The chassis of the new ZenBook Pro UX550 is created from a single piece of aluminum. Asus advertises 40 manufacturing steps, including the polishing for the iconic design with the concentric circles on the lid. The top edge of the base unit is also polished, which creates a very nice contrast to the otherwise matte black chassis. The other two visual accents are the Asus logos underneath the screen and on the lid. The latter is translucent and will light up when the system is turned on. The polished edge is also comfortable for the wrists. The bottom is slightly rounded as well and the overall handling is very good. The only problem with our black model is the susceptibility to fingerprints. You will have to clean it a lot (an appropriate cloth is not provided). We can imagine the optional blue model (Royal Blue) is more convenient in this respect.

The stability, however, cannot fully meet the high expectations. The base unit is very sturdy at the palm rests and the sides of the keyboard, but this changes towards the center. Even medium pressure is sufficient to dent the surface. You can also dent the bottom panel at this spot and you can hear it has contact with the surface below. It is possible to remove the whole bottom panel for maintenance purposes, but more on that later. The notebook stands very well on the desk thanks to four large rubberized support feet.

The display hinge is very firm and it is hard to open with just one hand. There is a small indentation with two status lights on the front edge, which are easy to see both when the lid is open and closed. The firm hinge prevents bouncing very well and the maximum opening angle is ~140 degrees, which should be sufficient in practice. The thin lid is surprisingly sturdy. You can dent or twist it with a lot of pressure, but there are no picture distortions and the whole construction leaves a good impression in practice.

All in all, the new Asus ZenBook Pro UX550 is a very elegant and stylish device. We did not find any flaws with the build quality, but the aluminum case from Apple still has the edge in terms of the stability.