ASUS ZenBook UX430 review – classy beast with a top-notch display

Now that we’ve started reviewing business-grade devices, it’s time to turn our attention to the new ASUS ZenBook UX430. Its hardware presupposes a good portable computer for universal tasks. Being equipped with a Core i7-8550U and GeForce MX150, both powerful and power efficient, by itself should be enough of a reason even for content creators to buy this product. Combined with an SSD that comes in three variants – 128, 256 and 512 GB, and what is claimed to be a “work-friendly” Full HD screen, just add up to the excitement about the ZenBook UX430.

All that sounds good, but let’s not forget how huge and diverse the ZenBook lineup is. There are enough devices for comparison only by ASUS, let alone the other manufacturers. Stay with us to see whether the ZenBook UX430 builds upon its predecessor’s (UX410) success, or whether it fails to improve on it.

You can find more information about pricing and specifications of the ZenBook UX430 series here:
http://laptopmedia.com/series/asus-zenbook-ux430/

Contents


Specs Sheet

ASUS ZenBook UX430 Tabelle der technischen Daten

Acer
Not available
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14.0”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), IPS
HDD/SSD
512GB M.2 SSD
M.2 Slot
M.2 SSD slot
RAM
8GB LPDDR3,1866 MHz
Abmessungen
324 x 225 x 16 mm (12.76" x 8.86" x 0.63")
Gewicht
1.25 kg (2.8 lbs)
Gehäuse Material
Aluminum
Ports und Konnektivität
  • 1x USB Type-A 2.0
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), DisplayPort, HDMI
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • Kartenleser SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.1
  • Audio-Buchse combo audio/microphone jack
Merkmale
  • Fingerabdruckleser
  • Web-Kamera HD webcam
  • Beleuchtete Tastatur
  • Mikrofon Array microphone
  • Lautsprecher Dual 1.5W speakers
  • Optisches Laufwerk

ASUS ZenBook UX430 configurations


What’s in the box?

The sleek black box contains all the essentials – a laptop (obviously the UX430), a 65W power adapter, and the usual manuals and guides.


Design and construction

Nowadays all of the manufacturers are trying to put larger screens in smaller devices – something that Dell implemented very well in their XPS lineup. Here we see nothing out of the trend – 80% screen to body ratio. The Full HD screen also has an Anti-Glare coating that enhances the legibility under direct sunlight, but more on that in our next section. ASUS ZenBook UX430’s body is made of anodized aluminum. It measures 324 x 225 x 16 mm (12.76″ x 8.86″ x 0.63″), which is a slim form factor for a 14-inch device indeed, especially when it has to house (and cool) a Core i7-8550U and a GeForce MX150. In addition to that, the laptop is also pretty lightweight at 1.25 kg (2.8 lbs).

On the inside we see a very tactile keyboard, sadly lacking a Numpad section, which is normal for a device of this size though. Beneath it, we can see the centrally located touchpad, which has a glass on top of it that’s going to protect it from wear and tear through the years. We find the touchpad to be fairly adequate, but we don’t like the placement of the fingerprint reader within its surface, rendering the area around it unusable. However, the reader itself is fast and accurate.

An interesting fact is that there aren’t any intake vents anywhere to be seen, except for the speaker grills. The sole ventilation opening of the device is hidden by the hinge cover when the laptop is closed. You can see in our “Temperatures” section whether this would be a setback for the cooling system or a well-calculated solution.

Port-wise, the device is equipped with everything you’ll ever need, except if you’re a fan of the wired internet connection – sorry but you’re not connecting any RJ45 cables to this guy unless you get yourself a dongle. On the left side are located the power input connector, headphone/mic combined jack, a micro HDMI port (dongle is included in the package), as well as two USB 3.1 gen 1 ports. One of them is a Type-C, and has an external display support, while the other one is a regular Type-A. On the opposite side, we only have a USB Type-A port and the beloved SD card reader, which is essential for content creators.


Display quality

ASUS ZenBook UX430 has a Full HD screen with an IPS panel, made by Chi Mei (Innolux) and has a model number N140HCE-EN1. Its 1920 x 1080 screen resolution and 14-inch size translate to a pixel density of 157 ppi, and pitch of 0.161 x 0.161 mm. That makes the screen appear as “Retina” when viewed from more than 55 cm.

ASUS ZenBook UX430 has comfortable viewing angles, as you can see from the images below.

