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Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 11

Why Switch One 2020 Mobo for Another?

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I’m surprised. I’m actually considering replacing a 6-year-old Asrock motherboard with an MSI of the same age. Basically, I’ve gotten tired of fighting UEFI and firmware issues on the Asrock that serves as the foundation for my production desktop. I see reviews and other online evidence that the MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk Max will solve those problems. It costs US$150, which is a relatively small sum when compared to the days and days I’ve spend fighting with the Asrock board in the last month.

Why Not Switch One 2020 Mobo for Another?

I’m pretty sure I can take Flo6 apart, swap mobos, and get back up and running in an afternoon. I’ve almost had to take the whole thing apart half-a-dozen times recently to pull the GPU, various drives (including the primary SSD), and the CMOS battery. Why not go all the way?

Simply put: I don’t feel like funding a complete rebuild into a new system right now, given prevailing costs for RAM and SSDs. I can make this switch for another US$150, versus US$2,650 for a similarly equipped i714700K based build.

That’ll have to wait for the general exchequer to charge up a bit. Maybe next year? For now, I’ll be happy to get a system that boots properly, and handles Secure Boot without major issues. Let’s see what happens, shall we? I’m giving it a try…

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P16 Gen3 Firmware Update Hangs

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Imagine my excitement when I got a brand-new Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 Mobile Workstation delivered to the door yesterday.  It’s an absolute beast of a machine (more on that below), huge and powerful. As part of my usual intake routine, I apply all pending updates. Alas, one of them — the P16 Gen3 firmware update — hangs during its install. I have to take drastic measures to finish things up. Let me explain…

If P16 Gen3 Firmware Update Hangs, Then?

The system wouldn’t reboot after the UEFI itself got updated. It was stuck, unable to go forward or go back. So I exercised the nuclear option when it comes to laptops lost in limbo.  I unplugged the battery and waited for it to drain completely, as evidenced by the power button and ESC key lights that stayed on late into the night last night.

The update completed successfully after that: I’m now running N4FET47W (1.28) dated 1/23/2025. But it took some doing to get there. Lenovo Vantage downloaded the update but was unable to install it. I also tried Lenovo System Update, which is usually better at handling firmware stuff, but no dice there, either. Finally, I visited the Lenovo Support pages, plugged in the serial number, and got a standalone flash installer named n4fuj05w.exe.

Starting UEFI Update Is Good, Finishing Is Better

The installer does its initial thing inside Windows getting the UEFI, Intel Management Engine (ME), and other update elements unpacked and ready before it reboots the machine. Then the flash installer takes over. That’s what hung on me.

Initially, Copilot advised me to remove the back deck of the unit and unplug the battery to force a cold reboot quickly. But this laptop costs over US$9K and the back deck didn’t want to come off. I had to use more force than I was comfortable exercising just to get the back edge to lift a little. Copilot yammered on I should keep trying and that the unit is notorious for tight clips and challenging extraction.

Nope! I also knew that draining the power over time would achieve the same end, with no danger of scratching the finish. So I waited overnight instead.

Getting Going On Intake

Now that the updates are all in place, WU is happy, winget’s been satisfied, and the Store is caught up, I can pay attention to the machine itself. I’ve got all my apps and tools installed, and am ready to report on what I see about this monster of a laptop.

Here’s a quick summary of key components:
• It’s NOT a Copilot+ PC
• Intel Core Ultra9 275HX (8P-Cores, 16 E-Cores, 24 threads)
• 128 GB DDR5 UDIMM RAM
• Intel integrated graphics Arc Xe‑LPG Graphics (64 exe units)
• NVIDIA RTX Pro 5000 Blackwell Generation (ADA arch, 7,424 CUDA cores, 16GB GDDR6, 58 3G RT cores, 232 4G Tensor cores)
• 4TB SAMSUNG MZVLC4T0HBL1-00BLL (SSD)

