Computex is the nirvana of computer hardware.
In 2018, having 4K and 120Hz in a laptop will cost you an arm and a leg, if not your soul. But, the rather steep asking price is the portal to something of a crown jewel in the consumer display market: a feature reserved only for the ultra-high-end desktop gaming monitors.
Now, Asus wants to bring the features to one of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) laptops.
During the Taipei tech expo, Asus confirmed in a blog post that a special version of the Zephyrus S GX502 will receive the blessing (and probably a matching expensive price tag).
Asus says the panel is sourced from AUO, a company that supplies many different panels for numerous gaming monitors on the market. This time, the Taiwanese display panel giant went to town and came back with a 15.6-inch 4K panel with a refresh rate of 120Hz.
By doubling the amount of refresh rate found in a typical 60Hz panel, you can scroll through web pages and play games with noticeably more smoothness and responsiveness. It’s one of those features that belong to the “once you have tried it, you can’t really go back” club.
For discerning content creators who game, Asus says the new panel covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB colour space and can be factory calibrated for better colour accuracy. The wide colour space coverage suggests that the panel type should be either VA or AHVA(IPS), and that is good news.
As expected, Asus also threw in G-Sync tech: Nvidia’s proprietary variable refresh rate tech to smooth out the gaming experience should the gaming frame rate dips. Regardless, the apparent decision also has another reason: the Geforce RTX 2070 GPU found in the current GX502 is not intended to handle 4K and 120Hz in gaming at all, at least not on high settings. It is unclear if Asus wants to put the faster RTX 2080 in place of 2070.
It’s possible that other laptop manufacturers, like MSI and Alienware, will follow suit if they can source 4K 120Hz panels from a proven supplier like AUO.
Stay tuned for more Computex 2019 coverage on MobileSyrup.
Source: Asus
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