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ASUS beefs up the ZenBook series with Intel Skylake

There’s good news on the horizon for anybody looking to upgrade their notebook: Intel’s Skylake processors are coming to the ASUS ZenBook stable.

Skylake processors have been out for some time now, and it’s nice to see original equipment manufacturers such as ASUS finally releasing notebooks powered by these new mobile chips that can pack a punch. They’re even – in the case of the upgraded ZenBook Pro UX501VW – decent enough to play a few games with.

The upgraded ZenBook range seems to have a notebook for everybody, from the low-powered ZenBook UX305CA with a choice of Intel Core M3, Core M5 and Core M7 processors up to the bigger, and more powerful ZenBook Pro which boasts an Intel Core i7-6700HQ.

Connectivity has also been given an upgrade with all notebooks now boasting gigabit WiFi support, also known as the 802.11ac WiFi standard.

After that however, things start varying wildly. Not to worry though, we have a full run down of what CPU is available in which notebook, and everything else you may want to know, in the tables below.

ZenBook UX303UA ZenBook UX303UB ZenBook UX305UA
CPU Intel Core i7-6500U /Intel Core i5 6200U / Intel Core i3-6100U Intel Core i7-6500U /Intel Core i5 6200U / Intel Core i3-6100U Intel Core i7-6500U /Intel Core i5 6200U / Intel Core i3-6100U
GPU Intel HD Graphics 520 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 940M Intel HD Graphics 520
RAM 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz 4GB DDR3L 1600MHz 4GB LPDDR2 1600MHz
Storage Pure 7mm HDD up to 1TB / Hybrid HDD (500GB HDD + 8GB SSD) / SSD up to 512GB Pure 7mm HDD up to 1TB / Hybrid HDD (500GB HDD + 8GB SSD) / SSD up to 512GB SSD 128GB / 256GB / 512GB
Display 13.3inch IPS Full HD (1 920 x 1 080) / 13.3inch IPS QHD (3 200×1 800) (touchscreen optional) 13.3inch IPS FullHD (1 920×1 080) (touchscreen optional) 13.3inch IPS QHD (3 200×1 800) / 13.3inch IPS Full HD (1 920 x 1 080) (optional touchscreen)
Interface Mini DisplayPort / 3 x USB 3.0 / HDMI 1.4 / audio jack / SD card reader Mini DisplayPort / 3 x USB 3.0 / HDMI 1.4 / audio jack / SD card reader Micro HDMI / 2 x USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 / audio jack / SD card reader
Dimensions 323x223x20mm 1.45kg 323x223x20mm 1.45kg 324x226x16.05mm 1.3kg

 

ZenBook UX305UA ZenBook UX305CA ZenBook UX501VW
CPU Intel Core i7-6500U /Intel Core i5 6200U / Intel Core i3-6100U Intel Core M7-6Y75 / Intel Core M5-6Y54 / Intel Core M3-6Y30 Intel Core i7-6700HQ
GPU Intel HD Graphics 520 Intel HD Graphics 515 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M (2GB/4GB GDDR5)
RAM 4GB LPDDR2 1600MHz 4GB LPDDR2 1600MHz 8GB DDR4 2133MHz
Storage SSD 128GB / 256GB / 512GB SSD 128GB / 256GB / 512GB 1TB 5400RPM HDD / 128GB SSD / 256GB SSD and NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 512GB SSD
Display 13.3inch IPS QHD (3 200×1 800) / 13.3inch IPS Full HD (1 920 x 1 080) (optional touchscreen) 13.3inch IPS QHD (3 200×1 800) / 13.3inch IPS Full HD (1 920×1 080) 15.6inch IPS UHD (3 840 x 2 160) / 15.6inch IPS Full HD (1 920×1 080)
Interface Micro HDMI / 2 x USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 / audio jack / SD card reader Micro HDMI / 3 x USB 3.0 / audio jack / SD card reader HDMI / USB 3.1 Type C port with Thunderbolt and Display port / 3 x USB 3.0 / SD SDXC card reader
Dimensions 324x226x16.05mm 1.3kg 324x226x12.3mm, 1.2kg 383x255x21.3mm, 2.06kg

This seems like a lot to digest, but the variety of processor options ASUS has gone with for these updated notebooks is impressive to say the least. Yes, Intel Core M processors are low-powered but they can mean cheaper notebooks that can type up a few documents and surf the web with ease. They’re also incredibly cool: this generation of Core M chips don’t even need fans to keep them cool, something that allows the portable computers they power to be extra thin, light and quiet.

There has also been a bit of a buzz around the htxt.africa offices about how well the UX501VW will perform when put through its paces and whether it will be able to deliver games to us at that UHD resolution.

Deon says “probably not”, but I’m not so sure – it may well surprise us. At the very least games like Pillars of Eternity will run at 4K, as it uses a combination of 2D backdrops and 3D character models and looked absolutely gorgeous on the AOC 4K screen we reviewed last year. It was attached to a killer gaming desktop rig at the time, however.

Anyway, all that aside, the ZenBook UX305 and UX303 series are currently available at select retailers and the UX501VW will hit South African shelves in May. We hope to get our hands on at least one of those models soon for a full review.

[Source and Image – ASUS]

 

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