Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (UX461UN) - Review 2022

How does the $1,299 Asus ZenBook Flip 14 (UX461UN) stand out in a oversupply of 13.3-inch convertible laptops? Get-go, it doesn't have a 13.3-inch screen—the Flip'south chassis is barely bigger than its rivals, only its full HD panel measures 14 inches diagonally. 2nd, Asus says information technology's the world's thinnest two-in-one with discrete graphics—instead of the Intel integrated graphics of most convertibles. The system has an Nvidia GeForce MX150 carte that proved about twice as fast on our gaming benchmarks. We'll temper your expectations right up front end, though: It's not fast plenty to play the latest games at their highest image-quality settings.

The ZenBook Flip 14 besides comes in at $thirty less than its closest rival, the 13.9-inch Lenovo Yoga 920, our elevation selection. While outstanding battery life, Thunderbolt 3 ports, and a more comfy keyboard assist the Lenovo Yoga 920 retain its Editors' Pick crown, the Flip is an impressive value that's well worth a look.

Circles Within Circles

The ZenBook Flip 14 we tested is model UX461UN-DS74T, which features an eighth-generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 16GB of retentiveness, and a 512GB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD). For $400 less, the model UX461UA-DS51T downshifts to an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and integrated graphics.

Whichever model you choose, you'll get a greyness aluminum unibody with Asus's trademark ZenBook cease of concentric circles radiating outward from a chrome Asus logo on the chapeau. At 0.55 by 12.9 by viii.nine inches (HWD), the Flip is fractionally bigger than the Lenovo Yoga 920 (0.five by 12.7 by viii.viii inches), merely about the same size as the largest 13.three-inch convertibles, such as the Dell Inspiron xiii 5000 2-in-1 (5379), which comes in at 0.77 by 12.8 by 8.9 inches.

At 3.31 pounds, the ZenBook Flip 14 weighs less than the Dell Inspiron 5379 (3.56 pounds), but more the Lenovo Yoga 920 (iii.02 pounds). Like virtually convertibles, information technology's a tad heavy to hold in midair in Tablet mode, just perfectly comfy on your lap. Its dual hinges not only let the screen pivot through the usual 4 positions—Laptop manner, Tablet way, easel-like Stand mode, and inverted-5 Tent mode—but also lets you lift or tilt the back of the keyboard to a handy typing bending in Laptop manner. (That final feature works meliorate on a desk than on your lap, where the bottom of the lid can dig into your knees.)

In that location's a tiny corporeality of flex in the lid and the keyboard deck, but the ZenBook Flip fourteen feels solidly congenital overall. The ability button, a volume rocker, and a USB 3.0 port are on the laptop'due south left side. Some other USB 3.0 port, plus a USB-C port, an HDMI port, an audio jack, a microSD card slot, and the connector for the compact Air conditioning adapter are on the right edge.

High Fidelity, Moderate Volume

Even cranked to 100 percent, the ZenBook Flip's audio doesn't get very loud, but the Harmon/Kardon-tuned speakers on the organization'southward bottom produce above-average sound, with rich tones (albeit non a lot of bass) and no distortion. The webcam above the screen is above boilerplate, likewise, capturing detailed selfies even in mediocre light.

The 1,920-by-1,080-resolution display offers broad viewing angles, somewhat obscured by reflections on its glossy surface. Brightness is just adequate—I kept the backlight at its top couple of settings for most of my piece of work sessions—only colors are good, with saturated hues and deep contrast.

Touch-screen operations are smoothen and authentic. At that place's no cubbyhole or identify in the laptop to store it, but the ZenBook Flip 14 comes with a handsome, battery-powered stylus that responds to ane,024 levels of pressure. Information technology kept upwards with my swipes and scribbles, but I suffered a few stray marks where palm rejection faltered.

The keyboard lacks defended Abode, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys (they're teamed with the Fn key and cursor arrows), but is otherwise well laid out. Its one.4mm of travel gives information technology a pliant, if plasticky, typing feel—non equally pleasing as that of the Lenovo convertible, simply more than sufficient for cruising at a good prune, with minimal mistakes right out of the box. The chrome-trimmed touchpad takes only the right amount of force per unit area to produce a click; it has a Windows Hi-compatible fingerprint reader in its upper-right corner.

That's GeForce MX150, Not GTX 1050

The ZenBook Flip 14 nosotros tested boasts a 1.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 16GB of retentivity, and a 512GB NVMe SSD. The combination was skilful enough for first place amidst a collection of convertible and clamshell peers in our PCMark 8 office productivity test, with a stellar score of 3,603 (anything above two,500 is fine for Microsoft Office and Google Docs).

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The system also topped its Lenovo Yoga 920 rival in our processor-intensive Cinebench exam, as well as Handbrake video-editing exercise (with ane:09 versus 1:21 for the latter), though it was a few seconds off the step in our Adobe Photoshop image-editing workload. Nor could it match the Lenovo Yoga'due south remarkable battery life of more than 22 hours in our video playback loop, though its fourth dimension of shut to 12 hours is more than than enough to become you through a workday, plus some after-hours Netflix or calorie-free gaming.

But information technology's the gaming benchmark scores that you want to know about, and that'south where the unit of measurement'southward Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card showed its worth: The ZenBook Flip 14's score of i,280 in the enervating 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme test was near triple that of systems with the same CPU'due south integrated graphics. And it easily cleared the thirty frames-per-second (fps) hurdle for shine gameplay in Valley and Sky at medium-quality settings and resolution.

Yet the Nvidia MX150 carte is built for light to moderate, not full-diameter, gaming. The ZenBook Flip 14 savage short of 30fps at its full 1080p resolution at Sky's and Valley'south meridian-quality settings. And when nosotros loaded a favorite Steam game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, at 1080p, we had to cull the Low preset to average 30.7fps in the game'southward built-in benchmark test. (Its scores in Medium and High modes were 24.6fps and 21.7fps, respectively.) Anyone confusing Nvidia's MX150 with Nvidia's GeForce GTX 10-series GPUs is in for a disappointment.

That's Amusement (and Productivity)

Still, at that place'south null wrong with having a versatile part and on-the-road machine that can provide peppy performance in coincidental gaming. With a slightly brighter display and a Thunderbolt iii port for up-to-engagement docking solutions and peripherals, or mayhap simply one of those things, we'd be looking at an Editors' Pick contender. As such, we adopt the Lenovo Yoga 920 for its lighter weight, faultless keyboard, Thunderbolt three port, and the extra show-off value of its pattern (we're thinking of the Lenovo 920's famous "watchband" swivel). Withal, the Asus ZenBook Flip fourteen (UX461UN) is a good buy and a solid performer; information technology'south worth showing off in its own right.