Asus ZenBook Flip S – Flip Tiger Lake

Specs and details

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Specs

Details

The inner part of the package includes a box with a typical circular ZenBook design in gold.

We received a pre-production sample, so we do not have an EU charger. Similar to the ZenBook 14, the package also includes an adapter for audio jack, which the notebook is no longer equipped with.

The new Flip returns to the ZenBook design we’ve already seen. The gray body with gold accents looks premium and stylish. The build quality is first-class, the diamond-cut edges shine nicely in the light. There is also a pattern of concentric circles on the display lid, which is very typical for ZenBooks. The compact dimensions are underlined by the weight of just over 1.2 kg, making the laptop very compact and easily portable. Perhaps the only disadvantage of the dark body is the proneness to fingerprints.

The Flip S UX371 is a premium device with the latest insides. That includes the 11th generation Intel Tiger Lake processors, in this case the Core i7-1165G7. It is the successor to the Ice Lake version of the i7-1065G7 with one big change. That is the new Intel Xe graphics, which should offer significantly higher performance. Of course, we will check this in our tests. In addition to the new processor, the tested piece also boasts 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of SSD. Unfortunately, you will not find an AMD version of the Flip S on the menu. Lower configurations offer 512 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM and Core i5-1135G7. Prices range from 1469–1799 euros/38,990–47,990 CZK.

Interestingly, the Flip S is one of the first Intel Evo certified laptops. This means that it must meet Intel’s strict requirements in order to bear this logo. These include the use of an 11th generation processor, 8 GB of RAM or more, fast wake-up from sleep in less than 1 second, long battery life, fast USB-C charging, the presence of WiFi 6, TB4, LTE and biometric security. There are several similar requirements, and Intel is trying to create a kind of elite category of laptops with Windows, in which the user will be guaranteed the best experience and the latest technologies. This Flip S fully meets this.

Although the Filp S is only 14 mm thin, the port selection did not suffer in any way. Like the ZenBook 14, we can find HDMI and USB type A, which is a rarity rather than the rule, especially for such thin devices. Of course, there is also a pair of USB-C ports, but this time with the support of the latest Thunderbolt 4. What we lost compared to the ZenBook 14 is a microSD card reader, which is a shame. It was replaced by the power button. I could also complain about using HDMI 1.4, although the processor already supports HDMI 2.0. Therefore you will not display 4K resolution at 60 Hz.

As already mentioned, the package includes an adapter from USB-C to a 3.5 mm audio jack, for which there’s no space left in the body.

At the front edge, you can see a notch at the bottom of the base, but the display cover does not protrude over this notch. Nevertheless, I had no difficulty opening the lid with my thumb and using only one hand. The rear contains all the ventilation and cooling system holes.

The top view shows us the lid with the golden Asus logo and the circular design. The lower part has four rubber feet and a ventilation grille at the top middle. It is not significant though.

After removing the bottom cover, you will get to the components. You need a T5 screwdriver to remove it.

The layout is not surprising, the deep blue motherboard is interesting, similar to that in the ZenBook 14. The whole lower part is occupied by a large battery and under it we can see the speakers.

Cooling is provided by a large heatpipe running from the processor to the heatsink, through which the fan blows air. We will look at the efficiency of this cooling later in the tests.

The tested configuration has the 11th generation Intel processor, namely the Tiger Lake Core i7-1165G7. The insides are complemented by 16 GB LPDDR4X 4266 MHz RAM and 1 TB SSD. In this series, you can also reach for a lower model with i5-1135G7, 8 GB RAM and 256–512 GB SSD. You won’t find dedicated graphics or AMD processors in the new Flip S. The 11th generation Intel brings a novelty in the form of integrated Iris Xe GPU, with which Intel promises significantly higher performance compared to the 10th generation and at the same time dares to compete with Vega graphics in AMD Renoir. This comparison is going to be really interesting and we will look at it in a moment.

Only the SSD is replaceable, RAM and WiFi are part of the motherboard. Therefore, consider the choice of configuration according to your needs. Personally, I would appreciate it if we took it a step higher and 16 GB of RAM would become the standard, with the possibility of expanding to 32 GB. For example, in the XPS 13, Dell also offers a 32 GB configuration, which I personally would certainly reach for rather than 16 GB.

The biggest difference compared to the ZenBook 14 is, of course, the convertible design, or the 2-in-1 concept. The display rotates 360 degrees and you can turn the notebook into tent or tablet mode. The traditional ErgoLift has been preserved, which slightly raises the keyboard for more comfortable typing. You can see what the novelty in tent and tablet modes looks like in the pictures below.

