Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA review: Gorgeously versatile

Hybrid laptops seem to be ten a penny these days, but Asus’ brand-new ZenBook Flip UX360CA really does stand out from the crowd. The first thing you notice is its gorgeous aluminium chassis. With its spun metal finish, slim 13.9mm profile and 360-degree hinge, it looks absolutely stunning and is a world away from the comparatively chunky dimensions of Dell’s equally flippable Inspiron 13 5000 (5368).

Its metal chassis brings a welcome degree of durability to the UX360CA as well, which is more than can be said for other 360-degree laptops such as Lenovo’s earlier Yoga laptops. Combine that with an equally sturdy pair of hinges and the UX360CA easily feels like it could withstand multiple flips and contortions when you want to turn it into a tablet.

Display

Of course, not everyone wants or needs a 13.3in tablet, but as a laptop display, the UX360CA’s Full HD IPS panel is by far one of the better displays we’ve seen for around £750. Admittedly, its sRGB colour gamut coverage of 83.3% could be better, but this is still perfectly acceptable given its mid-range price. With excellent green and blue colour coverage, it’s really only the UX360CA’s red representation that’s a little lacking, so unless you’re doing high-end photo editing, it’s unlikely you’ll have much of a problem with it. Likewise, its contrast ratio of 1,097:1 is also very respectable and a max brightness of 298.4cd/m2 means you’re well catered for working outside in the sun.

Keyboard and touchpad

The chiclet keyboard is a little spongy for my tastes. There’s not a lot of travel, for instance, and some keys, such as the number keys, don’t seem to provide as much tactile feedback as other keys further down. It’s good enough to get the job done if you need to type up a quick document, but I wouldn’t want to use it for extended periods of time.

The touchpad, on the other hand, is much more responsive, and takes up a sizable space on the palm rest below. I’d say it’s the perfect size for my chunky fingers, and it performed all of Windows’ Multi-Touch actions with ease.

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Performance and battery life

The UX360CA comes in a variety of different configurations. Starting at £750 for the basic Core m3 model on test here, you’ll also find more expensive versions with Core m5 and Core i5-6200 processors, as well as various different RAM and SSD configurations, ranging up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.

My review model came with a dual-core 0.9GHz Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. Unsurprisingly, this particular configuration really struggled with our rigorous 4K multimedia benchmarks, producing a disappointingly slow score of just 20 overall. Core m chips have always coped poorly under load, so video editors and graphic designers should probably look elsewhere.

For more general use, though, the UX360CA should be perfectly fine. It handled web browsing and basic word processing well, and its integrated Intel HD Graphics 515 chip means that even some very light gaming is possible, too. Don’t expect it to run the latest games, but 3D gaming is still an option as long as you bump the settings down to the lowest option. In Dirt Showdown, for instance, I managed a respectable 50.6fps on Low at 1,280x720, and I never dipped below 30fps in Minecraft on its default settings.

Battery life is very respectable as well. Running for 7h 41m in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2, it’s miles better than the Dell Inspiron 13 5000’s paltry 5h 26m, so should be able to get you through a decent day’s work if you’re out and about.

Ports and connections

With its chassis measuring just a shade under 14mm thick, Asus has squeezed a surprising number of connections onto the UX360CA, including two full sized USB3 ports. Any thinner and there simply wouldn’t be enough room for them on the base of the laptop.

There’s also a USB-C port, a full-sized SD card reader, a micro HDMI port for connecting the laptop to an external display and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Of course, with barely just enough room for full-sized USB, it’s hardly surprising there’s no Ethernet port here, so you’ll need to use its 802.11ac Wi-Fi to get online.

Conclusion

With its gorgeous design and excellent battery life, the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA is a great alternative to more expensive 2-in-1 hybrids such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 700 and Dell Inspiron 13 5000 (5368). The beautifully made chassis is easily one of its biggest highlights, and really helps set it apart from more traditional laptops at this kind of price that are usually made out of plastic.

Its overall performance isn’t quite up to scratch compared to other £750 laptops - you can get the same kind of performance from Asus’ own excellent UX305CA for £150 less, after all, but that model doesn’t come with a rotatable hinge. The Lenovo Yoga 700 is a little faster for roughly the same price as the UX360CA, but if you’re looking to save some money and aren’t fussed about the hinge, then I’d still recommend the UX305CA as my mid-range laptop of choice. It might not be a hybrid, but it’s just as fast as the UX360CA and shares the same high-end build quality.

Still undecided? Check out our list of the best laptops you can buy in 2016.

Buy the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA now from Currys