The emergence of a new model of laptop ASUS ZenBook UX305F proves that cheaper is not always to be accompanied by a decrease in quality cuts of functionality and other compromises. The best budget ultrabook 2015 ZenBook UX305F concerns just one of those notebooks in which, and the build quality and specification, and price worthy of all praise.

Why is best budget ultrabook 2015?

We note first of all explicitly the budget price, which is only $ 699. For best budget ultrabook 2015 is very good, because most ultrabooks offered for the money, clearly inferior ASUS computer in the classroom. It is thick and clumsy “bricks”, equipped with hard drives sluggish. Windows loaded on them very slowly, and the screen is noticeable every pixel.

One look at ZenBook enough to understand: no question of the heavy-weight laptop which its creators have tried to conceal a ultrabook, in this case, does not go. Before us is not some cheap plastic, and solid and sturdy aluminum coating. According to the ASUS, ZenBook body is made of aluminum, 0.5 mm thick, making it one of the thinnest products with a screen having a diagonal of 13.3 inches. The thickness of the shell model Dell XPS 13, 2015 is 18 mm. The original Ultrabook Apple MacBook Air 11 boasts a thickness of 16.8 mm. And ASUS? Total of 13 mm!

Inside, you will not find any Celeron, or Pentium, or similar cheaper SoC Bay Trail, created based on Atom. Instead, ASUS engineers decided to place here the processor’s low-power Intel Core M 5Y10. It is based on the architecture Broadwell, but the possibility of Core M limited, and it consumes about a third of the volume of electricity it takes to power Core i5 or Core i7 Broadwell.

As a result, best budget ultrabook 2015 – ZenBook dispenses with fans, and very quiet. According to the developers, to protect the processor and internal components from overheating, it uses design IceCool, created on the basis of an alloy of chromium and copper. Probably, the internal components are really protected, but outside of a computer, it seemed to me quite hot. After performing the test within an hour to perform the encoding procedure, I fixed thermal pattern back and front of ZenBook. The temperature was at 49 and 48 degrees respectively. A similar model HP EliteBook, equipped with the less powerful processor Core M, heated to about 10 degrees less.

After hours of programs coding housing fanless computer, best budget ultrabook 2015 ZenBook UX305F warmed up very significantly.

On the test bench

The best budget ultrabook 2015 – ZenBook became the second portable computer with a processor Core M, with whom I happened to meet. For ultra PC performance is not as important as for gaming desktop computers or workstations but nevertheless is certainly worth measuring.

The first thing I compared the results of the CPU Core M test PC Mark 8 simulating workloads, the results demonstrated by computers Dell XPS 13, 2015 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. To say this is nothing special. The test focused on the implementation of simple, routine office procedures, and the required level of performance is achieved fairly quickly. Immediately it becomes clear that for interactive work with Microsoft Word or Excel eight-overclocked Core i7 is not needed.

After that, I went to the coding tasks. MKV file size of 30 GB using HandBrake has been recorded in a format suitable for viewing on the tablet Android. For laptops, this is a pretty decent load, but something out of the ordinary it can not be called.

Despite the fact that a powerful processor for office tasks are not required, it is easy to note that the dual-core Core i5 chip with a much higher level of energy consumption and an increased clock frequency has a distinct advantage here. We consume up to two-thirds less power dual-core Core M 5Y10 just do not have the computing power to keep up with him. Nevertheless, the result is also quite acceptable. The absence of high processing power is not a deterrent if you do not constantly have to solve problems that require intensive computation. Otherwise, it makes sense to pay for a Core i7. But most people are significant differences between the Core i7 and Core M in their daily activities will not notice.

Graphics performance

Core M processor consumes little power and emits little heat. The performance he is ahead of Atom, Celeron, and Pentium, but lags well behind consumes three times more energy Core i5. When the test coding HandBrake and graphic test 3DMark Cloud Gate it became obvious. The performance you will lose a lot. Even i5 integrated graphics does not allow to play the game, placing increased demands on hardware resources, with an acceptable frame rate, and Core M in this sense is further away from the ideal. Its integrated graphics is approximately at the level of the old HD4000 processor Ivy Bridge.

