Asus ZenPad 10 review An affordable, wellbuilt tablet thats let down by poor software. Asus X553MA The Asus X553MA is a lowcost 15. As Asus seems to do every year, it is offering a series of phones, from midrange to highend, which all have a specific strength or two. The Zenfone 4 Max not only. ASUS N752VX review its just a futureproof N751 with overall better hardware without costing too much. LaptopMedia. com Reviews ASUS N752VX review its just a. Asus Zenbook 13 UX331UN review and impressions Core i58250U CPU and Nvidia MX150 graphics. ASUS is a leading company driven by innovation and commitment to quality for products that include notebooks, netbooks, motherboards, graphics cards, displays. CPU socket type Socket AM2 The motherboard was used in the following computers HP D4500e, HP1630n,HP Pavilion a1709n, HP Pavilion a1710n, HP Pavilion a1573cn, HP. Starting with the lid, the ZenBook UX550VE carries the iconic concentric brushed aluminum plate on top with ASUS illuminated logo. You just cant mistake it for. The HTC 10 offers two settings for viewing colors, the default setting is Vivid and you can change it to sRGB which makes the screen just a tad warmer for more. XwCPSqHtso/VzxUmqfJjTI/AAAAAAAACkY/mjz-HmgrgjkCdVTbajNEoVcQMnLafURJwCLcB/s1600/nout-m51s-02.jpg' alt='Asus Battery Calibration' title='Asus Battery Calibration' />ASUS Zen. Book Pro UX5. VE review ASUS answer to the Mac. Bok Pro 1. 5 and XPS 1. With the latest generation of CPUs and GPUs from Intel and NVIDIA on the mobile front, OEMs started a race who will build the fastest, yet the thinnest and most portable notebook. Weve seen some great design and performance from the latest generation of Apples Mac. Book Pro 1. 5 and Dells XPS 1. But what if you get roughly the same specs and performance and put it on a much more affordable packageThats exactly what ASUS has managed to achieve with its latest Zen. Book Pro UX5. 50. VE a successor to the well received Zen. Asus M5A99FX PRO R2. AMD 990FX AM3 ATX Motherboard,Asus. Asus Battery Calibration Tool' title='Asus Battery Calibration Tool' />Book Pro UX5. Mac. Book Pro 1. 5 and XPS 1. Costing around 3. XPS 1. 5, youd expect that there are some compromises along the way. But at first glance, theres nothing wrong or fishy about the UX5. VE solid metal chassis, high end hardware, thin bezel IPS panel with good multimedia properties, long battery life and comfortable input devices. For some time now, ASUS has often been associated with excellently built ultrabooks while pricing them lower than the competition. And with the UX5. VE, ASUS doesnt disappoint Intel Core i. HQ, NVIDIA Ge. Force GTX 1. Ti, up to 1. 6GB of DDR4 2. TB M. 2 PCIe NVMe SSD and an optional 4. K UHD IPS touch enabled display. Wheres the catch Find out in the thorough review below. You can find the available configurations here http amzn. ZR8k. 0Contents. Retail package. The notebook comes in a relatively big package with plenty of goods inside the box. Aside from the usual user manuals, AC adapter and power cord, the laptop is accompanied by a neat cable tie, a USB A to RJ 4. LAN connectivity, a cleaning cloth and a carrying bag. Design and construction. Our unit shipped with that signature obsidian blue color or Royal Blue as ASUS calls it that looks not only elegant but different as well. As we said earlier, the notebook features an all aluminum chassis the lid is brushed while the rest of the body is anodized with chamfered edges. The metal chassis hasnt reflected so much on the weight as the UX5. VE weighs the impressive 1. However, the XPS 1. Mac. Book Pro 1. 5 are still thinner than ASUS solution but its not really so apparent. All three weight approximately the same. Starting with the lid, the Zen. Book UX5. 50. VE carries the iconic concentric brushed aluminum plate on top with ASUS illuminated logo. You just cant mistake it for another brand. The aluminum plate provides decent stability and bends ever so slightly, yet its still acceptable given the thickness of the device. Its also fairly resistant to torsion probably thanks to the wide singe hinge design. Speaking of which, it provides quite sturdy operation without using both hands to open the laptop but as you go towards the end, the hinge becomes pretty stiff. This will definitely suit the touch enabled versions well. Whats more, the side bezels of the screen measure at just 7. Of course, the XPS 1. The bottom of the chassis features anodized aluminum without any vents for cool air intake, only two out of four speakers are placed at the bottom. Although thin enough to impress, the sides still maintain functionality. Measuring just below 1. UX5. 