CES 2020: ASUS Launches Ultralight 14-Inch Project Athena ExpertBook B9450 - Just 865 Grams

Among its many CES 2020 announcements this week, ASUS has unveiled its ultra-light 14-inch ExpertBook B9 (B9450) laptop, which as alluded to in the name, is aimed at the corporate market. The laptop is powered by Intel’s 10^th Generation ‘Comet Lake’ processor is equipped with robust business and security features, and furthermore is Project Athena certified as well.

The ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9450) comes in a 13-inch-class magnesium alloy chassis that 14.9 mm thick and houses a 14-inch NanoEdge Full-HD display with anti-glare coating and ultra-thin bezels. Since the machine is based on Intel’s 10^th Generation Core platform with a smaller footprint when it comes to the motherboard size, the internal architecture of the machine enabled ASUS to install a 33 Wh battery in case of the 865 gram model, as well as a 66 Wh battery in case of 995 gram SKU that can last for up to 24 hours on one charge.

The ExpertBook B9 (B9450) is based on Intel’s quad-core Core i5-10210 (1.6 GHz – 4.2 GHz) or Core i7-10510 (1.8 GHz – 4.9 GHz) processors, which is paired with 8 GB or 16 GB of LPDDR3 memory, as well as up to two M.2 NVMe SSDs. In the case of a two drive configuration, the drives can furthermore operate in RAID 0 mode for superior performance or RAID 1 mode for added reliability.

Connectivity wise, the ASUS ExpertBook B9 has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 4.2, GbE (over mDP port) Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A, HDMI, and a 3.5-mm audio jack for headsets.

Like most laptops designed for business and corporate customers, the ASUS ExpertBook B9 has sophisticated security capabilities, including a Windows Hello-capable webcam with IR sensors and a shutter, a fingerprint reader, an optional TPM 2.0 chip, and various enhancements from ASUS.

ASUS yet has to announce pricing and availability dates of its ExpertBook B9 (B9450) laptop.

It is noteworthy that the ExpertBook B9 (B9450) notebook resembles the ASUSPRO B9 (B9450) laptop demonstrated back at IFA last September. The latter one was based on Intel’s Ice Lake platform, yet featured an extremely similar chassis and had the same feature set. The one that ASUS introduced at CES is powered by Comet Lake and is 15 grams lighter. At this point, the destiny of Ice Lake-based ASUSPRO B9 is unknown, but it is possible that it is still in development.

Related Reading:

• ASUS Unveils ASUSPRO B9 (B9450)/ A 14-Inch Ice Lake Laptop at 880 Grams
• Lenovo Brings NEC PCs Back to USA: Super Light, Sub-2 lbs LaVie Notebooks Incomming
• LG Updates Ultralight Gram Laptops & Convertible: Ice Lake Inside
• NEC 2018 LaVie Note Mobile: Fanless 12.5” Core i7 with 12hr Battery, Under 2 Lbs

Source: ASUS