{"video_id":"fk2yLE2V_aE","title":"How did this not take off?? - AceMagic X1","channel":"ShortCircuit","show":"ShortCircuit","published_at":"2026-04-04T14:58:16Z","duration_s":626,"segments":[{"start_s":0.0,"end_s":6.44,"text":"This laptop from Ace Magic spent over two years buried in our warehouse. Why","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.0,"end_s":10.56,"text":"are we making a video about it today? Well, because I was digging through our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":8.36,"end_s":16.44,"text":"warehouse looking for interesting stuff and I pulled this out of the sleeve and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":12.12,"end_s":19.0,"text":"I went Woah! That is so cool. How did we","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.44,"end_s":24.52,"text":"never make a video about this? Look at this thing. Double your pleasure, double","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":21.28,"end_s":26.32,"text":"your fun. The craziest part is it's not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":24.52,"end_s":31.44,"text":"even really thicker than a normal laptop. Here's my daily driver. Okay, in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":28.68,"end_s":36.32,"text":"fairness, the PX13 is probably about 10 times more powerful, but let's have a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":33.8,"end_s":42.04,"text":"look at what comes with the Ace Magic. Ah, yes, cardboard, my favorite. Mmm,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":40.04,"end_s":47.4,"text":"second cardboard. Cardboard with treats. That is one thick","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":44.92,"end_s":51.36,"text":"manual. Decoration. Vent. All right, I'm an expert now. We","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":50.04,"end_s":56.12,"text":"also get a power adapter, which is really important either because it was sitting in our warehouse for two years","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":54.68,"end_s":60.4,"text":"or because it was degraded in the first place, but we're only getting about 50%","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":58.56,"end_s":64.36,"text":"of what Ace Magic said we should get in terms of battery life. Actually, before","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":62.28,"end_s":69.2,"text":"we charge it, now seems like a good time to have a look at the IO. We've got a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":66.48,"end_s":73.96,"text":"type-C port that is just for charging, type-C port that'll do data as well as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":71.6,"end_s":79.44,"text":"display out, and along this side we've got this incredible looking hinge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":76.72,"end_s":82.2,"text":"mechanism that probably looks cooler than it ends up being, but we'll get to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":80.88,"end_s":87.92,"text":"that in a moment. On the right, we get an HDMI port. This will do HDMI 2.0 as","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":85.28,"end_s":93.08,"text":"well as a USB 5 gigabit per second port, another speaker, and that's about all","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":90.68,"end_s":97.4,"text":"you get for IO. As the documentation helpfully pointed out, this is vent and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":95.24,"end_s":102.16,"text":"you will need that vent because in its shipping configuration this device was","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.32,"end_s":107.16,"text":"configured to only draw a maximum of 30 watts and a baseline of about 15 watts","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":105.28,"end_s":113.04,"text":"leading to performance that would be best described as pathetic compared to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":109.68,"end_s":115.68,"text":"anything even remotely modern, and while","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":113.04,"end_s":119.36,"text":"we were able to tune the BIOS to allow the CPU to draw more power, we found","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":117.72,"end_s":124.0,"text":"that this area up here, which contains the buttons to configure the secondary","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":121.12,"end_s":127.0,"text":"display, got so hot that it was painful to the touch. Hey, now that we've got it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":125.72,"end_s":131.4,"text":"cracked open, we can take a look at this. We've got a fingerprint sensor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":128.759,"end_s":137.84,"text":"including power button. We've got these buttons right here, which A B glasses","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.88,"end_s":143.959,"text":"and multitask do something with the secondary display. We've got decoration.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":141.24,"end_s":148.12,"text":"Stay hungry, stay foolish. Apparently, Steve Jobs said it. Anyway, we've got a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":146.36,"end_s":152.8,"text":"little tip sticker here. For faster setup, avoid Wi-Fi or LAN initially.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":150.76,"end_s":158.12,"text":"Connecting might trigger long updates delaying desktop access. Okay.