Noise Measurements
I use a Class 1 Bruel & Kjaer 2270 G4 sound analyzer equipped with a Type 4955a microphone with a dBA-weighted dynamic range of below 6 dBA and up to 110 dBA. All tests are conducted inside a hemi-anechoic chamber with close to 6 dBA noise floor and at 25–28 °C ambient. The test subject is placed a meter from the sound analyzer.
I will check noise output with the power mode set at “best performance” during idle, a Metro Exodus (HD) gaming session, and during the Blender benchmark. I will present you the average and maximum noise output values.
IDLE
Blender Benchmark
Metro Exodus (HD) – Battery
Metro Exodus (HD) – Mains
Signal Recordings
I have recorded the signals shown above, but please keep in mind that I’ve enabled Automatic Gain Control (AGC) to do so to make it easier for you to reproduce them. The provided recordings are only offered for aural identification purposes.
The average noise during gaming with the laptop powered by its battery might be low, and so is the maximum output noise, but there is a low-frequency ticking noise, which looks to be coil whine, in the background, which is annoying. Don’t ask me why I decided to check the laptop’s output noise with its battery engaged, it just happened!
2) Turd of LDC-IPS. What a crap with 1000 – 1200:1 contrast and the usual LCD flaws. Even more crap because it has a AG-coating (matte) which further pulls image quality down the toilet (especially the contrast, which attributes to image quality the most). No one seriously needs 240 Hz either. 4K-UHD, at least W-Oled (better QD-Oled) 120 Hz is expected for 3500 bucks.
1500 bucks, 17 inch business notebooks get W-OLED with 4K-UHD resolution.
You didn’t even mentioned this once. You can put whatever future RTX 20090 in it – the image quality still is very low, because the last link in the chain, the display (what we perceive), is low image-quality garbage.
3) AMD is milking customers with their Ryzen processors too, this Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. The chiplet-design is negatively affecting performance, power draw and thus efficiency. Noticeably with one chiplet, even more here 2 chiplets here. Intel’s new mobile processors are already very close in terms of efficiency to this one here (despite not having stacked cache).
It’s only meant for AMD to get higher product margins. They could went for the superior but costlier monolithic design, as seen with the upcoming “12 core Strix Point”.
But why give customers better products if can get higher product margin?!
3) Typical Asus overpriced-tax. Such price yet such underwhelming build. Why make the chasis so thin in height and the cooling so bad? I don’t say it has to be a 7 kg desktop-replacement, but this 3 kg is a joke! No one smart will use this for serious 200 – 300 watts gaming on battery; it lasts maybe 30 minutes. This is meant to be plugged in, and here weight is no problem at all. So make it 4 kg and beef up the cooling.
75 ° average and almost 90 ° Celsius peak for the processor is bad.
38 dB while gaming at native resolution is very loud, given the laptop is directly in front of the user.
The provided noise audio sounds very loud. Whats the point of this, if the user can’t focus on the game, being distraced by noise?
For 3.5k it should have the best thermals and builds.
I’m saying this pretty blunt and full of critique, because that’s what it is; can’t wrap this customer-milking and your partly dishonest test in pretty words. This laptop has to cost 2 – 2.4k bucks at most.
Inflation or whatever recession is no excuse here.
I’m disappointed. Please remove whatever award asap.
You shouldn’t buckle before these companies, just because they provide free review samples. They should buckle before you testers.
I sincerely hope you do it better next time (and change it now), because that’s what you and this website deserve!
Cheers