Truth be had, I've been pretty disappointed with ultrabook offerings so far low resolution screens, terrible keyboards and below average power. With the UX31A and UX32VD series, Asus promised to change all of that, and, in my opinion, succeeded remarkably well.
1. Design/Aesthetics. This is a very pretty machine. It's lightweight, looks good and doesn't seem to smudge. Not much more that I can say here it's pretty and sleek. I wish that it had a MacSafe power adapter instead of the right angled plug, but I guess we have patents to blame for that.
2. Keyboard. The keyboard on this machine is fantastic. I would put it in the same league as the MacBook Air's keyboard, which is to say that it is very very good. In comparison, I thought that the keyboard on the original Zenbook was terrible. It's not quite as nice as the keyboard on my Lenovo T430, but it is still really high quality, and probably the best ultrabook keyboard currently available (and backlit, too). Love it. Some people have mentioned keyboard flex there is a tiny bit if you push down hard near the middle of the keyboard, but it's not something that I would have noticed if I wasn't looking for it.
3. Screen. The screen is excellent beautiful colors, 1080p resolution. There was a bit of backlight bleeding, but it's only in a few places, and it's only noticeable if the screen is entirely black, so really not a big issue. When the screen is not purely black, you couldn't even find it if you were looking for it. By default, the display is running at 40Hz not sure who was responsible for that decision which made things look choppy. Setting it to 60Hz fixed that problem though.
4. Software. Includes standard PC bloatware, which is kind of annoying but it is easy enough to remove. Of particular note is the Asus Update Manager, which is supposed to pull updates from Asus' website, but in reality just crashes repeatedly (I booted my Zenbook the first time to Asus's update manager giving me a wonderful stack trace as it died). Other included software is of similar low quality I'd recommend wiping the machine when you get it if you can. Also includes software for a touchscreen/pen I'm not sure what that's about, since this machine has neither.
5. Touchpad. I hate touchpads. This one seems responsive and sleek, but I just switched to using a mouse and disabled it. YMMV. Edit: Played with the touchpad for a bit, and I have to admit, I kind of like it. It's not as usable (in my most humble opinion) as the nub on a Thinkpad, but it gets the job done. Some settings I found to make it nicer: Turn off tap to click, so that your mouse doesn't click randomly while you're typing. And turn off Inertial Scroll in the Elan -> Multi-Finger -> Scrolling setting. It's makes scrolling choppy for some reason. Unfortunately, multi-touch isn't as integrated into the operating system as it is with OS X, so I feel like we'll have to wait until Windows 8 to see the true power of this touchpad. In its current form, the touchpad works as advertised it's responsive, smooth and very configurable.
6. Graphics. This machine has a dedicated graphics card, and while it's not the most beefy, it's certainly an improvement over the standard Intel 4000. Linux users note: This uses nVidia Optimus to switch between the integrated and dedicated graphics cards, which apparently doesn't have very good Linux support yet so if you plan on running Linux on this, do some research first.
7. HDD. 500GB HDD. In 2012. Unacceptable. However...
8. Upgrades. This is why I bought this machine. You can put an extra 8GB of RAM in (in exchange for 2GB of the built in 4GB) for a total of 10GB of RAM. You can also swap out the HDD for an SSD, which is awesome get one with a 7mm height though, or it won't fit.
Overall: If you are willing to upgrade the HDD and RAM, get this machine you won't regret it. It's light, it has a beautiful screen, an excellent keyboard, it's very fast, and with the upgrades, it is the nicest laptop that I have ever owned. If you are not willing to upgrade, I would say that you should get a MacBook Air or the Zenbook UX31A (or the Sony Series Z if you are willing to spend more) instead the SSD makes a huge performance improvement. I give it 4/5, because you have to spend a bit of time to clean up the garbage on it and install a better hard drive and more RAM, but once you do that, it is unmatched. Also, Microsoft is apparently going to offer a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 Professional, which is a great deal.
