ASUS Zenbook Infinity UX301LA - just announced at Computex

Nothing is perfect, products will always have some flaws here and there because it's unavoidable, some flaws can be fixed and some cannot.

 

whaaat ?
ASUS ZenBook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3" Ultrabook - Dark Blue Brushed Metal UX301LA-DH71T - Micro Center
$1999 for:

Intel Core i7-4558U Processor 2.8GHz
Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
8GB DDR3L RAM
128GB SSD+128GB SSD RAID
Intel HD 5000
Memory Card Reader
10/100/1000 Network
802.11ac
Bluetooth 4.0
13.3" Widescreen QHD Touch Display

Why would I prefer this over a late 2013 quad-core Mac 15.4 with the i7-4750HQ, we could even go for the early 2013 model with the i7-3630QM and the Nvidia 650 dual card at $1700

The pricing on this Asus is just bizzare to me.

 

So just got mine - upgraded to windows 8.1. Loaded software - was liking everything until I started hearing a bad fan noise - was not hearing this earlier when fan was running - bad whining sound coming from what sounds like the right fan.

Haven't had a chance to go back and read yet - are people having any issues with the fans on these? I have the DH71T.

 

You could even get the late 2013 models for these prices. The HD 5200 on the 15 inch retina model is much superior to the HD 5000 on these. And if you think these prices are absurd, look at their pricing for the UX51. Not to mention, none of these ASUS laptops come with thunderbolt ports.

It's a shame because this seems to be a nice product ruined by an unjustifiable price.

 

Why are you dolts comparing a 13" Windows based touchscreen ultrabook with 15" Macbooks? How much is the 13" touchscreen rMBP with an i7 and Iris graphics? Oh that's right, they don't friggin make one!

You know why they are priced differently? Because they're different! I'm sure you're just as dumbfounded why the Xbox One is so expensive when you're so happy with Apple TV.

 

Because it is *priced* as a 15" system with a quad-core and dual graphics in it ... and ... you'd be a dolt to pay 15" quad-core prices for a 13" dual core system.

 

I've been reading this board specifically because I'm interested in buying this model...I just purchased a 2013 MBA for my mother (size and weightwise), and I'd consider that the most obvious comparable computer, other than maybe the ATIV Book 9 Plus (which really doesn't compare). For the most spec'ed out 2013 MBA with the two adapters that the ASUS comes with, it's $1,900. However, the i7 processor is 4650-u, the intel graphics is 5000, and no touch screen (not a priority for me anyway). It seems that, with the 4558-u, the 5100 graphics, and the touch screen, the extra $200 seems justified.

 

Most people dont even use quad core and with the level of graphics a dual core can operate pretty well to be fair.

 

Does anyone know how to reconfigure the RAID on this Zenbook ? I want to build a RAID1 instead of the RAID0 pre-configured.

 

I own the x301 and the latest MBP 15 i5/16GB/512GB. The MBP certainly offers more power but it's larger, heavier and doesn't natively support some of the applications I run. The x301 is just was I was looking for, a powerful ultrabook.

 

Also, the 13" rMBP configured with an i7 would still cost much less than the Zenbook. The Zenbook has worse battery life and doesn't even have a Thunderbolt port. Have fun shipping out your laptop if you need repairs, too.

And someone else here is literally comparing a MBA (that he somehow configured to be $1900) to this Zenbook. That's apples to oranges.

Anyone who compares this to a rMBP 13" or 15" would realize they're paying more for less. The only reason you'd buy the Zenbook then is if the money isn't a concern to you or you need Windows/touchscreen capability.

As far as ultrabooks are concerned, this is still the best one.

 

Well the macbooks can run windows if needed.

 

Yes, I did. You can spec it yourself on apple. A 13.3" MBA with - 512 gigs, 8 gig RAM, and an i7 processor, with the two adapters that are included with the Zenbook = $1909.

