The ASUS ZenBook is a piece of super-thin ultrabook that is set directly to the portable-yet-decent-performance market, particularly the MacBook Air’s segment in the market, though on Windows. In short though, I have to say that ASUS did a very good job.
There are a few things to note about the ASUS ultrabook series – the packaging is simple, yet have enough to make you feel like the price you pay is definitely for the best.
Opening up and you’ll find out that the ASUS packaging is with no bullshit and straight forward – the laptop itself, and the charger.
Digging beneath the laptop itself is there all those documentation and some other accessories are found. There is a cloth pouch for the laptop, an ASUS cable tie, a microfiber cloth, and a quick start guide. Real neat, ASUS.
And with that ends the unboxing of the ZenBook UX305. Pretty simple, and has everything that we actually need and will use.
[nextpage title=”Ports”]After the new 12-inch MacBook Air fiasco, the ports available on a device this thin is a critical selling point – and the ZenBook does not disappoint at all.
Featuring a two full-sized USB 3.0 ports and a SD card slot on the left side…
… and a power indicator, storage activity indicator, a 3.5mm audio jack, micro HDMI (looks like micro USB), another full sized USB 3.0 port, and a power jack.
This amount of ports is definitely more than the MacBook Air series even before the USB type-C ones, and generously included 3 full sized USB 3.0 ports, and a full-sized SD card reader.
[nextpage title=”Design”]The UX305 is extremely thin – so thin that it’s only about the same thickness of the ZenFone 2 at its thickest point – at only 12.3mm thin! Even so, the ZenBook is really light – so light that it weighs less than 1.2kg.
Of course, with this thinness comes with a sacrifice. ASUS thought that users will need a bigger angle to accommodate a comfortable work condition for the users – and ASUS did it in a very peculiar style.
At a closed angle, the laptop’s rubber feet at the back will sit on the desk and the bottom piece will be flat. This design is what we’ve seen across all other designs of laptops in the market – but opening the lid up to a mere 90º however, the whole story changes.
The bottom is no longer flat, but instead being raised up a little at the back, creating a really slight angle while typing. That said, this angle is created by the light resting on the desk itself!
Is it safe though?
Yes, and it’s superbly clean too. There are two little hard plastic feet at the two sides of the very durable-yet-huge hinge of the ZenBook UX305, so that it can have minimal dirt caught on the bottom of the lid and still manage to withstand the most intense typing session on the laptop.
Though I’m not particularly happy with the bottom-facing speakers…
[nextpage title=”Keyboard”]This is something that I have to praise ASUS for nailing it down nicely. The keyboard feels absolutely amazing to type on – it has great tactile feedback, the keys are springy yet well-spaced among each other.
The keyboard however does not have controls for media players – specifically the play/pause/next/previous buttons. Also, the arrow keys are mangled up to a tiny rectangular space, which I really don’t really like, but personal preference may vary.
That said, the angle created by the screen lid did angle up the keyboard by a slight bit – that actually improved the typing experience, and I can get a magnificent 94 words per minute on 10 Fast Fingers.
[nextpage title=”Display”]The ASUS ZenBook UX305 features a really amazing 13.3-inch IPS display with 1920×1080 pixels in resolution, all of these are living under a matte-coated surface. The IPS display does shine really bright and manage to have minimal colour shifting under intense angles.
One thing to note though is that the matte grain is a little too harsh on the ZenBook UX305, making the ultrabook looking a little weird under direct bright light. However still, under sunlight, work can still be done with comfort – that I can guarantee you.
[nextpage title=”Performance”]First of all, it’s not a powerhouse. It’s meant to be portable, and meant to be brought out to do some PDF reading, Microsoft Office, browsing, watching videos, and listening to music.
One thing I can tell you is that with the M.2 SSD built into the ASUS ZenBook UX305, the speeds on this laptop is blazing fast. At a cold boot (completely turned off, then press turn on) it took only about 10 seconds to get into Windows 10. Waking up from its sleep state took less than 2 seconds, and I’m back where I left it.
Though it’s no surprise, coupling this extremely fast M.2 SSD with the Intel’s latest Core-M processor – specifically the M-5Y71 that runs on 1.2GHz and 1.4GHz on Turbo Boost, the ZenBook can uphold some heavier tasks compared to the Surface 3 (hint : WordPress).
Benchmark wise, I suggest not even to bother – but I can tell you that the version I have here has 4GB of RAM running on Windows 10 (I upgraded) and it can have 20 tabs opened on Chrome at the same time and still manage to keep up with all the workload I usually throw to my main PC – just without the occasional gaming and Photoshop.
[nextpage title=”Battery life”]This surely is something interesting. The battery life is something that I would rate as slightly below par with the Surface 3, but the performance surpasses the Surface 3 at every single task. Surprising enough, the ZenBook can last for at least 6 hours on battery!
The charger alone is small – both in terms of physical size, and power consumption.
It takes in 19V and 2.37A – that means it takes teeny tiny bit above 45 watts.
The physical size of it?
Technically speaking, not much larger than the ZenFone 2’s ZE551ML model charger if you ask me. The depth is about the same, height is of the ZenBook charger is about another extra 1/3 of the ZenFone 2’s charger, and with the same width. Heck, I can chuck it into one of my cargo pants pocket and forget about it.
Not that I need it though – since the battery life on the ZenBook is really amazing – just that it’s small enough to fit it there.
[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]
Is the ZenBook UX305 the ultrabook to buy? Would I recommend it?
Those are the two questions I got on a daily basis while using the ZenBook in campus – and to all those question I said to them a simple “yes”, and asked them to try it themselves. All of them obviously got jealous by just observing me using this beautiful piece of hardware.
Do be cautious about the ZenBook UX305 however – those MacBook Air users will certainly start waging unrealistic war and say that their devices are the best.
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Many thanks for the review of Asus ZenBook UX305, you helped me a lot.