Asus has introduced their new range of premium laptops including various ZenBooks at the IFA technology fair. The laptops are thinner, lighter and more powerful than their predecessors. Two of the six new laptops are available with an OLED screen.
Asus announced no less than six different laptops that differ in terms of target audience. We will discuss the most striking features separately. There are also similarities. For example, all announced laptops with the exception of the ZenBook Pro 15 are equipped with Thunderbolt 4 and are also charged via those USB-C ports. Due to the higher energy consumption, the ZenBook Pro 15 has a separate charging connection and is optionally equipped with Thunderbolt 3. Furthermore, we see WiFi 6 on all laptops and Asus has equipped all announced laptops with an infrared camera with face recognition for Windows Hello.
At the time of writing, most processors used by Asus have not yet been announced by Intel and Asus does not provide type numbers. It is the Tiger Lake eleventh generation Core mobile processors that Intel unveiled this evening. If more is clear, we will supplement this message with type numbers.
Super light: ExpertBook B9400
If you are on the road a lot, laptops cannot be light enough. Asus comes up with the ExpertBook B9400 for that target group. This 14-inch laptop is intended for business users and is extra light compared to other Asus laptops with 880 grams and extra strong according to Asus. To make this possible, Asus has used a new magnesium-lithium alloy. The advertised weight of 880 grams is only achieved in combination with a 33 Wh battery. The variant with a twice as large 66 Wh battery seems more interesting to us and it weighs 1005 grams. The ExpertBook is also notable for a microphone that filters out disturbing background noise
The ExpertBook B9400 measures 32 x 20.3 x 1.49 cm and weighs 880 or 1005 grams. The laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor of the Tiger Lake generation, a maximum of 32 GB of RAM, an NVME SSD and is equipped with Thunderbolt 4 ports. The 14 inch screen is based on a Full HD IPS panel. It is striking that an ethernet connection is supported via the micro HDMI connection.
Oled: ZenBook Flip S (UX371) and ZenBook Pro 15 (UX535)
The most striking laptops that Asus announces are perhaps the ZenBook Flip S (UX371) and the ZenBook Pro 15 (UX535), which are equipped with an OLED screen in the more expensive versions. Asus already had a laptop with an OLED screen in the form of the ZenBook Pro Duo, but that is a laptop with two screens that is intended for a very specific target group. The ZenBook Flip S and the ZenBook Pro 15 are Asus’ first ‘normal’ laptops with an OLED screen. According to Asus, the ZenBook Flip S is the world’s thinnest OLED convertible, while the ZenBook Pro 15 is the smallest 15-inch OLED laptop.
The OLED panel used is in both cases a 4K UHD screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels that supports the extra wide DCI-P3 color gamut and 133% of sRGB. The ZenBook Flip S has a 13.3-inch screen while the ZenBook Pro 15 has a 15.6-inch screen. Incidentally, there will also be versions of the laptops on the market that will be equipped with a Full HD ips panel. In the case of the ZenBook Flip S, it’s a touch screen and you can flip the screen over to use the laptop as a tablet too. The touch screen also supports the Asus Pen, a touch-sensitive stylus with 4096 pressure levels.
Oled is of course a fantastic screen technology with excellent colors and high contrast. For example, the ZenBook Flip S offers a brightness of 500 nits and a contrast of 1,000,000: 1. On the other hand, the possible disadvantage is that OLED is sensitive to image retention. According to Asus, users do not have to worry about this and burn-in is prevented, for example, by pixel shift, where the image shifts slightly during use. In addition, according to Asus, heat is an important cause of OLED burn-in. Asus has therefore provided the screen panel on the back with a layer of graphite, a material that can conduct heat quickly and presumably transfers it to the metal back.
With dimensions of 30.5 x 21.1 x 1.39 cm and a weight of 1.2 kilograms, the ZenBook Flip S is a compact laptop equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16 GB of ram and a maximum of 1 TB nvme ssd. Asus has paid extra attention to the battery and claims that the 67 Wh battery provides a working time of 15 hours. The laptop is equipped with Thunder bolt 4 and is charged via USB-C.
With a size of 35.4 x 23.3 x 1.78 cm and a weight of 1.8 kilograms, the ZenBook Pro 15 is the largest of the laptops announced by Asus. You not only get a larger screen in return, but also a separate GPU in the form of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 or 1650Ti. The laptop contains an Intel Core i5-10300H or Core i7-10750H, up to 16 GB of ram and an NVME SSD of up to 1 TB.
3: 2 display: ZenBook S (UX393)
ZenBook S stands out for a display in the deviating 3: 2 aspect ratio, a ratio mainly used by Microsoft on Surface devices. The 13.9 inch screen has a resolution of 3300 x 2200 pixels and is also a touch screen. The laptops are equipped with a metal unibody, weigh 1.35 kilograms and have a size of 30.6 x 22.4 x 1.57 cm. The laptop is available with a Core i5 or Core i7 processor, a maximum of 16 GB of ram and a maximum of a 1 TB NVME SSD.
ScreenPad or extra light: ZenBook 14 (UX435)
Asus also announced the ZenBook 14 in two variants. The ‘normal’ ZenBook 14 stands out because of the new variant of Asus’ ScreenPad, a touchpad with a 5.65 inch screen. The new ScreenXpert2.0 software has more options and support for more applications than previous variants. The laptops have a size of 31.9 x 19.9 x 1.79 cm and weigh 1.29 kilograms. A variant without ScreenPad is a millimeter thinner and weighs 1.19 kilograms.
However, an extra thin and light version of the ZenBook 14 will also appear without the ScreenPad under the name ZenBook 14 Ultralight (UX435EAL / EGL) with a size of 31.9 x 20.1 x 1.49 cm and a weight of 980 or 995 grams depending on the presence of an extra Nvidia GeForce MX450. This is the lightest ZenBook in the Asus product range.
Both variants of the ZenBook 14 are available with an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor, up to 16 GB of ram and an NVME SSD of up to 1 TB. In terms of graphics, you can opt for the Intel X graphics integrated in the processor or an optional Nvidia GeForce MX450. The screen of the laptops is a 14-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which in the case of the normal ZenBook 4 is also available as a touch screen.
Start from end of headphone jack?
What is striking about the specifications of both the ZenBook Flip S (UX371) and the ZenBook S (UX393) is that these laptops do not have a 3.5mm headphone jack. These are not the first Asus laptop without a 3.5mm connection, it is also missing on the recently reviewed ZenBook 13. We will probably see that more often. Asus has done research into the connections that users want on their laptop. According to Asus, this shows that users give a low priority to a 3.5 mm sound connection, for example because they use a bluetooth headset. When there is a lack of space, the 3.5 mm connection is therefore the first port to die and priority will be given to an HDMI connection.
Prices and availability
At the time of writing, Asus was unfortunately unable to tell us which versions will appear on the market in the Netherlands, what the prices are and which Intel processors are used exactly. The processors have not yet been announced by Intel at the time of writing. As soon as we know more, this post will be supplemented.
.