ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400) – Top 5 Pros and Cons

While previously ASUS’s ExpertBook brand has focused on more affordable devices, their most recent B9 unit is up there and ready to battle the ThinkPad X1 series from Lenovo or any other premium notebook from any brand, in terms of features and build quality.

ASUS also advertised the laptop as the lightest 14-inch notebook out there, which might have some truth to it. Powering the device are the Tiger Lake U-series chips, which are still as relevant as ever since Alder Lake will still need some time filling out shelves.

Today we are presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400).

ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400): Full Specs / In-depth Review


4 reasons to BUY the ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400)

1. Design and build quality

The laptop somehow managed to pass the MIL-STD-810H certification tests, despite weighing only 0.88 kg and having a thickness of just 14.9 mm. The secret sauce is in the build material, which here is a highly unusual magnesium-lithium alloy. No, this is not a battery, but either a very strong material, of which even a thin sheet provides the necessary structural support. The lid does flex a little bit, but the base is much sturdier.

Opening the lid is easy with one hand, revealing a great set of input devices. The lid also has an ErgoLift mechanism, which works quite well here, giving you a good typing angle. Going back to the keyboard and touchpad, we are delighted with long key travel, clicky feedback, and spill resistance. The Arrow keys are smaller than we would like, but that’s what you get with smaller devices. The touchpad is very large with a smooth surface and accurate tracking.


2. I/O

The device offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a single USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 2.0b port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.


3. Display quality

Being a premium laptop, you have a premium display with no PWM usage, FHD resolution, and an IPS panel. The screen comes with comfortable viewing angles, a max brightness of 343 nits in the middle of the screen, 330 nits average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 9%. The contrast ratio is very good 1580:1. The display covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut, ensuring rich and vibrant colors.

The color accuracy reaches a dE value of 0.9 with our Design and Gaming profile.


Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400) configurations with 14.0″ AUO B140HAN06.B (AUOA48F) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


4. Battery life

Somehow, the crazy engineers over at ASUS managed to reverse engineer the TARDIS, thus being able to put a 66Wh battery pack inside. It lasts for 16 hours and 54 minutes of Web browsing, or 13 hours and 20 minutes of video playback. Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.


1 reason NOT to buy the ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400)

1. Upgradeability

There is no way that you could upgrade the RAM, with all of it being soldered onto the motherboard. However, you do get quad-channel RAM, which turns out to be pretty good for both CPU and iGPU performance. Storage-wise, there are two 80mm M.2 PCIe x4 slots with RAID support.

Here is our teardown video, which shows how to access the M.2 slots.


All ASUS ExpertBook B9 (B9400) configurations:

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