ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 Laptop with Innovative Screenpad, 15.6” UHD 4K Touch, Intel Core i9-8950HK, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB PCIe SSD, Backlit KB, Windows 10 Pro, UX580GE-XB74T

Before I start, I must say I am really impress with the delivery speed. I ordered this laptop (sold by Amazon and delivered by UPS) the night of Oct. 3rd, and it was delivered the morning of Oct 5th... and I live across the border in Canada! I had originally hoped to get the blue version from Taiwan, but it had been out of stock for weeks, so I got the black one from the States instead. The laptop body is very well built. Slim and full aluminum body, circular metallic pattern and ASUS logo that lights up when turned on, the glass trackpad and fingerprint sensor, ultra-thin bezel, perfect. There are four speakers: two on the sides, and two from the bottom front, resulting in loud and crisp sounds. Hinge resistance is just right as I can open the laptop single-handedly. Screen brightness is slightly darker and feels cooler than my last ASUS laptop (K43S) from 2011, but this is more comfortable for my eyes. Keyboard has slight flex, but sturdy, not as bad as some video online shows. I checked the lightbleed and found there is little to none for my machine, thats great. I do not really use SD cards at all, so the micro SD is a non-issue for me, but some people may not like this design. Performance wise, its blazing fast. As a graphic designer / full stack developer, this is a perfect machine for my everyday professional work. As I am not a heavy gamer, I cant say much about how this machine performs in gaming, so I will leave for others to review that, but for a light gamer this is more than enough. I have not get the time to see how ventilation works under heavy load, but with only two arrays of small vents at the back I suspect it may not be too well. I do have a couple issues with it though. First, the power bar is a giant brick. I did expect a powerful machine to have a bigger AC converter, but the size of it (about three iPhone7s stacked together) still startled me, and it weights about half kg. Second one is a bit troubling: the machine makes some small buzzing sound when some processes are running; it could be the coil whine some people are talking about. Its not loud, but its audible in a quiet room so I might want to open it up and check one day. The issues aside, this is a very good laptop in terms of quality and performance. This is the laptop of choice for me this year, and I would definitely recommend it for professional users (though probably not gamers).

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UPDATE: After using this laptop for well over a year as my primary dev workstation and gaming device, I can confirm this is very solid. I built an eGPU rig (HP Omen Accelerator/GTX 1070ti) and they work very well together (since the drivers from ~8 months ago). I can play Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 4k, medium settings at ~30-60 fps. 1080p at Max settings is stable at 60+ fps. Most other new games perform similarly. :: END UPDATE I have been researching and waiting for a device like this for a long time. The goal was a laptop that could handle heavy software development, medium gaming, has Thunderbolt 3, less than 5 lbs, and gets great battery life. This laptop has/does it all with ease. My primary focus was a solid CPU and decent monitor as my primary use case is software development. I have a MacBook Pro (Late 2016) provided by my job. While it has good CPU power, its drivers are way behind and do not support everything Windows 10 has to offer. This ASUS has support for all Windows 10 features; specifically, I am interested in the PTP capabilities for easy multi-desktop work. It also is a nice weight at just over 4lbs. There are plenty of reviews out there, so Ill just touch on the differences I count important. The nVidia 1050 Ti GPU is a very nice value add to this already inspired laptop. I can play Portal 2 and Portal Stories with the FPS capped at 60 and the GPU usage averages 38%. I have also tested its connectivity over its HDMI and USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 to DisplayPort and everything works well. My secondary goal was decent mobile gaming with the option dock into an eGPU over Thunderbolt 3. While I have not tested this yet, it has the necessary ports and specs. I will update when I have the full rig built. There is currently (as of v388.13) a bug in the nVidia GPU driver that causes unacceptably high CPU and GPU clock at idle (desktop, no application running). My solution has been to disable the nVidia GPU in Device Manager when Im not using it. Contrary to some reviews, I like the keyboard on this laptop. Yes, the keys have a bit more travel that other premium options. And yes, they are a bit softer than some. But, I like it this way. They are still fast and responsive. I cannot give this laptop that last start for the following reasons: There is not option, in North America, that I can find to get one without the touchscreen. I dont like them, I dont use them, and I dont want to pay for it. Next, it will not charge off the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. I understand the power requirements of this device *can* go above the 100w provided by the spec. But, it should be allowed as an option given the user acknowledging the limitations. I say it *can* go above 100w but I have never seen it get even close in all my tests. Thats about it. Everything else is great. I consider the ASUS ZenBook Pro, the MacBook Pro for those who want Windows for far less expense.

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pros: excellent specifications (powerful processor i7-8750H ,16gb,and 1050 TI) put all together in a lightweight 4k laptop. Best speaker I have ever seen on a laptop The cooling mechanism is better than other laptops in the same price range. Cons: Crappy camera on such a professional laptop. In online meeting this camera is terrible. Build quality is excellent, but it doesnt match other rivals like Specter or XPS in the same price range. Additionally, battery life will not impress you, in my regular usage (surfing and youtube) I get 5 hours at max. Touch-pad occasionally stops working for a seconds then goes back to normal.

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I use this device for development and some gaming. The 6-core i7 is an amazing amount of power for a laptop. The only real down side is the battery life. Between the i7 and the 1050 gpu you can burn through the battery in no time under heavy work loads. Its more like a portable workstation with a battery backup than a laptop. - Out of 5 stars: Build Quality: 5 Screen: 5 - as good as any mac book pro screen. Keyboard: 4 - a little flat on the rebound. Track-pad: 4 Webcam: 4 - low res but works well. Sound: 5 - Great sound!! Performance: 5 - Fastest non gaming laptop I have seen. Size/Form-factor: 5 - about the same a 2016 mbp. If you plan you use this laptop with external monitors and a keyboard its the perfect mobile workstation. If you need to work unplugged, continually on the move then there are better options with less power. As a bonus you can run linux on this laptop without an issue including support for its nvidia gpu.

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I like it, I mean it, but I cant bring it to school wtihout my charger, it just cant last that long! The battery life can only last 4.5 hours maximum of school work. Everything else seems so nice for this Ultrabook, it is good for gaming when I got home because it has a GTX 1050 Ti, which is better than DELL XPS 15. it is good at doing some work. And it is beautiful with the Brushed metal design.

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