Pretty serious complement of components, eh?`

Here are the ports provided on the unit, listed by side as left, back and right:
LEFT (from front, items listed back to front)
• 1xSD slot (full-sized)
• 1xThunderbolt 4 (USB-C) up to 40 Gbps, DP1.4, USB4 compatible
• 1xUSB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
REAR (left to right, looking at rear)
• RJ-45 2.5GbE
• HDMI 2.1
• 2xThunderbolt 5 (USB-C) up to 80 Gbps, DP2.1, USB4 compatible
RIGHT
• Kensington lock slot
• 1xUSB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)

Most notably, this P16’s got Thunderbolt 5 and USB5 (aka 4.2) support! Now I’ll finally be able to test TB5/USB5 stuff.  The internal SSD — a PCIe x5 Samsung model — reports speeds over 11,000 for 1GB block transfers in CrystalDiskMark. A USB4 drive attached to the high-speed USB-C port clocks in over 6,000. It’s the fastest USB I/O I’ve ever seen. Cool!

From the Belly of this Beast

Weighing in right at 6.5 lbs (2.95 kg) this is a massive monster of a laptop. But if you need lots of horsepower, capability and connectivity this could be your mobile workstation, too. Lenovo tells me its MSRP is ~US$9,200. You’ll need some serious financial backing to make this baby yours, too. So far, I like it a lot!!!

 

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Zotac 4070 Shows Up Munged

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Got an email last night from the USPS, informing me that the Zotac 4070 card I ordered would be delivered by 6:30 PM. This morning I walked to the mailbox to retrieve that item. As you can see in the edge-on photo, the 800-lb gorilla had his way with the card during shipment. The front plate is badly bent. Worse, the right-hand fan (from the top) doesn’t spin freely, as it properly should. I’m asking for a refund, as the Zotac 4070 shows up munged.

If Zotac 4070 Shows Up Munged, Now What?

I’m ordering a replacement card. Given the issues finding a performance GPU that’s also compact, I’m “trading down” to get a 5060 model for my next try. I just ordered a Gigabyte RTX 5060 Mini from Amazon, for delivery tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m fighting with the vendor platform — Mercari, in this case — for a refund. Somehow, the sale shows as completed even though I hadn’t even had the card in my hands for 18 hours when that status made itself known. I’m hoping I’ll get the purchase price back, but I have a bad feeling…

As I opened the package, in fact, I saw the front plate had been savaged in transit. “That can’t be good,” I thought. It wasn’t. Gosh only knows what hit this unit, but it literally looks stepped on. I can only hope I’ll get a refund: we’ll see about that.

Tomorrow Is Another Day

Amazon will put the next candidate in my hands tomorrow morning. I’ve never had trouble with their delivery resulting in damage of any kind, let alone the mauling that the Zotac card took en route. Fingers crossed that I can get it installed, and Secure Boot working, on the upstairs B550/5800X PC. These things happen here in Windows-World. Several lessons learned from this encounter, none of them good. Sigh, and sigh again…

 

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ARM Desktop: Neo 50q Pros and Cons

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OK, then. I’ve been playing and working with the Lenovo ThinkCentre neo 50q for a couple of weeks now (see my Jan 9 first looks post). Now that it’s been in harness for a bit, I can speak more to what this tiny PC can — and can’t — do. I’ll lay out this ARM desktop (Neo 50q) pros and cons for your consideration. Let’s go…

Considering ARM Desktop: Neo 50q Pros and Cons

The lead-in graphic speaks indirectly to one of my profound reservations about this otherwise nifty mini-PC: the CPU is too under-powered for it to qualify as a Copilot+ PC. Note the model appears as X126100. Its NPU is rated at 45 TOPS but it’s neither a Snapdragon X Elite nor X Plus model. Thus, it doesn’t make the grade, and ships without the Copilot AI namespace, and does not appear on the Microsoft Copilot Plus list. This quibble boils down to: why acquire an ARM desktop if it’s not Copilot+ capable? Good question!

