Gadget Review: Asus ZenBook 13

It’s not easy shopping for a laptop these days. With the rupee depreciating over the past few years, you’re now either forced to pick up a bulky low-cost laptop riddled with compromises or pay through your nose for something that’s both slim and light and performs well. Asus didn’t get that memo and the ZenBook 13 refreshingly checks all the boxes without compromising performance or breaking the bank.

The ZenBook 13 sports a now-familiar concentric circle design on the top lid, but it’s all the nips and tucks all around coupled with the ultra-thin bezels that has allowed Asus to fit in a stunning 13.3-inch Full HD display into a footprint that’s smaller than an A4-size sheet and one that weighs barely over a kilo! Yet, there’s no compromise made on the internals — the ZenBook 13 sports a dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card (with 2GB of VRAM) alongside Intel’s 8th Gen Core i5-8265U processor, 8GB RAM, a 512GB storage, and provides 7-8 hours of battery life.

Connectivity options abound as well, with two USB ports, one USB-C and a HDMI port, and the keyboard experience is solid. No fingerprint reader either, so you have to rely solely on the Windows Hello-based face unlock. Here’s a clever touch — Asus has integrated a touch-based number pad into the touchpad, so you get the comfort of a dedicated number pad without the additional space needed to accommodate one. Where it lacks is in the audio department, with the downward-firing Harman Kardon-certified speakers pumping out decent distortion-free sound that’s lacking in volume.