ASUS PRO B9440: Durable Ultra-Thin Business Laptop with 10-Hour Battery for $999
by Anton Shilov on January 10, 2017 11:30 AM EST
ASUS introduced its new ultra-thin business laptop that weds ultra-thin form-factor, long battery life, spill-resistant keyboard, good performance and a moderate price. The ASUS PRO B9440 is powered by Intel’s new Core i5/i7 Kaby Lake-U CPUs, weighs only around one kilogram and can work for 10 hours on one charge.
Since various people have different requirements and workloads, there are many types of business notebooks: from 12” ultra-thin and compact machines to 15” laptops with workstation-like performance and features. The ASUS PRO B9440 is located somewhere between in terms of design and performance: it comes in 13”-class chassis made of magnesium alloy and has so thin display bezels that it actually features a 14” display with FHD resolution and anti-glare coating. To make the PC more comfortable to use, ASUS installed a spill-resistant keyboard with large keycaps, backlighting, and 1.5 mm key travel. Meanwhile, the weight of the PC is around a kilogram (2.31 lbs), but it is MIL-STD 810G-rated for durability so it can survive shocks, vibration, exposure to low/high temperatures and so on.
From hardware standpoint, the ASUS PRO B9440 is a mainstream PC running Intel’s Core i5/i7 Kaby Lake-U processor, equipped with 8 or 16 GB of LPDDR3 memory, up to 512 GB SSD, a 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with BT module, two USB 3.0 Type-C connectors, stereo speakers, a fingerprint reader, and a 48 Wh battery. ASUS customers can order PRO B9440 machines with enabled Intel’s vPro for remote management as well as Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for hardware-based data encryption.
| The ASUS PRO B9440 Laptops Preliminary Specifications | |||
| Mainstream | Premium | ||
| Screen Resolution | 1920×1080 | ||
| CPU | Family | Core i5 | Core i7 |
| Core | Kaby Lake-U | ||
| Options | vPro | ||
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 620 or Iris Plus Graphics 640 | ||
| RAM | 8 GB LPDDR3 onboard | 16 GB LPDDR3 onboard | |
| Storage | Up to 512 GB M.2 SSD (SATA or PCIe) | ||
| Wi-Fi | 2×2 802.11ac Wi-Fi with BT | ||
| USB | 2 × USB 3.0 Type-C (one port supports docking, power delivery) | ||
| Fingerprint Sensor | Yes | ||
| Other I/O | Microphone, Harman Kardon stereo speakers, TRRS audio jack | ||
| Battery | 4-cell 48 Wh Li-polymer | ||
| Thickness | 8.9 - 14.85 mm | ||
| Weight | 1.04 kilograms 2.31 lbs |
||
| Price | Starts at $999 | ||
| ASUS SimPro Dock USB-C Docking Station | |||
| Display Outputs | 2 × DisplayPort 1 × HDMI 1 × D-Sub |
||
| USB | Type-A | 2 × USB 3.0 Type-A | |
| Type-C | 1 × USB 3.0 Type-C | ||
| Card Reader | SD card reader | ||
| Gigabit Ethernet | Yes | ||
To make the PRO B9440 compact, thin and durable, ASUS had to make certain design decisions. First, the company eliminated the webcam, which helped to shrink the display bezel (and will also please corporate IT security personnel). Second, ASUS removed all I/O ports except two USB 3.0 Type-C and a TRRS audio jack from the PC, which helped to shrink the chassis. While an ultra-thin form-factor is generally an advantage, it also means that to connect an external display, mouse and a keyboard, the ASUS PRO B9440 will require the ASUS SimPro Dock USB-C docking station that is sold separately, which effectively makes the system more expensive. Engineers from ASUS are not the only to make the aforementioned design decisions, so it looks like for many laptops docking stations will be required in the future.
ASUS will ship the PRO B9440 notebook in May for the price that starts at $999. The cost of the ASUS SimPro Dock is unknown, yet its MSRP will be an important factor for those who plan to use the ASUS PRO B9440 in office environments.
Ian says: Ultimately it's a clear shot across the bow of Dell's XPS 13, and seeing one at the show I was mightily impressed by form factor and weight. The trackpad had a good feel, and for writing it came across well. Other editors had reservations with the hinge mechanism, as it props up the keyboard and angles any hot air across the screen, but having used the Zenbook Infinity for 3 years, that doesn't bother me personally so much. Personally I guess I would have liked to see 32GB DDR4 and a touch screen model, and a key proponent here will be battery life. My current ZBI barely holds an hour of 'active' use (up to 5 hrs 'airplane word editing' use), and the B9440 looks pretty enticing right now if the battery life can hold up.