Neo 50q Pros

That’s where the pros for this unit come into play — namely:

  • Compact form factor: works well for small footprint workspaces
  • Incredibly quiet operation: I’ve heard the fan come on only a handful of times in two weeks. When it does it’s still pretty quiet.
  • Low power draw: the overall PC sips rather than sucks power (5-9 W at Windows desktop, 10-18 W normal load; 26 W peak)
  • Instant-on startup: ARM works well with Modern Standby so the unit wakes in 2-3 seconds. Boot & restart times are also  speedy.
  • Enough oomph for everyday computing: handles office apps, surfing & email, Teams & Zoom sessions with aplomb
  • Enterprise-friendly security capability: Pluton support, hardened drivers, Secure Boot & Modern Standby make Neo 50q a good fit for managed environments and secure for standalone use
  • First ARM desktop available, and reasonably affordable at US$589 (does need monitor; mouse & keyboard included)

Neo 50q Cons

Let’s contrast this to the Neo 50q’s various cons — to wit:

  • No Copilot+ capability may deter some users, but only 2-5% of PCs sold today meet those requirements
  • USB-C port does not support Thunderbolt 4 or USB4
  • Limited upgradeability: RAM is soldered. only 1 M.2 slot, no PCIe expansion
  • ARM still imposes some compatibility and performance limitations: some apps won’t run while others run more slowly
  • ARM Adreno GPU limits graphics so it won’t handle serious games nor heavy creativity workloads

Net-Net: Good for Students & Office workers

I give the Neo 50q lots of points for cute, quiet, low power and minimal maintenance requirements. But it’s not a powerhouse by any stretch. It fits well into dorm rooms, home offices and business workspaces for people who need basic computing services. The Neo 50q won’t serve well for those who need more horsepower, who write code or create/edit videos. It can’t (and won’t) do much AI stuff of any kind.

All in all, it’s a niche product that fills that niche well but can’t wander outside those narrow boundaries. Given that the Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini X — a real Copilot+ mini-desktop — lists for US$1365, the next step up is a pretty big one. This will make the Neo 50q very appealing for some, and not at all for others. For myself, I like it very much for what it is and can live with what it isn’t.

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Tiny Quiet Capable ThinkCentre neo 50q

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OK, then. I finally got around to unboxing and setting up the 1L (1000 cc) mini PC that Lenovo sent to me a couple of days before Christmas. I’m pleased to say the unit is reasonably speedy, tiny and amazingly quiet in operation. Indeed, the tiny, quiet capable ThinkCenter neo 50q is the first — and only — mini-PC built around Snapdragon X that I’ve been able to lay hands on. First, Qualcomm bailed on its developer kit; second, Geekcom last year promised but never delivered a mini-PC with Snapdragon X innards. Now I finally get to see how this Qualcomm CPU and chipset serves outside the laptop space…

Deets: Tiny, Quiet Capable ThinkCentre neo 50q

It’s a bona-fide Copilot+ PC. Here’s what’s inside (including ports):

  • CPU: Snapdragon X X1-26-100 (2.97 Ghz, 8 cores)
  • OS: Windows 11 Pro (24H2 Build 26100.7462 delivered)
  • RAM: 1x16GB LPDDR5 8448
  • NVMe: Samsung OEM 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 TLC Opal
  • Wi-Fi: Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6E & Bluetooth 5.3
  • Dimensions: 179×182.9×36.5mm (Lenovo says “1L”; it’s ~1.2L)
  • Front ports: USB-A (10Gbps), USB-C (10 Gbps), mini-RCA
  • Rear ports: 4xUSB-A (10 Gbps), HDMI 2.1, DP 1.4a, GbE (RJ-45)

What’s startling here is no high-speed USB-4 (or 5) ports. No Thunderbolt, either. That means no high-speed video links via USB-C. That’s not great. But it also means no access to USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 docks from this unit. That’s not great, either.

A similarly equipped unit, but with 32GB RAM (not 16GB) goes for US$559 at the Lenovo Store right now. That seems like a good value proposition for a machine like this one. That said, I don’t understand why USB4 is MIA from this unit, even if only through a front port. On the plus side, there’s an open M.2 2280 NVMe slot into which you can plug another drive.

