The ASUS Zen Book pro UX550 series of laptops often prioritizes portability and slimness. However, not everyone can get by with the minimal processing power that an ultra-book provides.
ASUS Zen Book pro UX550
ASUS Zen Book Pro UX550 is a great option for professionals.
A prior iteration of the Zen Book Pro, the UX501, which I reviewed in 2015, may ring a bell. The UX550 is the 2017 model year.
Users who care more about power than portability will enjoy the Zen Book Pro’s many improvements. A 15.6-inch screen makes this a sizable laptop. This is hardly a heavy thing, though. The concentric circle design on the lid and other Zen Book hallmarks make it easy to identify even if you don’t know the brand. There is only one color option for the Zen Book Pro in Singapore, and it’s a deep royal blue.
The Zen Book Pro UX550, like the other Zen Books, is more than simply a pretty face. Excellent craftsmanship can be seen all over. The solid aluminum anybody has been meticulously manufactured to ensure maximum durability. It has a rock-solid feel throughout. The diamond-cutting on the borders makes it sparkle. Stylish and high-quality, the Zen Book Pro is an excellent choice for business travelers.
The dimensions (WxDxH) of the Zen Book Pro are 367 x 251 x 18.9 mm, and it has a mass (weight) of 1.8 kg. Considering the powerhouse that is the Zen Book Pro UX550, it is rather astonishing that it is neither clumsy nor heavy.
The Zen Book Pro has a wide selection of ports, as one would like to find on a high-end “pro” laptop.
An AC power input jack, an HDMI out, and a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C connections may be found on the left side. Thunderbolt 3 and 4K display output are supported by these two USB Type-C connections. I would have liked to see the USB Type-C ports used for power input instead, but I can see how this behemoth could need more juice than what is provided via Power Delivery over USB Type-C. Having both power sources available simultaneously is still a desirable feature.
You’ll find a 3.5 mm headphone socket, a Micro SD card slot, and a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A connections on the other side.
The ASUS Zen Book pro UX550 to get the most out of their Zen Book Pro, most customers will wish to use a full-sized SD card. Having a micro SD card slot is good, but the Zen Book Pro doesn’t really need one.
The display on the Zen Book Pro is top-notch, as it is on all ASUS laptops. The colors are vivid and the room is light. The display is 178 degrees wide and supports the full sRGB color space. The 15.6-inch diagonal size and Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution almost seem inadequate for such a gorgeous screen. No 4K or ultra-high-definition (QHD) version is currently sold.
The screen can take input from a pen as well as touches. Up to 10 fingers can be used using the multi-touch feature. Regrettably, I was unable to evaluate Zen Book Pro’s portability because ASUS does not bundle a pen with it.
ASUS Zen Book pro UX550 the screen’s bezels aren’t very small, but they could be smaller. The webcam, which has a lowly VGA resolution but is nonetheless perfectly usable, is positioned dead center above the screen. The Zen Book Pro is a high-end laptop, but the webcam’s VGA quality doesn’t cut it.
Due to the Zen Book Pro’s 15.6-inch screen, ASUS included a large, spacious, backlit keyboard. The key travel is a generous 1.5 mm. The overall typing experience is superior. When I type, I can feel the keys bottoming down because of the relatively limited key travel.
ASUS Zen Book pro UX550 having an extra row of navigation buttons on the right bothers me since it moves the Delete, Backspace, and Right Shift keys away from the margin. When I really wanted to press Delete, I’d accidentally touch the power button instead. While the additional navigation keys are a wonderful touch, I suggest finding a more suitable location for them.
The Zen Book Pro has a sizable touchpad in the center of the keyboard’s space. Because of how smooth the glass is, it’s quite easy to use. Since the Zen Book Pro’s touchpad is compatible with Windows Precision drivers, you can use all the built-in Windows 10 motions with ease.
The touchpad has a Windows Hello fingerprint reader built into its upper-right corner, as is usual on ASUS laptops. The fingerprint reader’s location may appear like it may impede on your ability to utilize the touchpad, but the large size of the touchpad makes this an unnecessary concern.
Two intelligent amplifiers drive four Harman Chardon speakers to create the sound. The placement of the speakers is excellent. Two of them are on top, pointing upward from either side of the keyboard; the other two point downward from the bottom of the Zen Book Pro, right at the front edge. The volume isn’t amazing, but they sound fine for a laptop. Watching films is enhanced by the stereo surround experience created by the speakers.
The Zen Book Pro from ASUS is equipped with an array of microphones to improve Cortina’s voice recognition capabilities. All without having to put your mouth on the Zen Book Pro’s microphones, Cortina is a useful tool.
The Zen Book Pro has some impressive specs under the hood. For starters, it has a speedy quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, rated at 2.8 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz and consuming 45 Watts instead of the standard 15 Watts. This CPU supports hyper-threading, which allows for 8 virtual processing cores. The inbuilt DDR4 memory clocks in at 2400 MHz and has 16 GB.
Apart from the onboard Intel HD Graphics 630, the NVIDIA GeForce 1050Ti discrete graphics on this laptop are equipped with 4 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. The Zen Book Pro is playable to a respectable degree.
ASUS has included a 512 GB Samsung PM961 NV Me Pie 3.0 x4 module for fast storage.
The Zen Book Pro is equipped with Bluetooth 4.2 and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi for optimum connectivity.
With its 45-Watt processor, the Zen Book Pro’s 73 Who Lithium Polymer battery is quite outstanding. ASUS claims it can power the laptop for 14 hours.
The ASUS Zen Book pro UX550 is included with a 120W power adapter, a USB to Gigabit Ethernet dongle, and an ASUS laptop bag.
