ASUS Zenbook UX31 Full Review: MacBook Air Killer?
The ASUS Zenbook UX31 is without doubt one of the very first “Ultrabooks” within the market place — an impossibly thin and mild notebook having a lovely high-res 13.3-inch screen, six several hours of battery, plus a cost that undercuts the Apple MacBook Air.
Build and Style
The UX31 is all about design — and it’s certainly amazing. Manufactured practically entirely of aluminum, the UX31 is stable as, well, metal. The chassis has almost zero flex and also the lid is just as sturdy. Even the keyboard keys are made of aluminum.
The edges on the notebook are tapered off to provide the impression the notebook is even thinner than it really is. All corners and edges of the notebook are smoothed off rather than sharp within the least; all round suit and finish is excellent.
The UX31’s lid provides a darker metallic surface area with features a circular pattern offering it a far more robust appearance and feel as opposed to competing MacBook Air. I like how the lid is usually opened with one particular hand. The lid nearly seems to be a bit as well loose but I had no difficulties using the style and design through the analysis interval.
ASUS pulled out all the stops with this particular style and design and it displays. Lots of notebooks pass through my hands; it’s not normally 1 will come around which makes me do a double-take. The UX31 is absolutely among the handful of.
Ports and Attributes
A casualty of getting so skinny is really a lack of ports; all the ports sit for the rear because the chassis gets thinner in the direction of the front. ASUS contains two port adapters: an USB-to-Ethernet and mini-VGA-to-VGA (that’s the very first time I’ve seen the latter on any notebook). The one important merchandise the UX31 is lacking is usually a built-in HDMI port; it has mini-HDMI nonetheless you need to order an adapter in your possess. All image descriptions are left to right.
The ASUS ZENBOOK is obtainable with two display screen measurements: eleven.6 and 13.3 inches; ours will be the latter. The screen is among the highlights of this notebook. Not merely may be the exhibit shiny and colorful; it has an incredibly welcome high resolution of 1600×900 pixels. Pretty much all other notebooks this measurement come with a mediocre 1366×768, which has just 72% with the room. A higher resolution display screen such as this one particular implies a lot less scrolling is essential in websites and paperwork since much more is viewable on the display at a person time. A significant resolution is usually a will need to for productivity.
Viewing angles within the exhibit are typical for any TN-type panel; colours distort from strange angles higher than and underneath but are satisfactory side-to-side. The one real downside of this show will be the glossy surface area, which results in reflections and might be annoying, dependent to the natural environment.
ASUS contracted well-known audio provider Bang & Olufsen to engineer a sound system for this notebook. The speakers are in fact located with the hinge area with the notebook; sound is pushed out in the direction of the display screen and bass is transmitted through the keyboard area. The style works very well – the speakers don’t have the characteristic tinniness of normal notebook speakers. There is noticeable bass and also the speakers get appreciatively loud. They are additional than adequate for listening to music in a quiet room. General it’s an impressive setup considering the dimensions of this notebook.
Keyboard and Touchpad
This is an area where ASUS gets a running start but doesn’t quite cross the end line. The good news is that the Chiclet-style keyboard has full-sized keys which has a wonderfully smooth yet slightly grippy surface area. Additionally there is zero flex and the keyboard is relatively quiet. The bad news is usually a lack of tactile feedback; this is often a likely a casualty of the notebook becoming so thin. There is simply no room to make the keys taller. I initially found myself missing keystrokes; keys have to be 100% fully pressed to register where on a normal notebook keyboard you can get away with lightly tapping the keys. Typing speed and proficiency suffers as a result. On a final note, the keyboard lacks backlighting; I wouldn’t mention it except that the MacBook Air has it.
The oversized touchpad provides a smooth surface. This is a clickpad; press down anywhere to produce a click. The amount of pressure needed for the clicks varies; it’s easier in the direction of the bottom. The touchpad was a mess until I updated to the latest driver, which greatly improved accuracy. It’s still not as precise as it should be (say, compared to a MacBook); I eventually got used to it. Another complaint about the touchpad is that the clicks are far too loud; they should be softer as to not annoy others.
Another Best laptop under $500 is ASUS A53E-XA2. Read review for ASUS A53E-XA2 laptop.
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