Initial Impressions: Speed, Capacity & Oomph

This is a peppy little PC. It blasts through a restart cycle (restart, boot, Windows startup, desktop) in 30-35 seconds right now. CrystalDiskMark shows decent but not killer numbers from the OEM Samsung MZVL81T0HDLB-00BLL 1TB PCIe x4 SSD:

During initial setup, I was able to download and install what I needed without experiencing any delays or noticeable (local) lag. A quick trip into DriverStore Explorer (RAPR.exe) showed only two out-of-date drivers amidst a collection of 269 items (1.24 GB total size: fairly small). The OS was pretty much up-to-date, but I did have to kill and clean up McAfee (which Lenovo ships pre-installed in trial form). Lenovo Vantage didn’t show an update button, so I had to download and install the Service Bridge and Lenovo Update to check the device to make sure everything was caught up (it was).

Net-Net: Nice But No Powerhouse

Whaddya expect for US$550? It’s pretty much on precise par with the ASUS Zenbook A14 I just picked up (for the same price, give or take, though the ASUS offers 2 USB4 capable USB-C ports at Best Buy). It looks like an eminently capable mini-desktop for run-of-the-mill users who don’t need lots of horsepower or storage space.

But so far, the Neo 50q seems like a great choice for SOHO and plain-vanilla home users. My wife has had aDell OPtiplex 7080 for 5 years now and loves it (curiously, it too qualifies as a “1L” mini-PC). I’m sure she would feel likewise about the Neo 50q, too.

As I get to know this PC better, I’ll write more.It’s been a small and quiet joy to set up and learn about so far…

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Copilot Assisted RAPR Analysis

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Yesterday, I found myself revising a story for ComputerWorld. The topic: cleaning up Windows driver bloat using DriverStore Explorer, aka RAPR.exe. Along the way I found myself wanting to count the drivers in that store, and to identify duplicates for possible removal. Performing what I’m calling Copilot assisted RAPR analysis, I had it craft some Powershell for me. Came in really handy, so I’ll explain and illustrate what I used…

Enumerating Copilot Assisted RAPR Analysis Items

I used two one-liner PowerShell commands, plus one script, to do the following:

  • Provide a count for the number of drivers in the store (found in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository)
  • Display the total file size of the store’s contents (same place)
  • Enumerate and identify the duplicates in the store (script)

These items are helpful because running the first two one-liners let me quickly count items and obtain their overall file size. Handy for before and after comparisons. The script was useful because it let me identify duplicates in the store, which RAPR does not always remove when you use the “Select (Old Drivers)” and “Delete Driver(s)” buttons for clean-up purposes.

If you look at the lead-in screenshot it shows the one-liners for making a count and getting size verbatim, and calls a script named dupdrv.ps1. The results also appear as well. These all represent post-cleanup results, FWIW.

PowerShell Details: One-Liners and Script

To obtain the count, PowerShell runs through all instances of signed PnP drivers in the store, and tots them up:

(Get-CimInstance Win32_PnPSignedDriver).Count

To get the size of the overall DriverStore, PowerShell examines each file, gets its size, adds it to a growing sum, then shows it in GB units:

(Get-ChildItem "C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository" -Recurse -File | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB

The script is longer and a little more complicated. Basically, it iterates through all files in the DriverStore, builds a table of unique entries by name, and counts all instances it finds. It reports only on instances that have counts of 2 or more (indicating duplicates).


pnputil /enum-drivers |
Select-String "Published Name","Original Name","Provider Name","Driver Version" |
ForEach-Object {
if ($_.ToString() -match "Published Name\s*:\s*(.*)") { $pub = $matches[1] }
if ($_.ToString() -match "Original Name\s*:\s*(.*)") { $inf = $matches[1] }
if ($_.ToString() -match "Driver Version\s*:\s*(.*)") { $ver = $matches[1] }
if ($pub -and $inf -and $ver) {
[PSCustomObject]@{
PublishedName = $pub
InfName = $inf
Version = $ver
}
$pub = $inf = $ver = $null
}
} |
Group-Object InfName |
Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } |
Select-Object Name, Count, @{n="Versions";e={$_.Group.Version}}

These tools come in nice and handy when using RAPR to clean up a driver store. Indeed, they even extend its capabilities beyond finding old and obsolete drivers. They also identify duplicates as well. Sometimes, those too can be cleaned up. Good thing that trying to delete a driver in actual use in RAPR won’t succeed unless the “Force Deletion” option is checked. I don’t recommend using that unless you know you must for some good reason. I certainly didn’t need that here.

