Asus ExpertBook Ultra B9 review: Panther Lake power and long battery life

ZDNET reviewed the Asus ExpertBook Ultra B9, a premium thin-and-light business laptop powered by Intel's Panther Lake processors and slated to launch in April 2026. The reviewer said it impressed across design, performance and battery life. The review unit weighed 2.18 pounds and measured 0.65 inches at its thickest point, with a magnesium alloy chassis and Asus' Nano Liquid ceramic coating.

ZDNET praised the 1.5mm-travel chiclet keyboard, a large trackpad with a dedicated scrolling mode, and a 14-inch 3K OLED display that covers DCI-P3, is Pantone validated, and reaches a peak brightness of 1,400 nits; Asus also applied Corning Gorilla matte and Victus protection. Audio comes from a six-speaker system with dual magnetic woofers and tweeters, and the reviewer highlighted strong instrument separation.

The review unit used an Intel Core Ultra X7 CPU with 32GB of LPDDR5X and a 1TB SSD, delivering snappy day-to-day performance and higher Geekbench multicore results than other work-focused laptops tested, while the integrated Intel Arc GPU may limit very heavy 3D workloads. Battery life exceeded 16 hours in testing and the laptop charged to about 60% in 30 minutes; cooling is handled by an ExpertCool Pro system with three air outlets.

Asus told ZDNET the ExpertBook Ultra B9 with the Core Ultra X7 will launch in April 2026 with pre-orders in the first quarter of 2026, and that a Core Ultra X9 model is expected later in Q2 2026; two color options will be Morn Grey and Jet Fog.