Asus ZenBook 15 UX533FD Review: Power, Portability and Personality!

Information technology's war against bezels in every consumer tech product with a screen. Smartphones went bezel-less in 2017 with the Essential Phone and the iPhone X, and laptop manufacturers have been gunning for that streamlined await over the past yr or so too. Dell's XPS series is perhaps the most prominent of the bezel-killers, but Asus is clearly the current male monarch!

Asus took the bezel-less laptop screen trend to amazing heights at IFA concluding year with a revamped ZenBook lineup including a xiii-inch ultrabook that's but as big as an A4 sheet of paper forth with teeny ZenBook 14 and ZenBook 15 models. All three have been launched in India and for the past 2 weeks, we had the chance to use and experience the largest of the bunch, the Asus ZenBook 15 (UX533FD).

The ZenBook 15 is certainly one of the smallest 15-inch laptops on the market thanks to the ridiculously tiny bezels on all 4 sides of the screen. The laptop likewise gets the company's Ergolift mechanism to raise the base to a comfortable typing height. Plus it has the latest Intel internals, including up to an Whiskey Lake Core i7 8565U every bit well as optional Nvidia GTX 1050 Max-Q design graphics for a performance and gaming heave. For our review, we got the SKU with 16 gigs of 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, and a blazing fast Samsung PM981 NVMe PCIe 1TB 1000.2 SSD.

Priced at Rs 1,39,990, this top-finish ZenBook 15 variant is not a inexpensive machine by whatsoever means, and there's a lot of competition in this toll range these days every bit affordable gaming and premium ultraportables collide. Then Is this THE 15-inch thin-and-lite laptop to buy this year? Does information technology take plenty power to allow you utilize it equally a gaming machine? Has Asus done more than only cutting down the size of the bezels? Let'southward take a look.

Asus ZenBook xv Specifications

We had the most expensive variant of the ZenBook 15 with all the bells and whistles. As usual, Asus had provided a material carrying sleeve, microfibre cloth, extra cable-ties and a USB-Ethernet dongle. Here are the full specs of the model we reviewed:

Processor	Up to Intel Core i7-8565U Whiskey Lake quad-core processor
Brandish	15-.6-inch full Hd IPS display with 92% screen-to-trunk ratio
Retentivity	16GB DDR4 @2400MHz
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM
Storage	1TB PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD
Connectivity	USB Blazon-C 3.one Gen 2, 2x USB Type-A USB three.one Gen 2, 1x HDMI, 1x Philharmonic audio jack, 1x SD card reader slot, dual-band Wi-FI Air conditioning, Bluetooth 5.0 and Windows Hello camera
Bombardment	73Wh 8-prison cell LiPo
Weight	1.69 kg

At present that that's out of the manner, allow's get started with a tour of the laptop.

Asus ZenBook 15 Design & Build Quality

You can't mistake this Asus ZenBook for whatever other PC. The spun-metallic finish on the lid is as characteristic of Asus as its shiny Chrome logo on the lid. Information technology's not all that unique a look every bit we have seen this in the older ZenBook models also. The silver finish on our model is bright and flashy, simply the ZenBook 15 also comes in a more than muted dark blue with gold accents, that just looks meliorate to my eyes.

The ZenBook 15 has an all-aluminum body with some plastic inserts on the bottom deck forth with the gold-colored speaker grill. I really don't like the aureate – just like most golden accents or colors on tech products. The sooner it fades out of way, the ameliorate.

The biggest changes in terms of blueprint are in the bezels and the swivel of the ZenBook 15. Last year's models didn't have the Ergolift hinge, which raises the keyboard to a more than comfortable typing bending, and also allows increased airflow. The Ergolift hinge makes a huge deviation in the typing feel equally y'all don't experience like you are banging abroad on a completely flat keyboard deck.