Not sure how they are apples and oranges. Same size (MBA is even .25 lbs heavier), similar processors and GPU (except MBA is one step lower in both). The MBP is double the weight, and with a retina screen and equivalent i7 processor, costs $2050. Asus and MBA are both ultrabooks. The MBP is not. Either way, you can say you're paying a $200 premium over the MBA for a better processor and graphics, or a $100 premium over the MBP for portability and touch screen.

 

I have a question for any other UX301la owners out there. A few weeks ago I received my UX301la-UH72T and I ran into an interesting problem that I have not seen reported much at all. After a few days of usage I noticed that my keyboard backlight would start flashing and continue to do so until I pressed the FN + F4 keys. However, pressing FN + F3 which is supposed to dim the backlight instead caused it to start flashing again. Obviously this is a pretty annoying bug. I worked with ASUS tech support to troubleshoot but all the usual steps of reloading drivers and restoring to factory default did not work. In each case I have been upgrading to Windows 8.1.

As a result, ASUS tech suggests it could be a hardware issue and they issue an RMA. I decide that I do not want to hassle so I have amazon send me a replacement. Unfortunately, I discovered my replacement seems to be doing the same thing as the old one. That leads me to believe that it is not just a defective unit but some kind of bug across multiple units. I should also note that the issue seems to occur most often after awaking from sleep and a restart always restores the dimming functionality. I even closed the lid a few times and re-opened it and that caused the flashing to stop. Has anyone else experienced any of this? Do anybody with more notebook experience have any clues as to what might be happening?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

I have the same issue jcvillain. Doesn't bother me much though.

 

There has been times where Ux301la would freeze. This usually happens during browsing on the internet and having some tabs open. Every time this happens, I'm forced to hold down the power button for it to completely shut down. Do you guys know what's causing this freezing? Is there any way around this problem?

 

Hello, I'm new to ASUS and would someone please tell me which are the newer models, the UX301 or the UX302? I can't figure it out from the ASUS website. Thanks.

 

Anyone knows the difference between UX301L and UX301LA? I notice many posters in this thead mention using their UX301LA with Windows 8.1. However, on the ASUS 8.1 upgrade advice page UX301L(A) is not listed among the products that have been verified for 8.1, and I've got the following issue:

I got my UX301L at the end of November, loaded with Windows 8. After new year I upgraded it to Windows 8.1. Shouldn't have done so! Has caused me a lot of troubles and problems. After the upgrade it's (almost) dead silent. System sounds, like message alert, work, bot nothing more advanced than that. I've been on to ASUS support. They tell me it's a driver issue. The Realtek sound driver has been modified by ASUS. Therefore the available Realtek 8.1 driver update does not work (have checked to make sure). One has to wait for ASUS to release a new sound driver. However, ASUS support states that it's not sure that they even will be providing an 8.1 sound driver. INCREADIBLE!! Moreover, ASUS support told me "they recommend that their PCs be run on the OS they're supplied with"! A brand new PC, and you cannot upgrade to the latest available OS!?! That means if the OS would be too bogus, and you want to upgrade to a new OS, you can't! UNBELIEVABLE!!
ASUS support adviced that I should run "refresh" on the PC. This means I have to totally re-install all SW I'm using, and set up the PC all over again!
I just bought this PC, and ASUS has left me in the dirt! I regret buying ASUS, and never will again!

If anyone out there has experienced this same issue, and has found a solution other than refreshing and reinstalling, please let me know.

 

I find this post about upgrading to Windows 8.1 interesting because after testing out my UX301la I found that I could not reproduce my issue until immediately after upgrading to Windows 8.1. Right after doing this (and without loading any software) the problem of the flashing keyboard reoccurred after resuming the computer from sleep. Hence, this notebook appears to be unready to upgrade to Windows 8.1 for multiple reasons. In fairness I have not noticed the lack of sounds as noted above, but I usually do not pay attention to that stuff as long as the basics are working. RaBarber, can you give some examples of sounds that are not working for others to check on?

