The minimum configuration ASUS ZenBook UX430 will cost you thousands of dollars, very nice. For comparison – the main competitor to Apple worth $ 1,300 in the minimum configuration, but the performance in the gadget from ASUS to order more.

While John is putting the extremely powerful (and expensive) ASUS ROG GX800 for a go, we also received another notebook from the Taiwanese company before the start of the Holy Week break and it's a welcome change from the last laptop I personally reviewed - the ASUS ROG Strix VL753VE .

Seriously no cons to say about the laptop. The fan noise everyone is talking about was a bit loud even at idle but a simple program has fixed that problem and there is no over heating with the fan not running.

Of late, I found an increasing interest towards sleek and portable laptops which is the reason why I called dibs on the newly launched Asus ZenBook UX430 as soon as it arrived in India. There was a time when all I wanted was a powerful laptop that could satiate the hunger for games in me.

Great display; Slim and lightweight; Premium design

Heats up while gaming; Underpowered GPU

For some years, PC manufacturers have been competing to make a Windows notebook that is better-looking and more useful than a MacBook Air. One of the clear contenders has been ASUS with its ZenBooks.

Attractive styling; Keen price for an ultraportable; Full complement of ports via bundled adapters; 14in screen in a 13in notebook; Crisp IPS display; Competitive battery life; Harman Kardon speakers a cut above the average for thin and light format

USB 3.1 Type-C only Gen 1 (5Gbits/sec); SATA 3 SSD; not NVMe; Trackpad prone to accidental cursor movement when touch typing; Chassis finish attracts fingerprints

My second laptop was a Toshiba satellite - a grotesque-looking, non-biodegradable plastic piece of machinery which weighed over 2 kilos. When I invested close to Rs 20,000 in buying it, my concern wasn't for the environment.

Asus recently announced two new laptops - the VivoBook S15 starting from Rs 59,990 and the ZenBook UX430 starting from Rs 74,990. Asus had launched its high-end ZenBook 3 earlier this year, so the ZenBook UX430 series is targetted at more mainstream usage.

I picked up the Zenbook Pro a weekend before this came out. I returned that due to a loud coil whine and this new Zenbook just came in that morning. It pretty much had what I was looking for, new gen i7, smaller screen, lighter/thinner, 16gb ram. And to top it off, it was $900 cheaper than the Pro.

Very good for multi tasking - Battery life is as advertised - Quite light - Stays pretty cool even under some load

- Small coil whine; but not too noticeable - No thunderbolt port - Mediocre webcam - No numeric pad through fn key - No dedicated GPU

"The PC industry is dying, smartphones will take over" – this usual statement has been around for a while. It's not wrong to say that smartphones and tablets are slowly evolving to dominate the laptop's territory of providing computing solutions on the move.

Asus seems to have paid attention to what the market really wants, and that is a simple, no-nonsense laptop that's easy to carry around. Even with the base model, you get a modern processor and comfortably large SSD, and we're happy to see that creature comforts such as the excellent screen and...

Looks great; thin and light, Comfortable trackpad and keyboard, Excellent screen, Good overall performance

Not enough USB ports; Noisy fans; Battery life could have been better