Asus ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD review: A feature-rich 15-inch convertible Review

The Asus ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD is a elegant 360-diploma convertible notebook. Its 15-inch monitor can make it a minimal large for carrying all over on a day-to-day basis, but it could be great for these who perform mainly in one spot, creating the occasional journey. Eye-catching options include things like discrete graphics, a contact monitor and the Asus ScreenPad — a 2nd mini monitor constructed into the touchpad.

The ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD is major and reasonably large, measuring 356mm vast by 229mm deep by 19.9 mm thick and weighing 1.9kg. Which is having on for 2 times the weight of the smallest, lightest ultraportable laptops. But you get a whole lot extra in this article in conditions of monitor genuine estate, and you will find even room for a individual amount pad on the keyboard.

The create is robust. I was unable to flex the lid at all in my arms, and could only depress the wrist relaxation minimally. This is extra reminiscent of Lenovo’s solution to its ThinkPad and Yoga lines than it is of numerous other notebook makers, and the challenging chassis is very good to see. Inevitably, though, there is a trade-off in conditions of excess weight. 

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The ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD is a 15-inch convertible notebook driven by 10th-era Main i5 or i7 processors with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 512GB or 1TB of strong condition storage. Discrete graphics are delivered by Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of focused video RAM.


Images: Asus

The black and silver chassis design and style is unobtrusive, despite the fact that there is some interesting design and style when you open up the notebook up. As regular the keyboard is recessed, but Asus has taken a alternatively extra overtly designed solution in this article. 

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The 15-inch chassis is vast ample to accommodate a individual amount pad.


Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

A silver strip separates the keyboard from the wrist relaxation and ScreenPad, and is the commencing level for a small, steep downward curve. That exact curve appears at the upper prolonged edge, but this time you will find no horizontal strip. A shallower drop to the keyboard is located on the small edges, courtesy of the 20mm gap amongst the finish of the keys and the edge of the chassis. The upshot is that Asus has experimented with to design and style the keyboard recess with some class, and it functions properly.

As a 360-diploma rotating notebook, the ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD needs fantastic monitor hinges. They are pretty limited, to the extent that it truly is not achievable to open up the lid one-handed, but that does indicate they maintain the lid organization in just about every orientation.

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Asus utilizes its ErgoLift technique to produce a comfortable typing angle in notebook mode. When the monitor passes 135 levels from flat, the lid segment presses into the area it truly is sitting on, increasing the keyboard slightly. I’m not certain this is a terrific deal to shout about, but Asus highlights it as a characteristic.

The 15-inch monitor has four.5mm bezels on the small edges. The upper bezel is slightly deeper at 9mm to accommodate the digicam, which caters for Windows Good day authentication and video calling. It truly is a pity the digicam isn’t going to have a slidable privacy address. The base bezel is deeper again, but at 13mm however impressively shallow. Asus phone calls this nominal-bezel arrangement NanoEdge.

The monitor alone is a stunningly apparent and sharp 4k (3,840 x 2,a hundred and sixty) panel. Viewing angles are fantastic at 178 levels, which is vital for a notebook that will be established in numerous viewing orientations, and whose articles may possibly be shared by numerous folks. There is certainly ample brightness for doing the job outdoors in the sunlight, when inside in my office environment I located fifty{d11068cee6a5c14bc1230e191cd2ec553067ecb641ed9b4e647acef6cc316fdd} brightness was flawlessly good. The screen’s reflectivity can be annoying, though.

SEE: twenty professional ideas to make Windows ten perform the way you want (no cost PDF)    

Harman Kardon stereo speakers deliver audio with what Asus describes as “surround-audio effects that envelop you with cinema-quality audio”. The Asus web site also claims that “a particular amplifier makes certain most volume with least distortion for powerful, apparent audio”.

I located the audio quality to be very fantastic. At top volume there was no distortion, despite the fact that bass tones could be fuller all through the volume assortment and trebles a minimal much less ‘tinny’. As for cinematic quality, Asus has potentially about-claimed there. The speakers are undoubtedly fantastic ample for perform-dependent presentations and some soon after-hrs Tv and movie looking at, but they are not extraordinary.

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The ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD in tablet mode. Regretably you will find no on-unit housing for the Asus Pen.


Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

The monitor is contact responsive, and Asus supplies its energetic Asus Pen stylus. This is thick ample to come to feel comfortable in the hand and very properly weighted. There is certainly no housing for the stylus on the notebook, which can make it extra very likely to be left at home or in the office environment, or mislaid on your travels. The absence of on-board housing for the stylus policies out rechargeability, so it truly is driven by a single AAAA battery.

