ASUS ZenBook Deluxe 3 UX490UA Review: A Striking, Slim Ultrabook

ASUS has earned high praise over the years for its ZenBook line of ultraportables. They marry sleek ultrabook designs with generally good value. We usually don’t see a lot of groundbreaking new technology from the line-up, but not everyone needs that and consistent quality builds are more generally the ZenBook hallmark. Some people just want a thin, light laptop that gets the job done and looks good doing it.


The ASUS ZenBook Deluxe 3 UX490UA is the big brother of the UX390UA we previously reviewed. It is, essentially, the same laptop bumped up from a 12.5-inch display to a 14-inch display. It’s got the same overall design signature and major features. The machine even comes with a similar carrying case. It’s available in Royal blue and Quartz Grey (the smaller model is also available in Rose Gold, which is absent from this 14-incher). We found a lot to like about that smaller 12.5-inch model, along with a few caveats, and most of that holds true of this larger model.

ASUS ZenBook Deluxe 3 UX490UA Specifications & Features

The UX490UA even fixes one of our complaints about the UX390A with its single USB-C port. This larger model has three, one on the left next to the headphone/mic jack, and two on the right. You can charge the notebook using any of them, and the two on the right support Thunderbolt 3 and DisplayPort 1.2 as well. You could hook up two 4K external displays if you wanted, though dual-core ultrabook chips aren’t exactly made for the kind of high-end multitasking that would necessitate that sort of thing. The left USB-C port is Gen 1, with a max transfer of 5Gbps. The two on the right are Gen 2, doubling that to 10Gbps.

As configured, our ZenBook 3 Deluxe UX490UA is priced at $1699. That’s certainly not cheap, but there are more expensive premium ultrabooks on the market as well. Let's drop down for a closer look at the build and software setup...