You may have heard of ASUS’s two mainstream laptop series, the ASUS Zenbook and ASUS Vivobook. ASUS actually has a lineup that is geared toward professionals and businesses which is the ASUS ExpertBook.

The ExpertBook provides more high customization on hardware and offers extensive warranty coverage; including on-site service and repair.

All the ASUS ExpertBook laptops are designed to operate 40 hours workweek for business needs with less downtime.

Today, we will be looking at the ASUS ExpertBook B5 Flip B5302F, an ultraportable convertible laptop. Don’t get confused with the Intel 11th Gen powered B5 Flip, this is with the latest Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake U-series processor.

ASUS ExpertBook B5 Flip B5302F (Intel 12th Gen)

FastView

If you prefer to watch in video format, I have a short review video of the ASUS ExpertBook B5 Flip on my YouTube channel;

Design

Offered in one color option; Star Black which has a matte finish and the back cover is very simple with just the ASUS logo in the center and the ExpertBook badge in the top left corner.

As you can expect from a convertible laptop, the ExpertBook B5 can be used in many ways; the general laptop mode, tent, lay-flat for collaboration, and tablet where you can do sketching or note-taking with the included MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) 2.0 active stylus pen.

The magnesium-aluminum alloy build is weigh only 1.33kg and meets the MIL-STD-810H military durability standard. This should give you peace of mind using it in any condition and situation.

On top of the 13.3-inch touch display, it has a Full HD webcam with a physical privacy shutter. As for the webcam quality, I would say it’s pretty good. This is a plus point as this is one of the tools that you would use a lot for business calls or meetings.

Speaking about video calls, on the back cover next to the ExpertBook logo, there’s actually a small bright LED that function as a glance indication of your status when you’re busy on a conference call. How pensive is that?

Keyboard & Trackpad

The ASUS ExpertBook B5 Flip comes with a spill-resistant full-sized laptop keyboard. They are backlit chiclets with matte finish keycaps and offer a tactile typing experience. This is thanks to the long 1.5mm key travel.

The number keys 1 to 4 are different; it is because it functions as hotkeys or shortcuts to launch a program, websites, and other actions like a toggle on or off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi switches. This feature is called ASUS ExpertWidget and it’s customizable to your preference to save time and increase productivity.

As for the trackpad, it’s just a pretty standard size but it features NumberPad 2.0 if you need to punch a lot of numbers in excel. If you don’t wish to use the trackpad, ASUS is thoughtful enough to include a wireless optical mouse but why silver? Not match leh! Anyway, it’s a free item we shouldn’t complain about.

Ports & Connectivity

It has a pretty complete array of ports and the latest connectivities. On the left, there are two Thunderbolt 4, a micro HDMI for the LAN dongle, volume buttons, and LED status indicators.

While on the right, an HDMI 2.0b, USB A 3.2 Gen2, 3.5mm audio combo port, and a power button that doubled up as a fingerprint scanner.

Equipped with the latest Intel AX211 Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 for fast and stable connections.

Display

The ExpertBook B5 Flip sports an anti-glare 13.3-inch 16:9 Full HD touch screen. The panel pushes 300 nits peak brightness and covers 100% sRGB. It’s a great display to work indoors even next to a sunny bright window.

Performance

Under the hood is an Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake U-series processor. It is paired with soldered 8GB DDR5 memory which can be further expanded via the empty SO-DIMM slot (up to 32GB). It also has two M.2 2280 SSD slots where it supports Dual SSD RAID. The review unit that I have gotten from ASUS Malaysia is configured with Intel Core i5-1235U and 512GB MICRON 2450 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD.

The ExpertBook B5 Flip performs relatively well for any office work and can even handle simple creative or graphics-related tasks like Photoshop and Illustrator.

By default, the integrated graphics will only run it as Intel UHD. But once enabled dual-channel memory by adding to a stick of 8GB of RAM, the Intel Iris Xe will be unlocked for better performance.

Battery

When come to battery life, the Intel U-series shine in this department. The 66Whr battery can deliver up to 11 hours of battery life. Based on my usage which is mainly on productivity, it can last 8 hours and more.

If you happened to leave your charger at home, the ExpertBook B5 Flip can be charged with any USB C PD charger like the UGREEN GaN 100W that I always carry around for my smartphone and my tablet.