Asus presented the Expertbook B9 (B9450) at the electronics trade fair CES 2020. The basic equipment of the notebook weighs only 870 grams, making it one of the lightest Windows laptops on the market. The target group are business users, who like the low weight, the compact form factor and the long battery life. Golem.de had a look at the Expertbook B9 before the official start of the fair.
Job market
The Expertbook B9 has a 14-inch display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels; that’s enough for business applications. The frame around the screen is very narrow, which leads to an overall rather small form factor: the notebook should also fit comfortably in smaller pockets. Due to the low weight, the laptop can also be easily held in one hand for longer. This is made possible by a new magnesium-lithium alloy from which the housing is made.
The Expertbook B9 is equipped with Intel’s tenth generation Core i5 and Core i7 SoCs (Comet Lake) available. Intel’s UHD Graphics 620 is used as the graphics unit. The main memory has a maximum size of 16 GB, up to two M2 PCIe SSDs with a maximum of 2 TB memory can be installed.
Number pad in the touchpad
The ExpertBook B9’s touchpad is relatively large and easy to use. The keyboard has a surprisingly long travel and a pleasant stroke. Asus has placed the missing number pad in the touchpad: If we press the upper right corner of the touchpad relatively firmly, it will be shown there. A number pad is useful for many areas of application, especially in the business area.
Although the Expertbook B9 is very thin, it offers a number of connections. Users have two USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1, a USB Type-A port with 3.1 support, a full-size HDMI port, a micro HDMI port for LAN chips and a jack socket available for headphones.
The notebook supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 4.2 for wireless connections. The Expertbook B9 does not have a built-in SIM card slot. A fingerprint sensor is installed on the right below the keyboard. The speakers come from Harman / Kardon, but we couldn’t look at them in more detail in our first short test. On the front, the Expertbook B9 has an LED bar that lights up when we use Alexa or Cortana. The built-in front camera above the display can be covered with a slider.
Asus’ Expertbook BV9 has a number of connections that are particularly practical for business users. (Image: Martin Wolf / Golem.de)
In the basic version, the Expertbook B9 has a 33 Wh battery, with which a runtime of twelve hours should be possible. The notebook is also available with a 66 Wh battery; then the runtime should be 24 hours. The laptop is then somewhat heavier and weighs just under 1 kg.
Conclusion
With the Expertbook B9 Asus has presented an interesting, feather-light business laptop that is also equipped with good hardware. The notebook is ideal for users who travel a lot, as it is not only very light, but also relatively compact.
The keyboard makes a good impression, and we can also have the number pad shown on the touchpad. The notebook also offers plenty of connections, and it also comes with the latest chips.
However, the Expertbook B9 is not cheap: In Germany, the basic configuration starts at 1,800 euros. The notebook is expected to be available in Germany in the first quarter of 2020.
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