Asus claims it has created the world's thinnest convertible laptop with the ZenBook Flip S.
At just 10.9mm thin and 1.1kg, it trumps even the 12-inch MacBook as the smallest and lightest laptop. To create such a compact convertible, Asus constructed a new ergo lift hinge design that's made of steel alloy and measures just 3.9mm in thickness. This mechanism should also see users through opening and closing the notebook at least 20,000 times.
Meanwhile, the body is made of aerospace-grade aluminum, and for cooling Asus has gone with an ultra-thin vapor-chamber cooling system.
Another core piece of the ZenBook Flip S is a 13.3-inch nano edge 4K UHD display that features ultra-thin 6.11mm bezels.
With a touchscreen the ZenBook Flip S also fully supports Windows Ink and works in tandem with the Asus Pen to offer 1,024 levels of precision, as well as reading 10 to 300 grams of force. Windows Hello is also fully supported with an integrated fingerprint sensor.
Modern Standby combined with Instant Resume features see the laptop waking up from sleep three times faster than other laptops. This is partially thanks to the ZenBook Flip S's speedy hardware, which includes the latest Intel Core i7 CPUs with up to 1TB PCIe SSDs and 16GB of DDR3 RAM.
The Asus ZenBook Flip S starts at $1,099, with Asus yet to provide details about availability.
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Timelord science
Asus also announced the ZenBook 3 Deluxe, which the company calls most prestigious laptop in the world.
Measuring 12.9mm and weighing just 1.1kg, it's incredibly light and thin for a 14-inch laptop in a 13-inch notebook shell. This is made possible by its chassis being made of aerospace-grade metal.
The Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe also sees the same nano-edge display as the ZenBook Flip S, although here there's also a 0.55mm thin sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for the cover glass.
Configurations go up to an Intel Core i7, 1TB PCIe SSD and 16GB of RAM. If you want more power the laptop also connects to Asus' external GPU solution, the XG Station 2.
In terms of inputs, it includes a glass-covered touchpad and fully backlit keyboard. The ZenBook 3 Deluxe also features a quad-speaker setup with Harmon Kardon's Smart Amp technology, to make it three times louder than your average laptop.
Asus has set the starting price for the ZenBook 3 Deluxe at $1,199, but again, hasn't mentioned availability.
Move over MacBook Pro
Rounding out the trio of Ultrabook announcements was the Asus ZenBook Pro. It amps up the power with an Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti and Intel Core i7 H-series (read: quad-core) processors.
Over other ZenBooks, the Pro is further upgradable to a 1TB PCIe x4 SSD and 16GB DDR4 RAM.
Despite all this power the ZenBook Pro is also thin and light at just 18.9mm thick and 1.8kg in weight. The 15.6-inch nano-edge 4K display is no slouch either.
The Pro also features a 14 hour battery life thanks to a 73WHr battery and can charge up to 60% after 49 minutes. Quad-speakers also find their way to the Pro for a 2.5x louder sound and 1.6x wider frequency response.
The Asus ZenBook Pro starts at $1,299 with no word on availability.
Viva la VivoBook
Beyond its ZenBook announcements, Asus also brought out a new VivoBook S. It's a run-of-mill 15.6-inch laptop with a regular Intel Core i7, Nvidia GeForce 940MX, though, you can add some serious add-ons including an 2TB HDD plus a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM.
It's all packed into an 17.9mm thick and 1.5kg aluminum chassis. Asus has also honed the screen-to-body ratio to 80% thanks to its 7.8mm bezels. This 15-incher starts at $499.
If you're looking for something that's a step up but not the ZenBook Pro, the Asus VivoBook Pro similarly features Intel Core i7 H-series CPUs along with the Nvidia GTX 1050, all of which is kept from overheating by a dual-fan cooling system.
The cherry on top is a 4K UHD 15.6-inch display that renders 100% of the RGB color gamut. This last entry comes in at a starting price of $799.
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