The laptop market in India is filled with a plethora of models and users have a wide range of options to choose from as OEMs are rapidly expanding their lineup. On similar lines, ASUS has been expanding its laptop lineup with newer ZenBook, VivoBook models in India and recently we reviewed the premium ZenBook Pro Duo with dual-screen, gaming-centric ROG Zephyrus G, and VivoBook S532 with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processor. While these are 15.6-inch laptops, there are users who like a smaller form factor as well and the company’s ZenBook Flip 14 is targeted towards those users. We have been using the 14-inch ZenBook Flip 2-in-1 laptop for some time now and in this review, let us find out if the 14-inch convertible is worth your money or not.
Box Contents
- ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UM462
- Power Adapter
- Charging cable
- Stylus
- Quick Start guide
- Warranty information
Design and Build Quality
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 has a sleek design with sufficient physical ports. To the left of the laptop, there is a USB 3.1 Type-A Gen 1 port, USB 3.1 Type-C port, HDMI port, and a DC jack. To the right, there is a USB 2.0 Type-A port, audio jack, and card reader. As it is a convertible laptop, the power button resides to the right and is not present alongside the keyboard.
Regarding the build, it has a metal chassis and as usual, it features the ErgoLift hinge as well. But this time around, I didn’t like the ErgoLift hinge as it is a bit hard and the transition between laptop-mode and tablet mode wasn’t smooth. The experience with the flexing part was not the smoothest and hopefully, it will get better with future convertible models. Having said that, the laptop is compact and feels premium in hand, which should be liked by many users.
Display
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 sports a 14-inch LED-backlit Full HD NanoEdge touch display with narrow bezels. The quality of the panel used by ASUS is very good and the sunlight legibility is quite good as well. The sharpness is on point and colors are vibrant as well. The screen-to-body ratio is up to 90%, thanks to the narrow bezels on four sides and multimedia experience would be great on this convertible. ASUS has also managed to fit in a webcam on the top edge of the display, and thankfully not at the bottom.
Unlike other VivoBook models in this price segment, ASUS has done a great job with the display on this one. Having said that, there is no ScreenPad 2.0 in this model, and we would have wished to see that as it is a good addition to have and also makes multitasking a lot easier. Furthermore, this is a touchscreen laptop and the touchscreen is responsive and works as expected. The Stylus also works well and the response is quite good. However, it is to be noted that the palm rejection isn’t that great.
Performance
The ZenBook Flip 14 is powered by AMD Ryzen R7-3700U processor paired with 8GB DDR4 RAM with 512GB PCIe x2 SSD. The graphics duty is handled by the Integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 GPU and the 3rd gen Ryzen processor can be overclocked up to 4 GHz.
Coming to the CPU performance, the Ryzen R7-3700U is a powerful processor and it handles most of the tasks with ease. Casual day-to-day applications like Word, PowerPoint, Chrome browser, Telegram for Desktop, GIMP, etc ran without any hiccups and intensive applications also fared quite well on this laptop. The multimedia experience was great as well as streaming videos, playing background music, etc was a breeze, and we did not notice any stutter, lag or whatsoever for the most part.
Moving on to the SSD performance, in disk speed tests, the 512GB PCIe x2 SSD achieved a Read speed of 1748 MB/s and Write speed of 1444 MB/s which is great.
The graphics are handled by the Integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 GPU and we tested the graphics performance with few graphics-intensive games and also tested it with Adobe Premiere Pro. While for the most part, the GPU performed great, there were rendering issues even on the Chrome browser and we noticed it multiple times. Hopefully, it is taken care of with future updates. Overall, in our testing, the ZenBook Flip 14 did a great job and we were happy with the performance.
We ran benchmarks, Disk speed tests on this convertible and you can check out the results below
Keyboard and Audio
The ZenBook Flip 14 has a full-size backlit keyboard with 1.4mm key travel and on the silver-colored model, the company has used a clear/transparent font for the keys which makes it difficult to identify the letters under direct lighting. However, the key travel is good and the feedback is good as well. We mentioned the use of the clear font in our previous ASUS VivoBook review as well and unfortunately, it hasn’t been fixed in this model We hope, this issue is taken care of in upcoming models.
Moving on, the ZenBook Flip 14 packs twin speakers with dual-channel smart amplifier and are Harman Kardon certified. The speaker doesn’t get very loud and is strictly average. We found the volume levels to be on the lower side and as it is a convertible, ASUS could have packed a better speaker setup.
Battery Life
The Flip 14 packs a 42Wh 3-cell lithium-ion battery and ASUS promises up to 9-hours battery life on a single charge. But in our testing, this convertible lasted just over 4 hours, and we noticed a rapid battery drain during video playback, which was strange. Furthermore, the ZenBook Flip 14 takes 2 hours 45 mins for a full charge with the supplied 65W power adapter. Overall, as it is a convertible, the battery life could have been better.
Here’s a breakdown of the charging times measured at various intervals
-
- 0 — 20% : 20 mins 11 sec
- 0 — 50% : 54 mins 55 sec
- 0 — 80% : 1 hour 28 mins
- 0 — 100% : 2 hours 45 mins
Availability
ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 is priced at Rs. 64,990 for the Ryzen 5 variant and Rs. 74,990 for the Ryzen 7 variant. It is available on Flipkart and Amazon.in, but the sellers on Amazon and Flipkart are selling it at a slightly higher price.
Conclusion
So, should you buy the ZenBook Flip 14? The performance of Ryzen 7-3500U is very good and consistent and ASUS has done a good job with the display this time. In my opinion, the ZenBook Flip 14 is very good as a standalone laptop, but it is not quite there as a convertible. There is room for improvement on the convertible part and if you can get past the cons mentioned below, the ZenBook Flip 14 is a good compact laptop under Rs. 75,000.
Pros
- Sleek design and solid build quality
- Good quality display with narrow bezels
- Consistent performance
Cons
- Average battery life
- Speakers could have been better
- Not the best keyboard design