04 Jan
Blog

MSI Prestige 14 Evo Review: Tiger Lake Stretches Its Legs

msi prestige 14 evo review 01

"The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is a thin and light ultrabook with impressive performance."

  • Impressive performance

  • Solid build quality

  • Good battery life

  • Attractive design

  • The keyboard and touchpad are not precise enough

  • Dim the display

MSI is best known for its gaming equipment, but the company has repeatedly tried to go beyond its specialty. Like brands like Razer, MSI wants to use its gaming reputation to expand to more mainstream laptops.

The Prestige 14 Evo is the latest – and perhaps most ambitious – attempt at doing this. MSI worked closely with Intel on the 11th generation of Tiger Lake processors and the new Evo certification (hence the name).

My test device has an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1185G7, the fastest Tiger Lake CPU, as well as 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB solid-state drive (SSD). The 14-inch laptop is priced at $ 1,199, a low price for such a high-end configuration. Some retailers even sell it for just $ 950. But is it enough to convince myself that MSI has a future beyond gaming?

design

Let's get "cheap" questions out of the way. The Prestige 14 Evo is made of aluminum and feels solid all around. That is, with the exception of the display, which has a certain flex when pressure is applied. Both the keyboard deck and the bottom of the case feel robust and leave an overall impression of solid workmanship. It's still half a step behind Lenovo and Asus in the 14-inch class and Dell and HP if you're looking for 13-inch alternatives. The Prestige 14 Evo doesn't feel "cheap", but it could certainly benefit from a firmer lid.

It's also an attractive device with three color options: Carbon Gray, Rose Pink, and Pure White. I received the Carbon Gray version which has a darker silhouette. Despite the beveled edges, it is a conservatively designed laptop without any gloss. Even the MSI logo is a dark shade on the lid and it's easy to miss if you're not looking at exactly the right angle. The lines are clean and elegant, with a sharp taper on the bottom from back to front.

There is no bling at all.

I will notice that the Carbon Gray surface is a fingerprint magnet and it's not that easy to remove stains.

The display hinge lifts the back of the case off the desk nicely and offers plenty of space underneath to allow air to move and noises to come out of the two-floor speakers. The Asus ZenBook UX425EA is similar, although Asus adds some flair with concentric rings engraved in the lid.

The Prestige 14 Evo is thin and light for a 14-inch, 0.63-inch, 2.85-pound laptop, though it's neither the thinnest nor the lightest you can get in this class of machine. The ZenBook 14 is 0.54 inches and weighs 2.58 pounds, while the Acer Swift 5 is another 14-inch notebook from Tiger Lake that is even lighter at 2.31 pounds. The thickness of 0.59 inches is between the MSI and the Asus.

Each of these machines has small bezels with a screen-to-body ratio of around 90% and therefore has a modern appearance when the lid is open. Speaking of the lid, the Prestige 14 Evo's hinge is well constructed and only needs one hand to open while it resists the wobbling.

Connectivity is a bit of light for the class. There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left and a single USB-A 2.0 port (oddly enough) for a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack on the right.

As with the Acer Swift 5, you often get an HDMI 2.0 port, which is missing here. However, the wireless connectivity is cutting edge with both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.

performance

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is one of the fastest laptops in its class that I have tested. That sounds impressive on the surface, but it's also the first laptop I've tested with the Core i7-1185G7. I'm still learning what to expect from the latest generation of processors from Intel, but one thing is certain: the MSI Prestige 14 Evo impressed me.

The first test I ran was PCMark 10, which I ran on a handful of newer laptops with Intel 10th and 11th generation CPUs. The Prestige 14 Evo achieved the second highest value in this group with 4866 and only lost to the Lenovo Yoga 9i with the 45 watt Core i7-10750H CPU with six cores and 5173.

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is one of the fastest laptops in its class.

The Prestige 14 Evo was faster than any other Tiger Lake notebook we tested by a good margin. Interestingly, the Porsche Design Acer Book RS with its surprisingly fast Core i5-1135G7 was Tiger Lake's closest competitor. Looking at each element of the PCMark 10 Complete test, the Prestige 14 Evo was particularly productive (spreadsheet and word processing) and creation (photo editing, video playback and playback, and video editing), while lagging behind some other laptops in the Only category Essentials (starting the app, video conferencing, surfing the Internet).

These results make the MSI a relatively faster laptop for more demanding tasks than basic computing. So if your main focus is to browse the web and spend time zooming, you don't need the power of the MSI.

In our handbrake test, which encodes a 420 MB video at H.265, the Prestige 14 Evo took just under two and 45 minutes, a fast score that surpasses any other U-series CPU. You need to look at laptops like the Lenovo Yoga 9i for faster results on Intel laptops (AMD Ryzen 4000 series laptops are a bit faster too). However, if you're looking for a laptop with a Tiger Lake CPU, the Prestige 14 Evo is the fastest you can find right now.

The same was true for Cinebench R23, where the Prestige 14 Evo achieved a strong 1,513 points in the single core score (after the Apple Mac Mini with the new Apple M1 chipset) and 5,789 points in the multi-core test. I'll repeat myself here: the Prestige 14 Evo is the fastest U-series CPU we've tested, and it's not really close. MSI did an excellent job of setting the CPU and managing the thermals so that the Prestige 14 Evo is the best example of Tiger Lake's potential.

Given the Intel Iris Xe graphics provided by the Tiger Lake platform, we should also briefly touch on gaming. These integrated graphics have so far offered an almost discrete low-end graphics performance and are well above the previous integrated graphics from Intel.

The Prestige 14 Evo even masters Fortnite surprisingly well. (/

Given MSI's experience with gaming laptops, the Prestige 14 Evo didn't seem as strong in graphics performance as its processor at first glance. In the synthetic 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, it achieved a rather low value of 1,465 behind the Porsche Design Acer Book RS with 1,504 and the Acer Swift 5 with 1,686. It managed to beat the anemic value of the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA of 1,281.

However, I also ran Fortnite to test a real world game that would fit in with the capabilities of the Intel Iris Xe graphics performance. It handles it surprisingly well. The Prestige 14 Evo managed 42 frames per second (fps) at 1080p and high graphics, which in turn outperforms any other Tiger Lake laptop. The fastest so far, the Intel reference laptop, ran at 34 fps. The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 with an Nvidia GeForce MX350 achieved 37 fps. At Epic Graphics, the Prestige 14 Evo was 28 fps, the reference laptop 29 fps and the Lenovo 24 fps.

At least in a game like Fortnite, the MSI doesn't do justice to its low 3DMark score. And a game like Fortnite is definitely on the verge of what you'd want to play on a Tiger Lake laptop.

display

MSI was smart enough to equip the Prestige 14 Evo with a 1 watt IPS display with low power consumption and 1080p. This selection should help balance the fast CPU in terms of battery life, as we'll discuss later in the review.

