Asus UX501VW is very well crafted. The sleek and stylish all-metal exterior has at least a whiff of Apple about it, which is no bad thing when it comes to laptop design. The width and depth are mainly dictated by its 15.6in screen; it’s very slim at 21.3mm and it’s also the lightest laptop in this class on test, weighing in at under 2.3kg.
A consequence of the size is a very large area for supporting your wrists when typing, and it’s comfortable to rest against the slightly textured metal. Meanwhile, the large touchpad is a single body model with a glass-coating and touch-sensitive buttons, which all works fine, although the key action on the backlit keyboard feels a little spongy.
All the ports are neatly located on the sides, with a healthy selection of USB ports that includes a USB 3.1 Type-C port with Thunderbolt capabilities. One notably lacking feature is an Ethernet port, but Asus sensibly provides a USB to Ethernet adaptor. Also, the HDMI version is 1.4, not 2, so this laptop isn’t ideal for hooking up to a 4K TV.
Asus’ screen is a big selling point. Its 3,840 x 2,160 resolution results in pin-sharp images and text, and it’s also a touch-screen – a feature that’s unique in this test. The screen is very bright, although it has a pretty poor contrast ratio measurement of just 360:1. Still, colour accuracy is very good, even if the whitepoint leaves the image a little on the cool side.
For storage with Asus opting for the same 512GB Samsung SM951 NVMe SSD. This drive gets you good capacity and massive speed with minimal footprint, which is just as well, as there’s no room for any other drives in this machine.
While the physical design impresses, though, the performance here is underwhelming. The UX501VW places bottom in every RealBench measurement, and it’s the only laptop to show significant performance differences from the other machines on test. It has the same Core i7-6700HQ CPU as the others, but the unequal RAM allocation (1 x 8GB, 1 x 4GB) may be to blame. We also observed the CPU frequency cutting back a little from the maximum turbo speed under sustained load, but not to an alarming degree.
Similarly, GPU performance is disappointing. The GTX 960M 2GB isn’t able to provide playable frame rates in any of our tests, so even at 1080p, you’ll need to make a number of detail sacrifices.
Pleasingly, the Asus is at least a very quiet machine. It’s inaudible in low-load situations, and it’s even reasonably quiet when gaming. That said, we did observe the GPU gradually reducing its clock speed under load, eventually settling at around 915MHz. This behaviour isn’t especially surprising – there are only very small vents at the rear and bottom so as to not spoil the sleek looks. Thankfully, the metal chassis doesn’t become uncomfortably hot as a result.
Much of the limited space has also been reserved for the battery – the UX501VW has the highest-capacity battery of any other laptop on test. Paired with the low power requirements of the GTX 960M, the gaming battery life clears two hours, although your detail settings will need to be very low. The PCMark 8 result is ridiculously long too, at almost nine hours.
For a 15.6in laptop, Asus has done a standout job matching our thin and light criteria, and the battery life is great. With only a GTX 960M 2GB in tow, however, the gaming credentials are lacking, especially for the price tag.
VERDICT
A great design and long battery life, but at this price, it’s outclassed by the competition when it comes to gaming.