ASUS ZenBook line refreshed with a unique touchpad

ASUS has unveiled a new lineup of ZenBooks, and perhaps now more than ever, the focus is on design. There are three new ZenBooks in all, with 13-inch, 14-inch, and 15-inch screens. Hardware is similar across all three model – though it's not entirely the same – but what really makes these new ZenBooks stand out from the crowd are their NanoEdge displays.

As the name suggests, a NanoEdge display has super slim bezels that provide "near-borderless visuals" in ASUS's words. That design results in a screen-to-body ratio that hovers around 92% in the 14-inch and 15-inch models, and climbs to 95% in the 13-inch model. As you might imagine, slim bezel means a decrease in overall size as well, with ASUS saying that the new ZenBook has the "smallest footprint in its class."

The 13 and 14-inch ZenBooks are also equipped with a rather unique touchpad. Tapping the touchpad in the upper right corner will summon an LED numeric pad, which is honestly a pretty neat way to squeeze the functionality of a full keyboard into a laptop that's designed around being small. This feature is officially called the "ASUS NumberPad," and assuming it works okay, it isn't hard to imagine seeing it in future ZenBook releases.

Other features worth knowing about include a 3D infrared camera that can be used for Windows Hello logins in poor lighting, along with compatibility with Alexa and Cortana. Internal hardware, of course, depends on the model you buy, with the ZenBook 13 being the low-end device of the bunch and the ZenBook 15 covering the high-end with options for discreet graphics. Have a look at the full spec sheets for each model in the gallery below.

ASUS says that all three ZenBooks will be launching in North America in the first half of October 2018. No word on a more specific release date just yet, and we don't know how much they'll cost either. We'll likely find out as we get closer to October, so stay tuned for that.