Asus is updating its flagship ROG Zephyrus S Max-Q based laptop for 2018, bringing even further design improvements and power upgrades to an already respectable package. However, you’ll still have to pay upwards of $2000 for it.
The display at the front is a 15.6-inch AHVA 1080p display with 3ms response time, 144Hz refresh rate and 100% coverage of sRGB color gamut. The keyboard still sits in an unorthodox position (close to the bottom), with RGB lighting and the trackpad alongside it.
Design
The design has always been the focal point of these laptops, and Asus doesn’t disappoint, claiming to bring the world’s thinnest laptop this time around with a chassis which is 15.75mm thick at most.
Heat is always an issue with gaming laptops. Asus aims to solve that problem with their Active Aerodynamic System which raises the back of the laptop upwards, opening up the bottom plate for better air flow. Asus says that it improves airflow by 22% and is designed to keep temperatures below 80 degrees Celsius.
Hardware
Under the hood, you get a hexa-core 2.2GHz Core i7-8750H processor, the only option which is available. There is up to 24 GB of DDR4-2666 MHz RAM supported, with up to 1 TB of HDD and/or 512 GB of SSD storage.
The graphics, another main talking point of Max-Q laptops, will be available in two options. You get the base version with a respectable 6 GB 192-bit GTX 1060. The higher-end version gets an 8 GB 256-bit GTX 1070 GPU. No GTX 1080 on this one, unlike its more expensive variant.
Connectivity and Price
For connectivity, you get USB-C (both gen 1 and gen 2), USB 3.1, 2 USB 2.0, HDMI and headphone jack. There’s also Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi ac, 2 x 2W speakers and webcam.
Pricing starts at $2099 for the GTX 1060 variant, or $2199 for the high-end GTX 1070 version. It’ll be available in October.
Via AnandTech
Very Nice.