Ahead of Computex 2017, the computing giant has shown off three new laptops that push the envelope in performance and design — and that means if you’re in the market for a new machine, there’s a good chance it might be one from Asus.
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The highlight of Asus’s mini-show was the ZenBook Flip S (UX370), which it says is the world’s thinnest convertible laptop. It’s a proper laptop, too, running Windows 10 and powered by a new Core i7-7500U processor from Intel and with up to a 1TB PCIe SSD under the hood, but it’s less than 11mm thick. No price for it yet, but the $US1099 starting price translates into circa-$1500 in Australia.
Its 13.3-inch screen can also be specced up to 4K resolution, and it’s of course also a touchscreen — which makes sense since its hinges rotate a full 360 degrees. That display is nearly borderless, too, which reduces the ZenBook Flip S’ overall size massively. If you don’t need dedicated graphics, the Flip S looks like it’ll be pretty tempting as an everyday, multipurpose laptop-tablet hybrid.
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In its performance-focused Pro line, Asus has bumped up specs significantly with the latest ZenBook Pro (UX550) — most notably by including Nvidia’s desktop-equaling laptops graphics cards alongside equally gutsy quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPUs. I’m an unabashed fan of the price-performance ratio of Nvidia’s entry-level GeForce 10-series chips and to see them in such a skinny laptop is an impressive feat.
If you like the sound of that, here’s the better part — the 15.6-inch ZenBook Pro is just 18.9mm thick and weighs 1.8kg, putting it well into the fighting class of competitors like Razer and Aorus. That display is a 4K one, of course, and the graphics come courtesy of Nvidia’s not-too-shabby GTX 1050Ti — which won’t have the power to run that 4K display at native resolution during gaming, but should handle lesser titles like Dota 2 or League of Legends with no sweat.
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Sitting in between the two is the ZenBook 3 Deluxe, a 1.1kg and 12.9mm thick Apple MacBook competitor built around a 14-inch display and with all the power that you could ask for from such a skinny device — fast SSD, fast Intel Core i7 CPU, dual Thunderbolt 3 support over USB-C and the like. Those specs make it the world’s thinnest 14-inch laptop, apparently.
Asus also took the opportunity to introduce something it calls the Blue Cave — a Wi-Fi router with dual-band 2600Mbps 802.11ac support, but without any obvious spiky antennas sticking out of the top. Rather than looking like a computing appliance, the Blue Cave is an odd-looking monolith of sorts — almost like a miniaturised washing machine without the door — that Asus thinks will look more appropriate in your living room.
One thing conspicuously missing from Asus’ presser, though? Its adorable — and now, maybe never to see the light of day — ZenBo home assistance robot. [Asus]
Gizmodo traveled to Computex as a guest of Dell.
Comments
11 responses to “Asus Brings Out Their Fastest, Thinnest, Lightest Laptops To Date”
really like these new books… and if its anything like the quality of my new zenphone 3 then the aesthetic is very pleasing to behold
“performance-focused”
“GTX 1050Ti”
Is this a joke?
can tell you are a console user,
its main feature is being really thin, not gaming at all
You don’t need to get insulting, I’m not a dirty console peasant. 🙁
My point was that for a ‘performance focused’ ultrabook the 1050 is really poor. Razer are squishing a 1060 and a better version of that CPU into a smaller footprint (14″ vs 15.6″) that’s just as much a light, thin ultrabook.
As an ultrabook it’s quite nice. As a ‘performance’ ultrabook, it seems weak. But then I guess it’s also very cheap.
Razer products are also grossly overpriced. You’ll be paying a lot more than you would for the Asus.
I live in the US. They’re about par.
Stated price is the starting price for this, btw. To get the fully specced version you’ll be looking closer to $2200 AUD I expect. It’s cheaper than Razer to be sure, but not sure how much cheaper, and worse hardware kind of means you’d expect to pay less anyway.
It’s not, for a lightweight notebook. it is actually surprising that it includes such a graphics card.
1050ti is roughly a GTX970m in terms of performance – that was the 2nd best laptop card available on the market for last gen. I had a GTX970m in my last laptop and could run all current games (at the time) at 1080p ultra with 60fps.
It’s not the best, but its still a damn good card for a laptop.
My current laptop has a 970m in it and it’s never been able to run at-the-time modern games at 1080p ultra at 60fps. 1080p medium, sure. Maybe high in some cases if you didn’t mind 30fps with some hitching.
You could probably get away with a 1050 Ti at 1080p. At 4k though?
Yours must be thermal throttling then, cause even the really intense games like bf4 were over 55fps on ultra 1080p (razer blade 14)
That wireless router looks like a modern Stargate!