Review: Thin and light laptops

Asus ZenBook UX305 vs. Dell XPS 13: Thin, light and powerful

These two Windows notebooks are not only easy to carry, but offer a lot of power for a reasonable price.

By Brian Nadel

Contributing Writer, Computerworld |

Review

Thin and light laptops

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How I tested

To see how these two notebooks stacked up, I used each of them for a week in my office, at home and on the road.

I measured each system's screen brightness with a Minolta LM-1 luminance meter. After setting up the system to display a pure white image, I divided the screen up into three rectangular sections and measured the brightness in each. I converted the foot-Lamberts readings to candelas per square meter and averaged the three readings.

To compare their performance, I benchmarked each system using standard software. I started by running PassMark's PerformanceTest 8.0 to get a good idea of each machine's overall performance potential for everyday tasks, from creating spreadsheets to writing memos. This suite of tests stresses every major system component, from the processor, memory and hard drive to the graphics. It then compiles the results into a single score that represents its performance potential. I ran the software three times and averaged the results.

After that, I ran Maxon CineBench, which gives the system a good processor and graphics workout by rendering complex video. Its processor test employs roughly 280,000 polygons, uses a variety of algorithms and can take advantage of multi-core processors. The software's OpenGL rendering tests use a photo-realistic car chase scene that contains approximately 1 million polygons, high-resolution textures and a variety of special effects. It runs for 30 seconds and measures the frame rate the system is capable of delivering. I ran the test three times and averaged the results.

While I ran the tests, I felt around the system's case for hot spots and recorded them using the Seek Thermal Camera an infrared thermography camera attached to a Nexus 7 tablet. I set the camera to show the top temperature.

I gauged a worst-case battery life scenario by sequentially playing six high-definition videos from a USB drive. I fully charged each system and ran PassMark's BattMon test to see how the cells were depleted. This test was repeated three times and the results averaged. If you double the result, you can get a good idea of how long the battery will last in real-world use under less stressful conditions.

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Review

Thin and light laptops

Introduction

Asus ZenBook UX305

Dell XPS 13

Conclusions

Features table

Performance ratings

How I tested