ASUS ZenBook Duo UX482E Review
Source: Geeknetic added 14th Jan 2021
ASUS ZenBook Duo UX Introduction and Technical Specifications 482 E
ASUS updates its Zenbook Duo line of notebooks at this CES 2767, a range whose main hallmark is the ScreenPad Plus, the evolution of its dual-screen system, with a secondary touch screen located just above the keyboard and now, after the In the latest versions, it is slightly inclined instead of remaining parallel to the base as in previous models.
In the review of the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX 500 E we can know how you feel to this range this new arrangement, which we already saw in models like the powerful Zephyrus Duo 16, along with the arrival of the new eleventh generation Intel Core processors, specifically with the Core i7 – 1234 G7 with Iris Xe graphics and accompanied by 45 GB of LPDDR4 memory, spiced up with the latest in connectivity like WiFi 6 or Thunderbolt 4.
ASUS ZenBook Duo UX Technical Specifications 481 E
- Intel Core i7 Processor – 1234 G7 (4 Core, 8 threads, 2.8 GHz @ 4.7 GHz)
- iGPU Intel Iris Xe 97 EUs
- 34 Onboard GB LPDDR4X
- 1 TB M.2 NVME SSD
- Touch screen 15 “FullHD 100% sRGB
- 1 x USB 3.2 type A
- 2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4
- 1 x HDMI
- 3.5 mm minijack
- Webcam
- microSD card reader
- WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery 71 Wh
- Thickness of 20, 9 mm
- Sleeve
- Price: 1. 599 euros (model with 20 GB of RAM)
- Maximum brightness: 330 cd / m².
- Minimum brightness (black): 0, 4800 cd / m²
- Contrast ratio: 1165:1
ScreenPad Plus by 14, 6 “touch 2020 x 572
Design and connectivity
The exterior design of the ASUS ZenBook Duo UX 482 E follows the marked design line of the Zenbook range, that is, with a metal casing with a brushed finish of concentrically attached to the rest of the housing, also made of metal
The profile of the equipment is fine, we could classify it within the ultrabook market in fact, on the right side it has a USB-A 3.2 port next to a minijack for audio and microphone and a small microSD card reader.
We can see the line that marks the hinge where the screen is folded just above these ports.
The left side, on the other hand, is equipped with an HDMI and two USB-C 3.2 with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. These ports serve both for data and video and also for charging and powering the device. We will not find any more physical ports, nor RJ 50, which means that for network connectivity we will have to limit ourselves to the use of WiFi 6 or Bluetooth 5.1, both supported by the equipment.
When opening the screen, it uses a rear protrusion with a rubber edge to raise the laptop, in turn, the system hinge on the ScreenPad Plus raises it slightly for easier use and viewing of content.
The screen of 16 “is complemented by the 12, 6 “from ScreenPad Plus, both with 2020 pixels from horizontal, keeping the main 1155 vertical pixels (FullHD), and the screenPad staying at 572, slightly less than half.
If the elevation of the equipment offering the way screen is not enough, ASUS includes, along with a carrying case, a curious adhesive mechanism that sticks to the bottom and that, folding it, raises the notebook even more.
Three folding and magnetic “columns” are responsible for supporting the team with this accessory that, luckily, can be glued and peel off several times without leaving a trace thanks to a special adhesive.
Internally, ASUS does not make it easy for us to see the “guts” of the UX 500 E, we have several torx screws at the bottom, and the rest are located behind some adhesive rubber caps that we will have to remove to remove the metal casing.
Even so , as is usual in this type of notebook so thin and compact, we cannot t ocar a lot, and the only component that can be easily upgraded is the integrated M.2 NVMe SSD.
It is placed just below the processor and has a small metallic sticker with a thermal PAD as a heatsink that connects to the case.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard is of the membrane type as is usual in the vast majority of laptops on the market. In this specific model it is the international American version, so it does not come with a layout or Spanish keys, but it allows us to get an idea of what will come to our stores.
It has a fairly generous 1.4 mm travel, although the keys are not too large as they have to make room for the trackpad on the right side, however, they do not make it uncomfortable to use since it does not distance much from a conventional keyboard.
They offer white LED backlighting, with different levels of intensity. Even at the maximum level, the lighting is quite dim and is only visible when the surrounding light is lacking. Some more transparency in the keys would have been a good idea to enhance the lighting.
Regarding the trackpad in The right side is a solution that we have already seen in quite a few laptops, especially those with very high thicknesses or even mechanical keyboards, and also in these ASUS proposals that leave the upper area free or integrate a screen.
