Asus ExpertBook B3 review: A flexible PC that feels punishingly slow

Price When Reviewed

$599.99

Best Prices Today: Asus ExperBook B3

What can I say? I really like a tiny laptop. It looks as if solely yesterday that there have been bizarre, low-cost Windows machines galore, utilizing small screens anyplace from 7 to 10 inches. Some of those tablets had energetic pens and virtually all of them have been extremely gradual or had a washed-out display screen or another horrible shortcoming. But, should you have been prepared to attend for his or her gradual chips to chug alongside, they might be “good enough” in a pinch when working outdated apps or easy Office duties.

That’s why the brand new Asus Expertbook B3 appeared so intriguing. Not solely is that this a small laptop with a kickstand and a keyboard cowl, it’s a tiny system with a pen that neatly tucks away right into a silo. It’s even primarily based on a more moderen Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor, which guarantees power-sipping, fanless operation. Can this little pill overcome its modest spec sheet and provides customers a good Windows 11 expertise? In a phrase, no.

Asus ExperBook B3 specs and options

Our evaluate unit got here geared up with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 CPU, Adreno 618 graphics, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage. Read on to be taught extra:

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 (8 cores) 
• Memory: 4GB LPDDR4
• Graphics/GPU: Adreno 618 graphics
• Display: 10.5-inch IPS WUXGA (1920×1200) 16:10 touchscreen
• Storage: 128GB eMMC
• Webcam: 5MP front-facing/1080p for video
• Connectivity:  1x USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, 1x 3.5mm headset jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1
• Digital Pen: MPP 2.0, fees from system
• Battery capability: 38Wh
• Dimensions: 14.29 (W) x 9.36 (D) x 0.70 (H) inches 
• Weight: 1.31 kilos (tablet-only), 2.22 kilos (pill with keyboard and stand), 2.79 kilos with charger
• Price: $599.99

Design and construct

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Microsoft’s Surface mainly invented the trendy 2-in-1, placing the keyboard cowl front-and-center and balancing the entire widget on a kickstand across the again. The ExpertBook B3 is an analogous design, besides the kickstand isn’t built-in. Instead, it’s a chunk of fabric-wrapped plastic that attaches with magnets to the pill. What this allows is a mode that permits you to stand it up in vertical orientation, not simply horizontally. 

Unfortunately, I discovered the stand to be loosely related besides in its horizontal orientation with the keyboard connected. You actually can’t use it as an easel for drawing with this stand–the angle it folds to is way too shallow to get it right down to the tabletop. And then when you’ve it in vertical mode, there’s no solution to join the keyboard and the USB port is inaccessible, underneath the sting that’s dealing with the tabletop. I can see this diploma of flexibility being useful is you employ your pill within the kitchen as a cookbook, however in any other case it looks as if loads of engineering and bulk for an edge case.

At least Asus consists of the kickstand attachment and keyboard cowl within the field, so that they’re not separate purchases. But the entire bundle feels a bit cumbersome when all put collectively, however the pill by itself is impressively slim.

Connectivity

Given its small measurement, we will’t say we have been stunned to seek out solely two ports on this Asus pill–a regular headset jack and a USB-C port. The USB-C port pulls double obligation as your solely charging port and the one choice for I/O. At least there’s an enormous market on the market for dongles and hubs, making it easy to show one port right into a bunch of others, together with display-out.

In phrases of wi-fi functionality, the B3 has Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1 as default, making it a bit behind the curve on Wi-Fi tech however completely usable for day-to-day duties. 

It would have been very nice to see a microSD card slot on this pill as effectively, which may also help make up for an absence of storage, however alas you’re caught with the 128 GB eMMC this pill has built-in. It looks as if because it has a US MIL-STD 810H sturdiness score that Asus eliminated as a lot as potential to scale back the likelihood for failure. All issues thought-about, the B3’s connectivity undoubtedly seems like a downgrade from one thing like a Surface Go 3, which has a magnetic dock/charging port, USB-C, headset jack, in addition to a microSD card slot.  

Keyboard, trackpad, and pen

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

One of the worst issues about shopping for a Microsoft Surface is that the pen and keyboard cowl are separate purchases. Here, every little thing comes within the field. I discovered, nonetheless, that the equipment which are needed to show this pill right into a laptop computer are a decidedly blended bag. The keyboard is okay, however the keys are undoubtedly small in comparison with, let’s say, a 13-inch class laptop computer or pill. While the within of the keyboard cowl is plastic, the entire thing feels barely bouncy to kind on, which is lower than ultimate in my eyes. Then, when the lights exit you uncover–gasp!– these keys aren’t backlit! I hate to place a bunch of expectations on this little system however while you use one thing known as ExpertBook, you are likely to count on a better-than-basic typing expertise. 

Beneath the keyboard is a dinky touchpad that I didn’t fairly get together with. It’s responsive sufficient, however the floor feels plasticky and tough. Furthermore, it’s so small on this keyboard cowl that I discovered it was tremendous simple to hit the sides with the palms of my fingers. Finally, the floppiness of the keyboard cowl made it simple to by chance set off the trackpad’s click on. This could be an edge case for a tool designed for colleges and companies, however this was one thing I observed when utilizing the system on the couch, when it has little assist beneath the keyboard and trackpad.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

One of the extra distinctive facets of the Asus B3 is that’s has an included digital pen that has its personal silo for storage–no magnets, no hidey gap within the keyboard cowl. The pen fees when changed into the again of the show, which is fairly nice. For notes, this pen works effectively sufficient however I’d skip this pill for artwork functions attributable to some noticeable jitter in strains I drew. That and the pen’s less-than-ergonomic skinny physique make this a pleasant bonus, however removed from a star attraction.

