ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH52 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Aluminum)
ASUS Zenbook UX31E-DH52 13.3-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Aluminum)
- 13.3″ (1600×900) LED / i-5 2557M Dual Core (1.7GHz) / .78″ Thin and Only 2.86ilbs Light
- 4GB DDR3 RAM / 128GB SSD / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN
- 0.3M Pixel / Bluetooth 4.0 / 1 USB 3.0 Port / 1 USB 2.0 Port / Micro HDMI Port
- 1YR Global Warranty / 1YR Accidental Damage Protection / 30-Day Zero Bright Dot / 24-7 Tech Support
13.3″ (1600×900) LED / i-5 2557M Dual Core (1.7GHz) / 4GB DDR3 RAM / 128GB SSD / Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) / 802.11BGN / 0.3M Pixel / Bluetooth 4.0 / 1 USB 3.0 Port / 1 USB 2.0 Port / Micro HDMI Port / .78″ Thin and Only 2.86lbs / 1YR Global Warranty / 1YR Accidental Damage Protection / 30-Day Zero Bright Dot / 24-7 Tech SupportDesign. Love. Zen
It looks like nothing you’ve ever seen. It feels like nothing you’ve ever felt. It’s breathtakingly beautiful. It’s ultra-thin – wi
List Price: $ 1,099.00
Price: $ 1,099.00
Finally, a Macbook Air alternative…,
At long last, PC users finally have a strong alternative to the Macbook Air in the ultrathin, ultralight category. The ASUS UX31 meets or exceeds the technical specifications of the base model 13″ Macbook Air, while starting many hundreds of dollars less expensive. Kudos to ASUS for throwing in the VGA and ethernet dongles rather than nickel-and-dime-ing you like Apple with extra charges for these standard accessories. The included sleeve will do a fine job protecting the laptop, but it seems like rather cheap synthetic materials to me- can’t complain at this price, though.
In particular, I was happy to see ASUS put a high-resolution 1600×900 13″ display, unlike the recently announced Acer ultrabook which has a standard 1366×768 resolution. More time with Adobe Creative Suite will be needed for a final verdict, but the display seems high-quality enough for most consumers.
I found the keyboard to require a bit more pressure on keys to type with than the Macbook Air, resulting in some missed keystrokes, but that will probably change over time. Also, the trackpad does not have a high-quality feel to it- the front is split into two “clickable” regions, but the touchpad layer itself feels like a brittle, thin film of plastic that FEELS like it will break after a while- only time will tell.
Thank goodness for the other reviewer who mentioned downloading new drivers for the trackpad- the “Sentelic Finger Sensing Pad” has HORRIBLE response out of the box- often not recognizing taps and gestures, jumpy tracking, and choppy scrolling. I wouldn’t have noticed since the Asus LiveUpdate utility did not report any new software. It turns out that the drivers on the support site are labeled as “Beta” and won’t be automatically downloaded until they are considered “final”. Do yourself a favor, though, and download them anyway. Still not as smooth and accurate as on the Macbook Air, but a big improvement.
To answer a comment on the previous review, this laptop uses WiFi/Bluetooth hardware from Atheros, not Intel, so WiDi is not supported. I’ve had some flakiness with the WiFi- not sure how good the reception is, as I’m very close (i.e. at the same desk) to the base station and often not getting more than 3/5 bars in the indicator.
Thankfully, the laptop comes without too much additional software. Trend Micro antivirus software is included, but I didn’t activate it and simply downloaded the free Microsoft Security Essentials instead so it will be easily updated with Windows Update- oh, and be prepared for the usual many waves of Windows Updates to install, with one batch causing the laptop to freeze and hang after reboot for me, forcing a hard reset. Not a great first experience, but one I’ll blame Microsoft for rather than ASUS. Finally, ASUS and Intel have a bunch of annoying gadgets installed to show you various battery and CPU status, but they seem easily uninstalled.
The one thing I’m confused about is the so-called “ASUS Instant On” feature. Honestly, I don’t know what turning “Instant On” ON does other than change the default Start menu button from “Shutdown” to “Sleep”. Sleep mode with automatic Hibernation when the battery gets low has already been part of Windows 7, so is it really doing something different that requires me to keep yet ANOTHER utility open and running all the time? Seems like just marketing- except if so, this marketing spin adds yet another cr@plet running on the desktop…?
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|Great notebook,
This is a great notebook with awsome battery life (5+ hours of standward def video with 20% battery left), good keyboard (not as good as Lenovo’s), good trackpad (after driver upgrade), good scren and great look. I do wish that I can find a place to purchase another power supply as I usually have one charger at work and one at home. Although the power supply is thin and small, I would love to have 2, but I cannot find any retailer’s online that sells the power supply for this notebook. I also wish there is some soft of port aggregator for this notebook. On the right side of the notebook, you have power, USB3, mini VGA and mini HDMI port. ASUS could easily make an psudo dock that plugs into all 4 port then you have in instant notebook dock. Coming from a T series Lenovo, I miss the docking feature and not having to plug 3 things in everything I goto my desk (power, USB 3, and mini HDMI).
Warning: DO NOT UNINSTALL Instant on, PowerWiz and Power4Gear. When I did so, my computer begin to blue screen. I believe it has to do with how the hardware operates in sleep mode and how Windows expect it to behave in sleep mode. Those 3 software bridge the gap between what Windows expect and how the hardware behaves. Without it, don’t expect a stable notebook.
HINT: I’ve had some wireless stability problem earlier, but that was solved by disabling MIMO power save in the advance setting of the wireless adaptor by going to Network and Sharing Center, Change Adaptor setting, right click the adaptor, properties, configure, Advanced, and set Dynamic MIMO power save to disabled.
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|Ultrabooks are awesome!,
I’ve been waiting forever for Windows laptops to finally catch up with the form factor/design of the Macbook Air. This time Intel and its partners deliver!
I’ve owned a Macbook Air for the last 2 years and I definitely prefer this laptop to that Macbook Air (to be fair I don’t have the current generation Macbook Air).
The Asus Zenbook which looks like a macbook air Clone online does not look like a clone of the mac air except for the form factor. The brushed metal look is definitely classier in person than it looks online. As far as performance goes — so far it’s been great. The instant on actually works (finally Microsoft!), the audio BLOWS away the audio on macs and is wonderful. The laptop does not seem to heat up while on my lap or on the sofa — but I’ve only had it for 2 days.
My only criticism of the laptop is the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is not backlit and is definitely not as nice to type on as the Macbook air. The trackpad was initially somewhat unresponsive, but when I called asus they suggested that i download new drivers from the asus website and voila the trackpad is working great now.
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