at CES this year, Asus has unveiled a handsome-looking 14-inch “business notebook” that it claims is the world’s lightest — weighing in at just 2.3 pounds. That’s lighter than even Lenovo’s 2017 ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2.5 pounds) which also has a 14-inch display and is one of our favorite new laptops around.

But what makes this AsusPro B9440 a business notebook as opposed to, you know, just an ordinary laptop? Well, nothing really, apart from the fact it has a magnesium-alloy chassis to keep it lightweight as well as durable. (Surely something you’d want in any laptop). Asus points to its spill-resistant keyboard as something that will ensure that “small spills don’t impact on productivity.” This does at least sound like a good idea for business — next time you’re battling your way through high-powered negotiations, simply stare hard at your rivals while pouring coffee directly onto your keyboard as a show of dominance. Honestly, Warren Buffett swears by it.

Really, though, this is just a capable and compact laptop, with the “business” branding simply there to excuse its rather drab stylings. (That doesn’t mean it looks bad; I quite like it myself — it’s just not very flashy. ) In terms of specs, you get the choice of 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM, while storage maxes out at a 512GB M.2 SSD. The display is full HD and there’s also a fingerprint sensor to keep your super secret business files safe. All in all, not a bad package, and we look forward to testing it out. At business.

The AsusPro B9440 will be available to buy starting at $999 in May this year.