It comes in a 16: 9 aspect ratio, which feels a bit dated at this point. Dell, HP, and Lenovo have started turning to higher displays in their premium laptops that offer either 16:10 or 3: 2. In comparison, 16: 9 feels stocky, especially with the large lower bezel.

According to my colorimeter, this is an average display for a premium laptop with only one obvious weakness. In fact, "glare" is the wrong word because while the display does well on other metrics, its brightness is only 228 nits. This is well below the 300-nit threshold we love to see on premium displays, and it may be too dark for many brightly-lit offices.

The color range of the display is 97% of sRGB and 73% of AdobeRGB. Most other premium laptops can be found here. Some brands like Dell and Lenovo offer 4K displays with much larger gamuts (up to 100% of sRGB and AdobeRGB). Creative users who need lots of color will want to check out these brands.

The display of the Prestige 14 Evo scored quite well in terms of color accuracy with 1.3, whereby 1.0 and less are indistinguishable to the human eye and are the standard for excellent displays. Finally, the contrast ratio was 940: 1, just below the 1000: 1 we like to see on premium laptops.

Compare this display to the very good ones on the Acer Swift 5 and Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA and you will find that brightness is the only differentiator – albeit an important one. Note that the Lenovo Yoga 7i, in contrast, was an outlier, only scoring 690: 1 and making for a muted panel.

Overall, if you're not in an overly bright environment, you'll love this display for productivity work and Netflix. However, if you turn up the ambient lighting, you will be disappointed. If you work in bright environments, the MSI can be a problem for you.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard of the Prestige 14 Evo is in the typical island style with spacious key caps, comfortable key spacing and a lot of spring travel. My only complaint is that the switches were a little soft which made them feel light but without a precise floor effect. This reduced my accuracy and speed as I wasn't quite so sure that I had registered the correct keystroke.

I found the keyboard just one step behind my favorites, the HP Specter line of keyboards, Dell's latest XPS 13, and the best of them, Apple's Magic Keyboard on the latest MacBooks. But it's not so blatant that the average person would disapprove of the typing experience.

The problems with the touchpad are a bit more noticeable. It's pretty wide, although not as big as I'd like it to be. I also found it too deep in terms of key movement. You really need to learn to register a click. While that click is one of the quieter ones you'll experience, the touchpad could be streamlined for me.

However, the touchpad is a Microsoft Precision version, which means that it responds well to Windows 10's multi-touch gestures. My device was not equipped with a touch display and a touch version is not offered. I regularly use Touch for scrolling long web pages and the like, and I missed it here.

MSI chose to place the fingerprint reader, which supports passwordless Windows 10 Hello login, in the upper left corner of the touchpad. This is my least favorite place for a fingerprint reader and worse than placing it directly on the power button (like on the Dell XPS 13) or at least a separate area on the keyboard deck. Still, it worked well and signed me up quickly and without a lot of fuss.

Battery life

MSI equipped the Prestige 14 Evo with just 52 watt hours of battery life, which is a bit sparse for a 14-inch laptop with such a powerful CPU. Part of Intel's Evo certification is the ability to achieve nine or more hours of battery life for typical tasks. From my testing, the Prestige 14 Evo will likely do this – hardly.

First, I ran our web browsing test, which iterated over a number of popular websites. It gives a fair estimate of light productivity consumption, and the Prestige 14 Evo lasted about 7.25 hours. This is a below average duration for the class. The ZenBook 14 UX425EA lasts 10 hours and the Acer Swift 5 a less impressive eight hours.

Switch to the PCMark 10 Applications score, which provides a more direct comparison with productivity longevity, and the Prestige 14 Eve did a significantly better job at almost 10.5 hours. This is a new test for us so we don't have that many computers to compare it to. However, this value is only 22 minutes behind the Dell XPS 13 9310, the longest-lasting we tested and the laptop outperforms the older XPS 13 7390 with a 10th generation Core i7. Combine these two and the MSI can take the nine hours required for Evo certification.

I also ran the PCMark 10 gaming battery test which put a strain on the CPU and GPU. It replaces the Basemark web benchmark test that we ran in the past and that cannot be completed on Tiger Lake laptops. The Prestige 14 Evo took a little over 1.5 hours on the lower end of our limited database. The Acer Swift 5 lasted just under two hours, while the XPS 13 9310 was strong with almost four hours in this test.

Finally, I used our video test grinding a Full HD Avengers trailer and the Prestige 14 Evo took a little over 16 hours to complete. This is a strong score that surpasses the XPS 13 9310, Acer Swift 5, and ZenBook 14 UX425EA – largely thanks to the low-power display that MSI selected for the machine.

Ultimately, the Prestige 14 Evo gives you a full day of work unless you hit the CPU and GPU. And it will likely meet the Evo certification requirements of nine hours of typical use.

Our opinion

The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is the fastest Intel U-Series notebook we tested and outperforms any other example by a lot. It competes more strongly with the latest offerings from AMD than the rest of the class while offering decent battery life.

You won't indulge the build quality of the Prestige 14 Evo either, because for $ 1,199 you get a very well configured laptop with just one slightly flexible display that you can complain about. The laptop's biggest weakness is its display brightness, but it's a competitor everywhere else.

Are there alternatives?

The Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA is a viable alternative to the MSI. Keep it in Performance mode and it'll stay in close proximity to the much faster Prestige 14 Eve, but you have to deal with louder fans. It's a bit more solid than the MSI, with an HDMI port and a better display. You spend about $ 100 more on the Asus and get the slightly slower Core i7-1165G7.

The Acer Swift 5 is another solid alternative to the Prestige 14 Evo. It's the next fastest Tiger Lake laptop, and it's about $ 100 more expensive too, while also sporting the slower Core i7. The Swift 5 is also lighter than the MSI and the display is brighter.

If you like the idea of ​​a 2-in-1 then the HP Specter x360 13 is a great choice. It can also be outfitted with Tiger Lake, although we haven't had a chance to test the latest version yet, and features a stunning OLED display that will blow the Prestige 14 Evo's display away. You'll spend a little more on the same configuration, but you'll get a wonder that's a little smaller than the MSI.

Finally, the Dell XPS 13 remains one of the best laptops out there and should always be considered. The Tiger Lake update shows what may already be the perfect laptop. As you spend more on the XPS 13 and give up some of the MSI's performance, you get a great design to go with it.

How long it will take?

The Prestige 14 Evo is so well built you don't have to worry about years of downtime, and it's built with components designed to keep Windows 10 running for just as long. You only get a one year warranty, but this is industry standard.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The MSI Prestige 14 Evo is the fastest ultrabook you can buy, and it's a great choice in the 14-inch laptop class.

Editor's recommendations




19 Nov
Blog

Dell XPS 13 9310 Review: Tiger Lake Perfects Perfection

Dell XPS 13 9310 Featured Image

Dell XPS 13 9310 review: Tiger Lake perfects perfection

"The XPS 13 9310 with Tiger Lake isn't so much faster than the Ivy Lake version that you'll be forced to upgrade, but it solidifies the XPS 13 as the best there is."