50. VE offers pretty much everything youd need from a 1. On the left, you will find the DC charging port, full sized HDMI and not one but two USB C 3. Thunderbolt 3. On the right, you can rely on the 3. SD card reader and two USB A 3. Opening the lid reveals a familiar interior fairly stable anodized aluminum sheet with glass covered touchpad and a comfortable keyboard, although, we were surprised to see that the Numpad block is missing since its a 1. Anyway, the chassis continues to give an impression of a stable design, although we found only one relatively weak spot right in the center of the hinge, the sheet gives in under small amounts of pressure. Nothing worth considering in real world conditions but we felt obligated to note that since its a high end device. The rest of the interior appears to be rock solid. The keyboard feels nice and delivers about 1. To compensate for the shorter travel, the keys offer tactile and audible clicky feedback making the whole typing experience very pleasant. Also, each key has a small indentation for added comfort. The LED backlight is white and has several brightness levels each being pretty discreet and we didnt notice any annoying light bleed. And as for the trackpad, it has silky smooth glass surface registering each gesture, swipe and drag accurately. Mouse clicks are light, clicky, deep and dont get in the way of dragging and dropping. All in all, the UX5. VE is has an excellently built chassis with virtually no downsides. Even though it costs considerably less than the competition, the overall build quality is on par. Still, the carbon fiber on the XPS 1. Apples simplistic and impeccable design still comes on top of all. Nevertheless, the UX5. VE is definitely a bang for the bucks, especially if you are willing to spend so much on a 1. Disassembly, maintenance and upgrade options. As before, the Zen. Book UX5. 50. VE offers easy access to the internals but not thanks to dedicated service lids. The bottom plate comes off easily once you remove all the screws and pry it up. Storage upgrades 2. HDDSSD, M. 2 SSDUnfortunately, storage is limited only to a single M. SSD, which in our case is a Samsung PM9. PCIe NVMe SSD with 5. GB capacity. Probably due to design limitations, the laptop skips on the 2. Slot. Unit. Upgrade price. M. 2 slot. 51. 2GB Samsung M. PCIe NVMe SSD 2. Upgrade options. RAMTo our surpise, the notebook has no available RAM slot for upgrade and instead relies on soldered RAM chips it can be found under the small metal plate. The configuration weve tested had just 8. GB of DDR4 2. 40. This is a considerable drawback especially for a 1. Other components. Next to one of the cooling fans, you can find the Intel 8. NGW Wi Fi adapter. The battery is located under the wrist rest area and its rated at the whopping 7. Wh. Cooling system. The cooling system looks pretty solid two big heat pipes connecting both fans and heat sinks. Speaking of which, the GPU heat sink is familiar in design often found in high end gaming laptops. Too bad that even this isnt enough to keep the internals cool during heavy workload. Display quality. The display uses a Full HD 1. IPS panel with matte finish manufactured by Innolux with model number N1. HCE EN1. The 1. 5. Delta Flight Attendant Training Course. The screen can be considered as Retina when viewed from a distance equal or greater than 6. Viewing angles are excellent. In the center of the screen, weve recorded a maximum brightness of 3. The color temperature at maximum brightness on a white screen is 7. K, which means that colors will appear slightly colder than usual. Nike Utility Software. As we go along the grayscale, the color temperature remains approximately 7. K. You can see how values change at 1. The maximum d. E2. Contrast ratio, however, is excellent 1. Color reproduction. To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction of the s. RGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, theres the CIE 1. Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy. Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut s. RGB that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser review. There are a slew of high end, and expensive, smartphones that dominate the Android smartphone game, but this year, there has been a larger focus on affordability, without compromising quality, as well. One such device is the ASUS Zenfone 2, which is one of our favorite mid range smartphones of 2. Apart from the fact there there are a few different iterations of the Zenfone 2 itself, ASUS has also launched a few spin offs, including the lower end Zenfone 2. E and the more expensive Zenfone 2 Deluxe. Now, ASUS is hoping to maintain what defined the original Zenfone, but with a greater focus on the camera experience. Here is our comprehensive ASUS Zenfone 2 Laser reviewDesign. As expected, the Zenfone 2 Laser retains the design language of its namesake, featuring the same 5. While the Zenfone 2 Laser can easily be mistaken for the original, there are a few differences here. For starters, there is the addition of a laser auto focus system next to the rear camera unit, which is what gives this device its name, and another pleasant change is the availability of a removable battery. Opening the back cover also allows for access to the dual SIM slots and the micro. SD card slot. The Zenfone 2 Laser is certainly outside the realm of comfortable one handed use, but its curved back and flat edges do contribute to a better handling experience overall. The power button remains at the center up top, and given the rather large footprint of the device, continues to be an inconvenient placement. Though the power button is difficult to reach, the device does come with the double tap to wake feature, which fortunately means that you wont find yourself reaching for that power button all that often. The power button, and volume rocker on the back, do seem to offer more tactile feedback than what was available with the original, but oddly enough, they do feel somewhat cheaper. Up front, above the display is a 5 MP secondary camera to the right, with an