Asus ZenBook 14 UX433F (i7-8565U) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

The new ZenBook 14 has a mind-boggling 92 percent screen-to-body ratio to best even the XPS 13. How did Asus manage to achieve such narrow bezels on all four sides of the display while still offering 100 percent sRGB and Whiskey Lake-U?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ZenBook-14-UX433F-i7-8565U-Laptop-Review.361811.0.html

[Vance]

USB 2.0, microSDXC, HDMI 1.4, soldered RAM and WLAN, PCIe x2 SSD, small battery, absent screen options, proprietary charging, poor keyboard and speakers, power and thermal throttling, gimmick features, etc etc.

There are better laptops for roughly half the price.

Also Intel Wireless 9260 / 9560 is theoretically limited to 800 MBit/s because majority OEMs use 2x2 modules. Should they mention 1.73Gbps on their product page they'd be held liable for false advertising.

[Wojtek Białek]

For me the biggest disappointment is lack of ability to drive extensively 4K screen at 60 Hz as HDMI is 1.4 and DP is absent from USB C port (if specifications are right). Other issues are not real problems for me

[STH]

Assuming the 533 will be roughly the same, only larger, and without the lighted numpad?

So all things being equal, would you go with the 533 or the XPS15? Both have comparable specs (ASUS: i7-8565U WL/16GB DDR4/512 GB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen3x2 SSD/GTX 1050 Max-Q) vs (XPS: i7-8750H, 16GB DDR4, 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe SSD, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti), and are within $50 of each other via black friday pricing.

What would you go with for a great all-rounder, no gaming?

[Sukhoi]

NBC back at it again, totally ignoring sustained performance

[Amy]

Could you name some better option for half the price?
I'm thinking on buying this one, but am open to good suggestions. :)

There are better laptops for roughly half the price.

[Vance]

@Amy:
Depends. Just in the ultraportable category (under 1.5kg), prioritizing performance only, that is with lastest gen quad-core ULV chips,

1. Traditional Clamshell

$600 ($450 in parts of US if you can find it) - Huawei Matebook D 14 - R5-2500U / Vega 8 / 57Wh, 1.4kg. This is the best option if you're okay with non-upgradable 8GB memory.

$800 ($700 with holiday coportate discount) - Lenovo Ideapad 720s 14 - i5-8250U / MX150 / 55Wh, 1.5kg.
Same line as this Zenbook 14 and best ultrabook with dGPU for the money atm. Released more than a year ago, nothing since has surpassed it. Compared to the Zenbook it has better build, dual separate fan cooling, better keyboard, touchpad, ports with full SD, TB3 and USB-C PD, upgradable RAM, WLAN and faster PCIe x4 SSD. Only drawback is that RAM runs single-channel, but ~5% GPU performance drop is a fair trade for serviceability.

2. 2-in-1 Convertibles

$700 - HP Envy x360 13 - R5 / Vega 8 / 53Wh / 1.3kg. Again, good value because Ryzen.

$800 ($700 with same discount) - Lenovo Yoga 730 13 - i5-8250U / 48Wh / 1.2kg. Best 2-in-1 ultrabook for the money and also the cheapest laptop in the market with PCIe x4 lane TB3 ports. Has dual fan assembly which produces excellent sustained performance. RAM is soldered but 16GB is configurable for more. This is absolutely the laptop I would buy If my budget was limited to $1,000.

Lenovo 500 and their Thinkpad E series are solid mid-range value options, especially with the discounts. ~$500 range

Asus Vivobook Pro/Slim and Acer Aspire/Swift/Spin series are decent value but mostly heavier and worse in every other aspect. Worse service after purchase, low availability, and low discount rates. And they have so many model variations and complicated names frankly it's not worth evaluating.

Finally, stay away from anything else low-end including but not limited to - Dell Inspiron, HP Pavillion, Lenovo 300, HP Probook, Dell Latitude 3000 etc.

[DavidC1]

NBC back at it again, totally ignoring sustained performance

Yup. They won't listen to us either.

You'll also notice the Asus model based on the 8550U also has higher PL1 and PL2 settings. If you compare it to 8650U models, its still the best sustained-performance device. The Latitude 7490 does well, but PL1 and PL2 is at 15/44W.

8565U at 15/18W outperforms the 8650U with 15/44W. Seems pretty good to me.

The battery life is an upgrade too if you normalize it to capacity.

But NOTEBOOKCHECK DOESN'T LISTEN ANYWAY SO WHO CARES?

[KC]

I'm trying to decide...would you recommend this vs Lenovo Yoga C930 (4K display with sound bar hinge) vs Huawei MateBook x pro ( never heard of this brand?) or jus go with MacBook pro 13?
How would you rank all these? Which would last longer? I would use more for browsing, word, excel, YouTube, some movies and little gaming.
Just curious how responsive is that numpad in the ZenBook?

Thanks,

KC

[pierre]

hi everyone, did someone tested this laptop? is it noisy? my previous asus were super noisy with a fan working all the time. and is the autonomy good?
tks!

[minchu]

I got a notebook where the audio doesn't work. I tried un-installing / re-installing audio drivers and must have spent a good 8 hours today to get audio (both speakers and headset) working without much success. I even did an online chat with ASUS customer support. They were not any help either.

I wonder what kind of testing happens in ASUS factories before they ship out their products. I am disappointed that I spent a whole lot of money on buying this notebook.

[Repsol08]

Hello, thanks for the great article review

I want to know how i can calibrate the sceeen on this notebook using your icc profiles ?

And one more question. Why i feel dizzy when look at display. Nothing feel like this on previous laptop and my pc gaming.

[Vladislavs]

Thanks for review, which version of HDMI does this thing have? can it run 60 fps in 4k?

[beni]

one big dealbreaker is the ddr3 1200mhz only ram. damm..other than that it looks perfect...

[Jonathan Tam]

How do I apply the said calibrated colour profile described here? and where do I find these new settings? Sorry this is advanced for me and don't know how to do it.