Asus ZenBook UX330UA review: The Windows equivalent of the MacBook Air

I’ve seen my fair share of svelte clamshell laptops recently, but Asus’ latest ZenBook, the UX330UA, is easily the most attractive of the lot. Like many ultraportables, it shares more than a passing resemblance to Apple’s MacBook Air. Nevertheless, its 13.6mm aluminium chassis is truly gorgeous to behold, from its lightly textured casing to its stunning high-resolution display.

Admittedly, the UX330UA doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as its Apple rival – its keyboard tray showed a couple of signs of unwanted flex here and there – but it’s still a wonderfully elegant device that looks every bit like a premium laptop.

More importantly, it has the specs you’d expect from a high-end ultraportable. Unlike the Air, which still ships with one of Intel’s old 5th-generation Core i5 processors and just 4GB of RAM, the UX330UA comes with Intel’s 6th-generation dual-core 2.3GHz Core i5-6200U chip and a whopping 8GB of RAM.

There’s also a more expensive UX330UA model retailing for around £1,000 that comes with a 6th-gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD – but for the purposes of this review, I’ll be looking at the entry-level Core i5 model.

Performance and battery life

Of course, with a device this lean you might expect its overall speed to be hampered somewhat by its lovely thin chassis. For the most part you’d be right, but the UX330UA’s Core i5-6200U still put in a pretty commendable performance when put to the test.

Running our meticulous 4K multimedia benchmarking tests, the ZenBook scored a total of 42. It sailed through our image- and video-editing sections, but asking it to do both tasks simultaneously saw a dramatic dive in performance. It still feels perfectly nippy in day-to-day use, but compare that to the MacBook Air’s overall score of 45 and it’s a little uninspiring.

However, its on-board Intel HD Graphics 520 chip has more than enough juice for a spot of light gaming. I was able to get DiRT: Showdown running at a relatively smooth 42fps at 1,280 x 720 resolution on Medium graphics settings. Demanding 3D games such as Metro: Last Light are a no-go, but lighter titles such as Minecraft didn’t pose any problem at all on the default render distance. Whack up Minecraft’s render distance to the max 32 chunks, however, and you’ll notice frames starting to take a dip below the 20s.

The ZenBook UX330UA's battery life isn’t too bad, but there’s definitely room for improvement. It came in at 7hrs 18mins in our continuous video playback test with the screen brightness set to 170cd/m2. That’s enough to last you a working day, but its closest Windows rivals go one better; the Dell XPS 13 managed 11hrs 30mins under the same conditions.

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Display

However, it’s easy to forgive the UX330UA’s minor performance flaws when it has such a gorgeous, ultra-high resolution screen. With sRGB colour gamut coverage of 90.2%, it’s a pretty remarkable 13.3in 3,200 x 1,800-resolution display, even if its matte finish does somewhat dull the overall vibrancy of the colours.

However, a matte finish is much more practical for use outside or under bright fluorescent office lights, and its high peak brightness of 304cd/m2 also provides plenty of flexibility when it comes to working in harsh lighting conditions.

It’s certainly more impressive than the MacBook Air’s 1,440 x 900 panel, and I also prefer it to the display of the Dell XPS 13, which has a higher sRGB coverage but also comes hampered with Dell’s rather irritating automatic dynamic contrast adjustment.

Keyboard and touchpad

Since the UX330UA is a 13.3in device, the keyboard can feel a little cramped at times, but Asus has made good use of the available space. Its low-profile, island-style keys don’t have a lot of travel, but they still feel wonderfully firm and comfortable over lengthy typing sessions. There are also three levels of backlight brightness available. Just don’t expect to use the arrow keys very often, as they’re so ridiculously small that it’s nigh on impossible to press a single key at speed without marksman levels of precision.

Thankfully, the large, smooth touchpad is wonderfully responsive, with reactions to inputs never lagging behind. I was also able to perform Windows 10 multi-touch gestures without any hassle.

Ports and connections

Asus includes a decent selection of ports on the UX330UA, with two USB 3 ports and one USB 3.1 Type-C. There’s also a micro-HDMI port for hooking up the laptop to an external display, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Verdict

At £900, the Asus ZenBook UX330UA isn’t exactly cheap, but it’s a well-rounded device that’s perfect for use on the go. It’s one of the best Windows 10 alternatives to Apple’s MacBook Air, and it has the display, speed and build quality to go head-to-head with Dell’s XPS 13 as well.  

The UX330UA is also around £50 cheaper than the equivalent Dell specification, making it better value if you’re looking to save a bit of money. For me, the XPS 13’s longer-lasting battery makes it worth the extra investment, but Asus has still done a fantastic job with the ZenBook UX330UA, and it rightly wins a Recommended award.

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