ASUS Zenbook UX31 - Keeping it Zen

The ASUS Zenbook UX31

Way back at the beginning of 2011, when the world was introduced to the term "Ultrabook", the 13-inch ASUS Zenbook UX31 was a poster child used to extol the many virtues associated with this new segment of notebooks. It was the slim, sleek, metallic, and light Windows notebook that many had been waiting for. However since Intel’s announcement of this highly desirable product category, we’ve seen a handful of Ultrabooks come and go and recently we managed to spend enough time to bring you this full review of the UX31.

Although we didn’t manage to get our hands on it immediately after the launch in November 2011, reports regarding the UX31 came gushing in, mostly from disgruntled users. Most of the complaints were squarely aimed at the clickable trackpad (clickpad) found on the machine, which we will get into greater detail later in the review.

For now, let’s take a quick look at how the design and build of the UX31 stacks up against all of the other Ultrabooks that passed through the HardwareZone labs. First up for scrutiny is obviously the exterior. You can’t ignore the fact that aluminium clad machines tend to get consumers all excited. That's because in this age of cheap plastics, and flexible alloys, aluminium is still the preferred material to convey that premium feel. Some of its outstanding properties include being harder and tougher than most materials usually used on notebooks, and yet, it's still light weight. This helps keep the weight of the Zenbook UX31 at a comfortable 1.3kg.

Strangely, ASUS (like other manufacturers before it) chose a strange way to convey the rigidity of the aluminium chassis - it made the edges razor sharp. Such a design might give a sense of uniformity and precision, but if positioned poorly on your lap, it will dig into your wrists while you’re typing and make it really uncomfortable. In the worst case scenario, you could even get hurt.

However, sharp edges aside, the overall look of brushed aluminium is definitely a head turner. Especially if done in a tasteful manner like that found on the UX31.

Thanks to it’s highly metallic look and slightly tear-dropped side profile, the ASUS Zenbook UX31 reminds us of an axe blade. Fortunately for you, the thinnest point measures 3mm, while the thickest point measures 17 mm. Like the name suggests, the Zenbook UX31 doesn’t have much features on the exterior to mar the zen feel of the machine, but it does have most of the necessary ports that a student or an average executive would need these days.

The UX31 comes with a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 port, audio jack, SD card reader, micro-HDMI, and mini-DVI port. To save space on the machine, the Ethernet and VGA ports have been taken out of the machine, and are supplied as converters that come with the unit (and plug into the USB 2.0 and mini-DVI ports respectively) . That’s a design consideration that other manufacturers should take note when trying to reduce the port clutter and streamlining the notebook. Even the power brick is designed to be space saving, although we're sure we've seen the same design elsewhere (hint: Apple).

The bottom of the machine’s chassis is also in-line with what we’ve seen on most other Ultrabooks so far. It’s got an almost "zen"-like feel to it, devoid of any features, save for the rubber feet, some screws and the ventilation holes, which are neatly placed under the hinges. Presence of screws is also a good thing, because that means you can easily open up the machine, and get cracking on the interior should anything needs changing. But unless you know what you’re doing, we’d strongly advise against it.

Aluminium Means Premium

Opening the (very sturdy) lid of the notebook wasn’t too difficult, but it requires both of your hands to pry it open. This means that the single long hinge is tight enough to keep it closed when you need it. However there are some Ultrabooks out in the market that are designed to only require one hand to open, a small convenience which unfortunately isn't featured on the UX31.

Once you've gotten the lid open, a bright, brushed metal interior greets you. The shade of silver on the interior is slightly darker than the darkest shade found on the lid, but is still pleasing to the eyes nonetheless. Only the keyboard housing and screen bezel is not made of the same material, and gives contrast to the brightness of the metallic interior.

We’re unable to ascertain the exact material used to make the keyboard housing and screen bezel, but it looks very much like the magnesium alloy we have seen on other machines. With the rest of the machine mostly made from aluminum alloy, the notebook is firm and rigid throughout.

The keyboard, the component that interacts with the user the most, is one of the most important beneficiaries of that good build quality. Too many times we’ve seen keyboards that flex an inappropriate amount, which makes for a very muted and unsatisfying typing experience. You won't find that on the UX31, largely thanks to the metallic housing on which the keyboard sits in.

The only concern we have with the keys is that they're extremely shallow. We know that inevitably, such a design is needed to keep the thickness of the machine to a minimum. However we’ve seen other machines with shallow keyboards that come with a fair bit of resistance to counter the key travel limitation.

Another unofficial feature which some of the better Ultrabooks come with is the large, clickable trackpad. It isn’t a feature which you would find on all Ultrabooks, but those that come with it, usually give users a very good tracking experience (especially when it is made of smooth textured glass). On the UX31, the click of the trackpad feels solid enough, but the rigidity increases the closer you reach the corners, causing you to press harder than you’d like.

