Asus UX31 Ultrabook

@amrando

Unfortunately the RAM is soldered to the board.

 

Take a look at the Lenovo's X series forum and make your own opinion. Personally, I find the amount of various problems to be inordinately high. This laptop had to be rushed to the market with little testing, and should never have been released in this condition:

X Series ThinkPad Laptops - Lenovo Community

Also see Bill Morrows X Series Thinkpad forum:

forum.thinkpads.com • ThinkPad X2xx/X30x Series

And of course this forum (notebookreview), where I was originally following the pre and post release of the X220:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/

 

Sony Vaio Z2 or Asus Zenbook! LOL, big difference in price and big difference in performance...

I think the Z2 is pretty damn sexy ????VAIO Z227 Unboxing - Mobile01

Probably an off topic discussion though. =(

 

I couldn't find the sexy Z2 video at the website you linked. Just a bunch of Japanese characters. Do you have a direct link to the video?

 

there's a bunch of pictures of the unboxing. click on the links and you will see the pics.

 

Is it just me or it seems a little fishy that non of these retailers have the UX31 in stock? I don't think any of them got a second shipment since release date. Maybe they are holding off shipments to fix some issues?

 

Maybe there a chance Asus sold out of the UX21 and 31?

 

I doubt this thing get's that much press.
Now if it had an "apple" logo, i'm sure it would be sold out.

 

Here are a couple videos of what I think is a hinge defect. Not sure whether it is a manufacture or design defect.

UX21E Hinge Defect? - YouTube

UX21E Hinge Problem (vid 2)? - YouTube

The first video is me lightly shaking the device by the palmrest. This illustrates what happens after several minutes of typing on a soft surface. The second shows how gravity easily pulls the lid downward.

Anyone else experiencing these things?

 

thanks for video. I just did both test and my screen does not move. I think you need to rma ya notebook.

 

Look into the Lenovo U300e or U300s. They're less Thinkpad and more ultrabook but the screen is still glossy 1366x768. There's the chubbier Samsung 7 series with a 16x9 14" screen in the 13" chassis. Acer S3 maybe and someone mentioned a Vaio too. I don't know of anything else comparable to the Asus that's out.

 

Digitimes reported that first gen ultrabooks will have limited production runs. Asus will ship every unit it can get its hands on.

 

Receiving my Asus ux31 tomorrow, it is currently on its way from US->NL Ordered it at bhphotovideo.com at the day of release, but BH also closed that day for jewish holidays (2 weeks!) -_- Not many other shops shipping to NL so glad i ordered it as it is currently out of stock everywhere (including BH).

 

Here is an interesting view about the current state of ultrabooks, with a specific mini comparison of the UX31 vs the Macbook Air, among other brands of ultrabooks as well.

Ultrabook Makers Not Learning Lessons of the MacBook Air

 

I was thinking he was being super-critical of the UX31, but then I read his impression of the Acer Aspire S3:
Acer’s Air impersonation is the worst, a Lindsay Lohan interpretation of Marilyn. With its short battery life, cheap plastic chassis, and slow hard drive, the only thing the Aspire S3 aspires to be is the next Woot daily special.

Now that's REALLY BAD!

 

Don't give up hope

Remember, that the majority of users will never come to these forums to brag how good their systems work. In other words, when people have problems, they come to these forums for help. So you should not get afraid of a model (at least right away) if you read people having different sorts of problems with them. Sometimes you see polls here, who is satisfied, who is not, but that is still inconclusive, because the majority of people without problems will not hang around here.

Remember, that the ThinkPad X220 for example, has probably tens of thousands of units sold, and a few people complaining does not necessarily mean a widespread problem.

The same is true for the UX31. Even if ten different people write about ten different problems, that does not mean that there is a problem with the UX31 series notebooks and you should not buy. It COULD mean it, but you should not panic right away. ;-) I would say it is still too early to determine if there are manufacturing defects with the UX31.

Also, I would say your first bet, the X220 is pretty safe to buy right around now. Many problems that people found were related to BIOS, and have been fixed in subsequent updates.

And finally, remember that no company will ever check 100% of produced notebooks, and that no production line will ever produce 100% perfectly every time. Meaning, from time to time, a bad apple will get through QA and make it to an end user. As sad as that is (and it is angering if you happen to be the "lucky one"), this should not discourage others from buying a certain notebook.

 

Asus Zenbook UX31E review | Laptops | Reviews | PC Pro

 

What this guy and a lot of other critics seem to be missing is that these are the FIRST iterations of ultrabooks from these companies. What generation of Macbook are we on now? And how was the very first macbook air?

