When Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, and with the continued shrinking of laptops both in terms of screen size and thickness, it was obvious that a time would come when a laptop would be both a laptop and a tablet – and Asus Zenbook Flip 13 UX363EA is probably the best convertible laptop ever made.
When we received the laptop in our offices two weeks ago we immediately knew AsusTek Computer Inc was onto something. The versatility and mobility packed in the new Asus Flip 13 UX363EA is something we haven’t seen before.
Productivity
Asus Flip 13 UX363EA can appear to be a small laptop/tablet, featuring a paltry 13.3 inches screen size, and you may think that’s not a laptop for a power user – a user who wants a powerful machine for game play, or video editing, or running some other sophisticated projects. Yes while ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA is made to be small so that those who prefer a versatile machine that’s easy to move around with can find it portable, do not let the size deceive you, for it is not in every case does size means a poor performer.

ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA is small yes, but within its tiny size is packed a gigantic IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i7-1165G7 Processor released just last year. The processor is a quad core processor that has 8 threads (8 logical processors) whose speed can clock up to 4.7GHz. By comparison, the laptop I currently use which is equally an i7 laptop has a maximum speed of 3.4 GHz, and I can assure you this laptop already feels like a speed beast. Now imagine the speed you’d get from a 4.7GHz machine.
For those of you in heavy graphics e.g. gaming and video editing, it is good to know that the IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i7-1165G7 Processor has IntelĀ® IrisĀ® Xe Graphics integrated into it. That’s a graphic processing unit (GPU) that supports up to 4096×2304@60Hz (4K) viewing at a dynamic frequency of 1.3GHz.
In addition to the processor and the GPU, ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA comes with either 8GB RAM or 16GB RAM. If you get the 8GB version, you can still add RAM to the maximum capacity of 16GB.

Last on productivity it is good to talk about the battery life, for you wouldn’t want a laptop that claims has the ability to make you productive yet the power can’t last for 3 seconds. That’s not ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA, for the laptop has a 67Wh battery – and that’s enough juice that can serve you for at least 8 hours on single charge. Under ordinary use cases, we found that setting the brightness to around 70% we could use the laptop for up to 15 hours before we got the battery low warning sound.
When one hears of a large battery like that on ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA, the question that comes to mind is whether the laptop would require an overnight charging and if so, what happens when one has less than an hour before leaving the house – or office yet the laptop is has zero charge? The answer to that is that ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA comes with a 65W charging brick which can deliver fast charge from about 0-60% in about 50 minutes. If 100% charge can last you up to 8 hours on the minimum, then 60% is sufficient to serve you during your trip before you are able to get a place for full charge.
Design

There are two aspects of a design, the first being aesthetics, then there is functionality. Someone may argue that design also encompasses durability but usually that normally depends, to a very large extent, on the materials chosen for the product in question – so for the purposes of ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA let’s just focus on aesthetics and functionality.
ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA is a convertible laptop cased in an aluminum alloy with Pine Grey color; and the body size measures 305 by 211 by 13.9 mm in length, height and thickness respectively – and the finishing of this lightweight 1.5Kgs machine is tailored to make you love it at first glance.

The convertible laptop has been designed for functionality, which is usually measured by how the keyboard and the screen have been made with ergonomics in mind. Firstly, the keyboard comes with a number of hotkeys that allow you to easily do tasks such as screen capture, switching off the webcam or locking the system by pressing only one key. The keyboard also includes a built it-in LED light on the Fn key to indicate when the general F1-F12 functions are enabled. When the light is turned off, the hotkey functions are enabled.
The keys of ASUS ZenBook Flip 13 feature a subtle 0.1 mm dish-shaped indentation and 1.4 mm key travel ā the longest of its class of business laptops. The dish-shaped indentation subtly guides fingers onto the keys and the long key travel provides better feedback. Together, these features improve typing accuracy and replicate the comfort of using a desktop PC keyboard.

The downside of the small size laptops is that it is usually impossible to incorporate the number pad on the keyboard, and for this one reason I personally tend to prefer 15 to 17 inches laptop. However, on ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA with NumberPad 2.0, an LED-illuminated numeric keypad integrated in the touchpad that makes up for the lack of physical numeric keypads in compact laptops. A single-touch sensor at the top-right of the touchpad turns NumberPad on and off, and a tap on the icon at the top left lets you choose one of two brightness levels. You can also swipe from the top left icon in any direction on the NumberPad 2.0 to activate the Calculator app on the main display.
For eye comfort the 1080p screen has been designed to take care of the eye, and in that regard it is TUV Rheinland certified. TUV Rheinland is the leading eye comfort certification provider, and to certify a product they conduct tests that meets the standards of ISO 9241-307, which in turn establishes the test methods for the analysis of a variety of visual display technologies.
Oh and lastly on design, given that the laptop is a convertible, it is important to note that the hinges of the laptop have been tested to withstand over 20,000 flips – and assuming you’ll be doing 10 flips per day, the 20,000 flips will make your laptop serve you for more than 5 years.

Connectivity
The biggest drawback of Asus Flip 13 UX363EA is that it lacks your beloved 3.5mm headphone jack, making you wonder, “how are you supposed to connect a mic/headset to the laptop?”. Okay, well, ASUS seems to have realized the mistake they did by not including the audio port and that’s why they include a USB-jack dongle in the package… at least the package we received had the dongle included in the bag.
Other than that the laptop has an HDMI port and 3 40Gbps Thunderbolt ports that can be used virtually for anything, ranging from charging the device to data transfer. There is also a a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen.1 port on the right side of the laptop.
Conclusion
ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA is your go to portable convertible laptop-tablet machine suitable for those of you that are highly mobile. With long lasting battery that could potentially serve you for 24 hours if you are a light user to its 1.5Kgs lightweight design, ASUS Flip 13 UX363EA promises to offer you high performance given its IntelĀ® Coreā¢ i7-1165G7 Processor and IntelĀ® IrisĀ® Xe Graphics, all served by at least an 8GB RAM under the hood. The recommended price, starting from Kshs 145,000, you can visit Ā Elevetus Technologies and purchase for yourself this beauty of a beast.