The brightness topped at 379 nits in the middle of the screen and 358 nits average for the whole area of the screen and the maximum deviation was 12%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and maximum brightness is 7630K, which is colder than the sRGB standard (6500K). Meanwhile, the average color temperature throughout the grey scale is 7580K before calibration.
Next, we checked the uniformity of the display which represents the light leakage of the backlight. Values of dE2000 over 4.0 are unpleasant and should not occur. Also, if color accuracy is important to you, the values should not pass the 2.0 mark.
The contrast ratio of ASUS ZenBook UX430’s display is very good – 1290:1 (going down to 1120:1 after calibration)

Color reproduction

The next image shows the sRGB coverage of ASUS ZenBook UX430’s display. The color reproduction of the human eye is shown via the “CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram”. In the middle of the dark-grey triangle are located the standard colors used on the Internet and digital TV – rec.709/sRGB.

Being used by million people around the world the colors from the sRGB gamut are the most common and their accurate reproduction is of key importance for the quality of the screen.

In addition to the Adobe RGB color space, used in the professional photography, we’ve included the color gamut, used by world-known movie studios – DCI-P3, and UHD-digital television (Rec.2020), which is very hard to achieve by modern displays.

We have drawn the Pointer’s Gamut with a black line. This color space covers all the colors we can see around us.

The ASUS ZenBook UX430 coverage is shown by the yellow pointed line. Its screen can display 98% of sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, which means it will basically show every color used in Internet and HDTV. Primary RGB values match those of sRGB (except a little deviation of the Red), and with our “Gaming and Web design” profile it can almost fully match the Web color standard.

Our “Gaming and Web design” profile is designed to show optimal color temperature (6500K) when the luminance is at 140 cd/m2 and sRGB gamma.

In order to test the display, we used 24 color samples, consisting of common founded and easy distinguishable ones like light and dark human skin, blue sky, grassy green and orange.
The default settings (seen on the left illustration) has a pretty good calibration but after installing our “Gaming and Web design” profile the picture becomes astonishingly accurate – average dE of 0.6, which makes the screen perfect for color sensitive work.

Next, we look at the capabilities of comfortable gaming experience in terms of the darkest parts of the image.

The left side tells us the default settings results of the screen, and the right one shows us the results with “Gaming and Web design” profile installed. The horizontal axis gives us the levels of grey, and the vertical one – the screen brightness.

You can check how your device displays the first five levels of grey – 1% – 5% White – via the graphics below the charts. The image you see depends on several factors such as the panel of the display you’re currently reading this article on, its calibration, your eyesight, ambient light, viewing angle and more.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa. We measured Fall Time + Rise Time = 31 ms which is slower than the average but typical for an IPS panel.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

ASUS ZenBook UX430’s screen light is PW-modulated below 100 nits. However, the pulsations are with high frequency (25 KHz), minimizing the negative effect.

Blue light emissions

Installing of our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

The screen mounted on ASUS ZenBook UX430 managed to replicate the Web and HDTV color standards with an accuracy rarely seen by any of the devices we’ve tested. Moreover, the display has a good contrast ratio, Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles and adequate default settings.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package is meant for ASUS ZenBook UX430 configurations with 14″ Innolux N140HCE-EN1 (Full HD, 1920 x 1080) IPS screen: Kaufen bei Amazon.de (#CommissionsEarned)

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

Mit dem Kauf von LaptopMedia-Produkten erhalten Sie nicht nur effiziente und gesundheitsschonende Profile, sondern Sie unterstützen auch die Entwicklung unserer Labore, in denen wir Geräte testen, um möglichst objektive Testberichte zu erstellen.

Büroarbeit

Office Work sollte vor allem von Benutzern verwendet werden, die die meiste Zeit mit dem Betrachten von Textstücken, Tabellen oder einfach nur mit dem Surfen verbringen. Dieses Profil zielt darauf ab, durch Beibehaltung einer flachen Gammakurve (2,20), einer nativen Farbtemperatur und wahrnehmungsgerechten Farben eine bessere Deutlichkeit und Klarheit zu liefern.

Design und Spiele

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Gesundheitsschutz

Health-Guard eliminiert die schädliche Pulsweitenmodulation (PWM) und reduziert das negative blaue Licht, das unsere Augen und unseren Körper beeinflusst. Da er für jedes Panel maßgeschneidert ist, schafft er es, die Farben wahrnehmungsgetreu zu halten. Health-Guard simuliert Papier, so dass der Druck auf die Augen stark reduziert wird.

