Asus Zenbook Flip 14 Ux461un Test
| 0
The ZenBooks from ASUS take been widely renown for their high-performance hardware packed inside a portable and elegant chassis. The specs are always good enough non only for everyday business organisation apply but also for multimedia and even low-cal gaming (or some other graphically-intensive workload). Fortunately, the ZenBook Flip 14 is a worthy member of the lineup but along with the cost, the ultrabook adds a few notable features that aren't necessarily inherent to the series.
Sporting the best of what Intel can offer right now – Core i7-8550U paired with NVIDIA's GeForce MX150 GPU, 8GB of LPDDR3-1866 RAM and 512GB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage, the ZenBook Flip xiv impresses with infrequent performance with little to no compromise in the portability department. The all-aluminum chassis is a bully fit for the ZenBook serial and the Full HD IPS display will surely make up for a great multimedia experience simply at that place are some troubling pattern quirks that need to exist polished in the upcoming upgrades. These bug are usually non-existent in the rival convertibles such every bit the Lenovo Yoga series. To be honest, though, we are talking virtually a actually small design flaw that doesn't undermine the first-class hardware.
Contents
- Retail package
- Design and construction
- Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
- Brandish quality
- PWM (Screen flickering)
- Purchase our display profiles
- Sound
- Specs sheet
- ASUS ZenBook Flip xiv (UX461) configurations
- Software
- Battery
- CPU – Intel Core i7-8550U
- GPU – NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
- Gaming tests
- Temperatures
- Verdict
Retail package
The ZenBook Flip xiv comes in a modest packet containing all the usual user manuals, stylus pen, a leather pack for conveying it around and a USB to RJ-45 dongle if y'all demand a more stable connection.
Design and structure
When it comes to design, the ZenBook Flip 14 is once over again almost flawless. It has a stable all-aluminum construction with no inconsistencies – even the lid is resistant to torsion and bending. The same goes for the interior where the flex is barely noticeable and quite frankly, negligible given the size of this thing. Speaking of which, the ZenBook Flip'due south hardware is packed in a 1.5 kg shell measuring just thirteen.nine mm in thickness. That's actually impressive because the hardware it holds.
Our only complaint at this point is the hinges. Yes, the lid opens quite hands but this also makes the screen rather wobbly in presentation and laptop mode. In improver, when you open up it up a piddling chip farther, the lid lifts up the base, the rubber feet lose contact with the surface, the device becomes unstable and it'southward piece of cake to slide on the desk-bound. It's really abrasive design flaw mainly because the pins on the back border of the lid (where the hinges are) are not rubberized and don't make a good grip.
In whatsoever example, the screen features thin side and upper bezels giving the machine a modernistic await while bringing the xiv-inch footprint closer to the thirteen.iii-inch grade factor. The concentric brushed aluminum reminds the states it's a ZenBook and the dark gray color that we reviewed doesn't seem to exist a big fingerprint magnet, which is a big plus.
Input devices and I/O
Over again, the ZenBook Flip 14 delivers an fantabulous working feel on the go. The keyboard isn't very shallow and each keystroke gives you tactile and clicky feedback. Almost users should find it quite like shooting fish in a barrel to get used to. The same goes for the touchpad – shine operations, fantabulous gliding surface and precise movements. The clickpad's mouse clicks are calorie-free, deep plenty and produce the same click along the whole surface. At that place's also a fingerprint reader in the upper right corner for extra security.
In terms of connectivity, the ZenBook Flip 14 brings typical for a 15-inch laptop I/O setup. Although a bit overcrowded on the right side, yous will find everything you'd probably need – full-sized HDMI, USB 3.0, USB-C 3.1 (Gen 1), three.5 mm combo audio jack and a microSD card reader. And on the left, you will find the main exhaust vent for dispersing the heat and another USB 3.0 connector. The power push button and the book rocker are right next to the latter – they are easy to accomplish and distinguish from ane another.
Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options
Accessing the hardware inside is pretty like shooting fish in a barrel. Just remove all the screws on the lesser and gently pry upward the plate. Be careful not to break whatever of the clips.
Storage upgrades – 2.v-inch HDD/SSD, One thousand.2 SSD
As expected, the device comes only with an M.ii SSD – at that place's no room for a 2.5-inch HDD. Unfortunately, though, the unit we've tested came with a 512GB SanDisk X400 Thou.two SSD instead of a PCIe NVMe drive. This is disappointing since the price requires a PCIe SSD and so be careful from where yous buy the laptop. In some cases, the retailer will sell it with a PCIe NVMe SSD.
| Slot | Unit | Upgrade toll |
|---|---|---|
| 1000.two SSD 2280 slot 1 | 512GB SanDisk X400 M.2 SATA SSD | Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned) |
RAM
The motherboard doesn't offer upgradable memory so you are limited to what y'all you've ordered in the offset identify. The soldered memory bit is 16GB of LPDDR3-2133.
