Review ultrabook ASUS UX501JW



    Once upon a time nature was carried away by gigantism, giving us exciting skeletons of the size of the ancient inhabitants of the planet. But since then, for many millions of years, the animal world has become smaller, while the energy efficiency of the energy received from food has increased. A very similar picture can be seen in the history of laptops. They gradually become thinner, lighter, more powerful, work longer. In the end, we witnessed the emergence of such a class of devices as ultrabooks, which today have become the highest stage in the development of laptops. About one of the brightest representatives, ASUS UX501JW with a 4K display, I want to tell.

    Technical characteristics (the values ​​corresponding to the considered sample are emphasized)


    Processor : Intel® Core ™ i7 4720HQ
    OS :
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Windows 8.1
    Chipset : Intel® HM87 Express
    RAM : DDR3L 1600 MHz SDRAM, 8/16 GB (expandable)
    Display : 15.6 ", with adaptive brightness
    Full HD (1920x1080)
    IPS FHD (1920x1080)
    IPS UHD (3840 x 2160)
    Video : NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M 2/4 GB GDDR5 VRAM
    Storage :
    SATA III SSD: 128 GB / 256 GB
    1 TB HDD 5400 RPM
    PCIE x 4 512 GB
    Card Reader : 2-in-1 (SD / SDXC)
    Camera : 1 MP
    Network :
    802.11ac or 802.11 b / g / n
    Bluetooth ™ V4.0
    10/100 Base T
    Connectors :
    1 x COMBO audio
    3 x USB 3.0
    1 x HDMI
    1 x mini Display Port
    Audio : built-in stereo speakers. Supports Bang & Olufsen technology ICEpower®, SonicMaster Premium, ICESound
    Battery :
    6 cells, 96 W * h Polymer
    4 cells, 60 W * h Polymer
    Power supply :
    Output: 19 V DC, 6.32 A, 120 W
    Input: 100 - 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
    Dimensions :
    383 x 255 x 20.6 ~ mm (W x H x T)
    383 x 255 x 21.3 ~ mm (W x H x T)
    Weight :
    2.06 kg (with 4-cell battery)
    2.27 kg (with 6-cell battery)
    Security :
    LoJack
    TPM (Trusted Platform Module)

    Technical specifications from benchmarks

















    Appearance and equipment


    In the box with the ultrabook, a large power supply unit, a cable tie and a USB-RJ45 adapter were found.



    The design of the device is designed in the minimalist style characteristic of the Zenbook line. The cover is an aluminum panel with a concentric texture, which is very beautiful "shimmers" in the light.



    The bottom of the ultrabook is made to match the cover. There is almost nothing to catch a glimpse of, only rubber legs and speaker grilles on the sides stand out.



    By the way, the legs are of different heights, the front ones are noticeably smaller than the rear ones. This is done to ensure an ergonomic tilt of the keyboard towards the user. And the transition from the bottom to the ends in the speaker area is made smoother, this makes it easier to take an ultrabook with your hands and makes it visually thinner.



    On the right side there is an audio jack, a card reader and two USB ports:



    On the left side are the power connector, mini Display Port, as well as HDMI and USB ports.



    The ultrabook concept does not allow you to harmoniously fit the RJ45 port into it, so the corresponding adapter is included.

    At the front end in the center there are three indicators: work, charging and access to drives.



    At the same time, the windows for the LEDs are not made in the traditional style, but with four holes, dots.



    All the backlight in the ultrabook is made on white LEDs, with the exception of the charging indicator, it is two-tone, orange-green.

    Open the lid. Its maximum thickness is 7 mm, including a protective rubber-like border around the perimeter. The opening angle is quite large.





    The matte display is surrounded by a black frame made of textured matte plastic.



    Above is a camera operation indicator, its lens and two microphones.



    A chamfer is removed and polished around the entire perimeter of the keyboard panel, so the edges of the case do not cut into the palm of your hand.



    The touchpad is large and comfortable, slightly recessed inward. For my taste, the mikriki responsible for the left and right mouse buttons click quite loudly, but this is a matter of habit.



