ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T Review

A lot of people are interested in getting convertibles but are not sure which one is the right choice for them. In this ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T review, we take a look at this new convertible laptop that comes with an excellent look and promises to lift a lot of loads.

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T is targeted at the mid-range and even some heavy users who need a hybrid laptop for their work and play. The price of this new laptop is also fairly competitive making it very attractive. Does this laptop live up to its expectations? How good is this in real life? Let’s find the answers to those questions in the full review below.

Design

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T comes in a nice shade of gray and looks very premium. The construction is solid and there is no way someone would think this as a cheap laptop. When you lift the laptop, you can feel how solid the device is. The laptop also comes with trademark design on the lid that ASUS laptops are known for.

Being a convertible laptop, you need to have a smooth hinge to facilitate all the movements. In this case, ASUS has nailed the hinge, pun intended. The movements are super smooth and you don’t feel like you’re going to break this device into two. The laptop supports two other modes namely the tablet and the tent mode. Both modes are equally useful and a nice addition to have when you’re in motion.

The keyboard in the laptop is pretty decent. You can type on this without any issues as there is a bit of key travel to the keys. There is no dedicated number pad. Also, the arrow keys are a bit too small to our liking. The touchpad is neat and offers a smooth surface for all your gliding and gesturing.

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T is a very portable laptop as it weighs just around 3.1 pounds. You can easily slide this laptop into your backpack and tag along. Thanks to the different modes the laptop brings, you can use this laptop even when traveling. Overall, a very practical design that’ll work well in everyday life.

ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T Specs

The laptop comes with a 14″ display that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The display we have here is called a Nano edge display and that is a commercial name given because of the narrow bezels around the screen. This arrangement helps to achieve a smaller footprint for the laptop and also reduces the weight in the process.

The display itself is a pretty good one. The full HD resolution in a smaller display like this increased the pixel density and results in much sharper and crisper picture. The display is great for media consumption as it comes with a decent audio output as well.

Being a convertible, the laptop comes with a touchscreen as well. The touchscreen is responsive with the included stylus pen and offers a new dimension to the user. The stylus will surely come in handy if you’re someone who likes to doodle or if you’re a designer of sorts.

Performance

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor that comes with a base clock speed of 1.6GHz. This is a quad-core processor from the 8th generation of Intel chips and can be maxed to about 3.6GHz which is pretty good for a mid-range processor.

The processor gets a CPUMark benchmark score of about 7678 which confirms the mid-range status of this Intel chip. With a cache memory of 6MB, this processor does well when it comes to everyday tasks. Be it running your social media, browsing the web, streaming videos on Netflix and other platforms, or even a bit of work, this processor does a good job.

The laptop can also some heavy lifting as well. You can edit photos and videos on this laptop, not professionally though. You can code, run simulators and do much more as the processor can handle it.

The laptop comes with a memory of 8GB DDR4 type RAM. This is a decent amount of memory for a mid-range laptop and will be sufficient for most target users. This memory allows you to multitask without worrying about the performance of this laptop.

Gaming and Storage

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T is not the best option when it comes to gaming. The laptop doesn’t come with a dedicated graphics card. We operate only with the integrated GPU and that is decent at best. You will be able to do some light gaming or even some mid-range gaming if you’re willing to bring down the settings. If you want to play the latest and the greatest, then you should take a look at more serious gaming machines.

There is a 256GB solid-state drive on this laptop for storage purposes. Though it might look like very little, it is kind of a standard for ultrabooks like this one to have this much storage. Also, this is not your traditional hard drive but an SSD. The SSD brings so much to the table than just storage. The laptop is fast and the SSD plays a crucial role in it.

Battery Life and Connectivity

ASUS promises a battery life of 13 hours which, to be honest, looks a bit outlandish. However, with light usage, you can achieve a battery life of around 10 hours which is pretty impressive. With mixed usage, the laptop can kick butt for about 6 to 8 hours and with heavy use, this number will only go down. Ultrabooks usually have excellent battery life and this one is no different.

The laptop comes with a couple of USB 3.0 gen A ports, a USB type C port, a micro SD slot, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack. For an ultrabook, this is a pretty good selection of ports. Including both gen A and type C ports is a smart move as it attracts both kinds of users. The laptop also supports Bluetooth and has inbuilt WiFi as well.

Bottomline

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 UX461UA-DS51T is an excellent convertible laptop that comes at an affordable price. It has a solid design and is backed by impressive hardware. The smooth hinge allows this laptop to shapeshift effortlessly giving you more modes to play with. With its processing power, you might be able to pull off more than you imagined. If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced convertible laptop that doesn’t compromise much, then this one here is a good choice.