Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550 review (UX550VD – Core i5, GTX 1050)

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts
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By Andrei GirbeaAsus Zenbook Pro UX550, last updated on May 20, 2022

Asus Zenbook Pro UX550

Summary: The Zenbook Pro UX550 is a solid option in its niche of premium 15-inch premium multimedia laptops. It's not the best or the most affordable, but it slots right in as a solid-value choice. The design and overall build, the clickpad, long battery life, punchy speakers and smooth everyday performance are among its strong points, while the list of quirks includes a spongy keyboard, always active fans, potential coil whining, and some performance limitations with sustained loads or gaming. We're getting in-depth on all these in the review down below.

Our score: 4 / 5
Price when reviewed: ~$1199 and up

THE GOOD

compact build with very nice aesthetics
excellent clickpad
good IO, including x4 TB3 ports
multiple configurations available
runs flawlessly and coolly with everyday use
long battery life
punchy and loud speakers
fair price

THE BAD

some flex in the chassis and finishing imperfections
spongy keyboard with an unusual layout
fans active all the time with daily use
somewhat limited performance with sustained loads, especially on the top configurations
mediocre VGA camera

Table of Contents

Specs as reviewed- Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550
Design and first look
Screen
Keyboard and trackpad
Hardware, performance and upgrade options
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers and others
Battery life
Price and availability
Competition
Final thoughts- Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550 review

It’s been a while since Asus last updated their top-tier Zenbook, but that’s changing as of July 2017 with the Zenbook Pro UX550 series.

This is a 15-inch laptop with a compact build, premium features and the latest in terms of hardware at this point: Intel HQ processors, DDR4 RAM, NVMe storage and Nvidia GTX 1050/1050 Ti graphics.

With a starting price of around $1200, the Zenbook Pro slots right in the middle of its niche as an alternative for the Dell XPS 15, Lenovo Yoga 720 and perhaps the HP Spectre x360 15. Buyers should expect good value for the money, distinguished aesthetics, solid performance (with some exceptions) and good battery life, but there’s more than meets the eye about this laptop once you start nitpicking, which I believe you should at this level.

We spent a few days with a Zenbook Pro UX550VD test-unit and we’ve gathered all our impressions below, with the good parts and the annoying quirks. Read on for the whole story.

Update: We also reviewed the higher tier Zenbook UX550VE in another article, if you’re interested in the Core i7 / GTX 1050 Ti configuration.

Update2: In the meantime, you should check out our coverage of the newer Asus ZenBook Pro 16X OLED series.

Specs as reviewed- Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550

	Asus Zenbook Pro UX550VD
Screen	15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 px, IPS, matte, non-touch
Processor	Intel Kaby Lake Core i5-7300HQ CPU
Video	Intel HD 620 + Nividia GTX 1050 4 GB GDDR5
Memory	8 GB DDR4 (soldered)
Storage	256 M.2 NVMe SSD (80 mm)
Connectivity	Wireless AC (tri-band Intel AC 8265), Bluetooth 4.2
Ports	2x USB 3.0 Type-A, 2x USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, mic/headphone, microSD card reader
Battery	73 Wh, 120 Wh charger
OS	Windows 10
Size	365 mm or 14.37” (w) x 251 mm or 9.88” (d) x 18.9 mm or 0.74” (h)
Weight	4.05 lbs (1.84 kg) + 1.19 lbs (.54 kg) for the charger
Extras	backlit keyboard, VGA camera, quad-speakers, available in Royal Blue and Matte Black

The Zenbook UX550 series includes a few different configurations in two main families, the UX550VD (with Nvidia 1050 graphics, the one we have here) and the UX550VE (with Nvidia 1050 Ti graphics). All are available with various screen choices (FHD and UHD, matte or touch) as well as multiple CPU (i5-7300HQ, i7-7700HQ), RAM (up to 16 GB) and storage (M.2 80 mm NVMe) options.

Design and first look

Design wise the new Zenbook Pro UX550 is up-to-date with today’s trends, with a lighter, thinner and especially more compact build than its predecessors, as you can tell by the small bezels around the screen. The Dell XPS 15 is still the norm in terms of size, but this Zenbook is just millimetrically bigger.

However, while the XPS is sharp and angular, the Zenbook is more round, with the bottom and hood tapering towards the extremities, which make it somewhat more comfortable to grab and carry around. The entire outer shell is metallic, with a textured finishing on the lid and a simple smooth finishing on the interior, sides and underbelly. It feels nice to the touch, but show smudges and dust extremely easily, so you’ll have to wipe it clean often. They’re especially visible on our test unit, available in the Matte Black color scheme. Asus will also offer a Royal Blue version and both look stunningly beautiful and just different than anything else available out there.

The dark design is complemented by machined beveled edges around the interior, which don’t actually feel as sharp as on some other laptops with a similar trait. They’re still a little uncomfortable in daily use if you have the laptop on a small desk, as in this case the wrists have to lean on them, but otherwise they didn’t bother me. Keep in mind the crude metal will dent and scratch in time, especially if you forget to take off your watch while using the laptop (which i do often).

There’s also a shinny Asus logo on the lid, backlit by the screen’s panel, so there’s no way to switch it off or control it manually. That aside though, the aesthetics are clean and upscale, with no flashy elements or annoying details. You should peel off those ugly stickers on the palm-rest though, and I do have to mention the rather bright status LEDs placed on the front lip and the fact that the Power key is always lid as well by a tiny LED. Both are rather annoying when watching a movie in a dark room.

