Asus UX31 Ultrabook

Have you not read this thread nor any reviews? (And the other UX thread on this forum)

The biggest issue is the keyboard by far, and prob the touchpad. Which might or might not be fixed. Either way it's NOT good for Asus to hype the UX this much then deliver subpar drivers for their touchpad even if they manage to fix it later.

I'm happy for you that you love your UX31, but I'll wait for now until their second generation ultrabooks appear, which will hopefully have fixed most things before selling them.

 

Just picked up a UX21, fully knowing the touchpad issues and the subpar keyboard... Works great! Don't use the touchpad all that much, and I have no problems with the keyboard

 

No this is the first time reading this thread on this forum. Yeah theres are time when I hit a key and it doesnt responds it happens once in awhile but its not the end of the world. Asus has stated that the touch pad will get a fix soon. This is their first gen ultrabook.... What do you expect a perfect notebook??? Actually I think you should wait for the 4th gen ultrabook, I believe all the issues will be resolve by then.......

 

That's awesome kyoo! I'm very excited for my UX31E-DH72. Hopefully I'll get it next week. Yes, I know it has a shallow keyboard, as is nearly a requirement of all sleek, ultraslim notebooks. Yes, I know the product was rushed to market and the trackpad firmware may still be spotty.

WARNING: Assumption alert: Like most users on this forum, I am familiar with upgrading firmware. (Computer engineer by trade. Am I the only one?) I am looking forward to finding additional f/w upgrades. It will put a smile on my face knowing I'll get to play with my computer and I'll feel like I'm having a personal impact on it. I'd rather be the first person running a sleek Win7 ultrabook @ 1600x900 w/ i7 and 16 second boot time.

This is NOT a mac. I'd love a mac natively running Win7, excluding bootcamp, but like most others here :assumption: I'm unwilling to pay the premium, on moral grounds, along with other necessary (albeit minor) sacrifices.

Or sure, I'd probably love a Sony Vaio Z with it's overheating full wattage processor, 6650 /dvd packing dock, but not at $2k+. Backlit keyboards are fun. I'd also love to wait for Ivy Bridge and its more impressive on-chip GPU. But I'd rather have something great now, and look forward to two years from now when I upgrade again to something even better!

 

I'm finally getting my UX31 at long last tomorrow. Those problems are total non-issues for me, so if that's the only things wrong with the Zenbook, I predict I will love it

 

I always thought I wasn't fussy about keyboards, and if I read about having to hit one a bit harder I'd normally be fine.
But this one just isn't good enough.

For those saying 'what do you expect for a first gen?', I'd say it's nothing to do with it being first gen, it's everything to do with it being a $1000+ computer. For that amount of money (never mind the hype), I don't expect to encounter the problems the UX is delivering.

Another small gripe is the 128GB HDD is only 103GB once windows is installed. The recovery partition apparently takes up 8GB, so I don't know where the rest has gone, but it's a small enough disk to begin with, not that I couldn't work around it.

 

Sub Total: $1,099.00
Shipping: $81.31
Sales Tax: $0.00
Duties & VAT: $259.06
Total $1,439.37

As far as i know it will be an international keyboard everywhere in Europe btw They predict the UX31 will start selling mid-december (NL), which was way too long for me.

 

Or just reward a different laptop manufacturer with your hard-earned money.

 

Guess you are not a programmer then. A keyboard that doesn't register all my keystrokes is completely unacceptable for me.

And as stated by someone else, no, I will not wait for the 4th gen, I will buy something that works as expected instead. Most notebooks actually do, this is just not one of them.

 

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And this says it all. Unfortunately this seems to be the trend. The #1 importance to manufacturers these days is to be the first to get a new product out, sell as many as possible, and as an added bonus avoid any testing costs by forcing the users to find all the problems.

 

Received my Asus ux31. I don't have any problems with it and it looks amazing. Yes, the keyboard doesn't register if you don't press the key in the middle (does not have anything to do with soft vs hard press). Because i used to have a smaller keyboard on my laptop (nc10) i have to get used to this. If you are aware of this you will quickly adjust i think.

edit: pressing harder also works, so make your choice

 

But one has to wonder, why should you have to adjust? Wouldn't it be A LOT better if ASUS just had put in a keyboard that works as almost all other keyboards out there?

