Notebooks must be slim, durable and fast for mobile use. How well the beautifully light Asus ZenBook 13 meets these requirements is shown in this test. If you not only want to put a notebook on your desk, but also use it on the go, you will appreciate copies like the ZenBook 13: The Windows 10 Ultrabook weighs only 976 grams and has a discreet look. The test of the Asus ZenBook 13 clarifies whether the thin lightweight has enough power and endurance.
Asus ZenBook 13: Not Too Big And Not Too Small
The ZenBook is neither too big nor too small. With the handy 13-inch Ultrabook you can work sensibly. It is housed in a well-made case – nothing creaks or squeaks with a firm pressure. And this is by no means self-evident, after all Asus has used light plastic as the housing material instead of precious aluminium.
This was the only way for the Taiwanese to push the weight below the 1-kilogram mark. And because the Asus is not a notebook tablet combination with a rotatable display and an elaborate hinge, it remains beautifully thin: with an overall height of only 1.8 centimetres, it can also fit into smaller bags.
Display With Small Weakness
The screen displays documents and web pages in Full HD (1920×1080 pixels). This is absolutely sufficient for a sharp display, as the 2,073,600 pixels crowd together on a 13-inch display with a 33.5 centimeter screen diagonal. However, the Asus does not take the color representation very seriously: In the test, the color fidelity was 80.9 percent.
This is much better; however, the cool reproduction only disturbs in everyday life when editing photos – not when working with office and Internet programs. Good: The display is anti-glare and is therefore hardly annoying with reflections.
Small Steam Engine
A customer who is to invest 1,299 Euro for the Asus ZenBook 13 in the “UX331UAL (90NB0HT3-M01170)” version tested here naturally expects high-performance hardware. And he’s gonna get it. The high-end Core i7-8550U processor from Intel gets going, the RAM is generously dimensioned at 16 gigabytes. And instead of a lame hard drive, the operating system, programs and data are on an M.2 SSD with fast NVMe memory.
This high-quality hardware is now a must in this price range. This is the only way an Ultrabook works very fast, even if it has to put several clips together to form a video or if it has to do something that consumes energy in some other way.
Cooler A Little Loud Under Full Load
In such tasks, however, the processor starts to sweat; a small fan must therefore transport the heat out of the housing. The fan noise can be heard in a quiet environment, but for Internet and office tasks the Asus ZenBook remains cool and works almost noiselessly.
The battery life was also convincing: In the test, the lights only went out after six and a half hours during both work and video playback before the Asus had to be plugged in for about two and a half hours to fully charge the battery.