The build quality is pretty solid, but not really up there next to the XPS’s. There’s a fair amount of flex in the lid cover, but since there’s no impact on the panel when pressing on it hard, I’d say it’s not much of an issue. The warping in the keyboard deck is harder to accept though on a premium laptop. The fact that the Zenbook UX550 gets a plastic internal chassis (with metal sheets on top) bares the blame for that, and as a result the build is not as strong or as rigid as on a full unibody design. There’s a clip here showing the flex of a final retail unit bought in store, and it’s pretty much the same with our test unit.

This aside, I also have a nit with the fact that the bottom panel does not attach flush to the main-frame, leaving some sharp edges towards the front corners. The lateral edges are just a little taller than they should be, and hence this happens. Details in the pictures below. Now, I’d say this won’t really bother you with daily use (unless you’d grab the laptop from the front corners, which you probably won’t), but is still one of those fine details that Asus should have fixed on their premium offer, as it’s a known flaw with most Zenbooks.

This Zenbook Pro UX550 is fairly practical otherwise. The rubber feet on the underbelly keep in firmly anchored on a desk, the palm-rest is spacious and those metal edges rarely bite into the wrists when typing. The screen’s hinge is very strong, in fact too strong to allow to lift the display single-handedly, at least on our unit. Hopefully it will loosen up in time. As a side not, it can keep the screen just 1 cm on top of the main body without closing it, which might be useful in case you’ll want to game while having the notebook hooked to an external monitor and external peripherals, but don’t want to completely close the lid and fully expose it to the hot interior. The screen can also go back to about 150 degrees, which is good enough for desk use, yet a little limiting on the lap.

I’ll also mention that the UX550 gets four speakers, two firing downwards and two upwards, flanking the keyboard, as well as webcam and mics placed on top of the screen. We’ll talk about these and the intake/exhaust system more in a dedicated section further down.

As far as the IO goes, the only thing I miss on this laptop is a full size card-reader, cause otherwise it gets 2x USB Type-A and 2x USB Type-C ports (with full speed PCIe x4 Thunderbolt 3 capabilities), a full-size HDMI port, a headphone jack and a card-reader. There’s no LAN, but you can find USB to LAN adapters if wired Internet is a must. And there’s also a microSD card-reader, but like I said, I would have found more value in a proper SD reader.

So all in all, the Zenbook Pro UX550 looks and feels nice to use. But it’s an expensive computer and as a result my expectations would be to at least match the other premium laptops in terms of build and overall quality, and the truth is it doesn’t. It lacks an unibody construction and as a result there’s some noticeable flex in the main-deck and the lid. On top of those, potential buyers would also have to accept the stiff hinge hand and those sharp uneven bits on the underbelly. None of these are deal breakers for me, but at this point I feel this laptop needs to compensate for them in some other ways if it were to be a viable option in its niche. We’ll see if it does that in the next sections.

Screen

Aside from that flex on the lid, the screen is actually well built, with a sturdy frame and well crafted bezels that don’t pinch the panel. As a result, there’s not a lot of light bleeding around the edges on this sample, but there is some towards the lower corners. It’s visible in a completely dark room with a black background, but is not pronounced enough for me to notice with actual everyday use, not even when watching movies and having the black bars beneath the content. Quality control is unfortunately a lottery these days, as some people online are complaining about more intense bleeding on their devices. My advice is to make sure you buy from a place that allows easy returns, there’s a fair chance you’ll draw a short straw here.

As far as the actual panel goes, we got to test the base-level variant with the FHD matte screen and a Chi Mei N156HCe-EN CMN panel. It’s a pretty good option, in fact the same Lenovo puts on the 15-inch Yoga 920 or Gigabyte on the Aero 15, but is not as good as the FHD panel Dell puts on the XPS 9560.

You’ll find details below, taken with a Spyder4 sensor.

Panel HardwareID: Chi Mei CMN15E8 (N156HCe-EN);
Coverage: 98% sRGB, 71% NTSC, 75% AdobeRGB;
Measured gamma: 2.4;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 310 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 850:1;
White point: 6700 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.36 cd/m2.

The gamma and gray-scale levels are slightly distorted out of the box, which you can fix by calibrating the screen, but otherwise there’s not much to complain about here. Of course, there are brighter panels out there, as well as panels with a wider gamut coverage, but for the entry level pick this one is not bad at all.

On top of that, Asus offers a few other panel options for the UX550 series, with FHD and UHD resolutions and optional touch. I’d reckon the base configurations will get the FHD models, while the UHD options will only be paired with the higher specked models. We’ll update with details on these other choices when available.

Keyboard and trackpad

We get to this section knowing there’s some flex in the keyboard deck, which usually has a negative impact on the typing experience. It does, somewhat, but I could probably let it slide if it weren’t for a few other small issues that I noticed with this keyboard.

First of all, the layout needs some time to get used to, as it adds an extra row of function keys on the right, with the top-right key being the Power button. Normally, you’d have the Delete key there on a standard similar layout, so you can understand the frustration of putting the computer to sleep when actually trying to delete something. That’s why I advise you to immediately disable this key the first time you boot into Windows. You’ll also struggle with Enter and the arrows until you get accustomed with these changes. At that point you might however actually appreciate having dedicated keys for Home/End and PgUp and PgDn, but it will take a while.