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":155.68,"end_s":161.12,"text":"That is actually some solid advice. Not normally, normally I mean, Microsoft","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":160.0,"end_s":165.76,"text":"actually requires you to have an internet connection to set up Windows unless you go through a bunch of hoops.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":163.88,"end_s":170.28,"text":"But on this device, even though it's got a 12th gen Core i7,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":168.2,"end_s":174.0,"text":"so perfectly cromulent modern processor, we found that in its stock BIOS","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":172.2,"end_s":180.12,"text":"configuration, it throttled down as low as 4 100 MHz. So, yeah, it was","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":178.52,"end_s":183.64,"text":"absolutely painful waiting around for Windows","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":182.12,"end_s":188.32,"text":"updates. Now, you might think, well, surely Linus then that resulted in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":185.56,"end_s":191.959,"text":"really truly excellent battery life. No, not so much. Even if the battery had","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":190.239,"end_s":195.44,"text":"operated at 100% capacity, we'd have been looking at about 4 to 5 hours of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":193.84,"end_s":198.88,"text":"battery life in our maximum endurance configuration, which is not amazing. So,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":197.48,"end_s":206.4,"text":"why am I bothering to make a video about it? Go ahead, give it the zoom. Ah, yes.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":203.84,"end_s":210.36,"text":"I feel productive already. You know what's really productive? Telling you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.84,"end_s":214.44,"text":"about our sponsor. We here at LMG love tax season. It's basically our Christmas","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":212.519,"end_s":219.56,"text":"just with more snow. That's why we want to help you help us with some tax","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":217.16,"end_s":224.28,"text":"write-offs with some great LTT Store deals. Mystery screwdrivers, mystery","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":222.04,"end_s":227.519,"text":"water bottles, mystery shirts, even things like open-box commuter backpacks.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":226.6,"end_s":232.92,"text":"There's even going to be some third-party goodies for you folks to snag as well. Really, we're just digging","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":231.2,"end_s":237.16,"text":"into the treasure trove that is the forgotten aisles of the warehouse. So,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":235.32,"end_s":240.64,"text":"grab yourself a water bottle. Shucks, it's giving season. Grab one for your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":238.64,"end_s":244.24,"text":"friends, too. Save some money on LTT Store products by helping us write them","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":242.72,"end_s":249.64,"text":"off at the links below or at lttstore.com. Time to experience this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":247.52,"end_s":253.56,"text":"thing. Let's start with a quick notepad. Can't open this app. Uh,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":251.44,"end_s":257.56,"text":"that's a new one. Just so you guys know, I don't really detect that flicker with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":255.48,"end_s":262.48,"text":"my eyes in person. That doesn't mean it's not there. Okay. Advanced options.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":262.88,"end_s":266.8,"text":"Okay. It launched.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":267.76,"end_s":274.36,"text":"The keyboard is fine. I love the look of this hinge. It's so cool. I do worry","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":272.32,"end_s":277.68,"text":"that never mind getting a little bit of dust or moisture in there. You could get","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":275.88,"end_s":282.96,"text":"like a whole sandwich lodged in that hinge. But, oh, that's a cool potential","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":281.16,"end_s":286.76,"text":"use case for it. You could have a display on the front and a display on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":284.88,"end_s":290.16,"text":"the back. So, they make the argument that you might sit in a coffee shop","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":288.32,"end_s":293.36,"text":"sharing a presentation with your boss sitting here across from you, for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":291.6,"end_s":297.96,"text":"instance. Of course, if we want to do that, we're going to have to get that screen turned on. [music] Sorry, I keep","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":296.28,"end_s":301.72,"text":"getting distracted. The keyboard is not amazing. Um,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":299.88,"end_s":305.68,"text":"perfectly functional, but boy, is that ever a lot of deck flex. Also, this may","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":303.56,"end_s":308.72,"text":"be the worst right shift position that I have ever seen.