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MagyarAsus Zenbook S UX393JA Laptop Review: The Microsoft Surface Alternative
Last year's ZenBook S13 UX392 combined a Whiskey Lake-U CPU with a GeForce MX150 GPU in an attractive 16:9 form factor. This year's ZenBook S UX393 could have been a simple update, but Asus has gone the extra mile by completely redesigning the chassis and internals for a brand new look yet again. The UX393 makes the jump from 16:9 to 3:2 and foregoes the discrete Nvidia GPU for Intel Ice Lake and Iris Plus instead. Though aesthetically pleasing, there are a few key drawbacks to keep in mind before putting down $1600 to $1700 USD for such a machine.
Direct competitors to the ZenBook S13 UX393 include other flagship 3:2 like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 or Huawei MateBook X Pro. The 16:10 Dell XPS 13 or ThinkPad X1 Nano may also be seen as alternatives to the Asus.
More Asus reviews:
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85.1 % | 10/2020 | Asus Zenbook S UX393JA i7-1065G7, Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU) | 1.4 kg | 15.7 mm | 13.90" | 3300x2200 | |
| 86.9 % | 06/2020 | Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 i7-1065G7, GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q | 1.6 kg | 23 mm | 13.50" | 3000x2000 | |
| 87.4 % | 06/2020 | Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 i7 i7-10510U, GeForce MX250 | 1.3 kg | 14.6 mm | 13.90" | 3000x2000 | |
| 86.6 % | 05/2019 | Asus ZenBook S13 UX392FN i7-8565U, GeForce MX150 | 1.1 kg | 12.9 mm | 13.90" | 1920x1080 | |
| 84.4 % | 10/2020 | Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14IIL05 i7-1065G7, GeForce MX350 | 1.4 kg | 14.9 mm | 14.00" | 1920x1080 | |
| 88.9 % | 03/2020 | Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 i7-1065G7, Iris Plus Graphics G7 (Ice Lake 64 EU) | 1.2 kg | 14.8 mm | 13.40" | 1920x1200 |
Case
The metal chassis is firm and rigid with no creaking and only minimal warping when attempting to twist its corners. Our main complaint involves the hinges which feel weaker at wider angles. Ideally, hinge rigidity should be taut and uniform at all angles, but the hinges here don't give a strong sense of longevity in this regard.
The move from 16:9 to 3:2 has resulted in a larger, heavier, and thicker build than the UX392. Overall dimensions and weight are actually much closer to the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 or MateBook X Pro and so this is still a compact subnotebook relative to its closest competitors.
Connectivity
Port options are similar to the older UX392 but with two important differences. Firstly, Asus has dropped the 3.5 mm audio jack meaning owners will have to rely on Bluetooth headphones or the included USB-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter. Secondly, the two USB-C ports are now Thunderbolt 3 compatible for a wider range of external docking options and monitors.
SD Card Reader
Transfer rates from the MicroSD reader are slower than the card reader on the older UX392 by half. Moving 1 GB of pictures from our UHS-II test card to desktop takes almost 30 seconds.
| SD Card Reader | |
| average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 microSDXC 64GB) | |
| Asus ZenBook S13 UX392FN (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14IIL05 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| maximum AS SSD Seq Read Test (1GB) | |
| Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 microSDXC 64GB) | |
| Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Asus ZenBook S13 UX392FN (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14IIL05 (Toshiba Exceria Pro M501 64 GB UHS-II) | |
Communication
The AX201 comes standard for Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. Though we didn't experience any issues when connected to our Netgear RAX200 test router, average transmit speeds are slower than expected at only about 822 Mbps.
Webcam
Maintenance
The bottom panel comes off easily with just a T5 Torx wrench. However, there's not much to upgrade beyond the M.2 SSD as both WLAN and RAM are soldered.
Accessories and Warranty
The retail box includes a USB-C to 3.5 mm audio adapter and a protective carrying sleeve in addition to the usual paperwork and AC adapter. The standard one-year limited warranty applies.
Input Devices
Keyboard
Keyboard layout remains identical to the UX392 save for some secondary function changes on the first row of keys. Travel is shallow while the Space and Enter keys clatter more loudly than the main QWERTY keys when pressed. Feedback is otherwise decent if not slightly softer than on the HP Spectre 13 series.
Touchpad
The sizeable clickpad (13 x 6.5 cm) is only slightly smaller than the one on the Surface Laptop 3 (11.5 x 7.6 cm) while being much larger than the clickpad on the older UX392 (10.5 x 6.2 cm). Its surface is completely smooth with only minimal sticking when gliding at slower speeds. Its integrated mouse clicks, however, are far too shallow and with weak feedback.
Display
The 3:2 AU Optronics B139KAN01.0 can be found on no other laptop in our database. When compared to the Sharp and JDI panels on the Surface Laptop 3 13.5 and MateBook X Pro, respectively, native resolution is higher and color space is slightly wider as it covers all of DCI-P3. Asus calibrates each panel at factory in accordance to the standard.
