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During CES 2019, ASUS ROG announced their crazy product other than their Strix laptop series, the entry of a beast, like no other products in line, ROG MOTHERSHIP (GZ700). This time around, we are lucky to get our hands on this product. IF you noticed, I didn’t use any “Laptop” or “PC” words here, it’s because I don’t even know what to call it! Ok, from now on, I’ll use the term “Machine” ok? Its a half of both laptop and desktop. You can be the judge for the term ok?
Before anything, let’s start with the unboxing video.
From the box, you will get 4 items,
- ROG Mothership
- Asus ROG Mouse
- Asus ROG Cerberus Headset
- A Portable bag
These are all included in the package. Alright, let’s talk about the man on the stage, ROG Mothership.
Price
This beast of a machine is available now, but you might have to keep a good lookout if you are in a non crowded area. Else, you can browse online and get it there! Here’s the catch, this machine will be priced at RM26,999. A WHOPPING RM27K. WOW. This is not a cheap purchase but it might be suitable for you users who don’t have time at home. But that’s not only the point, there are features which makes this a half desktop and a half laptop, let’s talk about that later.
Design
Mothership has 2 components that can be separated,
- The Display
- The Keyboard and trackpad
The display has a back support that will hold it’s own weight like how a Nintendo Switch or a Microsoft Surface would. The kickstand itself provides a study hold when the speakers are blasted to the max.
Asus ROG has an edgy GAMING design fashion and Mothership has this element as well. The chassis together with the display are built with strong metal that contributes a lot of weight for the machine.
WHERE’S THE RGB? Oh, no worries, as a fan myself, Asus ROG placed a lot of RGB lightnings at a few places. First is at the kickstand, second at the compartment below the screen, the keyboard, and also the ROG logo at the bottom of the keyboard. All these RGB will definitely pimp up your gaming setup in your room!
The machine’s detachable keyboard can be in 3 different styles
- Flat
- Folded triangularly
- Folded entirely
Depending on what situation you’re in, you can definitely find a best way to fit your hands.
Speakers are at the bottom of the display compartment and we assure you that it is loud enough for gaming.
As for ports, there are a sufficient of ports that you can get, ranging from LAN, DisplayPort, HDMI and a few USB as well!
The fans are located at the top so that you will not feel the heat immediately after you went on high performance. A side note that you should also notice is the amount of power ports. There are 2 power bricks for this machine to fully push to its limits, but we did try to use it with only one power brick and it runs fine as well!
These fans and power consumption are claimed to be assisting the machine’s cooling mechanisms with 2 internal fans to make a flow through the cooling pipes across the CPU and GPU. Although that sounded really nice, but the system can still go to a very high temperature at a long heavy usage.
Display
As a standard in competitive gaming, Asus packaged in the standard 144Hz for Full HD uses or a 60Hz for 4k resolution. The 144Hz that is packed will have a 3ms delay while the 4k panel will have a 25ms but with 100% RGB compatibility. The Full HD display will also features Nvidia G-synch technology and it is still a decent machine to do any editing.
If you ever need more displays, there are 1 HDMI and a Thunderbolt 3 to add on 2 more displays for your convenience.
Keyboard
The keyboard are pretty standard keyboards, although from a picture, it might look a bit small, but it is actually very comfortable. The keyboard features a 2.5mm key travel and a switch to activate or deactivate wireless keyboard mode. I was wondering if there is another similar machine beside, will it mess up? Since we only had one, we couldn’t try it.
The unique part of the keyboard lays at the trackpad. The trackpad here can be functioned as a mouse or, with a press of a button, change to a numpad, pretty cool!
There’s still a problem with this detachable keyboard. It is pretty hard to estimate the exact location of the bumps, with a strong magnet attached to the keyboard, it might hurt to connect the keyboard back to the display. With a few tries, it might also ruin one of the bumps as well.
Performance
When Asus ROG was serious with their intentions to make a powerful machine to be the middle line for laptops and desktops, they actually made it. With the on board RTX 2080 and the superb 144Hz display, gaming was not a challenge for the machine. Here’s a few benchmarks that we made testing out the machine.
As you can tell, it’s a no problemo for le machine to perform. With that said, I also did got a hit on the head for this file moving with a normal 8GB Pendrive. Take a look.
I’m not sure why is it too slow, it might just be my pendrive.
Sound and Software
Mothership features four 4W speakers at the front which is capable to produce a 7.1 virtual surround sound experience. This might be the most lackluster feature for the machine. When the keyboard are docked, the sound produced might be a little bit unclear and I’ll be honest, it doesn’t sound any difference to a normal stereo speaker.
Other than that, the speakers are clear and it is better if you have the headset attached.
Battery life and Upgrading
With a need for 2 power bricks, the machine can only run for 3 hours or normal usage. Since its a half PC and half laptop, you can upgrade the on board RAM or maybe the SSD, like a laptop! But do keep in mind that this might or might not void your warranty.
Specs
| Processor | Intel® i9-9980HK(8 core) with liquid metal |
| GPU | NVIDIA® GEFORCE® RTX® 2080 |
| Display | 17.3″ FHD IPS 144Hz IPS level panel, GTG 3ms |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| RAM | Up to DDR4 2666MHz (Dual Channel) up to 64GB |
| Storage | 3 x M.2 NVMe PCIE 3 x 4 512GB SSD (RAID 0) |
| Webcam | FHD 1080P@30FPS, supports windows hello |
| LAN | 2.5G Ethernet |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | 802.11ax WLAN, Bluetooth5 |
| I/O Ports | 3 x USB-typeA 3.2 Gen2 1 x USB-typeA 3.2 Gen1 1 x USB-typeC 3.2 Gen2 (Thunderbolt 3) 1 x USB-typeC 3.2 Gen2 (With DisplayPort™ 1.4) 1 x HDMI 2 1 x SD card reader 1 x Mic in 1 x Audio combo 2 x DC jack 1 x RJ-45 jack 1 x Kensington Lock |
| Keyboard | Per key 2.5mm travel distance RGB backlit chiclet keyboard Aura Sync support (in wired / wireless mode) |
| Audio | 4 x 4W = 16W full range speaker with smart amplification |
| Battery | 6 cell, 3S2P, 90Whr |
| Power | 280W power adapter x 2 |
| Dimensions | 410*320mm*29.9mm |
| Weight | 4.8kg |
| Price | RM26,999 |
What do I think?
I felt like this machine has it uniqueness in the market and definitely will spark interest on some consumers. As for an average competitive wanna be gamer, I felt that this was not appealing to me, especially on the price tag and all the accessories included. But none the less, it a wonderful piece of technology.
What do you think? Will you make and attempt to buy this beast of a machine? Or will it be another pass for something cheaper. Let us know down in the comments and share your thoughts!
