ASUS Zenbook UX303 (Nvidia GT 840M)

Excellent, thank you very much. That pretty much confirms that the screens are interchangeable. So now my plan is to buy both, swap screens and sell the hi res 303LA on eBay. Hope it works out in my favor. How is the backlight bleed on the FHD panel?

 

So to confirm - is the mustard-yellow an issue on the 303LA (DB51-T)? Or only the 303LN with the higher-res panel?

If it is an issue with both, is this confirmed to have fixed the issue?

 

If he made it a perfect yellow, then no it's not the same issue. His issue was more likely a calibration issue which can be fixed with a colorimeter or a couple tweaks to the color settings in Intel Control Panel. The screen in the UX303LA has an IPS RGB panel, similar to all previous Zenbook panels and the same panel as the TP300. None of these had yellow problems. The yellow issue in the UX303LN is due to the RGBW pentile display it uses, which is the same type of screen used in the Yoga 2 and the Y50. The Yoga 2 got "Corrected" with a bios update but users still complain about it. I've experienced the Y50's screen and they haven't done a bios update yet but the screen can be helped by calibrating it and adjusting the gamma and contrast settings. It's still not right though. At high brightness settings I can live with it but at low brightness it just looks weird.

 

Bleeding is virtually non-existent, very, very small amount on the bottom edge. Of the the 3 laptop screens in front of me right now its easily the least affected.

Can confirm no issues with yellows on the FHD panel here, in fact as someone that prefers matte screens, the glossy touchscreen on the db-51t doesn't seem as shiny as some of the others I've seen.

For anyone wondering about Windows 7, Asus don't officially support it but I gave it a shot anyway. Most of the Win8 drivers work but I'm so far missing the touch screen, webcam, and what I think is the USB root hub, so that's probably not an option, but I'll give it another shot. FWIW, Linux Mint 17 installed without any issues and everything (I think) apart from the backlit keyboard worked out of the box.

 

Not quite sure what you mean by "Hard drive caddy needed a bit of finesse to remove, ...". Did your unit come with a HDD rather than a SSD, or is the SSD in a caddy?

Jim

 

Xentar712 is correct.

The mustard yellow on the 1800p screens will not be fixed by my fix. My fix is a simple color calibration. The 1800p problem is the screen design. Lenovo provided a BIOS "fix" for the Yoga 2 Pro that still does not give perfect yellow and kills battery life in the process.

Good luck, Jim

 

Caddy's the wrong word on my part, I've been upgrading a macbook at the same time and gotten my thoughts crossed Meant of course the bracket holding the SSD in place.

 

OK, thanks for the clarification.

Jim

 

Amazon's US price dropped to $1165. That's a really good deal.

 

Oh wow, that is a deal. Now to deal with that screen or not....

 

I just ordered one. I'm going to try the switcheroo with the UX303LA and see how that works. Hopefully there's someone out there who will want a UX303LA with a QHD screen

 

You might become the US supplier of LNs with 1080p and LAs with 1800p. :hi2:

Jim

 

Just got word from Amazon that my i7 UX303LN will ship Wednesday from Prime! Also got a price match to reduce it to $1164! Gotta love Amazon.. I'll be sure to post pics when I receive it!

 

got my price matched for my August 5th order! It ships Wednesday!

 

I just looked it up, price still says $1299. You think it's a location based thing or they just changed the price back to original?

 

I ordered on august fourth, and they emailed me a couple days ago saying that it would ship around September 16th. The price stayed the same aswell,
I wonder why you got the price drop and the earlier shipping.

 

maybe they changed it quickly after realizing my price match lol.. I had luck I guess. I saw the price and quickly went to live chat.

 

They change their prices based on quantity. Chances are they had some cancelled orders and they went back up for sale. Now they're out of stock again. Best to check every morning and see if there's a better deal than the one you got. Amazon is really good at price matching after the fact but you need to be lucky with the rep if it's sold out. Call them and see if they will honor it. My exact price was $1164.92.

 

So the Aussie UX303 from PLE does not ship internationally. (Surprise surprise). Still waiting to hear from TechBuy.

 

why 303LN-R4142H was so rarely to found? especially at asian region. singapore, malaysia and indonesia? anyone has the same problem?

 

Thanks for the update. I recall seeing somewhere on TechBuy's website that they do ship internationally, but I wasn't sure what their reputation was. Any idea?

 

Did they send you an update email or was that your estimated date? I'm assuming mine would be the same considering this is the first batch and they are out of stock. My estimated date is Sept 15th.

