Both Asus and HP made a huge knock on the door at this year's Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit. Both companies had some of the first “Always-Connected PC” devices to unveil, with HP launching the Envy x2, and now Asus, with the brand new NovaGo. Partnering with Qualcomm, this new laptop features the Snapdragon 835 CPU processor, usually seen in higher-end smartphones like the Pixel 2, and the Galaxy Note 8. Now, the powerful chipset has taken a larger place in the market by working inside laptops and hybrids.

Not only that, but these devices are now able to last an entire 20 hours before requiring a recharge. It’s now become funny how we considered some of the highest reviewed 2-in-1s to have “long” battery life. In reality, the best we saw never surpassed our usual 12 or 13 hours, which was maximum until now. Long battery life in 2017 equated to the likes of Dell’s XPS 13 9360, with just 8 hours, Asus’s Chromebook Flip C213SA at 11 hours, and the Lenovo Yoga 920, at 12 hours.

Sure, we usually see Intel's Core series in most laptops and 2-in-1 hybrids these days, but Microsoft has been talking about the Always Connected PC for a while. With Qualcomm collaborating with Asus, we have the NovaGo hyrbid. The Snapdragon 835 chipset inside, at 2.6GHz, comes with its X16 modem, supporting Gigabit LTE, and is now compatible with Microsoft Windows OS. All of this means longer battery life, and the ability to be connected to the web, anywhere it’s available.

The Asus NovaGo features a 360-degree hinge design, and folds into a tablet just by rotating it back. All very familiar for Asus laptops, the dimensions and weight at .59 inches thick, and 3 pounds respectively, make for a similar footprint. This isn’t exactly a lightweight device, as Qualcomm has promised laptops with new Snapdragon chips would mean smaller footprints than before. That is quite alright in this case, however, because this is actually a budget laptop, and Asus tends to pull off some pretty high quality laptops.

Take the 13.3-inch full HD LTPS touchscreen LCD screen display, which is nice and large for browsing the web and watching media. The screen is perked with rich and clear colors, and with Asus Pen support, you’ve got 1024 levels of pressure at your finger, or pen, tips. The NovaGo’s keyboard holds no quarrels, and the larger display means a larger touchpad. Although the external black design is a bit stale, that’s not really anything too out of the ordinary for Asus; and considering what’s going on inside the 2-in-1, there’s not much you could complain about otherwise.

Especially nice is the pricing. Starting at $599, users get 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, and for $799, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage on its hard drive. When it comes to Asus laptops/PCs, being on a budget doesn’t mean missing out on perks. As noted, this is one of the two first laptops using Qualcomm that is compatible for Windows PCs. Because of that, Asus now allows for amazing Gigabit LTE connectivity, providing an incredible 20-22 hours of battery life (and the secret weapon to both of those truths are of course the powerful 835 CPU). As a company known for jumping on board with new trends, it only makes sense that Asus announced the new NovaGo at the brink of the new year. Competing companies are surely to follow suit to this new revelation in technology, but not all of them are going to be able to pull off as cheap of a price tag as this.