I bought the ASUS Zenbook Pro 15.6 with an i7 processor, 512GB SSD Drive and 16GB ram with a GTX 1050 Ti 4GB video card.
There were several boxes that it came in. Firstly, there was an Amazon box, then an ASUS outer box, before you get to an inner box. The number of boxes created from just one laptop is quite amazing.
The laptop comes with a charger, 2 instruction booklets, an additional cable strap and the laptop.
Physically out of the box
The laptop which weighs 4 lbs actually feel pretty heavy compared to all my other 14" ultra portable laptops. It feels very dense and actually quite well built.
The keyboard has a good feel and the layout is comfortable for typing.
I would say, the location of the power button beside the [delete] button is simply poor design, but otherwise I do not have any other complain.
The mouse pad is responsive and the matt screen looks pretty good.
As I have several legacy software that does not work well on a QHD screen, this laptop is FHD and it does look pretty good and images and colors are pretty sharp.
After doing all the updates (about 30 minutes), the computer is ready to use. There was not a whole lot of updates to be installed.
There was no special design to raise the computer. It opens like a regular laptop, the matt finish on the laptop looks great. There are 2 speakers embedded on the side of the keyboard and they look pretty good.
The sides of the laptop contain a variety of ports. On the left side are an HDMI output and a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports, while the right side has a headphone jack, microSD card slot and a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports.
It has a fingerprint sensor which may come in handy for fast logins.
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The Sound
The Zenbook Pro has very clear and loud speakers. The Harmon Kardon speakers did not disappoint. It could easily fill a small meeting room, and possibly even a mid sized conference room. It was quite impressed by the clarity but the bass is not very noticeable.
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The Screen.
I got the FHD version which has 1920 x 1080. The blacks are pretty black and images clear. The brightness of the screen is also very good.
By looking at the photos comparing it with a color corrected screen to Pantone colors, I would say the images and colors are pretty accurate.
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Heat and Fan
While using this laptop and installing software, it was on my lap for 3 hours, and it still did not heat up enough to burn me.
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Battery Life.
The massive 73Wh 8-cell lithium-polymer battery seemed big, but after 4 hour of use, downloading software updates, installing software, browsing web, listening to music or watching a movie in the background while moving files, the battery is at 50% remaining.
I would have to use more to have good assessment of the battery, but I could easily say that I probably would never get the 10 hours of battery life as claimed by ASUS. With my current estimation, I would say a 6 - 7 hour battery life would be possible for normal usage.
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Graphics
This is one of the few laptops I own with a dedicated video card. the GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB memory is pretty good in running even the newest games.
I ran Mafia 3, PUBG on the computer and after optimizing the game, I do get 100+ fps which is very good at FHD settings 1080p.
I would say that the graphics capabilities on this system is pretty good, however, the laptop seems to heat up considerably.
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Overall
I would say that this is a good laptop. I paid around US$1,200 (Black Friday) for i7-7700, 512GB amd 16GB memory. with a GTX 1050 Ti video card, it is good for a few years of entry level gaming and possibly video editing. At this price, I would say it is a pretty good buy. (or you can shell out a little more for a touch screen)
The battery life is a little disappointing as my Surface Book at 1 year old gets much better battery life than this.
The laptop has speakers that sounds amazing and the screen is pretty solid for a FHD screen.
The weight is a little of concern. If given a chance, I'd probably get the 14" Zenbook instead of the 15.6" screen. The difference between 2.6 lbs and 4 lbs is quite significant.
-- Robin Low
