ASUSPRO B9440UA Review: Surprisingly Awesome Business Notebook

ASUSPRO B9440UA Review: Surprisingly Awesome Business Notebook

We review the B9940UA!

Business notebooks aren’t exactly what you’d call exciting gadgets. While consumer notebooks get crazy designs, dual GPUs and even triple screens, business notebooks are usually matte black, boring, predictable rectangles. That’s why we were so taken aback with the new ASUSPRO B9440UA. Despite having an unwieldy name and subdued facade, it’s a notebook that regular consumers would probably enjoy using.

ASUSPRO B9440UA specs

  • Intel Core i7-7600U Processor, 2.9GHz with vPro
  • Integrated Intel HD Graphics 620
  • 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM
  • 14-inch full HD IPS display, 60Hz refresh rate, 72% NTSC coverage, 1920 x 1080 resolution
  • 512GB PCIe Gen3 SSD
  • WiFi, Bluetooth, Fingerprint scanner
  • 2 USB Type-C ports, 1 3.5mm jack
  • Windows 10 Pro

Thin bezels and unique hinge make it stand out, but the dongle life sucks

While the cumbersomely named B9440UA may not look like much with its gunmetal grey exterior at first glance, you’ll be pleasantly surprised once you start using it. The B9440UA doesn’t have the aluminum exterior nor the fancy Zen-insipired circle pattern of ASUS’ ZenBook Deluxe notebooks, but its exterior finish still looks pretty good. And while the outside of the notebook won’t blow you away, you can take solace in the fact that the B9440UA has an all-metal chassis underneath made from magnesium alloy and is MIL-STD 810G tested, meaning it meets and exceeds the testing standards of the US military.

ASUS claims it’s the lightest 14-inch notebook currently in the market today, weighing in at a hair over a kilo. That makes it a pleasure to stuff in your bag since you’ll barely feel it when you’re out and about.

Once you open the lid, you’ll notice the B9440UA’s unique hinge design that props up the keyboard of the notebook to the optimum 7-degree typing position for maximum comfort during use. You’ll also notice that lovely 14-inch full HD (1920X1080) display that’s advertised as having 72% NTSC coverage. The bezels are extremely thin for a notebook, coming in at just 5.4mm on the sides and top. The narrow bezels allow the B9440UA to have the footprint of a 13-inch notebook despite having a 14-inch panel.

The display can rotate up to 180 degrees as well if you ever require it.

There’s a built-in fingerprint scanner on the upper right side of the chassis, near the lid for better security and secure Windows log-ins. The backlit keyboard is delightful, and has full size 19.05 key pitch as well as 1.5mm of travel. We usualy have a few minutes of time allotted to getting used to keyboards of notebooks when we first get them, we’re happy to say that we didn’t have that adjustment period when we started using the B9440UA. A large and generous touchpad sits at the bottom.

Unfortunately there are quite a few design compromises in the B9440UA. For one there’s no webcam anywhere, which means you’ll have to pack one in your bag especially when your boss requires face time with you when you’re calling in via Skype. The biggest issue here is the fact that there’s only two ports available in the body of the B9440UA, one in each side, with both being the Type-C variety.

Even worse, the left port is where you charge the notebook, which means you’re given a grand total of one USB Type-C port to use when you’re charging the thing. ASUS does include a mini-dock with every purchase that gives you an full size HDMI port, regular USB port and another Type-C adapter with every purchase, but the extremely limited number of ports mean you’ll have to think long and hard about what you plug into your notebook, or at the very least grab a Bluetooth mouse. The only other connection in the B9440UA is the 3.5mm jack on the left side.

Multimedia powerhouse

Inside the B9440UA sits an Intel Core i7-7600U processor, 16GB of SDRAM and a 512GB SSD drive. That’s more than enough for everyday use and then some – we used the notebook for a bit of photo manipulation and editing using GIMP and Adobe Premier Pro respectively, and it handled them like a champ.

Surprisingly enough, the B9440UA has a fantastic set of speakers on it. We daresay that the B9440UA produces the best, fullest sound we’ve ever heard from a notebook of its class, even beating out some gaming notebooks that were purpose-built as entertainment machines. We had to consciously keep track of the volume level of the B9440UA while using it in a Starbucks lest we disturb the people around us, a place where ambient noise levels usually drown out speakers of lesser notebooks.

Enough battery for most people

ASUS claims 10 hour battery life for the B9440UA, though we found that that number is closer to around 8 hours with moderate use. That’s with a mix of web browsing, viewing a few clips via YouTube and general productivity apps like Word and Excel.

Sexy, rugged notebook for business, but price is an issue

The ASUSPRO B9440UA isn’t your regular business notebook. An awesome display, powerful internals and loud speakers make it a powerful tool for consuming media and for presenting to clients.

Unfortunately, the need for dongles to accommodate current-gen peripherals like mice and displays as well as the overall limited connection options (not to mention lack of a webcam) makes it a pain to deal with when you need to connect a bunch of stuff to it during presentations. Price may also be an issue – at Php 89,995, it’s rather pricey.

Overall you’re paying a premium for that beautiful display, loud speakers and rugged build quality. If you’re the sort that cares for those things, you can probably forgive the B9440UA’s shortcomings – the dongle life isn’t that bad.

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