Although the touchscreen is gorgeous at first glance, there are some downsides. Brightness and contrast are not on the same level as the MateBook X Pro display and response times are still slow for noticeable ghosting. This latter characteristic is common on many Ultrabooks since most users will not be gaming on these machines.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 89 %
Center on Battery: 444.1 cd/m²
Contrast: 1200:1 (Black: 0.37 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 2.94 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5.1, calibrated: 3.05
ΔE Greyscale 2.9 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
99.8% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
78.2% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
87.9% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
99.8% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
97.7% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.1
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA AU Optronics B139KAN01.0, IPS, 13.90, 3300x2200 | Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 13 Core i5-1035G7 Sharp LQ135P1JX51, IPS, 13.50, 2256x1504 | Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 i7 JDI LPM139M422A, LTPS, 13.90, 3000x2000 | Asus ZenBook S13 UX392FN Tianma XM, IPS, 13.90, 1920x1080 | Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14IIL05 N140HCG-EQ1, , 14.00, 1920x1080 | Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 Sharp LQ134N1, IPS, 13.40, 1920x1200 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | -19% | -18% | -19% | -18% | -19% | |
| Display P3 Coverage | 97.7 | 65.7 -33% | 66.6 -32% | 67.5 -31% | 66.4 -32% | 66.3 -32% |
| sRGB Coverage | 99.8 | 98.6 -1% | 99.4 0% | 95.8 -4% | 98.8 -1% | 97.3 -3% |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 87.9 | 67.8 -23% | 68.6 -22% | 69 -22% | 68.4 -22% | 68.5 -22% |
| Response Times | -6% | 17% | 26% | 9% | 13% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 56.4 ? | 59.2 ? -5% | 49.6 ? 12% | 47.2 ? 16% | 51.2 ? 9% | 50 ? 11% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 38.8 ? | 41.6 ? -7% | 30.8 ? 21% | 24.8 ? 36% | 35.2 ? 9% | 33.2 ? 14% |
| PWM Frequency | 21740 ? | 29070 ? | 2500 ? | |||
| Screen | 21% | 28% | 16% | 11% | 3% | |
| Brightness middle | 444.1 | 403.4 -9% | 557 25% | 466 5% | 289 -35% | 607.6 37% |
| Brightness | 423 | 397 -6% | 532 26% | 462 9% | 286 -32% | 595 41% |
| Brightness Distribution | 89 | 89 0% | 87 -2% | 90 1% | 92 3% | 96 8% |
| Black Level * | 0.37 | 0.34 8% | 0.33 11% | 0.33 11% | 0.17 54% | 0.4 -8% |
| Contrast | 1200 | 1186 -1% | 1688 41% | 1412 18% | 1700 42% | 1519 27% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 2.94 | 0.94 68% | 1.4 52% | 1.93 34% | 2.5 15% | 3.23 -10% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 7.37 | 2.92 60% | 2.5 66% | 4.26 42% | 4.7 36% | 8.67 -18% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 3.05 | 0.99 68% | 0.7 77% | 1.99 35% | 0.6 80% | 1.01 67% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 2.9 | 0.9 69% | 2 31% | 1.7 41% | 3.4 -17% | 5.5 -90% |
| Gamma | 2.1 105% | 2.13 103% | 2.14 103% | 2.15 102% | 1.98 111% | 2.12 104% |
| CCT | 6766 96% | 6620 98% | 6689 97% | 6382 102% | 7005 93% | 6413 101% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 78.2 | 62.3 -20% | 62.5 -20% | 62.2 -20% | 62.6 -20% | 63 -19% |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 99.8 | 98.7 -1% | 99.5 0% | 95.7 -4% | 98.9 -1% | 97.5 -2% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -1% /
10% | 9% /
18% | 8% /
10% | 1% /
6% | -1% /
0% |
* ... smaller is better
Color space covers all of sRGB and 78 percent of AdobeRGB. Note that Asus advertises full DCI-P3 coverage meaning a small portion of the color space will not overlap with the AdobeRGB standard. Indeed, this is what we can observe as approximately 16 percent of the color space lies outside of AdobeRGB.
X-Rite colorimeter measurements reveal a well-calibrated display out of the box. Color temperature is slightly too cool which can be easily addressed.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 38.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 23.2 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 15.6 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 96 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.8 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 56.4 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 26.4 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 30 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 92 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (34.3 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18694 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance
Processor
CPU performance is within just a few percentage points of the average Core i7-1065G7 in our database taken from about 30 other laptops. When compared to the Core i7-8565U in last year's UX392, multi-thread performance is only about 15 percent faster after accounting for any performance throttling on both systems. Turbo Boost performance is not as long lasting as other laptops including the older UX392 as illustrated by our CineBench R15 xT loop comparison graph below.