 

Maybe some silicon graphite lubricant powder would make this stubborn keyboard problem go away.

 

BTW - I have one of these for review and it should be up within a week or so. I like this notebook a lot.

If any owners of this machine (who have used this machine longer than I have, obviously) are aware of any irregularities or discrepancies with it that I might not notice in a week of use - send me a PM. I'd appreciate it.

Only weird thing I have noticed is that the keyboard takes firm keystrokes to register. I have been missing quite a few keystrokes.

 

I get "115 378 728" 1K-blocks in Linux (~107 GiB) for the disk showing up as 111 G (GB or GiB not sure).
I did copy the DVD recovery ISO over to another computer and trashed the recovery partition.
I have an external DVD drive if I ever need to use them.

But even with 128 000 000 000 (base 10) you should get 119GiB, I wonder how company counts these days...

 

Wow, that gives us 1033 Euro! Probably cheaper then the price sold here, unless it comes by 1000 Euro!

 

The Best Buy (U.S.) website keeps saying that the UX31 is only available for online purchase (or "Ship to Store"). Does anyone know if Best Buy will ever be carrying these in the store so I can actually go down and put my hands on one of these laptops??

 

My BB says no, they at this point don't expect to carry any inventory of the UX. You can ship whatever you want to them, but they aren't planning to display it any time soon. That may be different in other regions or stores.

 

That really blows. Then there is just no way to try one of these out before actually buying it from ANY store. How lame is that? Possibly on purpose??

 

Got my UX31, it's awesome!

Anyone know where I can get a spare power adapter? Would rather get one of the nice official ones with the indicator than an aftermarket one...

 

Listening to all of the voices is both part of my job, and an interest elsewhere.

See, that's what is so fascinating about this thread. Personally, I don't have the product yet, thus I have no current opinion on it. What I have noticed is a distinct scent of pessimism from a few people whom are much more vocal than the few whom mentioned they have the system and have no qualms, then duck out.

As a corollary to your first statement, not all reviewers have had an issue with the keyboard. Whether it is an issue or not is becoming seemingly subjective. I used mainly IBM and Toshiba keyboards in my computing life and thus have a very exact typing style. You couldn't get lazy with the long press needed on a mechanical IBM board. When I switched to an early Apple Macbook Pro, I had to adjust. The same holds true for my Asus and Lenovo systems. Perhaps, rather, panged reviews have been matters of opinion on the style due to what someone is used to. We're all dynamic, aren't we?

 

Where did you guys find the UX31-DH72 in stock? It's either on backorder or preorder at every site I've looked. Thanks.

 

I think I would definitely concur. The most vocal people here are those trying to find fault with a product they've read doesn't fit their ideal.. they don't even own the laptop yet! Are they Acer or Sony sandbaggers?

I've ordered one of the UX31's for a corporate CFO. I suspect as a lightweight travel & presentation PC it will do just fine for him as he will not be banging out hours and hours of spreadsheets, he has a high-powered desktop with a wall of monitors for that. But from the sounds of reviews if you expect this to be a primary PC where you will be spending hours on that keyboard daily, it will be disappointing.

.. so get over it. What do you expect from A) a laptop, B)Weighing less than 3lbs?!

Everything about any portable computer is a compromise, and in something this size, this weight- apparently the ergonomics of long-term typing were sacrificed in order to make the machine thinner and lighter.
If you have hours of typing to do, maybe you ought to be willing to invest $50 in a Microsoft Mobile 6000 keyboard, like ASUS included with the eeeSlates.

.. or feel free to spend another $1300 to upgrade to the Vaio Z. For the specifications and price and of course ASUS' warranty I think the UX21 & UX31 sound like far better deals than any 'ultrabook' competitor.

 

It probably isn't back ordered as far as the sites make it seem. I ordered mine on Monday from jr.com and their system shows them receiving units next Tuesday or Wednesday. I recommend pulling the trigger and hoping for the best. Also, if you sign up and go through ebates.com, I'm told you can save an additional 2.5%, bringing the already discounted DH72 down another $36.

I learned this after I placed my order, but it wouldn't hurt getting the DH72 for only $1364! That's like a free upgrade from the i5-2557 to the i7-2677!

