Sunday, August 26, 2012

A good Ultrabook, a great screen: the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review

A good Ultrabook, a great screen: the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review:







Andrew Cunningham




















Specs at a glance: Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A
Screen 1920x1080 at 13.3" (166 ppi)
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU 1.9GHz Intel Core i7-3517U (Turbo up to 3.0GHz)
RAM 4GB 1600MHz DDR3 (non-upgradeable)
GPU Intel HD Graphics 4000 (integrated)
HDD 256GB solid-state drive
Networking Dual-band 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports 2x USB 3.0, mini VGA, micro HDMI, card reader, headphones
Size 12.9" x 0.72" x 8.9"
Weight 2.86 lbs
Battery 50WHr Li-ion
Warranty 1 year
Starting price  $1099.99
Price as reviewed $1499.99
Other perks Webcam, backlit keyboard, mini VGA to VGA dongle, 100 megabit Ethernet USB dongle

It's tough to begin a review of any Ultrabook without first mentioning the MacBook Air, not least because the Ultrabook spec as originally envisioned by Intel is basically a description of Apple's most portable laptop. The very first Ultrabooks were typically dead ringers for the Air, but in the months since then the Ultrabook tent has widened to the point that the term has become all-but-useless as a descriptor for anything. With the possible exception of Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon—which marries the Ultrabook spec to some of the ThinkPad's own longstanding design signatures—few Ultrabooks have been able to offer a better combination of looks, specs, size, and cost, usually opting to favor one or two of those characteristics to the detriment of the others.
The Asus Zenbook Prime is different. It shares much in common with the MacBook Air—a backlit chiclet keyboard, a large buttonless touchpad, and an all-metal enclosure that sheds the Ethernet port and full-size video outputs in favor of keeping things thin. Where the Prime differs from the Air is in its display, a 1080p IPS affair with great color and fantastic viewing angles that puts the Air's already decent LCD panel to shame. Can this display panel help the Zenbook Prime out-MacBook Air the MacBook Air?


Design and build quality


In its design, the UX31A is broadly similar to the original Zenbook that we reviewed last year: aluminum lid, top case, and bottom case with a plastic bezel. The keys on the older Zenbook were metal in a plastic keyboard tray, but the Zenbook Prime swaps those for plastic keys in a metal tray. The hinge, which is stiff enough to keep the screen from wobbling while in use, is also pliable enough to be lifted without bringing the bottom of the laptop with it.
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