Asus ZenBook UX331UN - Review 2022

If yous're searching for a well designed 13-inch ultraportable laptop with a relatively powerful discrete graphics carte du jour that's piece of cake to carry with y'all, you might be wringing your hands at the lack of options. In fact, some of the near pop ultraportables, including the Dell XPS 13 and the Apple tree MacBook Air, can't be ordered with a discrete GPU. That's where the Asus ZenBook UX331UN ($999) comes in. It's among the thinnest and lightest ultraportables nosotros've reviewed recently, but information technology'due south still quite affordable, and its Nvidia GeForce MX150 offers twice the graphics performance yous'd expect from an integrated GPU. In that location are a few minor compromises, including a flimsy keyboard, but overall the ZenBook is an excellent option if you need better-than-boilerplate graphics performance in a petite package.

Looks Corking, if You Have Make clean Fingers

As if its graphics functioning and value weren't good plenty, the ZenBook UX331UN also offers a head-turning design. Dissimilar the discrete GPU and the cost, however, the shiny Purple Blue exterior of our review unit doesn't have universal appeal. For one matter, the brandish chapeau's glossy coating attracts fingerprints like crazy. It'due south also an advanced colour choice for a laptop that is certainly thin and light just otherwise unremarkable. You lot won't find ultra-thin bezels, carbon fiber, or metallic accents on this machine similar you will on the HP Spectre 13. On the opposite, it'due south quite conventional looking, so if I were ownership it for myself I'd opt for the more conventional Slate Gray colour.

The ZenBook'due south star attraction, other than the GeForce MX150 within, is its lack of weight. At 2.5 pounds, it is eminently portable. It's even lighter than the XPS 13 (9370), which tips the scales at 2.68 pounds, the MacBook Air (2.96 pounds), and the Razer Blade Stealth (two.98 pounds), though information technology's a few ounces heavier than the Spectre xiii (2.45 pounds) and the featherlike LG Gram xiii (2.01 pounds).

The weight savings primarily comes from the lighter materials Asus uses, since the physical size of the ZenBook—0.5 by 12.ii by 8.5 inches (HWD)—isn't that remarkable. There are plenty of 13-inch laptops that are 0.five inches sparse or even thinner, including many of the competitors mentioned above. The ZenBook is also wider and longer than the XPS 13, which has vanishingly thin borders around the screen, giving it a sleek, modern await. The bezels on the ZenBook aren't necessarily stodgy, but they are noticeable. On the plus side, they afford room for a traditionally placed webcam to a higher place the display. With a VGA resolution and no security cover or IR sensors, the camera is nothing to Skype habitation about, simply at least it has an unobstructed view of your face, unlike the knuckle-cam at the bottom of the XPS 13's screen.

The ZenBook sports a full Hd (one,920-past-1,080) affect screen, which is standard for its cost range. At that place's in-plane switching (IPS) technology to increase viewing angles, just during my testing there was likewise tons of glare from fluorescent function lights that made watching videos or playing games (otherwise one of the ZenBook'due south key strengths) somewhat distracting.

In the US, the just configuration of this ZenBook y'all can buy includes 8GB of retention and a 256GB SSD. That amount of storage is adequate for everyday productivity, simply yous'll need to store your large photograph and video collections elsewhere.

Plenty of Ports

Port selection is about what would be expected for such a thin machine, and I especially appreciate the inclusion of a total-size HDMI port in case yous'd like to take advantage of the ZenBook's GPU on a bigger display without ownership an adapter. There are 2 USB 3.1 Type A ports and one USB 3.i Type C port, which unfortunately does not support Thunderbolt, though I don't expect information technology to at this cost. Finally, you'll detect an audio jack, a power connector, and a microSD menu slot. Wireless connectivity includes 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth iv.2.

The only downright disappointing physical attributes of the ZenBook are its flimsy keyboard and touchpad. More than specifically, the deck that supports them is flimsy, which means there is pregnant flex when you click the touchpad or strike the keys with a modicum of purpose. While it's disappointing, the flex is not entirely unexpected. A rock-solid keyboard deck on a $ane,000 laptop that is this light would probably have to violate either some physics laws or some economic laws.

