Which of the ultrabooks would you recommend?

[Inspector Gadget]

I can't decide which of these two laptops is the best. Each has their own pros and cons which makes the decision even harder.

https/www.asus.com/UK/Notebooks/ASUS-ZenBook-Flip-UX360UA/

http/store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=W8Y31EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB

Both of these laptops have largely the same specs and are very similar prices. The Asus has a higher resolution display, which although great on paper, would probably impact battery life and make things smaller on screen. The HP has a much faster SSD drive so would theoretically be faster although probably not noticeable in real world usage, but is also considerably thicker and heavier than the Asus. I think it would therefore largely come down to which one looks the best aesthetically and guess what, I can't decide on that either : ) Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GreyCatz]

Greetings, Inspector:

Firstly, I must confess to having a soft spot for the HP Spectre. That said, the only other laptop that could possibly compete with it would be the ASUS Zenbook... and here we are!

Next, the HP weighs 1.5 kg and the ASUS 1.3 kg - is that "considerably thicker and heavier"? Well, you're the one who has to carry it around, so it's up to you to decide, of course.

HP claims "up to 12.5 hours of battery life", a cat's whisker more than the 12 hours claimed by ASUS.

The HP has 1 DP port but no Thunderbolt 3 - the ASUS has 1 Thunderbolt 3 port but no DP. I would rate a DP higher than a Type-C port, but maybe that's because I can't think of any use for the latter right now. But maybe you can.

As you've already suggested, this might ultimately come down to pure aesthetics. I'm still in favour of the HP, but it's not my money, and if you go with ASUS I can't see how you could possibly regret that decision.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Greetings, Inspector:

Firstly, I must confess to having a soft spot for the HP Spectre. That said, the only other laptop that could possibly compete with it would be the ASUS Zenbook... and here we are!

Next, the HP weighs 1.5 kg and the ASUS 1.3 kg - is that "considerably thicker and heavier"? Well, you're the one who has to carry it around, so it's up to you to decide, of course.

HP claims "up to 12.5 hours of battery life", a cat's whisker more than the 12 hours claimed by ASUS.

The HP has 1 DP port but no Thunderbolt 3 - the ASUS has 1 Thunderbolt 3 port but no DP. I would rate a DP higher than a Type-C port, but maybe that's because I can't think of any use for the latter right now. But maybe you can.

As you've already suggested, this might ultimately come down to pure aesthetics. I'm still in favour of the HP, but it's not my money, and if you go with ASUS I can't see how you could possibly regret that decision.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.

Thanks for the detailed response, I think you're right really, it's really splitting hairs as to which one is better or worse than the other, I've already ordered the HP but didn't know whether I had made the wrong decision, I'm just a very indecisive person in general. I prefer the thinner design of the Asus but prefer the colour of the HP #firstworldproblems

 

[GreyCatz]

FirstWorldProblems indeed...

 

[edit1754]

"The Asus has a higher resolution display."

That's actually debatable, to be honest. It's important to know that the ASUS Zenbook UX303UB uses the incomplete RG/BW pentile matrix to achieve the ability to advertise as 3200x1800, without actually achieving the resolution itself. Google searches will tell you what RG/BW pentile looks like, it basically means you have a 1600x1800 display with alternating lines of stretched rectangular pixels, instead of 3200x1800 independent square pixels. The computer works hard to render a 3200x1800 picture, which you only get to see half of it on the actual display. It's a cheap trick used by manufacturers to get into the advertising space of "Retina" and "4K" displays, while actually producing something drastically inferior.

If you like super-high-resolution displays, find an HP x360 with 2560x1440. That is a *real* high-DPI display competitive with the Macbook Retina displays and the like. But if you don't care, the 1920x1080 IPS display in the HP is still quite nice.

EDIT:
- True-RGB vs RG/BW matrix: http/forum.notebookreview.com/attachments/pixel-layouts-jpg.118764/
- Closeup of true-HiDPI diplay: http/i.imgur.com/xHR0ean.jpg
- Closeup of RG/BW false-HiDPI display: http/i.imgur.com/jvf590a.jpg