Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook Review
With a solid state hard drive and Intel's latest processing technology, the Asus Zenbook is a true Ultrabook in every sense of the word. It's designed for portability: it's thin, sleek, and lightweight. It also comes with a price tag to match. Keep reading to find out whether it succeeds in its job of attempting to rival the Macbook Air.
Key Specs For The Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook
- RRP: $1099.00
- Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
- Size: 12.8” x 8.78” x 0.71”
- Weight: 2.86 lbs.
- Display size: 13.3”
- Storage: 128GB SSD
- Processor: Intel Core i5 1.7GHz
- RAM: 4 GB DDR3
- Battery life: 6 hours
Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook: The Pros
Design: As you'd expect from an ultraportable laptop to rival Apple's Macbook Air, the Asus Zenbook is extremely light and thin. It even looks similar to the Macbook Air, with a solid metal casing wand very nearly the same dimensions in terms of thickness. It looks just as good as the Macbook too, if not better.
Asus have clearly chosen materials not just for their weight, but also for the fact that they look and feel a step above your average Windows laptop – as you'd expect for anything in this price range! The metal is also extremely durable: something that helps when you're travelling with such an expensive gadget.
Portability: For a 13 inch laptop, a weight of 2.86 lbs. is extremely light. This plus the ultra-thin design means that it's extremely easy to carry around with you. The power supply is also extremely thin and light to carry around, which is ideal if you think you'll need to charge up while you're out and about.
Screen: The glossy screen on the Asus Zenbook not only looks great, but this 13 inch model comes with a resolution of 1600 x 900 – one of the highest resolutions you can get in a laptop of this class, beating the Macbook Air and Acer Aspire S3.
Hard Drive: The Asus Zenbook is a true ultraportable laptop in the sense that it includes a solid state hard drive. This kind of hard drive means a faster overall performance and is far better suited to travelling (which many buyers of ultraportables are looking for). It also helps to increase boot speeds (see below).
Ports: Compared with the Macbook Air, the Asus Zenbook has an excellent number of ports. It comes with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 (for faster transfer speeds), mini VGA and micro HDMI.
Battery: The battery life itself is around average, at 6 hours, though it's the battery utilities that are so useful in the Asus Zenbook. Asus PowerWiz will let you know how much charge is left depending on the applications you're using e.g. gaming, browsing the web, watching movies, word processing and so on. This puts you in a much better position to help maximize battery life by closing certain programs. There's also a battery saving mode which can increase battery life by up to 25%.
Power: The instant-on feature of the Asus Zenbook is designed to match the Apple Macbook Air. It takes about 2 seconds to resume from sleep, which is pretty impressive and, although seemingly unimportant, will become a very useful feature for many users. You can leave the Zenbook in sleep mode for up to two weeks, during which time all of your open files will be kept safe in the system memory. As an extra bonus, the Zenbook is extremely quiet when running, and won't get too hot on your lap thanks to the included processor.
Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook: The Cons
Price: The Asus Zenbook comes in at around the same price as the Macbook Air, which is to say that it is expensive! It costs more than some of the other ultraportable Windows laptops on the market, like the Acer Aspire S3, though it does have some benefits over the latter, most notably the larger solid state hard drive and faster processor.
Design: The way the case on the Asus Zenbook has been made means that it's a little hard to get open: you'll need to get your fingers in exactly the right angle to lift the lid of this laptop. Although this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, it takes away from the sleek feel that you get from very well-made laptops such as the Apple Macbook Air.
Another factor to note is that the keyboard on the Asus Zenbook doesn't come with a backlight. Again, not crucial, but this feature can come in very useful when working in reduced light levels.
Trackpad: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the trackpad controls. In an effort to bring the Zenbook up to Macbook standards, Asus have introduced a number of two-finger gestures to the laptop, making it easier to scroll, pinch to zoom and so on. Unfortunately, however, the computer sometimes misreads the positioning of your fingers and doesn't perform how you originally intended.
Is The Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH72 Ultrabook Worth Buying?
With its hefty price tag, the Asus Zenbook has placed itself on the premium end of the ultraportable laptop market. It looks and feels as expensive as it costs, but whether it's worth spending those extra few hundred dollars depends on whether you really need the extra features that the Asus Zenbook offers over the cheaper, yet still premium, Acer Aspire S3.