Gifts for Everyone on Your List

Gifts for Everyone on Your List
Welcome to a laptop battery specialist of the Asus Laptop Battery
By Matthew Buzzi The Asus ZenBook UX305CA ($699.99 as tested) is an ultraportable laptop that offers an appealing mix of form and function for a very good price. The chassis is sturdy and well made, and the system boasts a full HD touch screen, plenty of port options, and solid battery life. The more expensive Apple MacBook Air 13-inch%displayPrice% at %seller%, our Editors' Choice for midrange ultraportables, has most of the same features, but has the edge in performance and unbeatable battery life, albeit at a higher price. The ZenBook UX305CA stays close to the MacBook Air in terms of performance despite the price difference, and it's easy to recommend as a more-affordable alternative.
The ZenBook UX305CA is an attractive, slim aluminum system with a brushed with battery like Asus L5900 Battery, Asus A32-M9 Battery, Asus A33-W7 Battery, Asus A32-U5 Battery, Asus 90-NE62B3000 Battery, Asus 90-NIL1B2000 Battery, Asus Z91E Battery, Asus L8000 Battery, Asus BA-04 Battery, Asus S96 Battery, Asus Eee PC 1015 Battery, Asus Eee PC 1016 Battery, circular pattern on the lid. The color, which Asus calls Obsidian Stone, is surprisingly hard to describe—it appears to just be gray or silver at first glance, but has an almost purplish tinge under certain lighting. The laptop measures 0.5 by 12.8 by 8.9 inches (HWD) and weighs just 2.6 pounds. The metal body definitely gives it a little extra heft, but the system feels more solid as a result, so the tradeoff is worth it. High-end ultraportables like the Lenovo LaVie Z HZ550%displayPrice% at %seller% opt for super-thin materials to keep the laptops as light and slim as possible, but the build quality can suffer too much as a result. The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch bears very similar dimensions (0.68 by 12.8 by 8.94 inches), and is actually a little thicker and heavier at 2.96 pounds.
One noteworthy aspect of the design is that the back of the lid hangs slightly over the base of the laptop, so that when you push the screen back, the bottom of the laptop is slightly propped up off whatever surface it's sitting on. Two small, plastic feet on the bottom of the lid, which slide more easily than a lid itself would, indicate that this design is intentional, perhaps to give the keyboard some slant for more ergonomic typing.
The keyboard itself is well-made, boasting nice chiclet-style keys with good travel, though there's no key backlighting. The touchpad is very roomy, especially for a system this size.The ZenBook UX305CA features a 13.3-inch In-Plane Switching (IPS) display with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. The older iteration of the system, the Asus Zenbook UX305FA-ASM1%displayPrice% at %seller%, offers the same display, while the MacBook Air 13-inch only features a 1,440-by-900-resolution screen, despite its $999 price tag. The Lenovo Yoga 900%displayPrice% at %seller% offers a 3,200-by-1,800-resolution display, but the system is almost twice the price of the ZenBook UX305CA. I'm surprised the ZenBook's screen doesn't look a bit sharper given the resolution and its In-PLane Switching (IPS) panel, but it's still perfectly clear, and the matte finish cuts down on glare. There's an ambient light sensor built into the system that automatically adjusts display brightness, but I found that it generally over-dimmed the screen. A secondary function on the A key switches the ambient sensor off, or you can turn it off in the power-options control panel.
The system offers a decent array of ports, including two USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader on its left. The right side features another USB 3.0 port, the AC adapter port, a micro HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, like the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch, no Ethernet ports are included on the system. There's a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) on board, which is a higher capacity than the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch's 128GB of flash storage, and again on par with the Asus UX305FA-ASM1. The Lenovo Yoga 900 offers a 512GB SSD, and the Dell XPS 13 Touch includes a 256GB drive. Also featured are dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Asus offers a one-year warranty on the system.