Asus VivoBook Flip TP301UA-DW006T Convertible Review

The VivoBook Flip TP301UJ is inside a plastic chassis that is furnished with a brushed aluminum work surface. The aluminum sides that are a part of the upper side make the base exceptionally stiff. Thus, the casing's upper part and sides are made of one piece of aluminum. That reminds us of the design used for the Zenbook lineups, just that the removable base plate is plastic with a matte finish here. It is fitted impeccably and screws secure it very well. The build does not flex from below or above. Unfortunately, this is not true for the keyboard, but more about that in "Input Devices".

The hinges just barely keep the display in place; we would have wished that they were pulled tighter. The display tends to fall back by itself when carrying the device around in "Laptop" mode (vibrations). Unfortunately, the lid is not secured either mechanically or magnetically in the tablet's end position. Thus, the user always has to cope with a gap that interferes with handling in "Tablet" mode. In contrast to that, we could hardly open the closed "Laptop" with one finger since magnets secure the lid exemplarily. The lid's warping resistance is good; it only flexes marginally in some spots.

In sum, Asus presents an appealing casing with higher stability than the Inspiron 13 5368, and which can almost compete with Acer's Aspire R13 R7 and HP's Spectre x360 in terms of quality.

The TP301UJ's weight of 1.7 kilograms (~3.75 lb) is quite heavy for a 13-incher. The Aspire R13 R7-372T only weighs 1.5 kilograms (~3.31 lb) and the slim Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T even just 1.3 kilograms (~2.87 lb). The Flip is also relatively thick with a height of 20 millimeters (~0.79 in), but the Inspiron 13 5368 is on par with that. The Aspire R13 has the biggest dimensions for a 13-incher due to the fundamentally different design with a hinge on the display's side. Buyers looking for a compact and as thin as possible device should look at the Spectre x360 13 or Zenbook UX360CA-FC060T (16 and 14 mm/~0.63 and 0.55 in).

The interface configuration corresponds to that of a modern laptop. Particularly this is part of the 360-degree design's attraction. Type-C USB is present besides three further USB Type-A ports. The Type-C port is a Type 3.1 Gen.1, and thus only a 3.0 port with reversible plug function. The Spectre x360 13 additionally features a DisplayPort and the Aspire R13 R7 tops that with a USB 3.0 Gen.2 with Thunderbolt. The Inspiron 13 5368, Zenbook UX360CA, and the review sample do not stand a chance against that.

We test the performance of the installed card reader with our Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II reference SD card. The maximum transfer rate when copying large data blocks is 39 MB/s while 31 MB/s can be expected with standard JPG image files (approx. 5 MB each). Those are decent but not very fast rates even if the rivals are even slower.

The buyer has to be satisfied with the basic configuration in the form of Intel's Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 (a/b/g/h/n/ac) including Bluetooth 4.0 for network connections. In contrast to the Wireless-AC 3165, the difference is found in the /h/ that stands for dynamic frequency selection and transmission power control. The module has two antennas (2x2) and a maximum gross data rate of 867 Mbps (vs. 433 Mbps @ AC 3165). The rivals are furnished with similarly good Wi-Fi modules, with the exception of the Inspiron 13 5368 with a Wireless-AC 3165.

The module achieved 200 to 300 Mbit in the Server test, which is only half the data that an AC 7265 in the Spectre x2 12 transfers. The Client test outcomes are appropriate although 867 Mbps is not realistically achievable. Only the review sample was connected to the router in the jperf networking test.

Asus includes a 24-month manufacturer warranty that does not affect the legal warranty. The warranty can be extended by one year (from 2 to 3 years) with pick-up & return service for 60 Euros (~$67).

Intel's Core i3-6100U (2.3 GHz) is a processor from the 6th generation. The 7th Kaby Lake generation is presently being launched. The 15-watt dual-core does not have Turbo Boost. An HD Graphics 520 graphics unit is integrated; further details can be found in the spec sheet. Intel's Core i5-6200U and i7-6500U are optionally available. The SSD has a capacity of 256 GB and not just 128 GB as in the case of our review sample. A small dedicated Nvidia GeForce 920M is also installed in the premium version.

Similar slight advantages over the Core m3 are seen in application performance as seen in pure computing power: PCMark 8 states 9 and 18%. Users who do not need much performance could unhesitatingly take Asus' Zenbook UX360CA. The Zenbook can also score with its faster SSD. On the other hand, convertibles like Acer's Aspire R13 R7-372T with a Core i7 are only 7% faster (Home score) and even somewhat slower (Work score) despite the faster SSD.

Samsung's CM871 MZ7LF128HCHP is a SATA storage device in the 2.5-inch format. We emphasize this since SSDs in the rivals are inserted as M.2 modules (PCIe 2280) on the motherboard (except for Dell's Inspiron 13 5368). Compared with these models, Samsung's CM871 is at a disadvantage as the chart also illustrates: The memory can only communicate with the CPU via one controller using SATA. In PCIe, this communication is direct and subsequently faster. Write and read rates are both equally modest. The only advantage of SATA: The user can always change to a Terabyte hard drive - which may happen sooner than expected since only roughly 50 GB of storage are free in delivery state.

The Intel HD Graphics 520 operates with a single-channel memory although 4 GB of memory are onboard and 4 GB are inserted as DIMM. The differences among HD Graphics 520 graphics units are quite big; Dell's Inspiron 13 5368 with dual-channel achieves a lead of 41 and 68%. The VivoBook Flip TP301UA comes in last, which we will also discover in Games. The i3 model should not be selected when working with applications that utilize Intel's graphics.

As can be imagined, games run poorly on the Core i3's HD Graphics. The VivoBook Flip TP301UA comes in last place. Gamers with a liking for convertibles should consider taking the more expensive IPS version with Core i5/i7 and Nvidia's GeForce 920M.

The speakers do not have much power. Their sound remains thin even at high volumes. The little speakers emphasize the mid range, which produces a relatively boring sound mixture without differentiation. At least the speakers do not distort at maximum volume.

The dual-array microphone's recordings are relatively clear. Side noises are filtered well. The speaker can move 50 cm (~1.6 ft) or even 2 meters (~6.6 ft) away from the device and voice is recorded at a consistent level, anyway.

Frequency diagram in comparison (check boxes above can be turned on/off!)

Power Consumption

We were a bit surprised about the low power consumption: It was no more than 24 watts in the stress test. The reason is the absence of Turbo Boost in the Core i3. It looks even better when idle. 3 to 8 watts are top rates for a 13-incher. However, the TP301's low maximum brightness is also responsible for this. The specified 21 hours would also be possible purely arithmetically with its 55 watt-hours and low idle power consumption of just below 3 watts. When predicting an average of 10 watts in the Wi-Fi test, we would exactly achieve five hours. One thing is noteworthy: In terms of energy, the Core m3 (Zenbook UX360CA) and i3-6100U (review sample) are on par in this case.

A battery life of 21 hours seems impressive, but this is achieved in the idle test. Here, the brightness is reduced to its absolute minimum, flight mode is enabled (wireless off), and the system is not loaded. This is, however, a very unrealistic scenario since users cannot recognize anything on the screen at 9 cd/m². Our "Wi-Fi browsing test" using the "Balanced" mode at a brightness of approximately 150 cd/m² is more realistic. The VivoBook Flip TP301UA lasts almost 5 hours in this case, which is not a big deal when compared with the rivals. The Spectre x360 13-410ng with almost the same watt-hours runs for 8 hours in the Wi-Fi test, and the Aspire R13 R7-372T for over six hours.