The ZenBook 15 arguably has the most attractive 15-inch display on the market today, with barely whatever bezel on either side. For the number geeks, the ZenBook 15 has a 3 mm-thin side bezel and 4.five mm bottom bezel and cheers to the Ergolift hinge, fifty-fifty that mentum is hidden backside the hinge, thereby giving the display a more than immersive feel, unlike whatsoever other laptop I take seen. The only laptops that could make these displays envious is the new ZenBook S13, which has even thinner bezels, simply that'south non going to be launched in India for a few months, having been unveiled at CES 2019.

While the aluminum body lends great durability to the ZenBook 15, I must say it gets very cold, very fast. Just leaving the laptop out of the provided cloth sleeve for an hour or so, makes the torso super cold. Information technology makes the laptop very uncomfortable to use on your lap, and tin can be a shock to those with more sensitive skin, especially when you first utilise information technology in a cold room. It's certainly something I promise Asus looks at for its next-gen laptops, with a better feeling textile on the lesser. To exist off-white, I also had this issue with the Dell XPS fifteen and the Acer Nitro 5 Spin. Perchance it'due south just my tolerance to the cold, but I surely won't be alone.

Despite existence 0.seventy inches in thickness, the ZenBook 15 is solidly built and meets MIL-STD-810G military machine standard for reliability and durability, but like its predecessors. The build quality is actually quite skilful, just we did observe some creaking in the bottom correct edge of the laptop. Information technology'due south a small quibble and it's only prominent when y'all dig your fingers into the body. Of course, this could just be a defect in the particular unit of measurement we had, since it was likewise used in Asus'south printing demos before launch. There'due south picayune to no flex on the body or the keyboard deck, while the base is solid enough to stay in place while you open the lid with i paw.

While I accept been using the ZenBook 15 for the past few weeks, I also had a chance to meet the ZenBook 14 and ZenBook 13 at a press briefing in Bharat, as well equally at IFA 2018, where the iii laptops were announced. I must say that the ZenBook xv doesn't seem as graceful every bit the other 2 models. The ZenBook 14 is, in my opinion, the perfect size for an ultrabook. As mentioned, the 13-inch version is as big as an A4 canvas, which gives you an thought of just how portable it is but that may be a chip too cramped for me. The 15-inch version merely feels overgrown, which makes it harder to carry around in 1 manus.

Overall, there'south nothing 'wrong' with the design of the ZenBook 15, simply I practice wish Asus refines the design slightly for the next-gen model to have care of these small-scale niggles. Having said that these are not structural limitations; Asus has ensured that everyday users have zippo to worry almost when it comes to the immovability of the laptop.

Asus ZenBook 15 Display

The full Hard disk drive IPS panel on the ZenBook 15 is brilliant and vibrant, with fantabulous viewing angles. I rarely faced whatever scene or situation in which the 60hz display looked underwhelming or done out the colors.

The fifteen-inch 1920×1080 resolution brandish supports 100% of the sRGB color gamut and has 178-degree viewing angles, which means even those viewing from the sides can see the colors every bit they are, with minimal shifting. Cheers to the extremely narrow bezel, you get a screen-to-body ratio of 92%, which is merely astonishing for a notebook of this size.

The display is terrific in nearly every aspect; it managed to reproduce the darker scenes in the second season of Punisher on Netflix without any bug. It also managed to practise justice to the bright colors and vibrancy of the Into The Spider-Verse trailer. I would say that for a 15-inch laptop in this toll range, this is every bit good a full HD display as any. Of course y'all tin can too complain well-nigh the fact that it's not 4K or 1440P, but total Hd is more than enough for productivity and casual gaming, which is what this laptop is built for. It also translates into groovy battery life for the ZenBook 15 as we will encounter afterwards.

Asus ZenBook 15 Keyboard and Touchpad

My biggest problem with the ZenBook 15 is the keyboard. Information technology'south not like information technology'southward a bad keyboard by whatsoever means, simply the fact that the display is squeezed into a smaller body, meant the full-sized keyboard also had to be crammed in a less wide deck. As a outcome, the numpad is very narrow and cramped. Information technology almost feels like Asus should have let the touchpad double up as the numpad every bit in the ZenBook 13 and 14. At least, that would take given the keyboard a more roomy layout.

