Asus ZenBook UX303UA review

Display

Certain UX303UA configurations include a touchscreen, but my model had a non-touch, 1,920×1,080 resolution panel. It’s a step up from the 1,600×900 display found on last year’s UX303UA, with the increased resolution making this new model better suited to working on two documents side-by-side. Windows 10’s scaling options make it easy to zoom in, too, should you find icons and text too small at 100% resolution.

The matt coating makes it easy to use the UX303UA without contesting with glare and reflections, and a respectable 1,035:1 contrast ratio was a cut above the UX303LA as well. A peak brightness of 333.4cd/m2 was exceptional, meaning outdoor use isn’t an issue, and colour accuracy was also a vast improvement over the UX303LA, with 90.2% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut. While colours were rich and vibrant, viewing angles weren’t as wide as I would have liked, and a black level of 0.32cd/m2 wasn’t particularly deep either. At least the backlight was evenly distributed when viewed face-on. 

Performance

With power coming from a dual-core, 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-7500U processor, with Turbo Boost speeds of up to 3.1GHz, and a generous 12GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 memory, the UX303UA put in a very respectable performance for an ultra-portable laptop. It did particularly well in the image editing portion of the multimedia benchmarks, scoring 81. With only a dual-core processor, it was unsurprisingly the multitasking test that brought the overall average down to 46, but this is still much better than average for an ultra-portable laptop at this price. It should be more than capable of everyday tasks.

Intel’s HD Graphics 520 integrated GPU is also surprisingly capable. In Dirt Showdown, at 1,280×720 resolution, 4x anti-aliasing and High quality, it produced a very playable 32.6fps – that’s 12fps higher than the UX303LA. It means you’ll get by with some light gaming, which isn’t something you can say about most ultra-portable laptops.

In the video playback battery test, the Asus UX303UA lasted an excellent 9 hours and 50 minutes. You’re going to be able to get a whole day’s use without needing to find a mains outlet. That being said, the Asus charging brick is relatively compact.

Conclusion

The UX303UA is robustly constructed, so it’s not the lightest ultra-portable laptop around, but it has great performance. It can handle most everyday tasks, and even a little light gaming, with a battery that should get you most of the way through the day. The new display panel is a big improvement over the one found in the UX303LA, making this the better buy overall.

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