  • Optimized design

  • Tiny bezels all around

  • 16:10 display increases productivity

  • The keyboard and touchpad are larger and excellent

  • Solid productivity performance

  • Connectivity is limited

  • The battery life has been downgraded

I've checked many laptops for digital trends over the past few years and it has been great. There was a loophole in my experience though – I'd never had the chance to review a Dell XPS laptop, which was pretty disappointing. So imagine my excitement when I was assigned the Tiger Lake upgrade of the Dell XPS 13 for review.

I got a fairly high-quality configuration of the XPS 13 9310 for $ 1,550 – the base price is $ 1,150 – with an 11th generation quad-core Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB PCIe -Solid-state drive (SSD) and a 13.4-inch full HD display in the new 16:10 aspect ratio from Dell. I know that my editor Luke Larsen loves the XPS 13 and has consistently rated it as the best notebook on the market. I asked myself: would I feel the same way?

design

Dell XPS 13 9310 designMark Coppock / Digital Trends

OK, after spending some time with the new XPS 13, I get it. The latest versions are really well designed laptops. I say this because I haven't had a chance to spend much time with one until my test unit arrived, and while I trust Luke to do a thorough and accurate review, it's the rare laptop I believe will earned the perfect score he assigned the last version.

From a design point of view, it's perfectly proportioned and just enough aesthetic elements are mixed in to enhance the otherwise simple design. Compared to the HP Specter x360 13 (in my opinion the strongest competitor of the XPS 13) with its gem-carved design and outstanding color schemes, the XPS 13 looks serious. While I love the HP and actually consider it one of my favorites, I can appreciate what Dell has done with the XPS 13 as well. There is no unnecessary line or angle on the case of the laptop – it just looks right. My test device is the arctic white model with a woven fiberglass palm rest that is not only comfortable but also looks good. The new aluminum strips on the sides add a little flair, and the tiny bezels that wrap around the display thanks to the 16:10 aspect ratio are as modern as possible.

And yes, the build quality is excellent. The laptop feels just like a premium laptop – although it's made from different materials like glass, metal, and fiberglass, it's all somehow fused into one cohesive whole. There's nowhere to bend, twist, or bend. Other laptops, like the Specter x360 13 and competitive Asus laptops, can boast the same thing, but there's no doubt that the XPS 13 is firmly anchored among the best of the group. That includes you, MacBook Pro.

Dell has also gone to some extra effort to ensure durability, such as: B. by double dipping the aluminum on the side during anodizing so that you don't scratch the surface every time you connect a peripheral device. The hinge can be easily opened with one hand and then tightened at the right moment to hold the display firmly in place.

Compared to the previous XPS 13 (not the last version, but the previous one), the laptop is 0.58 "thinner than 0.62", which is significantly thinner than the 0.67 "of the Specter x360 13. It comes with 2.8 pounds versus 2.7 pounds the smallest bit heavier than the previous generation, and the Specter x360 13 outperforms both at 2.88 pounds. To be honest, these are tiny differences. If you hold the XPS 13 next to the Specter x360 13, you'll find that it's only the smallest bit deeper and the smallest bit less wide. In practice, they are essentially the same in how small they feel when you carry them around and use them on your lap.

I'm going to criticize the XPS 13 a bit for its connectivity, which only includes two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support (in the Tiger Lake manifestation) and a microSD card reader. The Specter x360 13 also offers you two Thunderbolt 4 ports (in the latest version) and a USB-A 3.1 port for your older devices. Make sure you carry around the included USB-C to USB-A dongle, which Dell throws in the box. Of course, there is also Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 to make sure your wireless connection is as up-to-date as possible.

performance

Dell XPS 13 9310 performanceMark Coppock / Digital Trends

Will Tiger Lake Make the XPS 13 a Faster Laptop? The answer is of course yes. How much faster? That is the more important question.

Starting with Geekbench 5, the XPS 13 equipped with a Core i7-1165G7 achieved 1,540 points in the single-core test and 5,432 points in the multi-core test. This is comparable to the Ivy Lake Core i7-1065G7 version with 1,329 and 4,862. So this is a significant leap. The Specter x360 13 with its Core i7-1065G7 only managed 1,164 and 3,981 and was therefore significantly slower. Note that you can use the HP Command Center utility to enable performance mode. This affects the performance of the Specter x360 13. HP has been a bit conservative in tuning the thermals to ensure the 2-in-1 stays cool and quiet.

It took the Tiger Lake XPS 13 a little over three minutes to complete the test with the older version of the handbrake that we used to test the Ivy Lake XPS 13, which only required one test another eight seconds. Switch to Dell's performance mode and you'll save 10 seconds less than Tiger Lake. The Specter x360 13 took a full 5.86 minutes in normal mode and 3.9 minutes in performance mode. If we examine the results of the Tiger Lake XPS 13 on the newer version of Handbrake, it's faster than 10th generation CPUs.

While the XPS 13 in this version took 3.35 minutes to complete the process in this version, the Surface Book 3 13 with the Core i7-1065G7 took almost four minutes. The XPS 13 also beat some other Tiger Lake laptops, like the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA, which took four minutes longer in normal mode and 30 seconds longer in performance mode than the XPS 13 in performance mode, which took a little over three minutes to complete. The Acer Swift 5 was only three seconds slower in normal mode than the XPS 13 in performance mode (the Acer utility's performance mode actually made things slower). In summary: The Tiger Lake XPS 13 was fast in our handbrake test, but not the fastest and not much faster than the Ivy Lake version.

I also ran Cinebench 20 on the Tiger Lake XPS 13, which we didn't run in the previous version. Here it scored 518 in single-core mode and 1,921 in multi-core mode (the increase was marginal in performance mode). This is a bit behind the Acer Swift 5, which manages 542 and 2,091, and just behind the faster Intel reference laptop we tested with the higher-clocked Core i7-1185G7. However, the XPS 13 was much faster than the ZenBook 14 UX425EA, which reached 498 and 1766 in performance mode – despite the ZenBook's thicker case and theoretically better thermals.

In short, the Tiger Lake XPS 13 is an absolute performance upgrade, if not enough to upgrade if you are happy with the performance of your Ivy Lake XPS 13. If you choose among the current Tiger Lake laptops, however, the XPS 13's performance is so good that you don't have to sacrifice speed just to get the fantastic design of the laptop.

display

Dell XPS 13 9310 displayMark Coppock / Digital Trends

One of the biggest changes to this iteration of the XPS 13, both the Ivy Lake and Tiger Lake versions, was the transition to a 16:10 aspect ratio from the usual 16: 9. The value of such movement is triple. First, you get a bigger display that shows more information with less scrolling, albeit with the trade-off between a little bit of letterboxing in the video. Second, you can fill an entire ad with actual screen real estate, leaving little or no chin under. Third, if you get it right, you can increase the amount of palm rest, which is always good.