Other components
The battery takes a good portion of the space inside and it's rated at 57Wh.
Cooling system
The cooling pattern is rather interesting – two heatpipes (ane bigger than the other) wrapping around the cooling fan and connecting both heatsinks.
Display quality
The ZenBook Flip fourteen uses a Full HD (1920×1080) IPS bear on console with model number BOE NV140FHM-N62. It offers 157 ppi and 0.161 ten 0.161 mm pixel pitch. Information technology can be considered as "Retina" when viewed from at least 56 cm.
The display has excellent viewing angles.
Nosotros've recorded a height brightness of 284 cd/m2 in the center of the screen and 280 cd/m2 every bit average across the surface with thirteen% maximum deviation in the lower left corner. The correlated color temperature at maximum brightness is a bit colder than information technology should be – 7280K and remains pretty much the same when nosotros keep the grayscale – 7030K. You can run into how these values change at 140 cd/m2 (71% brightness) in the epitome below.
The maximum color deviation dE2000 compared to the center of the screen should be no more than than 4.0 and if yous are planning to do color-sensitive work, it should be lower than 2.0. But in this example, since the laptop is going to be used generally for multimedia, part work and spider web browsing, a departure of 3.xv in the lower left corner of the screen can be overlooked. The contrast ratio is high – 1050:ane earlier calibration and 1040:1 after scale.
Colour reproduction
To make certain nosotros are on the same folio, nosotros would similar to give you a piddling introduction of the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there's the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors past the homo eye, giving you a amend perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.
Within the black triangle, you will come across the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. Equally for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors etc for press. Basically, colors within the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential function of the colour quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.
Still, we've included other color spaces similar the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, also as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the time to come and information technology'due south hard for today'due south displays to cover that well. Nosotros've also included the so-chosen Michael Pointer gamut, or Arrow'southward gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around united states every 24-hour interval.
Here, the display covers ninety% of the sRGB color gamut so well-nigh of the web-based and HDTV colors can exist reproduced.
Our "Design and Gaming" contour delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.
We tested the accuracy of the brandish with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark man skin, blue sky, light-green grass, orangish etc. Yous can check out the results at manufactory condition and likewise, with the "Design and Gaming" profile.
The adjacent figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an paradigm, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.
The left side of the image represents the brandish with stock settings, while the correct 1 is with the "Gaming and Web Design" profile activated. On the horizontal centrality, you will observe the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs beneath you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances only continue in mind that this also depends on the settings of your electric current display, the scale, the viewing angle and the surrounding light conditions.
Response time
We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual "black-to-white" and "white-to-black" method from 10% to xc% and reverse.
We recorded Fall Time + Ascension Time = 34 ms.
PWM (Screen flickering)
Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an piece of cake way to control monitor brightness. When you lot lower the effulgence, the lite intensity of the backlight is non lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency duplicate to the homo middle. In these low-cal impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your optics.
You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.
Our equipment detected aggressive low-frequency PWM from 0 to 99% brightness so we strongly recommend using the device only at maximum brightness or consider using our Wellness-Guard profile.
Blue low-cal emissions
Installing of our Health-Guard contour non just eliminates PWM simply also reduces the harmful Blue Calorie-free emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually authentic. If you're non familiar with the Blue lite, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively touch on your eyes, peel and your whole trunk. Yous can find more information about that in our dedicated commodity on Blue Light.
Yous can see the levels of emitted blue light on the spectral power distribution (SPD) graph.
Decision
The display is generally fine and offers punchy and vibrant images thanks to the wide sRGB coverage and high contrast ratio. However, the maximum brightness will be a limiting factor when using the notebook outdoors nether direct sunlight. The glossy finish of the screen won't help the situation either. Yet, the biggest issue here is the aggressive PWM we've recorded from 0 to 99% effulgence. To avoid unwanted eyestrain, nosotros suggest using our Health-Guard contour or just use it at maximum brightness at all times.
Buy our brandish profiles
Since our profiles are tailored for each private display model, this article and its respective profile packet is meant for ASUS ZenBook Flip xiv configurations with 14.0″ BOE NV140FHM-N62 (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS screen and the laptop can be constitute at Amazon: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
*Should yous take problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a dissimilar browser to open the link yous'll receive via electronic mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an annal, alter the file extension to .zip or contact united states at bg.laptopmedia@gmail.com.
