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Neither of those has a touchscreen, but I’m assuming an immediate (free) upgrade to Windows 10. That included a few suggested purchases, to which I’d add the Asus X205TA (mentioned in a comment) for £159.99 and the Lenovo S21e at £179.99. I did a round-up last month in Can you help me choose a cheap laptop? Most students probably want something cheaper than a ZenBook UX305 or UX305FA, and there are plenty of options.
You can compare different processors for speed using Notebookcheck’s tabular Comparison of Mobile Processors (CPU Benchmarks). You should look for something like a Core i5-5300U, or even a Core i7, though I don’t think those are worth the extra cost. But if you want a significant increase in speed, the Core-M is not the best choice. If your Sleekbook has, say, an AMD A8-4555M, then the Core M-5Y10 should be slightly faster. The aforementioned Core i5-3317U, which runs at 17W, is slightly faster than the Core M-5Y10 in the ZenBook, though not enough to notice. However, this involves some loss of performance, and the chip will be throttled if it starts to overheat. The Core-M has a TDP of about 4.5Watts, which is cool enough to run without a fan, which means a thinner laptop. Like many new ultraportables – including Apple’s £1,049, 12in MacBook – the ZenBook UX305 uses an Intel Core-M processor to minimise heat generation and extend battery life. Photograph: James Looker/Future Publishing However, if you have a top model with Intel’s excellent Core i5-3317U and Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics, then it won’t be.Īpple’s MacBook uses Intel’s Core-M processor to minimise heat and extend battery life.
If you have a version with an AMD A4 or A6 chip, then the UX305 should be a lot faster at processing and displaying things, and dramatically more responsive. Unfortunately, you don’t say which Sleekbook 15 you own. If you mainly want a faster machine, the UX305 will probably fit the bill, but it’s not really built for speed. If that’s your plan, then the ZenBook UX305 will be a significant improvement. People who buy 11.6in or 13.3in Ultrabooks usually want to carry them around and use them in lectures or at local coffee shops. People who buy laptops with 15.6in screens are usually going to leave them at home, plugged into the mains.
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The main difference is that the ZenBook UX305 is much more portable than the HP Sleekbook 15. PocketLint called the ZenBook UX305 “ King of the mid-range”, presumably because of its low price. It will also be much more responsive, because it has a 128GB or 256GB SSD instead of a hard drive. It is better made, having a brushed aluminium case instead of glossy plastic.
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However, it offers a full HD resolution screen of 1920 x 1080 pixels where the Sleekbook only offers 1366 x 768. It’s smaller and lighter, as you’d expect from a laptop with a 13.3in rather than a 15.6in screen. The Asus ZenBook UX305 is a significant improvement on your Sleekbook 15 in almost every way. Which does prompt the question: why do you want to replace it?Īsus ZenBook UX305 is smaller and lighter than SleekBook 15. Stand it on a pile of books to raise the screen, plug in a good USB keyboard, and it should easily last you another two or three years.
It could run Microsoft Office, play music and videos, edit photos, and so on. None of this is to imply that the HP Sleekbook 15 wasn’t good enough to do the job, because it was. Most models did not have touchscreens, and I think all of them had traditional hard drives rather than SSDs (solid-state drives). Cheaper versions of the Sleekbook 15 had slow AMD processors, limited battery life (four hours is poor by Ultrabook standards), and below-average keyboards. It was taking design cues from Ultrabooks, but unfortunately, it didn’t always deliver. The HP Sleekbook 15 varied the formula by being relatively thin and light for a laptop with a 15.6in screen, partly by dropping the usual DVD drive. They won’t turn any heads, but they are decent all-rounders from top tier suppliers. These are good performers, reasonably well made, and reasonably priced. If I had to describe a “standard” student laptop, it would be something like the HP Pavilion 15 or the Dell Inspiron 15 5000.