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":307.198,"end_s":313.84,"text":">> [laughter] >> Across the arrow key. No. Keyboards were","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":311.76,"end_s":317.88,"text":"invented by people who are much smarter than you. Don't reinvent them. It's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":316.0,"end_s":322.52,"text":"quiet. I lied, it's not that quiet. As soon as I launched task manager, this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":320.0,"end_s":325.68,"text":"the fan started ramping. Let's play around with the gimmick.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":324.4,"end_s":331.48,"text":"B. Why the hell would you ever want that?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":329.04,"end_s":337.36,"text":"Okay, I'll bite. Maybe I'm a gamer and I want to sit just ever so slightly closer","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.96,"end_s":339.88,"text":"to my screen. It was a touch screen.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":337.36,"end_s":344.24,"text":"Um, yeah. Yeah, if it Wait. Oh, for crying out","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":341.88,"end_s":348.76,"text":"loud. You can't just like use it as a tablet. A, because it's not a touch","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":346.56,"end_s":353.048,"text":"screen, and B, because it will just go to sleep even though one of the displays","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":350.88,"end_s":356.04,"text":"is totally open. Hey Adam, have you ever [clears throat] thought that your laptop","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":354.8,"end_s":360.76,"text":"is just you know, 12 in shy of being exciting?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":358.92,"end_s":365.12,"text":"No, not really. Oh, right. You have this but not stupid.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":363.16,"end_s":368.76,"text":"I guess you're not that jealous. All right. Well, I guess it's time for us to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":367.0,"end_s":371.2,"text":"try the other buttons. Boop.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":372.28,"end_s":377.84,"text":"Okay. If I was sitting like this, I","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":375.28,"end_s":381.28,"text":"wouldn't want this way out flat because if we're being honest, the viewing","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":379.32,"end_s":384.88,"text":"angles on these screens not amazing. So, you can see it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":383.32,"end_s":389.56,"text":"reasonably bright from the front. We ended up getting anywhere from mid to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":386.8,"end_s":394.0,"text":"high 200s to low 300 nits for both of them. They were, in spite of reporting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":391.64,"end_s":398.0,"text":"as being the same panel, quite different in terms [music] of their performance","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":395.8,"end_s":401.919,"text":"for brightness, which was weird. Same color gamut.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":399.6,"end_s":406.96,"text":"Horrible. Worst we've seen in years. Like, less than 70% of sRGB. Freaking","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":404.96,"end_s":410.84,"text":"wild. Uh, but they do this weird thing. See, it's quite bright","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.6,"end_s":414.28,"text":"and then it goes like really dim and then it kind of goes bright again.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":412.4,"end_s":417.64,"text":"I've never seen that before. In all my years of doing this. You see that?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":416.48,"end_s":423.0,"text":"Dim. See, it goes bright again at the very extreme. Anyway, the point is I would","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":421.32,"end_s":427.08,"text":"want it kind of here so that I'm looking straight at it. And the hinge","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":425.64,"end_s":430.76,"text":"if I wiggle wobble it at all, it's going to just kind of flatten out. The good","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":428.72,"end_s":435.24,"text":"news for Ace Magic is that they don't seem to actually be responsible for this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":432.56,"end_s":439.36,"text":"design. As far as we can tell, they just bought something they found on Alibaba","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":437.6,"end_s":442.64,"text":"and rebranded it. Okay, that makes them responsible for the product, but it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":441.0,"end_s":448.04,"text":"raises a lot of questions for me. Who made this? Who bought it? What does this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":445.0,"end_s":448.04,"text":"last button do?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":450.4,"end_s":456.52,"text":"Oh, now we're cloning. So, there's your coffee shop use case. All right. Why","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":454.88,"end_s":460.8,"text":"don't we try playing a game? I'm going to optimistically grab my mouse assuming","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":458.84,"end_s":463.92,"text":"that I will ever actually be moving across here. And I'm going to grab it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":462.24,"end_s":468.84,"text":"from this new colorway of our Commuter Backpack, by the way.