This machine seems to hit all the right notes on paper. Is it really the best convertible laptop of 2020? Can it really beat HP Spectre and Dell XPS? Let’s try and find answers to these and other questions in our Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Contents:

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 specs Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review: design Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review: trackpad, connectivity & I/O Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review: Display Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review: Performance Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review: Battery and audio Asus ZenBook Flip S U371 review verdict, pros & cons

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 Specifications

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX 371 Review: Design

Asus Zenbook Flip S impressed us with its light body and tough build, and our appreciation only grew as we spent more time with it. Thi premium convertible from Asus is much in line with last year’s Flip S. It has metal chassis with a Jade Black paint job and red copper diamond-cut accent trimmings all around it. That metal body ensures that the laptop has no flexes. Concentric circles and the engraved Asus logo on the top lid are signature Asus design patterns that still look appealing. The lid is prone to smudges, though. As you lift it up, you will be greeted by a 13.3-inch screen surrounded by black bezels, which I wish were narrower at the top and bottom. Well, I hope Asus shrinks them in the next iteration. The real attraction for the ZenBook Flip S is the Ergolift design and that hinge which allows you to tilt the display up to 360 degrees. One can use the Zenbook flip S in tablet mode or laptop mode depending upon his or her preference. Being a bit of old school I spent almost all my time with UX371 using it as a conventional laptop. The Ergolift design helps manage air circulation and ensures that the laptop delivers optimum performance. Ergo lift design also creates a typing friendly posture for the laptop. More on this in the next sub.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Trackpad, keyboard and I/O

The most common issues with 13-inch laptops are generally their cramped trackpad and tightly spaced keys. Asus deserves some praise for fitting in a fairly large trackpad with sizeable arm resting space even within this compact design. The trackpad is responsive, accurate, and also supports gestures. Asus has also embedded a touch-sensitive Numpad in the trackpad of its premium ultrabook. Keyboard keys aren’t as well spaced as our previous daily driver, but the keys are fairly large and have good travel, and we got accustomed to typing on the ZenBook Flip S in a couple of days. The Keyboard also has a uniform, bright white backlight that comes in handy in low-light scenarios. As for the connectivity, Asus has paid due attention to modern connectivity standards without neglecting legacy ports. Like all recent Zenbooks, the UX371 boasts of two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, one full-size USB-A (3.2 Gen 2), and one full-size HDMI slot. While it lacks a dedicated 3.5 mm jack, Asus considerately bundles a USB-C to 3.5 mm and USB-A to LAN adapter in the pack.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Display

The ZenBook Flip S’ 13.3-inch 4K OLED display is one of the things that you will cherish most about this laptop. It’s a touch-sensitive panel that claims to carry PANTONE validated 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and TÜV Rheinland Eye Care certification against harmful blue light. Everything on the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 looks really pleasing to our eyes. Text looks crisp and clear while blacks are pitch black. If you plan to use the ZenBook Flip S as your content consumption device, then this well-balanced, vibrant OLED display won’t disappoint. Brightness levels are good enough for outdoor usage. Having said that, people with sensitive eyes might notice some screen flickering at low brightness since ASUS uses PWM for dimming the OLED screen.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Performance

We have been testing the top-of-the-line Flip S UX 371 which is powered by Intel Tiger Lake 11th generation Core i7-1165G7 processor with 4 cores and 8 threads, 16GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. Like most 11 gen processors, the graphics are handled by Iris XE GPU. Both processor and RAM are soldered on the motherboard. On paper, it makes an impressive read for an extremely sleek premium convertible. With Intel 11 gen processor on board, it can handle demanding softwares like Adobe creative suite, but it isn’t meant for graphics and CPU intensive work. Asus’ proprietary app lets you choose between Performance, Standard, and Whisper modes. When plugged in, the CPU automatically switches to performance mode drawing 15W. During our testing, the laptop ran quite and cool for most of the time. We only heard fan noise for an extended time while running benchmark tests. Talking of benchmarks here’s a quick summary:

PC Mark 10 – 4132 (Digital Content Creation); 7058 (Productivity) and 9419 (Essentials) 3D Mark 13 – 4021 (Fire Strike), 12983 (Night Raid), 10442 (Wild Life) Geekbench 5 64-bit: 1483 (Single-Core), 4694 (Multi-Core) Unigine Superposition 1.0 : 14fps at 1080p and 44fps 720p

Right after these benchmark test we recorded highest temperature of 45 degrees, when ambiant temperature was about 19 degrees celsius. The Intel Iris XE graphics is sufficient for most users until and unless you are a gamer. If you are going to push it with modern titles like Far Cry 5 and Tomb Rider – it performs best when the game resolution is set to 1080p and graphics quality is set to low or medium at best.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review: Battery and audio

The ZenBook Flip S UX 371 battery life is satisfactory thanks to Intel’s new Tiger Lake processor. We managed to get about 7 hours & 30 minutes on regular basis with brightness level set to about 70 percent. When pushed hard, it manged to last good 5 hours & 20 minutes. This reading will look more impressive if you keep in mind that it has a 4K panel which means a lot more pixels to deal with. Asus has bundled a 65W fast charger within the box which refills its 67Whr battery quickly. Audio-wise, the bottom-firing speakers Harman Kardon tuned delivers crisp audio but there is no way of working around limitations due to their tiny size. Stereo effects are well pronounced but a wired headset or a dedicated audio setup should be your first choice. Overall, we’d say Asus has done well when considering the convertible laptop’s slim profile.

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 review verdict

The Zenbook Flip S is a well rounded convertible laptop without any major drawbacks. It’s an extremely slim laptop with excellent 4K OLED display that too with touch & stylus support which is one of its many USPs. Of course, Intel 11 generation i7 TigerLake processor and Evo branding means it has been optimized for optimum and reliable performance. If you wish to spend Rs 1.5 lakh on windows machine then the Asus Zenbook Flip S UX371 is perfect, more so if you are expected to travel a lot after the pandemic ends. Pros:

Stunning screen Sleek and premium design Good battery life Reliable performance

Cons:

HD Camera Lacks headphone jack

 

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