 

I was going to order, but they jacked up the price already. 1449. FAIL!
I guess the wait continues to see when they will drop the price again to $1399.

 

Ahh no way! When we were talking about it last night it was still at $1399. Still with the 2.5% it'll only be $1412.50...

However, that may also mean their next order of shipments is accounted for, and that is why they have brought the price back up.

Hard to know for sure exactly what ASUS's shipping channels look like on their debuting ultrabook. I suppose it is possible they could be withholding or delaying shipments until trackpad f/w is updated in house? I'll let everyone know when I get my DH72 and what BIOS / trackpad firmware it shipped with.

 

Messed me up actually. Now mentally, I will always remember someone sold it for $1399, therefore I would never pay more than $1399 for the notebook DH72. Time to wait!

 

Long time lurker, first poster.

There has been a pretty substantial amount of fire against the Zenbook and I saw the same over at Engadget where I posted two quick reviews

ASUS Zenbook UX21 and UX31 headed to the US October 12, starting at $999 -- Engadget

Much commenting without knowledge going on.

I purchased the UX31 on the Friday after the machine was released, from my local BestBuy in Manhattan....they had 4 just delivered in stock and hadn't put them out. Credit card down and walked out with a new toy. (I actually got it at $999 + tax)

13" screen, crisp, sharp, good color saturation, no flaws in the LCD, the screen and resoiution is excellent. I did use the bundled ASUS "Splendid" utility to check the color temp etc but my out of box settings where good for me.

I did compare the UX31 to an MBA, side by side at the same BestBuy I bought it from and sorry Fanbois, in my opinion the UX31 is better and more useable for me.

As an example I took the UX31 and the MBA outside into a very sunny dy and the screen of the MBA plain sucked. The far brighter UX31 soldiered on and was still fully useable in direct sunlight. A matte screen wouldn have been better due to reflection, I may try out an after market screen protector and see.

4Gb of RAM and an i5 2nd gen processor. the 2557M @ 1.7GHz, checked with CPUID.

UX31, i5 128 SSD

Windows Experience

Processor 6.8
Memory 5.9
Graphics 5.6
Gaming graphics 6.1
Hard Disk 7.9


Running Office 2010, Exchage Outlook, IE 9 browser, downloading a a gig of email and attachments, fire up a Linux VM and open a VPN connection to the UK to play a program through the BBC Iplayer. No problems, no interruptions.

Look and feel. I took the new puppy into work on the Friday and within a few minutes the helpdesk and developers all started to "wander" by.....One of the gusy is a hard core Apple fiend and even he admitted (grudgingly) that just maybe, possibly it may just give the MBA a run for it's money.

The spun aluminum lid looks more gray-bronze than plain silver and makes a nice design statement. It doesn't hold fingeprints and looks and feels rigid and comfortable to the touch. The base is more silvery aluminum , then again, you wil never see it in day to day use. Again, rigid and cool to the touch even under heavy usage.

Speaking of temperature, even when pushing the machine the heat is never noticeable on the lap and the warmest place is the top right hand corner where the power plug sockets. Even here it never gets warm, simply warmer.

It is also very very quiet, I have as yet never heard a fan or any other noise when the machine is being pushed

Other design esthetics, the LACK of bloody stickers. Normally there are 2-4 gaudy stickers on the keyboard of a new laptop. This time 2 very subdued, silver white stickers, one "Windows7", one "Intel Core i5". They merge into the wrist rest rest area and aren't the usual Akihabra visual sense battering, clashing color combo's. as for the wrist area, I have an average persons hands, my hands rest comfortably on the lower keyboard section and I have as yet no issues with the reported sharp edges.

Opening of the upper and lower sections.......not a real problem, the top cover has a small circa 1 mm high protrusion on the center edge and a finger or nail goes under and opens it up easily. There is also a very very small rubber gasket runnng around the LCD perimeter. Almost imperceptible to the touch but cushions the upper and lower sections from slamming closed.

Standby and resume.....Close the top and you go to standby seemingly immediately. On opening the upper, I would say 2-3 seconds to resume is real world accurate.