ASUS has acted surprised by my issue and asked for me to provide a video to illustrate what is happening. I will keep everyone updated on how that goes.

 

I also have the same problem. Flashing keyboard happens when "instant on" is off and computer wakes up from deep sleep (beeing in sleep for prolonged period) or after turning pc on after it has been shut downed. And to stop this, i need to do restart / shutting down ad powering back does not help

Than again, if "instant on" is on, i have another issue. After waking up from deep sleep (sleep for prolonged time) dpi scaling is messed up and start meni and some other stuf is really small so i need to restart to get everything ok again.

So bassicaly, the only suitable option for me at this time is to keep "instant on" and i'm always shutting down. I even changed the option to shut down when the lid is closed.

I raised incident to Asus, they redirected me to someone else who never replied, I than raised another incident and it's been 8 days now, no reply. Hope they will fix this somehow.

Also upgraded to win 8.1.

 

Update on the no sound/mute issue:
I Googled through gazillions of foras, and ended up at this one. Response #13 solved the issue. Really weird, but, hallelujah, let there be sound!

While I'm at it, I'll share a couple of other issues and findings:
My mouse pointer/cursor disappears from time to time after the 8.1 upgrade. Solution: Windows+P to disable multiscreen (split or extend doesn't matter), and then Windows+P again to re-enable multiscreen, and the mouse pointer/cursor is back.

A third thing I encountered, but where I cannot tell if it's an 8.1 issue or if I just accidently hit a key combination: I got blue boxes/frames around everything I clicked/selected/wrote. Caps Lock+Esc gets rid of it.

Btw, I found out there's no difference between UX301L and UX301LA.

 

No macbooks are ultrabook, ultrabook is a specification developed by intel for windows PC.
the 13in macbook pro and air are actually quite similar in size and weight

 

Can anyone tell me the difference between these 2?

Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-XH72T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH71T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Blue): Computers & Accessories



Or can someone point me to the direction of which site to purchase this laptop from? I am looking for the top of the line one i7, 256SSDx2 raid, 2560 screen.


Thanks!

 

Hey there, I'm pretty sure that's auto brightness? If you hit "Fn + A" it should toggle auto brightness and you will have manual control over your keyboard again.

That's my hunch,
Ted

 

I have exactly the same issue and behavior with my ux301LA. But the best solution I have found is to leave "intstant on" switched off. Then after periods of long sleep when the Zenbook wakes up with the flashing keyboard I just touch the power button again to put it back to sleep, then touch it once again after a couple of seconds to wake it back up. When I do this it wakes back up to the proper state... no flashing keyboard, no scaling issues. Not ideal but takes only a few extra seconds. Maybe ASUS will figure this out and float us a fix in the future? They should for the $$ we paid for these beasts.

I also had no sound or other issues after my 8.1 upgrade. It was absurdly slow process, probably due to traffic on the microsoft servers. But once it was done the only problems I had were the scaling and flashing keyboard... and I am not sure those weren't also present in 8, but I upgraded right away so don't know for sure.

 

The difference is the size of hard drives and the XH has Windows 8 Pro vs Home on the DH.

 

Just to follow up on this keyboard issue, it is definitely separate from the auto brightness setting. The best fix does indeed seem to be pressing the power button to put it back to sleep and then turning it back on. As raylo points out, this is a couple second fix. I cannot be certain that the flashing keyboard only occurs in Windows 8.1, but I tested this out with Windows 8 and never had the problem. But it immediately occurred after updating to Windows 8.1.

In a sense I am glad to hear that this problem is probably occurring in every one of these notebooks. I sent ASUS a video and they replied that they did not have a unit with this behavior so I needed to send it in for testing and repair. It makes me feel as though they think my particular unit is broken when it is not. I tried to emphasize that many people were experiencing this problem and gave them instructions on how to reproduce the problem in their units. Hopefully this will lead to some action on the keyboard, scaling, and sound issues!

