ASUS - ZenBook Flip 15 Q538EI 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i7 - 16GB Memory - GTX1650Ti Max-Q - 1TB SSD - Grey

I am really pleased with the build quality and versatility of the Zenbook. Good performance, plenty of storage and a legit video card that can handle the needs of a casual gamer. Pros - Build quality is top notch: The hinge that allows the screen to rotate has no play at all. The case does not bend or flex when carried in one hand. - Great specs. Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 1TB solid state hard drive, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650Ti 4GB video card ensure that this computer will perform well for years. - Great Storage. The 1TB drive is definitely worth it for the extra space, especially if you plan to download games or have a collection of videos. Having a solid state drive is not only great for performance, but peace of mind (no moving parts to fail or be damaged). With only the preinstalled apps there was a little over 900GB available. - Video card can handle most games at the standard 1080p 60fps. This is not a purpose built gaming laptop, but it meets the minimum requirements for a lot of spec heavy games (with reduced texture quality settings). It easily handled Doom 2016 and Wolfenstein II that I downloaded from Steam. Based on the specs it should easily handle Doom Eternal that came out earlier this year. - No adapters needed. The Zenbook has an SD card reader, 1 full sized USB-A port, 2 USB-C ports and an HDMI port. - Screen is beautiful with a high resolution, vibrant colors, and deep blacks. When I used the HDMI port to connect a second monitor the difference between the 2 screens is night and day (the LED monitor is only a few months old, but looks washed out and dull compared to the Zenbook). - Battery life is very good. I regularly get 8-9 hours of use for common stuff like surfing the internet or writing a paper. It can even handle 2-3 hours of video games and does a great job of temperature management under heavy load while using the battery. I love the ASUS utility which allows you to adjust the battery charge settings to extend the battery lifespan if you intend to leave it plugged in for a while. - Keyboard spacing and feel are good, it has an adjustable backlight, and even manages to squeeze in a usable number pad with a short cut to the calculator app. Dual purpose F1-F12 / Function keys have useful short cuts such as volume, screen brightness, lock. It even has a cap lock light on the key (num lock, scroll lock are missing). Things to Consider - Using the Zenbook in tablet mode is a bit awkward due to the weight, stiff hinge, and the keyboard. The keyboard faces out on the bottom of the Zenbook when flipped, meaning you are holding the Zenbook by it is keyboard and if you set it down it lays on its keyboard (this is common on many 2-in-1 laptops). - Not a big deal, but I was worried it would scratch my desk when I first looked at it. The screen rotates past the bottom of the Zenbook as it opens, but it has little rubber numbs to keep the edge of the screen or hinge from directly making contact with the surface it is on. - Speaker performance is fine for a laptop and on par with others I have owned, but the harmon/kardon label might be a little deceiving. The sound is clear with no distortion at max volume and the dual speakers help widen the sound stage, but it lacks bass and is not loud enough. I have owned several Asus laptops and many of their other products (routers, motherboards) - all of which were well built and reliable. Based on the build quality and performance of the Zenbook so far, it will live up to the same standard.

This Asus Zenbook is a very nice machine. It's slim and lightweight making it very portable. The bezel is minimal giving 15" of screen in the most compact way without sacrificing the number pad or touchpad size. The hinges appear to be very strong and capable of holding up long-term. The touchscreen is responsive. The TouchPad needed calibrating. Switching between laptop and tablet mode is quick and easy. I have spent a few days trying to get the most out of this machine and it's done a good job so far. Start-up is super fast with a 1TB SSD. Windows setup was typical and easy. The OLED screen is beautiful with clear, sharp colors. The flicker-free low blue light makes it easy on your eyes. One of the first things I did after Windows setup and updating was to try a movie stream. This is where I discovered that I would need to spend more time in setup. The sound coming out could not possibly be all this machine with harman/kardan speakers could produce. It took some time to find DTS Audio Processing is the app for that. Upon opening the app, I found that it had not been set to on. In the app, you can set the sound to your personal preference for music, movies, and games. There is also a custom audio option where you can choose spatial stereo sound and enhancements such as bass boost, treble enhance, and vocal boost. After making the adjustments that sound best to my ears, the speakers came to life. Back to my movie. :) Video streaming is smooth, with no buffering, no lag, no delay. The colors look awesome without any adjustments. So I next streamed music. I did a little more adjusting with DTS audio program to fine-tune the music and it was enjoyable. I have had programs uploading, downloading, and installing while listening to music and/or reading email/browsing the internet and this machine has handled everything like a beast. The Nvidia GTX 1660ti, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD are much more than the min. requirements for my gaming needs. I have updated the drivers in the GEFORCE Experience app and set up optimization. After a couple of hours of playing the fans remain quiet but this laptop does get pretty hot, so I would recommend a laptop cooler or someplace that won't be affected by the heat. Overall, I really like this Asus Zenbook. It took more time setting up out of the box than any laptop I've owned (which is quite a few), however, once it is fully set up and updated it is pretty awesome and capable of so much. I don't think you'll be disappointed buying this one.