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":466.64,"end_s":471.12,"text":"Stay tuned on lttstore.com. I wanted to lean it down so you guys","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":470.12,"end_s":476.2,"text":"could see it in the top-down, but I don't have to. What a great design. That's a small","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":474.52,"end_s":480.4,"text":"trackpad for modern year. In all seriousness, if it wasn't for the poor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":478.0,"end_s":484.36,"text":"execution, I actually do like the overall idea of having a second screen","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":482.44,"end_s":488.08,"text":"side by side like this. Is it better than the one Adam brought over that had","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":485.76,"end_s":491.91,"text":"the detachable keyboard and that you could kind of put into landscape and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":490.16,"end_s":495.6,"text":"then spread out that way? >> [sighs] >> Probably not. I daily drove one like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":494.48,"end_s":501.52,"text":"that for a little while and it was pretty awesome. But I do think there's people who would prefer something like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":499.0,"end_s":506.12,"text":"this, too. This is wild. I'm getting 3 FPS in the menu. I didn't even know that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":503.72,"end_s":509.32,"text":"CS 2 pre-compiled shaders. Probably cuz it usually happens so fast I don't","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":507.64,"end_s":513.32,"text":"notice it, but here it is. You know what? I'm back to blaming Ace Magic for this.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":512.32,"end_s":517.68,"text":"They should have known better than to put their brand on it. Or they should have at least found out what it was","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":516.039,"end_s":521.4,"text":"before putting their brand on it. On their site, they actually have a guide","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":519.159,"end_s":525.4,"text":"to how to replace the RAM. Well, we cracked it open and it turns out that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":523.44,"end_s":529.24,"text":"you can only replace the NVMe storage drive. The RAM is soldered. So, they","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":527.6,"end_s":534.56,"text":"don't even seem to know exactly what it is that they're selling. Yeah,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":531.36,"end_s":535.56,"text":"about 7 FPS. I'm going to get a kill.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":534.56,"end_s":540.96,"text":"Oh, whoa, that was a big stutter.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":538.88,"end_s":545.28,"text":"Whoa, that was another big one. Going to kill Oh, I got one.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":542.44,"end_s":549.56,"text":"I got one. To be clear, these are bots. Whoa, did you see how long that mag took","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.4,"end_s":554.88,"text":"to fall to the ground? That was crazy. The game physics are completely broken.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":551.96,"end_s":557.72,"text":"Whoa, that was like a 3-second pause. Not much else to say at this point.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":556.4,"end_s":561.76,"text":"Nobody's going to actually buy this laptop, so I don't think we need to get","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":559.44,"end_s":563.68,"text":"too deep into what generation of Wi-Fi it has. Six.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":563.306,"end_s":569.24,"text":">> [music] >> Or what Bluetooth it supports. 5.2. If","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":566.839,"end_s":573.6,"text":"it was really cheap, maybe it could be justified if all you really need it for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":571.28,"end_s":577.92,"text":"is basic office work and you don't mind putting in the work to go modify a BIOS","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":576.04,"end_s":581.4,"text":"or something like that in order to get decent performance out of it. But even","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":579.6,"end_s":586.52,"text":"when it was on clearance toward the end, it was over $800, which is more than I'd","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":584.24,"end_s":593.32,"text":"be willing to pay for this experience. Wait, this just in. Last December, it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":588.92,"end_s":595.52,"text":"apparently went down to just over $400.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":593.32,"end_s":598.6,"text":"Okay, hold on a second. That promo code is still on the site?