Benefiting from Copilot Assist

For updating this story, Copilot made it faster, easier and more convenient for me to do what I needed to anyway. That’s good. But it also let me step beyond what I’d been able to do by way of driver debloating in the past, and tackle duplicate elements as well. That’s about as good as things ever get, here in Windows-World. I’m jazzed!

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More Spurious Win 11 Reclaimables

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Don’t ask me why. But every now and then, MS drops a couple of old, outmoded, and obsolete packages into its Windows 11 updates. They also show up should you perform an in-place upgrade repair (“Reinstall now” via Settings > System > Recovery). Ditto for a clean install. I call them spurious reclaimables because they shows up in DISM … /cleanup-image if you run /analyzecomponentstore. Well, they showed back up on my Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra yesterday. With more spurious Win 11 reclaimables to clean up, that’s just what I did. Here’s how…

Handling More Spurious Win 11 Reclaimables

Through repeated exposure to this phenomenon, and repeated prior cleanups, I’ve learned the names of the packages involved. I’ll also note they come in both AMD64 and ARM64 flavors. If you look at the lead-in graphic you can suss those names out. I repeat them here for readability:


Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~26100.1742.1.10
Microsoft-Windows-FodMetadataServicing-Desktop-Metadata-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.26100.1742

These go into the following DISM command for easy removal (if they’re not present, the command will fail gracefully with no damage to a Windows image):

dism /online /remove-package /packagename:

Paste the package name right after the colon at the end of the string (no spaces). For ARM64 installations change the “amd” in “amd64” in the preceding package names to “arm” (e.g. “arm64”). That’ll do it.

Note: upon double-checking this info on another PC just now, I observed that removing the rollupfix package also removes the FodMetadataServicing package. Thus, a manual attempt to remove the latter fails. Never fear: a quick check of reclaimable packages in DISM shows the count at zero (0). Good-oh! On ARM64 PCs, however, both items (with the stipulated replacement above) MUST be done separately.

Why Do These Spurious Reclaimables Occasionally Come Back from Oblivion?

Copilot explains this as something that’s a “known defect baked directly into the original Windows 11 24H2 installation media.” Apparently this means they will come back in 24H2 and 25H2 images from time to time. When updates that include them are applied, it’s like the movie Poltergeist: “They’re heeeeeere!”

When that happens you can leave them alone. Or, if you tend toward OCD in seeking clean Windows images, you can use DISM to return them to the oblivion they so richly deserve. That’s the way things go occasionally, here in Windows-World. I enjoy such things, in case you can’t tell…

Note: I’ve written on this topic repeatedly. Run this Google search if you’d care to scan some of my other musings on these little zombies.

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OCuLink versus Thunderbolt

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I just learned something new (to me, anyway). In reading about a mini-PC at Neowin today, I ran across mention of an OCuLink port. It looks alot like DisplayPort (full-sized) but it’s not. As Sydney Butler at How-to Geek explains things “OCuLink…[is] short for ‘Optical-Copper Link,’ [and] is a peripheral connection standard that allows you to connect PCIe devices using an external cable rather than an internal slot.” Thus, it uses raw PCIe signaling instead of protocol based channel communications, which makes it faster and cheaper than Thunderbolt 4 (but not 5. where it’s cheaper but slower).

Why Compare OCuLink versus Thunderbolt?

OCuLink can do many of the same things that Thunderbolt does — notably make fast NVMe and eGPU connections — often more cheaply. It can handle external GPUs (eGPUs) faster than TB4 (not TB5), and at lower cost.

