The laptop market has been hit hard by the coronavirus. The closure of Chinese manufacturing plants for quarantine came just at the time when distributors were supposed to form orders for the supply of laptops built on the new Ryzen 4000 mobile platform. As a result, gaming mobile systems with these processors are still not widely available.
At the same time, the first mobile computers based on 7nm processors from the AMD Renoir family are already on sale both around the world and in Russia. If we talk about the domestic market, then in stores, in particular, various versions of the Acer Swift 3 (SF314-42) laptop are available, built on Ryzen 3 4300U, Ryzen 5 4500U or Ryzen 7 4700U processors with four, six and eight cores, respectively, and thermal package 15 watts. However, all such mobile systems belong to the class of ultrabooks, that is, they are thin and light laptops with a 14-inch screen. Moreover, they rely on the Radeon Vega graphics core integrated into the processors, which means they cannot be considered as full-fledged gaming systems.
At the same time, many users are expecting Ryzen 4000-based gaming laptops to appear, as in such configurations the advantages of the Zen 2 architecture should manifest themselves to a greater extent. The range of 7nm Renoir processors, in addition to the 15-watt U-series modifications, also includes 35/45-watt H-series models, which includes powerful six- and eight-core processors with maximum frequencies up to 4,3–4,4 GHz. One of the first laptops of this kind was supposed to be the ASUS Zephyrus G14, which was announced at CES 2020 at the very beginning of the year.
However, until now, neither this model, nor other gaming mobile systems with Ryzen 4000 processors can boast of wide availability. Even in the US market, they are extremely fragmented. At the time of placing the orders, many Chinese enterprises stopped for quarantine, which provoked an approximately two-month delay in deliveries. If we talk about the Russian market, then it is in even more difficult conditions due to its specifics, since most of the deliveries of laptops to our country are carried out by sea.
However, soon Russian buyers will still be able to get at their disposal a wide range of models of mobile systems based on Ryzen 4000 processors of various classes. Konstantin Kulyabin, a category manager specializing in laptops at DNS, told 3DNews that the range of solutions based on Ryzen 4000 will appear in the stores of this federal network in early summer: “We have one of the strongest logistics services in Russia: in less than two weeks, goods are delivered from Moscow to Vladivostok. But even such capacities may not be enough in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Even with air travel, we don't expect laptops to hit store shelves until June at the earliest."
First of all, gaming models of ASUS laptops are expected in DNS, and we are talking about a large set of different configuration options. “According to our estimates, ASUS gaming models will be the first in Russia in commercial quantities. The manufacturer offers more than twenty configurations for every taste. It is also important to note that all new models will be equipped with an SSD. Today it is a mandatory attribute of any high-performance laptop,” Konstantin Kulyabin confirmed.
Our sources in the supply channels confirmed that ASUS is really going to bring to Russia the maximum number of Ryzen 4000 laptops among all manufacturers. But at the same time, Lenovo is also voicing quite aggressive plans. “We already have both gaming and ultra-mobile models with Ryzen 4000 processors in production for Russia - we use a wide range of chips: from Ryzen 3 4300U to Ryzen 7 4800H. We welcome competition and give users a huge choice. Now our line of products based on Ryzen processors is one of the widest, if not the widest on the market, ”said Sergey Balashov, Russian product manager for Lenovo laptops, in a conversation with 3DNews. According to him, Lenovo laptops using the new AMD platform may go on sale even before ASUS offers arrive: and Legion 5 with GeForce GTX 3/32 Ti graphics at a recommended price of 5 thousand rubles. And then, in June, the Yoga Slim 1650, Ideapad S1650-70 and Ideapad Gaming 7 models will appear.
In general, it is very likely that in the summer, buyers will forget about all the problems with the presence of a new generation of laptops on sale. By this time, most large stores will be able to achieve the presence of new products on the shelves. “The choice of configurations will pleasantly surprise even the most advanced users,” Konstantin Kulyabin assured us.
With the help of laptops based on Ryzen 4000, AMD plans to strengthen its presence in the price segment from 60 thousand rubles. Therefore, the bulk of gaming configurations offered by Russian retailers this year will be based on Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 series processors. However, some attention will be paid to flagship configurations. For example, in August, the super-sophisticated ASUS ROG Zephyrus G based on the Ryzen 9 processor, equipped with GeForce RTX 2080 graphics, will become available.
Source: 3dnews.ru