Customer Reviews

ASUS UX31A-DB51-CA 13.3-Inch Zenbook Prime Ultra Thin and Light Notebook with Intel Core i5 Processor, IPS Full HD screen and 128GB Solid State Hard Drive (Silver Platinum)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Actual review: 4.5/5

Normally I don't care enough to write product reviews, but the existing reviews on most product review websites are so goddamned biased that I felt the need to correct the injustice done to this product.

The quality of a product is wholly dependent on how you use it, so my thoughts won't work for everyone. I'm a Master's student, and use this for nothing more than Internet browsing, emails, writing papers, heavy Excel usage, and some VBA programming. I'll touch on a few areas that are important for this sort of usage.

1. Speed. This computer is fast. It has more than enough processing power and memory for any normal set of tasks. It may not be ideal for gaming - haven't tried it. Still, I'd think that using this machine for gaming is like using a road bike for mountain biking. I study finance and have to do Monte Carlo simulations somewhat regularly. The speed was comparable to a classmate's 2nd gen quad-core i5.

2. Keyboard. In the past two weeks I've written well over 30 pages on this. No problems. I had a Dell Vostro 3400 and a ThinkPad before that which have decent and stellar keyboards, respectively. I can type as fast, on this, with no adjustments required. I don't care for keyboard backlighting, so I just turn that off.

3. Mouse. Admittedly this was really annoying at first. Others have updated drivers, but I just changed the settings. I never tap to click, so I turned that functionality off. Solved all of my problems. I never had problems with moving the cursor while typing because my palms float while typing. I still have two problems with the mouse. First, is the fact that the buttons are not physically separate from the trackpad. I often right-click when trying to left-click, and when I'm trying to do something quickly this can be f'ing annoying. I've learned to adjust though. Second, the mouse click is kinda loud. The Canadian in me feels bad if I'm at the library.

4. Screen. Absolutely gorgeous. So bright that I actually don't use the display at full brightness most of the time. The resolution is incredible, and the colours are brilliant. My Vostro is a PoS in comparison (actually doesn't say much). The hinge is strong, and only problematic if I'm doing work on the bus on public transit (i.e. it's a bumpy ride and the screen moves a bit).

5. Battery. I get near six hours in normal usage.

6. Design. Very solid build-quality. For a laptop this thin, it doesn't feel delicate. I still haven't mentioned that the design is f'ing beautiful. Definitely similar to the Air, but it's more striking in my opinion.

Overall, this laptop is perfect for me. I literally use my computer everywhere, so the battery life, weight and dimensions are ideal. The half-mark deduction is for the mouse. Everything else is perfect.

On a side-note I'm not factoring-in the bloatware. Sure, it's annoying but 20 minutes of work and it's gone. I really don't see how 20 minutes should degrade the rating of a product that you'll use for 2-4 years. It's completely illogical and an example of how reviewers create categories to deduct marks so as to boost the stats of other products. Beware of review sites in general, even newspapers. They all receive benefits for product reviews so there's a huge conflict of interest. That stands for all review sites - Metacritic is owned by CBS and Rotten Tomatoes by Warner Bros. I'm sure there's even a lot of astroturfing going on in the consumer tech industry.

Hope this helps.

One of the nicest and sturdiest Ultrabooks available. Can't believe anyone would return this gem. Touchpad, sure it gets in the way of typing, any of them can. SSD makes this very fast to boot and open programs.
So glad Asus makes such Quality products. Only complaint,
a touchscreen would have been nice!

This is a great laptop for work and home. It's light, weighing about 1.5 pounds compared to my previous Sony Vaio that weighed about a pound more. It's graphically crystal clear and running videos through to our TV make for breathtaking viewing. For the office, I open the screen, get instant (within 5 seconds) on, do what I have to do, and close screen for hibernation. Battery has lasted about a week doing this before having to recharge, which takes about 2 hours! There is no CD ROM drive so system backup arrangements have to be made with a Pen Drive configuration and external hard drives or on multiple DVD's. Barring this slight inconvenience, this is a wonderful laptop.

