Asus UX31 Ultrabook

before you sell it, it'd be nice to have a comparison screen shot of the screen and viewing angles. Most comparisons i found just focus on the size of the two, but none on the screen itself or the feel of the keyboard.

 

I'm actually considering the MBA as well. Especially since the UX31 is not even released here yet.
I've never used a mac keyboard though, so I'm not sure how much of a pain it will be for me.
If Asus can iron out those few issues with the UX, it will be awesome though...

PS: Maybe the wifi problems is something to do with Asus components? The reason I say that is because I have similar issues with my Asus Transformer tablet. Sometimes the wifi will just die on it and I have to turn it off and on to get it going again.

 

The very same models are or are going to be available in british and polish shops, so I guess the keyboards are US International. Don't take this for granted. If you want to pre-order, better contact amazon.de and ask about that.

 

First, Bananachipz solution to the poor WiFi performance is money. No issues since I've changed the performance profile for the wireless adapter to maximum.

Second, my clicking fan has suddenly disappeared after 2 days of persistent clicking. I don't have a hypothesis for what cured the clicking fan except for a "break in period." I ran Prime95, just to verify I wasn't going deaf, and no noises were apparent, except for the whoosh of the fan.

 

Boot times aren't perfect. It takes about 45-50 seeconds to boot Win 7 from hitting the power button. I was trying to investigate this, and seems like it's the Intel graphics drivers fault. With them, the glowing windows logo freezes and it makes boot 15-20 seconds longer.

Besides I don't like the fact that I have to power off keyboard backlight every boot.

And since I'm used to multitouch gestures on Windows - more of them could work with MBA.

 

Hmm I just noticed that although they aren't dedicated, they do have Home/End keys, combined with the Fn I'm guessing. That's good enough for me. Provided the Fn key is where I'm expecting it to be (unlike on the Air where it's switched with the Ctrl), it's a very easy manoeuvre.

Fair enough. I just didn't want OSX on there at all, and being my first SSD, I thought 128GB was going to be really small and didn't want any of it wasted. As it turns out 128GB is ample room for a HDD.

Hmm I could give it a go. I've only got the 2009 model so it might not be worth the comparison... I fully intended to upgrade the MBA to the latest until the UX31 came out. I'll post something about the viewing angles anyway.

 

Love the toshiba backlight and dedicated home/end/pig up keys, but screen resolution and physical size aren't very appealing. Next to the MBA (and UX31 one assumes) the Z830 looks massive, very deep with big palm rests...

 

Although it is said in one review that the ram cannot be upgraded but has anyone actually seen how the memory is implemented? Is it soldered on the motherboard or not? I think it is on the other side of the motherboard facing towards the palmrest. Can somebody take a picture of the memory implementation? (I think 4GB is a bummer for many)

 

Boot times shouldn't be an issue with the MBA, because most of the time I just close the lid (suspend), and it only takes 3 seconds or so for it to wake up when I open the lid back up (I previously had a MBA 13, but gave it to my daughter).

 

It seems to me that the big downside to the MBA vs the UX31 is the Thunderbolt instead of USB 3.0 port.

Thunderbolt might be better technically, but there is nothing to plug into it yet! I don't think there are even converters that let you plug in USB 3.0 devices to it yet.

 

sounds awful, with the lap in my signature, boot including post takes about 25s, pure windows about 16s from cold.

I thought that the SSD in UX31 was much quicker - even when all was ok.

 

Agreed. To stay one step ahead of the competition, it would be nice if Apple would come out with a refresh to the MBA line that includes:
1. Two USB 3.0 ports
2. "Retina" display 1600x900.

The pursuit of the perfect laptop continues...

 

Ahh yes, the perfect laptop. I just know it is going to be announced the day AFTER I buy whatever one I settle for. lol

I'd be happy enough if Apple (or someone else) would just come out with a little hub that lets other things like USB 3 to be connected to the thunderbolt port.

 

For anyone interested, the boot time from the BIOS to the login screen in Ubuntu 11.10 is around 5-6 seconds, it's scary fast!

 

Very interested RR1RR - as many updates as possible please Just waiting for the UX31 to be released in the UK on Friday and I'll have bought one as fast as possible unless there are any showstoppers...

 

Thanks for the reply earlier. So if this is not the "official" slipcover, does anyone know where I can source the nice one in the pictures?

 

They already have 1440x900 in a nice 16:10 format in the MBA13.

I hope for a 1680x1050 display later on (like the MBP15 has), or at the very least, the MBP13 gets one (along with a matte option).

 

Read carefully please.

It's about Macbook Air ( mid 2011 ).

 

I'm very curious how the trackpad problems are faring under Ubuntu. Have you had the same jerky and sensitive (false-click with palms, etc.) behavior as in Win7 that some others have been reporting here?
Also, any WiFi issues under Ubuntu?

 

How do you manage to use a 1050p in a 13" screen? Do you have an idea of how small things gonna stay?

