Hybrid laptops seem to be ten a penny these days, but Asus’ brand-new ZenBook Flip UX360CA really does stand out from the crowd. The first thing you notice is its gorgeous aluminium chassis. With its spun-metal finish, slim 13.9mm profile and 360-degree hinge, it looks stunning and is a world away from the comparatively chunky dimensions of Dell’s flippable Inspiron 13 5000 (5368) .
Its metal chassis brings a welcome degree of durability to the UX360CA, too, which is more than can be said for other 360-degree hybrids such as Lenovo’s earlier Yoga range. Combine that with an equally sturdy pair of hinges and the UX360CA easily feels like it could withstand multiple flips and contortions when you want to turn it into a tablet.
Display
Of course, not everyone wants or needs a 13.3in tablet, but as a laptop display, the UX360CA’s Full HD IPS panel is by far one of the better displays we’ve seen at this price range. Admittedly, its sRGB colour gamut coverage of 83.3% could be better, but this is still acceptable given its mid-range price. With excellent green and blue colour coverage, it’s really only the UX360CA’s red representation that’s a little lacking, so unless you’re doing high-end photo editing, it’s unlikely you’ll have much of a problem with it. Likewise, its contrast ratio of 1,097:1 is respectable and a maximum brightness of 298.4cd/m2 means you’re well catered for working outside in the sun.
Keyboard and touchpad
The chiclet keyboard is a little spongy for my tastes. There's not much travel, for instance, and some keys, such as the number keys, don’t seem to provide as much tactile feedback as other keys further down. It’s good enough to get the job done if you need to type up a quick document, but I wouldn’t want to use it for extended periods of time.
The touchpad, on the other hand, is much more responsive, and takes up a sizable space on the palm rest below. I’d say it’s the perfect size for my chunky fingers, and it performed all of Windows’ multitouch actions with ease.
Buy the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360CA now from Currys