There’s also no NumPad with this layout, which some might miss, but I for one don’t, and the design leaves for some short, but nicely spaced arrow keys.

As far as the typing experience goes, initially I wasn’t very fond of it. In fact I found it poorer than on the XPS 15 and 13 (my ultraportable of choice). The keys put more resistance than those on the XPS and don’t feel as shallow, but they’re also spongy and mushy, and as a result you must make sure to hit them in the middle to actuate properly, otherwise they can depress a fair amount (i’d say about 1/5 of their travel) when hit on the sides without actually registering a click. They deliver good response and feedback if you hit them accurately.

As for the stroke depth, Asus says it’s 1.5 mm and I don’t have a way to measure it, but it really doesn’t feel any longer than on the XPS, which supposedly only gets only 1.2 mm of travel. I’m not saying these keys don’t travel 1.5 mm, I’m just saying it doesn’t make a difference with typing, at least not for me.

Anyway, while I struggled with this keyboard at first, several thousands of words later I can actually type fast and fairly accurately on it. I had to adjust my style though and even so, I can’t really say the experience is better than on the XPS; it’s just average, but for different reasons. The Lenovo Yoga 720 is much better to type on than both though.

I’ll also add that this keyboard is backlit, with white LEDs and three intensity levels to choose from. The illumination is activated by swiping fingers over the touchpad. It’s also fairly quiet to type on. Initially, some keys somehow squeaked in a way that annoyed me, but that stopped after a while, so if you notice anything similar give them a little time to break in. I was talking to Doug about this and he asked what causes the squeaking and the truth is I couldn’t single it out, the rubber dome somehow sounded different when actuating some of the keys. And then, because it faded after a while, I just couldn’t look more into the matter.

For mouse Asus went with what looks like a glass-made clickpad, placed in the middle of the palm-rest. It’s spacious and a little recessed into the frame, so easy to find with your fingertips.

It also worked very well during my time with the Zenbook UX550, with swipes, taps and gestures. I didn’t ran into any issues with it and didn’t have to tweak it any way. That’s very important, because you can’t really tweak the sensitivity or response as this is an Asus TouchPad with very limited settings. Even those options that are available in Windows on laptops with a regular Microsoft Precision surface are hidden here. So you either like it out of the box, or there’s nothing to do about it. Luckily, I liked it.

The clicks are fairly good too, flexible enough and just a tad loud. You can click on the entire surface, but you’ll have to press harder the higher you go. There’s also a finger sensor integrated within the clickpad in its top right corner, which works well with Windows Hello.

Hardware, performance and upgrade options

The Zenbook UX550 is available a multitude of different configurations and what we have here is the base UX550VD model, with a Core i5-7300HQ processor, Nvidia GT 1050 4GB graphics, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB NVMe SSD. Higher end models include up to 16 GB of RAM, bigger SSDs, the Core i7-7700HQ processor and Nvidia 1050 Ti graphics.

The base model usually offers the best value for the money and allows for later upgrades, if necessary. With the UX550 you can access the components fairly easily by removing the back panel, which is hold in place by a few Torx T4 screws, all visible around the sides. There are no screws hidden beneath the rear rubber feet like with most other Zenbooks. Inside though you’ll notice that not only the CPU and GPU are soldered on the motherboard, but the memory as well. That means there’s no way to add extra RAM and that’s why I would advise to get a configuration with 16 GB of memory if you plan to keep the laptop for a few years.

The SSD and Wireless chip can be upgraded if needed, and you also get access to the battery in case you’ll ever need that.

So how does this basic configuration perform? As long as you clean the fair amount of bloatware that comes preinstalled, you won’t have issues with daily activities like browsing, watching multimedia content, editing documents, listening to music and so on. Chrome can get greedy though and if you have 20+ tabs open and multitask between several different apps, you’ll find out that 8 GB of RAM are not enough, hence the recommendation to go for 16 GB. If you keep activities to a more casual level this basic version should do fine by you, but at this point you could also consider a laptop built on a more efficient and cheaper Core U platform.

I’d reckon you’ll buy a Core HQ for multitasking, more demanding loads and for some gaming. And here’s where I should tell you to take the info in these next paragraphs with a grain of salt, as our review unit is a pre-release sample and not a final retail model, which means some things might be different on those units you will buy in stores.

Knowing that, we didn’t notice any issues with more demanding loads in Photoshop or Lightroom, and the benchmark results are pretty solid as well. However, the Core i5 CPU in this test sample struggled to reach its maximum single-core Turbo Speed of 3.5 GHz, thus some of the single-core results are under what they should be. Multi-core performance on the other hand was just what is expected from the platform(Core i5-7300HQ, 8 GB RAM):

3DMark 11: P7126;
3DMark 13: Sky Driver – 13240, Fire Strike – 4856, Time Spy – 1627;
3DMark 13 Graphics: Sky Driver – 17587, Fire Strike – 5484, Time Spy – 1538;
PCMark 08: Home Conventional – 3152, Work Conventional – 3274;
PCMark 10: 3816;
GeekBench 3 32-bit: Single-Core: 3500, Multi-core: 10243;
GeekBench 4 64-bit: Single-Core: 4306, Multi-core: 11587;
CineBench 11.5: OpenGL 55.97 fps, CPU 5.88 pts, CPU Single Core 1.46 pts;
CineBench R15: OpenGL 85.47 fps, CPU 518 cb, CPU Single Core 116 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 165.96 fps, Pass 2 – 34.31 fps;
x264 HD Benchmark 5.1 64-bit: Pass 1 – 55.12 fps, Pass 2 – 12.69 fps.

