Asus Zenbook UX530UX review: my new work machine

I've been using an old Medion laptop for four years now. So far I've got by pretty well with it, but because of my choice of school, I now needed a notebook with better equipment. And that's how I came to the Asus Zenbook UX530UX. My test report.

Design and workmanship

The Zenbook UX530UX is a beautiful and compact notebook (picture: © TechnikNews 2018)

The Zenbook UX530UX is made of aluminum. In terms of color, you can choose between a deep blue or silver. The latter is the color variant I chose. The weight is just 1,63kg. Also, the device is generally quite compact, which makes the portability of this laptop very high. On the underside of the device you can see the fans and speakers, which were coordinated in cooperation with Harman / Kardon. These sound very good to my ears, I have often listened to music about them while working and gave my Libratone Q Adapt On ear a break.

The ports are found on the notebook's sides, and there are still quite a few of them. On the left there are two USB connections, a jack plug and a slot for an SD card. On the right side, in addition to the USB-C 3.1 port of generation 1, another USB connection, which is also based on USB 3.1 of generation 1, as well as an HDMI connector and a charging connection have been installed. Unfortunately, the Zenbook UX530UX cannot be charged via USB-C. Too bad. In addition to all the connections, there is also a status LED for the charge status of the device. I will come back to the subject of the battery in more detail later.

When you open the device, you are greeted by the keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard has a three-stage backlight and a travel of 1,4 mm. I can type comfortably and fairly quickly on the keyboard. There is no number pad, but that didn't really bother me. The trackpad is made of glass and in some configurations even has a Windows Hello fingerprint sensor. It's the right size for my taste; I've never felt drawn to an external mouse before. The accuracy is basically okay in my opinion. But every now and then I had the problem that the multi-touch gestures from Windows were not executed correctly. This surprises me because after looking in the settings I found that Precision drivers for the trackpad were installed.

Thanks to the keyboard lighting, you can also type in the dark (Image: © 2018 TechnikNews)

I was a bit disappointed by the folding mechanism for the display. First of all, this does not hold the display completely closed when it is closed, so there is always a tiny gap open. Then the display wobbles back and forth quite a lot when it is open, even with tiny movements. Here I have some doubts about the longevity of these components.

Display

I've already talked briefly about the folding mechanism for the displayprochen, we now come to the display itself. It is pleasantly large at 15,6 inches with a Full HD resolution. Earlier I briefly mentioned that the device is very compact. This is mainly due to the fact that the display edges are quite thin. Expressed in figures: The panel takes up 81% of the available area. In addition, it can get really bright and is also anti-reflective, which is really helpful mainly in direct sunlight.

The webcam and an ambient light sensor are located above the display, which helps to automatically adjust the brightness of the display. Of course, you can also do this manually. Asus has also come up with something for people who work a lot in the dark. Thanks to Asus Eye Care technology, the panel can filter out the blue light by 30%, which is supposed to be easy on the eyes. In summary, I have absolutely nothing to complain about with the display.

I am very satisfied with the display of the Zenbook (picture: © TechnikNews 2018)

Specs and performance

My configuration of the Zenbook UX530UX is powered by an Intel Core i7 7500U in the Kaby Lake architecture. This processor is a dual core processor and normally clocks at 2,7GHz. In Turbo Boost, the chip can reach up to 3,5GHz. There are also models with the less powerful Core i5 and Core i3. The RAM in my configuration is 8GB, of which just under 8GB is usable. The hard drive is an SSD with a capacity of 256GB. For the graphics card, Asus opted for the GTX950 from NVIDIA.

Now let's move on to everyday performance. The notebook boots up pretty quickly and is ready to use straight away. Normal programs like Office or the Chrome browser also start without any major waiting times. More complex programs, like the QT Creator that I need for school, take a second longer to start, but that's bearable because once it's opened, it runs without errors. Multitasking was never a problem thanks to the 8GB RAM. I found it a little disappointing that the device's fan started up quite often, even when performing tasks that weren't particularly performance-hungry. Apart from that, there's nothing to complain about here either.

Battery

The Zenbook's battery has a capacity of 50Wh. Asus states that the battery life is nine hours. I was unable to achieve this. It should be noted, however, that this value refers to video playback and not to working with the device. I often charged the notebook on Sunday evening and then managed to use it for more than five hours until Wednesday. I always had Windows' "Better Performance" mode activated. It bothered me that the device often stopped charging at 99%. This was never really bad, but in my opinion this problem should not exist.

Software

The UX530UX runs Windows 10 Home. For an additional charge of around €100, you can get Windows 10 Pro from the store, which includes features such as Remote Desktop. The setupproprocess of this notebook turned out to be very simple. Simply enter your Microsoft account with a few additional details, and you're done. A nice bonus: In my case, the desktop background was taken over from my old laptop.

Unfortunately, as with pretty much every new Asus device, there was quite a lot of bloatware installed. So before I installed anything else, I first removed everything I didn't need. But you should only do this if you know which programs you want to procan be deleted without any problems. But there were also things that were useful to me, such as Spotify, Netflix and Office, pre-installed. Apps and programs can then be obtained from the Windows Store or directly from the manufacturers. Otherwise, you get everything you would expect from any other Windows device.

Windows runs like you know it on the UX530UX (image: © TechnikNews 2018)

Conclusion

The Zenbook UX530UX from Asus is a compact notebook that can also handle more demanding tasks promastered without any problems. With the 50Wh battery you can easily get through a working day, while the Harman/Kardon speakers provide good sound as an accompaniment. Thanks to the i7 in combination with 8GB RAM, this device literally flies through Windows 10, so there are hardly any waiting times. What I didn't like so much was that the battery often stopped charging at 99%, that quite a lot of Asus bloatware was installed and that the processing of the hinge for the display is not particularly good.

The Asus Zenbook UX530UX is available directly from Asus, on Amazon or in most electronics stores. In terms of price, we're talking about € 1.200. If you are one of those people who only do office tasks and surf something in the browser, I would resort to cheaper devices. In my opinion, this device is suitable for people who often have to take their laptop with them and perform more demanding tasks on it.