OCuLink is not as widely used in laptops, however, and depends on a PCIe (X4 or X8 usually) adapter to make such ports available for use. A new standard, called CopperLink, is on the way to support PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 (and compete directly with TB5). Indeed you can even buy an OCuLink eGPU dock with dual OCuLink and TB5 ports, an M.2 NVMe SSD slot, 2.5Gbe (RJ-45), and even dual USB 3.0 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports for US$240. That’s about half the price of a TB5 dock (e.g. CalDigit, Anker, Lenovo, etc.) nowadays…

Does Slow Thunderbolt Uptake Open a Door?

A good TB4 enclosure costs upward of US$60 these days, and includes a cable. A good TB5 enclosures costs upward of US$150 and includes a cable. A decent OCuLink enclosure costs US$40 or so, but needs a US$20-40 cable to work. It runs faster than TB4 but slower than TB5. The same general scenario applies to running external GPUs: here again, OCuLink falls between TB4 and TB5.

For desktop and mini-PC users with access to open PCIe X4 slots, OCuLink is worth considering. Laptop and tablet owners will probably opt for TB4 because that’s what the majority of OEMs support nowadays. In the future, it’ll be interesting to see if CopperLink gains traction at the expense of TB5. It’s an Open Standard, so OEMs don’t have to pay to license the technology for inclusion in their devices. On such small factors big decisions sometimes rest here in Windows-World. Let’s see what happens!

 

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Undisappearing X13 Gen 6 PING

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I’m getting ready to return the sweet little review unit Lenovo sent me six weeks ago. It’s a ThinkPad X13 Gen 6 (see First Look from November 7). It’s endowed with an Intel Core Ultra 7 255U, 16GB RAM, and an 0.5 GB NVMe SSD. For size and heft, it’s a nominal 13″ ultra-portable (933g/2.05 lbs) that’s easy to pack up and take with you wherever you go. As I was preparing a final once-over, I found myself faced with undisappearing X13 Gen 6 PING. Let me explain…

Why I’m Undisappearing  X13 Gen 6 PING

For some odd reason, Lenovo instituted firewall rules on this eval unit that I’ve never run into before. You can see them in the lead-in graphic where they show — in brief — that for both Private and Domain LAN namespaces, inbound PING is disabled for both IPv4 and IPv6. That means this PC won’t respond to incoming PING requests from the LAN. Sigh.

That’s how Advanced IP Scanner finds PCs (among other techniques). It also explains why IPconfig on the X13 Gen 6 happily reported itself at a private IP address, but didn’t show up in the scans that tool made on my desktop. Sigh again.

This is easily fixed by changing those firewall rules to enable (YES) them, instead of disabling (NO) same. But I wonder: why did Lenovo do this? I can see this applying to boundary devices (e.g. firewalls) and servers, but haven’t really run into it much on end-user PCs. They’s usually safe behind one or more layers of external protection (2 in my case), and don’t get external PINGs. Maybe it’s a “coffee shop” scenario…? But PING is disabled on Public networks anyway. Go figure!

Closing Thoughts on the X13 Gen 6 ThinkPad

As I get ready to box this unit up, and ship it off, I’ve come to some conclusions. On the plus side, it’s light, compact and reasonably capable. I’d be inclined to upgrade the 0.5 GB SSD to 1.0 GB or bigger (with budget 2.0 GB units selling for under US$100 right now, that’s not a big stretch). Otherwise, it’s more than acceptable as-is.

On the minus side, the X13 is a little behind the curve technology wise. Alas,  this model is NOT Copilot+ capable. With its price now over US$1,500 (+US$8.45 at Best Buy, +US$138.22 at Staples) it’s nowhere near as good a deal as a lightweight Snapdragon X-equipped model in that general price range (e.g. Lenovo ThinkPad 7X or Asus Zenbook A14).

Such models usually come equipped with 1 TB SSDs from the get-go, offer better battery life (12+ hours for SnapdragonX models vs. 7-10 hours for the X13), and are on par or better for performance and capability. That said, ARM PCs still have their Windows quirks and limitations, too. Here in Windows-World choosing a laptop always involves certain trade-offs, eh? I’ve come down on the Copilot+ side of things, and remain amazed that less than 2% of new PC purchased globally qualify as such. Given MS’s emphasis on AI, why buy anything else?

