ASUS Zenbook Flip - Definitly recommend it! (Review)

Senzelian · July 9, 2016

Here I sit with a notebook I absolutly enjoyed over the last month, not knowing what to say since I don't have much experience with such devices, but still beeing absolutly impressed by a device that is so small, lightweight and gorgeous for its low price compared to other convertibles in its market.

I should start with a few pictures I took so you get an idea of what I'm actually talking about.

(Yes, there are fingerprints everywhere... You should get used to that if you consider buying one)

You can get this device for roughly 800,- € here in Germany, which comes with an Intel Core M-6y30, 8GB of non-upgradeable RAM, 128GB of some pretty fast SSD storage and a 13.3'' 1920x1080 glare IPS touchscreen which has not only excellent viewing angles, but also some beautiful colors. You have to take my word for it, since I forgot to take a picture of the screen.

ASUS was bragging a lot on their website about its excellent keyboard and I have to say that they didn't disappoint me. With 1.5mm of keytravel it's a pleasent experience to type on. I also gave it to a friend of mine who said it was just as good as the keyboard of a Surface Pro 3. Sadly it's not backlit.

What's not so great about the device is the trackpad. It's fine - not excellent, but I found myself simply using the touchscreen instead, which by the way worked really well.

With the Zenbook Flip you'll get the typical Zenbook design. Aluminium here, aluminium there. It's very thin at 13,9mm and because of that also a little bit flimsy, but not to the extend that it would bother me personally. The hinges on the other hand are very robust and feel great. I would even say they are a little bit too robust, since you can't fully open the device with one finger, but still far enough to then hold it down and open it fully.

But what would be a review about a super thin device without some kind of "Haha Apple! This thing has ports."-joke.
It does not only have one USB C 3.0, but also two full sized USB A 3.0, a micro HDMI port (yeah, I know...), a SD card reader and of course a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The power button aswell as the volume controls are on the left side, because it is a convertible, so you can use it easier in tablet mode.

Now, a lot of people seem to dislike the Core M for whatever reason, but I really don't see why.

It does not only have the advantage to not need active cooling, but also increases battery life drastically. ASUS claims a 12 hour battery life and man, this little machine keeps up with their claim.

Of course it doesn't perform as well as an Intel Core i3, but do you really need an i3 in a convertable which is designed for creating documents, surfing the web and writing mails? I don't and I think the Core M does a great job for its low TDP of only 7w. I was even able to play games like Sacred 3 on high settings while the Core M was never designed to even run 3D games at all.

Specs:

Intel Core M 6y30 / 6y54 / 6y75
4GB / 8GB 1866Mhz DDR3 SDRAM
13.3'' 1920x1080 glare touchscreen (3200x1800 might be coming in the future)
HD Graphics 515
128GB / 256GB / 512GB M.2 SSD
SD Card Reader
2x USB A 3.0
1x USB C 3.0
Micro HDMI
3.5mm headphone jack

So what do I think after all?
For 800,- € you get a great and very solid device with the lack of only a few small features. After all I really like it and I'm glad I bought it.

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(Crystal Disk Benchmark 5 - ASUS Zenbook UX360 results)

Senzelian · July 9, 2016

2 minutes ago, Wedsea040 said:

Nice review, but you are in the wrong place.

Thank you.
I probably should've posted it under "Member Reviews", right?

Well at least it landed in "Laptops" and not console gaming I guess. Hopefully a mod will move it.