Things to get used to....The mouse area is HUGE and needs to get used to, additionaly the multi finger response, such as 2 finger scrolling is not as even and responsive as it should be. Hopefully a driver update will cure this.

(And indeed the BIOS and driver update have made the trackpad fully fucntional for me, 1, 2, 3 finger swipes all good and I never had the reported mouse pointer jumping or inacurracy.

The keyboard is a little mushy but no flex, the up, down, left, right keys are smal (half height) and need care.A few people mentioned how the poer button is next to the delete key and said it was a problem....obviously nt owneres as if yu quick tap the power key nothing happens, press it longer and a menu comes up asking what you want to do, so no, not a problem.
Typing on this machine, for me, not a problem, and with use the muscle memory evens out but be aware. I am a two finger typer so I have not seen the issues others have noted.

As an aside the keys have the characters incised into the surface and filled with black so I do not expect to see the wear on the characters I have seen in other laptops over time. It also cuts down on slip on individual keys due to the incising. Again what I have seen and felt, YMMV.

As a further aside the keys are very apparent even in low light conditions due to the silver keys floating in a background of matte black. The contrast is good and I do not miss a backlit keyboard in the least.

The keyboard and mouse are still not quite as good as the MBA but I have no functional issues with the UX31 at all and expect driver updates will move it closer to the MBA

Niggles and stuff that needs work on.

The WiFi is NOT as stable as it should be, loss of connection to the Internet via the wireless hub is an occassional problem. The connection to the hub is there but Internet access just stops. This is via connection to one of 3 different Apple Airports and a Linksys hub. A Samsung, HP and EXO-PC tablet do not have this problem so it is definitely with the Asus.
Once the connection stabilizes over a 15-20 minute period it seems to stay stable. Again, posibly a driver issue.

Since this I have used the uodated drivers ASUS provided and the problem for me went away.

Bottom right hand corner of the lower section of the keyboard, small almost imperceptible raise in the surface. This is directly above one of the underside screws that keeps the case together so a possible over tightening during assembly. Again not a problem but a possible area in QC that needs to be looked at.

ASUS provides a camera based, facial recognition authentication and unlocking function. Utterly useless, gimmicky, inaccurate and a waste of time.

IMHO a solid 9 out of 10.....lets see how it sustains the abuse of real world use.

 

Finally a legit user review...
Thanks bovri1a

 

Good review, thanks!

 

So where can I find one of these that's not from Best Buy? Been looking for like a week.

 

I must admit, with all the issues that people have been bringing up in this thread, I was a bit nervous while waiting for my UX31 to get here. Despite my post saying yesterday that many problems were "non-issues" for me, obviously if I were given the choice, I would want a responsive trackpad vs. a broken one, a laptop with functional hinges vs. broken hinges, etc.

So after playing around with the UX31 for a few hours today, I'm happy to say with much relief that I must have received a laptop from a "good batch" off the production line. Either that or the vocal minority is quite loud and influential, and the problems aren't as extensive as it may seem at first.

1) Keyboard - I'm a 110 words per minute touch typist (errors adjusted) on my favorite Logitech keyboard. With the UX31 keyboard, I can get about 100 words per minute, down a little due to unfamiliarity with the keyboard and the flat keys. Perfect responsiveness. All keystrokes are registered. Maybe my typing style is different from most people and I hit the keys with more authority, but I am having zero of the keyboard issues people have been complaining about.

2) Trackpad - The mouse was a little wonky before I downloaded the ASUS updates, but it was nowhere near the erratic and uncontrollable mouse cursor that some people have been complaining about. And once the updates were downloaded, I haven't noticed any further problems. Two-finger scrolling works well and is reasonably responsive. It fails to detect that I want to scroll maybe about 1-2% of the time, but I swipe again and it works.

3) Sharp edges- I can see how this may be a problem, depending on how you sit and whether your desk is high enough that your wrists end up dropping against the edge. When I had the Zenbook flat on a relatively high desk, my wrists would rest on the edge and it was a little uncomfortable. Not a deal breaker by any means but once in awhile I could feel the edge pressing into my wrist. But I'm currently sitting in a sofa typing this, and because I have the laptop positioned more on a slope on my knees, the sharp edges are a complete non-issue.

