Asus upgrades Zenbook with classic Full HD
screen and trendy Ivy Bridge processor, but are they enough to make it the best
ultra-book?
Price: $1,908
Asus
Zenbook Prime UX31A
Zenbook UX31A of Asus shows ultra-book’s
typical strength at first sight. It has full of potentials: beauty, power, durability
and price.
Now, Asus has returned to criticism aiming
at first-generation Zenbook and warned people of changes for the new model,
Zenbook Prime UX31A. With the supplement of 13.3inch Full HD display, Intel’s
latest Ivy Bridge technology and back-lit keyboard, it is stealing the crown of
ultra-book of the segment where price doesn’t matter.
Zenbook is still as eye-catching as I used
to be. A dark-blue spiral lies on the cover lid and becomes fader in the bottom
plus sharp and jubilant linings on UX31A’s body appear undeniably attractive. Regarding
weight, UX31A is still in high-class as it is 1.4kg heavy – light enough for
you to forget the fact that the device has already been in your pocket. We are
fans of compact wall-mounting power source – which adds more 200g to the
model’s weight.
However, thanks to the presence of an
Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPU, it’s unlikely that UX31A’s battery gets you to consult the
electric socket regularly. Dim the display and turn wireless radio off, UX31A will
run within 9 hours and 5 minutes. Besides Core i7-3517U processor, there are 4GB
of RAM and 256GB SSD. The result of 0.68 point in test of Real World Benchmark gave
Asus higher rank than previous Sandy-Bridge-core-i-7 chipped model whose score
was 0.62.
Gaming performance won’t affect Xbox’s
sales but UX31A’s Intel HD Graphics 400 GPU is stronger than previous
generation’s GPU. In Crysis, average 37fps at low-detail setting fell down to 19fps
at 1600x900 and Medium setting – yet this was an impressive performance for such
a nice device. Keeping detailed setting and resolution at modest level, this
slim laptop would happily gaming performance at basic level.
Excellent pixels
While the increase in performance may be
small, the screen cannot be neglected. Zenbook Prime’s Full HD display knocked this
predecessor’s one out by an IPS screen delivering large viewing-angle and
various color desaturation. Its brightness and contrast are more excellent than
those of previous Zenbook models and while its 166ppi cannot rival 220ppi of
Apple’s Retina display (on Macbook Pro), it still gives vibrant images.
Checked with our color measurement tool (X-Rite),
Full HD monitor provided 1032:1 contrast ratio and 424cd/m2 brightness. These figure
were as good as laptop’s ones. Plus, averagely Delta E was 3.1, showing outstanding
color reproduction. In case we had any compliant, it was only small: the
screen’s color temperature of 6185K was lower than ideal one which was 6500K,
and it made display feel warm-pink.
A feeling of improvement
Stop looking at pixel-rich screen then you
would notice one of improvements that Asus brought to Zenbook Prime: a super
back-lit keyboard. It was, of course, handy but we felt more pleased that UX31A’s
keyboard was more improved than its predecessor’s one in some essential
aspects. Each button had good rebound. It felt a little when pressed but more
lighter when fully pressed. The keyboard was not the best that we had used but
it was spacious and comfortable enough to make no matter during daily use.
Touchpad is a big hindrance in original
design and it seemed that Asus solved the problem worst. Multi-touch action
worked more reliably and general experience annoyed you less than it used to.
Though, it was not perfect – we sometimes found
problem clicking and dragging icon freely on the screen and we didn’t like touchpad’s
position. Our palm often held the cursor then dragged it to the bottom while
typing, which drove us to us shortcut to disable touchpad.
Connectivity was another downside of UX31A.
Sleek-wedge-shaped design provided few ports as well as connectors. Asus did
insert one USB 3 connector in each edge. Besides, there are also ports for
micro-HDMI, SD card reader and earphone slot.
If you want Gigabit Ethernet or D-SUB
connection on Zenbook Prime, you will be sure to remember the enclosed dongle. However,
802.11n dual-band wireless adapter compensates for this, alongside with
Bluetooth 4.
High price
Though, Zenbook Prime’s main hindrance is
its price. At the time when we wrote this article, we couldn’t manage to find UX31A
with the price under $2,289 (including VAT) and some retailers sold it for $27,734.
It was pricier than not only its predecessor but also all ultra-book available
in the market – similar to Apple’s two Macbook Airs.
It is questioned that whether bigger SSD, Full
HD display and back-lit assume responsibility for additional cost – and we believe
thinks they don’t. With such money, we didn’t hope for improvements but we
expect a perfect product and Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A needs more time to reach
that.
Though, UX31A is still a perfect
ultra-book, Full HD display is an interesting upgrade and splendid design,
performance and runtime are still as powerful as those you have looking for in
an ultra-book. Competition is a problem: rivals offer generally steady
performance – not including screen with perfect pixels – for the price that is much
cheaper than hundreds of dollars. Zenbook Prime seems eliminating itself out of
the market.
Main specs
Intel Core i7-3517U 1.9GHz
4GB of RAM
256GB SSD
Intel HD Graphics 4000
13.3inch IPS LCD monitor
1920x1080 resolution
2x USB 3.0
micro-HDMI
dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity
Bluetooth 4.0
327x225x21mm (WDH) size
1.4kg (1.6kg plus charger) weight
Verdict
Total: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Features and design: 5/5
Value: 2/5
IPS
screen provides outstanding image quality and wonderful contrast.