Erhalten Sie alle 3 Profile mit 33% Rabatt


Sound

ASUS ZenBook UX430’s stereo speakers sound very good although there are some deviations in the low, mid, and high frequencies.


Software

ASUS provides a 64-bit Windows 10 operating system with the ZenBook UX430, and if you ever need to reinstall, you can find the drivers on the official support page of the manufacturer.

Battery

The 50Wh 3-cell battery really impressed us. The device managed to stay alive for 13 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing. Sadly, NVIDIA’s drivers intervened in the video playback and didn’t let the ZenBook UX430 use its integrated graphics, instead relying on the relatively power-hungry GeForce MX150 which resulted in “just” 7 hours and 4 minutes of video playback time (which is not a bad result either, if we take the online surfing time out of the equation). Lastly, you won’t want to stay away from a charger if you want to play some games because you’ll have not more than an hour and a half to plug it before it dies.

Um reale Bedingungen zu simulieren, haben wir unser eigenes Skript zum automatischen Durchsuchen von über 70 Websites verwendet.


CPU – Intel Core i7-8550U

The Intel Core i7-8550U is part of the new 8th Generation Kaby Lake Refresh and it’s a direct successor to the Intel Core i7-7500U from the Kaby Lake generation and the Intel Core i7-6500U from the 6th Skylake generation. With the latest alteration to the ULV (ultra-low voltage) processors, Intel doubles the core count from 2 to 4 and retaining the so-called Hyper-Threading technology, keeping the same 14nm manufacturing process and feature the same 15W TDP.

However, due to the core count change, the base frequency of the Core i7-8550U is lowered to only 1.8 GHz while Turbo Boost frequencies remain pretty high – somewhere between 3.7 – 4.0 GHz. This ensures considerably higher multi-core and single-core performance during short workloads before going back to more bearable frequencies considering the 15W TDP but most of the other specs and features remain the same.

The chip also incorporates a newer Intel Gen 9.5 integrated graphics called Intel UHD Graphics 620. The support for Google’s VP9 codec and H.265/HEVC Main 10 is still the most notable feature of the iGPU. Intel claims that the new UHD 620 chips improve the overall power consumption compared to the previous one.

You can browse through our top CPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-cpu-ranking/


GPU – NVIDIA GeForce MX150

The GeForce MX150 is an entry-level mobile card that is part of the latest NVIDIA Pascal lineup of GPUs, based on the GP108 chip paired with 2GB of GDDR5 memory via a 64-bit interface. The GPU is the successor of GeForce 940MX and it was announced in Q2 of 2017.

The GeForce MX150 operates at a relatively high base frequency of 1469 MHz, while the Boost frequencies can go up to 1532 MHz. The GPU incorporates 384 shaders (CUDA) cores while the memory is clocked at 6008MHz (effective). These specs ensure a significant performance boost over the previous generation of Maxwell GPUs. The TDP of the GPU is lower than the last generation GTX 950M and even the GTX 1050 – 25W compared to 40W for the two models above. Performance-wise, the GeForce MX150 should be similar to the desktop GeForce GT 1030.

Along with all the power consumption and performance improvements, the GPU now supports essential features like Multi-Projection, VR Ready, G-SYNC, Vulkan, and Multi-Monitor.

You can browse through our top GPUs ranking: http://laptopmedia.com/top-laptop-graphics-ranking/


Storage performance

The ZenBook UX430 is equipped with a 512 GB SATA SSD. As usual for this type of SSD devices, the speeds were 550MB/s and 510 MB/s – Read and Write respectively.


Gaming tests

While the MX150 on the ASUS ZenBook UX430 is more than a capable of pushing the CS:GO at maximum eye candy, there will be some stutters, mostly if you someone throws a smoke grenade at you, in case you opt to turn v-sync off. The UX430 can also run GTA V at Full HD, low details, and at reasonable fps. Anyhow, once you pump up the graphics, the frame rate drops noticeably, mainly because the 2GB of GDDR5 memory is not enough, and the GPU starts using the operating memory of the system, which is a lot slower, hence losing a vast amount of performance in the process.

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS121 fps83 fps62 fps
Min FPS12 fps12 fps10 fps

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
Average FPS74 fps26 fps– fps
Min FPS17 fps7 fps– fps

Temperatures

The temperature tests go this way. We use Prime95 and FurMark to torture the CPU and the GPU respectively. This won’t give real-life representation but with our methodology, we try to give you the most optimal results.

