Think about it like an ultrabook marathon. People are non stop buying these things, and there's a reason for it. It's like when cronuts came around, or a more comparable, quite worthy competitor, the Dell XPS 13 9365. However this is neither, this is a new Zenbook, a nice and light, compact device that not only handles everything you'd expect from an ultrabook, but has enough processing power to game on. That would certainly be a perk or multiple audiences. Overall, it's considered a 4 out of 5, an 8 out of 10; whatever you want it to be dubbed as, it's a pretty darn good ultrabook overall. From excellent performance, utilizing the latest 8th gen Intel Kaby Lake chip, to a long lasting battery life, It's a pretty little package with a substantial price.

As we continually hear tech companies spit out similar claims, such as “the first”, or “the world’s first”, Asus wants us to know that the new Zenbook 13 UX331UN is “currently the world's thinnest laptop with discrete graphics”. The importance of such claims is simple- this ultrabook thoroughly performs in all areas, without sacrificing a good lengthy battery life, or the type of integral graphics consumers want. Rather than the recent, and more “best selling” laptops, thought of as having traditional 15.6-inch displays, this new unit from Asus has a 13.3-inch, 16:9 ratio 1920 x 1080 LCD screen. It’s external figure features a metal brushed display lid, as well as simple gray casing (pretty much molding the typical ultrabook from the past year), with a weight of 2.42 pounds, and 13.9mm display (a mere millimeter thicker than Dell’s XPS 13 9365). The only “unupdated” consideration is probably the thicker bezels around the screen’s edge.

Inside, features an Intel Core i7-8550U chip (1.80Hz, 4.0 Turbo), paired with an Nvidia GeForce MX150, all along with 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB to 512GB SATA SSD (M.2). The fan design, which by the way runs quietly, is not only installed to with to keep internals cool, but by pushing 30 percent more air through the laptop’s chassis, cools the parts where fingerprints and hands touch. The ZenBook 13 UX331UN also has more than the bottom barrel of connectivity and ports, including two USB-A 3.0s, a USB-C 3.1 (not supporting Thunderbolt 3.0), a full-sized HDMI, a microSD card reader, and a combo audio jack. There’s a separate power jack and connector to substantiate for the lack of USB-C as a powering port.

Does this ultrabook pretty much feature “the works”? With a super CPU on board, there’s more going on than just entry-level computing here. On top of that, those who work or play on this can do it well, with up to an “all day” battery life (especially when running lower tasks on such an efficient processor), thanks to a 50Wh battery, worth 14 hours, that Asus somehow fit inside this thin machine. Consumers who need to handle anything from everyday activities, like browsing, watching movies or creating documents, the Asus Zenbook 13 UX331UN delivers. It not only delivers all the basics mentioned, but also games, as well as graphics editing. It's, more or less, the “whole enchilada”, for all around computing, with a travel-friendly size and good price, starting at $999.