With the newly released 11th Generation Core Processors, the redesigned Asus Flipbook Q538EI comes ready to attract those who demand performance and elegance in one sleek package. Combining the i7-1165G7 with 16 GB of DDR4-3200 MHz memory and a 1 TB NVMe SSD comes with blazing speed out of the box. In addition, the gorgeous 4K OLED display is fed by a Geforce 1660 Ti that has its own 4 GB of dedicated video memory. Therefore, as an enthusiast, I was excited to see how this monster will perform. Physically, the Q538 quite attractive. The aluminum brushed body has a smooth brushed feel to it and is of high quality. The mineral grey color certainly looks darker in person. Weight wise, it is roughly four pounds and is not too heavy. The pictures certainly do not do any justice to this laptop. I am fairly confident that most will be extremely pleased with its appearance. Furthermore, along the edge of the laptop and screen is a silver accent that really enhances the overall feel to the Q538. Moving on, we will note a few of the ports that should be straightforward. On the right side, you will note the AC adapter port, two Thunderbolt/USB Type-C ports (40 GBPS), and the power button. Conversely, on the left side, you have one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A Port, 1 HDMI port and an SD card slot. For most, these ports should cover the needs for most. However, I would have liked to have seen one more additional USB Type A port, though it is not a deal breaker. Next, perhaps one of the most standout features of the laptop is the 4k display. I would like to mention that HW Info lists the screen as a Samsung SDC4143. However, there is no denying that the included OLED screen is extremely gorgeous. The display is vibrant and has one of the most colorful glossy panels I have seen in awhile. Everything on the screen pops with color, from normal websites to the Windows 10 start menu. It is definitely one the main highlights of the Q538. You will not be disappointed. Lastly, one quick note. The Q538'sUEFI BIOS was a surprise. The GUI interface was straightforward and easy to navigate. I was glad to see several options that some laptops do not include such as changing the memory allocation for the integrated graphics. As for performance benchmarks, I wanted to try and encompass a large amount of various tasks to give enthusiasts an idea of what to expect out of the box, without making any changes. The Q538 installation of Windows 10 Home is quite clean, which was refreshing to see. The MyAsus software that comes installed presents some useful presets such as controlling fan profiles and battery modes. As for my performance tests, I focused on the SSD, CPU, and GPU. I used HW Monitor to monitor temperatures and load of the CPU. I used HW Info to provide you accurate information on the hardware contained inside the laptop. The included 1 TB SSD NVMe drive is listed as an Intel HBRPEKNX0203A and is optane enabled by an additional 32 GB drive. The will note your drive at a capacity of 952 GB. Here are my Crystalmark 8.0 results (full results in pictures). Intel: Sequential Read: 2083.17 MB / Sequential Write: 1523.54 MB Intel 4K Read (Q1T1): 116.80 MB / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 52.89 MB As you can see the drive is fairly fast as expected. My next test I used my the new Sandisk Extreme 1 TB External SSD V2 (Model: SDSSDE61-1T00) over the Type-C Port. I also did two manual transfers that I will list after. Here are the results (full results in pictures): Sandisk: Sequential Read: 1002.92 MB / Sequential Write: 1001.03 MB Sandisk: 4K Read (Q1T1): 37.27 MB / Random 4K Write (Q1T1): 74.11 MB As you can see the new drive is extremely fast over the Type-C port. For my manual transfer, I did two transfers to the laptop from the Sandisk drive. The first test was a 28 GB M2TS file to show the sequential side of the transfer. The second transfer was a 28.9 GB music folder that contains 5,054 files and 1,152 folders. Both transfers were extremely fast as expected. The first transfer held steady at a blazing 634-659 MB/s and finished in under a minute. The second transfer, despite being more aggressive on the drive, still dazzled despite starting slower. I noted speeds up to 450 MB/s but averaged around 350-400 MB/s ranged. The transfer still finished in roughly a minute. This is mind blowing fast! The Core i7-1165G7 is a quad core chip with eight processing threads. The CPU has a base of 1.2 GHz and can turbo up to 4.7 GHz at a TDP of 28 Watts. The 10nm chip is seemingly efficient as noted by my Handbrake 1.3.3. encode. I used the 91 minute M2TS file mentioned above and used the Very Fast 1080P preset. I set audio and the frame rate to pass through the source. The