Layout problems aside, the multi-stage backlit keyboard also feels a bit shallow and mushy for my tastes. I like to feel the keys spring back up to my fingers and the ZenBook 15 doesn't permit me go into that comfort zone. The primal travel is advertised equally one.4mm in depth which sounds slap-up, but it doesn't feel so tactile. Having said that, this didn't get in the way of my daily workflow. It's non a failure by any ways, just perhaps Asus needs to dedicate a bit more than fourth dimension in refining the typing experience on the larger model.

ZenBook 13's dual-function touchpad

In contrast, the new ZenBook 13 and fourteen, which I have used briefly, are just the correct size given the smaller chassis on both. They don't have the numpad on the side, which should have been the case with the ZenBook xv as well, fifty-fifty though the touchpad-numpad combo has no haptic feedback and some latency.

While I have some complaints about the keyboard, the touchpad is quite flawless on the ZenBook 15. The ZenBook 15 comes with a really spacious touchpad which has a lot of room for all Windows x gestures and deportment. I really dear Microsoft Precision touchpads as they feel and then much meliorate than any other touchpad on the marketplace – barring the MacBooks. The ZenBook 15's touchpad is polish and the glass surface lends itself very well to gestures. The whole touchpad can be used as a giant left-click push, with a dissever correct click on the bottom correct of the touchpad – y'all tin can turn this off in the settings and apply ii finger taps for right click, which makes the touchpad a lot easier to employ, in my stance.

Asus ZenBook 15 Performance

Thanks to the eighth Generation Intel Core i7 8565U Whiskey Lake processor, the functioning on the ZenBook 15 is tiptop notch in the ultrabook category. The quad-cadre low-voltage processor is still powerful plenty to run productivity, artistic apps such as Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro and also a few games as we will see.

With a 1TB Samsung PM981 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD, the ZenBook fifteen has super fast boot times and loads apps as apace as most laptops we have tested. The laptop booted upwards in effectually x-12 seconds normally from a cold kickoff, and restarted in under 20 seconds when updates weren't awaiting. It took a mere 10 seconds to load up Adobe Photoshop, which is simply great for those times when you lot take to edit an paradigm in a snap.

The ZenBook 15 seems overqualified for my usual workflow of multiple Chrome tabs and instances as well as Photoshop and other work apps running in the background. It definitely can handle more than intensive tasks such as video editing and design work. Let's take a look at its scores for some of the more popular benchmarking tools.

Here's a gallery of its scores:

When it comes to gaming performance, the ZenBook 15 was able to run PUBG at 40-45 FPS in 1080P at Medium Settings, with some tearing and jankiness. We reduced the resolution downwardly to 720P and boosted the graphics settings to ultra, but this resulted in a worse 25-30 FPS gameplay with a lot of tearing. Turning downwardly the graphics settings to Medium at 720P resulted in a much more playable fifty+ FPS, with smooth gameplay and barely any trigger-happy.

In Monster Hunter: World, we got a playable 40-43 FPS in 720P resolution at Medium settings, while turning it to the native 1080P resulted in a worse 33-35 FPS with some tearing. In the Ascent of the Tomb Raider benchmark, the laptop only manage 26.twenty FPS overall at 1080P, which falls betwixt the performance of the Nvidia GTX 950 and the GTX 960. That should tell you what kind of gaming functioning you are probable to get from the ZenBook 15.

I would say the ZenBook 15 is capable of handling popular modern titles, but you will definitely have to pass up the settings to Low for smooth gameplay. Additionally, 720P gaming seems to exist the correct resolution for this laptop, as the native 1080P results in worse gaming experience even with Low settings at times.

Look, I have no complaints most the operation of the ZenBook xv, and y'all wouldn't either if you realize its limitation and not utilize information technology for Hd gaming or for 4K video editing. It's non suited for such tasks and you would do better spending a little more on a dedicated gaming laptop such as the Dell G7, Alienware xv/17, or Asus'south affordable ROG Strix lineup. For workstation-class tasks and 4K editing, the considerably more than expensive Dell XPS 15 or the Lenovo Thinkpad lineup would exist a better fit than the ZenBook fifteen.