 

Another data point on the wake issues. .. I put mine to sleep last night and this a.m. i saw that the power button was still doing its normal sleep flashes and when I pressed it the zenbook woke up normally without the flashing keyboard. I had put it to sleep with 100% charge and woke with 98%. I am thinking that at that charge level the power management didn't put it into that long sleep problematic mode. Interesting... and Asus should be able to fix with software or bios.

Also I was wondering about some of the other posted were saying. .. just what is a thunderbolt port and why do I want one? ;-)

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

Add me to the list of owners with the flashing keyboard. When it first happened I was in a panic as I could not figure out how to stop it. It seems to happen after a long period in sleep mode, so now always I log off before close the lid. Still operating with 8.0 so it appears to be a problem in both 8.0 and 8.1. I am hopeful those with more tech savvy will continue to post updates on this matter. Otherwise the machine is awesome.

 

For the owners, how is the build quality in your unit? Did you have to send it back before getting a good one?

Thanks.

 

No problems other than the sleep/wake/scaling stuff that I believe is software related to power management. Otherwise this thing is built like a tank, as in solid, but not heavy. You can read my full review here:

Amazon.com: Raybert's review of ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH51T 13.3-Inch Touch...

 

Just wanted to add something to this - just in case anybody would have had the same issues..

After solving the above sound issue, and sound was working for every application, including Skype, with both built in and external sound devices, it turned out that Lync didn't recognise any of the installed sound devices. Solution: Delete ALL USB drivers, set Lync to start with Windows, and restart. It's key that Lync starts before USB drivers re-install themselves.
This thing drove me crazy, and I was on the brink of reinstalling the entire machine when I found this solution.

 

Hey there all you Asus users!

Interesting thread. Two (seemingly unrelated) issues that I have with my UX301LA and that I cannot seem to find other people reporting here are:

1) I cannot access my BIOS. The usual F2, Esc or Delete during posting do not work. Any ideas?

2) My laptop, when sleeping, wakes up by itself. Like, a LOT. I'll have put it to sleep, only to find it waking up from hibernation with an empty battery the next day. Also, it wakes up at any key press, which I tried to disable but have not found the settings for.

Is there anyone with the same issues? And, of course the most interesting: does anyone have an idea on how to fix this?

Thanks a bunch!!
Martenski

 

For you waking issue do you have any USB devices hooked up, like a mouse?

 

Nope. Nothing at all.

 

Check this setting: Device Manager > Network adapters > right click your wireless card > properties > Power Management > unclick: Allow this device to wake the computer.

 

I've tried to look through this thread for a similar issue, but I didn't find one. So I'm hoping someone can help me, or I'm going to have to return this Asus Ultrabook. I've already exchanged the first one I got from Amazon, but I'm seeing the same problems on this second unit.

The problems begin (or seem to) when I open the lid to come out of sleep. It's possible that another precipitating factor (besides being put to sleep) is unplugging the A/C adapter while it's asleep, but that's not as clear at this point.

The thing that seems to always change when coming out of sleep is the DPI magnification (not the resolution). All windows and fonts are significantly smaller, across the board, when I come out of sleep. A reboot seems to fix that. Obviously, that shouldn't happen nor should a reboot be required.

The ***really bad problems*** are the aspects of Windows 8.1 that seem corrupted. The effect isn't always the same, but it's some combination of: Windows Update doesn't work (checking for updates hangs, as one example); Windows Store doesn't work, or App Updates doesn't (hangs); the group policy client pops up a tool tray window (gpsvc isn't running - and no, all the articles and videos on how to fix that don't work - the system already has the requisite registry settings, etc.); other services have errors in the event viewer (BITS is a common one, ShellHWDetection, Multimedia Class Scheduler - dumps hundreds of event log entries in the space of just a few seconds, some Distributed COM errors); etc.

