It’s war against bezels in every consumer tech product with a screen. Smartphones went bezel-less in 2017 with the Essential Phone and the iPhone X, and laptop manufacturers have been gunning for that streamlined look over the past year or so too. Dell’s XPS series is perhaps the most prominent of the bezel-killers, but Asus is clearly the current king!

Priced at Rs 1,39,990, this top-end ZenBook 15 variant is not a cheap machine by any means, and there’s a lot of competition in this price range these days as affordable gaming and premium ultraportables collide. So Is this THE 15-inch thin-and-light laptop to buy this year? Does it have enough power to let you use it as a gaming machine? Has Asus done more than just cut down the size of the bezels? Let’s take a look.

We had the most expensive variant of the ZenBook 15 with all the bells and whistles. As usual, Asus had provided a cloth carrying sleeve, microfibre cloth, extra cable-ties and a USB-Ethernet dongle. Here are the full specs of the model we reviewed:

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started with a tour of the laptop.

You can’t mistake this Asus ZenBook for any other PC. The spun-metal finish on the lid is as characteristic of Asus as its shiny Chrome logo on the lid. It’s not all that unique a look as we have seen this in the older ZenBook models as well. The silver finish on our model is bright and flashy, but the ZenBook 15 also comes in a more muted dark blue with golden accents, that just looks better to my eyes.

The ZenBook 15 has an all-aluminum body with some plastic inserts on the bottom deck along with the gold-colored speaker grill. I really don’t like the gold – just like most gold accents or colors on tech products. The sooner it fades out of fashion, the better.

The biggest changes in terms of design are in the bezels and the hinge of the ZenBook 15. Last year’s models didn’t have the Ergolift hinge, which raises the keyboard to a more comfortable typing angle, and also allows increased airflow. The Ergolift hinge makes a huge difference in the typing experience as you don’t feel like you are banging away on a completely flat keyboard deck.

Despite being 0.70 inches in thickness, the ZenBook 15 is solidly built and meets MIL-STD-810G military standard for reliability and durability, just like its predecessors. The build quality is really quite good, but we did notice some creaking in the bottom right edge of the laptop. It’s a minor quibble and it’s only prominent when you dig your fingers into the body. Of course, this could just be a defect in the particular unit we had, since it was also used in Asus’s press demos before launch. There’s little to no flex on the body or the keyboard deck, while the base is solid enough to stay in place while you open the lid with one hand.

The full HD IPS panel on the ZenBook 15 is bright and vibrant, with excellent viewing angles. I rarely faced any scene or situation in which the 60hz display looked underwhelming or washed out the colors.

My biggest problem with the ZenBook 15 is the keyboard. It’s not like it’s a bad keyboard by any means, but the fact that the display is squeezed into a smaller body, meant the full-sized keyboard also had to be crammed in a less wide deck. As a result, the numpad is very narrow and cramped. It almost feels like Asus should have let the touchpad double up as the numpad as in the ZenBook 13 and 14. At least, that would have given the keyboard a more roomy layout.

Asus ZenBook 15 Performance

Thanks to the 8th Generation Intel Core i7 8565U Whiskey Lake processor, the performance on the ZenBook 15 is top notch in the ultrabook category. The quad-core low-voltage processor is still powerful enough to run productivity, creative apps such as Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro and also a few games as we will see.

When it comes to gaming performance, the ZenBook 15 was able to run PUBG at 40-45 FPS in 1080P at Medium Settings, with some tearing and jankiness. We reduced the resolution down to 720P and boosted the graphics settings to ultra, but this resulted in a worse 25-30 FPS gameplay with a lot of tearing. Turning down the graphics settings to Medium at 720P resulted in a much more playable 50+ FPS, with smooth gameplay and barely any tearing.

Asus ZenBook 15 Heat & Noise

The good news here is that the ZenBook 15 rarely gets hot and when it does the hot spots are safely away from areas which will come in direct contact with your clothing or body. For example, the portion over the F11 and F12 keys goes all the way up to 45-degrees Celsius, which is the hottest part of the laptop. So even when it does get hot, it’s remains within acceptable norms in terms of thermal emissions.

The ZenBook 15 has room for plenty of ports and Asus has made sure you have enough connectivity options to not require dongles. Even so, it gives a USB to Ethernet dongle in the box.

For wireless connectivity, the ZenBook 15 has dual-band 802.11ac gigabit-class Wi-Fi along with Bluetooth 5.0. I have zero complaints in terms of Wi-Fi throughput on the ZenBook 15 and the supplied WLAN card was more than capable for the gaming tests as well as everyday work.

Despite being a quad-core CPU, Intel’s Whiskey Lake Core i7 8565U is one of the most power efficient processors produced by the company. Not only does it provide enough performance to run intensive applications, it also conserves battery in daily use.

For charging, the ZenBook 15 uses the old barrel pin charger, which has been replaced with USB Type-C in the 2019 models. I find the barrel pin plug convenient if a little archaic, and I’m looking forward to the USB-C chargers which will be seen in the new models. The charging adapter itself doesn’t take up much room, which is really nice and I want to see more manufacturers trying to reduce the size and weight of these adapters.

The ZenBook 15 is certainly a powerful machine and it’s quite a looker too. However, it’s not without its shortcomings. Let’s put in the balance:

  • Sexy design
  • Durable aluminum build
  • Super-narrow bezels
  • Vibrant display with great viewing angles
  • Excellent SSD performance
  • Gaming-capable CPU+GPU combo
  • Good heat management
  • Solid battery life
  • Plenty of ports

Cons

  • Uncomfortable to carry around in one hand
  • Cramped numpad
  • Mushy keyboard
  • Feeble speakers
  • Inconsistent Windows Hello IR face recognition
  • Woeful webcam

Asus ZenBook 15: Worth the High Price?

Finally, we get to speak about the pricing of the ZenBook 15 and whether it justifies the tag. The variant we reviewed is priced at Rs 1,39,990, which is the only SKU Asus is selling in India, according to its press note.

Then there’s the HP Envy x360, which has a price tag of just over around Rs 1,34,000 these days, but that also has a smaller and slower SSD, an older Intel 8th Gen processor in a convertible form factor. Plus it’s bezel city while the ZenBook 15 is much more modern.