The highly acclaimed ZenBook 14 and ZenBook 15 are refreshed today at “The Laptop of Tomorrow” event.
The new ZenBooks are the UX434FL and UX534FT, as compared to last year’s UX433FN and UX533FD. You can tell my the change in the last digit from ‘3’ to ‘4’.
Both new and old models look and have the same dimensions.
Interestingly, both the refreshed models and the old models use the same Intel CPUs. On both 14-inch and 15-inch models, it’s running on the quad core i7-8565.
So what’s new?
ZenBook UX434FL
- ScreenPad 2.0 (formerly NumberPad)
- NVIDIA MX250 (formerly MX150)
- Touch Display (formerly non-touch)
- 1TB SSD (formerly 512GB SSD)
ZenBook UX534FT
- ScreenPad 2.0 (formerly NumberPad)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q (formerly GTX 1050 Max-Q)
- 16GB RAM DDR3 (formerly DDR4)
- 71W battery (formerly 73W)
- 120W power adapter (formerly 90W)
The upgrades are actually pretty impressive. For those that require a touch screen laptop, the UX434FL is now a choice. You also get a 1TB SSD on the UX434FL as well. ScreenPad 2.0 might come good for you as well. Many new features from the older model.
Is it the same price?
Sadly the upgrades are gonna cost you more. The ZenBook UX434FL retails at S$2,098 (S$200 more than UX433FN), while the ZenBook UX534FT retails at S$2,498 ($400 more than the UX533FD).
The price hike for the 14-inch UX434FL seems reasonable for me, but $400 more for the 15-inch UX534FT just seems too much.
It seems like the newer models and older ones are priced differently so as to offer a cheaper option for those do not require a the new features. Since both new and old models are powered by the same quad core i7-8565 Intel CPU, you’re getting more or less the same power.