notification LED on the left. There are also three non illuminated capacitive navigation keys at the bottom, just above ASUS signature metallic chin. The bezels along the sides of the display arent particularly thin, but they dont really detract from the look and handling experience much. As was the case with the original, the Zenfone 2 Laser is one of the better designed and built devices in its price category. ASUS has had no trouble with pulling off a premium look and feel, that is often reserved for more expensive devices, with the Zenfone 2 Laser, despite its all plastic construction. While some may frown upon ASUS use of a recycled design, that is the only real point of contention with this great looking smartphone. Display. The Zenfone 2 Laser comes with a 5. IPS LCD display, with a 1. This is identical to the display of the original, and also offers excellent viewing angles and great color reproduction. The issues with brightness also continue however, with sunlight readability being quite poor. Auto brightness also tends to be a bit conservative, even with the adaptive brightness slider set to the highest level. The Splendid color settings that ASUS has added are definitely a nice touch, despite the displays already great color calibration. It is also nice to see a blue light filter toggle available in notification shade, which makes the display easier to read in darker environments. ASUS also took the opportunity to upgrade the glass panel to Corning Gorilla Glass 4, which is a welcome change, and rather surprising, given the price point of the device. Performance and hardware. Under the hood, the Zenfone 2 Laser comes with an octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 6. GHz, and backed by the Adreno 4. GPU and 3 GB of RAM. Despite the move away from an Intel processor, the day to day performance remains mostly the same, and given that this processing package is the current mid range standard, the performance is as good as expected. Opening applications, swiping, scrolling, and multi tasking are all handled with rare instances of lag or stutter. Gaming is also pretty good for the most part, save for the most processor intensive of games. The device comes with a standard suite of connectivity options, with the exception of NFC, which is disappointing, given the fact that it was available with the original. It also comes with full 4. G LTE support in the US, which is always a big plus, and there are dual SIM capabilities to be had as well. GB or 3. 2 GB of internal storage is available, which can be further expanded via micro. SD card by up to 1. GB. When it comes to the speaker, the single rear speaker unit of the Zenfone 2 Laser seems to be identical to what was found with its namesake, and while the sound quality is about average, the maximum volume is still too low for some environments. In battery, the Zenfone 2 Laser comes with a 3,0. Ah unit that is replaceable, which allowed for about three and a half hours of screen on time, with a total of eighteen hours of use. While heavier usage, the screen on time could be pushed closer to four hours, but with around fourteen hours of use. The battery life is mediocre, but the good news here is that users now have the option to carry around spares if battery life is a concern. Camera. Giving the device its name, the 1. MP rear camera of the Zenfone 2 Laser is now accompanied by a laser auto focus system. This does seem to help the phone focus on specific objects better, and some images were noticeably sharper compared to the original. There is still a lack of dynamic range however, and unlike with the Zenfone 2, HDR seems to unfortunately make things worse. The camera is certainly capable of producing fantastic images, but it is held back quite a bit due to this issue. In low light conditions, the Zenfone 2 Laser is capable of taking some decent looking images, and while there is still a lot of digital noise added with ASUS image processing, it is still one of the best low light cameras that weve come across in this price range. There is also a low light mode that helps quite a lot, but at the expense of resolution, but it has to be mentioned that the additional digital noise seems to be inevitable. The camera application brings a lot of manual control to the mix, along with over a dozen individual shooting modes. These modes are fun to play around with, and the professional mode is excellent for those wanting a lot more granular control. Software. The Zenfone 2 Laser comes with Android 5. Lollipop out of the box, with the Zen UI on top. The software experience remains unchanged from past iterations, and it has to be said that ASUS has done a great job in adding value through the software experience. Virtually everything is well though out, and they have done well to fill the gaps in stock Android Lollipop. From the customizable quick access apps on the lock screen, to the numerous gestures available with Zen. Motion, the Zen UI does have a lot to offer. There are also features like RAM cleanup, Play. To support, several power saving modes, with automatic or scheduled switching, an auto start manager, an audio equalizer, and built in Backup and Restore app, FM radio, a surprisingly good mobile video editing app, a quick memo app, a sound recorder, and a Themes manager, with all of these apps frequently updated via the Google Play Store.