When you are looking for a 2-in-1 convertible notebook, you get a lot of options out there in market. Asus recently launched its first ever 2-in-1 convertible laptop, the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA. Running on efficient Core m3 processor and a fan-less chassis that makes it super thing and light as that of Asus ZenBook UX305CA. The Asus ZenBook Flip is price starts from $699 in US and INR 49,000 in India. But, does this makes the ZenBook Flip Worth it? Well, you can get the answer by going through our review.
Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA
Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA
Design
Asus’ ZenBook Flip has an attractive aluminum design that comes in Gold and Dark Grey color variants. Asus’ logo is printed on the lid surrounded by faint concentric circles as it has used this color and general design on several of its ZenBooks for a while now. Lifting the lid reveals the 1080p touch screen, island-style keyboard and a spacious touch-pad.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
The ZenBook Flip’s sides are lined with just enough ports to support your most important peripherals. On the left side is a USB 3.0 port and an SD card reader, while the right side is home to USB 3.0 and Type-C ports, a micro HDMI and a headphone jack. As a 2-in-1, the ZenBook Flip can be used in four different modes: a laptop, a tablet, a stand, and a tent. The 720p webcam on the ZenBook Flip is as same as that of ZenBook UX305CA and is good for normal use.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
The ZenBook Flip is light and portable at 3 pounds, 12.6 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches. The 3.5-pound Dell Inspiron 13 7000 (12.7.x.8.8 x 0.8 inches) and the 3.4-pound Yoga 710 (12.7 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches) are slightly heavier. At 2.4 pounds, the HP Spectre x360 13t (12.8 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches) is a true featherweight.
Keyboard and Touch-Pad
The ZenBook Flip comes with a full-sized chiclet keyboard that gives you clicky feel while typing. The keys on this keyboard requires 59 grams of actuation force. The keys are quite responsive and gives you a perfect platform to type on. Unfortunately the keyboard does not have back-lighting, but that is certainly not a deal breaking factor.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
The 4.1 x 2.8-inch touch-pad provides plenty of room for Windows 10 gestures. The scrolling, two finger gestures are quite smooth, with out any lag. Overall, the touch-pad is accurate and will never stuck while working.
Display
The Asus ZenBook Flip features a 13-inch Full-HD (1080p) display that produces vivid colors and gives you almost 180 degree wide viewing angles. The screen’s average brightness was 298 nits. The Spectre was even brighter at 308 nits, while the Inspiron 13 (244 nits) and the Yoga 710 (288 nits) were both dimmer.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
The vibrant display on the ZenBook Flip reproduces an excellent 102 percent of the sRGB color gamut. The Spectre’s display was even more vivid (111 percent), but the Yoga 710 (96 percent) and the Inspiron 13 (63 percent) fared worse. The ZenBook Flip’s panel has a 0.7 Delta-E color accuracy score (0 is better). It falls far below the average (2.1), but is better than the Spectre (1) and the Yoga 710 (1.1). The Inspiron 13 is even more precise at 0.5.
Graphics and Audio
The ZenBook Flip is integrated with an Intel HD Graphics 515 GPU which isn’t meant for heavy gaming. The notebook earned a score of 52,374 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited graphics benchmark, just surpassing the category average of 51,412. The Inspiron 13 and the Spectre, both with Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU, were better at 61,252 and 62,054, respectively. The Yoga 710’s discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX GPU was the strongest with a score of 80,223.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
As for the audio, a pair of speakers are hidden underneath the laptop, which means sound is easily muffled by the surface it’s placed on. When they’re unobstructed the speakers sound strong, and even produce a slight hint of bass. The positioning makes them unreliable; depending on the situation, they can sound strong and clear, or weak and muddy.
Performance
The Asus ZenBook Flip is powered by Intel Core m3-6Y30 CPU which is clocked at 0.9 GHz that can be powered up to 2 GHz. The Laptop comes with 4 GB/8 GB RAM and 128 GB/ 256 GB/ 512 GB SSD storage variants. Despite its low clock speed, the ZenBook Flip is able to multitask without breaking too much of a sweat. Even with several tabs open in Google Chrome, and running a 1080p video side by side, the laptop doesn’t shows any signs of lag or any other interruption.
On the Geekbench 3 overall performance test, the ZenBook Flip notched a score of 4,804. The Yoga 710 (5,965, Core i5-6200U), the Inspiron 13 (6,458, Core i5-6200U) and the Spectre (6,829, Core i7-6500U) all performed better.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
The ZenBook Flip took 30 seconds to transfer 4.97 GB of mixed-media files, a rate of 169.6 megabytes per second. That’s faster than the category average (156.7 MBps), the Yoga 710 (130.5 MBps) and the Inspiron 13 (154.2 MBps). Only the Spectre (173.4 MBps) had a faster SSD.
The ZenBook Flip has a fanless design that stayed nice and cool. As per the Laptop Mag’s heat test, after streaming more than 15 minutes of HD video from YouTube, the bottom of the laptop reached 94 degrees Fahrenheit, the center of the keyboard hit 83 degrees and the touch-pad measured a cool 79 degrees. Each of these measurements are below comfort threshold of 95 degrees.
Battery Life
The ZenBook Flip lasts far longer than other 13-inch 2-in-1s on a single charge. As per the Laptop Mag’s battery test, which continuously browses the web over Wi-Fi, the ZenBook Flip lasted for almost 10 hours. the Yoga 710 (8:55) and the Spectre (8:26) at least an hour behind the Asus. The Inspiron 13 had the worst battery life of the group (7:06).
Verdict
The Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA surely turned out to be an affordable and lightweight notebook with a strong build quality and fanless design. It has a vivid display that you can customize to your liking, and you won’t spend too much time uninstalling junk from your machine. The best part about this 2-in-1 is its long battery life. Though, it is true that laptop do struggle in terms of performance as it comes with Core M processor. But for a normal user won’t face any problem in terms of performance.
Image Source: Asus.co.in
Also, the efficient Core M laptops makes the ZenBook Flip an ultra-slim and ultra-light weight 2-in-1 laptop and also delivers you up to 10 hours of battery life. The small, but efficient factors makes the ZenBook Flip a perfect choice for the people who are looking for an affordable 2-in-1 ultrabook.
Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA
Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA
