ASUS Zenbook Infinity UX301LA - just announced at Computex

Just saw this on the MS site Buy ASUS Zenbook Touch UX31LA-UH51T Touchscreen Ultrabook - Microsoft Store

So is is are ux31la models different than the UX301?

 

I'm probably the only one that want's a touchscreen. The glare's going to be annoying, but the mac's have that too.

 

The UX301 replaces the UX31.

 

I NEED THIS LAPTOP. The power of a 13 inch Macbook Pro Retina in a body thinner, lighter, and sleeker than a 13 inch MacBook Air. This is looking like the king of the Ultrabooks right now.
But hopefully they make a UX501 with a 15 inch monitor.

 

Still leveraging the UX301 and Yoga 2 Pro. I might bite on the $1800 model on Amazon if it at least had the i7-4500U. Come on Asus, it's $1800!

 

Does anyone know the colors this laptop will be available in? Many of the reviews and stock photos of the UX301 range from gray-ish to a sleek dark black. Yet on Amazon, the laptop is only listed as blue, and the laptop seems a bit too blue for my taste. Any idea if I was mistaken because of lighting, or if a black version exists? Also any projections on the price of this model : Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-XH72T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Blue): Computers & Accessories

 

It's amazing Asus thought it could actually price the UX301 the way it has. I was also considering the refreshed macbook pro but for the specs I need it's out of my budget.

I went ahead and got myself the Yoga 2 Pro for $1320 with these specs:

13.3" QHD+ LED Glossy Multi-touch 3200x1800
4th Generation Intel Core I7-4500U Processor (1.80GHz 1600MHz 4MB)
8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
512GB SSD
Intel® Wireless-N 7260 (802.11bgn)

 

Dark blue/black is all that's available at US retailers right now. $2199 MSRP for UX301LA-XH72T which is delayed. UX301-DH51T has plenty of stock right now.

 

The previous model was UX31A.
I thought the UX31LA was the same as the UX301. Notice that I typed UX31"LA" not UX31"A".

 

Heh, that says it has the i5-4200u. Perhaps that's what they're calling the Haswell-enabled 1080p versions. Or, it could be a typo. Asus has a long history of coming up with the most confusing and meaningless model numbering system known to man.

 

The bad thing about the Yoga: the yellow tends to be kind of green.
So, a lot of resolution... But bad color reproduction.

Enviado desde mi Nexus 7 usando Tapatalk 4

 

From what I can tell, the UX31LA has a 1920x1080 LCD while the UX301LA has the 2560x1440 screen. Otherwise, they seem pretty similar.

 

Yeah, and it has a whopping 5 hour battery life. What a joke!

Guess I'm going to wait for Haswell KiraBook. If new Macbook had touchscreen I'd order one.

 

Also, looks like the UX301LA uses a Raid 0 (128x2) configuration for its 256 storage whereas the UX31LA uses a single 256 SSD.

 

Where are you seeing 5 hours? The reviews I've seen have been showing around 8 hours with moderate use.

 

Even better, it's "UP TO" 5 hours!

Buy ASUS Zenbook Touch UX31LA-UH51T Touchscreen Ultrabook - Microsoft Store

The Kirabook has TWO-YEAR manufactures warranty and higher resolution than new Macbook Pro and has a touchscreen with Harmon Kardon sound! Eat your heart out Asus Bang and Olufsen. But, no Haswell in Kirabook yet, so I'm going to wait for a refreshed version.

The Kirabook warranty speaks to the quality of it's components. I'd feel more confident, in terms of quality, from a Japanese company than Taiwanese company or Chinese built Apple product. If Asus is so good, they should put their money where there price is and offer a longer warranty longer.

 

Oh sorry I thought you were talking about the UX301LA, not the UX31LA. I was under the impression that the 301 was the successor to the 31?

 

You have a few things mixed up:

ASUS UX31LA 'Haswell Refresh':
Same as the UX31A but with a Haswell chip inside. The body, screen and other internals are the same as the 'Zenbook Prime' (UX31A).

ASUS UX302LG
Cheaper version of the 'Zenbook Infinity', features dedicated graphics and an 1080p screen. Build quality is roughly the same but the unit is 2-3mm thicker.

ASUS UX301LA
Obviously, the new high-end model. Up to 1440p screen on the more expensive model, 1080p in the cheaper ones.

 

The UX31LA is a UX31A Haswell refresh as you state but it also adds a touchscreen.

In addition to being the high end model with a 1440p screen, the UX301LA uses a RAID 0 configuration for the 256 and 512 models and makes use of Gorilla Glass 3.

 

White! Any news on the white?

I'm ready to jump on the Blue as soon as the i7-4558U is available, but I'd really prefer the white, and I'd be willing to wait a few weeks but not much longer, if I had any reason to believe the white was going to show up...

 

Has anyone even seen a video of the white? Iv'e seen a 100 ux301 vids and have never seen more than a picture. Would love to see how this really looks myself even though I will definitely still get the blue.

Thanks

 

I want to buy it - when it is available in my country anyway, but it is so darn expensive.
For the same price you get a great W8.1 tablet with Office plus a none too shaby gaming/Professional less think notebook or a 27" 2560x1440 all in one + a tablet or an entry level touch notebook + w8.1 table + middle game nokia phone.

 

Yes, it is expensive. I'm actually a bit blown away by the price.

I didn't think it was bad until I looked at all the competitors. Yes, they all appear to be slightly lower spec, or heavier, but not much, but with significantly lower prices (at least compared to the UX301 $2200 version).

 

I was all convinced this is my next until I came across the m3800. From the looks of it, the m3800 is a home run. Assuming you're okay with 5-6 hours of battery life and 4 odd lbs weight.

 

anyone who ordered received their units yet?

 

Here is another video featuring the white version. It's a professional hand-on from the Dutch tech site 'Tweakers.net'. Ignore the Dutch commentary, just look at that gorgeous white Zenbook. Around the 1 minute mark they state that the white version looks a bit cheap due to the glossy white surfaces, but that is just an opinion...

Hands-on: Asus Zenbook UX301 - YouTube

 

I received this unit on Wednesday. I am not at all impressed by it.

First off the brightness was really low. I tried to use the brightness toggle on the shortcut to increase it. Depending on what program I had open in the forefront, the brightness toggle would only have 2-5 different brightness levels. Say there were 10 'notches' in the meter. The first 5 did absolutely nothing, and full brightness was still quite low. I went to the Asus support chat, and they gave me 3 drivers to install/update which didn't do anything. After messing around and googling, I found some thread that told you to reinstall the pnp generic driver. That did the trick temporarily, as it became significantly brighter and what you would expect any notebook to look like. However, if you go to mess with the brightness, or reboot the machine it goes right back down to the low level brightness on max.

After installing 8.1 on the machine myself the screen resolution is no longer 2560x1440 or whatever it is supposed to be. I got frustrated and have not bothered to try and fix that either. When I go to screen resolution, it says it is at the max setting, but clearly, it is not.

For spending such a large sum on this machine, I expect it to work flawlessly, and I shouldn't have to spend hours of my time trying to get it to work as stated. I ordered it from Amazon on Monday, before Apple released the specs for their new MBP's. I don't even want to put any more effort trying to make this to my liking, for $300+ more than a comparable Apple model.

I never used Win8 before so the time I spend getting adjusted to it, I could just as easily become familiar with a Mac.

I can't imagine anyone else who received their unit, to be happy with it.

 

Is it worth coughing up the extra 200 for the i7-4558 compared to the i5-4200?

I tried doing a quick search on the difference and basically came up with the following:
The i7-4558U will have HD Graphics 5100, which means a higher maximum clock, but more importantly the i7-4558U will have a 28W TDP instead of a 15W TDP. Higher TDP translates into better 3d performance.

Now here's the thing. I'm a teacher. I need a good ultrabook that will last me 5+ years. In the past I've always bought budget equipment that eventually gave me headaches later on. This time, I want the top-of-the-line Cadillac laptop so I can buy it, be happy with my investment, and never look back. I don't play games, I don't watch videos, I don't do any video/photo editing. Obviously, people will tell me that an i5 will suit all my needs. However, is it worth paying the extra 200 now so that in 5 years my machine wont be as outdated? It may seem like a silly question, but I'm trying to think long-term.

Thanks.

 

I think you're giving up too easily. Screen brightness issues are most likely solved through the Windows 8 settings in the Power Options. Most default settings allow for adaptive brightness (dims in lower light conditions), which is to optimize battery life. I don't have the UX301LA yet, but I do have a Lenovo Helix and whe I upgraded I had issues, too. Go here to read more about changing this.

Screen Brightness - Adjust in Windows 8

And after updating to 8.1, I had problems with the resolution too. I found the problem to be that 8.1 is increasing the text/icon sizes. I didn't like it.. To fix, just use the Windows Search (WindowsKey + S) and search for "make text smaller" and you should get a link to the settings in Control Panel:
(Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display)

I think 8.1 changed it to 150%. I changed everything to 100% and restarted the computer. Back to full resolution!

Windows 8.1 takes some getting used to, but the power to customize is there.

 

- I don't think the i7-4558 is Worth it for most people. The tests so far indicates that it is only about 20% faster than HD4600 whereas much more was expected. Of course it could be that drivers aren't optimized yet but it seems that only the iris 5200 with dedicated fast graphics memory will really be better;
In anycase it will be worse than a base dedicated graphic card.
- I don't think it is realistic to keep an Ultrabook for 5 years, 2-3 years seems more realisistic to me. Why? Because the price of minimal weight and height is non-modularity and non repairability. Even batteries can't be changed or can only be changed in factories and I don't know of a battery that lasts 5 years with daily use.

In your case, I Wonder if a much cheaper - but that doesn't mean cheap - notebook (with graphic card if you need it) wouldn't be a better option, with the idea that you will replace it in 3 years.
Ultrabooks are too recent to know for sure if they'll last 5 years so I could be wrong, but I'm quite sure it won't happen.

Finally any 200 you can spare is generally better invested in memory & sdd than better processors (with 5 years in mind I would take 8GB and 256GB SSD as a starting point) as i5 are great and even many i3 would satisfy most people.

 

I checked all the power saving options and autodim in light stuff. It wasn't that. I found the fix to my problem here, as I assume others will have the same issues.

Restore Lost Brightness Control app in ASUS Laptops After Updating - Howik

I may be giving up too easily, but I shouldn't have to be bothered to have to do all these changes myself.

I do appreciate your help, and I found the issue of the resolution problem too since my previous post, If you just go to screen resolution by right clicking, you can fix it by going to the 2nd option 'make text smaller' like you said.

I still do not have a working fix for the brightness problem, other than constantly repairing the driver under system settings - monitor - general php, every single time I reboot and sometimes when I put it into sleep mode.

 

Boot I think you are giving up too easily too.
Auto-dimness is known to be problematic on some computers. Just deactivate it as a first step.
Also you can adjust the resolution easily in Windows 8.1.

I have been using Windows 8 since the start and found that its advantages overweight the disadvantages.
8.1 isn't perfect but it is still very very solid. I appreciate it even more now that I did a full reinstall of 8.1 after many version updates over the years .

In any case high pixel density also has its disadvantages and people purchasing such screens will have to take an interest in the scaling possibilities to optimize their use, be it on a mac, a Windows pc or a tablet.

 

Adorama has a 4558U model for $1800, as low as any other models I've seen.

 

Is the headphone socket only headphone? no embedded microphone connector? So it is not possible to use a headphone with built-in microphone ? Test Asus Zenbook Infinity UX301 Hands because this video say so...

 

Why are they offering that model as the same price as the i5? Makes no sense.

 

Probably an error. Who knows if they would even honor that price? I blame Asus. Their release schedules are so unpredictable and erratic that it's confusing everyone, even Adorama probably. I really wish everyone would be more like Apple in announcing and releasing stuff.

 

I just ordered the i7 model at Adorama for 1799. No signs that they wouldn't honor the price. I asked cs when it would ship and got the following reply:
"Thank you for your inquiry on the status of your backorder. According to the manufacturer estimates we expect to fulfill your order for the following item:
ASUX301DH71T by the 3rd week of November

Please note that these are estimated dates given to us by the manufacturer. They are generally accurate, but are subject to change at the discretion of manufacturer."

 

Until they take your money they could change the price and cancel your order at any time.

 

If I had a display like that, I would probably play games at 1280x720. Perfect scaling and it would still look pretty good at 13.3" while being a lot less demanding.

 

Please forgive a noob question; but I just saw this Ultrabook and am now having fantasies of justifying the cost by replacing my desktops with it, and using a third-party or USB dock to link to my dual monitor setups.
So, would it be possible to use a UX301LA with a dual monitor setup? And if so, would the processor have a big impact on the ability to display properly? And finally, what would the maximum monitor resolution(s) be? Main use would be text, not video or gaming. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Is it worth the wait for a 15 inch variant of this with a quad core processor and better graphics card?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk 4

 

that may not come, but there may be a haswell refresh for the UX51

 

I totally agree with you. Super high res may be interesting for the graphic professional, the photo fan and such, but totally useless and even counter productive for the average joe: it will burn more battery, tax the graphic card even more.
2560x1440 on a 13" laptop is in fact for people who like to work at 1280x720. It is exactly the same with a retina Apple, most people work at 25% of the resolution, because it is the only way to do "intelligent scaling". Using them @1920x1080 will result in dithering & fuzziness.
And frankly, the information density is so abyssimal @1280x720 or 1440x900 that why settle for it. It's a little better for 3200x1800 screens as 1600x900 is ok but really it's not Worth the $300-$500 price premium.

To me it's like purchasing a laptop with an Intel Extreme processor that will be 2x as fast but that you will in fact mostly use at 50% or 25% of the speed because A. it burns way too much electricity and B. it is totally useless in all but very specific cases.

 

ASUS twitter says release date of i7 in december:

https://twitter.com/ASUSUSA/statuses/395350339467370496

 

Oh well. I won't have budget to purchase until 2014. Hopefully the white shows up then as well.

 

let's all spam the ASUS twitter and try to get an answer

 

Well Thank you Asus. I'm glad you finally gave us another arbitrary date of when to expect this notebook. December, huh? According to B&H, where my backorder has sat for 3 weeks, they believe "Beginning of November". Either way, when I call them, they have no f'in idea when theyre getting it over there anyways.

Anyways, I am NOT waiting til December for this item. So I will be cancelling my order and ASUS, I hope someone there reads this once in a while...I just want to make you aware that you lost a customer who will now settle for the Vaio Flip. I've never bought an Asus and it looks like I never will. There's a reason why Apple is and always will be on top and you will NEVER be. They know how to satisfy customers and deliver. Say what you want about them but they don't F around with customers like every other sad and obsolete PC company does. Basically, if Asus ever goes public...stay away. Idiots

Note to self: Never get excited about a PC again.

F U Asus.

 

I know what you mean. If not for that fact that I don't have budget until the end of the year, I'd be springing for something else at this point. Asus' very public announcements followed by almost zero information on availability is simply unacceptable. I can only image it's losing them a lot of business, and I can't imagine there's a huge amount of business to be had in this particular market segment. When your product is more expensive than Apple's, you're really targeting a small premium market!

I'm seriously considering the 13" MBP now, it's a bit heavier and is a Mac, but it can be configured with the same i7-4558u CPU and has significantly larger battery (71.8Whr in the MBP vs 50.8 in the UX301, 41% larger!) and room for more RAM and a larger SSD.

I've played with the i5 UX301 (purchased for a coworker) and I really like it. It's very attractive, the build quality is great, the screen is beautiful, and the performance is quite sufficient. Although I'm not terribly impressed with the battery life (it's good, but under load, in high-performance mode I can burn through it in 2-3 hours) and I can only imagine that the i7 will significantly worsen the battery situation.

I guess I'll wait for the i7 UX301 reviews. If it does come out in December, I'll have a month of reviews before I have to make my decision...

 

Huh? I don't recall ASUS ever giving a release date. It was always something like "by end of year".

The Vaio Flip isn't really in the same category as the UX301. It's more of a convertible, maybe competing with the Surface Pro 2. But not the Infinity.

The ASUS release date mentioned is for the i7 versions. If you want an i5 (that the Vaio Flip has), you can get the Infinity today.
Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH51T 13.3-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Blue): Computers & Accessories