The Asus Zenbook UX31 has a style that's not all it's own — when you see its profile, the first thing you think of is a MacBook Air. When you open its lid and peer at the keyboard, you also get taken back to Appleland. However, it does attempt to offer a little more of its own character: it has a wonderful 'spin' pattern on its lid and a brushed palm rest.
The Zenbook, as the company calls it, is extremely thin and only the most important ports like USB 3.0, mini VGA, and SD card reader and HDMI have been included. We have mixed feelings about the notebook's build, though. The power slot is extremely delicate and wobbly when the charger is connected. So much so, that a slight push or nudge might just break it. But in terms of design, the Zenbook clearly holds its own in this huge market full of similar looking laptops.
The 13.3-inch UX31 has quite a high resolution of 1600x900 and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor running at a frequency of 1.8GHz. There's 4GB of RAM, a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) and Intel's integrated HD 3000 graphics card. Apart from this, there's Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, a webcam with Bang and Olufsen speakers.
Boot up times are exceptionally quick, at an average of 16 seconds, so you'll start off with your work within no time. The brightness levels of the laptop are brilliant; in fact, they're almost blinding even if you're in a lowly lit environment. The B&O speakers flex their muscles when you play music or movies. They're quite loud and good for personal usage.
However, the notebook's biggest flaws are the trackpad and keyboard. Buttons on the keyboard have poor feedback and the manoeuvring on the trackpad isn't exactly quick.
As far as heating is concerned, the UX31 does a brilliant job keeping things cool.
Great Asus battery life. The Zenbook comes with a powerful, non-removable battery. Under heavy usage with the brightness maxed out, you can still crank out three hours and 40 minutes of non-stop usage, which is definitely an impressive feat. Under normal use, you will easily be able to double that to around six and a half hours.
The Asus Zenbook is like Angelina Jolie. It's hot to look at, but you know full well that a long-term relationship is going to be painful and difficult. Well, we know that, because we've tested the Zenbook and have heard lots about Angelina Jolie having her partner's blood in a container around her neck.
Its design, while sleek, wreaks havoc with our hands. The bezel is just torture to rest on for any length of time.
The trackpad is bad too. Despite its clear effort to copy Apple's system, it is slow, unresponsive and frustrating to use. The buttons are a good idea though, and we like to see the flexibility offered by both gestures and physical keys. The problem was, gestures are horrible to use. Pinch zoom is so bad, we had to turn it off and we didn't find the two finger scroll all that relibable either.
We loved the styling of the Zenbook, we think the power and laptop battery are brilliant. We love the fact that there are a decent number of ports, and that there are included breakout adaptors for Ethernet and VGA. We also love the supplied case.
The Zenbook is a good package, but with a laptop, not being able to type comfortably and use a reliable trackpad is kind of a deal breaker. Definitely one to try before you buy.
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