encode finished in 27 minutes and 46 seconds! Temperatures, while plugged up to the AC outlet, averaged 70-80C. All cores ran at 3.1 GHz. Shifting focus to more single thread oriented tasks, I used MusicBee 2.4 and LAME 3.99 to encode a 24 minute WAV file to MP3. The encoder was set to a constant bit rate of 320 and the internal algorithm was set to 0 for the highest quality (-q command). MusicBee's maximum encoding thread setting was set to one. The result finished in 1 minute and 14 seconds! Next I tested the GPU by running the in-game benchmark in Tomb Raider (2012). I set the game to Ultra Quality and increased the anti-aliasing to 2x SSAA. I noted the minimum fps at 56, with an average of 72 fps, and 86 fps for the maximum. These results were at 1080p.These results are extremely good and the game was smooth as butter. As soon as you start a new game and leave the cave, you will note the fps around 70. The fps never dropped below 60, except for when I moved to the next part of the cave, but shot back up to 65. The performance of the 1660 Ti certainly will be able to play some games in high settings, despite the laptop not being really targeted as a gaming machine. In conclusion, the Asus Flipbook Q538 is an exceptional performing machine. Out of the box, the laptop blazes through everything you throw at rather you are transferring files or even firing up a game or two. The 4K display is absolutely a sight to behold and is extremely vivid and detailed. Everything is bright and colorful. The OLED is definitely one of the best screens I have seen personally on a laptop. Combining top end hardware and a sleek minimalistic design, the Q538 certainly dazzles and will surely excite most who consider purchasing this laptop. However, it might be certainly will be out of reach for some. Overall, if you are considering this, I can assure you that the performance is there for all of your enthusiast needs. With that said, the Asus Q538 comes highly recommended.

Hardware Pros: • Latest 11th-generation Intel Core i7 • GeForce GTX 1650 Ti • 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports • Vents along both sides, bottom and back ensure great cooling performance • Screen is bright, high-res (4k) and quite color-accurate • Touchscreen is excellent • Trackpad is as good as any I've ever used • Face unlock is accurate and fast, if a bit pushy Hardware Cons: • 720p camera is unacceptable in 2020 • 10-key is smushed into the corner • USB-C Thunderbolt ports are only on the right side of the PC, making mouse use by a right-handed person difficult • No dedicated buttons for Home, End, PgUp, PgDn - adds an extra, un-ergonomic keypress to key combinations like Shift+Home, Shift+End • Small form factor leaves my left palm just off the corner of the surface • Screen is 60 Hz, which is not ideal for gamers • Keyboard backlight has only 3 levels - dim to somewhat less dim • Hinge doesn't open with one hand, and because of the small bezels, you have to grab it right where the camera is to open it • In tablet mode, your hands either have to grip onto part of the screen, or hold onto a hard corner Software Pros: • The MyASUS suite offers helpful features that help tailor the experience to the user. Specifically like the driver update menu and battery health profiles, because being at home all the time means always having the laptop on the charger, and ASUS allows me to set a max charge level to preserve battery life. Pairing your phone to the MyASUS app is better than using the Windows utility designed for the same purpose. Screen mirroring is cool, but doesn't work with all functions of apps. Software Cons: • No onscreen indicator for NumLock state change • No indication of which version of the ASUS Pen this supports ~~The Review~~ I really, really wanted to love the ASUS ZenBook Flip Q538, and at its MSRP, I don't think love is too much to ask. I do *like* the computer, and there are several things about it I really, really like, but it doesn't quite meet the threshold of "love." All-in-all, it's a fast, powerful, good-looking computer with an excellent screen and trackpad, and some small drawbacks that take it from a great computer to a merely adequate one. First, a bit about my use case: I, like many others during this time, am working full-time from home, writing and doing calculations in Excel for my specialized field and doing web development and Adobe Creative Suite work as well. I'm also a gamer, though that mostly just means I play Minecraft with my kids. When I can squeeze in an adult-oriented gaming session, I play Stellaris and a few other strategy and FPS games. I look forward to a time when I go back to work in an office, and need to bring my laptop with me wherever I go. Here's