The backlit keyboard is comfortable to use, with a light-weight contact and springy return. I experienced no difficulties contact-typing at my standard pace, for the most part. The concern that can crop up on a notebook with a individual amount pad is problems locating the Enter key, which numerous folks do on autopilot. It took me a when to cease achieving out to the considerably ideal edge of the keyboard and stabbing a amount key by error. I experienced similar but much less recurrent concerns with Backspace and ideal Change keys.

To be fair to Asus, the probable for a design and style remedy is minimal, so you are going to just have to go as a result of the learning curve.

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ScreenPad 2.: home monitor (top) working a browser (earlier mentioned).


Images: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet

The room which is typically occupied by a touchpad is offered about to Asus’s ScreenPad 2., a five.65-inch Lcd contact monitor which is more substantial than a regular touchpad and more substantial than some smartphone screens. It has a default resolution of 1000 by five hundred, rising to 2,a hundred and sixty by 1,080 if you make a tweak in its configurations. The ScreenPad can be applied as a touchpad in the standard way, but it has a amount of extra functions. 

Some of these come to feel alternatively redundant. There is a handwriting-recognition instrument, a secondary amount pad (but recall, you will find one in the keyboard), a perform bar for when you are utilizing PowerPoint, Excel or Term (for easy, rapid entry to formatting and other possibilities), and configurable functions to total usually-applied duties these as creating a screengrab (even though monitor snipping sits happily on the F11 key).

There are extra interesting utilizes. You can transfer an app to the ScreenPad by dragging it down there. You could preserve an eye on a media feed when utilizing the total monitor for a further task, for illustration. For the reason that the two screens have various resolutions you have to maximise the see into the ScreenPad, and then, if you want to glance at text, perhaps pinch and zoom-in to boost its sizing. It can be a little bit of a trouble, but I can see probable utilizes. In tablet mode, with the monitor entirely rotated and the keyboard segment facing absent from you, the ScreenPad has very little to provide.

Asus has been developing the ScreenPad thought for a when now, and it truly is located in a amount of laptops. I last noticed it in my evaluation of the smaller sized, non-convertible ZenBook fourteen UX434FL. If you want to see an even extra intriguing just take on a 2nd monitor, see what I believed of the ZenBook Pro Duo UX581.

ZDNet’s ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD evaluation sample is driven by a 10th-era Intel Main i7-10510C processor with 16GB of RAM and discrete graphics courtesy of Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of focused video memory. It operates Windows ten Experienced, and there is 512GB of strong-condition storage as well as built-in Wi-Fi 6. This model fees £1,299.99 (inc. VAT £1,083.32 ex. VAT). 

The Flip 15’s large chassis signifies there is probable for a lot of connectivity, and Asus has taken gain. On the ideal edge there is an SD card reader, USB-C and USB 3.1 ports, a comprehensive-sizing HDMI port and a focused round-pin energy connector. For the reason that you may possibly have ended a prior session in tablet mode and folded the monitor absent, the energy change is on the ideal edge of the chassis alternatively than occupying a room in the vicinity of the keyboard.

Cooling vents occupy a fantastic deal of the left edge, but there is however room for a 2nd USB 3.1 port and a 3.5mm headset jack. 

Asus says the 8-mobile 71Wh battery will deliver up to 16 hrs of life, which is remarkable. Even so, I’m sceptical that this will be commonly achievable in genuine-planet situations. For the duration of testing I established the monitor to keep on being on, and worked into world-wide-web applications with many tabs open up at after, in addition streaming audio and video. I established the monitor brightness at fifty{d11068cee6a5c14bc1230e191cd2ec553067ecb641ed9b4e647acef6cc316fdd} — slightly reduce than the advised degree for battery operation — and left the ScreenPad on, creating use of it intermittently. Below this regime, 6 hrs of use depleted a comprehensive battery to 34{d11068cee6a5c14bc1230e191cd2ec553067ecb641ed9b4e647acef6cc316fdd}, suggesting a runtime of all over nine hrs.

Conclusions

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Image: Asus

The ZenBook Flip 15 UX563FD is a elegant and durable notebook with a nominal-bezel design and style that keeps the chassis as compact as the 15-inch monitor lets. A substantial-quality 4k contact monitor and fantastic speakers make this 360-diploma convertible equally fantastic for perform and soon after-hrs utilization. The bundled stylus lends alone to imaginative utilizes, which are also enabled by the discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics.

Regardless of whether the ScreenPad is a battery-draining gimmick or a genuinely valuable characteristic is for folks to choose, dependent on how they use their laptops and how open up they are to new suggestions. I can see the probable, but it truly is a minimal fiddly to perform with, and almost certainly needs further development to make it really compelling.

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