Seldom do we find products that have features that are practical in usage rather than a gimmick. And ASUS ExpertBook B5302 Flip is one such laptop that’s loaded with features and capabilities, with each having a practical use case in a real-life scenario. Its true beauty lies in the little details that ASUS engineers have loaded this laptop with. Be it the flexibility to use this laptop as a tablet, or its lightweight, or the feature of a trackpad doubling up as a numeric keypad which is handy when working on spreadsheets, or the little red do-not-disturb light on the other side of the screen that switches on to caution approaching people whenever a video-call is in progress, or the webcam shield; and the list goes on. These are just a few features, and its specifications make it a performance powerhouse. This 13.3-inch 2-in-1 laptop is a sleek versatile beauty that elegantly combines the best of both worlds – laptop and tablet – into one, which will definitely appeal to the mostly on-the-go business professionals.
Delving into Details
The Asus ExpertBook B5302 Flip is a 2-in-1 laptop that can be used as a traditional laptop and as a tablet by flipping over the display screen a full 360-degrees. With its magnesium-aluminum alloy shell, the laptop looks sleek while being robust, as ASUS claims it complies with US military-grade durability standards. Hence, you can be worry-free from small bumps and falls. Weighing just under 1.3 kg the laptop is easy to carry and eliminates the weight of carrying an additional tablet. It has a 13.3-inch touchscreen Full-HD OLED display which is bright even outdoors and can support finger touch along with Stylus input. The display is attached to the keyboard using full-rotation hinges, which not only offers flexibility to use the display screen at any angle. It is designed in a manner that lifts the keyboard at an angle to offer air ventilation underneath for cooling the laptop.
The backlit keyboard is excellent with very good key travel and spill resistance. It’s a full-sized keyboard that is great for writing. The trackpad is spacious and doubles up as a number pad by long-pressing the top-right corner of the trackpad. You will notice that there’s no fingerprint reader or power button on the keyboard area, Asus has positioned the power button with an integrated fingerprint reader on the right side along with a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-A port, and a full-sized HDMI port, and a Kensington Lock. While the left side has a micro-HDMI port, a volume rocker, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The laptop is shipped with Windows 10 and is upgradeable to Windows 11.
Coming to specs, the review unit we received was ASUS ExpertBook B5302FEA. It is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and features Intel Iris Xe G7 graphics, 16GB RAM, and 512GB NVMe SSD. As it supports dual SSD with M.2 interface, one can leverage its RAID support to configure data reliability and recovery in case any one of the SSD fails, and the user’s data is not lost. For connectivity, it supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.
Performance
The ASUS ExpertBook B5302 is packed with sufficient muscle power for office productivity and even can handle graphics editing work. Though it is aimed at professionals, the B5302 cannot be termed a core gaming machine but it can seamlessly support medium graphics-intensive games. The battery is a 66Wh 4-cell pack, which lasted from morning to night with multitasking across various Office apps, some video calls, editing a small video on OpenShot, and still had about 15% juice left. The battery is powered by a 65W USB-C fast charger, which can charge the battery up to 60% in just about 40 minutes. Being a laptop for business professionals who mostly do their conferences and calls, the laptop supports two-way AI noise-canceling. It results in a crystal audio experience with background noise reduction for the listener at the other end.
Coming to its main feature – 2-in-1 laptop, ASUS has significantly integrated with the operating system to offer a seamless transition for a user from laptop mode to a tablet mode. As soon as a user flips the screen 360-degrees for a tablet functionality, the keyboard and trackpad are disabled, and the Windows switches to a tablet mode. Though, as a tablet it feels a little big in hand to handle and is thicker than a tablet owning to the attached keyboard, it still is comfortable to use as you relax at a waiting lounge to read an e-book or browse some news. The provided stylus is easy to use, and since there is no provision to slide in the stylus, the ASUS engineers have provided a magnetic clip-on feature. The stylus sticks to the magnet just around the webcam area. Thus, you don’t have to carry it separately in the bag.
Final Verdict
Priced at INR 1,39,000, the ASUS ExpertBook B5302 Flip is a high-end laptop, which is worth its price tag for performance, usability, and features. Business professionals will find it useful in their daily routine work as a productivity enhancer and also as a good light-weight companion device for entertainment while on travel and leisure.