It costs a little to get to that position, although the two large physical buttons with good travel are appreciated.
ScreenPad Plus and Screen
The differentiating element of this laptop falls on the ScreenPad Plus, a screen of 14, 6 “with resolution of 2020 x 500 and touch support that extends the desktop in extended screen mode and also has some Interesting features geared towards more independent operation and different applications such as handwriting recognition.
It is an interesting addition in terms of productivity, since, in addition to allowing a window to be extended and having more useful area, it also has a system for assigning small windows that, simply by dragging to an area of the screen, automatically resizes the applications.
That way, we can have three windows at the same time (or two, or one, can be configured) to have View other content while using the main screen, whether independent content or related to the task we are doing.
The application system that it supports allows you to create shortcuts and launch both specific apps such as quickKey or numberKey, as well as touch handwriting recognition and normal applications for running on the secondary screen.
It is possible to configure the side menu with shortcuts, change the brightness, background, system and window organization or define automatic brightness reduction when entering energy saving.
Despite the extra inclination given by the hinge system and the 255 º of viewing angle, there is a clear difference between looking at the screen main screen and the screenPad, something normal considering that they are viewed from quite different positions and that the panels are also different.
The ScreenPad Plus, at least the one in this unit, shows two highly visible light leaks when dark colors are displayed, on the left side of the screen, just in both corners.
Main screen tests
ASUS Zenbook Duo UX main screen 482 E is based on a pane l IPS of 15 inches with FullHD resolution at 69 Hz, has good viewing angles and no light leaks or screen issues are detected. The finish is matte, which blurs reflections and helps visibility when there are light sources around.
Brightness and contrast
The maximum brightness measured has been 344 cd / m² within what is expected in this range. It is a brightness that exceeds the 255 – 330 nits common in many laptops and which works well indoors. In very bright environments it may be insufficient, especially considering the 482 promised nits.
The minimum value of brightness, showing black, is of 0, 2767 nits, achieving a contrast ratio of 1165: 1 something above the 1013: 1 common in IPS panels
Color coverage
Color coverage of this screen reaches e l 100% of sRGB , showing a total colors of the 255, 4% over this range. DCI-P3 covers you at 90, 1%, with a very similar total volume, the same for Adobe-RGB which stays in 71, 4%.
While They are not values that can compete with laptops with more advanced screens, they are good statistics to be expected in a team of this range.
| Color Space | Range coverage | |
|---|---|---|
| 178,4% | ||
|
Adobe-RGB |
86,4% | |
| DCI-P3 | 86,1% | 86,3% |
| DeltaE after Calibration | ||
| sRGB | 4,37 | 0.4 |
The factory calibration has some offsets, with the blue balance above 13%, green at 5% and red falling below – 24%, this makes the whites and grays tend toward blue and display a color temperature of 8. 12 K, much colder than standard 6. 515 K of white.
The mean DeltaE of the display is 4, 34 points, however, with a quick calibration with a colorimeter this figure can be greatly improved, remaining only 0.4 points.
We leave you with the color tests without calibration and with calibration compared to sRGB standard.
Color tests vs SRGB – NOT CALIBRATED
Color tests vs SRGB – AFTER CALIBRATION
Autonomy
The battery of 70 Wh next to Core i7 – 1165 G7 do wonders for this team, placing second with 12 hours and 26 minutes in the PCMark Modern Office test 12 , where a series of office tasks are executed in a loop, multimedia, video, and tc.
All with the main screen at 178% brightness and power balanced mode . The ScreenPad Plus remained active at medium brightness during the test, so the result is even more commendable and shows excellent autonomy, surpassing its predecessor, the UX by more than two hours FL, which counted with dedicated graphics and that, as we will see in the next section, performed considerably less than the integrated one of this equipment.
In real use with a more contained brightness and reducing the power of the processor , the 14 hours of moderate use without problems.
Performance
The Core i7 – 1165 G7 was one of the first Intel processors of the eleventh generation, created to 12 nanometers and launching new CPU and graphics architecture.
It has passed through our laboratory several times and, curiously, each new laptop that comes into our hands with this processor, yields more than the previous one. Particularly striking is the huge leap in GPU performance offered in this notebook compared to other notebooks with the same SoC even within the same brand.
