With back to school season just kicking off, both traditional and 2-in-1 laptops are in high demand. Students need a computer that’s reliable, has adequate battery life and is powerful enough to get through a random Photoshop task.
The new Asus ZenBook Flip 14 walks that line, as do the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro and Lenovo Yoga 920.
Heck, Asus has a few laptops that would fit the bill as well. However, the ZenBook Flip 14 sets itself apart from the pack, thanks to its premium design and beefy internals. Boasting Intel’s latest generation Core i7 processor and Nvidia’s MX150 graphics, the Flip 14 is more than capable of meeting a student’s needs.
Well, most of them.
Price and availability
We’ve tested a souped-up version of the ZenBook Flip 14, which has an Intel Core i7-8550U processor, Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU and Intel UDH Graphics 620 for less intensive tasks. It’s loaded with 16GB of memory, and 512GB of storage. All of that powers the 14-inch touchscreen that’s held to the body of the Flip 14 by two, 360-degree hinges.
In the US, this configuration runs $1,299 (about £990, AU$1,758). If you’re OK with dropping down to an i5 and cutting storage and memory in half, the price drops to $849 (about £644, AU$1,148).
In Australia, the only confirmation we could find is the Flip 14 with an 8th generation Intel Core i5, 8GB of memory and 512GB of storage for AU$1,799.
UK customers have to forgo the 14-inch model altogether. Instead, Asus offers either a ZenBook Flip S (incredibly thin and portable) or a Flip model with a 15.6-inch display.
The Flip 14 is priced in line with the competition. Take the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro as an example. The only model that the company makes comes with an i7-7500U, 15-inch FHD display, AMD Radeon 540 graphics, and 16GB of memory for the same $1,299 (about £1,000, AU$1,720) as the Flip 14. Lenovo’s Yoga 920, a device more closely matched with the Flip 14 on paper is priced slightly higher, at $1,549/£1,349.
Design
There’s a lot to like about the build quality of the ZenBook Flip 14. From the metal housing to its sturdy hinges, the Flip feels like a 2-in-1 that can take the occasional drop in a backpack or knocked off a desk without any damage.
Despite its sturdy exterior that measures 12.9 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches (327 x 226 x 13.9 mm; W x D x H), the Flip weighs a respectable 3.3 pounds (1.49kg). It’s not the lightest 2-in-1, with the Yoga 920 being slightly lighter at 3 pounds, but it’s light enough to carry around all day without being noticeable.
The right side of the housing is where you’ll find a microSD card reader, a USB-C 3.1 port, 3.5mm audio jack, a USB 3.0 Type-A port and a full-sized HDMI port. On the left side is a lone USB 3.0 Type-A port, a volume rocker, and the power key. The volume and power keys are close enough and feel enough alike that we often mix them up, pressing the power button when we intend to adjust the volume and vice versa.
The backlit keyboard uses chiclet keys, requiring little pressure to activate each key. The keys are evenly spaced, and we needed little adjustment before we were typing at normal speed with very few typos.
The touchpad is smooth the to touch unless you get near the top-right corner. There’s a slight divot that feels out of place. The divot is a fingerprint reader that works with Windows Hello to unlock the laptop without a password.
The 14-inch FHD display is surrounded by somewhat narrow bezels on the sides, with an HD webcam centered along the top. The colors are a slightly muted on the screen, but it’s not a deal breaker. Our only issue with the screen is that it’s not particularly bright.
Leave the touchpad alone
We need to rant for a second. Asus, please: stop putting the fingerprint sensor in the touchpad? It breaks up an otherwise stellar input method on the Flip, along with any other model using the same placement.
We understand Asus wanting to streamline the design, and with the power button on the side of the housing, there’s nowhere else to hide the fingerprint reader. Regardless, there has to be another way.
Intel’s latest processors have shown modest performance improvements, and the addition of a modest GPU to the Flip 14 gives it an edge over a device like the Yoga 920 equipped with only Intel’s UHD 620 graphics — and our benchmark results confirm that.
On nearly every test, the Flip 14 clearly beats the Yoga 920. The only exception is with GeekBench 4’s single and multi-core tests and PCMark 8’s Home test, with the Yoga 920 only coming in slightly lower.
The Notebook 9 Pro faired similarly to the Flip 14, thanks in part to being bolstered by an AMD Radeon 540 graphics processor.
In daily use, from triaging emails to looking for new YouTube channels, the ZenBook Flip 14 performs every task we throw at it without hesitation. The MX150 isn’t going to be enough to power through an intense game, like Far Cry 5, but it is more than powerful enough to handle occasional video editing and Photoshop projects.
Even after loading all of our benchmark programs, and installing a few personal apps, running out of storage on the Flip 14 was something we never worried about, thanks to 512GB of space.
Windows Ink
Included in the box is an Asus pen, for jotting notes and sketches on the Flip 14’s display. The pen uses a AAAA battery and has 1,024 levels of pressure.
In our testing, the pen and the Flip 14 are finicky at best. Using a Windows Ink sketchpad, we jot and doodle with the screen laid back in tablet mode and our hand resting on the display.
As long as we use smooth and slow movements, the screen and the pen work as you’d expect. The digital ink flows from the pen without issue or latency. However, when we start writing as if we are jotting notes during a lecture, the ink stops flowing. We feel as if perhaps the display’s palm rejection gets confused as our palm moves quickly across the screen, all the while the pen was gliding over it as well.
If you’re looking for a 2-in-1 with exceptional stylus support, based on our testing, the Flip 14 is not the one for you.
Bloatware? You bet
Outside of the company’s software, such as Asus Live Update, there’s not a lot of unnecessary programs or software on the ZenBook Flip. Well, until you are interrupted with an alert from McAfee Security asking you to sign up for service or trying to scare you into thinking your computer is under attack.
Luckily, it only takes a few minutes to remove McAfee and rid yourself of its unnecessary existence. With that done, the Flip 14 is more or less bloat-free.
Battery life
The battery life of the ZenBook Flip is admirable, powering through 4 hours and 3 minutes of PCMark 8’s battery life test. Our movie test came in at 6 hours and 24 minutes of use. Both tests fell short of the 13 hours that Asus touts on the Flip 14’s listing, but that’s par for the course when it comes to testing laptops.
In comparison, the Notebook 9 Pro had mixed results. With 2 hours and 48 minutes in PCMark’s test, but a staggering 8 hours and 23 minutes in our movie test. The Yoga 920 bested both devices in the movie test with 9 hours and 23 minutes of constant playback and nearly matched the Flip 14’s PCMark score with 4 hours and 1 minute.
Final verdict
The ZenBook Flip is an economical choice for students who have a modest budget and want a device that can do more than just surf the web. With the added graphics power and adequate battery life, the ZenBook Flip 14 is a worthy contender.
It’s a shame the Windows Ink experience isn’t the smoothest, but for those who don’t want or need a stylus, it’s a non-issue.
When taking price and performance into consideration, the Flip 14 is a contender. If you need to have or want the ability to take notes, by hand, on a 2-in-1, then the Notebook 9 Pro is the device for you.
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