Jumping 7 generations! Old Zen to Asus expertbook ultra
I have just upgraded my Zenbook 13 ux333 from late 2018 to the Expertbook Ultra.
My old laptop's been with me through school and university, and it's still chugging along. I only had to service it once after it got drenched in the rain.
My first impressions:
Screen:
Going up from 13,3 to 14 inch is much more pleasant than anticipated. I wasn't expecting a big difference, but I was wrong - it's amazing. Upgrading from reflective, poor angle 1920 ips to 3k tandem oled touch is a joy.
Keyboard:
Expertbook's Keyboard feels silky smooth, I was expecting to be annoyed with copilot key and small page up and down, but no - everything is perfect. Except for ISO layout, ANSI's shift is much more convenient.
Trackpad:
Glass surface is pleasant, gestures are convenient, even adjusting brightness and volume gives vibrational feedback. Zero palm rejection. It's my first haptic experience, won't ever go back to mechanical.
Build Quality:
Expertbook is very sturdy, doesn't flex or bend. The coating does help a ton with smudges, but cleaning it will be more tricky - alcohol wipes can diminish the coating.
Performance:
From i7 - 8565U and 8gb of ddr3 to 356h and 32gb of ddr5. Very responsive and quick. Fans are unnoticeable even when I was setting the laptop up and doing all the updates.
First impressions:
I really like the Expertbook Ultra. Great screen, great sound, great built. I have also seen some early reports about the hinge and microphone quality, can confirm it's been addressed. Can't say too much on battery life yet, but so far so good.
But nothing is perfect so here are the cons:
• ISO layout in the UK (but that's subjective, and your region could be different)
• Backlit keyboard feels a little dim, perfectly usable at night, but I am used to nuclear projector of the old zenbook
• Camera is mediocre. Lenovo X1 or X9 is miles ahead
• Worst of all, this machine is on Windows. Just setting it up has made me furious that I can't jump to Linux due to work.
Overall, the Expertbook Ultra is great.