what I need: A laptop with a great, color-accurate touchscreen, a full-sized 10-key keypad, and the best processor and graphics card I can get in a 15-inch laptop. I also need a great front-facing camera for conference calls, and great connectivity so I can run my extra monitor, speakers, mouse, and sometimes mechanical keyboard from a USB-C Hub plugged into a single jack, if possible, to quickly connect and disconnect when I need to take my laptop with me. The ASUS Q538 meets most of those needs with gusto. The 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti are capable enough to handle most games at HD or better settings, and certainly enough for the 5 or 6 games I play most frequently. The Thunderbolt 4 ports are versatile and blazing-fast. Of course, Creative Suite and Office apps run very well, indeed. The touchscreen is bright and quite color-accurate, although its default color settings are touch too saturated for my liking. Being an OLED, it's also not ideal to use with very dark games unless you are in a dark room, because very dark pixels are essentially turned off at all but the highest brightness settings. Speaking of gaming, ASUS is notably mum about the screen's refresh rate and grey-to-grey response time, but I can report it is a 60Hz refresh rate, if nothing else. The problems start when it comes to the 10-key, placement of the Thunderbolt ports, form factor and camera. ASUS didn't exactly see fit to include a full 10-key keypad, instead opting to squish the number and calculation keys into the right side while forgoing dedicated Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown keys. These are available using shift+7, 1, 9, and 3, respectively, or by pressing Fn+one of the arrow keys. As a writer and coder, I use Home and End ALL THE TIME, so this is quite a let down. I suspect I will eventually get used to it, but it's not ideal. Far less easy to adapt to is the placement of the Thunderbolt ports, on the right side of the laptop about even with the bottom of the keys, exactly where I'd like my mouse to be. This causes a problem because I use a USC-C hub to connect an HDMI cable and up to 3 USB-A devices, meaning the hub sits exactly in the area where I'd like to use my mouse. But hey, if you're a person who uses your mouse left-handed, this laptop may be perfect for you! The form factor of this laptop is great for someone who's on-the-go. Its body is about an inch less wide and half an inch less tall than that of my older laptop with the same-sized screen. That's great when it comes to tossing it into a bag and carrying it, but not so much when it comes to resting your hands on it while typing, or holding it in your hands in tablet mode. In the former case, my left palm wants to sit just to the left of the edge of the laptop, which will take some reorienting and getting used to. In the latter case, the touchscreen area comes so close to the edge of the body that holding the laptop in tablet mode means accidentally pushing buttons with my palm, or forcing myself to hold the laptop on its edges, which are not very comfortable in hand. It also means that opening the lid requires you to put your thumb on the exact spot where the camera is. My final quibble with the hardware has to do with the front-facing camera. I'm willing to bet the design of this pc was done before the COVID-19 pandemic began, because why else would ASUS see fit to putting an honestly substandard 720p camera in it? I'm more than a little disappointed that my new, expensive computer has me looking just as pixelated as the one I bought 4 years ago. I will say, ASUS's face unlock using the camera is excellent. It's fast and accurate, but the flashing red light that the laptop uses to scan your face can get a little obnoxious. All-in-all, though, the laptop is powerful, fast, and looks nice. The screen is excellent and the trackpad is as good as any I've ever used. The aluminum body feels and looks quite premium, and I'm looking forward to using it for a long time to come. I'd love to get an ASUS Pen to use with Photoshop and Illustrator, but ASUS hasn't made it clear which model of its Pen is compatible with this laptop, nor have they made it easy to buy a pen, with "out of stock" warnings at all major stores. I hope they make this clearer soon. I haven't opened up the case to look at upgradability yet, but I understand the NVMe SSD is replaceable, while the RAM is soldered to the board. I would prefer to be able to add another 16 gigs of RAM someday, but perhaps that will have to wait for the next PC, when this one is ready to go to my kids. The case opening is held by several Torx screws, by the way, so be prepared to order tools if you haven't already got one laying around.