The main issue we have with the trackpad however, isn't with the physical aspects. Our test unit's trackpad sensitivity was quite weak; much weaker than any trackpad we’ve used for a very long while. A quick search online revealed that other users encountered similar problems. Some have even reported that the mouse cursor jumps randomly when in use. Thankfully we didn’t encounter this issue with our unit, but it would be worth your while to try it out and see if it irritates you prior to your purchase.

But of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. The one factor that makes everything seem trivial is its 1600 x 900 pixels resolution screen. So far, ASUS is the only Ultrabook vendor to-date that has decided to give consumers a higher quality screen. It won’t be immediately obvious to most consumers, but if you look hard enough, you will notice that images look sharper, while text is easier to read too.

Another comforting trait we've noticed on Ultrabooks so far, have been the decent speaker quality that manufacturers have managed to cram into the tiny machines. As casual multimedia notebooks, there really isn’t any excuse not to provide the consumer with the best speakers that an Ultrabook’s thin profile will allow. As for the UX31’s speakers, we found that they are fairly loud and clear, which means they’re good enough for most generic multimedia needs.

Performance and Benchmarking

Most Ultrabooks sport very similar specifications, and you can only tell them apart from their physical design, RAM size and screen resolution. SSDs are also a game-changer, but since they come standard with most Ultrabooks, this advantage isn't as pronounced any longer. CPU variety doesn't differ much, while there isn't even discrete graphics to begin with.

However, after testing a whole bunch of Ultrabooks, we found that even though the hardware is more or less the same, performance numbers still vary from machine to machine. To illustrate this point, we’ve gotten two of the better performing Ultrabooks, the Toshiba Portege Z830, and the Lenovo Ideapad U300s, to compare against the Zenbook UX31. It’ll be good to note also that the Portege Z830 has 2GB more RAM (6GB) than the other two Ultrabooks.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

The PCMark Vantage benchmark suite is an all-rounder test that goes through most of components that make up a notebook. It simulates how the machine processes media, games and productivity applications, before coming up with an overall score. We’ve also singled out individual scores to let you see which activity the machine is really good at.

Specs-wise, the Zenbook UX31 is decidedly pretty average. However if you’d look at its phenomenal scores under the HDD test suite, it might seem safe to conclude that the UX31 comes with a very high performance SSD. However when it comes to regular multimedia tasks, it doesn’t represent much improvement over the SSDs that the other two machines use, hence the similar overall scores.

Futuremark 3DMark06

The machines’ 3DMark06 scores here indicate the gaming performance of each Ultrabook. The ASUS Zenbook managed to score a tad bit higher than the other two machines, despite all three using the same Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics. This is possibly due to the better SSD, which allows for faster loading of textures and other data. While the ASUS Zenbook’s performance here seems average, we still wouldn’t recommend anything more than just casual gaming. Apart from games, such as rendering of movies, or some light editing shouldn’t be a problem for its integrated graphics to handle.

Fary Cry 2

The best test of a machine’s capability is to run a graphics intensive game benchmark. Here, the ASUS UX31 may not be the best performer, but it did manage to keep up as expected. That said, if you’re into graphics intensive gaming, it would be best to look away from the ASUS UX31 or any other Ultrabook as they won’t be able to meet your expectations such of churning out even 30fps for medium scale of graphics settings. Of course, if what you need is just a machine that allows for casual gaming, web surfing or movies, then the UX31 and the other compared machines would suit just fine.

Battery Life and Portability Index

When it comes to Ultrabooks, we place extra emphasis on its battery life. That's because they are meant to be ultra portable and effective on the road for long durations. And when a machine is ultra portable, any extra weight (e.g power brick) could be the straw that breaks the camel’s (your) back. To let you see how well the ASUS counterpart fares against other Ultrabooks, we’ve got the Toshiba Portege Z830, and the Lenovo Ideapad U300s as examples. These two Ultrabooks are two of our top performers when it comes to battery life. Here we have the comparison table for you to munch over specs before digesting the results coming after the jump.

Battery Life

When you’re not using your notebook, the machine is idle, and hardly drawing any power. So a much more challenging battery test would be when it's actually doing something - like looping a movie perhaps where its audio, video, processing and storage subsystem are constantly in use. The machines are charged till they’re 100% full, and a movie loop was played till the battery drew its final breath, and powered down.

Unfortunately, the UX31 proved that continuously watching a movie is indeed taxing task. It lasted almost 40 minutes less than the Lenovo Ideapad U300s, or the thinner, lighter Z830, when it powered off after 247 minutes. While 40 minutes isn’t a lot of time, the gap could potentially widen dramatically when it comes to doing actual work on a productivity application. All you need to know however, is that if you really like everything else about the UX31, this wouldn’t present itself as much of a problem.

Power Consumption

One of the reasons why the UX31 doesn't last as long as the other Ultrabooks is because it draws more power than the other two. However you've also got to consider the fact that it actually needs more juice to power up its higher resolution screen, which naturally needs more power. Though the discrepancy in needing more power for a higher resolution display isn't usually as pronounced.

