Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00This is a review of the Asus ZenBook 3.
00:02Now, I feel like this laptop is kind of in a class of its own.
00:05It's similar in size to something like the 12-inch MacBook,
00:08but it's got a much more powerful processor than the MacBook does.
00:11And then, if you take something that has a similar processor,
00:13like the Razer Blade Stealth,
00:14the ZenBook 3 is just so much more compact in comparison.
00:17It's similar but quite different from both of these,
00:19but throughout this video, I'm going to be referencing the MacBook,
00:22just because it has the most similarities in terms of ergonomics and design to the ZenBook 3.
00:28Now, it starts at $1,100 for the base model,
00:30but the unit I have here is $1,600.
00:33Spec-wise, you're getting a lot more power under the hood than the MacBook.
00:37So, it has a full aluminum build with that brushed radial pattern up top.
00:41It's got three colors, this dark blue, a silver, and a pink.
00:45They all have this gold trim.
00:46I don't mind the trim, I actually like it.
00:48And personally, I also like the blue,
00:50but I think there's a lot of people that would want something more subtle,
00:52like a black or a gray, and there isn't that option.
00:55But dbrand has skins that you can use to give this a more stealthier look.
01:00The bottom panel comes off easily,
01:01but when you're in there, the only thing you can upgrade is the drive.
01:04The 512GB stock drive in this model is a PCIe stick from Toshiba,
01:09and has great performance.
01:10The battery down here is 40Wh.
01:12Now, Asus claims up to 9 hours.
01:14I was getting just short of 6 hours with normal use.
01:17Screen at 250 nits.
01:19It supports fast charging, so you can juice it up to 60% battery life in 50 minutes.
01:24In terms of the build quality, it feels very rigid.
01:26The screen is rock solid, the chassis is also very good,
01:29the hinge is great.
01:30One hand openable, and it doesn't flop open or close.
01:33I think Asus nailed the build.
01:35It's still not as good as a 12-inch MacBook.
01:37I still think this is like the gold standard of build quality,
01:40but the ZenBook 3 is pretty darn close.
01:42It's very limited on ports.
01:44It has an audio jack on one side, and a USB 3.1 Type-C on the other side.
01:48There's no Thunderbolt 3 support, but the good news is that Asus includes an adapter.
01:52The display is a 12.5-inch 1080p panel covered in Gorilla Glass 4.
01:57It's glossy, but it's not a touchscreen.
01:59It measures in with really good color accuracy and contrast,
02:02but it could be a little brighter.
02:04Compared to the 12-inch MacBook, yes, this is a lower resolution screen,
02:08but at regular viewing distances, you can't really tell the difference that easily.
02:12It is a better screen on the MacBook, but not by that much.
02:14Now, the webcam on this thing is pretty terrible.
02:17It's just as bad as a potato on the MacBook.
02:19I don't know why they did this.
02:21The keyboard is backlit, and typing feels okay.
02:24It has 0.8 millimeters of travel, so it's not as tactile as I'd like it,
02:28but it's spacious, and for the most part, I think it's a decent keyboard,
02:31and most people will get used to it quickly.
02:34The spacebar feels a little spongier than the rest of the keys, but it's not a big deal.
02:38The trackpad is pretty good.
02:39It has a smooth glass surface, even though it feels a little plasticky.
02:42Tracking is smooth and pretty accurate.
02:44The buttons, however, don't feel great.
02:46It feels kind of dainty, and there's not much travel when you click,
02:49so it's not a very satisfying action.
02:51There's a fingerprint sensor up here, and it works with Windows Hello,
02:54so you can log into Windows using just your fingerprint pretty quickly.
02:57The ZenBook 3 has four speakers.
02:59There's two up here, and then there's two on the bottom.
03:02They have Harman Kardon branding, and they sound better than expected.
03:05Now, I think the king of Ultrabook speakers is the 12-inch MacBook.
03:09If you've seen my review of it, or if you've heard it in real life,
03:11it just sounds so much better than you'd think it would, considering how small the laptop is.
03:15The ZenBook doesn't sound as good.
03:17It's not as clean, and there's distortion at higher volumes, but they're still really solid.
03:21This unit here is running an i7 Kaby Lake 6700U,
03:25and the three big benefits of Kaby Lake over Skylake,
03:27first, it's more energy efficient,
03:29second, it's got hardware encoding and decoding of certain video codecs,
03:33and the third thing, it's got a slightly faster clock speed.
03:36Now, in terms of lightweight gaming,
03:37the HD 620 will let you play stuff like CSGO at low settings with good frame rates,
03:42but even moderately demanding games run pretty poorly,
03:45so Overwatch will run at around 45 frames per second,
03:48at the lowest possible settings and resolution.
03:50It only has a single fan, and fan noise isn't loud,
03:53but it's audible when it comes on,
03:55and it's on pretty regularly, even when you're doing light tasks.
03:58Under load, the fan noise is also relatively quiet for a Core i7,
04:02but because it only has one fan, it gets pretty hot on the inside,
04:05and because of those high temperatures, there is significant CPU throttling.
04:08The average user won't care about this at all, they won't even notice it.
04:11Like, if you just do regular tasks on your laptop, you literally won't notice it.
04:15But if you want to render videos or play heavy games, this isn't the machine for you.
04:19But that's the problem of having an i5 or an i7 in something this thin.
04:23It's hard to cool it properly, unless you throttle down the CPU.
04:27Okay, so with the ZenBook 3, you're getting excellent build quality.
04:30This is one of the best-made Asus devices I've used to date.
04:33The 1080p display is not a touchscreen, but it's color accurate, and it looks pretty nice.
04:37The backlit keyboard is comfortable to use for its size,
04:40the trackpad has a fingerprint sensor and has great tracking,
04:43but the clicks feel shallow.
04:45The speaker system is surprisingly good for the size of the laptop.
04:48Inside, the Kaby Lake Core i7 and the integrated graphics have good energy efficiency,
04:53but there is noticeable throttling when you push it hard.
04:56The 16 gigs of RAM is soldered on, but the solid-state drive is upgradable.
05:00And then there's a 40-watt-hour battery that'll last you around six hours of battery life.
05:04As for who this laptop is for,
05:06you want to make sure that you're buying it for the right reasons,
05:08because this is not a cheap device.
05:10If you're a university student or you want to use it for work,
05:12and you want something that's thin and light, and it's just a productivity beast,
05:15this is a really good option.
05:17It's, well, it is what it is.
05:19But if you're looking for something that you can just run the CPU full tilt all the time,
05:23like you want to play games on it for whatever reason,
05:25no, this is not that device.
05:27Get something that's a little more appropriate.
05:29But if you're looking for, well, a productivity machine,
05:32this is a good one.
05:33Thumbs if you liked this video, subs if you loved it.
05:35It's been nice.
05:36I'll see you guys next time.
05:42Bye.