Rosie Grace: ASUS ZenBook UX410UA: An Excellent Budget Laptop

Asustek's UX300 series laptops have always impressed us with its high quality appearance and high quality screen combination. In the UX410 series, Asus increased the screen size to 14 inches but retained the rest of the formula - with the same high quality results.

Let's look at the premium first. The brushed aluminum lid is twice as expensive as a laptop on a laptop, and it also comes with a recessed touchpad and a shiny metal “diamond cut” edge. For some people, the UX410 may turn into a Trump-like glittering world, especially if you choose rose gold finishes, but I'm a fan.

Taking into account the 14-inch screen, 1.4 kilograms of brightness is also surprising. This is not caused by plastic. The frame is made of aluminum alloy and it feels very suitable. By trimming the borders on both sides of the screen to 6 mm, Asus reduces the width to 323 mm, but according to modern standards, it is not particularly slim: I measure 19 mm from top to bottom and the lid closes.

However, the larger chassis provides more space for the ports and the UX410 is well connected. In addition to the combined audio jacks, there is a full-size HDMI connector, with USB 3.1 and USB Type-C ports on the left. The SD card slot and the other two USB 2 ports are on the right side. Asus folds the speakers underneath the laptop's front lip and they deserve the Harman Kardon brand - the sound is clear and detailed.

But Asustek is really good at that screen. For example, the absence of off-white discoloration can reduce the cost of the panel and become clear on sunny train journeys, where it can dynamically adjust brightness based on environmental conditions.

The 1,920 x 1,080 resolution makes a lot of sense on laptops. For example, spreadsheets and enlarged photos have enough detail, but you don't need to pay for higher resolution, and you may not always need these resolutions (especially When Windows decides to display the system, the text should be as small as possible.)

The colors look very strong and my first impression was that I got support after the lab tests. Our X-rite i1 display colorimeter measured an average DeltaE of 0.26. The IPS panel can reproduce 94.6% of the sRGB color gamut while achieving a high brightness of 354 cd/m2. I can prove that it is also good in sufficient sunlight.

It's hard to get excited about the keyboard. In addition to small cursors, the keys are large and easy to use (including the power button. The annoying thing is that it occupies the top right corner, right next to the Delete key; you can guess what I accidentally hit). They do not have much travel, but it is a capable backlight product.

I really like the touchpad. This is bigger than you think, which helps with Windows gestures. You can also press anywhere on it. If you want to select a piece of text, this is handy: you press the location where you want to start the selection, and then hold it as your finger moves down.

You can't charge through USB Type-C slots. ASUS relies on traditional molded power. If you need to carry it with you, it will add ugly bumps to the briefcase. Fortunately, you may not need it. It lasted 10 hours and 35 minutes in our video test, which is great for a 14-inch screen Windows laptop.

The battery's end-of-life result is for low-end UX410s with Core i3 processors; the Intel Core i5's 720-pound version may last for about half an hour. This extra money has increased the memory from 4GB to 8GB, and increased the SSD size from 128GB to 256GB. This is a later upgrade, which is arguably the most worthwhile.

Of course, the UX410 is never slow in daily work. It flew through Windows 10 Home without any tremors, and our benchmark tests showed that it was only in memory-intensive tasks such as video editing and heavy multitasking. The 34 points are in line with the expectations of the Core i3-7100 that meets 4GB of RAM.

Rosie Grace

Monday, 12 March 2018

ASUS ZenBook UX410UA: An Excellent Budget Laptop

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