I’ve also added some pictures of the CPU/GPU speeds and temperatures in everyday activities…

… as well as in benchmarks and games (plugged-in and on battery).

And here we come to gaming. We’ve added some results below.

	FHD High	FHD Ultra
Shadow of Mordor	56 fps	43 fps
FarCry 4	48 fps	35 fps
Grid: Autosport	117 fps	62 fps
Tomb Raider	89 fps	49 fps
Bioshock Infinite	86 fps	56 fps

There’s nothing unusual about these numbers, but diving through the HWInfo logs I noticed that despite the fact that the CPU and GPU average temperatures of a little under 80 C in games, our sample struggled to maintain consistent Turbo Boost CPU speeds in some of the more demanding titles (Witcher 3, Far Cry 4). The frequencies dropped to as low as stock clock speeds of 2.7 GHz in those cases after 30+ minutes of use. That’s not considered throttling, but it’s still a sign that the platform couldn’t always get the best out of the CPU. The GPU has a stock-clock of 1354 MHz and averaged around 1450 MHz with continuous gaming, so there’s no throttling here either.

As far as stress testing goes, the CPU is capable of maintaining its Turbo speed of 3.1 GHz in continuous 100% loads, but it throttles down once the GPU kicks in as well. In fact, both the CPU and GPU throttle down when pushed to full-loads with Prime95 and Furmark, as you can see in the pictures below.

So all in all, performance is solid with this laptop, with slight issues in demanding games. The CPU’s behavior is something to look into though, given this review unit gets the cooler and more efficient Core i5 CPU without HyperThreading, and the same chassis will also accommodate a Core i7 and the GTX 1050 Ti graphics in some configurations. You should further research how those are going to fare in this chassis, and I’ll update with more details once available.

Like I mentioned earlier, there’s a chance more mature drivers and an BIOS will improve behavior and performance, as from what I can tell based on this sample there’s still a headroom of at least 10 degrees for the CPU to run at full blast before reaching dangerous temperature levels (of 90+ Celsius) and having to dial-down in speed. The fact that it dialed back earlier on this sample doesn’t tell anything about how the retail units will perform, but is a heads-up to keep an eye on other reviews and impressions, preferably from users who actually bought the final products, before drawing conclusions.

Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers and others

Even with those said above, I still have to argue that Asus could have done a better job designing the intake and exhaust on the Zenbook UX550. First of all, let’s flip the laptop upside down and notice there’s no admission grill on top of the heatpipes like on the Dell XPS 15, Lenovo Yoga 720 and pretty much all other ultraportable laptops with similar specs. Instead, there are two oval intake grills on the sides, which provide some airflow to the fans, but are not imo ideally placed or sized. That’s one aspect to keep in mind.

The other is the exhaust. Most laptops with this kind of design blow hot air out though some grills between the main body and the hinge, and this one is no different. They’re designed to direct the flow of hot air down towards the table, but the screen’s hinge actually covers the exhausts when the laptop is open and leaves up a space of about 2 mm for the air to go through. As the pictures below show, there’s a lot more space available when the screen is closed on top of the laptop (or nearly closed) and much less when the screen is up in the normal position you’ll actually use it in.

These two elements combined have in my opinion a negative impact on the airflow and as a result, on the laptop’s overall cooling capacity.

The actual cooling solution inside is pretty standard. Asus claims there are three heat-pipes but I only see two of them covering both the CPU and GPU, with a larger one hooked to the radiators on both sides and a thinner one only hooked to the radiator near the GPU. I find this design a little weird as I don’t understand why they didn’t hook them both to the two fans, but perhaps there’s something I’m missing.

Anyway, with all these technicalities out of the way, you should know that our test unit ran cool with everyday use, but the fans inside are active pretty much all the time, even with the most basic of activities. They’re audible in a quiet room and have a somewhat high-pitch whistle, yet you’ll hardly notice them in a normal environment, as we measured noise levels of up to 38 dB at head level (in a perfectly quiet room with a measured base noise of 33 dB, for scale). Unfortunately we also noticed a fair amount of coil whine and electric noise, which you’ll again hear in a quiet environment from a normal use distance. It’s not loud, but is there and is annoying.

The fans ramp to 44-45 dB in demanding loads, which is about average for a mid-range gaming laptop. A few other reviews claim lower noise levels of around 40 dB, so take our findings with a grain of salt and further look into the matter as the final retail units might actually run quieter.

Outer case load temperatures are about average, with the upper back-side getting to mid 40s. Details below.

*Daily Use – 1080p Youtube clip in EDGE for 30 minutes
*Load – playing Far Cry 4 for 30 minutes

Both the Dell XPS 15 and the Lenovo Yoga 720 run a few degrees warmer with similar loads, but you have to consider that our review unit comes with the Core i5 processor and the Nvidia 1050 graphics. The Core i7 models and especially the UX550VEs with GT 1050 Ti graphics will run hotter.

