ASUS ZenBook UX3400UQ Laptop Review

Miniaturization is a great blessing. Over the years, engineers cram more computing power into a unit, often reducing power consumption and heat transfer. It seems that quite recently the video cards of the Nvidia GeForce 9xx series were a lot of hefty gaming laptops, whose proportions, weight and elegance are closer to the products of the plant of iron-concrete products. And now the video cards of the same l can be found in thin and seemingly fragile laptops, not far from the prefix "ultra-". Yes, let the younger video card series 9xx, but still! ASUS ZenBook UX3400UQ (UX430 UQ) with Nvidia GeForce 940MX became one of such “magic” notebooks.

Specifications

Processor :

• Intel Core i7-7500U. 2.7 GHz, two cores, Turbo Boost up to 3.5 GHz, 4 MB cache
• Intel Core i5-7200U. 2.5 GHz, two cores, Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz, 3 MB cache
• Intel Core i3-7100U. 2.4 GHz, two cores, 3 MB cache.

Video card :
GeForce Nvidia 940MX
Intel HD Graphics 620
RAM : 4/8/16 GB, DDR4, 2133 MHz
Display : 14 inches, 1920x1080, matte,
Storage : SSD, SATA3 / M.2, 128/256/512 GB
Connectors :
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• 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C with support for external displays
• 1 x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
• 1 x USB 2.0
• 1 x Micro HDMI
• 1 x combo audio jack
• 1 x SD card slot

Sound : Supports ASUS Sonic Master technology, Harman Kardon certification
Wireless :

• Wi-Fi 802.11ac (compatible with Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n)
• Bluetooth 4.1

Battery : Li-Po, 50 Wh
Power supply : output 19 V, 65 W
Dimensions : 324 x 225 x 15.9 (W x D x H)
Weight : 1.25 kg

Appearance

The new ZenBook looks very impressive: the lid is covered with polished plastic with a mysteriously iridescent Zen corporate design. It is applied using the nanoimprint lithography method, the pattern seems to be born in depth, it looks especially beautiful in the living.



The lid is aluminum, but not rigid, but flexible - when you lift it or lower it by one of the corners, it is noticeably bent. In this case, the feeling of fragility or fragility does not occur. It seems to me that the rejection of high rigidity is fully justified: with a sharp and heavy load, the flexible lid will spring, but the hard lid is not a fact. In addition, the hard cover frame obviously would have cost more.



The bottom of the case is also made of a single sheet of metal, without any hatches. On the sides of the front side are the speaker grids.





On the right is a reader for SD cards and a USB 2.0 connector.



And on the left are the connectors: power, USB 3.1, Micro HDMI, audio and USB 3.1 Type C.



The display is dull - hurray! It is surrounded by a frame made of textured plastic. On the sides, its width is only 7 mm, on top a little more. The fact is that the body of the new ZenBook in size - like the usual 13-inch laptops, but it fit 14-inch display. So if earlier you wanted to take a bigger screen with you, but the usual 14-inch laptops were too large and heavy, now you can take the same 14-inch diagonal display, but in the form factor of a 13-inch laptop.







There are several holes above: two microphones at the edges, an HD camera lens in the center (like a needle pierced), an indicator of its operation to the left of the camera, and an illumination sensor on the right.



The aluminum keypad is pleasantly smooth to the touch. The key travel is 1.4 mm, there is a white backlight with three levels of brightness. The surface of the keyboard is rather rough, the fingers practically do not slip, which is very convenient, considering the very small height of the keys.











The touchpad is large, comfortable, with a glass coating, but slightly rough, it turns out very comfortable glide. I got a review of the ZenBook UX3400UQ version with a fingerprint sensor, but there will be a slightly cheaper version without a sensor on sale. I think it is not necessary to explain how convenient the sensor is for unlocking a computer.

Display

The 14-inch display of the new ZenBook belongs to the NanoEdge line. Its resolution is 1920x1080 - for such a diagonal above the roof. Matte surface perfectly "extinguishes" glare. The UX3400UQ uses a very high-quality IPS-matrix, I really liked its color rendition, and the viewing angles are so large (178 degrees), as if you are twisting a paper picture in front of you, rather than being displayed.

Sound

The laptop supports ASUS Sonic Master technology, and the sound system is certified by Harman Kardon, which is indicated by its logo under the cursor keys. And for such a baby, the UX3400UQ really sounds nice and convincing. Of course, the chair below you will not vibrate from the bass, but when listening to music I didn’t want to quickly plug my overhead Sennheiser headphones into the slot - the laptop copes with the role of the audio system for a small room.

Performance

The UX3400UQ can be supplied with three seventh generation Intel Core processors - i7, i5 and i3. I got a review of the average model, with i5-7200U , clock speed up to 2.5 GHz. Also, the laptop is supplied with a different amount of RAM - 4, 8 or 16 GB DDR4.



The drive is only SSD, either with SATA3 interface, or with M.2. Capacity is also different - 128, 256 or 512 GB. I had 128 GB SATA 3.



The laptop comes with Windows 10, you can install Linux on it only at your own risk and risk - the manufacturer does not offer drivers for non-Microsoft OSes.

The ZenBook UX3400UQ has two video cards: integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 and discrete Nvidia GeForce 940MX with 2 GB of memory.



The ZenBook UX3400UQ uses a very efficient cooling system that copes well with the heat flow of the video card. Of course, the 940MX is heated much less than the older line of notebook GeForce 9xx video cards, not to mention the desktop line. But for such a thin notebook with a dense layout, in which every cubic millimeter counts, 940MX is a very powerful source of heat. The engineers did an excellent job - during the games, the device heats up moderately, and at low and medium loads it is generally slightly warm. By the way, the UX3400UQ (430) is the thinnest ZenBook with a discrete video card over the entire existence of this line of devices. Judging by the heating of the case, the video card is located approximately in the middle and closer to the hinge of the cover. A plastic grill of the ventilation system passes along the entire hinge, and the output radiator is on the right (as viewed from the display). It is possible that this common radiator is for the video card and for the central processor. With a large load, the noise of the air is very noticeable, but I did not feel any discomfort - for many people, ordinary computers under the tables howl much louder.



Of course, the GeForce 940MX did not turn a small laptop into a powerful gaming machine. In modern shooters on the UX3400UQ not chopped up, but on it I have quite vigorously ran many other, not so heavy games that are too tough for laptops of a similar class, but without a similar video card. And it's not about browser games, but about quite independent and fairly modern games from Steam. If you need an even more powerful compact laptop, then look at the UX3400UN (UX430UN) model with a discrete GeForce MX150 video card.


From 100% to 20%, the charge of the laptop fell in almost 5 hours, this is using the OpenCL framework to improve performance.

Conclusion

ASUS ZenBook UX3400UQ is a laptop for those who are very important lightness and compactness, but it lacks the power of the integrated video card. For example, when traveling with the whole family, you can not only watch a movie on it, but also divert your favorite child with some more complicated solitaire game. However, it will be possible to distract yourself and drive into some decent game. Also, the UX3400UQ can be used as an on-site laptop for taking photos and videos, right on the site looking at the footage. Finally, if you need to train some kind of neural network, and there are no other possibilities, then you can assign this difficult task to a notebook GeForce 940MX. Yes, it will be a long time, yes, one cannot do without an outlet, but if it is urgent and different in any way, then at least there is a backup option. And once again I remind you - if you need an even more powerful video card in a compact laptop, then take a closer look at the ASUS ZenBook UX3400UN (UX430UN) model with the GeForce 150MX.

Recommended retail price: from 44990 rubles.