 

What was the price match to?

 

If anyone can work out how to get multi touch to work on the trackpad in Ubuntu, I'll be your best friend for at least half a day.

Starting to drive me a bit nuts. Tried out Utopic, but that didn't work either

Does anyone know what brand the touchpad would be?

 

Hey guys,

I've been lurking around all summer and finally decided to register to ask a question.

Could those of you with the UX303LA weigh in on the battery life with your typical usage? I'm currently trying to decide between this and the XPS 13. I would like to buy a laptop asap as my classes for college start this week and as a computer science student, I can't go on for very long without a laptop .

Thanks

 

Can you guys take some pictures of the laptop. I just want to see more pictures than the ones that are already out there to decide if the smokey-brown color is ok or not.

Cyberport.de will maybe get new UX32LN's, but both will be 1199€.

UX303LN: 12 GB RAM, slightly better processor.
UX32LN: 8 GB RAM

The only downside of the UX303LN is of course the brown!

 

The listed UX32LN on cyberport is the old i7 just with Windows 8 Pro instead of Windows 8 Home. You will find that model also listed on some smaller shops for some time, though never really available. I prefer the design of the UX32LN a little bit more, but as I don't need Win8 Pro the price difference of 100€ is too much for me. I'm fine with the colour of the UX303LN.

 

I get 7 - 7.5 hours with my light duty use profile. My use includes Email, web, forums, updates, virus and malware scanning, Spider Solitaire, Mine Sweeper, etc. I use a modified Balanced Power Plan.

Good luck, Jim

 

I received the UX303LN last Friday, but haven't had much time to use it yet due to commitments during the weekend. My configuration is QHD/i7-4510U / 840M / 8GB / 256GB SSD. Before this laptop I had a 4 year old HP Envy 13.

Unfortunately yesterday my headphone jack started showing signs of failing so I have decided to return it as DOA and ask for a new unit. My retailer allows returns within 7 days.

Positive:
- It's really fast for a 13.3" laptop. Windows start-up literally take a couple of seconds (around 5 sec), you enter the password, and get to the home screen. I haven't had any lag or crashes with any application. So far it's sliced through everything I have thrown at it.
- Gaming is very smooth. I played Skyrim Legendary edition at 1600*900 resolution with ultra settings and everything worked very smoothly. There are no scaling problems in Skyrim and everything still looked good at non-native resolution. I did not try gaming at full resolution yet. This is probably currently the fastest laptop for gaming in the 13.3" form factor.
- The design looks very nice and the laptop is light and thin. The brownish colour looks nice and distinguishes it from your cheaper silver laptops. My friend thought it was a Macbook at first.
- The screen is bright and crisp, as long as you first turn the silly auto-brightness off.
- There's a nice fabric sleeve and ethernet/display adapters included in the package

Negative:
- The yellow issue is there. You can somewhat diminish it with screen calibration settings but it does not totally go away. The default screen settings have way too much saturation and contrast for my liking, but can be easily adjusted. As long as we remember to complain to Asus they will probably release a BIOS update to diminish the problem.
- Some scaling issues with some apps, but that's a Windows problem and not this particular laptop. Nothing disturbing. I had to switch browser from Chrome to Firefox because Chrome sucks at scaling.
- There's an annoying sticker stuck to the screen. It took me 10 minutes of scrubbing with window cleaner to get the glue off without scratching the screen.
- The failed headphone jack

 

It is not as brown as the HP Spectre 13t which I had for a few months. And my wife says the color is a dark silver. In some light it looks almost very light lavender.

Good luck, Jim

 

Yeah, I had the same issue with the sticker and the stubborn glue. I still can't figure out why Asus put it there.

Jim

 

Chrome canary works pretty good with hi res panels

 

guys, did model ux303LN-R4142H will ship global to all region? i m still not found it yet at singapore, malaysia and indonesia. or maybe it will release at september?

 

Just a thought... Has anyone with the QHD screen tried complaining to ASUS about the color issues and asking for an FHD screen replacement from the LA model as a solution?

 

MacBook Pro 13 retina 8gb 256ssd or UX303LN-R4141H?

 

If you want to play less than 3 y.o. games, MBP 13 will disappoint you.

 

The LN is $1,164.92 again at Amazon.

Jim

 

Where can one get a 1080 panel and how much does that cost? Can one call Asus, pretend to have a UX32LN and pay for a "replacement" panel for that and mash it into the UX303LN like some frankenstein laptop?

