14 DAY TRIAL // The growth experienced by Microsoft’s Surface series forced Apple to rethink its product strategy, bringing new models to the market that the company originally wasn’t interesting it, such as the iPad Pro 2-in-1 device that’s a direct rival to the Surface Pro.
More recently, Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop, a more conventional laptop that gives up on the 2-in-1 approach, but instead comes with Windows 10 S and support for Windows 10 Pro, plus a series of other improvements that Apple again seems to be downplaying.
And while the Cupertino giant ignores the direction that Microsoft is embracing, Asus is a lot more active player in this industry, and today started selling the ZenBook 3 Deluxe introduced earlier this year at Computex.
Hardware configuration
In essence a Microsoft Surface Laptop rival and an alternative to the Apple MacBook, the Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe comes with awesome specs, including Intel Core i7 processors that are also available on Microsoft’s own models. You can equip the ZenBook with up to 16GB LPDDR3 RAM and get maximum storage of 1TB SSD.
And as compared to the Surface Laptop, you also get an USB Type-C port that provides support for a wide array of external hardware, starting with monitors and ending with storage.
Despite all these specs, the ZenBook 3 Deluxe tips the scales at only 1.1 kg, so it’s even lighter than Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop.
As far as pricing goes, the most affordable configuration costs $1,299, but pricing is increased as you go for higher specs and more powerful hardware.
The Surface Laptop, on the other hand, starts from $999, but the top-of-the-range configuration goes up to $2,199 when equipped with the most powerful i7 processor, 16GB, and 512GB storage.
The device is currently available in the United States at the biggest online retailers, including Amazon, and will go on sale in more markets in the coming months.
