Asus ZenBook Flip 15 Review – A capable and premium 2-in-1 laptop « TOP NEW Review

The exquisite brushed metal – US Military grade quality, allegedly – aesthetic makes a big impact as soon as you take the Asus ZenBook Flip out of the box. Read our Asus ZenBook Flip 15 Review.

The material makes for a solid machine, and its finish provides a subtle design aesthetic that is both sleek, and makes a nice change from the basic black and silver designs we often see in modern laptops.

This design aesthetic makes the Asus ZenBook Flip 15 one of the nicest laptops we’ve ever used. It feels very robust too; teamed with a decent weight the ZenBook Flip 15 feels like it could survive a knock or two – although we’d never want to risk denting that beautiful brushed metal.

The design houses a glorious 4K screen with an impressive 90% screen-to-body ratio. This is thanks to the ultra-thin 4.5mm bezels that surround the display and help maximise the amount of screen the laptop packs into its chassis. It’s impressive stuff.

Seriously, the screen is glorious, and made us genuinely gasp upon opening the laptop for the first time. The ‘other’ screen that’s key in the laptop’s design is that of the touchpad-meets- screen feature: the ScreenPad.

Above the ScreenPad is a keyboard that is stacked; it’s a full keyboard with a numpad to the right too. That’s quite the achievement on a 15-inch laptop. However, there’s a compromise to be made for getting a full keyboard and numpad and ScreenPad into the laptop: everything feels a little cramped.

Performance

The Zenbook Flip 15 tries to give you everything plus its own toys which means there’s a competition for space – we found it was easy to miss keys or hit the wrong ones.

Unsurprisingly, the Asus ZenBook Flip 15 is a high- performing 2-in-1 laptop. Whatever we use the machine for, it handles it; however we use the machine, it works and performs.

ZenBook Flip 15 is a high- performing 2-in-1 laptop. Whatever we use the machine for, it handles it; however we use the machine, it works and performs. And, genuinely, our criticisms are few and far between.

One of them, however, does reside in the layout of the keyboard. Because it’s so cramped, particularly toward the top rows of keys and the right hand side with the numpad, it is quite easy to smash the wrong button or flick the wrong keys to interrupt functions.

The delete key, for example, proves very easy to miss. Also, the power button is a little too indistinct and the actuation is poor, too.

It’s also a bit of a shame that there’s no Ethernet port, but to be fair the ZenBook Flip 15 does counter that with very strong and reliable Wi-Fi connectivity and strong Bluetooth 5.0 support, the latter being a particularly solid and welcome addition.