In the case of the XPS 13, all of these things are true. The way I used it, I liked the larger display just as much as I did when I used Microsoft's Surface devices with an even larger 3: 2 aspect ratio. Is it a deal breaker for me? Not really – the difference isn't that big. The XPS 13 certainly has the smallest bezels you'll find, and that includes the chin, which is just as small as the other three sides. Third, the XPS 13 has larger palm rests and a slightly larger touchpad, both of which are very welcome changes.

My test device was equipped with a Full HD + display (1,920 x 1,200), which was a bit of a disappointment for me given my preference for high resolutions. I've also found that most Full HD displays (or something like that) are of significantly lower quality than the 4K displays that companies like Dell build into their laptops. So I wasn't expecting the best news from my colorimeter.

As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, the display is very bright at 458 nits and approaches the display's 500 nits rating. The contrast ratio is also high at 1350: 1. That's a lot better than most of the Full HD displays you'll find, like the Acer Swift 5's 14-inch, 327-nit, 950: 1 contrast ratio, Full HD display. I won't go with that Compare the Specter x360 13, because the version we tested used an OLED display that blows the Dell display out of the water.

The color support was average for a premium Full HD display. The panel covered 98% of sRGB and 75% of AdobeRGB. Both are great results, but don't come close to any of the better 4K displays you can buy. For example, choose the XPS 13 4K display and you will likely get a little north of 90% AdobeRGB, which makes creatives happy. The color accuracy was good with a DeltaE of 1.36 – less than 1.0 cannot be differentiated with the human eye and is the standard for professional displays.

In real use, the display was a pleasure. The brightness and contrast made black text pop off the page, which is incredibly important to me as a writer. I found the colors natural and more than vivid enough, but then again, I don't edit photos and videos. If you do, the 4K display will make you happier. Finally, watching Netflix was a great experience thanks to the support of Dolby Vision which continues to provide the best HDR experience in a laptop.

Audio was a nice surprise too, with lots of volume coming from the down-facing speakers and no distortion. The mids and highs were fine, and there was even a hint of bass. You won't be using the internal speakers to share Netflix with friends, but that's enough for solo sessions.

Keyboard and touchpad

Dell XPS 13 9310 keyboard and touchpadMark Coppock / Digital Trends

Dell has integrated a keyboard with larger keycaps and better spacing between the keys in the new XPS 13 and has retained the same travel as the older keyboard. For these reasons alone, I liked it better. But I also liked the switches, which provided a snappy feel and comfortable floor movement. Finally, another Windows 10 keyboard catches up with the HP Specter keyboard as my favorite – it's a virtual connection. Only Apple's Magic Keyboard on the latest MacBooks is better.

The touchpad is also slightly larger and has a convenient glass cover. The buttons click quieter than before and, like all Microsoft Precision touchpads, are responsive and precise. There's also a touch display, which like all touch panels today, works well and made me happy (I hate non-touch displays after getting used to tapping and swiping over the display).

Windows 10 Hello support is provided in two ways. First, a fingerprint reader is built into the (strangely unlabeled) power button on the top right of the keyboard. It was quick and responsive, and I prefer fingerprint readers built into the power button. Second, a very slim infrared camera is built into the tiny bezel above the display, which detects my face with absolute reliability.

Battery life

Dell XPS 13 9310 battery lifeMark Coppock / Digital Trends

There is one area where the Tiger Lake XPS 13 lags behind its Ivy Lake predecessor: battery life. I can't explain why – I didn't conclude that Tiger Lake had poor battery life, but then again, our database of 11th generation machines remains quite small. Although the XPS 13 9310 has the same battery capacity as the 9300, namely 52 watt hours, the 9310 fell significantly behind in the tests we were able to run.

As with every other Tiger Lake laptop I've tested, the XPS 13 wouldn't complete the Basemark web benchmark test, which is our biggest claim. Instead, I ran PCMark 10's gaming battery test, which put a strain on the CPU and GPU, and found it lasted almost four hours. The Acer Swift 5, the other Tiger Lake machine I tested with PCMark, lasted just under two hours. The XPS 13 beats at least one Tiger Lake rival when stressed.

The Tiger Lake XPS 13 lasted 8.5 hours and has now moved on to our web benchmark, which serves as the best estimate of battery life productivity. This corresponds to Intel's Evo certification requirement of nine hours of battery life in practice. With the right mix of tasks, you might be in the right place. The Ivy Lake XPS 13 lasted 11.5 hours and the Acer Swift 5 fell 35 minutes behind the XPS 13 9310.

Next, I ran the XPS 13 through our video loop test, which played a Full HD Avengers trailer until the battery ran out. It took 12 hours, well behind the 14.3 hours of the Ivy Lake XPS 13 and ahead of the 11.5 hours of the Swift 5. I won't bother including the Specter x360 13 in this comparison – the OLED display is incredible hungry for performance and cannot keep up with these Full HD laptops.

Ultimately, the XPS 13 9310 will likely get you through a full day of work and it is close to meeting Intel's nine-hour Evo certification requirements. As always, when you squeeze the CPU and / or GPU you get less, but for general productivity tasks, I rate the battery life as good, not great.

Our opinion

The Dell XPS 13 9310 with Tiger Lake remains the best laptop you can buy, despite the shorter battery life. It's just as good as its predecessor in terms of design, input options, and general usability, while also being a bit faster.

It's not the cheapest laptop, and as we found in the XPS 13 9300 review, you can find some great alternatives if you're on less than $ 1,000. However, if you are looking for a 13-inch clamshell laptop, the XPS 13 9310 is your best bet.

Are there alternatives?

The HP Specter x360 13 remains a strong competitor to the XPS 13 and is now available in the same tiny and eye-catching package with Tiger Lake. You'll also save hundreds of dollars over the equivalent XPS 13. You can also consider the Specter x360 14, which uses an even more productivity-friendly 3: 2 aspect ratio for its display and outfits Tiger Lake components for roughly the same price as the one XPS 13.

We recommended the MacBook Air as an alternative, but that's now made more difficult by Apple's migration to its own Apple Silicon M1 CPU, which completely changes the game. We'll check that out soon. So hold on to see if it's a viable alternative to the XPS 13.

Finally, Microsoft's Surface Laptop 3 is a laptop to consider because of its similar price, weight, and thickness. It uses the 3: 2 aspect ratio, making it more productive. And it's a great looking laptop to boot into.

How long it will take?

The XPS 13 9310 has an impressive build quality that inspires confidence in years of reliable service. The components are up to date and should be able to keep up the hum. The one-year warranty is industry standard and, as usual, is disappointing. However, you can always purchase an extended warranty if you are concerned about long term coverage.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The XPS 13 9310 is still the best laptop out there.

Editor's recommendations




09 Nov
Blog

Acer Swift 5 2020 Review: Tiger Lake Comes Into Its Own

Acer Swift 5 in late 2020

Acer Swift 5 Intel EVO Thin & Light Laptop

"The Swift 5 is light and fast, making it a comfortable 14-inch workhorse to take with you."

