ASUS' new ZenBook UX430 and UX530 pack discrete graphics in a thin body

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

It looks like ASUS has a little more up its sleeve following the avalanche of PCs we saw released at CES 2017. The company has just unveiled a pair of new laptops with the ZenBook UX430 and ZenBook UX530, both of which pack the power of discrete graphics into a thin frame.

Image 1 of 2
ZenBook UX430

ASUS is calling these the "thinnest-ever ZenBook models to feature high-performance discrete graphics." So how thin are we talking? The UX430 comes in at 15.9mm while the UX530 is slightly thicker at 16.9mm. Thickness aside, the UX430 features a 14-inch 1080p display in 13-inch chassis, Intel's 7th-generation Kaby Lake i7 processor, up to 16GB or RAM and a GeForce 940MX graphics chip. Meanwhile, the UX530 features the same hardware, but with a 15.6-inch display and GeForce GTX 950 graphics.

As for ports, you're looking at a smattering of what you'd expect to see from a current-gen laptop. Included are USB Type-C, USB Type-A 3.1, URB Type-A 2.0, Micro HDMI, headphone and SD Card slots. The ports are the same across both laptops, with the exception of one extra USB 3.1 port being present on the UX530. As for colors, the UX530 and UX430 both come in Royal Blue or Quartz Grey, with the 430 also offering Rose Gold and Shimmer Gold options.

There's no pricing information available on these just yet, but ASUS does mention that they should become available in the UK at some point in Q2. We'll have to wait to hear more on availability elsewhere.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

15 Comments
  • It is weird. The latest not released yet Asus notebooks will not have latest generation of GeForce 1050/1060/1070/1080 graphics cards. 
  • Not weird. It's (1) thermals (2) price (3) battery constraints/TDP (4) goals of the device. The Pascal series for mobile are basically the full desktop GPUs, clocked differently. The "m" series are truly mobile and the 940mx is a significant boost over Intel HD and even Iris, which is the goal. Anything above 106x is basically gaming enthusiasts, which is not what these laptops are meant for. These are productivity machines with a kick, not gaming laptops. So far, we have only seen 10xx in thicker, 4+ pound laptops, not Ultrabooks.What DID happen was Pascal knocked down the prices of 9xx mobile chips so that OEMs can now use them for the first time in Ultrabooks without dramatically increasing the cost. It's trickle down tech.
  • My 3.97 lb MSI Stealth Pro is not 4+ lb :D. Your point still stands tho, I just saw the opportunity and had to take it :P.
  • this looks like a good machine for me SSD thin and light im liking the blue and a 940mx is good enough if i do wanna do more graphics work or more than light gaming i can build a cheap decent enough desktop would have like to see TB3 though.
  • Not having TB3 is a dealbreaker for me...
  • URB Type-A 2.0 ?  Is this something new or a typo?
  • The trouble with the 940mx is that according to benchmarks it's only about 30-40% faster than the Intel HD 620. For me that isn't enough to justify it, at least the 950m was twice as powerful as the 620. As you say the new chips match the desktop on CUDA core count and other specs but this is more a marketing thing than anything. The mobile GPU's have been variants of the desktop ones for a while just the model numbers didn't match between them.  What we really need to see is Nvidia get the 1030, 1040 chips out but they are too busy selling last gen on the lower end.
  • I miss Jon Stewart. We need him now more than ever.
  • Too bad those chips aren't much better than the integrated graphics, you still won't be able to run any modern game at a decent resolution/quality settings.
  • its not a gaming laptop you expect a thin and light beast ? its gonna get mad hot ... like reviews of the razor with the 1080 it gets hot. this is a almost do it all untrabook.
  • The world does not revolve around gaming, this setup will be perfect but for 3d design.
  • But the PC Master Race says it does!
  • I love the URB port, it's so fast!!
  • Touchscreen?
  • I find it good to make video editing on the go, some graphics art, photoshop and things like that will be more than enough. I want one!