Asus Zenbook UX31A 13.3 Ultrabook with Intel Core i5-3317U Processor Reviews

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I needed to replace my existing laptop and wanted windows 7, of which fewer and fewer are available. This ASUS laptop offers very good features at a great price, and win7. I had read a lot of reviews so I was familiar with some of the issues and I'll just comment further on them. One issue I read about was the track pad and keyboard. I was worried about this because I have an ASUS Eee PC 1000HA, it's an older netbook and the track pad is terrible. I dread using it. It's such an essential component, you wonder how they can get it wrong. Well, after using the Zenbook for about a week, the track pad and keyboard do have issues, but they are definitely usable. I have not yet explored downloading software updates, but I've read that is a possibility for improvement. I haven't noticed the problem with requiring full key travel (I think I tend to type this way anyway), but I did notice typing fast caused a change in mode on the screen, no longer inputting text. Maybe I brushed the trackpad, but it happened a couple times. The trackpad is quite large and it is easy to register an unintended control. I suspect this can be avoided over time with self-training. I know after I get a new smart phone I push all the buttons by mistake until I learn not to. I am still in the process of customizing this unit so I may have more usage notes in the future.

The first unit I was shipped came with a screen that would not display. I had also read that some people received many bad units before getting a good one. I was presented with the option to send it to ASUS for repair or return it to the retailer. The former probably would have probably led to a working unit, but I chose the latter. The second unit I received has worked fine.

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I did a lot of research (many hours worth) and this was exactly what I wanted. Lightweight, powerful, low heat, long battery, perfect.

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I did not want Windows 8 and this was a good deal for the few Windows 7 computers out there. The size and weight are very pleasing, and it came well packaged (not too much extraneous packing materials) and with a quality sleeve which was a nice surprise. If you have a lot of music, photos, or other large files, you will likely need an external hard drive and/or cloud storage as 128GB doesn't hold much, but the speed that the solid state drive and processor offer is fantastic, and the USB 3.0 ports charge my devices and transfer data incredibly fast.

Here is why it gets a 3 instead of a 5. There was no prompting or instructions on creating back-up DVDs of the OS; it freezes several times a week and cannot be restored with Ctrl-Alt-Delete so I have to do a hard shutdown and lose my work; the cursor jumps around as I type and has resulted in many lines of text being deleted or having to cut and paste my work back in order. As I do a lot of writing, this is extremely frustrating especially in word processing; on a website I can move the cursor to a non-text area to prevent the jumping from affecting my typing (like now). And the power key is the same size as and right next to the delete key.

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I wanted a thin powerful computer and that's what I got. It has a nice elegant look and the add ons from ASUS like free cloud storage is great.

However, if you are typing the cursor will almost always jump around the screen. I read afterward there was a patch for this and installed it, but still have the same problem. My solution as been disabling the track pad and using a wireless mouse.

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This is a good machine for your moderate needs. Do not expect to run powerful software on it. It is really light, great for travel.

There is a catch though. The keyboard might give you problems. Some of the key were intermittently unresponsive on mine. If you you take it out the US without international warranty you can fix it yourself without voiding the warranty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E-2RCp8CZ0

The camera has awesome quality as well as the built-in speakers and microphone. The mouse pad is big and has good response. Bad thing is has a lot of bloatware, but you can remove it.