Connectivity wise there’s Wireless AC and Bluetooth 4.2 on this laptop. Asus went with one of the newer Intel tri-band 8265 chips which is a pretty solid performer. Speeds drop at 30 feet with two walls in between, but not to the point where the connection gets sluggish or is no longer usable. I also haven’t encountered any disconnects or drops, so I have nothing to complain about the wireless performance.

The speakers are a big upgrade from the older Zenbook UX510 and probably the best in the segment. Asus went with four of them, two placed on the underside and two on the interior, flanking the keyboard, and they’re both punchy and loud, at up to 85 dB at head level. The sound coming out of these speakers is clear and rich, with a fair amount of low end and no distortions, not even at maximum volumes. You will feel some vibrations in the palm-rest at volumes above 50% though, but I quickly got to ignore them during my time with the laptop.

The webcam on the other hand is mediocre, as Asus only went with a VGA camera on this laptop. The results are… well, what you see in that picture above: mushed and pixelated. The camera in flanked by two microphones that do a fair job in calls.

Battery life

There’s a 73 Wh battery inside the Zenbook UX550, which is pretty hefty given its overall size. Paired with the entry-level (and more efficient) hardware configuration and FHD screen, the battery life you can squeeze on a single charge is not bad at all. We set the screen’s brightness at roughly 120 nits – 40% brightness in our tests below:

8.9 W (~8 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Balanced Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
8.7 W (~8 h 20 min of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Internet Explorer, Balanced Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
6.0 W (~12 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Balanced Mode, screen at40%, Wi-Fi ON;
8.6 W (~8 h 30 min of use) – 4K fullscreen .mkv video in the Movie app, Balanced Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
14.1 W (~5 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Balanced Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
48 W (~1 h 30 min of use) – gaming on battery, High Performance Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON.

That aside, Asus pairs the Zenbook UX550 with a fairly chunky and heavy 120 Wh power brick, that weighs .54 kg with the included cables (European version). The charger is able to quickly charge 60% of the battery in 50 minutes, and as a result a full load takes about 1 h and 45 minutes.

Price and availability

This laptop is not widely available at the time of this post, so take the info below with a grain of salt.

From what we know so far the base Zenbook UX550VD is going to start at about 1200 EUR over here, with the UX550VE at about 1250 EUR, both with a Core i5 CPU, 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB SSD and FHD matte screen. That should translate in around $1200-$1300 for the US.

Higher-end models with Core i7 processors, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSDs should go for around 1700 EUR for both the VD and VE models.

Normally I would suggest getting the i5 configuration, but in this case you should primarily focus on a configuration with 16 GB of RAM, since there’s no way to upgrade that.

Follow this link for updated configurations and prices at the time you’re reading the article, or this one if you’re interested in the UX550VE model with GTX 1050 Ti graphics.

Competition

There are two main alternatives you could consider over the Zenbook UX550 in its niche of premium 15-inch laptops with Core HQ processors and Nvidia 1050 graphics: the Dell XPS 15 and the Lenovo Yoga 720 15. I’ll have a more detailed post on the three in a few days, but until then, here are a few things that set these apart.

The Dell XPS 9560 remains imo the top-pick in the segment, but it’s not without flaws and quality control issues, as you’ll find from our review, so make sure you buy from places that allow returns or inspect it in person before buying, if possible. It’s more sturdily built than the Zenbook, it gets a brighter FHD screen and is available with either a 56 Wh battery and space for a HDD, or a 97 Wh battery. The XPS 15 is however about $150-$200 more expensive than the Zenbook and the difference is even bigger in Europe. It also has some flaws of its own, like throttling in demanding loads (this article helps fix that), coil whine and a rather average set of speakers and keyboard.

The Lenovo Yoga 720 15 is a 2-in-1 convertible with a touchscreen and is also more affordable than both the Zenbook and the XPS, with the base Core i5 models starting at around $1000 as of late July 2017. As you’ll find from this article, it gets a very nice keyboard and a decent screen (same panel as the Zenbook UX550 tested here, but a glossy touch variant), but the build quality is only “good enough”, the trackpad is rather erratic, the IO rather limited and performance is still an issue in continuous loads.

The Zenbook UX550 sits between these two in terms of pricing and build quality, it gets the aesthetics and color choices on its hand, the punchy speakers, the slightly cooler shell in demanding loads and the good battery life. On top of all these, the Zenbook UX550 also gets full-speed PCi x4 Thunderbolt ports, while the other two only get PCIe x2 TB3. You’ll find more details about Thunderbolt 3 in this article.

There are also a few other portable 15-inchers you could consider, just a tad bigger and heavier, but also more powerful, like the Asus Vivobook Pro N580, MSI GS63 and Gigabyte Aero 15 with Core HQ processors and GTX 1050/1060 graphics. On the other hand, if you don’t necessarily need the power of an Intel HQ platform, your money would be well spent on some of the Core U 15-inch ultraportables, like the Asus Zenbook UX530, Lenovo Yoga 730-15 or the LG Gram 15.

Final thoughts- Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550 review

All in all, the Zenbook Pro UX550 is a pretty solid multimedia laptop in its high-tier premium niche, although it’s not without flaws and not necessarily the best pick in the category. It could be a best value pick for some, but I can’t say that for sure until we get the exact configurations and prices in each region. Some of the early buyers are somewhat disappointed though (details in here and in here), and the truth is I’m somewhat disappointed myself, this laptop could have been so much better with a few tweaks. It’s not perfect as it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a pretty good notebook anyway.