Also contributing to its battery life (or lack of) is the fact that it packs a rather limited battery capacity While it's not much different from the comparison, when considering a higher power draw, it becomes a liability. What we do know is that the Zenbook UX31 needs to find the space for a higher battery capacity in its second wave of Ultrabooks coming in 2012.

Portability Index

The portability index which you see now, is a chart that is unique to HardwareZone. It's basically a mathematical formula that calculates whether or not it’s worth your time to lug the machine around with you where ever you go. The higher the score, the more confident you will be when bringing the machine out without its power brick.

As you can see from the chart, portability isn’t the Zenbook’s strongest feature. We'd even go so far to say that it’s half as portable as the Z830, which has set recent portability records with its very impressive battery life. That's not to say however, that the ASUS Zenbook UX31 isn’t worth of your time and money. As far as notebooks go, a score like this is still one if the better scores in the charts, especially when compared to non-Ultrabooks types. It's just that the Zenbook doesn't shine if you truly need an outstanding notebook in terms of portability. If you like its build, and feel, the UX31 is still a good personal choice for you.

Above and Beyond

So we’re going to make it really easy for you readers to decide whether or not to get yourself an ASUS Zenbook UX31. It's really sexy, very robust, and it's an Ultrabook. Just in case you haven’t caught up on reading our Ultrabook guide, we pit the reference recommendations against the ASUS counterpart - Ultrabooks should ideally measure under 20mm in thickness (UX31 is 17mm), weigh under 1.5kg (UX31 is 1.3kg) and they're fast (instant resume with SSDs). Last but not least, they’re powerful (using a Core i7 or i5 CULV processor with integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics), which the Zenbook conforms to.

The UX31 has all of the mentioned benefits that come with the Ultrabook moniker, and then some. Intel didn’t say that Ultrabooks have to use premium materials like aluminum, but ASUS did just that. Not to mention, the swirly brushed metal finish adorning the cover of the machine is a really eye catching element. And because of all that metal alloy used outside and insides the notebook, build quality is top-notch here. Looks-wise, the ASUS Zenbook UX31 is definitely on to something here. It might not appeal to everyone, but we’re fairly confident that it will appeal to most, especially those reading this review right now.

Then there’s the sharp 1600 x 900 pixels resolution screen that also isn't an Ultrabook requirement, but ASUS went a step above what the competition offers (which is valid at the point of writing this review). Most Ultrabooks come with a screen harboring the standard 1366 x 768 pixels resolution, so anything higher than that we’d see as a boon for the consumer.

However, looks and additional luxuries aside, there are some issues what we’d like to highlight. First and foremost, is the disappointing glass, clickable trackpad (clickpad). The feel of its click is quite good, but the touch sensitivity found on our review unit was sluggish and unresponsive, though we reckon it could be fixed via software. However there were more serious issues reported on the web with its clickpad as mentioned earlier in the review. This is likely due to ASUS using two different suppliers for the clickpads, so make sure you test the clickpad on your unit thoroughly before you get a Zenbook. If all else fails, just pair the Zenbook with an excellent portable mice (which ASUS should consider bundling).

Another concern which we'd like to point out is one concerning the metallic chiclet keyboard. To keep the notebook thin, the keys were made to be really shallow. That in itself wouldn't be a problem, except that there wasn't any effort made to increase the keys' resistance for that very important tactile feel. The keys are so mushy that you'd hardly feel it while typing. Should you also share our feeling upon trying this Ultrabook, perhaps it would be wise to select another notebook that offers you a more favorable feel. Otherwise, it would simply be akin to typing on a soft keyboard on a tablet - which many of us do fine with anyway. The only good thing about the keyboard is that its housing is fairly strong, and introduces minimal flex.

In terms of performance, the ASUS Zenbook UX31 manages to keep up with most other Ultrabooks. Their components are more or less the same, with just the internal architecture introducing certain variables that affect overall performance. What we're more interested is the battery performance and portability aspects of an ultraportable notebook. Our tests show that the UX31 lags behind top Ultrabooks from competing brands, likely due to the higher resolution (power hungry) screen that it sports amongst other minor variables. It's not a major concern, but something which you need to bear in mind when getting yourself a super slim and portable machine like the ASUS Zenbook UX31 - especially if you're seeking for the very best in mobility. If it's any consolation, it's actually on par with an Apple MacBook Air running Windows 7 via Boot Camp.

So if you are able to look past the few flaws that we’ve pointed out, and are still lusting after one of the sexiest new Ultrabook model out in the market, please help yourself to the multiple variations available. The 11-inch UX21 comes with either a 64GB, 128GB or 256GB SSD configuration, while the 13-inch UX31 has 128GB and a 256GB variants. Prices start at S$1,398 (UX21, Core i3, 64GB), ending at S$1,998 (UX31, Core i7, 256GB). We’d recommend getting the highest configuration you can afford, because SSD size has some influence over performance.

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