The keyboard offers basically identical layout to the ZenBook 14. I like that the keyboard takes up the entire width of the base and the key response is also very good. But I would be pleased with the two-line (ISO) Enter or different location of the Home, End, PgUp and PgDn buttons, which you need to get used to, as they are located on the far right. However, unlike the ZenBook 14, you can’t go wrong and press the power button instead of Delete. This is not on the keyboard this time, as it has been moved to the right side next to the USB port.

I praise the relatively large touchpad with a pleasant glass surface and an integrated touchpad. We saw the same with ZenBook 14.

Although you won’t find a fingerprint reader here, you won’t lose biometric security. Similar to the ZenBook 14, there is a 3D IR camera with Windows Hello support, too. After capturing and saving the face, just open the notebook and it will be unlocked immediately. Personally, I think it’s even faster and more convenient than a fingerprint reader. The webcam has a resolution of 720p, no surprises here.

The ZenBook 14 impressed me with its battery life and the Flip S has a chance to reach an equally good result. This is due to the same 67 Wh battery. We will see whether the display in this case will not have a greater appetite for power than it should.

In addition to the fact that we do not have the EU version of the charger in our test package, it is practically the same 65 W model with a USB-C connector, as we saw with the ZenBook 14. There is also fast charging and you’ll get 73% of the battery in an hour. The full charge takes a little over 2 hours.

A large battery and a new generation of processors are prerequisites for a very good battery life. However, it is also necessary to take the display into account, which with 4K resolution and OLED technology will certainly have higher power draw than other more traditional models. In our demanding YouTube test, the Flip S achieved a very good value of 7 hours and 5 minutes. It loses two and a quarter hours on the ZenBook 14, which is not a small amount, but given the fundamental difference in technology and resolution of the display, this is no surprise.

Let’s look at the test results.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Testing methodology

We tested the notebook at home, not in a laboratory environment. Nevertheless, the effort was made for the most accurate results. These are therefore the average of the measured values from repeated tests.

Tests include synthetic benchmarks to compare processor and graphics card performance. We also measure storage speed, battery life, charging speed and in-game performance. The goal is to test laptops and desktops in various scenarios and get a comprehensive overview of their performance and operating characteristics.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Gamut, brightness and color difference

We measured the image properties of the display using the Datacolor Spyder5Elite color analyzer. The Flip S offers a unique display, which is not is not in many laptops yet. 13.3″ screen with 4K resolution in aspect ratio of 16:9 (3840 × 2160 px) and 60 Hz impresses with touch and stylus support, but especially with OLED technology. Unlike classic IPS, VA, TN panels, it does not need backlighting, as every single pixel emits its own light. That means no backlight bleed, endless contrast and true black color. I myself am curious what values we’ll measure with the color analyzer. It is also important to mention that the touch layer can recognize up to 4096 levels of pressure when drawing with a stylus, whose battery lasts up to 12 months. However, the stylus is sold separately and we did not have it available for testing.

On the manufacturer’s website you will find information about 80% display to body ratio, 400 nit brightness, but also 100% coverage of DCI-P3, Pantone Validated certificate and VESA DisplayHDR 500 True Black. The specs are truly interesting and unlike other laptops or monitors that we normally test, the HDR of the OLED display really matters and I will definitely test it.

The display offers excellent color reproduction with over 100% coverage of sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 and 98% NTSC. The maximum brightness with a value of 453 nits is also excellent, which is one of the best measured values so far. The uniformity is good, with only slight deviations in color and backlight. Slightly strange is the course of gamma, with a curve similar to 1.8 value, but with a different bend at the top. Due to the high coverage of all gamuts, we see a relatively large color difference of Delta E. Calibration of the display for the desired use would probably be needed. In its default state, it is really saturated and vivid, which is very good for content consumption. I also tried HDR content, whether played locally or played online. Everything works as desired and the image is really breathtaking, as is the custom with OLEDs.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Rendering, Geekbench

The Tiger Lake i7-1165G7 is a hot new product, which we will compare with the predecessor i7-1065G7 but also AMD Renoir 4700U.

Let’s start traditionally with Cinebench for a glance at raw performance of the processor. In R15 you can see a very good SC score, which is 8–11% better than in the 10th generation in Dell and ZenBook 14. In single-core, it also beats Renoir in Swift 3 by 10%. Multi-core no longer shows such great results. The Flip S was placed between the ZenBook 14 with a 13% lead and the XPS with an 8% loss. It loses significantly against Acer in multi-core, by up to 40%. The newer version of R20 still shows higher single-core performance compared to the i7-1065G7, but this time only by 3–5%. On the contrary, the 4700U matched the loss and even led by 1%. Multi-core shows similar results as in the older version of the test, i.e. 9% lead over the ZenBook 14, 24% loss against Dell and up to 73% loss against Acer with Renoir.