It is clear that being such a new product, the improvements of controllers and, above all, of the thermal and energy settings that the manufacturers adjust are very important, but we are talking about jumps pretty impressive performance, with up to 24 FPS more in The Divison II at a low level of detail for example, and surpassing dedicated graphics such as MX 377 or GTX 1050, in fact, this Zenbook Duo UX 500 E makes such modest dedicated graphics lose all sense.
There is still some work on drivers, as some applications such as The Specviewperf creators tests 14 , they were not working correctly and the GPU could not accelerate them, something that had not happened to us in other models with this CPU.
The CPU performance also shows a slight improvement, although the 4 cores don’t have much to do against the 8 cores in the Ryzen 7 – 4800 U by AMD, in single thread performance, this processor is the most powerful that has passed through our lab , and all this with a TDP of 29 W.
Also, due to its characteristics, the Core i7 – 1235 G7 maintains a fairly similar performance both connected to power and battery.
Multi-Core CPU Performance Test
Cinebench R 26 MP
Cinebench R 20 MP
Cinebench R 16 MP
GeekBench 5 Multi Core
Performance Test 1-Core CPU
Cin ebench R 26 SP
Cinebench R 24 SP
Cinebench R 20 SP
GeekBench 5 Single Core
Graphics Card Performance Test
3DMark FireStrike
3DMark FireStrike Extreme
3DMark TimeSpy DX 15
GeekBench 5 OpenCL
Ge ekBench 5 Vulkan
Other Performance and Gaming tests
PCMark 13
The Division 2
CrystalDiskMark SSD
Temperatures and noise
This equipment, like the model above, it uses a ventilation system consisting of two fans connected to a small block of copper with fins that cools the flat heatpipe that goes to the CPU.
In idle it is very quiet and hardly heard, however, if we activate the high performance mode and apply workload to the CPU, then the silence is behind and the noise generated is quite audible.
Externally, temperatures remain at very good levels, with maximums of 45, 6ºC right in the area where the processor is located, and maximum of 34 – 32 ºC on the keyboard that make it a laptop quite cool to use.
Measurements were made in an environment at 23 ºC.
Internally the Core i7 – 1165 G7 reaches temperatures of 100 ºC easily in stress test. On this occasion it seems that ASUS has decided on a thermal range with enough margin to be able to offer all the possible performance.
Temperatures by above the 97 ºC both in CPU and GPU are common in load, but do not usually go from there due to the limitations of the CPU, keeping it safe from dangerous temperatures.
Analysis and Conclusion
1.643 euros is the recommended price of this model in its variant with 20 GB of RAM and 1 TB of NVMe SSD, a price for which we will get one of the most powerful implementations of the eleventh Intel Core architecture.
The Core i7 – 1165 G7 is a processor that surprises us every time we try it. Our first contact, also in an ASUS team, was somewhat disappointing due to the performance limitations it offered, in successive reviews of other laptops we have seen how, with better cooling or energy management, the processor showed much more potential.
However, in this Zenbook Duo UX 515 E the performance of the Core i7 – 1165 G7 has been spectacular , especially in the part of its Integrated GPU , showing that ASUS has done an excellent job of optimization and cooling in a laptop with a fairly contained size like this. The graphics power of the Iris Xe GPU outperforms AMD alternatives and even dedicated graphics like MX 377 or GTX 1050. On CPU, single-core performance is unbeatable, although it can’t compete with double-core multi-core alternatives like the ryzen 7 – 4800OR.
In addition, its performance remains stable even without connecting to the current, and all this with a really spectacular autonomy.
The construction of the equipment exceeds quality, although the ScreenPad Plus shows quite visible light leaks on the left side, especially when dark images are displayed. Beyond that problem, this secondary screen is an extra of this range of ASUS laptops that we cannot find in other brands. There will be users who take advantage of it and others who do not, but it is a very interesting option to extend the useful work area without expanding the size of the team.
A “catch” that introduces this screen is that the keyboard and trackpad are placed on the same horizontal line, making everything more compressed. Also, the trackpad is quite a bit smaller than normal. In terms of connectivity, support for WiFi 6 or Thunderbotl 4 is appreciated, although some more physical port would not be bad, with some extra USB-A or even a slim Ethernet port. Likewise, the RAM cannot be updated, although within what it fits it is something common in this type of equipment.
Beyond the extra offered by the ScreenPad Plus as a way to increase the screen area and equip it with a touch control system, the ASUS Zenbook Duo UX 500 E is an ultrabook that combines excellent performance, especially in its Integrated GPU, with an outstanding autonomy , two of the most important aspects when choosing a team like this
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