  • A performance that fulfills Tiger Lake's promise

  • Very thin and light

  • Solid build quality

  • Good keyboard and touchpad

  • Below average battery life

  • A bit expensive

I haven't evaluated many Intel Tiger Lake systems, but I've seen enough to know that there are kinks that need fixing. So far, there hasn't been a Tiger Lake laptop (officially reviewed or just benchmarked) that performed as I expected. Now Acer has released its latest Swift 5 based on the Tiger Lake platform – this isn't the only update to this premium microlight – and there is one more example that needs to be evaluated.

Acer sent me a well-configured machine with an 11th generation quad-core Intel Core i7-1165G7, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) and a Full HD 14 Inch IPS display. This Swift 5 configuration costs $ 1,300 on Amazon and includes some features that stand out from the crowd of premium laptops. My biggest question, however, is: has a Tiger Lake laptop finally got the performance of the chipset?

performance

Acer Swift 5 late 2020 ventMark Coppock / Digital Trends

Don't waste time answering this question: so far, the Acer Swift 5 is the fastest Tiger Lake system I have personally reviewed or rated, and in Digital Trends' experience, it only gets (hardly) from the Tiger Lake reference machine surpassed that Intel sent us to see (which uses the faster Core i7-1185G7).

Geekbench 5 tells part of the story. The Swift 5 achieved 1,580 points in the single-core test and 5,836 points in the multi-core test. The higher-clocked reference laptop scored 1,563 and 5,995 points, which means the Swift 5 could more than keep up. Compared to the Asus ZenBook Flip S, which managed 1535 and 4913, the Swift 5 was significantly faster in the multi-core test. In some contexts, consider that the Microsoft Surface Book 3 13 with a 10th generation Core i7-1065G7 only scored 1,316 and 4,825 points.

However, in our more realistic tests, the Swift 5 performed well. First off, in our handbrake test, which encodes a 420MB video as H.265, the Swift 5 took a little over three minutes to complete. The Intel reference machine was only 17 seconds faster. The Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA with the Core i7-1165G7 lasted four minutes in normal mode and 27 seconds longer than the Swift 5 in performance mode. The ZenBook Flip S also lasted almost exactly four minutes. The Microsoft Surface Book 3 13 also took four minutes, which shows that Tiger Lake is not yet consistently impressive in the performance department.

Next, I tested the Swift 5 in Cinebench 20. He scored 2,091 in multi-core and 542 in single-core mode. The ZenBook 14 was slower in both normal (1,746 and 497) and performance modes (1,766 and 498), and the ZenBook Flip S fell behind at 1,264 and 482, respectively. The Surface Book 3 13 managed 1433 and 429, which means that only one of these other Tiger Lake laptops was slightly faster than the Ivy Lake Surface Book 3, the Swift 5 was a lot faster. Then consider that the Intel reference laptop scored 2092 and 570 in Cinebench 20, which means the Swift 5 managed to stay close to the higher-clocked Tiger Lake machine again.

It's also educational to compare the Swift 5 to AMD Ryzen 4000 laptops. In Handbrake, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 with the Ryzen 7 4800U finished the test in about two minutes, a full minute faster than the Swift 5. The Cinebench scores were 3,255 and 482, much faster in multi-core mode than in the Swift 5 managed to improve it in single core mode. While Tiger Lake has the potential to beat its 10th generation predecessors, it can't compete with AMD's latest Ryzen chips on many tasks.

However, there is one area where Tiger Lake competes well with AMD's chips – Adobe applications. I ran our Premiere Pro test encoding a two minute 4K video on the Swift 5 and it took 11 minutes and 52 seconds. That's not fast compared to Intel's 45-watt parts, which can get the job done in under three minutes in some cases, but it's a lot faster than the Ryzen 7 CPU in the IdeaPad Slim 7, which is more than one Hour needed. The Intel Tiger Lake reference system lasted 11 minutes and 13 seconds, so the Swift 5 was competitive again. If you're an Adobe user, don't assume that an AMD system will better meet your performance needs.

If you're expecting enhanced gaming from the Swift 5 thanks to Tiger Lake and Intel's Iris Xe graphics, you're in luck. You get better performance than Intel's previous Iris Plus graphics and almost as fast performance as a discrete GPU like the Nvidia GeForce MX350. I saw 53 frames per second in Civilization VI at 1080p and medium graphics and 27 fps on ultra graphics. This exceeds the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 (Intel version) with the MX350 with medium graphics by 2 fps. In Fortnite, the only other game I tested, the Swift 5 managed 31 fps at 1080p and high graphics that dropped to 22 fps for epic graphics. The IdeaPad Slim 7 achieved 37 fps with high graphics and 24 fps with epic graphics. The bottom line is that you can play some modern titles at 1080p if you keep the graphical details in check – a serious improvement over the previous generation from Intel.

In short, the Swift 5 shows what Tiger Lake can do, at least when compared to the previous version of Intel CPUs. It's very quick in practice and I certainly didn't notice any slowdowns no matter what I threw at it during my review. As more Tiger Lake systems continue to be released and the inevitable initial issues with the chipset are fixed, this will be a significant upgrade for Intel users. And the Swift 5 will be hunting right there.

design

Acer Swift 5 in late 2020Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Swift 5 was updated with 10th generation CPUs in early 2020, but was otherwise identical to the 2019 version. The latest model of the Swift 5 brings more changes than just an update for Tiger Lake.

First, it's a little heavier at 2.31 pounds compared to last time versus 2.18 pounds. That said, it's still a remarkably light 14-inch laptop, just not quite as much as the last version. However, it's still 0.59 inches thick, which makes it a very thin laptop too. That's comparable to the ZenBook 14 at 2.58 pounds and 0.54 inches. In the thin-and-light category, 14-inch laptops have clearly proven their worth. The latest Swift 5 also benefits from smaller bezels all around (the chin is only slightly larger than some laptops with tiny bezels, but not by much), resulting in a 90% screen-to-body ratio. This is competitive with the latest Dell XPS 13, which weighs 2.65 pounds and is 0.58 inches thick, and is better than the 84.5% of the previous Swift 5.

The low weight of the Swift 5 is due to its construction from magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminum alloys. According to Acer, these materials are two to four times stronger than aluminum, but weigh 20-35% less. Certainly the Swift 5 feels sturdy, with a lid that won't bend if you don't apply too much pressure, a keyboard deck that is as stiff as any other, and a lower case that is just as stiff as any Has compliance. So the Swift 5 feels light, but it doesn't feel cheap. This is what you get when you use plastic to cut the pounds. I would love to see the hinge redesigned so that it can be opened with one hand, but it stays nicely in place.