Battery life

One of the most important, perhaps, the characteristics of the laptop is the duration of his continuous battery life. Run on ZenBook MobileMark 2014 test, I compared its results with the results demonstrated Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, and two models of Dell XPS 13.

MobileMark 2014 test checks the computer to perform popular applications like Office and Photoshop, simulating a typical work session. It simulates the real activity of the user who receives e-mail and then read it in about five minutes. About a man who, as the machine for eight hours continuously pounding on the keys, speech is not going.

Computer Zenbook, equipped with a battery capacity of 45 watt-hour Core M processor with low power consumption, when running on the battery lasted 638 minutes. Dell XPS 13 laptop with a battery capacity of 2,015 52-watt-hour display with higher resolution gave him a bit with a score of 602 minutes. I found time to perform the test on a computer Dell XPS 13, 2015, equipped with RAM capacity of 4 GB SSD of 128 GB and a screen with a resolution of 1920 x1080 pixels. With a price of $ 799. It can be considered a direct competitor ZenBook. By reducing the screen resolution and the lack of touch interface uptime Dell XPS 13 has increased to 728 minutes.

Old computer ThinkPad X1 Carbon in 2014, equipped with a battery capacity of 46 watt-hour, worked for 431 minute, showing the worst result. Soon there should be an updated version of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. Perhaps she could return the lost positions.

No savings

Returning to the physical characteristics ZenBook, I must say that I was expecting less. Save could be, for example, on the screen, to a cheap TN panel of mediocre quality. However, ASUS uses IPS screen with a diagonal of 13.3 inches, a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and anti-glare. It is also proposed version with a screen having a resolution of 3200×1800 pixels. The display with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels looks very good, no color distortion, I have not noticed. The manufacturer declares the brightness level of 300 nits, but our device recorded 340. In a dark room at the maximum brightness level, much leakage of light through the cracks, as in normal installations no adverse effects are observed.

Low-cost solutions I expect to see in the storage subsystem. The manufacturer could install a computer disk or a hybrid drive with an obsolete interface mSATA. However, the laptop, to my surprise, was equipped with a solid state drive M.2 SATA 256 GB. I repeat once again: SSD 256 GB. It is unlikely that for this price you will be able to see this anywhere else. And the point.

Despite the low price trade-offs in the model UX305 is not too much.

Not a bad keyboard

The keyboard also turned out to be quite good. One of my complaints about the model Dell XPS 13, 2015 was related just to unnecessarily keyboard keys and small size of 14,7 x 14,7 mm. The keys best budget ultrabook 2015 ZenBook is 16.2 mm in width and 14.7 mm in length. Perhaps someone does not matter, but it should be noted that the keys ZenBook I got more accurate, although they seemed to me enough elastic. If very much to find fault, it may be noted also the lack of lighting, but after the sight I get a price tag of $ 699. All these claims instantly disappear.

The trackpad is made in the style of ASUS. Personally for me, the benchmark is the trackpad Google Chromebook Pixel. At ASUS trackpad to the level of Pixel does not hold, metal felt, but he made quite an acceptable level, and false alarms in case of accidental touching his hand there is also not observed.

What else can I complain? Probably on the wireless interface. The computer is equipped with a dual-band adapter ASUS 802.11n. 802.11ac standard is not supported. However, for most users, it does not matter, and they are, perhaps, instead of 802.11ac adapter would prefer to have an increased amount of RAM or storage subsystem.

The best offer for today

We see that the market is undergoing serious ultrabook price shifts. The appearance of the model Dell XPS 13, 2015 for $ 800. Was a major step forward, although the users had to sacrifice the memory and storage subsystem. The same thing we see with computer Apple MacBook Air 11, which is equipped with a small screen and low resolution as the model Dell, has 4 GB of RAM and storage subsystem capacity of only 128GB.

The best budget ultrabook 2015 – model ZenBook cost $ 699. Sets a new standard for ultrabooks cost expectations. By equipping I would not even attribute it to the category of low-priced ultrabooks. But, probably, it’s still not that ZenBook sold too cheaply, and that other manufacturers were inflating prices.

Source: Asus

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