Asus ZenBook Flip S (UX371): Stunning OLED Display

The Asus ZenBook Flip S is an appealing 2-in-1 laptop on multiple fronts. On the physical side, it’s a high-quality, highly portable convertible with a gorgeous 4K OLED touch screen. Inside, it’s one of the first laptops we’ve reviewed with one of Intel’s new 11th Generation “Tiger Lake” mobile processors, and the first with Intel’s “Evo” trustmark.

- MATTHEW BUZZI

The build and feature set are strong (we bemoan the missing headphone jack, though a dongle is included), and the overall performance is good. But this laptop falls short of the two other “Tiger Lake” systems we’ve tested so far, including one with the same CPU. We didn’t see big gains in general speed or integrated graphics, and since we know other designs are capable of more, we have to dock the ZenBook Flip S. If you’re less concerned with margins of power, though, you’ll find this an attractive convertible at a fair price. The Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 is still our top pick.

LUXE LOOKS AND A LIGHTWEIGHT BUILD

Considering its price tag and design, the ZenBook Flip S is certainly a premium laptop. You can find more expensive ultraportables and 2-in-1s, but many have a lower starting price and scale up higher depending on configuration. This model (UX371) is the only configuration for this laptop, so it sits above the starting prices of many competitors, but it’s also nicer than average. The more popular configurations of those machines—systems like the aforementioned Dell, the HP Spectre x360 13, and the 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro—will ring up close in price to the ZenBook Flip S.

To outline what you’re getting for $1,449, this laptop is equipped with a Tiger Lake Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of memory, a 1TB M.2 SSD for storage, and a 4K (3,840-by-2,160-pixel) OLED touch screen. It also qualifies as an Intel Evo (the replacement for Project Athena) system, meeting a list of requirements for thin-and-light laptops that ensure portability and usability with the new generation of Intel processors. As a result, it bears an Evo sticker on the keyboard deck.