Weak demand, excess inventory, and a deteriorating macroeconomic environment all contributed to the drop in traditional PC shipments during the first quarter of 2023 (1Q23). According to Counterpoint, global PC shipments fell 28% year on year in Q1 2023 to 56.7 million units, the lowest quarterly total in the previous ten years, excluding Q1 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak disrupted manufacturing and production. The decline in Q1 2023 was caused by a continued delay in demand pickup as well as an inventory correction during the quarter. The Indian market is expected to suffer the same fate. However, in order to improve the current state of the laptop market, major PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS are attempting to launch new products. ASUS recently launched the Zenbook 14 Flip, along with other laptops in the country, with the goal of increasing its overall market share. We used the latest ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip as our daily work companion, and here’s what we thought of it.
Price
The price of Asus ZenBook Flip 14 starts at INR 65,711. It will be available on flipkart on 15th May 2023 at the lowest price of INR 65,711.
Design and Display
The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED features a 16:10 16-inch OLED HDR touchscreen with 2880x 1800 resolution, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, a 0.2 ms response time, up to 550-nit peak brightness, as well as 0.0005 nits of deep black brightness, allowing creators to enjoy a brighter and more detailed viewing experience. In addition to an ultrawide colour gamut of 100 DCI-P3 and HDR content support, the display is VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black certified and PANTONE Validated, ensuring accurate colour and high dynamic contrast reproduction.
Furthermore, the OLED panel emits 70% less harmful blue light than LCD panels and is TÜV Rhineland certified to ensure that the device meets high safety and quality standards.
Corning Gorilla Glass protects the touchscreen on the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED. It has a hardness level of 7H and provides enhanced scratch resistance, reduced scratch visibility, as well as better-retained strength once there is a scratch to help protect laptop displays from breakage caused by lower-performing soda-lime glass.Without a doubt, the machine has one of the best displays available at this price.
Connectivity
The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED series has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports for connectivity. Each Thunderbolt 4 port can handle up to 40 Gbps of data transfer, as well as DisplayPort and Power Delivery. A full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, an audio combo jack, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and a microSD card reader are also included in the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED series.
Battery
The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED has a 75 Wh battery. On a typical workday, we got about 7.30 hours of battery life from this device. The machine is compatible with a variety of standard USB-C chargers (5V-20V). Users can charge their devices quickly with any PD (Power Delivery) certified charger, including the laptop’s 100-watt fast-charge adapter, or charge them on the go with airline chargers, portable chargers, or power banks. Also, USB-C Charging ensures 4.5-watt charging even when connected to a non-PD charger.
Performance
The ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED is available with Intel Core i7-1360P processors as high as 13th generation. The Intel Core processors of the 13th generation feature an unprecedented new hybrid architecture that provides a unique combination of Performance and Efficient cores. Zenbook 14 Flip OLED series has an onboard memory design that allows for a thinner and lighter chassis while still offering 16 GB capacity and fast 4800 MHz LPDDR5 clock speeds for plenty of processing power. The laptop has an M.2 slot for storage and supports up to a 1 TB PCIe4.0 NVMe SSD with up to 3500 MB/s read performance.
The ASUS AiSense Camera and an FHD 3DNR IR Camera on the Zenbook 14 Flip OLED provide users with a quick face login solution. It also has cutting-edge 3D noise-reduction (3DNR) technology that works extremely well. The ASUS pen 2.0 is supported by the laptop.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Zenbook 14 Flip OLED keyboard has a 19.05 mm pitch (the distance between the middle of one key and the middle of the next key) and many commonly used function keys, allowing users to type comfortably. The keyboard is backlit for easy typing in low-light environments such as aeroplanes. Furthermore, the keys on the Zenbook 14 Flip OLED series have a 0.2 mm dish-shaped indentation as well as 1.4 mm key travel. The keyboard is well-spaced and has suitable key travel.
NumberPad 2.0, an LED-illuminated numeric keypad integrated with the touchpad, is available for the ASUS Zenbook 14 Flip OLED. A single-touch sensor at the touchpad’s top right turns NumberPad on and off, along with a tap on the icon at the top left lets you choose between two brightness levels. You can also activate the Calculator app on the main display by swiping from the top left icon in any direction on the NumberPad 2.0.
Verdict
The price is Rs 1,0,990. The Zenbook 14 Flip OLED is one of the best laptops available in the Indian market. The machine includes the most recent and advanced hardware, as well as excellent performance and design. The Zenbook 14 Flip OLED has an aluminium body, a 14-inch ASUS Lumina OLED touchscreen display, alongside a 360-degree hinge. It has an Intel Evo processor, an Intel Core i7 or i5 CPU, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. The laptop includes a 75-watt-hour battery with fast charging, a backlit keyboard, and Windows 11 Home. It comes with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021, as well as a designer sleeve and an ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus.