Read more than about the profiles Hither.
In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, past buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the evolution of our labs, where nosotros exam devices in social club to produce the almost objective reviews possible.
Role Piece of work
Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the fourth dimension looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.
- $iv.96 Purchase At present
Pattern and Gaming
This contour is aimed at designers who piece of work with colors professionally, and for games and movies also. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them every bit accurate every bit possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.
- $4.97 Purchase Now
Health-Guard
Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and trunk. Since information technology'southward custom tailored for every panel, information technology manages to continue the colors perceptually authentic. Health-Guard simulates paper so the force per unit area on the eyes is profoundly reduced.
- $4.98 BUY NOW
Audio
The sound quality is surprisingly good given the size of the body. The loudspeakers provide clarity in the depression, mid and high frequencies.
Specs canvass
The current specs sheet is for this particular model and configurations may differ depending on your region
ASUS ZenBook Flip fourteen (UX461) technical specifications tabular array
Display
xiv.0", Full Hard disk drive (1920 10 1080), IPS
HDD/SSD
512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
1000.2 Slot
1x 2280 PCIe NVMe M.ii slot
Dimensions
327 x 226 x 13.9 mm (12.87" x 8.90" x 0.55")
Body material
Aluminum (All-aluminum chassis)
Ports and connectivity
Features
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 (UX461) configurations
Software
We used the pre-installed Windows 10 for the writing of this review but if you wish to perform a make clean install of the Bone, we advise downloading all of the latest drivers from ASUS' official support page.
Battery
Like most ZenBooks, the Flip 14 also impresses with long bombardment life mainly cheers to the energy-efficient Cadre i7-8550U processor and the generous 57Wh crammed inside. It easily becomes 1 of the nigh enduring 14-inch ultrabooks we've tested and then far.
Of grade, all tests were run using the same settings as always – Wi-Fi turned on, screen effulgence prepare to 120 cd/m2 and Windows bombardment saving feature switched on.
In guild to simulate real-life weather condition, nosotros used our ain script for automated web browsing through over seventy websites.
For every test like this, we use the same video in Hard disk drive.
Nosotros utilise F1 2017'southward built-in criterion on loop in guild to simulate real-life gaming.
CPU – Intel Core i7-8550U
The Intel Core i7-8550U is part of the new eighth Generation Kaby Lake Refresh and it'due south a directly successor to the Intel Core i7-7500U from the Kaby Lake generation and the Intel Core i7-6500U from the 6th Skylake generation. With the latest alteration to the ULV (ultra-depression voltage) processors, Intel doubles the core count from 2 to 4 and retaining the so-called Hyper-Threading engineering, keeping the same 14nm manufacturing process and feature the same 15W TDP.
However, due to the cadre count change, the base frequency of the Core i7-8550U is lowered to just 1.8 GHz while Turbo Heave frequencies remain pretty high – somewhere between 3.seven – 4.0 GHz. This ensures considerably college multi-core and single-core operation during curt workloads before going dorsum to more bearable frequencies because the 15W TDP but most of the other specs and features remain the same.
The chip likewise incorporates a newer Intel Gen nine.5 integrated graphics called Intel UHD Graphics 620. The support for Google'south VP9 codec and H.265/HEVC Main ten is still the almost notable characteristic of the iGPU. Intel claims that the new UHD 620 chips improve the overall power consumption compared to the previous one.
Y'all can scan through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/;
Here you will notice other useful information and every notebook we've tested with this processor: http://laptopmedia.com/processor/intel-core-i7-8550u/;
Results are from the Cinebench 20 CPU test (the higher the score, the ameliorate)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the meliorate)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the college the score, the better)
GPU – NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (2GB GDDR5)
The GeForce MX150 is an entry-level mobile card that is part of the latest NVIDIA Pascal lineup of GPUs, based on the GP108 fleck paired with 2GB of GDDR5 retention via 64-bit interface. The GPU is the successor of GeForce 940MX and information technology was announced in Q2 of 2017.
The GeForce MX150 operates at a relatively loftier base of operations frequency of 1469 MHz, while the Heave frequencies can go up to 1532 MHz. The GPU incorporates 384 shader units (CUDA cores) while the memory is clocked at 6008MHz (effective). These specs ensure a pregnant performance boost over the previous generation of Maxwell GPUs. The TDP of the GPU is lower than the terminal generation GTX 950M and even the GTX 1050 – 25W compared to 40W for the two models to a higher place. Performance-wise, the GeForce MX150 should exist like to the desktop GeForce GT 1030.