I really think that 900p is the best vertical resolution for a 13" screen, not more, not less. What could be improved, of course, are the brightness, contrast and color fidelity, thats why I dream with a 13" AMOLED screen, which also saves battery.

Also, you know what would make the UX series perfect in design matter? A 14" screen 1080p in the same frame, reducing the useless screen border to the minimum - that would be expensive, but legendary

 

There are tons of Sony Z owners who do it.

 

It seems to me that none of you who owns this machine had the guts to seriously take it apart and check whether the ram is soldered on to the motherboard or not.

Or I am just talking to myself and all of you are happy with the 4GB memory. (?)

Let's try it one more time, can somebody check whether the memory can be upgraded? I read the reviews but I did not see on any of the pictures the memory modules.

 

This is sold out everywhere >.<, anyone have any luck finding some?

 

What's wrong with 4gb?

Why would someone risk breaking something voiding something to see if we can add memory. Wait for a tech blog/site to do it, they don't mind breaking it.

 

If your in the US Abt.com

 

Just talked with a sales rep apparently it is OOS even though the page says otherwise.

 

I just called them , i ordered the UX31E-DH53 on monday its being shipped today for friday delivery

 

Nope, 2, 2GB modules

http://i55.tinypic.com/29m1yqd.png

 

I think it will not be an easy task to upgrade memory. Since these laptop are "new technology", I mean the ultra slim, inner parts will not be standard.

To save space and weight, they did not include screws and connectors. So I'm suggesting that it will be soldered.

Wooohhaa. Did I read correctly???

0/40/1 memory DIMM [empty]
0/40/3 memory DIMM [empty]


What does that mean??

 

Means that its confirmed the RAM is soldered on. There was a slight chance of one dim slot on the other side but absolutely no chance of 2 dim slots. The modules will be fused straight to the motherboard.

 

Thank you for checking it. This is really interesting. Can you help us to better understand it. It seems like it has 2 empty dimms? Then the 2x2gb must be soldered on the board. (?) I assume

 

RR1RR-
I'm reposting this request, since this thread has been so busy today with nonsense....
I'm very curious how the trackpad problems are faring under Ubuntu. Have you had the same jerky and sensitive (false-click with palms, etc.) behavior as in Win7 that some others have been reporting here?
Also, any WiFi issues under Ubuntu?

 

It probably means the bios writers are lazy dogs.

I means that the bios is declaring that there are four memory channels, not necessarily that there are four physical slots.

 

That's what I thought.

 

You meant that there are 2 x 2GB modules. Is it correct to say that we still do not know whether the memory is soldered on the board. (?)

 

No, he means that there is 4 declared slot in the BIOS but (probably) not physically. Actually, I don't know how they can do this but let's hope!

 

For a 64bit system, 4GB is the minimum. I am using a series 9 laptop with 4gb ram now and I am right now at 90% usage. Its enough, kinda but more would be nice as an option.

um, you mean IPS display. For you to have a Retina display at 1600x900 resolution you would need to have a maximum of 6" screen. For a 13" screen Retina would need to have a QFHD display which is 3840x2160 or 3840x2400 (WQUXGA).

 

WOW! Can you imagine the microscope you would need to see the tiny icons?

 

you're getting too greedy. I'd be glad that at least there something better than the usual 1366x768 mirror like I have in my 4820TG.

 

You don't need a microscope.

More resolution doesn't necessarily mean tinier icons.

It just mean smoother line.

Have you ever seen an iPhone 4. If you look at the screen, you can't se the pixel. They are so tiny. But the icon are the same size has the older (non-retina) iphone.

 

In Windows it does. You can scale the fonts to a point, but then it looks horrific. iPhone was designed with that single screen in mind, Windows is more or less standard resolutions on ranges of screen sizes.

 

We were in a hypothesis. I suppose that Windows was optimize for a retina display.

 

For those who were speculating that the UX31-RSL8 from BestBuy was stripped down and had the i5-2467m processor, I am happy to report that it has the regular i5-2557m like the rest of the 13in line:

 

But more importantly: does it have the 1600x900 screen still?

 

Yep. Looks like its an exact match for the UX31-DH52.

 

Everything will look microscopic because windows is not meant for that resolution. I think eventually they will just have to dump .ico and many other formats and make all the UI elements in vector format.

 

Are you for real? I just cancelled my order with Best Buy yesterday They had it all ready for me to pick up

 

false-click with palm is pretty standard on any touch pad no?
At least the ones I've tried...

As for wifi, nothing out of the ordinary for now!

I'll try to fix the broken things tomorrow...

 

The box says it has the 2557m processor, so you could have went and at least looked at the box. I took the plunge and figured Asus wouldn't have had time to stick a different CPU in their model lineup and that Best Buy was wrong.

 

I'll try calling them tomorrow and see if I can re-buy the one that was shipped to the store.