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":597.4,"end_s":603.44,"text":">> It's sold out. The whole laptop is sold out now. Oh. Oh, it's sold out. Okay, at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":601.36,"end_s":607.52,"text":"that price, yeah, I'd say it might actually be worth it. 400 bucks? Yeah,","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":605.68,"end_s":610.32,"text":"it's still pretty crappy. But you know what's not crappy?","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":608.84,"end_s":613.8,"text":"Subscribing to ShortCircuit. You should definitely do that. Oh god. If you are","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":612.08,"end_s":617.4,"text":"interested in the concept of a very large screen laptop or expanding screen","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":615.76,"end_s":622.96,"text":"laptop, we've got a video coming on the ASUS ZenBook Duo coming up soon. It's a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1},{"start_s":620.36,"end_s":627.52,"text":"lot more expensive, but it's a much, much better experience.","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":1}],"full_text":"This laptop from Ace Magic spent over two years buried in our warehouse. Why are we making a video about it today? Well, because I was digging through our warehouse looking for interesting stuff and I pulled this out of the sleeve and I went Woah! That is so cool. How did we never make a video about this? Look at this thing. Double your pleasure, double your fun. The craziest part is it's not even really thicker than a normal laptop. Here's my daily driver. Okay, in fairness, the PX13 is probably about 10 times more powerful, but let's have a look at what comes with the Ace Magic. Ah, yes, cardboard, my favorite. Mmm, second cardboard. Cardboard with treats. That is one thick manual. Decoration. Vent. All right, I'm an expert now. We also get a power adapter, which is really important either because it was sitting in our warehouse for two years or because it was degraded in the first place, but we're only getting about 50% of what Ace Magic said we should get in terms of battery life. Actually, before we charge it, now seems like a good time to have a look at the IO. We've got a type-C port that is just for charging, type-C port that'll do data as well as display out, and along this side we've got this incredible looking hinge mechanism that probably looks cooler than it ends up being, but we'll get to that in a moment. On the right, we get an HDMI port. This will do HDMI 2.0 as well as a USB 5 gigabit per second port, another speaker, and that's about all you get for IO. As the documentation helpfully pointed out, this is vent and you will need that vent because in its shipping configuration this device was configured to only draw a maximum of 30 watts and a baseline of about 15 watts leading to performance that would be best described as pathetic compared to anything even remotely modern, and while we were able to tune the BIOS to allow the CPU to draw more power, we found that this area up here, which contains the buttons to configure the secondary display, got so hot that it was painful to the touch. Hey, now that we've got it cracked open, we can take a look at this. We've got a fingerprint sensor including power button. We've got these buttons right here, which A B glasses and multitask do something with the secondary display. We've got decoration. Stay hungry, stay foolish. Apparently, Steve Jobs said it. Anyway, we've got a little tip sticker here. For faster setup, avoid Wi-Fi or LAN initially. Connecting might trigger long updates delaying desktop access. Okay. That is actually some solid advice. Not normally, normally I mean, Microsoft actually requires you to have an internet connection to set up Windows unless you go through a bunch of hoops. But on this device, even though it's got a 12th gen Core i7, so perfectly cromulent modern processor, we found that in its stock BIOS configuration, it throttled down as low as 4 100 MHz. So, yeah, it was absolutely painful waiting around for Windows updates. Now, you might think, well, surely Linus then that resulted in really truly excellent battery life. No, not so much. Even if the battery had operated at 100% capacity, we'd have been looking at about 4 to 5 hours of battery life in our maximum endurance configuration, which is not amazing. So, why am I bothering to make a video about it? Go ahead, give it the zoom. Ah, yes. I feel productive already. You know what's really productive? Telling you about our sponsor. We here at LMG love tax season. It's basically our Christmas just with more snow. That's why we want to help you help us with some tax write-offs with some great LTT Store deals. Mystery screwdrivers, mystery water bottles, mystery shirts, even things like open-box commuter backpacks. There's even going to be some third-party goodies for you folks to snag as well. Really, we're just digging into the treasure trove that is the forgotten aisles of the warehouse. So, grab yourself a water bottle. Shucks, it's giving season. Grab one for your friends, too. Save some money on LTT Store products by helping us write them off at the links below or at lttstore.com. Time to experience this thing. Let's start with a quick notepad. Can't open this app. Uh, that's a new one. Just so you guys know, I don't really detect that flicker with my eyes in person. That doesn't mean it's not there. Okay. Advanced options. Okay. It launched. The keyboard is fine. I love the look of this hinge. It's so cool. I do worry that never mind getting a little bit of dust or moisture in there. You could get like a whole sandwich lodged in that hinge. But, oh, that's a cool potential use case for it. You could have a display on the front and a display on the back. So, they make the argument that you might sit in a coffee shop sharing a presentation with your boss sitting here across from you, for instance. Of course, if we want to do that, we're going to have to get that