EDIT:
After a week with this machine, some more thoughts:
Really liking the trackpad. Turning off tap to click is key it is downright bizarre that the default has those settings on, I think that every reviewer complaint about the erratic touchpad is due to this setting being on. After turning it off, it's smooth, accurate and actually really nice to use. I upgraded to the Windows 8 Release Preview, and for a while I was wondering what the heck was going on when things were randomly being clicked and dragged around, before I realized that I had to disable tap to click again.
As for the keyboard after working with it for a while now, I don't like it as much as the MacBook Air's. It's still a very good keyboard, but the keys are a bit flimsy feeling for my liking, and very occasionally a keypress gets missed. Not bad by any means, but it could have been better. If you are really looking for a great typing experience on an ultrabook, you may want to wait to check out the Lenovo X1 Carbon, which should be available in August. Again though, the keyboard is very usable I'd put it as better than the Samsung Series 9, but worse than the MacBook Air and both of those machines have very nice keyboards. On the upside, keyboard flex on the UX32VD is definitely a non-issue.
Also, Asus's included software is bizarrely bad. Don't even try to use it. It doesn't work, or it crashes, or it uses a ton of CPU, or it just looks plain ugly.
Finally, if you are planning on upgrading the RAM, see the comments on this review I installed an 8GB 1600MHz stick, but it is only running at 1333MHz for some reason. This apparently has to do with the CAS latency of the onboard stick vs. the new one. I don't know how to get around this, that said, I wouldn't have noticed the difference if I didn't check the settings.
Still, very happy with it. I haven't put the battery through its paces, but unscientifically, it seems to last about 4 hours under high workload (writing code).
Anyway, knowing what I know now about this machine, I would be less hesitant to buy it than I initially was. It is very much an awesome computer.
EDIT (3/5/2013):
Months later, after using this extensively, taking a star off. This laptop has since become my primary machine, and I use it for hours every day. Since I wrote the review, I've upgraded to Windows 8 which I actually find really nice. (As an aside and this is NOT reflected in my rating I found Linux (Ubuntu distro) support somewhat depressing. Some keyboard Fn shortcuts didn't work in particular, brightness display the battery life was under 2 hours, and sleep didn't work at all. YMMV, though I run a VM now for my Linuxing).
Mostly I use this machine for writing code and basic internet stuff.
The machine is still speedy, and the screen is still beautiful Asus deserves a ton of praise for that. Battery life is about what I thought it was 4 hours on average under my normal usage, which isn't anything to write home about these days, but it's certainly more than adequate. I can even play modern games usually I have to lower the graphics, but on medium settings and at 1600x900, most games run at a smooth 60fps, which is impressive.
Things that I don't like though are the little things. The keyboard isn't as great as I thought it was I find that I miss keys, even when I clearly pressed them down. Again, it's not terrible, but Lenovo and Apple both do much better, and for a $1500 laptop I expect a lot. My hypothesis is that the keys click (both physically and audibly) slightly before the button press is registered, and as a soft touch typist, it causes me to release the key milliseconds too soon.
The touchpad is pretty bad too. The hardware itself is fine it's accurate and spacious, but palm rejection is just too bad to be useable. So I use a wireless mouse instead.
And the software oh the software. The wifi driver crashes every day or two, so I have to restart my laptop frequently. And when I put it to sleep by closing the lid, sometimes it doesn't go to sleep, so when I pull it out of my backpack it's too hot to hold and the battery is almost dead.
So overall, this is not a bad machine it has some very excellent points, in particular the display but my problem with it is that it's not the premium experience that I would get if I'd bought an Apple computer for the same price. The keyboard is mediocre, it doesn't always go to sleep, the built in software crashes, and the touchpad is unusable. And while I can deal with all of these things, I feel like I shouldn't have to, considering that I paid top dollar for this (and then some to upgrade it).
The end result is this: I'm going to buy a new laptop, probably this summer when Intel releases their new line of chips (Haswell). If Lenovo brings out a laptop with a nice screen (for example, an X1 Carbon with a 1080p display, or the Yoga 11S with at least 1600x900), it'll be a Lenovo, since their keyboards are unmatched. Otherwise, I'm going to switch to the evil empire and get a Mac.
