While Windows 8 has been a great inspiration to
many new shape factors, it also provides manufacturers with good reasons to
come back and change their most reliable products in order to bring them to the
age optimized for touchscreens. One good example is the Asus Ultrabook Zenbook
Prime. We have seen them for some years; the UX31A came to our office last
summer, and we just reviewed the 15-inch UX15Vz a few weeks ago.
Samsung
ATIV Smart PC Pro
Asus launched another 13-inch Zenbook: the UX31A
Touch that costs 1,099 or more. The name says it all: it is the UX31A that we
all know and love, but a capacitive screen is added now. Of course, this
slightly different model still offers the opportunity to improve your laptop in
many other ways (for example, we think the UX31A has a touchpad below standard).
Thus, how well can this new model with touchscreen improve an Ultrabook that’s
already good? Let's figure out!
Look and feel
We cannot count how many times we have
written “spun metal” in our reviews on the Zenbook computers, and we are not
surprised that the UX31A Touch has an all-metal chassis and the same subtle shaky
lid we have seen on other Zenbooks. While we described the appearance of this
model over and over again, at least we like it – Asus has found the
aesthetically beautiful silver principle and sticks with it, which, of course,
is the right orientation.
The
UX31A Touch has an all-metal chassis and the same subtle shaky lid.
This ultraportable model has the same
stable design quality as its Zenbook brother. The metal chassis will not buckle
under pressure, but it still feels quite light. It's great to see that the
touchscreen does not reduce the value of the UX31A’s famous slim chassis. With
2.9 pounds (1.3kg), this device is as heavy as the UX31A without touchscreen.
It also shares the same dimension with its predecessor: 12.8x8.8x0.11-0.71
inches. Along the left side, there is a USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack and an
SD card slot. On the right side there is a source port, another USB 3.0 port, a
Display Port and a micro-HDMI.
Asus is really generous with the
accessories available – we have seen a small subwoofer and a mini-VGA-to-VGA
adapter accompanying the UX51Vz. And indeed, the company sells the UX31 Touch
with a rough brown laptop case with an Ethernet adapter and a mini-VGA-to-VGA
adapter encapsulated in a lightweight bag. We would never say “no” to an
additional protection layer for our devices, and the same would be true for the
free accessories.
Keyboard and touchpad
Just like the metal chassis, the keyboard that’s
backlit on this ultraportable is an old friend. We saw the slightly concave
embossed layout on other Zenbooks – lately the UX51Vz and it is more
comfortable than ever. You will quickly reach your normal typing speed, as the
chiclet keyboard offers quite a lot of movements and it is wide enough to avoid
mistyping the adjacent keys. We achieved normal scores in the typing tests,
with a very low error rate.
Asus
Zenbook Prime UX31A’s backlit keyboard
We had erratic experiences with the previous
Zenbook touchpad, but in the end we were all winners. We did not have any
problems in performing typical Windows 8 gestures such as swiping in from the
right to reveal the Charms Bar, and scrolling with two fingers in the webpage is
also very smooth. The touchpad feels a little sticky when you navigate with
just one finger; sometimes you may have to click more than once for the clicks to
be recognized.
Screen and sound
The high-res IPS screen is nearly an
indispensable part available on Asus Ultrabooks, and the 1,920x1,080 screen
(165ppi) here is as sharp and bright as you would expect. Even with the
brightness set at about 70%, the screen delivers bright and accurate colors. The
viewing angle is very wide, but the glossy surface of the screen does not
completely eliminate glare – you will want to find the optimal position in
front of the screen that does not reflect much before entering a Netflix
marathon race on it.
The
13.3-inch capacitive touchscreen is the UX31A Touch’s “outstanding” feature.
The 13.3-inch capacitive touchscreen is the
UX31A Touch’s “outstanding” feature, and it proved to be very fast in every
single stroke and pinch-to-zoom gesture that you would do in Windows 8. When
considering the Zenbook UX51Vz, we did not get much too bothered by the absence
of a touchscreen (although, of course, the price ensures including it!) based
on the device’s good keyboard and touchpad, but of course, it would be very
nice to be able to have the data input with your finger as an option. After
considering all types of Windows 8 devices, by instinct, we “tried” touching
the non-tactile screens many more times than we wanted to admit that it was a
visual way to navigate through the operating system based on Live Tile.
When we were watching a few episodes of Arrested
Development, conversations were clear and loud. However, when we were
streaming a Spotify playlist, the music sounded a little lower and brighter. At
maximum volume, you will be able to fill a medium-sized room with sound, but external
speakers would do better for any kind of parties.