Keeping that in mind, I think the 2nd gen zenbooks will (should be) close to perfect. They are really far off even as it is.

 

this guy surprisingly has a lot of complaints... thumb drive not fitting because his seems to be larger than normal. then he complains abut sharp edges where we have not heard any other user complaining about.
fail review!

 

The pocket lint review complained about the edges:

Asus UX31 Zenbook review - Pocket-lint

 

Not sure... Would like to see some people chime in with this problem about sharp edges.

Three Major Complaints so far are:

• complaints of keyboard because it does not register properly (not even going to bother mentioning backlight)
• trackpad is a horror (but asus does have some updates out... few reviews haven't even touched based on updating drivers)
• then it's the screen that people are complaining about... not sure if it's that big of a deal.

 

Since you are not so sure, I was pointing out the review to broaden your view.

If we are going to seriously talk about ergonomics, you aren't supposed to rest your wrists on the palmrest area while typing or mousing.

But when I had an MBP, it was a serious complaint that when I wasn't typing, resting my wrists would give me pain after long enough because of the sharp edge. So it's conceivable that it is an issue.

 

The screen issue is the one that bothers me the most. I can probably deal with the other things, and they may even improve with firmware updates.

 

I know exactly what you are pointing out for the MBP. I've had the MBP before and ended up selling it to a friend. It was fast, but it didn't grow to me to keep it because of the weight. As far as the sharp edges go, I did experience that for the MBP.

 

You forgot to mention the weak WiFi (even after driver and BIOS updates). They seemed to have solved the disconnect issues by tweaking the power to the max, but the throughput is really slow still.
Of course the "loose hinge" issue is starting to gain traction as well.

I too had the same wrist-cutting edges on my MBP. Luckily, the MBA doesn't seem to have this problem at all.

 

i guess it's time to postpone upgrading... maybe looking into Sony Vaio Z

 

Hey dude, take it easy... The wireless is not slow at all and if you search u can even find high rates obtained after some corrections on the router;
He hinge problem (that people are starting to call screen problem, giving misunderstandings) is really not well clear about how % are suffering of this problem, could be very low.
Trackpad issues are contradictory. Some said it is better, some not. So we cannot evaluate if everyone made the updates of bios and drivers correctly. Also, the evaluation of the aspects that make it good or not are very subjective.
Keyboard really seems to be the only real issue, since is a physical problem.

I dont know why people eager to find defects in a new product, putting MBA in the heaven and forgetting its own weak points, starting by the price.


And, dont forget you all... this is the first generation of a computer from one brand in a first generation category (ultrabooks) keeping MBA apart. So be more patient and flexible, this product must have suffered crazy time pressures on the project, and if you really like to be an early adopter, face the risks of it.

 

Hi, that is nice! Could you split the total costs in euro of this process? You know, freight, VAT, etc... I'm considering this option if they start to sell only german keyboard version here (Germany, natürlich).

 

I'm actually rooting for ASUS to come up with their 2nd generation model to fix all these issues, because I'm actually very disapointed that my MBA doesn't have 1600x900 resolution. ASUS stands alone in this new resolution platform for a 13 inch ultra-book. I'll dump it onto eBay in a split second if ASUS comes out with a refreshed line that fixes the screen contrast, viewing angles, sticky keys, trackpad woes, and razor-sharp palm rest.

 

I don't have any problems with getting a first generation product. Actually, I was one of the first to get my hands on the UL30vt when Asus released it two years ago. From what I understand, there's been several revisions over the two years.

As for me, I don't think these are problems:

- Contrast or color ratios or viewing angles (I don't use my laptop in bed or at a weird angle to have a problem with this)
- I never had backlit in any of my keyboards, so I won't miss this at all...
- Hinge issue is probably on a very small amount of them...

- Touchpad, I believe would be solved. We all can conclude that Apple makes the best touchpad compared to any other company. There's no other touchpad that even comes close to Apple's touchpad.
- Keyboard, not sure if it would be an issue for me...
- I'm hearing some problems with audio with headphone-in... Not sure if this is only a defective device or not.

But, guess what? I can't get my hands on this... No one has the DH72 model in stock.

 

What u think about the comments stating that 256Gb drive is slower than the 128? Does somebody has solid numbers on that matter so we can compare?

 

What's the difference as you experience it? I can really feel the difference between the old 1280 x 800 MBA res and this 1600 x 900 res. The higher res makes the low res look a bit toy-like, and obviously restricts your ability to move around.

Having said that, I feel like the 1600 is a bit overkill, it's great but for my every day needs isn't totally necessary, not like I would be doing side by side docs or anything like that.