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For specific details about the product I suggest reading other reviews from Amazon or other sites especially those done by Notebookcheck (here: ) or Anand (here: ). Keep in mind that Anand's review is for a different model of the same series, but many of the things are similar and there is some good info in there.
I HIGHLY suggest you read this review before buying. I am going to go over main points that I think everyone should be aware of before buying.
Disclaimer: For me this is a 5 star machine after the upgrades. I rate it 3 stars based on how it came from Asus. If you don't want to upgrade the hardware or don't feel comfortable opening the laptop, I would suggest getting either a UX31A or something like a Samsung Series 9.
1. Only buy this computer if you are willing to upgrade the HDD to an SSD. SSD prices are falling rapidly and you can even get a 240GB SATA III drive for $210 now if you shop around (this is end of June, 2012). Make sure you get an SSD that is branded as a "notebook upgrade kit", because they have a smaller form factor than standard SSDs, with a height of 7mm. As long as you get a 7mm drive, it will fit in this notebook. Keep in mind you will need a T5 torx bit and small phillips screwdrivers to replace the drive.
2. Upgrading the RAM is also a really good idea. 2GB are integrated into the mainboard, and there is only one DIMM. The 4GB the laptop comes with is not very future-proof, so I would recommend picking up an 8GB stick of DDR3-1600 (like this Corsair piece, model number CMSX8GX3M1A1600C10). You can pick it up now for only $57. This will bring the total RAM to 10GB, which is more than pretty much every other ultrabook out there.
3. You will need to install Windows without a DVD once you install your new SSD. If you use a USB drive you may get an error in the setup which says something like "Windows was unable to load CD/DVD drivers, please insert disc media and try again". What is actually happening is that because all three of the USB ports on this laptop are USB 3.0, the Windows 7 install disc files don't have native support. You simply need to go to the Asus product page downloads section, and download the USB 3.0 drivers for the 64-bit version of Windows. Extract the driver folder to the USB stick with the Windows install files and try again. The problem should be fixed.
4. The screen has backlight bleed when showing pure blacks. When there are any images on the screen at all it is not noticable, and turning down the brightness helps a lot as well. Other than the bleed, the screen is beautiful especially in terms of its negative vertical viewing angle (from below). It doesn't have any discoloration and is very nice looking.
5. If you elect not to swap out the drive for an SSD, it comes in a weird kind of partition set up. The model I got had a 186GB boot partition, a 254GB "Data" Partition with no files on it, and 32GB of SSD cache which is not accessible from My Computer, but shows up as a different drive in disk manager. The drive is also very slow despite the SSD cache. But it won't appear to be so to someone who has never used an SSD before.
6. Bloatware. While there is not that much, you are forced to agree to install the Bing toolbar before setting up windows, and there is some creative media suite, craploads of asus tools, something that looks like asus tried to make their own app store, macaffee antivirus pre-installed (trial) and more. More reason to upgrade to an SSD and clean install windows.
7. The power button. Asus elected to make their power button an actual key, putting it where Delete normally would go, in the top right. Now when I heard this, I was a little skeptical and thought that I might try to hit delete when using word or something, and accidentally shut off my computer with one missed key-press. I was happy to find the solution that Asus came up with when I booted into windows. First of all, the power button is much stiffer and requires more pressure to press than all of the other keys on the keyboard. Second of all, just pressing the key within windows does nothing. If you want to turn off or sleep mode the computer, you hold it for about 1 second, and an on-screen display (from Asus) appears with clickable options to either shut down, sleep, do nothing, etc. You won't run into any sudden shut downs with this new placement of the power button, but you might take a bit to re-learn where the delete key is (directly to the left of the on button).
8. Keyboard and trackpad. The keyboard is very nice for a laptop, and functions/feels almost identical to the Macbook Pro/Air keyboards as many have said. It is backlit with user-adjustable brightness levels (3 levels, and off) via the function key. The trackpad is nice, but nothing to brag about. It is a good size, smooth, and easy to use. It's everything you'd want with nothing extra. If you get in the habit of tapping to click instead of actually clicking the trackpad down I think you will be much happier with it.