Bought this ultrabook (ASUS UX31A-DB51 Windows 7 x64) as a Christmas present for myself. Now I have been using it for more than a month, and I think I have used this laptop very thoroughly. Here are my 2 cents, oh sorry no pennies anymore. Ha!

(1) Screen (***** 5 stars)

The best part of this ASUS UX31a is the screen. I read a lot of documents (mostly PDF) on the computer, so screen quality is my foremost requirement.

The HD 1920x1080 screen is so beautiful! Texts in the web pages, documents are so clear and crisp! The matte screen is also greatly appreciated! If you have used any computer with glossy screen, you know what I am talking about. The reflection from the glass always gives my eyes sore, and you always need to adjust the screen angle to minimize its happening.

The IPS pannel provides huge viewing angle so that you can enjoy the screen in any direction. This is particularly useful when you are in a crowed space like in an airplane seat.

(2) Performance (****/ 4.5 stars)

This laptop is really fast! The Intel i5 CPU and the SSD are very powerful. Everyday applications is a piece of cake. I sometimes need to edit graphics or photos using Inkscape or gimp and I found this laptop works fine.

Resume form sleep only takes 3 seconds! I don't really know what Intel Rapid Start Technology and ASUS InstantOn do with the SSD (Kingston). I heard the AData SSD is much faster than this one. But this SSD is faster enough for me and than my OCZ agility 4 360G SSD.

If you want to play 3D video games, this is not the laptop for you. However, the integrated Intel HD4000 can handle most of the light games and video playback.

(3) Build quality (***** 5 stars)

ASUS really make this product premium feeling with its metal housing. UX31A is so light and thin that I can now carry it with me everyday to work without back pain. The charger is also very small and beautiful!

(4) Keyboard and touchpad (****/ 4.5 stars)

I've heard a lot of criticism about the touchpad. I found the driver is the main culprit. With earlier driver, the double tap and drag action is not tweaked well and often mistaken in the windows. This is a bit frustrating especially you need to do some precise movement like editing graphics. But the later driver (Elan)([...]) has fixed most of the problems. Anyway, I use a bluetooth mouse most of time.

As for the keyboard, it works well but I would like it a bit more bouncy or stiff. However this really depends on individual's taste.

(5) Software (***/ 3.5 stars)

It is probably just me but I normally don't like any pre-installed software form the manufacture not just from ASUS but anyone. Good news is that the laptop has very limited software preinstalled. However, you can still uninstall some unnecessary softwares like the web cam application, power4gear and splendid video enhancement.

The only problem I encountered was an annoying fan problem at early use. The fan kept on and off in a full speed. The noise is just annoying. After some googling, I found the problem is the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework driver. You just need to reinstall (download it at ASUS website [...]) the driver (V6.0.1.1067) and the problem can be fixed. If you encounter any problem, try to update some drivers. Maybe your problem has been fixed by the updates.

Another tiny compliant is the auto light adjustment seems not very smart. Anyway, I always adjust it myself.

(6) Accessories (****/ 4.5 stars)

ASUS gives you adapters for VGA to HDMI and LAN to USB, and a carrying case. Normally you wouldn't get those form other companies. However, I would like the carrying case open from the side and made out of a different softer material.

Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase and I would recommend this ASUS UX31A to everyone! I just love it so much!

I have not experienced any of those problems that were already mentioned in other reviews in Amazon.com.
The track-pad is working well and the resolution is awesome.
I did not experience any bleeding in screen and wifi works as it supposed to work.
Every thing is perfect. it was a great purchase.
BTW: its look is gorgeous and every thing about its look is unique and the good thing is that it is not a copy of macbook air like so many other laptops out there and nobody would feel that it is a copy one.

Thanks ASUS for your great job!! :)

Updated on 25th Oct. 2012
The trackpad is sooooooo annoying as other people also mentioned in other reviews, I just downloaded the driver directly from Asus website then it not only did not help but also made it worse.
another issue is that when you are watching movie or youtube shows or news website you will see that the video crashes all the time and the sound gets crazy.

I am not sure it was only my machine or most of this asus line has this problem.
Anyway, I just returned mine and still waiting for the refund :(