Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) review: our full review –

The 15-inch ultrabook category is becoming increasingly important in the market. As miniaturization has made this diagonal ever lighter and more powerful, computers like the Asus Zenbook 15 have become terribly attractive. The days when the 15-inch was more or less entry-level and mid-range equipment for families are long gone, and the Asus Zenbook 15 from 2023 (UM3504DA) is the perfect example.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) Technical sheet

The copy tested here was lent to us by Asus for the duration of the test.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) A comfortable everyday design

The characteristic lines of the Zenbook range are again present on this 2023 Zenbook 15, and particularly these colored streaks on the chassis which enhance the grainy gray color which gives the range its originality. The Asus Zenbook 15 may imitate its characteristics, but it is far from being a laptop that leaves us unmoved. This is all the more true considering that for its diagonal, it weighs only 1.4 kilograms on the scale and manages to keep a very thin body at 1.49 cm thick.

This translates into a computer whose diagonal makes it superbly comfortable on a daily basis and whose physical characteristics allow it to be transported very easily on a working day; 1.4 kilograms is next to nothing in a backpack, after all. Its finishes are excellent, especially its metal frame which has no flexibility. We feel that the Asus Zenbook 15 can take a few hits without flinching.

Keyboard and touchpad

It is on the side of the keyboard that we are not necessarily happy. Without saying that it is of bad quality, since we find the characteristic rebound of Asus keys on this segment, but everything is still very plastic. Whether it’s sound or touch, the keyboard is one of those elements that we will call ” helpful » : it’s not bad, but there are much better on the market. The presence of the numeric keypad is appreciable, but the latter is so cramped that one wonders if the one integrated into the numeric keypad was not more ergonomic.

The touchpad itself is of a satisfactory diagonal and provides a very good glide. The only thing we could really fault it for is being well recessed into the chassis, which recalls the trends of a few decades ago now. Some will like to have this natural delimitation, others will be frustrated by it; It’s a question of taste.

connectors

We find on the left a simple USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, when the right side is much more provided: HDMI 2.1 port, combo jack as well as two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports. For an ultraportable of this kind, it is already a well-stocked connection, but an SD reader would have perfected everything.

webcam and audio

The camera integrated into the Asus Zenbook 15 of 2023 does not really stand out, even if its quality is of rather good quality.

We’re on a 1080p sensor after all, which also serves for Windows Hello and biometric recognition.

The same goes for the speakers, which aren’t particularly convincing. We are in the shackles of ” sound coming out of laptopso to speak, with very little definition and absent bass. Helpful for watching a movie or series on the go, but not for wiggling.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) An OLED screen that lacks a bit of brightness

The 2023 Asus Zenbook 15 is equipped in our test configuration with a 15.6-inch OLED panel supporting a definition of 2880 x 1620 at a 16:9 ratio. It is compatible with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, and is certified DisplayHDR True Black 600.

Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we find natively a maximum brightness of 413 cd / m² for a coverage of 170.6% of the sRGB space and 120.8% of the DCI-P3 space. The panel tends to offer slightly warmer colors than nature, as shown by its color temperature measured at 6164K. The average Delta E00 measured is still very good at 2.51 for a maximum difference measured at 5.19 on light blues.

Also, the most disappointing here is ultimately this brightness of 413 cd / m² during conventional use. And for good reason: the glossy screen reflects a lot of light. This measure therefore guarantees that the screen will not remain readable in direct sunlight, which can be a difficulty for a laptop mainly aimed at workers and families.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) Software

In addition to the usual Asus adware trends, central to the software tracking is the MyAsus app. This is still useful for tweaking the performance of the device, activating or deactivating certain software services for improving the camera or sound, or even to find the colorimetric profiles of the screen.

We can only blame it for one thing, since it works very well: that by dint of adding features, its interface has become a bit cluttered. A little tidying up and a few shifts of options here and there could go a long way for the future of the software.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) Performance

In our test build, the Asus Zenbook 15 is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7735U, an 8-core, 16-thread SoC that can turbo up to 4.75GHz. It is coupled with 32 GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1 TB PCIe 4.0 storage.

Benchmarks and heating

Under Cinebench R23, we find the usual very good performance of the latest Ryzen. Particularly in multi-core, where the Ryzen 7U scores 11,433 points. And if the single-core remains to Intel’s advantage, the score of 1549 points is far from problematic. Besides the absolute fluidity of the device, we know that the Ryzen 7 7735U remains comfortable on this configuration and will deploy more power than one could imagine from such a small machine. On the storage side, we are in the average PCie 4.0 SSD of the year, although we can reach 6000 MB/s today.

The heating of the Asus Zenbook 15 of 2023 is moreover perfectly controlled. Besides the fact that the device is constantly silent, it does not exceed 47°C at its hottest point located below the machine, when the keyboard always remains cool at 36°C.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) Autonomy

15-inch format requires, the Asus Zenbook 15 of 2023 is able to carry a nice 67 Wh battery. This will be recharged through the 65W USB-C power supply using the Power Delivery standard, which also means that any charger using this standard will be able to give a boost to autonomy.

The latter is otherwise decent. We find in office use 8 to 9 hours of autonomy without making concessions, which will last a full working day. Still, we were entitled to expect better, particularly in the face of competition from MacBooks under ARM, which have changed the game in this field.

Asus Zenbook 15 Oled (UM3504DA) Price and availability

The Asus Zenbook 15 from 2023 is currently priced at 1299.99 euros for the least expensive configuration. The one used in the test is sold at 1399.99 euros.