These days laptops are going beyond slim designs, portability and specifications. Until and unless a laptop maker is ready to offer something radical or innovative that stands out from the crowd, people usually end up buying whichever offers the ‘X factor’.
Asus is trying to break the monotony with its new range of laptops in the Indian market especially its disruptive offering, the Asus Zenbook Pro.
The company has launched three laptops in India, the Zenbook 13, Zenbook S and the flagship Zenbook Pro at Rs 69,990, Rs 1,28,990 and Rs 1,79,990 respectively.
Asus Zenbook Pro
Let’s first talk about the feature that makes the Pro a hot product. A touch pad with a display! Many laptop makers fell into a rut when it came to innovating for the touch pad. Apart from adding some gestures nobody thought of taking the game to the next level. The Zenbook Pro does just that with a display touch pad. If it is able to offer utility, this feature could be a trend setter and the best thing to have happened to laptops.
The touch pad offers support for multiple applications and can also be used as a toggle bar while playing videos on the screen. It also offers support for MS-Office applications like Word, Powerpoint and runs basic apps like calculator, calendar and even a music player. You can also mirror your phone’s display on the touch pad!
As a standalone, the 15.6-inch Asus Zenbook Pro is a beast of a machine that comes with a 4K multi-touch display and runs on an Intel i9 processor with 16GB DDR4 RAM.
At the helm of graphics processing, the Pro has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 1TB of storage inside. All of this is packed in a 1.88 kilogram form factor.
Asus Zenbook S & Zenbook 13
Asus also announced the Zenbook 13 and the Zenbook S of which the Zenbook S falls in the more affordable segment of laptops at Rs 69,990.
As far as specifications are concerned, the Zenbook S comes with a 8th-generation Intel CoreTM i7 processors and offers battery life of up to 13.5-hours as claimed by Asus. Apart from sporting a very sturdy design the company has introduced what is called an ErgoLift hinge which helps keep the keyboard at a 5.5-degree incline to assist in comfort and more ventilation.
Other Zenbook S specs include a 16GB DDR3 RAM, a 13-inch FHD display with a backlit keyboard and Intel HD Graphics 620 GPU.
The Zenbook 13 is being targeted towards creators and media professionals purely because the laptop offers specs that caters to these individuals.
At just 985 grams, the Zenbook 13 is quite portable and is the lightest Zenbook ever. Inside it is an 8th-generation Intel i7 processor with RAM options between 8GB and 16GB DDR4.
While the Zenbook S offers a very compelling price tag, the Zenbook Pro at Rs 1,79,990 comes in direct competition to the Apple MacBook Pro and the Acer Predator G9 series.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)