I don't mind the sharp edges, I like it! Feels stylish

 

For me, any additional screen real-estate I can get translates into a much better experience programming with Visual Studio 2010, or authoring content in Macromedia Dreamweaver. However, now that you mention it, I just calculated only a 10% overall increase in the number of pixels moving up from 1440x900 to 1600x900. Hardly the huge jump worth trading in a laptop for.

 

Heck... I want 1920x1080 (rather have 1920x1200 like the good ole days) in a 13" like the Sony Z.

And I also think sharp edges are a "pain". The Sammie Series 7 is like that and it's not even an ultra-thin.

 

+1
Let's set our sights on true 1080p resolution in a 13.3" ultra-book! They would, of course, have to get rid of the thick bezel border and go with a true high quality edge-to-edge panel. I'll be there with my money just as soon as that comes out, regardless of which manufacturer it is.

 

I'll ask again, about the maximum pixels that UX31 video boar could display. Somebody told before using on his TV at 1080p, but this is quite low, I wanna know something around 2560x1600, like some monitors around and High-Res projectors. In a nutshell: Limits of video board please?

Nevermind, I noticed no matter the video board's resolution, we're kinda trapped with the ports... like 1080p for VGA and it seems no monitor supports more than 1200p in at least 60Hz with HDMI... missing a displayport so bad...

 

Might not be as bad as you think. I ordered the DH72 last night online, with no definite back order time-frame. Today they contacted me and told me they're expecting a shipment on 11/2, so I'm hoping to receive mine by the end of next week.

 

Did you actually get the ux31?

Which dealer is this?

 

EXACTLY! I sure hope the ASUS designers are monitoring this thread, and considering the mini-DisplayPort jack for the 2nd generation UX31.

 

Ive posted this before for benchmarks between the SanDisk vs AData.
SanDisk is what the UX 256SSD model have and the AData for the 128SSD.

This test is for 128SSD's, the SanDisk is slightly better overall in performance.
I would presume that based on this test the 256SSD drive should perform better.

AnandTech - ASUS Zenbook (UX21) Review

 

There might be some MBA fans around in this thread lurking about, but I think most of us are just looking for a good notebook to upgrade to, and sadly the UX31 seems to have too many problems to be it.

Also, with all the hype they generated alot of people got disappointed when it wasn't as good they they hoped.

Personally I'm staying away from the UX31 for now, and will take a look at the next gen ultrabook next year, and I'll hopefully get a Samsung Series 7 Chronos 14" for now.

 

Problems such as? Stock sold out within the first day across multiple retailers, and we have a whopping three (4?) people here mentioning potential issues (wi-fi apparently resolved, and service reps contacting the others). I'm still waiting on one to review, but lets get real. You can write it off for yourself, but laying down the final word for "us" is rather foolish.

 

J&R: Electronics, Digital Cameras, Computers, Appliances, Software, Video Games, DVDs, CDs .

They're also selling the DH72 for only $1399 instead of $1449. Nice, seeing as the i7-2677M is supposed to be only $67 more than the i5-2557M, according to Sandy Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . It bothered me paying such a hefty premium ($100 instead of $67, or 50% over) on upgrading the CPU.

 

Hope you used ebates for the extra 2.5% cashback. LOL

 

Reviews outside of this thread almost universally rubbish the keyboard.
That seems to be a problem to me.

 

The keyboard is a big issue and it's mentioned both here and all over other forums and on all reviews.

Mousepad is also a big issue, but there is hope that they might fix it, unlike the keyboard issue which seems to be mechanical and not fixable with any driver updates.

Both those things, especially the keyboard, is a huge dealbreaker for alot of people, and this has also been mentioned alot all over the place.

Sure, there will always be people who like stuff no matter what, but for many it's the details that matters, and then it just seems that this one didn't really live up to its huge expectations they created with their own hype.

I would love for everything to be perfect, then I would buy one myself, but I can not ignore all the voices that is out there, even if you choose not to hear them.

 

Nope! Didn't know about it, and still can't figure it out, ha. Not showing the $36 savings even with additional items in my cart? They're pretty helpful over the phone, maybe I'll call them tomorrow and see if they can retroactively apply the discount, especially since they don't bill me until the item ships.

 

So true. Asus really rushed this product to market and it's hurting them.
There doesn't seem to have been any auditing of the trackpad during the development stage, or else there was and they just worked around the clock to get half-assed driver updates out as soon as possible.

In the end it's done more harm than good I think... although having said that they're still sold out everywhere!

 

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Please list all the issues that the UX31 have??? I love my UX31 and the only issue I is with the touchpad which btw Asus is going to address soon with a update.