Every bit a consolation prize, you lot get a fingerprint reader located below the directional keys on the keyboard, which makes logging in to Windows ten easier. In that location are also a pair of single-watt stereo speakers that produce rich, full audio thanks in role to their Harman Kardon tuning, though the maximum volume leaves a lot to be desired.

Asus offers a standard ane-year warranty.

Twice the Graphics Functioning

So far, Asus has delivered features you'd look from an ultraportable but nothing that's particularly eyebrow-raising, unless you count the shiny blueish color scheme. Things become much more than interesting when it comes to the laptop's functioning on our graphics benchmark results, however. Most ultraportables with eighth-generation Intel processors nosotros've tested include an Intel UHD 620 integrated GPU. Non and so with the ZenBook'due south Nvidia GeForce MX150, with comes with its own processor and 2GB of RAM.

That combination makes a huge departure. The ZenBook was able to render approximately 60 frames per second (fps) on our Valley gaming simulations at medium resolution and quality settings, and 45fps on the similar Heaven simulation. Those results are significant not only because they are roughly double what any of the ZenBook's competitors offering, but too considering 60fps is the sweetness spot for enjoyable gameplay. Any higher and the GPU will be rendering more frames than the 60Hz screen tin brandish. Significantly lower (beneath 30fps) means you'll experience lag and tearing when you lot're playing graphics-intensive titles like Phone call of Duty.

Asus ZenBook UX331UN Graphics Performance Chart

The ZenBook'southward results are fifty-fifty more than impressive on our 3DMark constructed 3D gaming benchmarks, which spit out a proprietary score. A result of one,267 on the grueling FireStrike Extreme test is roughly 3 times improve than what the XPS xiii, the ZenBook UX430UA, and the Lenovo IdeaPad 720s offering.

These results are equally promising if you intend to use the ZenBook for GPU-intensive tasks other than gaming, such as video encoding and photo editing. Of course, the MX150 is no substitute for a true gaming GPU such as a GTX ten-serial model, which tin record frame rates above 100fps even at ultra-quality settings. It is possible to fit a 10-series carte du jour into a thin and light laptop (bank check out the Microsoft Surface Pro for an example), but doing so would almost certainly raise the ZenBook'south price by hundreds of dollars.

As a general-purpose PC, the ZenBook's performance is far more ordinary thanks to its capable but non exactly screaming Intel Core i5-8250U. Its score on the comprehensive PCMark 8 benchmark (3,346) signifies that lag-free video conferencing, web browsing, and other ordinary tasks are possible. So is effortless loading or switching apps, helped along by the 8GB of RAM.

On the other hand, the ZenBook finished in the center of the pack on the our specialized multimedia tests like editing photos in Photoshop and converting an Hard disk drive video file, which are more than taxing for the CPU. With the exception of the MacBook Air, the competition is powered past Intel Core i7 CPUs, which means better performance nearly beyond the board. It's possible that you could feel amend results with Handbrake and Photoshop if you ensure that those apps are assigned to run with GPU acceleration. Unfortunately, Asus did not install the Nvidia control panel that lets you adapt this setting, and we e'er examination PCs in their default configuration. If you desire to ensure that the GPU is used for a specific app, you'll accept to download the command panel yourself.

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When yous're not playing games, the ZenBook'south battery will last all day and more, every bit evidenced by its time of more than 12 hours on our battery-rundown test. Of its competitors listed in the chart, only the MacBook Air and the Ideapad 720s lasted longer, and the Dell XPS 13 lasted significantly shorter because of its ability-hungry 4K display.

An Ideal Alloy of Price and Performance

Although it suffers from a flimsy keyboard and touchpad, the Asus ZenBook UX331UN offers an ideal blend of performance and price if you demand a step up from Intel's integrated graphics solution only don't want to lug effectually a larger gaming laptop or crush out more than $1,000. Yous tin can of course go thinner and lighter past selecting the LG Gram, or boost the graphics performance with the Microsoft Surface Pro ii, but both are going to empty your wallet a bit more. If you deem the discrete graphics and attractive cost worthy tradeoffs for the keyboard flex, yous won't be disappointed with the ZenBook.