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Source: ASUS
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rocky12345 - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
Yes they did exclude the keyboard cover but when they were marketing it they almost always showed it with the keyboard cover implying it came with the Surface and a lot of people would assume they were together as a unit. As for Nintendo not including the power charger with the 3DS I guess they were thinking that most people had more than one or they had the power brick from the older unit already. Either way it was a shiat move on Nintendo's part to not include the part that actually kept the 3DS charged and working but it was up to the consumer to let them know by not buying a product that was not complete. I know back in the day we always seen the "Batteries not included" on anything that required them but at least the end user was able to install batteries and the product worked as it was designed to. As you said excluding things are pretty common now days. These companies doing this are only doing it because they know they can get away with it because the consumers are allowing it to happen if we the consumer stopped buying incomplete products like this it would send a message that we don't want incomplete products and that if the company does not include something as simple as the charger it will sit on the store shelves collecting dust.andrewaggb - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link
Is the docking station a big deal for you? I'm genuinely curious. I like having an hdmi port on the side and network ports and whatnot but I could live with a docking station at my desk when I actually need those things.Other than connecting to a projector when I'm in a conference room or wherever I'm probably ok. And some meeting software just does screen mirroring (skype for business, webex, etc) so even that isn't necessarily an issue. I did a presentation at my kids school where I used hdmi on my laptop, but I could have brought the dock for that.
rocky12345 - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
Actually no the docking station is not important to me at all because I would never buy a product that is lacking the most important features for connections but hey I can go and buy the docking station to make it complete...yay. Something as simple as HDMI and USB ports would not have changed these laptops all that much other than giving the consumer a complete and more useful product.Like I said in a post above if we keep allowing the companies to get away with removing important features from their products and then putting those features in a extra piece of hardware like a docking station all it does is send a signal that we are ok with that and it will happen a lot more down the road. If I pay 1k or more for a laptop I expect it to be a complete unit and that I do not have to go out and buy a extra box just so I can use that laptop in the way I need or want to.
All Asus had to do was put a thin port on the side of the laptop that allowed a cable to plug into it with the break out box that had the extra ports on it. Companies have been doing that for ages on the Ultra thins and it works fine and is not a added cost to the consumer. I actually like to use the HDMI port for my projectors I also like to have a wireless mouse and keyboard I am not going to buy a product that does not include the ports needed to make me owning a laptop like this happy.
So any laptop maker that uses these tactics will not get my money and they will be crossed off my list when I do go out and spend the hard earned cash all they are doing is closing the doors on plenty of people like myself that do not like feeling like they just got shafted up the butt hole.
fanofanand - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
Hooking up ethernet, two monitors, keyboard and mouse does require a docking station. Those ports would break quite quickly if I had to connect and disconnect each and every one of those each day. Not to mention the non-tech savvy would never go for it.rocky12345 - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
What are you talking about people have been doing it on laptops for many years with little to no problems with the ports on laptops why would it all of a sudden become a problem. Also like I said if they did not want to actually put the ports on the laptop just make a special port like many companies have done in the past on the ultra thins that has the breakout box and the needed ports for the end user.I am sorry but this type of design that Asus and most likely others will copy is just lazy designing and also the greed factor. If they find that people will still by this type of product and then spend more for the required ports of coarse all will follow and do the same it makes them more money. Why is it now days people are like sheep and will swallow pretty much anything a company throws at them. I blame Apple a bit for this they have cut corners or not put features on a product just for the sake of design. A laptop is not a work of art it is a tool to be used but if that tool does not have the required features it may as well sit and collect dust and in some way be considered art because it is just as useless as a piece of art and can be only looked at. Thanks Have a Nice Day
fanofanand - Thursday, January 12, 2017 - link
What am I talking about? Do you read? I am talking about a couple hundred thousand users having to connect multiple monitors, ethernet, a keyboard, and a mouse. That is not something most regular folk will put up with. Yes you are this super special amazing guy that everyone should design their laptops around, but for the real world your ideas are daft.NicolasQC - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link
Full HD? Next!(Really sad because it sound really good otherwise)
jsntech - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link
And another design with a sharp bottom edge of the screen digging into your thighs when it's sitting on your lap. I don't know where all the HCI pros have gone these days, but they sure seem to have left the building.Murloc - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link
in those use cases you can sit it on your laptop bag or second skin, problem solved.90% of the time laptops aren't on a lap anyway.
nafhan - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link
If these were USB C 3.1 ports, they could support HDMI out via a dongle (wonder if the "docking" port might support that?).I don't know about other business users, but walking into a conference room and connecting to a flatscreen or projector is a common scenario for me. I'd be fine with a dongle, but not carrying around a docking station.