If there’s one laptop I could go on and on about is the ASUS ExpertBook B9 because when the laptop made its debut – it was the epitome of what a business laptop could be. ASUS’ vision for it was pretty simple – keeping it powerful and simple. They did exactly that. However, generations after the first one had very incremental upgrades – well, just the specification really. Nothing else changed which made me worried but ASUS surprised me, with better upgrades internally and externally. Here’s our ASUS ExpertBook B9 B9403 First Look.
ASUS ExpertBook B9 B9403 First Look
The Display is Much Bigger and it’s now OLED
So far, ASUS has been at the forefront of upgrading their entire laptop with an OLED display which is a nice thing to see if you ask me. Compared with the predecessor which used a 16:9 aspect ratio with an IPS LCD display – it was good but the letterbox ratio does bother a bunch of users – it sure did for me. It felt like I was losing a lot of the vertical real estate. ASUS fixed that by incorporating a 16:10 ratio QHD OLED display which looks absolutely stunning to the eyes.
ASUS ExpertBook B9 B9403 still has a super thin bezel with a camera on the front with Privacy Shutter, IR for Windows Hello and other features like Motion Tracking to track the subject in a video call. We didn’t get to try any of these, but we did notice them in the settings. For those who are hoping this display is touch-enabled, unfortunately, it isn’t. But it does create the illusion if it’s one – which is funny because I kept touching the display a lot.
Bigger Trackpad, with NFC Integration
The wide trackpad from the older B9 now gets more vertical real estate on the trackpad as well. So, you have more room to move the cursor to use the laptop. It’s 26.8% bigger. Now if you do see it in person, it definitely is bigger and just like its predecessor, the trackpad comes with the number pad incorporated into it.
Not just that, just like the ExpertBook B7, the B9 now gets NFC incorporated into the laptop for quick logins too. What I didn’t fancy is the NFC logo – which is embossed into the trackpad and it isn’t a sticker which you can’t peel it off.
Other than that
You do get the best of the best experience, which is carried forward from the original Expertbook B9 – such as the magnesium-lithium body, keeping the laptop light at 1.1 kg. Now with 75% less manufacturing time and reduced 29% of the production material for sustainability reasons.
On the back, the laptop touts the “mini-expert book” logo which can be used as an indicator for calls and so on. Again, we have seen this on the ExpertBook B7. In terms of specification, the laptop does come equipped with up to 64GB of LPDDR5 RAM, Intel Processors, and even vPro and PCIe Gen 4 SSDs. It has a much better improved thermal design with two fans capable of keeping the performance at a manageable state.
Our Opinion
While the ASUS ExpertBook B9 B9403 does get the usual upgrades in the performance department, the improvement with the trackpad and the display, are necessary upgrades for a better user experience. Now, the majority of the owners opting in for this laptop are going to be business owners who want that versatility that the previous generation offered. This new B9403 is going to be a great one at that.
There are some changes internally: the RAM is soldered and the new one comes with one SSD slot instead of the 2 SSD configurations we got on the older ExpertBook. A little sad that the storage is now a little smaller but 1TB is more than enough and you can pick up a super fast external SSD to use along with it.
That’s all we can share about the ASUS ExpertBook B9 B9403 First Look. Honestly, I am pretty excited to review this when the time comes. Really can’t wait for it.
