All the dissatisfaction with the location and types of power connectors, their strength, has been described by me dozens of times over the years on NB and a bunch of other sites. But manufacturers deliberately make fragile unified USB-C power connectors (and on the left side, which is the most inconvenient and dangerous when used on beds and sofas by reclining right-handed people) intentionally, because... this reduces the lifespan of laptops and forces owners to buy new ones. And because USB-c in most non-gaming series becomes overwhelming - right-handers have no choice but to accept the loss of rights and comfort or refuse to buy a laptop for the home.

QuoteHow can the power connector go bad if you are running on battery power?

I'm speaking of my old laptop; you drop the machine enough times with the cord in, bend it accidentally or just use it enough (I believe the power sockets on laptops are rated for X thousand inserts) and eventually the port will pack it in. Had I bought a spare in 2020 I could have potentially kept it going, although even the keyboard was starting to fail. It had a crack diagonally across the screen, which was only visible at certain angles. I took that machine all over the world and it survived being bashed and bruised through well-considered mobo and part layout, as well as an incredibly robust chassis (second only to the Macbook Pro). Only real problem with it was that the fans rattled after about 6 months, but this was solved by taking the fan blades out and adding some extra lithium grease to the blade insert hole.

Quotethe moronic and fragile USB-C should not be the main socket for power

I am finding this with the Vivobook - and at every insert/removal of the cord it gives an incredibly irritating 'slow charging' message, which you can't disable - but did not at all with the Xiaomi Notebook Pro. Also, having a generic plug (I used a 100w but could get away with less) means that if your cords or power pack are lost or break you can find one inexpensivelyand instantly, which is especially valuable when travelling. You're right about the charging sides, it should be possible both left and right, ideally with more than one on each side and set as far back as possible. In this case you can't have rear ports because the screen can open to 180 (why? ~120 or 360 are the only meaningfully useful angles!) so the hinge prevents it - I'm totally fine with this and would trade rear ports for a good strong hinge.

But I agree with you on the general anger at laptop design and this one especially. It's overpowered for its cooling system and the ergonomics suck. I would add (again) that the chassis is absolutely awful due to upward pressure from the bottom affecting the keys and the trackpad especially. How can this pass QA?

QuoteAsus has never had a full-fledged numpad in this series

I can use it onehanded and blind once I became used to it, and it is vastly preferable to the arrow keys for macros/gaming and the above letter key numbers for typing, IMHO. I would have preferred a smaller trackpad and full-sized arrow keys, larger F keys and properly sized enter/backspace/delete etc. The trackpad picks up too much from the thumb and wrist anyway, so being smaller would actually benefit the entire layout. Why make the pad so big? How many giants and farmers are using it? I'm 6'5/196cm and hate it!

QuoteI understand your criticism but this point is said to apply to almost all Windows notebooks with fast CPU or dGPU so not specific to your model.

Many laptops allow you to adjust the degree of their performance. Asus locks the BIOS and locks voltages and other parameters from being altered through things like Throttlestop. Why? General multimedia consumers have no interest in this while advanced users are going to want to improve thermals and performance. Despite this laptop being a 2023 model, I doubt there will be a BIOS update that fixes this.

Quote from: Baron on January 17, 2024, 05:43:32and I like have a numpad

Asus has never had a full-fledged numpad in this series. It is impossible to use this damaged, stripped-down version, especially with blind input. Therefore, in fact, there is no numpad here.

Quote from: Baron on January 17, 2024, 05:43:32I dropped and beat it so many times that the power connector finally packed it in and they no longer make it

How can the power connector go bad if you are running on battery power? And if you are working from a power supply, then the main drawback is precisely what I have been writing about from review to review for many years - the moronic and fragile USB-C should not be the main socket for power - the main one should be the round angled classic plug - it is an order of magnitude stronger . In addition, even USB-C can be easily brought out at the back of the laptop so that it does not interfere when used on sofas and beds when operating from a power supply. Greedy and stupid laptop manufacturers (with rare exceptions like Acer's Travelmate) introduce only usb-c for power supply in new laptops, most often on the left, and not symmetrically left and right, as it should be (and even Intel intended it that way), where right-handed feet on the bed and when the USB-C spontaneously breaks off easily with your feet.

Ordinary people, only having experienced all these shortcomings in their own skin, understand how much these idiotic decisions of manufacturers contradict ergonomic standards.

Quote from: Baron on January 17, 2024, 05:43:32Performance tanks on battery.

I understand your criticism but this point is said to apply to almost all Windows notebooks with fast CPU or dGPU so not specific to your model.

I had sworn off Asus, but I bought this laptop based on this review because I have been an avid supporter of notebook checks ratings for a decade.

Here's why I wish I didn't.