Asus ZenBook 15 Heat & Dissonance

The good news hither is that the ZenBook 15 rarely gets hot and when information technology does the hot spots are safely away from areas which volition come in directly contact with your clothing or trunk. For case, the portion over the F11 and F12 keys goes all the manner up to 45-degrees Celsius, which is the hottest part of the laptop. So even when it does get hot, it'south remains within adequate norms in terms of thermal emissions.

Information technology'south an altogether dissimilar matter when it comes to the fans. The ZenBook xv has one of the loudest fans amidst ultrabooks we have tested. Not merely is it loud, merely information technology as well sends draughts of air down the left border where the vents are located. This means your left hand, if resting on the sides will feel a absurd cakewalk running over information technology. Whatsoever tiny strips of paper will wing off your table if the fans boot in and go full speed. It's a pocket-sized annoyance, but at least we know that the fans are doing all the hard work to proceed the PC absurd, where they do a adequately skilful task as seen higher up.

Asus ZenBook fifteen Connectivity and Biometric Features

The ZenBook fifteen has room for plenty of ports and Asus has made sure y'all take enough connectivity options to not require dongles. Fifty-fifty so, information technology gives a USB to Ethernet dongle in the box.

Much room on the left side is occupied by the oestrus vents with three SD Card slot-sized cutouts to let the fan air out. Next to the heat vents is the commencement USB 3.1 Blazon-A port and the combo 3.55 sound jack. On the laptop's correct side you lot have an SD card reader, ane USB-C 3.i Gen 2 port, the 2nd USB three.1 Type-A port, and HDMI port and the DC-in for the barrel plug.

For wireless connectivity, the ZenBook xv has dual-band 802.11ac gigabit-class Wi-Fi forth with Bluetooth 5.0. I have zero complaints in terms of Wi-Fi throughput on the ZenBook 15 and the supplied WLAN carte was more capable for the gaming tests too as everyday work.

Thanks to the IR face recognition cameras on superlative of the brandish and Windows Hello support logging in to the ZenBook 15 should just be a affair of looking at the screen. It couldn't be easier, simply in everyday use I institute I had to maneuver the lid to allow the camera get the right angle of my face up before the PC unlocked.

The lack of a fingerprint sensor, which is present in the last-gen model, is besides a baffling selection. Fingerprint sensors are not all that expensive whatever more than, and omitting it to get all-in with IR face recognition is a bad decision in my opinion. Asus told me since it already had the Windows Hello face recognition, it didn't feel the need to add a fingerprint sensor, but I definitely had issues with this and I can meet other users also facing this problem. On the other hand, I had nil issues with the fingerprint sensor on the ZenBook thirteen from last year. At the end of the day, Asus went for the cool factor, which has backfired.

Speaking of the webcam, it really is worthless on this PC. You ameliorate have a USB webcam ready to use if you demand to Skype video telephone call. The ZenBook xv'southward cam produces blurry, noisy images which cannot be used for much.

The speakers, too, despite the Harman Kardon branding are nada to write abode virtually. They don't have much punch and most media sounds muted on the ZenBook xv.

Asus ZenBook 15 Bombardment Life

Despite being a quad-core CPU, Intel's Whiskey Lake Core i7 8565U is one of the most power efficient processors produced past the visitor. Not only does it provide enough functioning to run intensive applications, it also conserves battery in daily use.

While using the ZenBook 15 purely for work with browsing, surfing, typing and some Photoshop at 100% brightness, and with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on, I could eke out shut to 9 hours of battery life. The endurance shot up to over 11 hours when I reduced the brightness to around 60% and tweaked the power settings to the Counterbalanced fashion. You tin go around 5-6 hours of battery life with the GPU being used for lite gaming and heavy applications. However, since this is not a loftier-performance gaming laptop, you are unlikely to put the ZenBook 15 through this use-case scenario on a daily basis.

