The ASUS Zenbook UX305 Review
by Brett Howse on March 25, 2015 8:00 AM ESTFinal Words
ASUS has crafted an elegant experience with the UX305. The body is a sleek creation of aluminum, the device is very thin, and at 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs) in weight, it is very portable. The UX305 could easily be mistaken for a device which costs far more than its $699 starting price. When one thinks of the mid-range laptop, one would expect a thick, heavy, and boring device with a TN display panel, a spinning hard drive, and a short battery life. ASUS has thrown all of this on its head.
The Core M processor in the UX305 which we received was the 5Y10 model. For now, the higher spec 5Y71 model will not be coming to North America in this device. However the performance was surprisingly good. In shorter, burst workloads, the 5Y10 struggled to compete against 5Y71 with its much higher boost clock speed, nor could it compete against Broadwell-U based devices with their 15 watt thermal envelope. However on sustained workloads, due to the cooling solution and higher surface temperatures that ASUS has allowed, the UX305 performed much better than the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. Gaming was a big difference on this device, and while it is certainly not going to be the next Crysis killer, for lower demanding games like DOTA 2, it performed very well even over long periods of time.
The amount of components which lead to a better overall computing experience that ASUS packed into the UX305 is very impressive. At just $699, you still get 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB solid state drive. This is unheard of at this price point. The Dell XPS 13, for example, starts at $799 with just 4 GB of memory and a 128 GB drive.
The keyboard and trackpad are both quite good, especially when we consider the price, and the thin profile of the UX305. The keys had good travel, and while I would question the layout of having the power key as part of the keyboard, really the only thing missing from the keyboard experience is a backlight, and perhaps I only expect a backlight because the UX305 feels much more expensive than it is. The trackpad served me very well, and is quite large. ASUS has had some issues in the past with trackpad drivers, but I experienced no issues at all during my time with the device.
Battery life, while not class leading, is still very good, and bests any laptop we tested before 2015 with the exception of the MacBook Air under OS X. Even under a heavy load, the Core M kept its composure and ensured that the battery life did not slip away too quickly.
There are of course a few issues which need to be mentioned. The already mentioned keyboard backlight would be a great addition to the lineup, even if it was just on a higher priced model. I really do not like the display hinge which is crafed to lift the rear of the laptop up when the display is opened. It makes the laptop much more unstable, causes the display “legs” to dig into soft materials like a wooden table, and all of this is for an extra millimeter or two of height. ASUS would have been much better off with slightly thicker feet.
The display is both good and bad, but it has to be counterbalanced against the price point of this device. It is an IPS display, which is excellent to see even in a more budget offering, and it has excellent brightness and contrast levels. The matte coating is also something that many people prefer to knock the glare down. It performed very poorly in our accuracy tests though, and while that can also be attributed to the cost of the device, the post-calibration numbers on this display were fantastic. If only ASUS could take the effort to include an icc profile to help it out.
Overall, even with the knocks against it, this is a heck of a device for just $699. A Core M processor, which allows a fanless and therefore silent device, but still offers good performance, and much more performance than any other CPU which would allow for a fanless design. 8 GB of memory standard. A 256 GB solid state drive standard. A 1920x1080p IPS display, once again standard. ASUS has really raised the bar for what someone can expect in a mid-range device.
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Klug4Pres - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I don't know why people want to buy these thin & light machines. What is wrong with a 5 lb laptop with a 35 Watt CPU, four RAM slots, two spindles, 14.1 inch 4:3 SXGA+ screen etc.? I keep being told "the ship has sailed", but I have no idea why.Novacius - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
If you're traveling a lot or just have to take your laptop with you every day, you appreciate a lighter laptop. Very, very much. They also have much better battery life.Ian Cutress - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I used to carry a 4kg laptop with extended battery, 1200p screen etc to events like Computex and day trips/meetings for a couple of years. Put it this way, I'm glad I have a UX301 now at just over 2lbs. That being said, there are a few lighter weight systems that have me interested, like the LaVie Z that we saw at CES.Refuge - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I am the definition of a desktop replacement buyer.But even I see the relief in pulling out a 2lb feather on an airplane rather than some 17in 7lb beast.