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 -mmt1 | 7z b 4
Geekbench 5.5: Single-Core | Multi-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
| LibreOffice / 20 Documents To PDF | |
| Asus ZenBook 14 UX434FL-DB77 | |
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-42-R27B | |
| Average Intel Core i7-1065G7 (46.9 - 85.3, n=19) | |
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-42-R4XJ | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14ARE05 | |
| Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14ARE | |
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA | |
| Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA | |
| R Benchmark 2.5 / Overall mean | |
| Asus ZenBook 14 UX434FL-DB77 | |
| Average Intel Core i7-1065G7 (0.661 - 0.798, n=18) | |
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-42-R27B | |
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA | |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 5 14ARE05 | |
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-42-R4XJ | |
| Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14ARE | |
| Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA | |
* ... smaller is better
System Performance
We experienced a bug on our unit where the laptop would not recognize the plugged in USB-C AC adapter even after double-checking any settings on MyAsus. We had to discharge the battery further before the laptop would mysteriously recognize the plugged in adapter again.
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 3457 points | |
| PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 2460 points | |
| PCMark 10 Score | 4182 points | |
Help | ||
DPC Latency
LatencyMon reveals DPC latency issues related to storport.sys when opening multiple tabs on our homepage. 4K UHD video playback at 60 FPS is otherwise smooth and with no dropped frames during our minute-long YouTube test.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 | |
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA | |
| Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 | |
| Lenovo Yoga Slim 7-14IIL05 | |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
Asus laptops commonly come with Intel 660p SSDs and our UX393 is no exception. Unlike higher-end NVMe SSDs that can approach 3000 MB/s, however, transfer rates on this mid-range 1 TB Intel 660p cap out at "only" 1800 MB/s. This will not significantly impact real-world scenarios especially on an Ultrabook powered by a U-series CPU.
| Asus Zenbook S UX393JA Intel SSD 660p 1TB SSDPEKNW010T8 | Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5 SK Hynix BC501 HFM512GDJTNG | Huawei MateBook X Pro 2020 i7 Samsung PM981a MZVLB1T0HBLR | Asus ZenBook S13 UX392FN WDC PC SN520 SDAPNUW-512G | Dell XPS 13 9300 Core i7-1065G7 Intel SSDPEMKF512G8 NVMe SSD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS SSD | -13% | 87% | 13% | -9% | |
| Seq Read | 1405 | 1707 21% | 2737 95% | 1224 -13% | 1956 39% |
| Seq Write | 1062 | 510 -52% | 2530 138% | 907 -15% | 1227 16% |
| 4K Read | 50.8 | 38.77 -24% | 54 6% | 41.46 -18% | 63 24% |
| 4K Write | 124.9 | 100.9 -19% | 152.5 22% | 126.2 1% | 156.6 25% |
| 4K-64 Read | 590 | 630 7% | 2011 241% | 1021 73% | 475.6 -19% |
| 4K-64 Write | 840 | 707 -16% | 1260 50% | 1251 49% | 539 -36% |
| Access Time Read * | 0.041 | 0.085 -107% | 0.066 -61% | 0.053 -29% | 0.042 -2% |
| Access Time Write * | 0.118 | 0.035 70% | 0.024 80% | 0.027 77% | 0.105 11% |
| Score Read | 781 | 839 7% | 2339 199% | 1185 52% | 734 -6% |
| Score Write | 1071 | 859 -20% | 1666 56% | 1468 37% | 818 -24% |
| Score Total | 2251 | 2077 -8% | 5191 131% | 3250 44% | 1915 -15% |
| Copy ISO MB/s | 1459 | 1404 -4% | 1022 -30% | ||
| Copy Program MB/s | 600 | 402.4 -33% | 302.8 -50% | ||
| Copy Game MB/s | 1411 | 902 -36% | 491.4 -65% | ||
| CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6 | -27% | 42% | 5% | 33% | |
| Write 4K | 129.5 | 88.4 -32% | 165.6 28% | 149.2 15% | 186.8 44% |
| Read 4K | 54 | 39.53 -27% | 50.2 -7% | 47.18 -13% | 71.4 32% |
| Write Seq | 1265 | 691 -45% | 1905 51% | 750 -41% | 1203 -5% |
| Read Seq | 1410 | 1032 -27% | 1669 18% | 1137 -19% | 2600 84% |
| Write 4K Q32T1 | 420.3 | 279.6 -33% | 474.6 13% | 749 78% | 514 22% |
| Read 4K Q32T1 | 357.7 | 261.6 -27% | 508 42% | 478.7 34% | 570 59% |
| Write Seq Q32T1 | 1799 | 868 -52% | 3007 67% | 1453 -19% | 786 -56% |
| Read Seq Q32T1 | 1616 | 2075 28% | 3556 120% | 1713 6% | 2947 82% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -20% /
-19% | 65% /
68% | 9% /
10% | 12% /
6% |
* ... smaller is better
Disk Throttling: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
GPU Performance
Graphics performance is where we expect it to be relative to other laptops with the same Iris Plus G7 GPU if not slightly higher. 3DMark results also show it to be neck-to-neck with the GeForce MX150 in the older UX392. Nonetheless, real-world gaming performance will often be slower than the MX150 due to various factors in favor of the Nvidia GPU including more optimized drivers, dedicated VRAM, and a higher TDP ceiling of up to 25 W.
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 4461 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 13064 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 2669 points | |
| 3DMark Time Spy Score | 957 points | |
Help | ||