Sep 9, 20195 min read

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 (UX362) review: A slick 2-in-1 laptop that doesn’t shirk heavy tasks

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: With the ZenBook Flip 13, Asus tries to appeal to those users who want the best of both worlds. It’s a convertible laptop, with a screen that folds all the way back to transform into a tablet.

4.0 Rs. 86,990Written by Anuj Bhatia |New Delhi |Updated: September 9, 2019 3:23:19 pm

Asus’ latest ZenBook Flip 13 could be your perfect laptop. It brings the option of a touchscreen and a stylus to those for whom a conventional slim and light laptop is not enough. Think of the ZenBook Flip 13 as a 2-in-1 version of the excellent ZenBook 13, which we reviewed earlier this year. In fact, it was one of our favorite Windows laptops when introduced.

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With the ZenBook Flip 13, Asus tries to appeal to those users who want the best of both worlds. It’s a convertible laptop, with a screen that folds all the way back to transform into a tablet. Asus gets most things right with the ZenBook Flip 13, barring a few areas that need major improvement. Otherwise, its build quality, slick design, good keyboard and touchpad, sharp display and great battery life that matches its premium price.

I have been using the Asus ZenBook Flip 13 for a few weeks, and here is what I think about the laptop.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 price in India: Rs 86,990

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Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Design and display

The ZenBook Flip 13 we received, with its blue-and-rose-gold accents, is hard to distinguish from the ZenBook 13 we reviewed earlier this year. It has a spun-metal finish on the outside, while the laptop’s body has a matte finish. I think it’s a great design. The laptop has a luxurious feel to it and rivals laptops that play in the same price range.

It is a 2-in-1 convertible with a 360-degree hinge that allows the display to be flipped behind the keyboard. The laptop can flip 360 degrees into a tablet or tent mode. Using the ZenBook Flip 13 in tablet mode is cumbersome, and it feels too heavy to use it as a standalone tablet. The tent mode still makes a lot of sense, especially when you are watching a movie on a flight.

The laptop has a 13-inch touchscreen display, which you can get in 1080p. Asus has trimmed the bezels on the right, left and top of the screen, but the bottom bezels are still huge. The fat bezel below the display has an Asus logo, while the top bezel has a Windows Hello camera for easy authentication. A fingerprint scanner is missing from the laptop, though.

This laptop measures at 16.9 mm thickness and weighs 1.30 kg – making it a slim and light notebook. The ZenBook Flip 13 is a device you can easily carry around in a bag or backpack.

The ZenBook Flip 13 has a 13.3-inch 1080p touchscreen with a 16:9 screen ratio. It is a beautiful display with vibrant colours, the text is crisp and sharp, and if you like watching movies on your laptop then you will love the display. It boasts exceptional viewing angles and yes, blacks do appear black on the ZenBook Flip 13, even though this is a regular IPS display and not an OLED panel.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Port selection

Connectivity is limited, I would say. On the right, two USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen 1) connectors. And on the left, there is only the headphone jack and the power on/off button. It comes neither with an HDMI connector nor a USB Type-A 2.0 port. Surprisingly, a microSD card slot is missing, too. It’s not a lot of ports, to be honest. Wireless support includes 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5.0.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Stylus and speakers

The ZenBook Flip 13 also supports a stylus, which is included in the box. The Asus Pen is pretty much familiar, and it looks and feels like a real pen. It’s not precise as the Apple Pencil or the Surface Pen, but it does offer a satisfying experience. There’s no place to store the Asus Pen itself, so it can be easily lost. The onboard Harman/Kardon speakers, which fire from the underside of the laptop, are crisp but aren’t really powerful.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Keyboard and trackpad

I love the backlit keyboard on the ZenBook Flip 13. The key travel is excellent and it feels great to type on. The keyboard layout is also perfect for an ultrabook for this size. The trackpad, even though a bit cramped, works well.

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Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Performance

The ZenBook Flip 13 has decent specifications. My review unit came with an Intel Core i7 (8th gen) processor, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and integrated graphics. This laptop is not targeted at power users or creatives. In that regard, the specs are just fine.

In my testing, at least, the performance was reasonably fine. I was able to edit word documents and do basic photo editing. I even downloaded a few games from the Windows Store and they ran absolutely fine on the machine. It won’t handle graphics-heavy games for sure, since the laptop wasn’t designed to be a gaming machine.

I used the ZenBook Flip 13 for the entire week and got an average of six hours of use between charges. This is on par with the most powerful laptops on the market today.

Asus has somehow brought in an HD webcam on the thin bezel on the laptop’s display. The webcam is perfect for video conference. The Windows Hello IR facial-recognition camera is still the best way to log into a PC. There’s also a Full-HD ‘world-facing’ camera placed at the top left corner of the keyboard base. When using the laptop in the tent mode, this camera is designed for use with Windows 10’s Mixed Reality Viewer.

Asus ZenBook Flip 13 review: Conclusion

At Rs 86,990, Asus ZenBook Flip 13 doesn’t come cheap. As I mentioned at the beginning, the convertible laptop is for those who want the best of both worlds. I don’t like the idea of a laptop that could become a tablet. But I have seen people using a 2-in-1 laptop with a stylus for note-taking. If you are someone who wants maximum value out of a single device, I won’t stop you from buying the ZenBook Flip 13. That said, there is nothing particularly wrong with this laptop. It’s a powerful machine at the end of the day, and of course, features a 360-degree hinge, a touchscreen, and a stylus. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy a convertible laptop, just that you should think about how it serves the purpose.