1. It doesn't have a second storage drive, which was a key part of my purchase. How was this missed? The second slot is shorter and occupied by the wifi module.
2. It runs incredibly hot, just bearable at low load and still significant at idle. The keyboard is hot at any realistic load and it is unusable on the lap.
3. It is surprising sluggish for the processor SKU, along with its 32gb of RAM. I expect this is because of woeful thermals. Performance tanks on battery.
4. The keyboard has a nice feel, and I like have a numpad, but the placement of the mousepad frequently causes interference.
5. Any flex in the bottom triggers the mouse click, so if the computer is at an odd angle at all, or if you're holding it, the mouse is unusable and triggering randomly. I shouldn't be able to click the mouse from the underside of the computer, or when picking up a corner to move it.
6. This has been said, but the port placement is really terrible. It supports USB C charging, but the port is in the *middle* of the righthand side.

I cannot understand the score that this machine was given; it is literally the worst computer I have ever owned. My daily driver was a Xiaomi Notebook Pro from 2017. It had 16gb ram, 2x NVMe slots, virtually no bloatware, beautiful and robust chassis, and it never ever got hot. It was also substantially cheaper than the Vivobook. The only reason I don't still use it is because I dropped and beat it so many times that the power connector finally packed it in and they no longer make it. I mourn that machine, and the new iterations don't seem to be relevant.

I will be considering this writer's subsequent reviews with serious skepticism, as this one is wildly off the mark.

Quote from: edram on November 10, 2023, 12:41:45Memory Upgradable up to 24 GB... ?

WTF ?

Maybe you mean 240 ?

Yeah, their numbers are strange - and incorrect. I have this laptop and I removed the 8GB from the slot and replaced it with a 32GB SODIMM - it works fine for a total of 40 GB RAM. Still would have expected to upgrade to 64 though...

How accurate is the power supply weight measurement? Does that include weight of all the cords? Could You please confirm? Thanks

Quote from: A on November 10, 2023, 10:15:51This doesn't add up, idle minimum consumption 21W, battery 95Wh.
That's around 4 hours idle, how can it last for 10 hours.

Because battery life measurements are complete BS on notebookcheck (and pretty much all laptop review sites as well)
As a rule a thumb, you can usually devide by 2 the figures they give you.

I've had many laptops in the past that were tested by NBC, and I've never ever had the battery life claimed in the reviews. Not even close.

Laptopmedia and Ultrabookreview are the closest to real life battery, with figures much much lower that on NBC.

That factory-standard 16 GB will be a bottleneck for many in the Pro world today. Imagine the performance of that non-upgradeable laptop in a few years time.

Quote from: JayCut on November 12, 2023, 13:11:29Any laptop with Pro branding should have ability to upgrade to minimum of 64 GB memory.
Where did they come up with just 24 ? Hahahahahahah

Nah, Pro has to have 5+ stickers on palm rest. )) Less than that clearly makes a budget laptop.

Any laptop with Pro branding should have ability to upgrade to minimum of 64 GB memory.
Where did they come up with just 24 ? Hahahahahahah

Quote from: edram on November 10, 2023, 12:41:45Memory Upgradable up to 24 GB... ?

WTF ?

Maybe you mean 240 ?

Doesn't support downloading more RAM, unfortunately ;)

Quote from: Vaidyanathan on November 10, 2023, 08:53:41Reg fingerprints: That's the french fry benchmark in action lol🤪. The case is indeed a fingerprint magnet, and the keys seem to like my finger oil a lot. But there's also my shadow at play there while taking photos of the device in a light box.

Hehe 😁 Yeah, I saw your shadow but fingerprints are present on all images, it's really weird how they can't find the right coating (is there any coating at all actually?) to minimize them and I hardly doubt that it's anything with your fingers wrong there because pretty much every Asus recently is like that with fingerprints everywhere; there another review from today from another author: Asus ExpertBook B9 OLED (2023) ( https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/_processed_/3/e/csm_asus-expertbook-b9-oled-b9403-tastatur-und-numpad-2_91d048f573.jpg )

Quote from: edram on November 10, 2023, 12:41:45Memory Upgradable up to 24 GB... ?

WTF ?

That's what Asus is claiming on their page: https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-creators/vivobook/vivobook-pro-16-oled-k6602/techspec/

QuoteMemory

8GB DDR5 on board
8GB DDR5 SO-DIMM
Max Total system memory up to:24GB
*Dual-channel memory support requires at least one SO-DIMM module.

Memory Upgradable up to 24 GB... ?

WTF ?

Maybe you mean 240 ?

P.S. Nvm, I'm on Apple Silicon side of the fence and totally forgot Intel powers itself down into the ground when working on battery.