I have an Acronis TrueImage backup of just after 8.1 is fully installed, all updates applied, and some other basic settings configured. No 3rd party software installed. My installation was extremely methodical, including installing all Asus driver updates for 8.1, etc. I can restore to that backup, and things behave perfectly well - until I close the lid and let it sleep. If it matters, a lot of informational event log entries are generated while it's asleep - more than when it's open/awake but sitting doing nothing.

Has anyone else experienced this same problem? Is it related specifically to 8.1? Or is it systemic to this Asus model? The fact that I've seen the same behavior on 2 different units does not bode well.

Thanks, and sorry for the length of the post.

Donnie

 

Hi Hutsady,
Thank you for your help!
This setting was in fact ticked 'on', allowing the wireless adapter to wake up the laptop (what an odd setting...?). I had totally missed that possibility. I've turned it off and am awaiting test results. Looking hopeful!
Cheers,
Martenski

 

Glad to hear it, it is an odd default to have it "on" for a home computer.
Lets hope that is all it needed.

 

Hi Adhelejr,

The DPI problem was something that I also struggled with, and found a solution for. At least a partway solution. There are three things:

1) Windows 8 for some reason has two separate screens where you can resize the icons/fonts. One is in the 'normal' good old screen in Control Panel\Appearance and Personalisation\Display. The other is when you swipe in from the right and choose: >settings> change pc settings>pc and devices>display. They are not the same thing and can conflict. I recommend just using the old fashioned one.

2) Windows 8 seems to not be very smart or even faulty about changing icon/font size on multiple screen setups. There is a tickbox allowing you to set a different position for the size slider for each screen ("let me choose one scaling level for all my displays"), but I find that it caused me some problems. I don't have them any more but I recall that it had an effect so you might want to play with it.

3) If I'm not mistaken, Asus shipped this machine with some sort of bloatware/software tool for the display performance. I removed those programmes quite soon, so I'm not sure anymore if there was also one for the screen. If there is, I would google its use and then decide whether you mind getting rid of it. If not, give that a try.

Hope you're working out the kinks!
Cheers!

 

Hey all!

I plan on getting this notebook in April/March, for college (year starts in late August / early September).

Is it worth waiting for Broadwell to come out? Or is it not that big of a difference and I wouldn't loose out on too much if I ordered this in March?

 

Where are you ordering it from?

 

Amazon, why?

I won't be able to get it until March/April, though, so I'm not sure if I should wait for Broadwell... if I did, how long of a wait would it be?

 

What country do you live in?
How much did you pay?

 

Considering there is no release date for Broadwell yet, I wouldn't wait. Earliest I heard for Broadwell is Q3 2014 and that might not even be the Ultrabook cpus. If they stick with their tick-tock schedule, it will basically be a Haswell in a smaller body anyways. Also, Asus is notoriously slow at getting new chips into their laptops. They announced the Infinity in June when the processor was available but it didn't reach most countries until Oct-Nov. Even worse, they didn't even HAVE the version I wanted in my country to this date(UX302LG). I had to go through a vendor that sells the Canadian version. There's always a better laptop just over the horizon. Problem with Asus is they are the opposite of secretive so you always want what they announce and not what they currently have. Over the past few years, I have been very disappointed in waiting for things from Asus(Padfone, Transformer Infinity, Transformer Book, etc.) so I now know not to wait anymore. Buy your laptop and enjoy it now.

 

I would get a Haswell laptop now, skip Broadwell, and then sell my Haswell laptop when Skylake comes out.

 

It may come late late before we know it.
Broadwell bombshell: Has Intel delayed 14nm deployments until Q4 2014? | ExtremeTech

 

Cpu enhancements are usually not worth waiting for.

 

according to insiders, Broadwell ultrabooks won't be available until Q1 2015 at the earliest.

 

What country do you live in?
How much did you pay?