When we draw the line, there are many things Asus did well on this notebook. I doubt anyone can argue with the looks, and the unique Black and Blue color schemes make it even more attractive for potential buyers. The matte screen is also pretty good, just be aware that light-bleeding can be a lottery. The list of strong points also includes the punchy speakers, the fairly large battery, the clickpad and even the IO, although the lack of a full-size card-reader could be missed by some.

As far as performance goes, this laptop puts a Core HQ platform and GTX 1050/1050 Ti graphics inside a thin body, so while it handles everyday tasks smoothly and coolly, it comes to no surprise that it can run into hiccups with continuous demanding loads. That’s why I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this for gaming, the Zenbook UX550 is mostly an all-round notebook with gaming abilities, just like the other thin-and-light alternatives in its niche.

And that brings us to the list of aspects that can be improved on this laptop. For starters there’s the cooling design with limited intake and exhaust cuts, as well as the fans’ behavior with daily use, when they’re constantly active although they wouldn’t have too. Then there’s the coil whine noticeable in quiet environments. Then we get to the small flaws in build quality and the flex in the chassis and lid, which takes a toll on the typing experience as well. The keyboard is in fact one of my major nits with this Zenbook: it’s spongy and overall worse to type on than any of the keyboards Asus puts on its modern Zenbooks, including those ultra-thin UX390 and UX370 models, which makes absolutely no sense to me. And then there’s also the fact that the memory is soldered on the motherboard, which forces users to buy higher end configurations. Last on the list is the crappy VGA webcam that shouldn’t exist in this day and age, but is not actually something that I personally care much about.

In the end, it’s up to you if the Zenbook Pro UX550 strikes a balance that you can accept between its strong points, its quirks and its price. I’d say it does if you greatly value aesthetics and look for a good-value product. Otherwise, if you’re just after the best specs for your buck, the Lenovo Yoga 720 15 is much more affordable and a convertible, while the Dell XPS 15 is better built, gets a brighter screen and larger battery for about $100-$150 extra in the US ( in Europe the XPS is at least 200 EUR more expensive for the same configuration).

I would also advise you to look for other opinions and user reviews before taking the plunge on this laptop, as there are still some questions that we can’t answer based on our test-unit, like how well does the i7/1050 Ti configuration perform, how hot/loud it gets and how good are the other screen options.

We’ll wrap this up here, but the comments section is open for discussion, so don’t hesitate to post your impressions, feedback and questions about the Zenbook Pro UX550 below.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through some of the links on our site, we may earn a commission. Terms.

Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

53 Comments

Conrad

July 27, 2017 at 7:09 am

Thorough review, thanks!

I can't help but think ASUS isn't what it should be in terms of quality.

I read a review of the new Vivobook Pro N580 and it appears to have exactly the same issues as most of their laptops these days: considerable keyboard flex, audible fans that are always active, and a screen that doesn't live up to expectations. It's a real pity because these laptops don't come cheap.

I see you mention the Zenbook UX530 as an ultraportable alternative, the 15 inch version of the UX430. Is it available yet? Though I imagine the 530 to have the exact same issues as the 430.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 27, 2017 at 7:13 am
  
  The ux530 is available in some parts of Europe, not the US though. It's the same as the UX430, just a little bigger. The fans can be tweaked with FanStop and as for the other issues, I could live with them.
  
  Reply
Ernesto Santiago Guerrero

July 27, 2017 at 8:47 am

Very nice review!
I've been waiting to hear about this laptop for almost a month now and, as always, nothing lives up to the hype, sadly.
I guess I could live with most of the little nitpicking problems, but I don't know how much would the keyboard flex could bother me, as I have always had a laptop with full unibody design, and threrefore very rigid chasis.

I would like to ask you, If, and when, the reviews for the i7 models come out and they come up with the same issues, would you advise waiting for the refresh for the xps 15 model? My main issue with the 9560 is the half-bandwidth thunderbolt 3 the models have, and also the throttling. The first issue I was planning to fix with a eGPU, but the speeds of the TB3 are not promising, and I think the throttling would have an impact there.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 27, 2017 at 8:56 am
  
  I don't think a refresh of the XPS is due before the new generation of HQ chips is available (early 2018, as far as i know). I would wait for laptops with those new quad-core ULVs that are scheduled for release is September. There might be something interesting there, because otherwise all the thin and lights with Kaby Lake HQ hardware throttle in demanding loads. Perhaps Dell with have those in the XPS 15.
  
  Reply
  - Ernesto Santiago Guerrero
    
    July 27, 2017 at 9:13 am
    
    Yes, I'm aware that wainting for a refresh of the XPS 15 would mean to also wait for intel to release the Coffee Lake chips, but I was planning on waiting until December-early 2018 to make a decision on a laptop, that would allow for some Ryzen models to come out and weight out the balance of the market. Thank you for the answer.
mystiq

July 27, 2017 at 9:23 am

magnificent review, did you planing to review the unit with core i7 and GTX 1050Ti later andrei ? and why they're claiming 3 heatpipes cooling for zenbook pro ? or maybe 3 heatpipes cooling only for the corei7 and GTX1050Ti model ?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 27, 2017 at 10:30 am
  
  i don't think there's a different design for the ux550ve. Can't tell why they claim to have three, the internals shows just two
  
  Reply
  - mystiq
    
    July 29, 2017 at 10:32 am
    
    did you planning to review the GTX 1050Ti and core i7 version ?
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    July 30, 2017 at 1:50 am
    
    I can't tell as of right now
alex

July 27, 2017 at 2:14 pm

Rather annoying to see asus forcing you to buy the more expensive i7 to have 16gb of ram. Thanks for the review.