Along with all the power consumption and performance improvements, the GPU at present supports essential features like Multi-Projection, VR Gear up, M-SYNC, Vulkan and Multi-Monitor.
Check the prices of all notebooks equipped with NVIDIA GeForce MX150: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the meliorate)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven four.0 benchmark (higher the score, the improve)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| CS:GO | Hd 768p, Low (Check settings) | Hard disk 768p, Medium (Bank check settings) | Hd 768p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boilerplate FPS | 158 fps | 95 fps | 76 fps |
| Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) | HD, Low (Check settings) | Hd, Medium (Check settings) | HD, Very High (Cheque settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 113 fps | 51 fps | 26 fps |
Temperatures
Of form, the stress tests that we perform don't represent real-life usage scenarios because even the most demanding games don't require 100% CPU and GPU load all the time just information technology's withal the best way to assess the overall stability of the cooling system in the long run.
Nosotros kick things off with 100% CPU load for almost an hour. Interestingly, the Core i7-8550U reached a maximum of 3.v GHz for the offset few seconds, information technology went through 2.5 and 2.2 GHz quite fast before settling at 1.ix GHz. No throttling occurred but it'due south obvious that the system can't sustain higher frequencies for some reason.
Switching on the GPU stress examination resulted in CPU throttling at around 1.i GHz but to our surprise, the GPU didn't throttle every bit much. It kept adequately high frequencies at 1202 MHz and exceptionally depression temperatures – 64 °C. Information technology appears that the BIOS settings prioritize lower temperatures rather than performance because obviously, both chips can go much higher judging by the fairly depression operating temperatures.
As expected, temperatures on the surface were a flake warm only nothing alarming. Probably higher inner temperatures would have resulted in higher outer temperatures so that's why the CPU and GPU tend to go along things cool nether the hood. Nosotros were also surprised by the low dissonance emissions – even under full load, the cooling fans were pretty quiet.
33.half dozen°
43.vii°
41.vi°
34.2°
42.1°
37.6°
35.1°
32.0°
31.9°
Verdict
The ZenBook Flip lineup has been around for a while now just the new generation featuring a familiar, yet fresh design and the all-time of what Intel and NVIDIA tin can offer, for now, is a game-changer. Even though the chassis is entirely made of aluminum, information technology'due south impressively thin, lite and doesn't trip the performance of the CPU and GPU, although we found the system struggling to go on Core i7-8550U's boost frequency for a long time. In short workloads and everyday use, the consequence won't be noticed.
Once more, the device proves to exist keen traveling companion thank you to the excellent input devices, small dimensions and amazing battery life, fifty-fifty though the issue with the rubber feet can be frustrating. When you open up the hat a bit further, the lesser loses contact with the surface and easily slides on the desk. Seems similar a rookie mistake and we hope it will get fixed after the first refresh since it'southward the only design flaw nosotros've encountered.
Just what about display quality? Well, on contrary to all ZenBooks we've reviewed so far, this i is a mixed bag. Information technology does offer punchy and vibrant images due to the wide sRGB coverage and loftier contrast just the glossy cease combined with relatively low maximum effulgence will pose a challenge when using information technology outdoors. Likewise, the ambitious PWM volition exist tiring to a big number of users, especially to those with sensitive optics.
Is it worth your hard-earned money? Well, quite frankly, the ZenBook Flip 14 is ane of the all-time convertibles currently on the marketplace successfully challenging Lenovo's Yoga 720 (thirteen-inch) and easily beating most of its direct competitors. And if the 360-caste rotatable hinge isn't essential, consider the standard ZenBook UX430 or Lenovo'due south Ideapad 720s.
Pros
- Clean design, robust chassis
- Lightweight, super thin, slightly bigger than a standard 13-inch device
- Great keyboard, responsive and accurate touchpad
- Packs a powerful hardware given the size of the chassis
- Expert image quality (wide sRGB coverage, loftier dissimilarity)
- Amazing battery life
- Plenty of I/O
Cons
- When opened, the device loses grip with the surface and slides
- The glossy screen finish and relatively depression brightness make it hard to utilise outdoors
- The screen uses ambitious PWM 0 to 99% brightness (our Health-Guard profile fixes that)
- In some regions, the notebook ships with Grand.2 SATA SSD instead of PCIe NVMe SSD
Source: https://laptopmedia.com/review/asus-zenbook-flip-14-ux461un-pro-review-versatile-powerful-elegant/
Posted by: mckinneywhences.blogspot.com
0 Response to "Asus Zenbook Flip 14 Ux461un Test"
Post a Comment