The laptop's durability extends to the case surface, where Acer used a micro-arc oxidation process to create a finish that is hard as ceramic and resists scratching and corrosion. That's a good thing, because my test device has the optional mist green color (gold is the other option), which is quite subtle and elegant and deserves protection. The case itself is relatively simple in the gem-cut design compared to extremes like HP's Specter x360 line, but the color – including the yellow accents and keyboard lettering – and angles make the laptop look good overall.

The surface of the housing is not only more durable, but also more resistant to microbes. Acer created the first complete antimicrobial laptop solution that includes two main features that I have never seen on any other computer. First, there is a silver ion antimicrobial agent in a coating on the surface of the case, keyboard, hinge, fingerprint reader, and even the labels attached to the laptop. Even the rubber feet are made from an antimicrobial silver ion material. Second, the screen uses Corning's Gorilla Antimicrobial Glass, the world's first to bake silver ions for antimicrobial properties.

I won't go into all the details here – you can visit this page to learn more – but the overall solution promises a reduction rate of greater than 99.9% that involves a "broad spectrum of bacteria". Note that this does not say anything about viruses, so to my knowledge the solution does not protect against the coronavirus that is causing COVID-19. Even so, Acer is the first to take you seriously if you want your laptop to be bacteria-free.

Note that the Swift 5 is Intel Evo certified. That promises a few things, including an 11th generation CPU (Natch), Thunderbolt 4 support, constant battery responsiveness, waking up from hibernation in less than a second, nine or more hours of battery life, and four hours with just 30 Minutes charging time. As we'll see later, I'm not sure if the laptop lives up to the promise of actual battery life, but it does seem to meet the rest of the Evo certification requirements.

Finally, connectivity with the thin and light Swift 5 is a strong point. On the left is a proprietary power port (but the laptop charges via USB-C), a full-size HDMI 2.0 port with HDCP support, a USB-A 3.2 port, and a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4 -Support. On the right side there is a Kensington lock port, a USB-A 3.2 port and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Unfortunately, there is no SD card reader, which is disappointing.

display

Acer Swift 5 late 2020 adMark Coppock / Digital Trends

We have reached a point where most premium laptops (and many budget computers) have very good displays that fall within a relatively narrow range on most objective criteria. According to my colorimeter, this is almost exactly where the Swift 5 is rated – it's "average," but today's average makes a nice display for everyone but creatives who need the widest, most accurate colors.

First, the Swift 5's 14-inch touch-enabled display exceeded our preferred brightness threshold of 300 nits at 327 nits, and its contrast ratio barely missed our preferred 1000: 1 brightness at 950: 1. This is a great indicator for productivity work unless you are working outdoors in direct sunlight. An example of a similar laptop with a slightly better display in these metrics is the Asus ZenBook 14 UX425 with its 352 nits and a contrast ratio of 1060: 1. The Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Yoga is an example of that with just 274 nits and 720: 1 Opposite.

Next, the Swift 5's colors are good, but not great, just like most premium laptops. The coverage of the sRGB color gamut is 96% and 73% of the AdobeRGB color gamut. Most premium laptops are similar to the ZenBook 14 with 94% sRGB and 72% AdobeRGB. You have to jump to something like the Dell XPS 15's 4K display, with 100% coverage of both color gamuts, to get a display that creatives crave. The Swift 5 achieved a spot color accuracy of DeltaE of 1.27, with anything below 1.0 indistinguishable to the human eye and considered excellent. Note that the Dell XPS display had a DeltaE of just 0.73%, while the ZenBook 14 was slightly higher than the Swift 5 at 1.42%.

In real use, the Swift 5's display was a pleasure, with lots of brightness for my needs and black text that jumped off the side thanks to the (almost) excellent contrast ratio. Binging Netflix was pleasant enough thanks to a perfect gamma of 2.2 that nothing was too light or too dark. I have no complaints about the display.

The audio quality wasn't quite up to standard. First, the two speakers couldn't produce much volume even though they were 100% undistorted. The mids and highs were fine, but (as usual) the bass was missing. The audio system works well for occasional viewing of YouTube videos. However, if you want to watch TV shows, movies, or listen to music, consider using headphones or external speakers.

Keyboard and touchpad

Acer Swift 5 late 2020 keyboard and touchpadMark Coppock / Digital Trends

The standard island keyboard is well spaced and has keycaps that were a little too small for my taste. The mechanism had a nice click but was a little loose, so I didn't find it quite as precise as my favorite keyboards, HP's Specter keyboard and the Magic keyboard on Apple's latest MacBooks. As a writer, I'm particularly sensitive to this aspect of laptop design, and while I wasn't thrilled with the Swift 5, it will likely make most users happy.

I like the color scheme with pale yellow letters and backlighting (only on and off unfortunately) that works in both light and dark environments. This is an improvement over some keyboards, like that of the latest Dell XPS 13, which has a backlight that makes it almost impossible to read the letters when they are on and with ambient lighting.

The touchpad is medium in size and uses Microsoft's Precision touchpad drivers. As such, it was able to swipe and use Windows 10's multi-touch gestures – something that can be said about most touchpads lately. The touch display was accurate, responsive, and very welcome.

Windows 10 Hello support was provided by a fingerprint reader on the top right of the touchpad. It was quick and accurate during my tests.

Battery life

Acer Swift 5 late 2020 side viewMark Coppock / Digital Trends

The Swift 5 packs 56 watt hours of battery capacity into its thin frame, an average amount for a laptop with a 14-inch full HD display. We don't have that much experience with Tiger Lake efficiency so I wasn't sure what to expect.

We usually use the Basemark web benchmark to test a laptop's battery life when the CPU and GPU are under stress. So far, however, every Tiger Lake laptop I've tested, including the Swift 5, won't complete this review. So I can't tell how long the laptop will last if you work hard.

In our web benchmark, which runs through a number of complex websites and is the best indicator of battery life in our tests, the Swift 5 lasted just under eight hours. This is an average score topped by the Dell XPS 13 with its 10th Gen Core i7 that lasted over 11 hours and the Tiger Lake Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA that lasted almost 10 hours. It is debatable whether the Swift 5 meets the Evo requirement of nine hours of productivity life – that depends entirely on your workflow.

Finally, the Swift 5 lasted 11.5 hours in our video test grinding a Full HD Avengers trailer. The XPS 13 lasted 14.5 hours and the ZenBook 14 12.25 hours, which means the Swift 5 also fell behind in this test.

Ultimately, the battery life was a little disappointing, but not terrible. If you don't put that heavy load on the CPU and GPU, you might be able to do it for a full day. However, if your tasks are demanding, you need to keep your power adapter with you.

Our opinion

The Swift 5 is better than the previous generation in everything but weight and isn't exactly heavy. It makes extensive use of Intel's Tiger Lake platform and uses some innovative techniques to make the case surface more robust and resistant to microbes.

It's also a nice looking laptop and has some weaknesses. When it comes to 14-inch laptops, the Swift 5 is one of the best on the market today.

Are there alternatives?