Reply
sudo_user_si

July 28, 2017 at 6:09 am

Have you tried usb-c charging?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 28, 2017 at 11:52 pm
  
  no, but i'd reckon it won't work
  
  Reply
Charry

July 28, 2017 at 12:29 pm

Hey Andrei
What about the new vivobook pro 15? Where i live the cheapest ux550 cost 1900 Dollars and with touchscreen (no version without, yet), and so I was wondering ix the vivobook pro could do for as a replacement. Have u reviewed it yet? And when it's gonna be released?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 28, 2017 at 11:53 pm
  
  Working on it right now, should be up in about a week or so
  
  Reply
Andreas

July 28, 2017 at 3:20 pm

Very nice review. Kindda disapointed about the keyboard though. But I might still get this one.

The Dell XPS 15 has a very high screen response time and suffers from some ghosting while gaming.

How does this compare? Do you have any numbers on screen refresh times?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 28, 2017 at 11:56 pm
  
  unfortunately I don't have the tools or methodology to test for refresh rate. The screen is identical to the one on the Lenovo Yoga 720 15, so you can check for refresh rate and other details in notebookcheck's review of that product.
  
  Reply
AZ

July 29, 2017 at 12:01 am

Asus drop the ball hard nowadays

I remember a time from 2008-2012 when their laptops were the solid pick out of all brands for reliability, quality and function.

They seem to think they are Dell now but have never earned the title. Charging premium but with honestly pathetic chassis flex, light bleed and forcing matte only (wax effect) on all their very low contrast ratio display leaves a bad taste.

I mean even HP and lenovo are overtaking asus now.

Reply
Anders

July 29, 2017 at 10:26 am

good review. so the typing experience on the previously tested ux430 is actually better than on this high-end ux550??

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 30, 2017 at 1:50 am
  
  for me, yes
  
  Reply
Kyle

July 30, 2017 at 3:18 am

Can you review the Gigabyte Aero 15 and P56XT? Currently they blow everything else out of the water as far as performance, portability and battery life are concerned.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  July 31, 2017 at 10:00 am
  
  Not available over here unfortunately, so I don't think I can get my hands on them for now
  
  Reply
  - Kyle
    
    August 7, 2017 at 4:37 am
    
    Ahhh that's a shame. P56XT seems like the only lightweight 1070 laptop with a decent 7 hour battery life atm. There're only 2 English reviews and it's not even mentioned on web forums.
BT

July 30, 2017 at 12:37 pm

well im honestly pissed .. i mean i saw the flex in youtube videos at computex but i expected a fix for that at this price point.
They keyboard and camera are a serious oversight i was really hoping to get this but im now thinking of the cheaper lenovo flex 5 15" as t has more ports than the yoga 720 15" and well cheaper im not paying top dollar for a clear cost cut system.

if asus went with sharp izgo panels fixed the flex then maybe but limiting ram is a bad choice for any one …

Reply
Sean

August 2, 2017 at 2:38 am

Why do you say usb-c charging won't work?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  August 2, 2017 at 2:47 am
  
  I'm just saying it might not, I don't know if Asus implemented the electronics to hook up the battery via USB-C.
  
  Reply
Ciro

August 4, 2017 at 8:13 am

Where and when can we buy asus 550ux?

Reply
- Julie
  
  January 25, 2019 at 4:43 am
  
  It seems the laptop is not available in China but there are so many replacement battery C42N1630 for UX550 available. Huawei Matebook is easy and cheap to get now.
  
  Reply
Max

August 6, 2017 at 7:15 am

Hey Andrei, very good review. Thank you very much!
I have a question: Is it possible to turn off the battery during gaming sessions or rendering tasks and power the Zenbook only by the charger? The battery isn't replaceable, am I right? My idea is to unplug the battery at home to keep it powerful for some years.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  August 6, 2017 at 11:31 am
  
  Not in an easy way, you'd have to open the device and disconnect it physically, and I'm not even sure it would boot with it disconnected
  
  Reply
dieter

August 9, 2017 at 4:42 am

It's not even out yet in my country and the price on the VD 16GB is already down to €1650. By the time everyone is stocked up it will be sub-1500. Putting this back on the radar for me. An undervolt&repaste will take care of the performance issues, nbfc or bios update (there's one out for the ux410 now) will take care of the fans. Improve battery life too. And already cheaper than xps15 in similar config. A lot better looking too. A little worried about the keyboard though. I'll probably wait until I can test it at a shop.

Reply
kevin

September 5, 2017 at 12:00 pm

Can it be charged over the USB C port?

Reply
Tao

September 5, 2017 at 2:15 pm

Thanks for your review Andrei,

Can you confirm how the TB3 ports work for eGPU?

I read that the 2 ports are a combined 4x PCIe, does this mean they are still 2x PCIe for each port or will one work at full 4x PCIe when only one port is being used?

Thank you for your help on this.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  September 6, 2017 at 12:39 pm
  
  Hmmm, I don't know to be frank. As far as I can tell from HWinfo, they're hooked up to only 2x PCIe lines and I don't think using a single port would give it access to 4x lines. You should look for other onions as well though.
  
