At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit today, alongside Qualcomm officially announcing the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC platform, several partners got up on stage to promote their upcoming wares. The main headline device was from ASUS. CEO Jerry Shen announced the ASUS NovaGo (TP370) as the world’s first Gigabit LTE capable laptop, supported by the SD835 chip and its inbuilt X16 LTE modem.

The key factor of these devices that ASUS (and Qualcomm) want to drive home is the always-on connectivity (provided by the built-in modem) as well as the battery life. To that end ASUS is listing the new NovaGo as having up to 22 hours of battery life and 30 days of modern standby. The idea is that the user can pick up the notebook in the morning and not need to charge it all day until they get home, or in the case of one speaker’s experience, charge it once a week.  The battery is rated at 52 Wh.

On the connectivity front, ASUS has bundled the X16 LTE modem with enough hardware support for 4x Carrier Aggregation and 4x4 MIMO for up to gigabit LTE speeds, and 2x2 802.11ac for standard wireless connectivity. The LTE data flow can be accessed by eSIM or nanoSIM, allowing users to activate local data plans from the Windows Store immediately coming off the plane.

The base specifications have the device at 4GB DRAM and 64GB of UFS 2.0 storage, or there will be an upgraded model with 8GB of DRAM and 128GB of storage for an extra $200. ASUS lists the storage as capable of 1.4 Gbps, although it will be interesting to see how that translates when we get the devices on hand. Ports on the NovaGo include two USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-A ports and an HDMI port, with a 3.5mm jack.

ASUS NovaGo (TP370)
  Specifications
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile SoC

4 x Kryo 280 Performance (2.45 GHz)
4 x Kryo Efficiency (1.9 GHz)

Adreno 540 GPU (710 MHz)
Operating System Microsoft Windows 10 S
Display 13.3-inch 1920x1080 IPS
DRAM 4 GB 8 GB
Storage 64 GB 128 GB 256 GB
Connectivity Qualcomm Integrated X16 LTE
Cat 16 Download: 1 Gbps
Cat 13 Upload: 150 Mbps

2x2 802.11ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi
I/O 2 x USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-A
1 x 3.5mm Audio Jack
1 x Combo Nano-SIM (tray)
1 x MicroSD Card Reader (up to 256 GB)
1 x HDMI
1 x DX-in
Speakers 2 x Stereo with Smart Amp
Battery 52 Wh Li-Po
Dimensions 316.0 x 221.6 x 14.9 mm
1.39 kg
Price (US MSRP) $599 $799 ?

The OS will be Windows 10 S. This runs a version of Windows that relies mostly on the Store for the main applications but the system does perform binary translation (or similar) for 32-bit x86 applications. 64-bit x86 apps are a no-go, so for users that have their own software setups outside the Windows 10 store, it might get a little tricky (Qualcomm doesn’t see this as much of an issue). Applications like Office365 will have their own optimized versions for the SD835 Mobile PC devices.

The NovaGo is a full 360º hinge design, with a 14.9mm z-height and weighing in at 1.39 kg with a sandblasted Sky Grey finish. The 13.3-inch 1080p NanoEdge display has a 78% screen to body ratio and supports 10-point multitouch as well as ASUS Pen support with 1024 pressure levels. ASUS also cites 178º viewing angles and 100% sRGB gamut, with ASUS Eye Care and Tru2Life video technology.

Arrangements are already in place with T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, TIM, China Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom, while other providers in the main first wave of countries (US, UK, Italy, France, Germany, China, Taiwan) are in discussions with ASUS.

Pricing for the device gives the base 4/64 model as $599, and the upgraded 8/128 model as $799. That puts it in the realm of a large number of good Intel-based clamshells, including those from ASUS, although without always-on connectivity.

Availability will be region dependant, though we did not get any other information. ASUS say they are the first, and with a bunch of devices coming at CES, it would be before the others (HP says Spring 2018).

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  • Manch - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    yeah I don't see the use case here. Dell XPS 13 $799 (almost 14hrs batt life)along with your phone to tether is better than this. native x64, etc. I don't have an XPS 13 but maybe someone here does. Can you downclock it and draw out that battery life?
  • ikjadoon - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    14 hours doing what?...

    Phone tether: great, now you run down that battery, too, and welp: SMS and phone calls on-the-go are completely out. I know this because I live this life, my dude. The phone has always been the wrong place to get work done, anyways.

    Downclocking...you've now eliminated 99% of the consumer market. Nobody's downlocking besides us, mate.
  • Manch - Friday, December 8, 2017 - link

    I only asked about downclocking bc I was curious how far the battery life could be extended.

    @ $799 vs $799 again even for a casual user I don't see the use case here. If its LTE connectivity there are plenty of usb adapters or again tether your phone. And no it doesn't preclude SMS or phone calls. I am on the road a lot and I tether my phone when I need to get online with my laptop. Hell, lots of time I'm on the phone while tethered talking to someone in my shop trying to run down an problem.

    What are you sacrificing for 40% more battery life and built in LTE? As of right now.....too much.
  • WJMazepas - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    I would be much more interested if this device came with Ubuntu or even ChromeOS.

    Pretty sure the performance would be bigger and would be able to do everything this Windows 10S emulated do
  • Santoval - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    Way too expensive for what it offers, and even more expensive if you take into account that it uses emulation between the two instruction sets. So, no matter how efficient that emulation (sorry, I meant "binary translation") the performance is going to be poorer than that of native SD835 in the mobile space.
  • Mikewind Dale - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    $599? I'm disappointed. You can get a laptop with a Core i7-7500U for that price. (Such as my own Lenovo E570.) I was hoping this would be a low-price competitor for things like the HP Stream. Approx. $200. But for $599, you can get something much more powerful.
  • ikjadoon - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    Why are all so many of these comments so...baseless? "Much more powerful" - you have zero idea what normal consumers do laptops. You all should compare the Ars Technica comments with these. Thank goodness they have a voting system so illogical comparisons like this are shut down.

    Your E570 is 15.6" - a different class of laptops that almost always cheaper than 13" laptops in the sub-$1000 price range.

    Let me make this short and simple because I'm flabbergasted you would ever recommend the E570 (which I looked at for my own father just two months ago!) over these new SD835 systems.

    You're trying to say a spinning hard disk (instant fail), 768p non-touch (another instant fail), 5.1 pound, 7.6 hour battery life E570....is "much more powerful" than an SD835 with an SSD, 1080p touch, 3.1 pound, 20-hour battery life NovaGo?

    I'll laugh for both of us and the rest of the PC community for you now. Please don't recommend 5.1 pound laptops to my family with 768p screens and spinning hard disks and dare to tell them, "this is much more powerful."

    The epitome of closed-minded enthusiasts. I built a $1500 gaming system and I overclocked the CPU, GPU, and RAM to their limits on a 144Hz monitor. I can tell what performance is. But, for laptop recommendations, please: stay in your lane. You don't know what "powerful" means to a typical consumer.
  • shadowninjazx - Monday, December 18, 2017 - link

    I made an account just for you ikjadoon. You are quite baseless. Chuwi laptops has 1080p or even microsoft surface displays with decent power for your father (if he uses word and stuff) and decent battery life and decent eMMC. You can easily attach a SSD. It is light too. Now that is less than 300 or 400 USD!!!!
    Now compare that to the stupid SD835 system for 600. You got to be kidding me. At least 200 of those dollars goes into LTE which I doubt is useful on laptops anyways.
  • eSyr - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link

    But will it run NetBSD?
  • Lord of the Bored - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link

    If it doesn't yet, it will in six months.

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