The Asus ZenBook 14 UX425EA is an obvious competitor to the Swift 5. It's almost as fast if you hold it in Performance mode, but then the fans spin louder and more frequently than the Swift 5. It's just as well built and looks just as good and also offers excellent input options.

If you want the flexibility of a 2-in-1 device, the HP Specter x360 13 is a great alternative. It uses Intel's latest generation of chips, so it's not as fast, but it has a more eye-catching appearance, stunning OLED display, and the morphing nature of a 2-in-1 device.

Finally, you can consider the Dell XPS 13, one of the best laptops out there. It was recently updated to Tiger Lake and features one of the best laptop designs out there. It's a bit more expensive and has a slightly smaller screen, but those may be tradeoffs worth making.

How long it will take?

The Swift 5 is well built and robust, with modern components that will meet your productivity needs for years to come. The one-year warranty is disappointing on a premium laptop, but it is industry standard.

Should you buy it?

Yes. The Swift 5 is thin, light and powerful. It is the first Tiger Lake notebook we tested that lives up to the chip's performance promise.

Editor's recommendations




06 Oct
Blog

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 Review: Tiger Lake Doesn’t Roar

asus zenbook flip s ux371 review olympus digital camera

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371

"The ZenBook Flip S UX371 is one of the first Tiger Lake laptops, but it does not make optimal use of Intel's new processor technology."

  • Very solid build quality

  • Spectacular display

  • Excellent keyboard and useful NumberPad touchpad

  • Very good port selection

  • Disappointing processor performance

  • The gaming falls short of expectations

Intel has released its latest architecture, Tiger Lake, which promises higher performance for both the CPU and the GPU. We've already looked at an Intel Tiger Lake prototype and were impressed with the performance of the platform. Now we had time with our first full Tiger Lake system, the Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371.

This 2-in-1 laptop is priced at $ 1,500 and comes with an 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe solid state drive (SSD), and a 4K OLED display. It looks strong on paper, but does it meet our high expectations?

performance

It is risky to be one of the first companies to bring out a laptop based on a brand new platform. Asus may have run counter to this risk with the ZenBook Flip S, as its benchmark results don't live up to Tiger Lake's promise. I blame the CPU's overly conservative vote. During all of my CPU tests, the fans barely spun even under the heaviest loads. I had to listen carefully to the bottom of the case to hear they were running at all. That tells me the laptop isn't working hard enough to keep the fans busy. I tried setting the Asus fan speed utility to performance mode but it made no difference.

In Geekbench 5, the ZenBook Flip S was faster than laptops with the 10th generation Core i7-1065G7, but not by much, mostly in single-core mode. It scored 1,535 single-core and 4,913 in multi-core mode. Compare this to the Microsoft Surface Book 3 13, which runs the Core i7-1065G7 at 1,316 and 4,825 points. The Samsung Galaxy Flex with the same 10th generation CPU scored 1,264 and 4,583 points. We didn't expect that from Tiger Lake.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

In our handbrake test, which converts a 420MB video to H.265, the ZenBook Flip S lasted one second less than four minutes, identical to the Surface Book 3 13. In the older version of the same test, the ZenBook Flip S lasted two seconds under four minutes and hit the Galaxy Flex by just 16 seconds. Again, this is not the expected performance.

I ran Cinebench 20 and the results were even worse. The ZenBook Flip S achieved 482 points in single-core mode and 1,254 points in multi-core mode. The surface book 3 13 managed scores of 429 and 1,433.

The benchmark results don't live up to Tiger Lake's promise.

Note that the Intel Tiger Lake reference laptop we tested with a Core i7-1185G7 performed much better on all of these benchmarks – even better than the clock speed increase would indicate. Geekbench 5 scored 1,563 and 5,995 points, respectively, and the handbrake test was completed in less than three minutes. The Cinebench 20 scores were 463 and 2092. These scores (with the exception of the single-core Cinebench score) represent bigger differences than I would have expected between the two Tiger Lake CPUs.

I contacted Asus and I am confident that they will run their own tests and set the thermal profile to allow the laptop to reach its full potential. If I get better results with a firmware update, I will revise this review accordingly.

Play

It's hard to tell if the ZenBook Flip S is realizing its gaming potential as we don't have any other laptops with the exact same CPU and GPU combo. The closest is the Intel reference notebook. So here I am primarily comparing it, although we have to consider the CPU differential.

The ZenBook Flip S scored 3,947 points in Fire Strike, while the Intel reference laptop scored 5,181 points. The Asus performed much better than the older Acer Swift 5 with Intel Iris Plus graphics, resulting in a score of 2,120. However, I can't help but think that, given the reference laptop's score, there should be a bigger difference.

Next, I ran Civilization VI, where the ZenBook Flip S reached 31 frames per second (fps) at 1080p and medium graphics. That is much less than the 45 fps of the Intel reference laptop. The Asus switched to ultra graphics and managed 17 fps, while the Intel reference laptop ran at 26 fps. The Asus also seems to underperform here. Note that the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 with the integrated Radeon graphics from Ryzen 4000 achieves 45 fps in 1080p at medium details.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

Next, I tested Assassin's Creed Odyssey. The ZenBook Flip S has a 4K display, but I've limited my testing to 1080p for reasons that will become immediately apparent. The ZenBook Flip S managed 11 fps in 1080p with the high graphics preset. While this title is well beyond the capabilities of the GPU, it's disappointing that the HP Specter x360 13 with Intel Iris Plus graphics, which averaged 12 fps, essentially tied the ZenBook powered by Tiger Lake

In Fortnite, the ZenBook Flip S only managed 13 fps in 1080p and high graphics. The Intel reference laptop achieved 34 fps and the Specter x360 13 with Intel Iris Plus ran at 12 fps. Again, this is not what I expected.

That's all of the gaming benchmarks I've run given the disappointing results. As with the CPU test, if I get a firmware upgrade that affects these results, I'll get back to me.

Battery life

The ZenBook Flip S has a battery capacity of 67 watt hours in its thin and light frame, which is impressive for a laptop of this size. At the same time there is the power-hungry 4K OLED display and a new generation of Core i7, which I have not yet passed through our official battery tests. I wasn't sure what to expect.

Unfortunately, the ZenBook Flip S decided to throw us a curveball again. Our most demanding Basemark web benchmark test, which is supposed to show how long the laptop lasted when you hit the CPU and GPU, wouldn't end its test loop. I've tried several times and been unsuccessful. Unfortunately, this means that I cannot report on the longevity under load.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The ZenBook Flip S lasted almost seven hours in our web browsing test, which gives a good idea of ​​life in moderate everyday life. Given the 4K OLED display, this isn't a terrible score, although it is pretty weak compared to the Full HD-equipped Dell XPS 13 that lasted for around 12 hours. Note that the ZenBook Flip S lasted more than an hour longer than the HP Specter x360 13, another popular notebook with an OLED display. Even so, you will likely struggle to work a full day without joining.