  Reply
- Kyle
  
  September 9, 2017 at 2:58 am
  
  Basically there're 3 types of TB3 controllers: 1) 1 port, 4x 2) 1 port, 2x 3) 2 ports, 4x. The Zenbook Pro falls in the last where 4 PCIe lanes are conjoined to Mobo via both ports. Meaning when the first port uses 2x, the other one is left with 2x, and when it uses 4x (like in an uncapped eGPU scenario), the other is left with no PCIe lanes for use, only USB capabilities should work fine in theory.
  They came up with options 2) and 3) because 1) takes a bit more room on a small laptop and its hardware is (marginally) more expensive.
  
  Reply
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    September 14, 2017 at 5:02 am
    
    Hi Kyle, thanks for adding this, but do you have a source for this info? Are you sure it works at 4x speeds when hooking just one external device to a single port?
  - Kyle
    
    September 15, 2017 at 3:34 pm
    
    I only read about this online when the first batch of Skylake laptops with TB3 got released. But yes, with conjoined 4x PCIe lanes on the dual configuration, either port should be able to achieve full 40 Gbps, given that the other isn't using any thunderbolt connections. There are reports of users having successfully tested this with eGPUs on several of their laptops using this cheaper "2 ports, 4 lanes" config, including mainly the Lenovo Thinkpad X1C5/X1Y2, P71, HP Zbooks, some Dell Latitudes (though most of those are 2x), and a few MSI rigs.
    Previous iterations of also had several controllers, confusing lots of people who got them for things like music production and eGPU setup.
    ark.intel.com/products/family/79641/Thunderbolt-Products
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    September 19, 2017 at 6:24 am
    
    Hmmm, I have the UX550VE update on the desk right now, but other than looking through HWinfo I don't have an eGPU or other methods to actually test if a single port works at 4x speeds or not. I'll look into this matter today, but suggestions for what I could do to test this out in this situation would be appreciated.
  - Kyle
    
    September 20, 2017 at 3:21 am
    
    Hope you succeed and confirm this for sure. This subreddit post may be useful.
    reddit.com/r/thinkpad/comments/5ykwge/to_all_owners_of_thinkpads_with_thunderbolt_3/
    By the looks of it, the controller only shows up in HWinfo when you're using all the TB3 with the correct drivers installed.
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    September 20, 2017 at 6:23 am
    
    Thanks. HWInfo shows that the TB3 is 4x. However, it only shows one instance, not two for the two ports. So that means the two share a 4x line from what I can understand and should work like you said they would.
Serhio

September 19, 2017 at 9:25 am

At the moment no one can provide affirmative information on TB3. And it's sad. Andrew, maybe you can get hold of the EGU and experience TB3?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  September 19, 2017 at 12:00 pm
  
  Unfortunately I don't have an eGPU and can't get one over here…
  
  Reply
  - Serhio
    
    September 19, 2017 at 12:17 pm
    
    Do you get laptops for review officially from the ASUS? Perhaps they could provide some reasonable information on this matter?
    I'm confused about choosing between Yoga720 and UX550. The ASUS decision to implement a full-fledged TB3 in the form of x2 + x2 looks reasonable, but I have doubts whether this really works, for the first time I hear it.
    I hope that you will be able to find a way to verify this information, or at least add something specific to this review, when an exact answer will be found.
  - Andrei Girbea
    
    September 19, 2017 at 12:54 pm
    
    I do, but they can't tell me much about tit. My contacts are PR people, not tech engineers.
Gojan

September 19, 2017 at 5:44 pm

hey, great review. just when will the zenbook vs yoga vs xps review be up?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  September 27, 2017 at 4:29 am
  
  IDK, I planned to publish it but got caught with other things, but there's a comparison section in this article
  
  Reply
Tuzsok

September 21, 2017 at 4:21 pm

Ubuntu (at least ootb) does not work on it.

Reply
Javaria

October 9, 2017 at 11:44 pm

what is the difference between 550VE and 550VD?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  October 10, 2017 at 3:36 am
  
  mostly the graphics chip inside: gtx 1050 for ux550vd and gtx 1050 ti for ux550ve. See this post for a comparison: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/18195-asus-zenbook-ux550ve-review/
  
  Reply
Claudiu

October 10, 2017 at 10:52 am

Hi, there is a uhd display version for ux550ve? tx

Reply
dieter

December 25, 2017 at 6:25 am

I just got this laptop and I have to say I'm loving it! I undervolted the CPU by -120mV and it's fine, I'm playing assassin's Creed and watch dogs on FHD Ultra without a hiccup, it's got a good sized battery, it looks great, the sound is great, the display is great, the inputs are great… I'm happy.

Reply
Luís

January 16, 2018 at 8:36 am

Hello , i need help for the choice to chose PC .
This computer is possible to increase more ram , and more Gb's SSD?
fnac.com/PC-Portable-Asus-ZenBook-UX550VD-BN157T-15-6-Tactile/a11007736/w-4

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  January 17, 2018 at 5:11 am
  
  The RAM is NOT upgradeable. The SSD however can be replaced with a larger one.
  
  Reply
sarah

March 24, 2018 at 10:08 am

It is disappointing that they remove the keypad. This is so important for people who work on 3D and need this.

Reply

Asus Zenbook Pro 15 UX550 review (UX550VD – Core i5, GTX 1050)

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