[Review] Asus Zenbook : The Real Ultrabook

Asus Zenbook 

The Real Ultrabook

Read First : The word Ultrabook is Intel's trademark name, meaning to say the Asus Zenbook falls under the category "Ultrabook" where as the one of the main requirements must be that it must be at least 17mm thick and its battery life must be more than 5 hours. 

DESIGN

Official Video Design Concept 

The Asus Zenbook's design inspiration is from an image of a clock, where one end is thinner than the other thus making the Zenbook one with the time. Its full Aluminium body in the lid, LCD Panel, Keyboard panel and even at the back is really smooth and they call it "Metallic Spun Finish". 

Asus Zenbook UX21


Aside from its full metallic finish, the Asus Zenbook is even equipped with a brushed aluminium keyboard, making the overall look complete. Weighing at only 1.1kg for the UX21 and 1.3kg for the UX31, the Zenbook is currently the lightest ultrabook up to date.

Asus Zenbook UX31

The Zenbook's Aluminium Metal on the lid is darker than the rest of the Zenbook, it has a circular pattern that makes the overall look premium. This is due to that the Inspiration is like "Time" so they made the Zenbook luxury like wearing a luxury watch. 

Both Zenbooks have an included envelope case that is designed by the Asus Design Center. Honestly the case is quite elegant, its simply looks like a file holder but when holding it makes a completely new statement. Unlike other Ultrabook cases which are too overdecorated, even covering the whole concept of the thinness of an Ultrabook. 

PERFORMANCE : 

The Asus Zenbook is really a good notebook, well for me that is. I'm more of a Office, Internet, Programing and Video maker guy. So I don't need that much of a powerful dedicated graphics card. The samples provided are both using Intel Core i7-2667 for both UX21 & UX31. 

Its an Core i7 processor which is trimmed down to two cores and two threads making it quadcore, that is why its possible to make it that small and thin. Similar to the Razer Blade Notebook.

For the units I reviewed, the Asus Zenbook UX31 is equipped with 256GB SSD while the UX21 has a 128GB SSD. What's good about the Zenbook is that its full SATA 3.0 where unlike other Ultrabooks which just uses an HDD & a 20GB SSD to mimic the speed of an SSD. Still the Zenbook SSD is 3 times faster than the competitor's ultrabook. In this case of 256GB, a person with a USB 3.0 Portable Hard Disk will be pretty handy dandy. 

In my hands-on experience, multi-tasking is as expected "A Breeze". No problem in opening multiple heavy excel files and even watching 1080p mkv videos at the same time. Plus due to that it was USB 3.0 and using SSD, I was able to transfer the contents of my 60GB worth of data in less than 6 minutes. Which would normally take around 10-15 minutes using an USB 3.0 and an HDD. 


Plus since its using SATA III SSD, the magnificent is that boot up of Windows 7 Ultimate is just 14 seconds, Hybernate resume is 5 seconds and sleep is 2 seconds due to its Instant On. 


The UX31's resolution is already 1600x900 compared to the other 13" ultrabooks where its still 1366x768 in resolution, which makes it better to view movies and browse, especially excel files cause you can see more. 

Asus Zenbook UX31 USB 3.0 slot

One thing that I really love about the Zenbook is that its display is so BRIGHT!!! Currently the brightest display for a notebook I ever seen. 

Watching videos or even reading is a great experience with the Zenbook as in the features said its using 450nits LCD brightness, compared to a regular notebook its 3x brighter and compared to the Macbook Air its 1.5x brighter.

Personally the experience is a bit close in watching HD videos using a Super AMOLED Screen or the Retina display of iPhone4. 

Speakers of the Zenbook are beneath the chassis and hidden from normal viewing angles

The speakers of the Zenbook is by Bang & Olufsen and SonicMaster. SonicMaster is the brand of Asus for sound encoding. Honestly I experienced the N5 series of Asus where its louder than the Zenbook but still its amplified due to the external sub-woofer of the N45SF. Still the Zenbook produces one of the best sounds you can hear in a notebook or even an ultrabook this thin. Watching movies is definitely better in terms of its bright screen and loud crisp and clear quality speakers.

I guess the only reason left for you to use the audio jack is when presenting, too much environment noise or you simply don't want to disturb anyone.

Touchpad of the Zenbook is quite....expensive. There is a bit of slight friction that you will feel that resembles that the Zenbook is "Luxury". Also its big where the size of the touchpad takes shape of the 16:9 ratio of the screen. Plus the touchpad has more functions now such as switching applications without using Alt+Tab, minimizing, maximizing or even show desktop. 

