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Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review: Priced at $729, the Asus ZenBook UX330UA is among the finest laptop values you will get at this price range. The laptop packs a speedy 256GB solid-state drive, a fast Core i5 CPU, and a sharp, 1080p screen into a 2.7-pound bundle. To get a notebook with comparable features at that measurement, you need to pay well over $900. Thankfully, Asus‘ 13-inch laptop looks good on more than just paper, because it offers over 10 hours of battery life, reliable performance, and wide viewing angles.
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Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Specifications
Processor Intel Core i5-7200U
RAM 8 GB
Storage 256 GB SSD
Display 13.3-inch Full-HD (1920 x 1080)
Operating System Windows 10 Home
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 620
Dimensions 12.7 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches/ 2.7 pounds
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Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review- Design
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA has a plain, but enticing chassis that’s usual with Asus’ traditional aesthetics. The laptop’s silver aluminum lid has similar concentric circle pattern that we can see the previous versions of the ZenBook. The plastic deck and backside have a pleasant, matte-gray finish.
At 12.7 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches and 2.68 pounds, the UX330UA is without a doubt one of the thinnest and lightest 13-inch laptops available on the market. The Dell’s XPS 13 (2.7 pounds and 0.6 inches thick) has comparable dimensions, whereas the HP Spectre (2.45 pounds and 0.41 inches thick) and the Acer Swift 7 (2.46 pounds and 0.39 inches thick) are a bit svelter.
In contrast to some super slim laptops, the ZenBook UX330UA makes room for all of the ports you want. On the left side of the laptop, you will find a USB 3.0 port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The right side of the laptop houses a proprietary power port, another USB 3.0 port, a micro-HDMI out port and a Type-C USB port, which doesn’t support charging the same.
Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Keyboard and TouchPad
The ZenBook UX330UA’s keyboard provides a good, but not great, typing experience. The keys are excellently positioned and have a reasonable 1.5 millimeters of the vertical journey (1.5 to 2 mm is mainstream). However, their 50 grams of required actuation force signifies that they don’t provide fairly as much resistance as we like.
When I took the 10FastFingers.com typing check, I scored a very robust 108 phrases per minute with merely three phase errors, which is properly above my 96-wpm common. However, I did discover myself bottoming out (hitting bottom with force) quite a bit. The re’s also a tiny little bit of flex in the middle of the keyboard.
The 4.1 x 2.9-inch buttonless touchpad offers smooth, accurate navigation around the desktop, together with smooth gesture recognition. I had no issues browsing the net, pinching to zoom or using the three-finger swipe to switch between apps. However, the touchpad felt a bit stiff when I right- or left-clicked. Also, sometimes the cursor even jumped while I tried to click on an icon. The Laptop’s touchpad also has a fingerprint sensor in its upper right corner that you can use to log in via Windows Hello.
Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Display
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA has a 13.3-inch, Full-HD (1920 x 1080) non-touch screen provides bright, sharp pictures with vibrant color. The display has a matte finish which provides strong viewing angles; colors stayed true up to 75 degrees to the left or right. Measuring 286 nits of brightness on our light meter, the ZenBook UX330UA’s panel is also relatively bright, falling just a bit behind the ultraportable category average (304 units), the XPS 13 (302 nits) and the HP Spectre (320 nits).
The ZenBook’s display can reproduce a healthy 106 % of the color gamut according to our colorimeter. That’s comfortably higher than the ultraportable laptop category average (99 %) and the Dell XPS 13 with a 1080p screen (94 %). The Acer’s Swift 7 and the HP’s Spectre provide comparable color output (105 % and 106 %, respectively).
The Asus ZenBook’s screen is pretty accurate as it registered a Delta-E rating of 1.1 (lower is better), which easily beats the category average (2.2), the HP Spectre (6.8) and the Acer Swift 7 (4.1). The Dell XPS 13’s Delta-E (1.3) is similar.
Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Graphics and Audio
The laptop’s integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 chip offers mainstream performance that’s adequate for watching movies and casual gaming. However, as always, severe avid gamers or creative professionals will want a system with a discrete GPU and overclocked vRAM.
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA scored a reasonable 66,645 on 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, a synthetic benchmark that measures graphics power. This score is comfortably ahead than the ultraportable’s category average of 53,590 and a bit better than the Dell XPS 13 (62,754). Whereas the HP’s Spectre with a Core i7 CPU was barely better (67,318).
The Harman Kardon speakers on the ZenBook delivers perfect audio with a strong separation of sound and only a tinge of distortion for the loudest drums and guitars. The ZenBook’s sound was loud enough to fill a small room. However, I wouldn’t recommend you using it for a large area. The inbuilt ICE AudioWizard software allows you to choose from different sound profiles for music, voice, and movies.
Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Hardware and Performance
The ZenBook UX330UA is powered by Intel Core i5-7200U, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD which offers high mainstream performance and multitasking. The laptop scored a strong 7,182 on Geekbench 4, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance. That mark is slightly better than the ultraportable laptop category average (7,066) but a bit lower than the Dell XPS 13 (7,287) with the identical Core i5-7200U CPU. The Core i7-7500U-powered HP Spectre fared a lot better, whereas the Acer Swift 7 with its low-power Core i5-7Y54 chip scored much lower.
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA took just 4 minutes and 3 seconds to finish our Spreadsheet Macro Test, where it matches 20,000 names with their addresses. That’s considerably faster than the category average (6:08) and the Acer Swift 7 (4:45), but a bit behind the Dell XPS 13 (3:44) and the HP Spectre (3:35).
The UX330UA’s 256GB SSD provides great performance for the money. The laptop’s SATA SSD drive took just 32 seconds to complete our File Transfer Test by copying 4.97GB of mixed media files. The laptop registered a transfer rate of 159 MBps, which is a tad below the category average of 184 MBps, however around 3 times faster than the normal 7,200-rpm hard drive. The Dell’s XPS 13 (339.3 MBps) and the HP’s Spectre (299.8 MBps) were much faster as they use a more expensive PCIe SSD. The Acer Swift 7, against this, was much slower (115.6 MBps).
Asus ZenBook UX330UA Review – Battery Life and Heat
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA lasted a full 10 hours and 17 minutes on our Battery Test, which includes continuous internet browsing over Wi-Fi. This time is 2 hours more than the category average (8:07) and even much better than the HP’s Spectre (6:06) and the Acer’s Swift 7 (7:25). However, the Dell XPS 13 with a 1080p screen lasted even longer, clocking in at 13 hours and 49 minutes.
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA stayed cool throughout our tests. After we had streamed a movie for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured relatively cool at just 81.5 degrees Fahrenheit, the keyboard measured 86 degrees, and the underside hit a reasonable 90.5 degrees which is well below our consolation temperature of 95 degrees.
Conclusion
The Asus ZenBook UX330UA is a great value for money laptop that offers you robust performance in a light-weight design. A colorful, bright screen, accurate audio output, and strong battery life round out the package. For those who can afford to spend $200 to $300 more for a laptop with similar specs, consider buying the Dell XPS 13, which offers a snazzier design, a better touchpad, stronger performance, a Thunderbolt 3 port and even much longer battery life. However, if you would like The Best Ultrabook for the money, the Asus ZenBook UX330UA must be at the top of your list.
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