Performance is off-the-charts impressive. It broke Windows-based records on general business and productivity apps, and the unit shone even more brightly when faced with any sort of graphics workload, video game, or AI task that can make use of the GPU. All told, it sets a high mark for performance. (Note that performance will suffer considerably if you aren’t connected to a full-power charger.)
All of this sounds like it would require a chassis that’s a behemoth, but Asus manages to keep the weight down to just 4.3 pounds, with a maximum thickness of 22 mm. The unit does get a little warm and a little loud under load; the heat is manageable, but the sound can be a bit much.
The laptop doesn’t just perform well, it also looks great doing it. Matte black inside and out, with a “stealth hinge” that disappears into the rear of the machine, the device looks modern and understated, with little more than a tiny Asus logo on a corner of the lid by way of flair. The paint is quite smudge-resistant as well. When opened, the unit reveals a thoughtfully designed keyboard with excellent backlighting—though I would have preferred full-height arrow keys instead of the half-height ones here. A numeric keypad would also have been nice, but that would certainly have cramped the design a bit.
Dialed In
Photograph: Chris Null
The touchpad deserves its own discussion. While the spacious tracking area is responsive (if perhaps overly large), it’s the small dial embedded in the pad in the upper-left that immediately draws the eye. This is a feature called Asus DialPad, and it’s a special part of the touchpad that can be used to perform context-sensitive functions within apps that support it (largely photo and video editing apps) by dialing in a circle.