In our video test of a Full HD Avengers trailer, the ZenBook Flip S lasted 12.25 hours, which is almost three hours longer than the Specter x360 13. I would have expected this test to be most affected by the display. but the ZenBook Flip S did pretty well. The XPS 13 lasted two hours longer, but that's less of a difference than I expected.

Overall, the ZenBook Flip S offers good battery life for a laptop with a 4K OLED screen. If you plan to be out of the office for eight hours or more, consider taking your charger with you, but the battery will last long enough that you don't need to bring a charger for everyone but the longest of meetings.

design

The ZenBook Flip S is a good-looking laptop with a black aluminum case that is complemented by diamond-cut edges made of red copper (Asus). The usual Asus concentric vortices decorate the lid. It all adds up to an elegant design that works in both a coffee house and a conference room.

The laptop is built robustly. The lid, the keyboard deck or the bottom of the case are not bent, bent or twisted. The 2-in-1 hinge is a little too stiff to open with one hand, but it does an excellent job of holding the display in place in clamshell, tent, media, and tablet modes. It's at least as big as laptops like the HP Specter x360 13 and Dell XPS 13, which makes sense given the premium price.

The ZenBook Flip S doesn't have the thinnest bezels, which is a departure from other newer ZenBook models. The side bezels are thin and the top bezel is adequate, but the lower chin is quite large, adding to the overall footprint that is required. The Specter x360 13 is about the same size, but significantly less deep. However, the ZenBook Flip S is thin at 0.54 inches and light at 2.65 pounds. This is comparable to the Specter x360 13, which weighs 0.67 inches and 2.88 pounds. With thinner bezels, the Asus is more convenient to transport.

Connectivity is strong for a laptop this thin and light with two exceptions. On the left is a full-size HDMI 2.0 port and two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 ports. There is a USB-A 3.1 port on the right. Unfortunately there is no SD card reader, which is a disappointment, and Asus made the strange decision to ditch the 3.5mm audio jack and instead switch to an included USB-C to 3.5mm dongle to leave.

Apparently, Asus customers preferred the HDMI port, so the company decided to remove the 3.5mm jack instead – which is an unfortunate choice as you now have to forego a USB-C port to get some Connect headphones. Wireless connectivity is through the latest features available, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0, and I saw excellent performance during my review tests.

display

The ZenBook Flip S is one of a growing number of laptops that come with OLED displays, which I find very good. The other OLED laptops we tested consistently deliver great viewing experiences, and I was excited to see if Asus picked a panel as good as other manufacturers.

As I found out when I tested the display with my colorimeter, Asus opted for a spectacular display that has practically no weaknesses.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

First, it's incredibly bright at 492 nits, more than most of the OLED panels we tested. For example, the version of the HP Specter x360 13 has 405 nits, which is still very bright but is not in the same stadium. As usual with OLED, the contrast of the ZenBook Flip S display is extraordinarily high at 491,630: 1 (the Specter x360 13 at 405,210: 1). Compare that to the Dell XPS 15's excellent 1480: 1 IPS display, which is tall for an IPS display but nowhere near as jet black as the Asus'. These numbers exaggerate the difference in the real world, but OLED's contrast offers an obvious advantage in movies, games, and high-resolution photos.

The color gamut with 100% sRGB and 99% AdobeRGB is another strength of the ZenBook Flip S display. The XPS 15 barely beats either of them at 100%, but few displays we've tested recently come this close to maximizing both color spaces. And the ZenBook Flip S is also color-accurate with 0.88 – anything below 1.0 cannot be seen by the human eye and is considered excellent. The Specter x360 13 was less accurate at 1.29. The gamma of the ZenBook Flip S display was also spot on with the ideal gamma curve of 2.2.

Asus opted for a spectacular display that has practically no weaknesses.

Put simply, this is a bright, high-contrast display. I love it as a writer because black stands out against white backgrounds and incredibly wide and precise colors. This is a display that would make any creative professional happy. Whether you're looking at it objectively through a colorimeter or subjectively for any task you want – including bingeing video, which is a real treat – this is a superior display.

The sound from the two downward facing speakers was clear with little distortion at the highest volume. The speakers could get pretty loud with nice highs and mids even though the bass was missing (not surprising). You want to use headphones for music and serious seizures, but the sound is more than good enough for the occasional YouTube and Netflix.

Keyboard and touchpad

The ZenBook Flip S inherits the same keyboard as Asus in the ZenBook 14 UX425 and is a good choice. There is a lot of spring travel, a lot of key spacing and size, and a lighting mechanism with a floor effect that is clear and precise. My favorite keyboards remain the Magic keyboard on the MacBook and the ones that HP uses in the Specter lineup (and the latest Envy 15), but the ZenBook Flip S comes close.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The touchpad is large and wide and contains Asus' NumberPad 2.0, which transforms the touchpad into an LED-illuminated numeric keypad. You turn it on with a long press of a button in the right corner and change the brightness with a button in the left corner. It works fine, and turning on the NumberPad doesn't interfere with using the touchpad as a touchpad. If you enter a lot of numbers, you will appreciate the function.

Mark Coppock / Digital Trends

The touch display is responsive and an active pen that supports 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity is in the box when the laptop ships. However, one didn't come in my box so I couldn't test the pen.

Finally, Windows 10 Hello support is provided by an infrared camera and facial recognition. It was quick and accurate during my tests, and while I prefer a fingerprint reader, it offers an easy sign-in option.

Our opinion

At $ 1,500, the ZenBook Flip S is firmly in the premium segment. And part of what might justify that price tag – on top of the exquisite OLED display – is that it's one of the first laptops to come with Intel's Tiger Lake platform. Unfortunately, Asus has some work to do in order to take advantage of the new platform. The ZenBook Flip S behaves more like a last-generation laptop. This directly reflects how Asus has optimized the laptop's performance.

Otherwise, the ZenBook Flip S is a well-built and attractive 2-in-1 device that can hold its own against other laptops with similar prices and features. It's just such a disappointment that we didn't see Tiger Lake at its best.

Is there a better alternative?

The main competitor of the ZenBook Flip S is probably the HP Specter X360 13, which still runs 10th generation CPUs. It has an equally beautiful OLED display, is a bit smaller, and works just as well. You also spend a few hundred dollars less to configure a similar computer.

If you don't need a 2-in-1, the Dell XPS 13 is a very compelling option. It was recently announced that it is joining the Tiger Lake Club. Once it does, I'm sure it will perform well. It's the best 13-inch clamshell notebook out there, making it a viable competitor to almost every other 13-inch machine.

How long it will take?

The ZenBook Flip S is a rugged laptop that will last forever. It's well built and configured with the latest technology so you can be productive for years. As always, we'd love to see more than a year warranty, but Asus offers one year accident protection.

Should you buy it?

No not yet. When Asus fixes the performance issues, the ZenBook Flip S suddenly becomes a very compelling 2-in-1 device. Until then, I would hold back.

Editor's recommendations