screen turned on. [music] Sorry, I keep getting distracted. The keyboard is not amazing. Um, perfectly functional, but boy, is that ever a lot of deck flex. Also, this may be the worst right shift position that I have ever seen. >> [laughter] >> Across the arrow key. No. Keyboards were invented by people who are much smarter than you. Don't reinvent them. It's quiet. I lied, it's not that quiet. As soon as I launched task manager, this the fan started ramping. Let's play around with the gimmick. B. Why the hell would you ever want that? Okay, I'll bite. Maybe I'm a gamer and I want to sit just ever so slightly closer to my screen. It was a touch screen. Um, yeah. Yeah, if it Wait. Oh, for crying out loud. You can't just like use it as a tablet. A, because it's not a touch screen, and B, because it will just go to sleep even though one of the displays is totally open. Hey Adam, have you ever [clears throat] thought that your laptop is just you know, 12 in shy of being exciting? No, not really. Oh, right. You have this but not stupid. I guess you're not that jealous. All right. Well, I guess it's time for us to try the other buttons. Boop. Okay. If I was sitting like this, I wouldn't want this way out flat because if we're being honest, the viewing angles on these screens not amazing. So, you can see it's reasonably bright from the front. We ended up getting anywhere from mid to high 200s to low 300 nits for both of them. They were, in spite of reporting as being the same panel, quite different in terms [music] of their performance for brightness, which was weird. Same color gamut. Horrible. Worst we've seen in years. Like, less than 70% of sRGB. Freaking wild. Uh, but they do this weird thing. See, it's quite bright and then it goes like really dim and then it kind of goes bright again. I've never seen that before. In all my years of doing this. You see that? Dim. See, it goes bright again at the very extreme. Anyway, the point is I would want it kind of here so that I'm looking straight at it. And the hinge if I wiggle wobble it at all, it's going to just kind of flatten out. The good news for Ace Magic is that they don't seem to actually be responsible for this design. As far as we can tell, they just bought something they found on Alibaba and rebranded it. Okay, that makes them responsible for the product, but it raises a lot of questions for me. Who made this? Who bought it? What does this last button do? Oh, now we're cloning. So, there's your coffee shop use case. All right. Why don't we try playing a game? I'm going to optimistically grab my mouse assuming that I will ever actually be moving across here. And I'm going to grab it from this new colorway of our Commuter Backpack, by the way. Stay tuned on lttstore.com. I wanted to lean it down so you guys could see it in the top-down, but I don't have to. What a great design. That's a small trackpad for modern year. In all seriousness, if it wasn't for the poor execution, I actually do like the overall idea of having a second screen side by side like this. Is it better than the one Adam brought over that had the detachable keyboard and that you could kind of put into landscape and then spread out that way? >> [sighs] >> Probably not. I daily drove one like that for a little while and it was pretty awesome. But I do think there's people who would prefer something like this, too. This is wild. I'm getting 3 FPS in the menu. I didn't even know that CS 2 pre-compiled shaders. Probably cuz it usually happens so fast I don't notice it, but here it is. You know what? I'm back to blaming Ace Magic for this. They should have known better than to put their brand on it. Or they should have at least found out what it was before putting their brand on it. On their site, they actually have a guide to how to replace the RAM. Well, we cracked it open and it turns out that you can only replace the NVMe storage drive. The RAM is soldered. So, they don't even seem to know exactly what it is that they're selling. Yeah, about 7 FPS. I'm going to get a kill. Oh, whoa, that was a big stutter. Whoa, that was another big one. Going to kill Oh, I got one. I got one. To be clear, these are bots. Whoa, did you see how long that mag took to fall to the ground? That was crazy. The game physics are completely broken. Whoa, that was like a 3-second pause. Not much else to say at this point. Nobody's going to actually buy this laptop, so I don't think we need to get too deep into what generation of Wi-Fi it has. Six. >> [music] >> Or what Bluetooth it supports. 5.2. If it was really cheap, maybe it could be justified if all you really need it for is basic office work and you don't mind putting in the work to go modify a BIOS or something like that in order to get decent performance out of it. But even when it was on clearance toward the end, it was over $800, which is more than I'd be willing to pay for this experience. Wait, this just in. Last December, it apparently went down to just over $400. Okay, hold on a second. That promo code is still on the site? >> It's sold out. The whole laptop is sold out now. Oh. Oh, it's sold out. Okay, at that price, yeah, I'd say it might actually be worth it. 400 bucks? Yeah, it's still pretty crappy. But you know what's not crappy? Subscribing to ShortCircuit. You should definitely do that. Oh god. If you are interested in the concept of a very large screen laptop or expanding screen laptop, we've got a video coming on the ASUS ZenBook Duo coming up soon. It's a lot more expensive, but it's a much, much better experience."}