India, June 19 -- Most business laptops are built to a brief: keep it sturdy, keep IT happy, and do not die before the afternoon flight. The ASUS ExpertBook Ultra B9406CAA has different ambitions. It wants to be the machine that executives and road warriors actually look forward to opening.

After spending time with it, that ambition holds up more often than not.

At 0.99 kg, the ExpertBook Ultra is almost suspiciously light. You notice it when you pick it up off a table, then again when you slide it into a bag and feel almost nothing. It does not feel cheap. ASUS uses a magnesium-aluminum chassis with a ceramic-like surface treatment the company calls Ceraluminum, and the result is a machine that resists fingerprints and survives daily h...