Display, audio, and webcam

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

The solely facet of this system I’ve a slight gripe with is the small show and massive bezels. The display screen has a piano black encompass, after which a giant black border. Before you flip it on, you’d count on that the display screen would fill the within of the black plastic border, however as an alternative it’s nested means contained in the glass with a thick border doesn’t look tremendous premium in 2022.

At least the display screen is nice to behold. The Asus B3’s dinky 10.5-inch show is a excessive 1920×1200 decision, appears to be like vibrant from each angle, and reaches a brilliant and constant 350 nits. The shiny floor would possibly decide up glare or make it onerous to see in direct daylight, however in some other situations I beloved the way in which it appears to be like. It’s additionally a laminated show, which might make the interplay with the display screen really feel extra direct than one with a spot between the quilt glass and the show itself beneath (digital pen customers will discover the distinction!). The punchy colours, good distinction, and crisp pixel density make this a tool that’s a minimum of good to take a look at, even when it’s maddening to make use of in different regards.  

The entrance dealing with digital camera on the B3 is fairly good all issues thought-about. It’s a far cry from the 720p and 1080p items in loads of laptops, really letting you get 5 megapixel stills. For video calls, the upper megapixel digital camera helps however I nonetheless seemed a bit of blotchy in something lower than brilliant mild. The audio system and microphone are each respectable. That stated, the audio system are a bit quiet and would possibly battle in a chatty classroom or workplace setting

Performance

If there’s one frustratingly weak level for the Asus ExpertBook B3, it’s efficiency. This tiny pill has a good sufficient Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor, however the gradual strong state drive and restricted RAM significantly restrict its talents. This factor seems like utilizing Windows 11 whereas it’s caught in quicksand.

In use, B3 takes perpetually besides up, as if it’s rising from a deep sleep, and Edge must sleep browser tabs consistently to unencumber reminiscence. Sitting right here with OneNote and 4 browser tabs open, Task Manager says 3.3 GB of RAM are in use…yikes! Even belongings you’d wish to be snappy and satisfying, like urgent the Start button on the touchscreen lag.

If you didn’t know a lot about computer systems, you’d suspect one thing was fallacious. It’s made worse by the lackluster capability of Windows 11 Pro to emulate older apps. Even although it ought to reduce the mustard on the subject of light-weight mobile-friendly software program, I discovered the B3 rendered an indie recreation like Donut County unplayable underneath emulation. But don’t take my phrase for it–let’s check out some benchmarks.

In the PCMark 10 Apps check, which runs natively on Snapdragon units just like the Asus B3, we noticed a rating that was lower than spectacular. In truth, it missed the usual of a Lenovo Snapdragon-based system that’s virtually 4 years outdated. For the sake of comparability, we’ve included a Surface Pro from final 12 months working a premium Intel chip simply to display how sluggish this pill is. This check makes use of Microsoft’s personal apps to run totally different activity to be able to measure the responsiveness of the system in Office and Edge situations.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

The Asus ExpertBook B3 turned in a disappointing exhibiting when its graphics have been put to the check within the ARM-friendly Night Raid benchmark. This poor efficiency makes a specific amount of sense, nonetheless, since we’re coping with a less expensive Snapdragon chip with a worse GPU. The remainder of the bunch we had examined all had that 12 months’s greatest graphics, which this decidedly doesn’t.

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Since internet searching is a necessary a part of immediately’s computing expertise, we ran the WebXPRT3 benchmark to get an sense for a way this method performs with a wide range of duties within the Edge browser. Although the B3 outperformed the older Lenovo Yoga C630 on this check, it’s nonetheless a poor performer on the entire. 

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Battery life

One brilliant spot within the efficiency assessments was the long-lasting battery. In our looping 4K video check, the Asus ExpertBook B3 practically made it to 14 hours of runtime, which is stellar for a tiny Windows pill like this. Anecdotally, whereas penning this evaluate on the Asus, I noticed the battery drain round 5% for an hour of sunshine work.  

IDG / Brendan Nystedt

Conclusion

At the top of my time with the Asus ExpertBook B3, I used to be left with one query: who is that this for? The advertising makes it look like it’s for frontline staff or the training market, however I’d really feel unhealthy handing this off to an worker and even worse for the children caught with this in a pc lab. It’s additionally obtainable on Best Buy for anybody to buy, which I’d advise towards except it’s deeply discounted. Even with out pondering of competing choices, there’s not an amazing case for its $600 value.

Even with stellar battery life, included equipment, and a pleasant display screen, the Asus B3 reminds us that Windows on a Snapdragon chip can nonetheless have loads of drawbacks, particularly in a less expensive configuration like this. Sure, the general expertise has improved so much on the high-end with the Surface Pro 9 and ThinkPad X13s Gen 1, however for now it’s possible you’ll wish to keep away from these low-end Snapdragon Windows PCs.