The first values from the test are from the 30th second of running the Prime95 stress test, which simulates a heavy task run on your computer (usually lighter tasks take from a part of the second up to a couple of seconds). Next, we take the ones from the 2nd-minute mark, which imitates a very heavy task run by the CPU. The last values we give you are the ones at the end of the test, which is 15 minutes, simulating the CPU load when rendering a video, for example.

0-15 min. CPU torture test

The CPU in the spotlight here is Core i7-8550U. It idled at 40°C but soon after the start of the test the temperature started to gradually grow, reaching 85°C at the 30th-second mark. On the other hand, the frequencies of the cores were fluctuating between 2.7 GHz and 2.9 GHz (which is far from the 4 GHz this CPU is capable of), giving an average score just shy of 2.8 GHz.

Cores frequency (0 – 00:30 sec.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 00:30 min.)

Shortly after the first checkpoint, the CPU started to throttle, going down to 2.2 GHz at the 2nd-minute mark. Obviously, this resulted in a temperature drop to 72 °C and an average for the first two minutes of 76 °C.

Cores frequency (0 – 2:00 min.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 2:00 min.)

We are pleasantly surprised that the frequencies of the Core i7-8550U never went lower than 2 GHz, giving us a final average of 2.1 GHz. In addition to that, the temperatures sustained levels of 71-72°C and an average for the whole period of the test of 71.25°C. Those results are impressive, given the form factor of the device.

Cores frequency (0 – 15:00 min.)
CPU Temperature (0 – 15:00 min.)

30 min. GPU torture test

The NVIDIA GeForce MX150 started the torture strongly, ticking at 1700 MHz, but that didn’t last long. Next, the temperatures skyrocketed to 74°C from the 39°C it idled at shortly after the beginning and the GPU began to throttle. The first major plummet of the frequencies was around the 4th minute when they dropped from 1400 MHz down to under 400 MHz for some time. After a couple of minutes, the clock speeds rose and remained at almost 1300 MHz for a good period of time. Two minutes before we stopped FurMark, the MX150 decided it needs a break and started to thermal throttle aggressively, dropping to under 200 MHz on some occasions.

As you can see in the image below, the surface temperatures of the ASUS ZenBook UX430 were highest at the center of the keyboard and the top left corner of the device. The design of the internals ensures that in winter conditions you won’t be able to warm your hands on the palmrest.

42.4°C
42.6°C
36.9°C
36.4°C
40.3°C
30.8°C
30.8°C
29.1°C
29.8°C

Verdict

ASUS has clearly produced a very good product. The improvement over the older UX410 is notable and it also stands well against the competition of models from other companies such as HP’s EliteBook 850 G4, and Acer’s Swift 3, and the lightweight champion the Swift 5. From our GPU tests, we also saw that the new MX150 budget low-voltage solution fares well against the GeForce 940M and AMD’s new Vega 10 silicon.

Sadly for the competition, UX430 has one of the best screens we’ve ever tested. It covers almost 100% of the sRGB color gamut, and its panel is super bright, which, when combined with the anti-glare coating, results in perfect readability, even if the sun is staring behind your shoulder. It’s also suitable for color sensitive work thanks to our profiles which push the color accuracy of the screen, giving an average deviation of dE 0.6 (under 2.0 is appropriate for work with colors).

Next, we have the battery which left us with some mixed emotions. First, it went through more than 13 hours of web browsing, and the numbers fell almost twice when playing a video. As we said earlier, 7 hours of video playback still is a good result, but if only ASUS could figure out their drivers better… Anyway, the ASUS ZenBook UX430 made it to the fourth place in our battery performance chart!

Unfortunately, like the older model – UX410, UX430 has one flaw and it’s the cooling. It just doesn’t have the capacity to cool this GPU adequately. If we close our eyes for this, add the pleasant keyboard experience to the equation, the ZenBook UX430 surely is a very good business device. In our opinion, it can satisfy the needs of editors, photographers, and people who need power on the go!

Pros

  • One of the best displays on the market
  • Colors with almost no deviation from the standards (when Gaming and Web design profile is present)
  • Amazing battery life
  • Good keyboard with backlight
  • Fast CPU and GPU combination


Cons

  • The GeForce MX150 throttles aggressively at very high loads

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anone
anone
6 Jahre vor

sadly, some of countries got BOE panel which is extremely low PWM (200hz).

Henrik Becker
Henrik Becker
5 Jahre vor

So it gets a little hot, but more importantly: how are the fans? Are they loud? Do they come on often? I’m liking the look of this laptop, but I can’t stand fans that come on when watching a Youtube video, for example.