For charging, the ZenBook 15 uses the old barrel pin charger, which has been replaced with USB Type-C in the 2019 models. I discover the butt pin plug user-friendly if a little archaic, and I'm looking forward to the USB-C chargers which volition be seen in the new models. The charging adapter itself doesn't take up much room, which is really squeamish and I want to run across more manufacturers trying to reduce the size and weight of these adapters.

Charging the laptop from around 5-10% to 100% takes around ninety minutes, and the ZenBook fifteen goes to effectually 70% in an hour, to give yous usage for at least 7-eight hours. All in all, this is a really skillful laptop when it comes to battery life.

Asus ZenBook 15: The Good and The Bad

The ZenBook xv is certainly a powerful machine and it's quite a looker too. However, it'southward not without its shortcomings. Permit's put in the balance:

Pros

• Sexy blueprint
• Durable aluminum build
• Super-narrow bezels
• Vibrant display with great viewing angles
• First-class SSD functioning
• Gaming-capable CPU+GPU combo
• Skillful heat management
• Solid battery life
• Plenty of ports

Cons

• Uncomfortable to carry around in i manus
• Cramped numpad
• Mushy keyboard
• Feeble speakers
• Inconsistent Windows Hi IR face recognition
• Woeful webcam

Asus ZenBook 15: Worth the High Price?

Finally, we go to speak about the pricing of the ZenBook 15 and whether information technology justifies the tag. The variant we reviewed is priced at Rs 1,39,990, which is the just SKU Asus is selling in Republic of india, according to its printing note.

When we looked for Intel Core i7 8565U-powered laptops in India, we could just find options from the new Asus ZenBook lineup. The ZenBook 15 is clearly the first to make it and is also very attractively priced if you desire a thin and light notebook with more than enough ability and personality.

At that price, it is going upward against mid-range gaming laptops equally well every bit some premium sparse and lite machines, only for the sake of fairness nosotros will only be comparing it to the latter.

The base model of the Dell XPS 15 is priced at Rs 1,36,390 (plus taxes), and it has a desktop-form CPU, unlike the U-serial processor in the ZenBook 15, and a more powerful GPU. It is however also quite a bit heavier than the ZenBook xv at over two kg, and has half the storage space.

Then there's the HP Green-eyed x360, which has a toll tag of only over around Rs 1,34,000 these days, just that also has a smaller and slower SSD, an older Intel eighth Gen processor in a convertible class factor. Plus it's bezel metropolis while the ZenBook 15 is much more mod.

Acer'southward Swift 5 or Swift vii are ever hovering around the Rs 1,ten,000 marking on e-commerce sites, but neither of those look every bit good equally the ZenBook xv and accept less powerful internals too.

On the other hand, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 with comparable CPU and RAM, just half the storage and no GPU, has been recently launched in India and is bachelor for Rs just over Rs two lakh. This is far more expensive than the ZenBook 15, even though the Surface Laptop does have a unique design and lacks bloatware unlike the ZenBook.

I feel Asus has got the pricing right, but I can say how some might think information technology'south paying also much for a laptop. Yes, that's what a modern fifteen-inch laptop costs these days. Unfortunately, Windows laptops on the affordable end of the spectrum rarely look this good or have like internals. That's the toll you lot take to pay for premium and the Asus ZenBook 15 justifies information technology with that stunning and bezel-costless display, exceptional build and plenty of ability.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Blueprint & Build Quality nine
Display ix
Keyboard 7.v
Touchpad 9
Operation 8.5
Connectivity ix
Bombardment Life 8
Value for Money 8
SUMMARY The Zenbook 15 is certainly a powerful car and information technology's quite a looker too. It comes with Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics also, and then you tin can certainly play a game or two in your downtime from work. However, information technology's not without its shortcomings, and one of the biggest questions is whether it is worth the price tag of Rs ane,39,990.	8.5 OVERALL SCORE

Source: https://beebom.com/asus-zenbook-15-review/

Posted by: guthriewhad1991.blogspot.com

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