All in all this laptop can be what you make of it. Having the dedicated GPU makes it a very nice ultrabook for light gaming and more powerful media applications. Also it provides a full-sized HDMI out, and good connectivity (3 x USB, card reader, micro-vga, headphone/mic combo jack, etc). The HDD will appear abysmal to anyone who is coming from SSDs. It will appear normal to those of you who have yet to experience the awesomeness of SSDs :D ... If you want to upgrade to an SSD, fresh windows, and larger RAM, this is the best PORTABLE PC laptop available right now bar none in my opinion. But if you want to keep the pre-installed Asus windows installation, HDD, and 4GB ram, then it is a very nice PC, but for the price point I only give it 3 stars.
If you have any questions at all please feel free to comment and I'll try to get back to you!
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If you haven't already, do your home work regarding the differences between the UX32VD and the UX31A. The main difference is that the UX32VD has a better video card and is upgradeable (can add RAM) but does not come with an SSD drive (which can be added too). I opted to go with the UX32VD and upgrade the memory and drive. The costs of the upgrades are roughly $200 for the SSD (256GB) and $55 for 8GB of RAM. Also, don't forget to get an external CD/DVD ROM drive (another $31).
If you plan to do the upgrade, start by watching the youtube videos on how to do the hardware swaps. Basically, you take off the back plate (requires a T5 Torx driver), swap the RAM, then loosen the battery and swap the hard drive. Be careful not to pull the battery too hard or it will pull off (or break) a wire that is attached to one end. Overall, the hardware upgrading takes about 15 minutes. Nothing too difficult if you're careful.
The software reinstallation takes a bit longer. You have two choices. You can backup (i.e., clone) your existing system using software such as Acronis True Image and then delete the bloatware, or you can just start with a fresh drive and re-install everything.
Initially, I chose the second option because I wanted a "clean" computer. I started by installing Windows. The first problem was that the computer wouldn't see the external CD/DVD ROM. I had to go into the bios (hit the F2 key during boot up) and disable the SSD from the boot sequence. That caused the computer to attempt to boot from the CD/DVD ROM. Don't forget to change it back after installing Windows. Once Windows was installed, I went to ASUS.com and downloaded the drivers. Nothing works well without them, including ethernet, wireless network, video control, etc. There are about 10 or 15 important drivers and applications that must be installed just make your way through the list one at a time. Obviously, you'll need a second computer with internet access to get the first drivers installed. One hint... the ethernet driver on the ASUS website wasn't the correct one for the UX32VD computer. Look in your control panel for the model number and search the web for the right driver. After doing all this, the computer worked fine. It did, however, lack a few drivers, and as a result I saw several yellow exclamation points in the Control Panel Device Manager. That bugged me, and I ultimately decided to go back and backup the original ASUS hard drive and simply delete the bloatware. Comparing the two methods, cloning was certainly less painful. If you have the backup software, I suggest that method.
Now that it's all done, I'm very pleased with my computer. It runs great, and the start up time is simply incredible.
Hope this helps!
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Written by Arthur Bradley, author of the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family.
Honest reviews on ASUS Zenbook UX32VD-DB71 13.3-Inch Ultrabook
As the other reviews have mentioned, this model has a gorgeous display. After calibrating the screen it looked even better. There's nothing like a good IPS display! It has a slight matte finish, but is still very sharp and bright.
With the original configuration, Windows was using 2.8GBs of RAM. I recommend you either uninstall some of the Asus add-ons or do as I did and take advantage of the ability to upgrade the RAM. I purchased a Patriot 8GB RAM module from Amazon that bumps the unit up to 10GB's.
The keyboard is OK. I'm not a big fan of the chiclet style keyboard.
The touchpad is large and does get in the way when you're typing. It's very easy for your palm to touch it while typing, sending you cursor off to a random location. However, you can turn it off by using the Fn key.
I'm using it with a bluetooth mouse, with the touchpad disabled. I like using bluetooth for the wireless mouse becuase there's no USB dongle sticking out.