4) No backlit keyboard - I sat in a pitch-black room with the laptop to test this out. Because the keys are completely metal, the light from the LCD reflects off the keys very nicely. Not as cool as a backlit keyboard but the lack of one doesn't bother me

5) LCD - I don't have a MBA for direct comparison, but I have experience playing around with them. The screens are comparable, with the MBA having a slight edge in terms of viewing angles, but the UX31 certainly doesn't have a drastically inferior screen that it has to be ashamed of. I don't expect the IPS quality of an iPad or ASUS Transformer, so I'm satisfied with how this LCD performs.

6) Weak hinges- I tried to replicate the youtube video but did not have those problems whatsoever. The guy definitely has a defective model, get a replacement!

Bottom line: I am very happy with this machine and it was everything I thought it would be.

 

Another good review again! nice!

 

B&H Photo Video Digital Cameras, Photography, Camcorders <-- on stock again.

Still very happy with my ux31. I do have one major problem with wlan at home, it is almost unusable (with latest drivers and high power enabled). One other thing i noticed is that most of the surfaces i use with my laptop are not 100% flat, or the my UX31 isn't on the bottom side. It stands a bit unstable on some places.

 

I'm a new user here, but have been following the discussion here on the Asus UX31.
I've pre-ordered one, but they will not start shipping until November 17th here in Norway, so I have some time to make up my mind if I'll go for the UX31 or any of the other new 'Ultrabooks' coming.

One thing that I see people mentioning elsewhere is that since the machine has the air intake on the bottom it is not suited for use in coach, bed, lap, etc as it might block air.
I haven't seen this discussed here, is this an issue? Any of you who have the UX31 been using it actively on the coach/bed/etc and notice any heat issues?

I see that the Lenovo U300s has no air holes in the bottom so I'm considering that, but if it really doesn't matter in practice Ill probably just get the UX31.

Thanks!

 

Hmmm. I just pulled up all the BestBuy's in Manhattan on their website, and they all show "SHIP TO STORE" for both UX31 models that they carry (no plans to stock them in their local stores). I'm surprised that your local BB staff were able to override the "Website Only" status of the UX31 and get a few of them shipped to the store for sale.
Consider yourself as lucky as a lotto winner with the BB availability, and your good results with the machine.

 

The friday after the announced launch I got it from the 44th and 5th Avenue store, at the time online showed 4 in stock.

When I got there the supervisor didn't even know they had them in stock and it was a good 15 minutes of him vanishing into the stock area to bring one out.

Since I detect a slight note of scepticism, link attached to a scan of the credit card statement, sent under seperate cover to "smckenna". I trust that will allay your concerns as to the existence of this mystical beast...

H'mm, thought you could PM from in the forum, seems not, never mind, link below, I will scrub it in a couple of hours

Bestbuy | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

I see it. Your note definitely struck a chord with me because I had previously posted how frustrated I was that BB doesn't stock these. I really wanted to put my hands on one of these UX31's before buying one.

 

Good to hear some more positive reviews.
This thing finally got released here today. Unfortunately the pricing is not good. It is actually the same or a bit more than the price of the MBA here

 

I ordered the UX31E-DH52 from Amazon on October 17th. At that time, they predicted 2-4 week for delivery, and subsequently pegged arrival somewhere from November 9-16th.

Just got an email from Amazon that delivery is now moved forward to November 1st. Just wanted to pass this along for anyone else with pending Amazon orders. I've found Amazon is often conservative with their delivery estimates, and that seems to be the case here.

I'm really looking forward to the UX31; I've read all feedback here, and I think the ups and downs are typical of any new product. Have you ever read the feedback on Macrumors when a new Apple product comes out? Some of those guys take whining about every fault(both perceived and real) to an incredible level.

 

With regard to "Teo78"'s question on heat.

The heat vents also through the top of the hinge area, top of the keyboard and to date I have had no issues with either heat on the lap or the UX31 itself getting more than a little warmer in areas such as the top right of the keyboard where the PSU plugs in..

As an all metal case it will by the nature of physics tend to conduct heat through the whole body so to be honest I realy don't see this as an issue.

With regard to "rensulu" and level.

