I'm a linux nerd. I've been using tablets and netbooks as a sort of thin client to remotely access my desktop for a while, and it works, but sometimes you just want a little more oomph and flexibility in the portable. The Flip 13 works pretty well for this sort of thing. The main things this has going for it are the screen, linux support, and battery life.
Screen: The OLED screen is amazing. This is the reason to get this laptop. For the longest time, laptop sized OLED panels have only been available in very high resolutions (4k for example). This device instead has conventional 1080p resolution. There's probably a little loss in image quality (although, on a 13 inch screen in typical laptop distances, I don't notice it). Lower resolution means that the device doesn't have to work so hard in general (more pixels->more processing->hotter lap/shorter battery life). Also, occasionally 4k laptops have issues with super high pixel density resulting in tiny UI elements (this is less of an issue in 2021, but still occurs occasionally). 1080p was the 'normal HD' resolution for many years, so everything just works on a 1080p panel.
Linux stuff: I dropped Ubuntu on this thing without any significant issues. I went with the desktop version, 20.10 (so, I didn't try LTS, this is a personal daily driver so I plan on keeping it up to date). Typically I prefer to install something like Arch and built it up from the foundation, but I decided since it is a laptop, it would be best to just go easy-mode and let them work out all the drivers. Wayland and Xorg based Gnome work perfectly. I also tried kubuntu, suggested by another reviewer, which also seemed to work fine, but I just don't like the looks of KDE. In any case, normal pain points like the touch screen, wifi, and automatic screen rotation worked out of the box. The biggest point of confusion: the pen didn't work initially, and I went through all sorts of effort trying to figure out where the disconnect was. Turns out, since the pen is active, you need to open the pen up and remove the little plastic battery freshness protector thingy. Do'h!
Also, there seems to be some issue where, when on power-saver mode the bluetooth radio might turn itself off (I think this is Linux specific). I'm sure there's an easy fix for this, but bluetooth on Linux is always a bit janky, and I don't have enough bluetooth peripherals to really care about working this out.
Battery: I mostly work on the command line, with a black background, and don't have a ton of visual effects turned on. Black background+OLED+minimal processing=pretty impressive battery life. If I start at 100%, a day of normal usage (with occasional web browsing, videos, and/or music) doesn't take it to the point where I worry about battery life (somewhere in the 20% to 30% range -- battery draining is of course very workload dependent, so it is hard to say much). With the screen dimmed, I've gotten my battery manager to predict 21 hours of life remaining. I'm not sure how accurate the Ubuntu battery applet is, so take that with a heap of salt. But overall, the experience is that I don't think about the battery, while running on battery, which is new to me.
Things I'm less impressed/not sure about:
The lack of a headphone jack is annoying. The included usbc-3.5mm dongle is 'fine.' When playing particularly delicate music, I notice a little bit of fuzz in the background.
Super nitpicky: The power button is on the side of the device, exactly opposite the USB-C ports. As a result, I have once or twice accidentally hit the power button while bracing the laptop to plug it in. This was particularly annoying when I had the power button mapped to 'power off.' Now I have i set to suspend, which is not so bad. Suspend works better for this type of device anyway.
The keyboard is mostly all-right. The keys are OK for a laptop, not super crisp but not totally mushy like you sometimes get on a laptop. The layout is mostly OK, except they decided to put the Fn key between control and the windows/super key. This is annoying if you have any keyboard shortcuts that involve the control key. Ok, I get that we nerds get unnecessarily picky about keyboard, but come on ASUS, everybody uses CTRL+C,CTRL-V, right?
It is a 2-in-1, but it it is definitely a laptop first. As a tablet: the edges are a little sharp, it is a little heavy, and 16:9 is not a great aspect ratio for a tablet (too tall and skinny, 4:3 is better). I was hoping to get rid of my ancient iPad and unify everything to one portable device. Currently, I haven't quite given up on using the Zenbook as a tablet, but it is definitely something I'm *trying* to do, rather than something where I immediately said "yes this is much better, good-bye iPad."
Final thoughts: Inexpensive 1080p OLED screens for laptop seem to be a fairly new thing, which makes the Flip somewhat unique. The complaints I have are mostly nitpicky, and the pros on this thing are pretty great. If you are looking for a great thin-and-light laptop, and an OK tablet, I'd say go for it. If you already have a tablet that you love, and don't mind switching back and forth -- this still is a good device. You may want to take a quick look at the regular (non-flip) OLED Zenbook. I haven't tried it, but it looks pretty similar (just, slightly cheaper because it doesn't have the fancy hinge I guess). Finally, ASUS seems to have gotten out front on these 1080p OLED screens. The contrast ratio on OLED is just amazing (I'm not planning on ever buying a conventional LCD screen again), and I don't see many OLED devices on Amazon that aren't hundreds or thousands of dollars more expensive. However, that might have changed by the time you read this as other manufacturers release models with these panels, so if it is much past 2021 you may want to at least shop around a bit.
| Standing screen display size | 13.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 4.2 GHz apple_ci5 |
| RAM | 8 GB LPDDR4X |
| Memory Speed | 4266 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 512 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Graphics Card Ram Size | 8 GB |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11ax |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 16 Hours |
| National Stock Number | UX363EA-DH51T |