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ASUS A14 Zenbook Travelogue

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From December 7 to 16, my wife and I drove to California to pick up son Gregory upon moving out of his dorm on the 11th. For this 10-day odyssey, we took the new Snapdragon X laptop along. This blog post provides a kind of technical ASUS A14 Zenbook travelogue, as we used that machine in the car, and in 7 hotels on our trip. TLDR version: works well, great battery life, and easy to pack and tote. That said, everybody noticed — and missed — touch screen support.

Snippets from ASUS A14 Zenbook Travelogue

Day 1 (Home to Las Cruces, NM): Unbelievably fast Windows Hello facial recognition. Used less than 15% of battery with Kindle Reader in 4-6 hours in the car. Tried to drive interface with finger on screen only to realize this otherwise excellent US$550 lapop does NOT include a touchscreen. No issues using hotel Wi-Fi.

Day  2 (Las Cruces to Phoenix, AZ):  Took less than an hour to fully recharge PC after extended use in car for reading. No 5G support meant I used my iPhone as a wireless hotspot for Internet access in the car. No issues using hotel Wi-Fi, except I had to run thru the hotspot to grab my Hyatt loyalty club info before I could get free, high-perf access. Sigh: it’s always something…

Days 3 – 6 (Los Angeles/Hollywood, CA): Wife Dina and I made regular use of the A14 in the Loews Hollywood Hotel. Easy Wi-Fi access, decent performance for the lo-fi connection (until I figured out we got high-fi because of our room deal). Only had to charge the laptop once during our entire stay. Great battery life!

Into LA, Then Back Home

Day 7 (Hollywood to Bakersfield): The family indulged my burning desire to visit Cafe Pyrenees and tackle more food than you can believe is included in a “dinner setup” (costs US$24.95 by itself). The garlic fried chicken was astounding, and the A14 likewise, with easy Wi-Fi hookups and great web performance.

Day 8 (Bakersfield to Kingman, AZ): The Holiday Inn Express was a big disappointment. The A14 was not: another day of great battery life, easy Wi-Fi hookup, good Web-based Outlook access and performance, and more. I’m now completely comfortable claiming that for light-duty computing (e.g. email, surfing, basic apps and applications) this laptop can run for a long day (12 hours) on battery. Just in case, though, I brought a RavPower RP-PB41 on the trip (its 26,800 mAh capacity can charge the A14 to 100% in about 7 hours: it’s slow because it outputs 5A where the A14 expects 4X that level).

Day 9 (Kingman to Big Spring, TX): We doubled up the driving for a 12-hour day on Dec 15 (we’d originally planned to stop in Albuquerque, NM). The A14 ran all day during our 12:15 drive, with about 17% battery remaining when we pulled into the beautifully restored Hotel Settles around midnight that day. Phew!

Day 10 (Big Spring to Round Rock, TX): The ~5hr drive home drew only about 25% of battery capacity, as I surfed and looked at the 1,015 email messages waiting for me in my inbox at the Webmail server for edtittel.com. I knew the next would be busy as I chewed through that imposing list, to filter the wheat from the chaff.

Final Thoughts and Concerns

Gosh! I’m hard-pressing to ding the A14 for much at all, except for its lack of touchscreen support. Copilot tells me that such capability adds US$75-150 to the cost of a laptop, but I didn’t really stop to check if that was an available option or not when I jumped on its Best Buy Black Friday pricing. As Copilot would have it, buying a touchscreen A14 model would add anywhere from US$259 to US$500 to the US$550 I paid for my current unit at Best Buy. So much for Copilot’s obviously optimistic US$75-150 incremental cost estimate, eh?

All in all, I find this laptop to be eminently suited for mobile, portable use — as long as you have a cellphone that can provide a mobile Internet hookup. Alas, ASUS does not offer an in-PC M.2 slot into which one might insert a 5G card. So it goes, here in Windows-World. Net results: mostly positive, with only a couple of niggles. Love this new laptop: will keep using it as a road machine.

 

 

 

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