Asus ZenBook UX305CA review

Asus updates this wafer-thin laptop from last year with new and improved hardware

Last year's ZenBook UX305 was a fine ultraportable, albeit one with performance issues and a compromised display, flaws that held it back from true greatness. This was a shame, especially considering its beautifully slim design and lengthy battery life.

Perhaps the new ZenBook UX305CA edition will have better luck. From the ports to processor to the operating system, this refresh has been subject to a rather diverse mix of changes, the biggest being the addition of a QHD+ resolution screen, despite the price staying level with the original FHD model.

Design
Once again, this is a staggeringly lightweight laptop for its 13.3in form factor. It weighs just 1.2kg, and if anything, it feels even less than that, and is ultra-thin as well, measuring 324x226x12.3mm. We found we could easily carry it around in a bag, and its durable aluminium chassis resisted any bumps, scratches or scuffs it might have otherwise received.

It's good-looking, too, in a "slightly taller MacBook Air" sort of way. Yes, it does have some chunky bezels, but the extra space makes room for a large trackpad and a comfortable keyboard. The former is ultra-smooth and includes some pleasingly clicky buttons, while the latter's keys are a bit short in travel distance but are both generously sized and spaced far enough apart for speedy, accurate typing.

The selection of ports has been updated, in the form of a new USB-C connector in addition to the three USB 3.0 ports, one micro HDMI slot and one SDXC card reader, making for a versatile range for such a thin device. Also included in the box is an Ethernet-to-USB adapter, allowing for a wired connection if required.

As with the UX305, the UX305CA's ability to balance portability with functionality is commendable, but it's worth being wary of manufacturing defects; on our test model, the front-left rubber foot would lift about a millimetre off the desk when the display was raised. This didn't cause the wobbling one might expect, but it did reduce grip and stability.

Display
The huge upgrade to a QHD+, 3200x1800 resolution display puts the humble ZenBook UX305CA on par with far more expensive premium laptops, like the Dell XPS 13 and the Lenovo Yoga 900. Since the size remains the same, at 13.3in diagonally, that means that pixel density is increased from the original model's 166ppi to 276ppi - a rise that becomes immediately apparent in use.

This is by far and away the sharpest display on a sub-£700 system we've ever used, benefiting immensely from crisp text and immaculately detailed images and video. It also lessens the effect of a returning flaw: the anti-glare coating, which combines anti-reflectivity protection with the same oily visual effect as it did on the UX305. Here, however, the greatly increased crispness helps to cut through this effect, leaving it only really noticeable on large blocks of light colours or white space.

Speaking of colours, there's nothing to complain about balance-wise; reds, blues and yellows are all vibrant but never overly so, while blacks are decently inky. It doesn't solve all its predecessor's problems, but the ZenBook UX305CA's new display is a clear step up.

Next: Operating system, software and performance

Asus ZenBook UX305CA review

Asus updates this wafer-thin laptop from last year with new and improved hardware

Operating system and software
Unfortunately for the original ZenBook UX305, it launched just a few weeks before the release of Windows 10, meaning it was stuck with the touchscreen-focused Windows 8.1; not ideal for a traditional laptop.

This time, Asus has been able to pre-load the ZenBook UX305CA with Windows 10 Home, a much more suitable, trackpad-and-keyboard-friendly OS with some handy new features, like Universal Apps, integrated virtual desktops and the Cortana personal assistant. Anyone who preferred the tile-based view of Windows 8.1 can also use the Continuum feature to switch back to it from the standard desktop view.

That being said, Windows 10 Home is far from perfect - we ran into a known installation loop bug when setting up the laptop for the first time, an issue where choosing the Express Install option boots the user back to the start of the process after a few minutes of seemingly normal operation. This is more the fault of Microsoft than of the laptop, to be fair.

By now, we're used to Asus machines arriving with heaps of bloatware, but here, we were actually given the choice - upon the initial setup - of which additional software we'd like installed. For once, the options also included useful and desirable products like 7zip, VLC Media Player, Blender and Firefox.

Sadly, there's still a lot of pre-installed applications over which we had no control over, including the usual suspects of CyberLink PowerDirector, WPS Office and Asus GiftBox.

Performance
Besides 8GB of RAM, the ZenBook UX305CA draws its performance from the 900MHz dual-core Intel Core M3-6Y30 - a Skylake chip. This doesn't break 1GHz, but is nonetheless 100MHz faster than the older version's Broadwell-era Intel Core M-5Y10.

The improved performance is reflected in the new laptop's JavaScript benchmark scores: 321.7ms in Sunspider and 1,631.0ms in Kraken, marked improvements over the ZenBook UX305 on both counts. Even better, image editing and heavy multitasking no longer slow the system down to a crawl, having both been the cause of chugging on the previous edition.

Still, the Intel Core M3-6Y30 is ultimately a low-power, low-drain processor, and modest performance in the most demanding tasks is both expected and apparent.

Video editing is doable, but lacks the slick immediacy of doing the same work on a higher-end ultrabook, and 3D modelling is best left to more powerful machines as well; Blender can manage with small, basic shapes, but loses responsiveness when dealing with more complex models. Rendering can take an age, too.

Since the ZenBook UX305CA doesn't struggle at all with basic tasks like word processing and web browsing, it's more than capable as an everyday device, but its CAD capabilities aren't quite where they need to be for us to recommend it as a design or media creation aid.

Next: Camera, battery, storage and conclusions

Asus ZenBook UX305CA review

Asus updates this wafer-thin laptop from last year with new and improved hardware

Camera
Asus's website lists an IR camera option for the ZenBook UX305CA, which would allow it to work with the Windows Hello facial recognition feature in Windows 10 - whereby users can log in simply by looking at the lens. We can't find this option included on any UK retail listing, though.

In any case, a standard 720p webcam was fitted on our unit, and it's plenty adequate for professional-level video calls and jovial Skyping alike. Detailing and clarity could be improved - not a surprise for a £650 device - but footage is smooth, with no jittering or visual artefacts, and colours appear bright and bold.

Battery and storage
Asus is apparently quite confident in the Skylake chip's power efficiency, as even with the 3200x1800 display it promises up to 10 hours of battery life.

That's not quite the case, judging from our tests, but the ZenBook UX305CA comes pretty close to that target. It averaged nine hours and 14 minutes when playing a continuously looped video from full charge to empty, which isn't just a respectable score for a 13.3in laptop, but also an hour longer than the old ZenBook UX305 managed in the same test.

That's in spite of the much higher definition screen and the fact that the two devices share the same 45WHr battery.

Even better, this will squeak past the magic eight hour mark of normal, mixed usage; it drains at about 12 percent per hour on a combination of word processing, web browsing and media editing. That means it can last a full work day, or a long-ish flight, without needing to recharge.

If only as much care had been given to the storage. There are 128GB, 256GB and 512GB SSD options available, but on the tiny 128GB model that we tested, we only had 80GB of useable space even after choosing to install just a small handful of extra applicaitions in setup.

Some consolation prizes come in the form of bonus cloud storage - ZenBook UX305CA owners receive 25GB of free DropBox storage for six months, a hefty boost to the standard 2GB free amount, and the usual 16GB of free Asus WebStorage access is included as well.

Overall
While this Skylake refresh is still short on both high-end power and internal storage, there's plenty here to justify the upgrade; in particular, the premium display and well-above-average battery life.

These sizeable improvements elevate what was already a solid, supremely portable mid-range laptop, and with no corresponding rise in the price of entry, the ZenBook UX305CA is undoubtedly the definitive edition - even with the risk of some technical hiccups.