I have only noticed a slight problem on my dining room table, then again it's a 250 year old reclaimed pine farmhouse table so it has warped a little over the years. On other work surfaces, tables, kitchen granite surfaces etc, no level issues so far.

Second PSU's

I did talk to ASUS themsleves and they will be selling the power bricks on their online shopping site, they are just not available as yet. The PSU is a 19V unit but with a small pin and as yet I haven't been able to match it against a power tip for a Targus etc. If I do I wlll post it here.

In summary I think people have to remember that this is a direct competitor to the MBA and to be marketed as an Ultrabook per Intels guidelines, certain compromises have had to be made. Some of these are technical, some are esthetic, most are based on the form factor.

To be the size, shape and weight it is AND meet the performance criteria, decisions were made that make it what it is.

This is NOT a hard core gaming platform, I wouldn't make a habit of compiling code, performing major video editing or running it as a server.

Having said that, bear in mind that the SSD, the RAM and the processor make this a comparatively powerful machine, compare it to a laptop PC or Mac of two years or less for example......

The keyboard is an area I feel could have been improved before roll out and the trackpad, WiFi and drivers ditto. Having said that, companies in this space live and die by getting the product out of the door and into the market. To date ASUS do appear to be taking the concerns on board and are pushing updates and refined drivers so I give them credit for that.

Still as with all first adopters of a new area of technology I am not particularly suprised there are teething issues and as long as the company is making efforts to address the legitimate concerns of the users, I'll give them a temporary pass.

 

NBR review is up:

 

Hmmm. I thought I read several other posts that said that the keyboard keys were made out of plastic, not metal. The review says metal.

 

I'm confused. Are the keys aluminum or plastic? The NBR review says that "Even the keyboard keys are made of aluminum." But I feel I've read other reports stating that while the keys originally appeared to be metal, they were in fact plastic imitating metal.

My DH72 is already ordered, and I'm not going to cancel my order before it's shipped early next week, but I'm curious. Certainly not a deal breaker.

**Also, Re: Ports. Am I mistaken or is it a mini-vga to vga adaptor, not usb-to-vga? I didn't think it had a mini display port...

"ASUS includes two port adapters: a USB-to-Ethernet and USB-to-VGA. The only major item the UX31 is lacking is a built-in HDMI port; it has mini-HDMI and mini-DisplayPort however you will need to purchase adapters on your own."

 

As aluminum is a light metal, somebody could confuse it with painted plastic, or vice-versa. I suggest the users to drop some sulfuric acid over it, if it corrodes and opens a hole it is aluminum, otherwise it is plastic. BTW, just kiddin', don't do that please.

 

The keys on the ASUS G73 are sort of metallic - they get cold from cool ambient air. The keyboard keycap surface is different than the matte black plastic of the G51 keyboard, which is otherwise identical. So maybe it's the same kind of thing on the UX, easily confusable either way.

 

Yea, I saw that too, but I think it is just an unfortunate phrasing of the sentence that is misleading. He was intending the conjunction "and" just before the mini-DisplayPort to be joined with the list of things that are lacking, not present, in the laptop.

 

Well, we discussed before about the ports to use an external monitor and even got the conclusion that we couldnt use full resolution of the high-res Dislplays.
What people talked about the lack of a displayport if there is a mini-displayport avaliable? With this adaptor:
Mini DisplayPort DP Male to DisplayPort DP Female Adapter Cable - White (15CM) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme anyone could use maximum resolution monitors, so it is not an issue at all, right? What should be the max res supported by the video board so?

 

No dude, it really HAS a mini-DP, cant u see the side picture? There is even the symbol of DP.

UPDATE: What should be the purpose of add a USB->VGA adaptor if you already have a mini-VGA port? I think the list of specifications is a master-Fail from ASUS, whitch is mentioning "mini-VGA" instead of "mini-DP". Anyway, I'm not sure, could some owner make it clear, please???

 

No. I hate to be the bubble-burster here, but the review is inaccurate. That's not a Mini-DP jack. It is, according to the ASUS website specs, a Mini-VGA port, for which they supply an adapter cable to take it up to full size 15-pin VGA connector.
Also, that's not the symbol for Display Port (picture of a computer monitor). The Display-Port symbol is the letter "D" encircled by another "D".
Sorry!