I'll open by stating my bias: I have always been a fan of Asus so my expectations were relatively high. End of the day, this ZenBook (mostly) did not disappoint. Like I said, lot's of highs but a couple lows. Let's start with the AWESOME... The OLED screen is honestly nothing short of stunning. Incredible color range and amazing brightness. The wife and I watched Wonder Woman in 4k and the details were amazing. Impressive. The brightness was also a real "wow". If you look at the pictures, I included several that offered brightness comparisons against open windows in late afternoon Colorado sunlight. Other pics show how this ZenBook Flip compares in brightness to an LG - 86" Class NanoCell 90 Series LED 4K UHD TV. Looking at same pictures, you can see this unit casts 4K content impressively. And while we are talking screen, let's not forget this transforms from classic PC, to a tent PC and then into a true tablet. With that in mind, this is also a touch screen. The touch screen is very good, both in accuracy and in tactile feedback. It also supports the pressure sensitive pen. Did not test that, but I know my daughter loves hers. This unit is light-weight, easily portable and multi-purpose. My other primary laptop is a gaming machine and while powerful, it's not exactly easily portable. I can assure you, this will be my travel computer. Performance was impressive. Very quick and responsive. You can see that all 4 cores are humming away at a solid 4+/- MHz under a decent load. Areas for improvement go from the "slightly annoying" to "almost disappointing". Are any of these deal breakers? Well, no, at least not for me but they are worth mentioning. The first "almost annoying" is the backlighting on the keyboard. While I'm glad it has it, I found it odd that out of the box, the backlighting was in the "off" position. Hitting the F7 key toggles various brightness and then back to the off position. What's almost annoying is the color of backlighting is white. A personal preference, but I prefer blue. Blue is easier to see right in the in between light to dark lighting in the room. And the white is a slightly harsher than the blue in a fully dark room. I realize this is exceedingly subjective, but I thought it worth mentioning. End of the day, I'm glad it has the backlighting though. The second "almost annoying" is the left/right and up/down keys on the keyboard fell "small". I know it's a learning curve and one I will get used to but I do wish the left/right keys were slightly higher on the keyboard in and almost bow-tie configuration instead of the left/right/down keys all being directly in line with each other. Again, a minor gripe but absolutely not meant to distract from the rest of the excellent points that this little beast has. And finally, the "almost disappointing" is the sound. When placed on a hard surface like a desk or table-top the sound is just adequate. No particular complaints, but just not as robust as my other laptops. Where it nears disappointing is if you are using on a soft surface(think feet raised in your recliner with a throw pillow on your legs for the PC to rest), the sound is noticably muffled. The speakers appear to be designed firing from underneath, using the hard surface to reflect the sound. If the speakers were forward firing from either the edge of the keyboard front or firing forward from above the keys, that would make this a null point. In all, please don't let these minor disappointments deter you from considering this machine. The impressive screen, power and perfomance more than make up for it but I wanted to poont these out just as an FYI. End of the day, this is a great multi-purpose flip ZenBook and you will not be disappointed by performance and amazing 4K UHD screen. I would most certainly reccomend to a friend while noting the minor issues I noticed. Great little machine. Please note: This was provided for no or reduced cost in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is exactly that; honest an unbiased.​​**

The ASUS Zenbook Flip 15 is a light, long lasting battery laptop, with a gorgeous and vibrant 4k touch screen. Touting a military grade body and foldable screen to be able to use it as a tablet, what else would you look for in a laptop? Upon opening and unwrapping the laptop from the box, you immediately notice the beauty of the laptop. I was wooed even more after it booted up by the glossy screen's dancing vivid colors. Seriously though, 4k on this screen is no joke. Although with the added 1650Ti Max Q graphics card you won't be able to reach high graphics settings on most games, games like Minecraft, Rocket League, and Fortnite will still look incredible. Other than the screen, I loved the performance of the laptop. Having an NVME SSD along with the newest 11th generation i7 and 16GB of memory, the computer booted in under 10 seconds. I loved how the power button only needed to be clicked once (when compared to other laptops where the power button needs to be clicked and held for a second or two) and facial recognition was spot on (an option available to sign into the computer). Testing the performance, I noticed programs opened and loaded quicker when compared to previous i7 laptops I've owned with similar specs (16GB memory, NVME SSD). Even after installing multiple programs and trying to boggle the performance down, programs still managed to open very quickly. This is a definite upgrade for those with older laptops that aren't able to leverage the new speeds of the 11th gen i7 and NVME SSDs in general. Another topic to be mentioned is the battery life. Using it for a couple of days during the week while putting it to sleep instead of powering it off would have made me plug in the charger on my old laptop. With the Zenbook Flip, I have been able to work longer hours and charge it less. It also was able to charge in just one hour from about 10% to full capacity. The ASUS ZenBook Flip 15 is the perfect laptop for anyone in search of a lightweight, yet full performance computer. Performance for productivity, an amazing screen capable of light gaming for casual boredom, and a long lasting battery make this a great pick for those looking to get a new laptop that will last them for a longer period of time (when compared to lower end processor and non SSD laptops). Note: The older laptop I mentioned in a few comments for comparison is only two years old and has the following specs: 8th gen i7, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB NVME SSD.

I absolutely love this computer! It has every feature I was looking for. Since I purchased this ASUS for designing purposes I really gotta say the graphics are amazing, the fact that is touchscreen makes it easier. Worth every penny!

Excellent product, the screen it’s beautiful! I love it