    Concentric patterns are applied in the upper left and right corners of the keyboard panel.





    The keyboard panel is not perfectly flat; it is slightly concave so that the keyboard is recessed. Visually, it is almost imperceptible. The keyboard itself is equipped with a backlight with three brightness levels.



    Display


    This is one of the main "attractions" of the UX501JW. With a diagonal of 15.6 inches, its resolution is already 3840 x 2160 - 4K / UHD format. The pixel density is such that I could not see them at all, as I did not strain my eyes, buried my nose in the screen. The curves are perfectly smooth. And in combination with IPS-specific large viewing angles and excellent color reproduction, the impression is as if you are looking not at the screen, but at the drawn picture.

    The videos shot in 4K resolution are very impressive, because here they are not scaled and displayed 1 to 1. Interface elements in Windows 8.1 are now adapted to the screen resolution, but this problem is only partially solved: some non-optimized applications are displayed either with blurry captions, either do not scale at all. But this already lies with the conscience of the developers of these applications. Here is an example of two such applications:



    Software


    Ultrabook comes with a lot of pre-installed software.



    Among the branded applications, it can be noted:

    ASUS FaceID for identification using a webcam ...





    ... and WinFlash for updating the BIOS.



    Sound


    Thanks to ICEpower and SonicMaster technologies, the built-in acoustics sound good, given the modest size of the speakers themselves. Of course, there are not enough low frequencies, an ultrabook boombox cannot be made. The sound stage turns out to be slightly extended, that is, the sound sources are not positioned too clearly.

    Performance


    The heart of the UX501JW is the Intel Core i7 4720HQ, clocked at 2.6 GHz. If necessary, Turbo mode is activated and the frequency increases to 3.6 GHz. There are no other processor options for this model. As for RAM, a sample with 16 GB went for testing, although an 8 GB model is also on sale.

    The disk subsystem is represented by two drives: SSD and HDD.

    CrystalDiskInfo Version Information





    CrystalDiskMark benchmark results





    Thanks to its high-performance SSD, the system is very fast, it boots and shuts down within seconds. There are two video cards in the ultrabook, one simple for working in Windows and undemanding applications, and the second Nvidia GeForce 960M with two gigabytes of memory (there is a 4 GB model on sale).

    Immediately you need to make a reservation that the ultrabook is not a gaming computer. The use of a rather powerful video card is due to the huge display resolution. Nevertheless, in some cases, even at a maximum resolution of 4K, you can play quite comfortably with 30 frames per second.

    Cinebench R15 Benchmark Results



    Benchmark 3DMark Advanced Edition 1.3.708
    With a resolution of 2048 x 1152:









    With a resolution of 3840 x 2160:










    Benchmark Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0





    At maximum load, the operation of the cooling system becomes audible. Nothing critical, just a slight noise from the movement of air through the radiator.

    No brakes or hiccups while surfing, when working with office applications, when watching videos and during casual games did not occur. If desired, the ultrabook allows you to play quite comfortably in more "heavy" games, but you have to lower the resolution. For the sake of curiosity, I even put Photoshop in to see how it feels to edit photos on a 4K display. It fits a lot, but still 15.6 inches is not enough for such tasks. Although the performance was more than enough for smooth operation with 20-megapixel images with numerous layers and effects.

    Battery Life:
    • Active surfing with periodic viewing of videos on Youtube - 4 hours 40 minutes.
    • Watch FullHD video - 2 hours 25 minutes

    Please note that these results were obtained on a model with a 60 Wh battery. There is also an option with a 1.5 times more capacious battery.

    Conclusion


    Being the most powerful and largest ASUS ultrabook to date, the UX501JW will be of interest primarily to professionals who have to travel a lot and work outside the office or at home. And here, the small thickness and weight of the device are very welcome. 4K resolution in combination with a powerful processor and video card can be useful in graphic design, video editing, layout and other tasks where high sharpness and smoothness of the image are important. However, in most cases, a diagonal of 15.6 inches will be enough for comfortable work.

    Recommended retail price: from 75 000 rub.

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