The Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 review, a complete laptop.
Contents
A snappy processor, a large and good quality screen, but also a keyboard with spacious keys and good tactile feedback. There are many characteristics that a laptop must have to become the ideal tool of who work. In this review we tell you how Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 behaves in different work situations. Can it become your ally in the office, at home and wherever you work? We help you understand it.
Our review of the Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400
Asus engineers design the ExpertBook series with professionals in mind. Already starting from the style: clean lines on the upper surface, with the Asus logo in the center. The side profile, on the other hand, follows the trend of the ports (expanding for example to accommodate the VGA), which are many and well arranged. The flat back houses grilles that help circulate air and keep temperatures low.
Inside the package you will also find the 65W charger, which is small in size but with rather long cables: emblematic of a device that wants to be comfortable to carry but also simple to adapt to any arrangement of your desk. In short: Asus has paid attention to the pointwith a laptop that also turns out elegantbut which above all aims to be functional.
Also essential for professionals privacy and the safety: also from this point of view Asus has done a great job. In fact, opening the laptop you can see the power button above the keyboard with a fingerprint reader to unlock the device. At the top above the screen, find the shutter to physically close the 0.9MP webcam to ensure your privacy. Less visible, but equally important are the presence of Kensington lock and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, which ensure safety from the very first start of the laptop.
The Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 therefore maintains the impression of a notebook designed for those who work and offers various solutions for security and privacy: but it also has the qualities needed by professionals?
Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 review: Quality build
The weight of 1.45 kilograms and the rather small size helps to take the notebook wherever it is needed and the standard MIL-STD 810H should ensure a good level of resistance. The build quality seems excellent to us, with no creaking of any kind.
The hinge that binds the screen to the body of the laptop seems to us to be very resistant, and when you place the notebook on a hard surface, it raises the keyboard slightly to make it easier for you to use the notebook. You can open the laptop up to 180 degrees.
The slight difference in height not only facilitates the use of the keyboard, but also allows you to leave room for the generous rear air intakes of this ExpertBook. And really effective: in daily use we never felt too warm this laptop, which only reached annoying heat thresholds in the most demanding phases of the benchmarks. In everyday use by professionals, this laptop is extremely cool and quiet.
The back of the notebook is not only stable and full of vents, but also easy to remove in case the IT team needs to increase the technical equipment. There are indeed one DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, one M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0×2 and one for a 2.5” SATA STD HDD.
Also two speakers are facing downwards: they are not exceptional in terms of audio quality, which however is more than sufficient for following video conferences and the like. But you can also watch a movie without problems.
Display, keyboard and trackpad
The screen IPS Full HD (1920×1080) it seems to us particularly suitable for professionals, with not particularly bright colors but with a treatment excellent anti-reflection, which allows you to work even with the sunlight behind you. There brightness at 250 nits makes it possible to work even under the window without much trouble. It’s not an IPS panel designed for gaming, but you don’t need it: this is a notebook for those who work and the screen is also optimized for this.
The keyboard has a one and a half millimeter stroke, more than the average laptop in this category that usually stop at just one. Typing feels really good to us: we are writing this review on the Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 and we don’t miss that much from the mechanical keyboard we usually use. The only “nuisance” is the button Enter arranged only horizontally and above all the “ù” positioned above: we are not used to it and every time we write “more” we end up with a new line. But it just takes a little extra practice to get used to.
The function keys and arrows are a bit undersized. But in general we have really liked this keyboard, which does not disappoint. On the contrary.
The trackpad feels the same large, accurate and simple to use, making it a great mouse replacement when you’re out of the office. The gestures are immediate and simple to use to navigate on the screen.
Performance and benchmarks
In our office use and during the tests for this review, the Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 was able to prove itself well suited for professional use. First of all, the connectivity is really excellent, both with the ethernet cable RJ45 Gigabit as well as Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.1.
Even at a distance, the Bluetooth connectivity is excellent. The same goes for the wifi connection–Fi, even with the router in another room we got the maximum bandwidth provided by our contract for the connection (100 Mbps in download and 20 in upload). Even moving and moving away, the connection remains stable: no problems during our tests.
The processor Intel Core i7-1165G7accompanied by 8GB of RAM and M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD, has proven that it can give us all the power we need during our typical work day. And it performed well in tests too, like this benchmark by Geekbench 5where it shows good performance on both single core and multi-core ones.
A test like PCMark 10 instead, it simulates common tasks like web browsing, launching office apps, editing images, and even virtualizing. The result from 3090 demonstrates what Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 has demonstrated to us throughout our review: this is a great laptop across the board. But above all it shines in office operations: excellent score on web browsing and application launch. While editing images and videos, or creating digital content, is subdued: that’s not why the integrated Intel Iris Xe G7 graphics card is designed.
It is not a device designed for gaming or for the creation of more driven content. But the integrated graphics are more than enough for some graphic changes and to view contentthe. And the processor is really good for office work.
Battery and charging
The battery from 42WHr three-cell lithium-ion battery of Asus ExpertBook B1 B1400 satisfied us fully during our review. On average, we used the notebook for more than six hours with Wi-Fi always connected. Only during the more demanding benchmarks did we see some drops in battery life, but nothing we didn’t expect.
The 65W charger included it charges the device rather quickly, also leaving the USB-C port free: the small size makes it comfortable to carry and therefore even more useful.
I/O and flexibility
The performance, the great keyboard and the decent battery life would make it easy for us to recommend this laptop to people working in a hybrid office. But the I/O equipment is an icing on the cake. If it is true that more and more offices, even those at home, are equipped with complete docking stations, on the other hand, a few more ports are always appreciated by professionals.
On the right side you will find the entrance to the Kensington Lockthe entrance RJ45 ethernet (increasingly rare, unfortunately). And then a USB-A 2.0 and an entrance 3.5mm jackas well as a reader of microSD cards.
On the left side you will find the entrance for the charger and next to it theUSB-C Thunderbolt 4, which therefore supports both video and power supply if you have a compatible docking station. You also find both one VGA that a HDMI for your monitors, as well as two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports.
In short, you really have a lot of variety to adapt to both latest generation and slightly older devices, making this laptop even more flexible and ready to handle your every need.
Asus Expertbook B1 B1400 review: a laptop designed for those who work
Asus really impressed us with the ExpertBook B1 B1400, a laptop suitable for the needs of the working person who proved to be really complete during this review. The Intel processor shines in typical office tasks, opening applications in a snap and proving solid for six to seven hours of work. The keyboard has a smooth travel that makes typing comfortable and enjoyable.
A product that proves great constructive solidityalbeit with un weight of 1.45 kg which makes it easy to carry. And the number of ports will make it possible to fit any office location. A recommended product, which focuses on hard work and will help professionals complete the job in the best possible way. You can find more information on the Asus website.