And the 303LA screen is still glossy right?

Also it kind of worries me that Amazon doesnt allow open box returns with this as I doubt the yellow screen would count as a returnable defect.

 

Hi all, first post here.

Regarding the 3200x1800 panel on the US model, there is a model being sold in Australia, UX303LN-C4147H, that seems to have most of the specs of the US version, DB71T with 3200x1800, but has a regular 1920x1080 touchscreen. The Australian company that is selling it is called "MLN" and states at the top of the webpage that it ships to USA (web page: ASUS Zenbook Touch Screen Ultrabook UX303LN-C4147H). It is also priced at about $1968. It claims to have numerous brick-and-morter stores in the country, so I'm assuming it is a reputable company.

Does anyone know anything about "MLN"?

Any reviews of this particular model (I'm assuming the screen will perform better than the 3200x1800)?

I think it is an English (USA) keyboard from the pictures, but I'm not sure if Australia uses English (USA) or English (British) keyboards. Can anyone confirm?

Has anyone in the US tried to order a unit from Australia (or this company)?

 

Does Asus allow you to upgrade the ssd or does that void the warranty?

 

There are ux303ln models with a matte fhd panel too. I don't think you have to lie about it - they'll sell parts to you. But I don't think they sell screens because all the part retailers say asus doesn't supply them

 

Where are you guys purchasing the DB71T in the US? The only option I've been able to find is Office Depot's website and it takes 15-20 days to deliver. Any faster options out there?

 

No. I asked Office Depot and they said it won't get shipped until at least Sept 9th even though it says a delivery date on Aug 29th on the order. Amazon also said mid September. Amazon is getting a shipment in from Asus and then reshipping them. Office Depot is getting them shipped directly to the customers from Asus, which is why the 15-20 day delivery date.

 

Update: MLN emailed me back confirming that the C4147H model has a USA keyboard layout.

 

Are you going to buy it? Seems awfully expensive to me. $1971 USD

 

I agree. I was considering MLN as well, but going through the checkout steps brought a total of about $2,013 USD with payment and conversion via PayPal. That's pretty steep. In fact, with the recent prices, one could buy both the UX303LN and the UX303LA form amazon for just under $50 more, and (potentially) swap the screens as Xentar mentioned he planned to do earlier in this thread.

That being said, I really hate the idea of "rewarding" Asus with more of my purchasing dollars to fix a problem they shouldn't have created in the first place. Very frustrating.

 

Just noting, Australia also uses the dollar (AUD) which is a bit weaker than the USD. When I check MLN from here (UK) it totals 1100GBP (ish) which would mean the prices are listed in AUD not USD. So might be a little bit cheaper. But looking at online reviews, MLN does not score well on customer service.

 

It's $1971 USD, it's on their site in both currencies.

 

hi there,
I am after the ASUS UX303, it doesn't matter if LN or LA. All i need is i7 processor, 12GB RAM and 256SSD , but i do not want to have the issues with the screen. I live in Australia and i can find here those specs with an FHD 1920x1080 (touchscreen - which i do not need anyway).
i have read almost all the post and it seems that screen does not have the resolution and coloring issue of the 3200x1800 QHD screen
is that true!!?
also, i can find a much cheaper model on the german market, does anyone know if the operating system (8.1) for the german market come in dual language (german + english) or is it only in german?
i have confirmed with them the keyboard has the german layout...bummer!

thanks a lot.

c

PS: those of you who have it, how noisy is the fan? does it go on all the time? i would use it to work on it (office package is what i mainly use)...didn't even know what gaming meant before jumping on this thread!

 

me again

i actually found the 303LN and 303LA in several different specs on a UK website.

I used to live there and i never heard of it...plus the website doesn't look the best and although i rang twice and spoke to 2 or 3 different staff so it seems legit, i cannot find much reviews on them...only 3 ad 2 are bad.
Plus, he sells abroad, but no c/c payment is available when purchasning from Australia so he wants a direct money transfer...
Am I too suspicious?
anyone heard of CASETAC?

https://www.casetac.com/index.php?route=common/home

i contacted them a few times as i said asking if it is a UK or US keyboard and OS and he hasn't actually replied, but i believe it is
I rng ASUS UK and they told me the LN is not going to hit the UK market until end of 2014...so i am a bit puzzled.

anyone knows these guys? shalli trust them (i would save 500$ to buy it there instead of here (Oz)

thanks

c