I/O Ports 

Zenbook UX21 Right Side

USB 3.0 Slot, DC IN, Micro HDMI Port and White LED Indicator

Zenbook UX21 Left Side 

Mini VGA Port, USB 2.0 and 3.5mm Headphone Audio Out Jack

Zenbook UX31 Right Side

USB 3.0 Slot, DC IN, Micro HDMI Port and White LED Indicator


Mini VGA Port, USB 2.0, 3.5mm Headphone Audio Out Jack and SD Card Reader

0.3mp camera with microphone on the left and LED indicator on the right

One the left is the Internal Microphone of the Zenbook is located besides the 0.3mp camera, I know what you are thinking "0.3mp lang?" or "why 0.3mp?". In terms of internet connection here in the Philippines, video chatting in HD resolution is still a luxury experience. Whereas you need to have a FAST & STABLE internet connection to experience HD Video chat. So as of now, its still not that important for a megapixel camera, or maybe its the reason why the lid is so thin. 

Bottom View of the Zenbook

Back video of the Zenbook

Conclusion:  

Although I didn't reveal any performance scaling that much. I can pretty much say that Asus may have the Zenbook going to a right direction. With their design beating other ultrabooks in the market in terms of body material and physical aspects. I believe Asus is fighting here against the real deal, which is  Macbook Air, not against the other Ultrabooks. 

You might say that "Why did you copied Macbook Air?" to be honest Macbook Air was just one of the 1st to get really hyped, the real 1st one in the thin notebook game is the Sony Vaio Z.

So with the entry of the Ultrabooks and all of the manufacturers are getting into the PC segment. I believe Asus is currently the Ultrabook to beat, not only in design but also in performance.

Specifications (Philippine Market)

Model	ASUS ZENBOOK™ UX21 (Ultrabook™)
CPU	Intel® Core™ i5 2467M Processor
Operating System	Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Z-height	3mm at the front; 9mm at the rear
Main Memory	DDR3 1333MHz 4GB (on board)
Screen	11.6 (16:9)
Backlight/ Resolution	450 nits HD 1366X768
Instant on	Always resume in 2 seconds
USB charger+	Y
I/O port	6 (USB2.0 / USB3.0 / audio jack / DC jack / microHDMI / miniVGA)
USB3.0	1 Port
SSD Generation	SATAIII SSD 128G
BT	Bluetooth 4.0
Battery	50W (7+hrs)
Mic	MEMS MIC (Digital MIC)
Keyboard	286 Chiclit KB
Camera	0.3M
Audio	Bang & Olufsen ICEpower® SonicMaster
Price	SRP Php 5*,995.00

Model	ASUS ZENBOOK™ UX31 (Ultrabook™)
CPU	Intel® Core™ i5 2557M Processor
Operating System	Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Z-height	3mm at the front; 9mm at the rear
Main Memory	DDR3 1333MHz 4GB (on board)
Screen	13.3 (16:9)
Backlight/ Resolution	450 nits HD 1600X900
Instant on	Always resume in 2 seconds
USB charger+	Y
I/O port	7 (USB2.0 / USB3.0 / audio jack / DC jack / microHDMI / miniVGA / SD card reader)
USB3.0	1 Port
SSD Generation	SATAIII SSD 128G
BT	Bluetooth 4.0
Battery	50W (7+hrs)
Mic	MEMS MIC (Digital MIC)
Keyboard	286 Chiclit KB
Camera	0.3M
Audio	Bang & Olufsen ICEpower® SonicMaster
Price	SRP Php 5*,995.00

For price I still can't reveal right now (But I already gave a hint). You just have to wait for the official launch of the Zenbook on November 3 in El Nido Palawan along with the Top Tech media in the Philippines. 

Wish : 

Just some points I wish Asus added / made.

• MicroSD card slot for the UX21, this was made possible in the X101H why not in the UX21? Since the target for UX is the a bit high class market I'm sure all have smartphones with MicroSD as the memory card. It would made the UX21 a bit more friendly. 

• I wish they removed the print of the "UX21 Series Ultra Slim", cause it kinda tainted the whole aluminum concept. 

That's it! That's my partial review of the Zenbook UX21 & UX31. Below are more actual pictures for you to conceptualize better. 

Zenbook UX31 & UX21 with Sleeves

Zenbook UX31 Opened with UX21 Closed side by side

Zenbook UX31 Touchpad

UX21 & UX31 right side

Audio by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower