Asus ZenBook 15 (i7-8565U, GTX1050 Max-Q) Laptop Review

Thanks to its unusual design, the Asus ZenBook 15 stands out when you first look at it: It has very slim bezels. The side bezels are only 3 mm thick and the top bezel is about 6 mm thick. According to the manufacturer, the laptop has a screen-to-body ratio of 92%. The case of the notebook is machined from a solid block of aluminum. The ZenBook 15 comes in the color scheme called “Royal Blue Metal”.

The surfaces of the Asus notebook feel very rigid and robust. The build quality is very good and the decorative element under the screen does not cause any problems. All joints are flush with each other and all the buttons and ports sit firmly in their respective cutouts.

When compared to other notebooks in this price range, the ZenBook 15 has a somewhat similar width. However, it has a much smaller depth. The ZenBook 15 weighs 1.8 kg, which makes it the lightest laptop in our comparison chart.

The Asus ZenBook 15 features only the most necessary ports. Here the manufacturer forgoes a LAN port and only includes HDMI and USB ports. Standard USB ports only support USB 3.1 speeds (up to 5 Gb/s). However, the USB Type-C port can operate at Gen2 speeds (up to 10 Gb/s). This is why the Type-C port should be compatible with almost any dock that relies on USB-C technology. Moreover, you can also output a video signal over the USB Type-C port.

In our benchmarks, the SD card reader of the ZenBook 15 delivers subpar results. With a read rate of 78 MB/s and a write rate of 65.6 MB/s, the Asus laptop takes a spot near the bottom of our comparison chart.

The inserted SD cards protrude from the slot by about half a centimeter, which is why they have to be removed when you are transporting the device.

The ZenBook 15 comes with Intel’s Wireless-AC 9560 adapter. It supports the following wireless communication standards: 802.11 a, b, g, n and ac. Thanks to a 2x2 MIMO antenna, the Asus notebook achieves an upload speed of 644 Mb/s and a download speed of 651 Mb/s. These results are on a normal level for this kind of device.

Thanks to its infrared webcam, the Asus ZenBook 15 can take advantage of Microsoft’s biometric facial recognition feature known as Windows Hello. It works well as long as the lighting is sufficiently bright. In poor lighting conditions, the facial recognition feature does not function properly, which often leads to failed log-in attempts.

The box contains a 90-watt charger and a cleaning cloth. Asus does not offer any additional accessories for the ZenBook 15. However, you can get general accessories such as mice, headphones and keyboards from Asus’s online store.

The ZenBook 15 comes with a 24-month warranty. Please see our Guarantees, Return policies and Warranties article for country-specific information.

Keyboard

The keyboard of the Asus ZenBook 15 is easy to type on. It offers a short travel distance and a clear actuation point. The keys are flat and have a smooth surface. This is why fingers often do not land in the center of the key. It takes some getting used to, but eventually even long typing sessions do not present any difficulties. Nevertheless, users will often have to look down at the keyboard to make sure that they have pressed the right key. The arrow and function keys are also rather small. Asus makes up for that by including a numeric pad.

For work in poor lighting conditions, the notebook comes with a three-level keyboard backlight. The backlight is somewhat uneven. Because of this, the keys in the center appear noticeably dimmer than the keys at the edges. Furthermore, the keyboard backlight shines through the cutouts for the keys and slightly blinds users.

Our review device comes with Intel’s Core i7-8565U, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. Therefore, the laptop is not only suitable for demanding applications but also for gaming on medium settings.

There is also a cheaper version of the Asus ZenBook 15 that has Intel’s Core i5-8265U, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q and 8 GB of RAM.

Thanks to the Core i7-8565U, the system feels very responsive. This CPU is based on the Whiskey Lake architecture and features four cores. Because it supports Hyper-Threading, it can process up to eight threads at the same time. The clock rates range from 1800 MHz to 4600 MHz. Additionally, the processor also has a dual-channel-enabled memory controller, which allows both RAM sticks in our review device to operate optimally.

In the single-core section of Cinebench R15, the Intel Core i7-8565U in the Asus ZenBook 15 performs as well as the Intel Core i9-8950HK in the Asus ZenBook Pro 15. However, the multi-core performance falls well below that of the Intel Core i7-8750H. All in all, the CPU performance of the ZenBook 15 is above average.

The Asus ZenBook 15 achieves good results in the PCMark benchmarks. It takes a spot in the middle of our comparison chart and outperforms almost all other devices with an Intel Core i7-8565U and a GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q. The apps start very fast and accessing data and opening folders does not present any problems.

You can find out how the Asus ZenBook 15 stacks up against other laptops on our CPU Benchmarks page.

Our review model of the Asus ZenBook 15 comes with a 512 GB SSD. It achieves similar read and write rates to other notebooks with comparable storage devices. In day-to-day use, folders and files open without any delays. The programs start quickly and the system boots up very fast. Besides a 512 GB SSD, you can also choose either a 256 GB SSD or a 1 TB SSD.

You can find out how the Asus ZenBook 15’s storage device stacks up against other HDDs and SSDs on our HDD/SSD Benchmarks page.

The Asus ZenBook 15 has Intel’s integrated UHD Graphics 620 and Nvidia’s dedicated GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q. While Intel’s graphics unit provides enough performance for simple programs and the OS, the GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q is used to run complex 3D applications. Unlike many GeForce graphics cards without the “Max-Q” designation, this GPU is specifically tuned for efficiency, which is why it offers a little less performance but produces a lot less fan noise. The performance also depends on the cooling solution.

The Asus notebook achieves the highest results in the 3DMark benchmarks that we have ever seen from a laptop with a GTX 1050 Max-Q. You can also see in our comparison chart how much performance you are going to lose if you go with a notebook with Intel’s integrated UHD Graphics 620. When compared to the Asus ZenBook Pro 15, which has a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, the ZenBook 15 is about 20% slower.

You can learn what kind of performance you can expect from Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Max-Q on our GPU Benchmarks page.

Our benchmarks with the video game titled The Witcher 3 show that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q in the ZenBook 15 outperforms other laptops with the same GPU. Moreover, the performance did not fluctuate over the entire run of gameplay. We did not observe any thermal throttling. Many older titles run smoothly on the Asus notebook on the highest settings. All the latest video games can achieve playable frame rates in 1080p on medium settings.

To learn what kind of gaming experience you can expect from Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 Max-Q, go to our Gaming Benchmarks page.

Our stress test represents an extreme case scenario. During this test, the core temperatures reach up to 90 °C (194 °F) and the CPU frequency sinks below the base clock rate of 1800 MHz. Once the cooling system kicks in the clock speeds stabilize and remain above the base clock rate for the remainder of the test.

Because such utilization levels are very unlikely to occur in real life, users should not experience any problems related to thermal throttling in day-to-day use.

In our practically oriented Wi-Fi test, the Asus notebook lasted for eight-and-a-half hours. The ZenBook 15 was only beaten by the HP EliteBook 1050 G1, which has a battery with a bigger capacity. That being said, the 73-Wh battery in the ZenBook 15 achieves longer battery runtimes under load than most other gaming notebooks.