Asus launches 13.3-inch Zenbook Flip S convertible with 4K display and 11.5 hours of battery life starting at $1,099, and Zenbook Pro, Zenbook 3 Deluxe laptops
Asus just finished its Computex Taipei 2017 press conference, and in a surprising departure for the Taiwanese company, it was totally straightforward.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Computex Taipei reveal caps a busy year for Asus's premium portables: the ZenBook 3 Deluxe was already unveiled at CES in January with a May ship date, so today's show is less a surprise than a completion of the lineup on home turf. The Zenbook Flip S extends a convertible push that began with the Transformer 3 line pitched against Microsoft's Surface Pro 4.
What makes this one notable is positioning: a 4K convertible starting at $1,099 undercuts the $1,699 Deluxe flagship, letting Asus span the premium Windows range from convertible to desktop-replacement in a single press conference.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a 13.3-inch 4K convertible claiming 11.5 hours of battery life at $1,099 — a spec-to-price point that pressures every other premium Windows convertible on shelves this summer.
- The Zenbook Pro and Zenbook 3 Deluxe give Asus a three-tier premium stack, moving shoppers up-market within one brand rather than to Dell, HP, or Lenovo.
Second-order effects
- Rival ultrabook makers now face a 4K-at-$1,099 benchmark and must answer on either panel resolution or price when their own refresh cycles hit.
- Intel benefits from the breadth: Kaby Lake silicon anchors the whole lineup, echoing the chip strategy Asus used for the Transformer 3 family.
Third-order effects
- If the cadence holds, each Computex becomes an annual reset for the premium Windows laptop market — a pattern the corpus already shows repeating with the 2018 Zenbook Pro 15 adding six-core CPUs and an optional discrete GPU, and an 8th Gen Core refresh of the same ZenBook lines arriving that fall.
- Convertibles and traditional clamshells are converging on the same thin chassis and high-res panels, eroding the distinction Asus itself drew between the Flip S and the Deluxe just a year earlier.
The trend: Premium Windows laptops are settling into an annual Computex-driven refresh cycle where 4K displays and all-day battery become table stakes at ever-lower price points.