The prepremium laptop segment has witnessed tremendous growth lately. A market, which was dominated by Apple only a while ago, now has everyone from Dell to HP vying for customers' attention. Whatever your preference may be in terms of display size, hardware specifications or anything else, there's no dearth of options. Notably, Taiwan-based Asus seems to be doing wonders with its new range of products.
But does it mean that it should be your next ultrabook, especially if you have to shell out Rs 1,47,990 for it? We try to find out in our review of the Asus ZenBook 3.
Design and display
With a 12.5 inch display and weighing about 910g, Asus ZenBook 3 is quite small and lightweight. It's available in three colour variants - Rose Gold, Quartz Grey and Royal Blue, with our review unit being the Royal Blue one.
The laptop sports a fine golden lining around its frame. There are four speaker grilles placed at the bottom, with two more above the keyboard. The left side has a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB Type-C port, which supports both display output and charging. These two are the only ports available on the ZenBook 3.
Despite being quite compact, Asus ZenBook 3 houses a spacious chiclet-style keyboard and a large trackpad. What's more, the trackpad also has a built-in fingerprint sensor placed in the top right corner.
As for the display, Asus ZenBook 3 has a 12.5-inch Full HD LED-backlit display of 1920x1080 pixel resolution. The display is sharp and the colours are vibrant, watching full HD videos are a true delight. The display is further protected with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
The ZenBook 3 comes with a carrying sleeve that doesn't really feel premium, especially when compared with the leather sleeve that the HP Spectre comes in. We feel Asus could've done better in this regard.
Specifications
It sports a 12.5 inch LED backlit full HD (1920x1080) anti-glare display, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Don't let the size fool you, this is one beast of a device that powered by some the best hardware and software. The ZenBook 3 comes with the latest 7th generation (Kaby Lake), 15W Intel Core i7-7500U processor, coupled with 16GB of high speed RAM and 512GB PCle Gen 3 X4 SSD.
On the connectivity front, the ZenBook 3 supports a Dual-band 2x 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. The Asus ZenBook 3 boasts a long lasting battery, a 40Whrs Lithium-polymer that'll last for up to 10 hours.
Performance
Asus ZenBook 3 is powered by the Intel's latest 7th generation (Kaby Lake) Core i7 CPU. This is complemented by a substantial 16GB of RAM and 512GB of PCle Gen 3 SSD based storage. And as the raw specifications would have you believe, the ZenBook 3 is a beast when it comes to day-to-day performance.
During our testing, it handled everything from multi-tabbed browsing to intensive multitasking flawlessly. It can even run gaming titles such as Asphalt 8: Airborne without any issues at all.
That said, the numerous updates running in the background do cause the ZenBook 3 to heat up a little at times. But it's not a big issue.
Asus ZenBook 3's backlit keyboard is really convenient for typing in the dark, but we're not sure whether everyone will like it or not. The keys are largely flat and don't really have that much in terms of travel distance.
As for the trackpad, it's really smooth and responsive. But we feel that the fingerprint sensor could've been better. It requires at least 3-4 attempts to unlock the ZenBook 3, something we didn't expect from such a high-priced device.
Since it has only one USB Type-C port, Asus ZenBook 3 comes with a dongle for connecting to other peripherals. Even though USB Type-C is the future, it's quite a hassle to carry the dongle around. The dongle itself comes with USB Type-C (1), USB Type-A (1) and HDMI (1). So if you need other connectivity options such as VGA, you'll need to invest in separate dongle(s).
The ZenBook 3 comes with a carrying sleeve that doesn't really feel premium, especially when compared with the leather sleeve that the HP Spectre comes in. We feel Asus could've done better in this regard.
Specifications
It sports a 12.5 inch LED backlit full HD (1920x1080) anti-glare display, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 4. Don't let the size fool you, this is one beast of a device that powered by some the best hardware and software. The ZenBook 3 comes with the latest 7th generation (Kaby Lake), 15W Intel Core i7-7500U processor, coupled with 16GB of high speed RAM and 512GB PCle Gen 3 X4 SSD.
On the connectivity front, the ZenBook 3 supports a Dual-band 2x 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1. The Asus ZenBook 3 boasts a long lasting battery, a 40Whrs Lithium-polymer that'll last for up to 10 hours.
Performance
Asus ZenBook 3 is powered by the Intel's latest 7th generation (Kaby Lake) Core i7 CPU. This is complemented by a substantial 16GB of RAM and 512GB of PCle Gen 3 SSD based storage. And as the raw specifications would have you believe, the ZenBook 3 is a beast when it comes to day-to-day performance.
During our testing, it handled everything from multi-tabbed browsing to intensive multitasking flawlessly. It can even run gaming titles such as Asphalt 8: Airborne without any issues at all.
That said, the numerous updates running in the background do cause the ZenBook 3 to heat up a little at times. But it's not a big issue.
Asus ZenBook 3's backlit keyboard is really convenient for typing in the dark, but we're not sure whether everyone will like it or not. The keys are largely flat and don't really have that much in terms of travel distance.
Since it has only one USB Type-C port, Asus ZenBook 3 comes with a dongle for connecting to other peripherals. Even though USB Type-C is the future, it's quite a hassle to carry the dongle around. The dongle itself comes with USB Type-C (1), USB Type-A (1) and HDMI (1). So if you need other connectivity options such as VGA, you'll need to invest in separate dongle(s).
However, the ZenBook 3 has all the modern connectivity options such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Asus has partnered with Harman/Kardon for the ZenBook 3's speakers. And it shows in its audio output, which is truly amazing. Given the ZenBook 3's size, the audio output is really loud and crisp, even a little better than that of the Dell XPS 13.
Coming to the battery life, we found it to be quite good. The battery lasts around 7-8 hours on a single charge with moderate use, which is a respectable figure.
Verdict
To sum things up, Asus ZenBook 3 is a great ultrabook. Whether it's design, portability or performance, it ticks all the right boxes. But its biggest sore point is the lack of traditional connectivity ports and the steep price. Yes, the dongle is included, but it's not exactly a convenient solution. If you're looking to for other options, there is HP Spectre and Dell XPS 13, both of which offer a mix of great design and powerful specifications.
Asus has partnered with Harman/Kardon for the ZenBook 3's speakers. And it shows in its audio output, which is truly amazing. Given the ZenBook 3's size, the audio output is really loud and crisp, even a little better than that of the Dell XPS 13.
Coming to the battery life, we found it to be quite good. The battery lasts around 7-8 hours on a single charge with moderate use, which is a respectable figure.
Verdict
To sum things up, Asus ZenBook 3 is a great ultrabook. Whether it's design, portability or performance, it ticks all the right boxes. But its biggest sore point is the lack of traditional connectivity ports and the steep price. Yes, the dongle is included, but it's not exactly a convenient solution. If you're looking to for other options, there is HP Spectre and Dell XPS 13, both of which offer a mix of great design and powerful specifications.
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