The right size laptop for your business needs.
ASUS lineup of entry level business Laptop is ever so gaining its traction in the market by bringing its upgraded specs of laptop towards the audience once more. The ASUS ExpertBook is specifically cater to the consumers that wanted more of its good performance and a simple build matching needs for today. We will look at the ASUS ExpertBook B2 B2402, which is part of the ASUS lineup of the entry level business oriented laptop.
The B2 series does have a few variants/SKU. Specifically what we are reviewing here today comes with the newly launched Intel 12th Generation Core i5 with 8GB of RAM.
Design
The ASUS ExpertBook B2 design focuses on its business and simplicity outlook with features in it, which is all about what do you need most for your work and meetings. The body of the laptop is mostly made up of plastic over the exterior while the lid cover is made of aluminum with MIL-STD 810H US Military grade reliability which can withstands drops and pressures .
The whole laptop weighs at 1.6KG with smooth texture touch all around the laptop with some faint glitter over the keyboard placements no fancy design surrounding it. In fact at the same time laptops does not need to be serious on the looks, just a simple looking one will do all the time.
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Over to the hinge part of the laptop, ASUS continues to retain the ErgoLift to support and lift up the laptop slightly towards the back position creating a stable platform for the ExpertBook to sit steadily on a flat surface. This is also an advantage, which creates a natural airflow at the bottom of the laptop to dissipate heat efficiently and on top of that, the hinge is steady and flexibility can be used flat on the screen positioning.
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The keyboard is comfortable enough for your everyday typing over its chiclet design and good layout. Overall usage with document authoring and editing is nice, the only downside is the variant we received does not have backlight, which might be a disadvantage if you are working in a poorly lighted environment or a slightly darker room
Trackpad wise, this is a fairly spaced flat trackpad that fully supports Windows 11 Precision Drivers with quite accurate level on tapping and gestures and experience wise, so far no mistappings and it works as it should be, even the multi finger taps gestures.
Over to the webcam, there is one located on top of the screen captured at 720P resolution which is just usable and practical enough, definitely not for high resolution streaming, and yes, it does come with a privacy shutter to block the view in case you accidently activated your webcam.
Ports and Charging
The ASUS ExpertBook B2 comes with a standard supplied USB C 65w charger that supplies charging from 10% to 100 % around 2hours and 30minutes on average. Over on the left side of the laptop you will get two USB C port, both can be use for charging your laptop, data transfer and supports external display.1 HDMI port, 1 USB port and 1 headphone/microphone combo jack. Over to the right side you will get a LAN port, a power button that double as a fingerprint scanner for Windows Login, Volume buttons and a USB A port. Slightly below you will also spot a SmartCard reader.
Thermals and Heat
The ExpertBook B2 has good ventilation over the bottom portion of the laptop and a dissipation portion near the display just above the keyboard portion, which the air will vent out there. Temperature over normal conditions is around 40 to 45 Celsius while during heavy load and gaming, it will go up around 68 Celsius. Noise on fans aren’t that audible even during full load and it is quite pleasant even working in a quieter rooms.
Display & Audio
Over on the display side, the ASUS ExpertBook B2 features a 1080P 14 inch display with blue light filtering. Since its a matte display, there is no glare and it can be very bright if crank up to the maximum, however it is not suitable to used under bright sun environment and the viewing angle is just alright and not too visible on other angles, but thats not an issue because it’s a business laptop, I would be rather concern about privacy and people looking at my screen. The bezels is abit over to the thick side, creating an illusion that the screen viewing is abit narrow. Audio is loud and clear with some classical tunes tested with it with good treble and balance overall.
Benchmarks & Scores
The Asus ExpertBook B2 features the Intel 12th Generation Core i5-1260P 12 Core processor with Intel Xe integrated graphics, 8GB of system RAM, 512GB of NVME storage and 1TB SATA HDD. Above are the benchmark results.
During benchmark we observed that the temperature rose up to about 68 degree Celsius but it dissipates faster after that to its idle temperatures. Overall such scores are expected since this is a multimedia and work laptop, that also means it is light gaming capable.
Performance
As a basic business laptop, it is still able to play some light games as long the settings are set on low/medium, you still be able to play games like Minecraft or Genshin at a very acceptable frame rate with minor stutters. Genshin Impact will hover around 50FPS if you choose to set it to 720P resolution while DOTA 2 can be cranked up to 1080P low, reaching up to 71FPS average which I am impressed thanks to the multi-core processing power and Intel Xe graphics.
Over general performance, from Microsoft Office to web browsing, it works pretty well and is satisfying. Over to streaming, you can stream up to 1080P without issues encountered. You should be able to get around 7 hours of usage and if strictly just on editing, you can expect around 8.5 hours of battery only usage.
Technical Specifications
| Processor | Intel Core i5-1260P Twelve Core Processor with Sixteen Threads |
| Graphic Card | Intel XE Graphics |
| System Memory | 8GB DDR4 1 slot vacant Expandable up to 64GB |
| Display | 14.0″ FHD TN 1920×1080 AG, 220Nits, NTSC45% |
| Primary Drive | From 256GB NVME SSD (Optional 2.5 inch SATA vacant) |
| Ports | USB3.2 Gen2 Type-C *1 (Support PD only for charging) ThunderBolt 4.0 Type-C *1 (support PD3.0(charge in) & DP(4K UHD)) USB3.2 Gen1 Type-A *1 USB2.0 Type-A *1 HDMI v1.4 *1 Headset combo *1 Smart Card reader *1 RJ45 *1 |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6 AC combo Bluetooth 5.x |
| Battery and Charger | 48Wh Battery with 65w USB C adaptor |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Pro |
| Weight and dimensions | 339.5 x 239.9 x 19.9 mm @ 1.6KG |
Verdict & Thoughts
The ASUS ExpertBook B2 is truly a business laptop with a simplified look and with a back to basic design that features a good flexibility of ports available that came with a suitable processing power for all your general and productivity needs. With its starting price of RM3999, it will come with 256GB SSD storage and 8GB of RAM , this is a laptop we can recommend to those who just need the simplicity and a modern specs and keeps you going all day long with a reasonable battery life that lasts average around 7 hours.
Special thanks to Asus for loaning us the product to review
For more information on the ASUS ExpertBook B2, click here