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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave 2D here. This is the Zephyrus S made by Asus.
00:09Now, I did an early look at this product about a month ago using an engineering sample,
00:12but this is the retail unit and I've been using it for about two weeks
00:15and I wanted to share some thoughts about this product as kind of like a daily driver for me.
00:19So, the big thing about this product that is most unique to it is, I think, the thermal.
00:24So, thin and light gaming laptops are not uncommon nowadays, right?
00:28Lots of brands are doing it. We've seen the MSI GS65, the Razer Blade, the Aero 15.
00:33There are other companies making thin and light devices,
00:36but I think these guys do it best because of the thermal solution that they've used.
00:40So, when you open up this laptop, it has this hinge that opens up an air gap at the bottom of the laptop
00:45and in doing so, it just gives it a lot more airflow.
00:48So, the air goes from the top of the laptop through this top area here
00:52and it goes out the back and the sides.
00:54Now, on a traditional gaming laptop, this kind of airflow isn't possible, right?
00:58Your keyboard would normally be up at the top and this wouldn't allow air to flow as freely.
01:02But the Zephyrus S, along with the original Zephyrus, has the keyboard shifted down.
01:05And we'll talk about the keyboard in a little bit.
01:07I just want to focus on the thermals right now.
01:08But this design here gives this laptop incredible thermal performance.
01:12I'm able to maintain max boost clock with any kind of workflow, any kind of benchmark,
01:16any kind of gameplay just because of the thermal design.
01:19So, put it this way, the Zephyrus S has software.
01:21They call it Armoury Crate, which allows you to tweak settings and adjust lighting and stuff.
01:25But they actually have an overclocking section within this app.
01:27This is the world's thinnest gaming laptop and they're able to overclock the GPU.
01:32It's crazy.
01:33So, this device comes with a GTX 1070 Max-Q and you can overclock it to the point
01:38where it actually performs almost identical to a regular GTX 1070 for the laptop.
01:42I was not expecting that and I'm super impressed they're able to do this on a device that looks this thin.
01:47The overall gaming performance of the Zephyrus S is fantastic.
01:51Now, in order to get that kind of performance, they had to do this whole shifting of the keyboard down.
01:55And I think that pops a question up in a lot of people's mind.
01:58Like, is this keyboard comfortable? Is this trackpad comfortable?
02:01And I think when you first use this, like the very first day you use it, it's going to be weird.
02:05It looks weird and if you're left-handed, you're boned trying to use the trackpad.
02:08But I think most people can get used to this keyboard pretty readily.
02:11It actually feels very similar to a desktop keyboard to me.
02:14Like, there's no wrist rest on those and this feels kind of like those.
02:17After using this for a couple of days, I think most people will enjoy it.
02:19I will say though that if you use this keyboard with a large table in front of you,
02:22so you can kind of rest your wrist and your arms on a table while you're using it,
02:26it's a much more comfortable experience, at least for me.
02:28The trackpad is a different story. I think it's going to take more than a couple days to get used to.
02:33I'm someone who's actually used several laptops with the trackpad on the right.
02:37So, I've seen this before and I've used laptops like this before.
02:40If this is your only device, you'll get used to it over time.
02:43The number pad feature is kind of cool. You can kind of switch between trackpad and number pad.
02:47And the trackpad itself is great. It's a Windows Precision trackpad and the button mechanics are good.
02:52I have a couple complaints though.
02:54Number one, it doesn't have a print screen button anywhere on this keyboard.
02:57I think that's something like 99.9% of the world doesn't care about.
03:00But if I'm trying to take screenshots for whatever, I can't.
03:04Like, I got to use the snipping tool. Whatever.
03:06The other thing is that the lighting on this thing is relatively dim.
03:09Now, gaming laptops often have like crazy RGBs and stuff like that.
03:13It's RGB lit, but it's really dim.
03:15And I feel like some people really care about that.
03:17They want that like RGB experience and you don't quite get it on this particular keyboard.
03:21The rest of this device is really good though.
03:24Like the screen, fantastic. 144Hz, 3ms response time.
03:28It's a really fast gaming laptop screen.
03:30I think it's the fastest 15-inch gaming laptop screen on the market right now.
03:34It's very enjoyable to play games on and because of the performance of the 1070 Max-Q,
03:38you're getting smooth frame rates across the board.
03:40The speakers are also in a great location.
03:42They face the user and you get pretty good sound quality from them.
03:45The battery life is short. It's a 50Wh battery.
03:48I'm getting like 2.5 to 3 hours of battery life on this thing.
03:51But this device on the whole is something that I think a lot of people enjoy.
03:55So I think the pricing is like $1800, $1900 depending on the configuration.
03:59There's a weaker version that I think is even cheaper than that.
04:02But it's a device that's built really well and they've cooled it really well
04:09in a chassis that is the smallest in the world.
04:13Like, it's kind of hard for me to kind of convey how impressive this is
04:17because I see a lot of laptops. I see a lot of thin and light gaming laptops
04:20and I see a lot of companies try to make something that kind of hits all three factors, right?
04:24Thin, good performance, good thermals.
04:27But this guy, it does it. It does it all.
04:31Now, there are some compromises.
04:32Obviously, the keyboard's in a weird position and because of the opening hinge,
04:36it's not ideal for lap use, right?
04:37It's definitely better on a table, but the overall product is really solid for the price.
04:42So if you're looking for a thin and light laptop and you want that kind of overall package
04:46and you don't mind that shift of the keyboard, definitely check this thing out.
04:50Because I think a lot of people are looking for something like this
04:52and are kind of unsure of whether or not it's a good fit, but this is my experience with it.
04:57Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
05:00See you guys next time.