The battery life is very average. Maybe 3 hours or so of constant usage is all I seem to get. Though, I am not using the battery saver profile. So, I'm pretty sure it's possible to stretch it out a bit more.
Coming out of sleep mode it is very fast. I have it set to sleep when I close the lid. This laptop comes out of sleep mode in the time it take to raise the lid! What's that, maybe 2 seconds? Fantastic. That's where the hybrid drive really pays off. With all my software loaded, including an anti-virus progam, it takes about 35 seconds to boot up.
The build quality is very good. The design and look is beautiful. I haven't noticed any particulary loud fan noise. If I push the laptop hard, the fans will come on with a whooshing sound. But, nothing terrible. During normal use (Word, Excel, browsing the web) it is silent.
I do wish the power button wasn't just a regular looking keyboard button in the upper right. To easy to press it, as it sits right next to the DEL button.
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I have had this laptop for a little over a week, and I must say that I am impressed. After having bought and returned the original UX31 because of its keyboard issues, it seems like Asus really listened to its customers and made all of the right improvements.
The most obvious improvements over the UX31 are the keyboard and the screen. The keyboard is now island-style and backlit. I think feedback is great; it reminds me a lot of my old MacBook Pro. The screen, at least to me, appears to be in a league of its own. With a 1080p IPS panel, it is bright and incredibly sharp. Real estate space is fantastic and viewing angles are superb. And it's even got a matte finish, so glare is minimized. Kudos to Asus for these great design changes.
Additionally, Asus upgraded the CPU in this model from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge and added a dedicated Nvidia 620M GPU. I have to admit that I'm not a gamer, so I don't expect to take advantage of the graphics chip. In fact, I probably would have preferred that Asus provided a (cheaper) version of this laptop without the GPU (but without the soldered components -see below). Also, the Sandy Bridge processor was totally capable for browsing the web, watching HD video online, and performing office tasks. Still, assuming battery life doesn't take too much of a hit (and it doesn't really seem like it has), I guess that more power is better than less.
Two things that really didn't change since the last version are the sound and the battery, and I consider this a good thing. Sound quality from the speakers is excellent -loud and clear, probably among the best I have heard on a laptop. Battery life also seems to be totally acceptable. It's not the best I've ever seen, but I still get like 6-7 hours under normal use, which is adequate for my needs. Also, the power brick appears to be the same. It's square and looks a lot like the Apple brick, except it's black. One good thing though is that it only has two prongs, so you don't need to carry around a 3-prong-to-2-prong adapter.
As I suggested above, I bought this model as opposed to the UX31A specifically because this model has some user-replaceable components, like RAM and hard disk. Apparently the trade-off was that this model doesn't have the same unibody design as the UX31A, but to be honest, I can't tell too much of a difference. It still weighs like 3.2 pounds, and build quality doesn't seem to be an issue. Also, while some people might gripe that Asus didn't include more memory and a larger SSD from the get-go, truth be told, it would probably have made the computer a lot more expensive. For less than $150, I was able to upgrade the memory to 10GB and install a fast 128GB SSD. I also appreciate the fact that, since these components are user-replaceable, it will be a relatively cheap fix if something goes wrong later on. The same can't be said for models with all soldered RAM and hard disks, like the UX31A or the MacBook Air.
Some users complained about the fan and the trackpad. I, however, haven't had any problems with either of these. As I said, I'm not a heavy gamer, but for me the unit is practically silent most of the time. Also, I don't really have any complaints about the trackpad. It is large and smooth, which I appreciate. Also, multi-finger gestures -specifically two-finger tap, two-finger scroll, and three-finger swipe -all work great! That is a nice improvement for PCs, which typically have inferior track pads.
Connectivity options seem to be okay. There are 3 USB 3.0 ports, a mini VGA port, an SD Card slot, and an HDMI port. My only complaint is that the SD Card sticks out about half way, so you can't just leave it in the computer all the time. I think this is a pretty stupid design flaw. Why not just make the card totally recessed, like in almost every other laptop out there?
That said, my quibble is minor. This is a really nice computer and I am happy to have bought it. Finally, I don't think I have any regrets about migrating from my laptop to an ultrabook.