A practical test in Blender shows only a minimal difference between the new Flip S and the ZenBook 14 with the last gen processor, about half a minute. Apparently, again, it will be a matter of performance throttling during a longer load, as we saw with its sibling. The XPS is 62% faster in this test and Acer even by more than a half. We see a similar scenario in POV-Ray, where the Flip S beats the ZenBook 14 by 6%, but loses by 35% against Dell and by up to 95% against the Swift.

Geekbench tests are shorter than Blender and POV-Ray ones, the differences between the Flip S performance and its competition are at the level of ± 10–20% in single-core and multi-core tests, which we have already seen in Cinebench. In Geekbench, we are therefore more interested in Compute tests, which will show us the first shot of the new Iris Xe graphics performance. We see that compared to Iris Plus in the 10th generation, the increase is somewhere around 40–60%, compared to the 4700U and Vega 7 about 30–40% and the novelty beats the 4900HS with Vega 8 by 14%. It definitely looks interesting, we’ll see what results we’ll get in gaming tests.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

3D/PCMark and Unigine Heaven

PCMark tests both CPU and GPU performance. This is a relatively long test, which could have a negative effect on the performance of the Flip S, but the opposite is true. The novelty beats the ZenBook 14 and Dell by 20 and 11%, respectively. However, it loses by 9% against the Swift 3. 3DMark gaming tests show an interesting graphic performance of the novelty. At Firestrike, it beats Dell by 30% and the ZenBook 14 by up to 85%. The Swift 3 is also lagging behind by 8%. We don’t usually test Time Spy and Sky Diver on ultrabooks, so we still have to compare with the recently tested Legion Y740S, with the 10th generation of 45 W H-series processors. The novelty gave a 2 and 3 times higher result, which is definitely interesting.

As a representative of the graphic gaming test, Unigine Heaven shows us that 3DMark was right and the novelty beats all integrated GPUs so far. It beats Iris Plus in Dell and ZenBook 14 by 40–82%, Acer Swift 3 with Vega 7 by 33% and the dedicated MX250 by 29% or even Vega 8 by 10%.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Gaming tests – integrated graphics

Let’s start with CS:GO, which is one of the most popular games ever. It can be seen that with increasing graphics quality, the lead of the Flip S with Intel Xe graphics gradually decreases. In Low, it is the fastest, by 24% against Dell and 55% against the ZenBook 14. It even beats Swift 5 with a dedicated Nvidia MX250 graphics card. With the medium settings, it fell under the Swift 5 and the Zephyrus G14, but still has an advantage over Dell, ZenBook 14 and Swift 3. At High settings, however, this difference has already narrowed and the Swift 3 with Renoir 4700U got past the Flip S, which called the XPS.

GTA V is one of the most popular games on the market and offers complex and challenging graphics. Surprisingly, we no longer see such dominance as in CS:GO, quite the opposite. Both Dell and Swift 3 are faster than the Flip S, beating only the ZenBook 14 by 17%.

We see a different scenario in Dirt Rally. Here, the Flip S is better than Ice Lake models, moved away from Dell by 24 and ZenBook 14 by 59%. On the contrary, it loses to Swift 3 by 22%. Game performance is therefore very variable, but some improvement over the Ice Lake models can be observed.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Encryption, encoding

Encryption and decryption show a slight increase in performance, about 10–15%.

Working with videos is one of the longer tests, and history repeats itself here. The Flip S beats the ZenBook 14 by about 20–30%, but it’s not enough for Dell, which is 11–30% faster and the Swift 3 achieves even 50–79% faster times.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Memory and storage tests

An unexpected surprise was brought by the speed of RAM, where the Flip S defeats all the computers tested so far. This is mainly due to 4266 MHz LPDDR4X memory. It beats its direct competition by 30–40% in speed tests. However, the latency is comparable to the competition.

The SSD speeds are also a pleasant surprise, where Asus usually saves, which we also saw with the ZenBook 14. This time, however, read and speeds are above 3 GB/s, which meets the highest current level in this area. So I have no comments here, I can only praise.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Heating and battery life

The 10th generation Intel Ice Lake is not surprising in terms of temperature, and looking at the chart above does not bode well for the 11th generation Tiger Lake. But the truth is that I noticed a slight decrease in temperature in the tests. Usually the maximum was around 94–95 degrees Celsius, which is a little less than the maximum temperature. In practice, however, we will be more interested in the course of performance and temperatures, which we will look at in the flow charts.

The Flip S gives a very solid result in the YouTube test with a value of 7 hours and 5 minutes, thus beating the XPS 13 2in1 and many other laptops. But it does not reach the Zenbook 14’s great result.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Blender

Just as we started to monitor the development of clock speed, power draw and temperatures in Blender and 3DMark in gaming notebooks, we will also address these areas for non-gaming notebooks. In this case, we are mainly interested in the visualization of the performance course for individual performance modes and CPU load, but also the combined CPU + GPU load.

The Blender test is one of the longer ones. It shows large differences between the clock speed of the individual modes. Whisper almost immediately drops to 1 GHz or less. Standard and Performance also show a large drop in clock speed from over 4 GHz to just around 2 GHz, but we can see that Performance maintains a slightly higher clock than Standard. Also interesting are these leaps in Whisper mode, we have not seen this with another laptop.

Power draw exactly copies the clock speed curve. Standard and Performance are at 15 W, Whisper below 10 W.

The course of the temperature during the test is again very similar to the clock speed and power draw, and after the initial values of 90 degrees, we gradually decrease to 70 and in the case of Whisper even to 60 degrees.

The difference in performance between Performance and Standard is only 17%, which was seen in similar performance curves. However, Whisper shows 2 and 2.3 times worse results than Standard and Performance, which is definitely not negligible.

3DMark

A similarly long stress test is the good old Fire Strike. Here you can see relatively chaotic clock changes from idle to full boost (4.4 GHz) depending on the current scene. Again, however, we see that Standard and Performance have similar clock curves, while Whisper goes its own way with lower values.

We see a big difference in power draw, where Standard and Performance exceed 30 W at the maximum and stay around 25 W for longer until they start to fall to 15 W in the half of the test, as we saw with Blender. Whisper, on the other hand, immediately drops below 10 W and, except for a small increase beyond the half of the test to 15 W, sticks to this value.

Standard and Performance temperatures are similar to clock speed and power draw, so at the beginning of the test about 90 degrees with a drop to about 70. Whisper keeps it below 60 degrees.

The GPU load for 3D scenes is the same in all modes.

We also see a big difference in GPU power draw between the modes. The Whisper is below 5 W with one jump to 10 W, while the Standard and Performance at the beginning of the test take between 15–20 W until they drop to 10 W.

The temperature of the GPU is practically the same as the temperature of the processor, as it is an integrated part.

The difference in the total score between Standard and Performance is smaller than with Blender, only 11%, but Whisper is again more than 2× slower compared to the other two modes.

Summary

After analyzing the graphs, simple conclusions can be drawn. The Standard mode will be ideal for normal use, you can get a few extra percent of performance when playing games or using demanding programs after switching to Performance mode. On the contrary, when the longest possible battery life is required, the Whisper mode is an ideal solution, as it significantly affects the performance of the device. This is how I somehow imagine that the performance modes should work. Thumbs up, Asus. Maybe just one tip for improvement, the difference between Standard and Performance could be a bit bigger.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

MyAsus

Asus also offers an application called MyAsus for controls and management of your laptop.

It contains details about the device and the possibility of registering the product.

You’ll also find hardware check and driver update options.

You can control various settings, such as fan mode or charging capacity limitation.

Updates and recommended applications are not missing either. You can also connect your smartphone to your laptop using Link to MyAsus.

The application is very nicely designed and easy to use.

This year is packed with technological innovations and laptops are an area where it’s all happening. In addition, Intel is under a lot of pressure, which was reflected in the relatively fast release of the new gen of Tiger Lake processors, and the first novelty from Asus has already reached our editorial office. What is the new ZenBook Flip S like and is the 11th gen of Intel Core even sensible compared to the 10th gen in the recently tested ZenBook 14?

Rating

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371 is a new premium addition to the ZenBook family, where it will take the position of a handy compact and stylish 2in1 device. It will surprise with its build quality, design, relatively rich port selection, biometric security and stunning display. The new processor gives it unprecedented performance, especially in the field of graphics, thanks to which you will be able to play less demanding titles on the road, on the sofa or in bed.

Although the 4K display is not an ideal choice for battery life, with a value of more than 7 hours, the Flip S definitely has nothing to be ashamed of. Of course, it’s not as great a value as that of the ZenBook 14, but 2 hours would be an adequate tax for a great 4K OLED display with HDR and high brightness, at least for me. Undoubtedly, this is one of the best displays I have ever seen on a laptop, and I would immediately reach for it myself. As for the performance of the new processor, it is obviously limited in the thin and light body and does not offer completely consistent results, which I am not very surprised about.

On the contrary, I was pleased with the very good implementation of performance modes that work as expected. On the contrary, I was struck by the absence of an SD card slot and only older HDMI standard, where the ZenBook 14 managed better. Either way, the Flip S is definitely an interesting candidate for your new 2in1 device and a good opponent for convertible Dell XPS or Lenovo Yoga models.

You can buy this laptop at our partner’s website czc.cz for 47,990 Czk/1,799 Eur

English translation and edit by Lukáš Terényi

• Contents
• Specs and details
• Testing methodology
• Display tests
• Rendering and Geekbench
• 3D/PCMark and Unigine Heaven/Superposition
• Gaming tests – integrated graphics
• Encryption, encoding
• Memory and storage tests
• Heating and battery life
• Clock, power draw and temperature analysis
• Utility app
• Rating