Although those days are even coming to an end. Now you want a desktop replacement, the new Gigabyte P35X is a perfect idea! Thin, light, and TONS of horsepower. :)
Flunk - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
If you want light and power I'd recommend getting a desktop AND a thin and light notebook. Why? The compromises necessary for thin and light notebooks are not compatible with the idea of a powerful notebook. Because of this you have to make a lot of compromises when it comes to heat, battery life, performance, price. At some point it might be possible but you can't get the best of both worlds right now.killeak - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
Well, I disagree. As a render programmer that travels and works remote a lot (once every two months as minimum) I need a powerful laptop to work with. And the true is that these days there is plenty of great options that give you both (portability and performance). Recently I bought a Clevo p650sg (i7 4720hq, 980m, 32gb RAM, 2xSSD 500 + HD 1tb) for 2k usd. That being said, I do have a modern desktop PC at home that I bought last year (i7 4790, 16gb RAM, 500gb SSD + 2tb storage and a GeForce 770), but I prefer to use my laptop (I also bring it to the office and I plug to monitors and keyboard to increase my productivity). Performance wise, I will say that there is not much difference between my new laptop and the desktop that I use, in fact my new laptop is more powerful than my desktop at work except for the CPU (4770, 16gb RAM, 256 SSD and geforce 760).I love to have the performance of a powerful desktop in 2.6kg (before I had a Lenovo Y500, not that powerful but close and same weight). These days I use my desktop pc at home more as a media server and some occasional gaming on the TV than for work or main gaming platform (in any case I play SC2 and Civ5 mostly and I can play those on my laptop, even my old one).
That being said, I do see the point of ultrabook or hybrids. I also have an Asus T100 that I use as my true mobile laptop/tablet that I bring with me everywhere. For web surfing, mails, word/excel, watching movies/series at the airport/airplane, etc. is great, and battery life is awesome. I see myself buying a Surface Pro 4 or something like it in the future, to replace the T100, but not for actual work since I need a true i7 (not ULV), lot of ram and a powerful GPU, that I can bring with me when I travel.
Refuge - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I disagree, but only half.While you are correct and if you want power then there is no better solution than a full fledged desktop.
But you can't say that Laptops can't be defined as powerful when it is toting a 4ghz I7 with a GTX 980m. That is like saying a Corvette isn't sports car because it isn't a Ferrari. Laughable I know right?
Either way, broad stroke generalizations like that are quickly falling apart with each passing year as they cram more and more power into smaller and smaller packages. Anymore you are really only lacking in personal upradability. Which I can see being a big enough problem to turn people towards a desktop form factor of some sort.
andrewaggb - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
I mostly agree, I've done the 17" laptop with dedicated graphics. It quickly lost it's ability to play the latest games with high settings, and eventually do play the latest with reasonable settings. It's battery life sucks, it's heavy, it's useless on an airplane, etc.It was handy for gaming on vacation though. I've been tempted to buy 2 new laptop's, another gaming/big screen 17" laptop and a 12 or 13" ultralight. They're both laptops, but they serve completely different purposes.
Conficio - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
Working with two machines brings a lot of hassles of its own. Installing apps twice, upgrading twice, synching data, etc. having more storage on the desktop means you have to be selective and then you go the wrong selection on the road.I'd wish I could have an OS that has a seamless cloud extended storage, synching apps and documents a I need. Did I describe ChromeOS here?
kingpotnoodle - Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - link
Because (very obviously) if you don't need a powerful machine but you do a lot of travelling then it's much better to have a lighter machine with a long battery life. Most of my work is web/ssh/rdp, long battery life and lighter weight are FAR more important to me than it being able to play Crysis or do video editing lightning fast.