Asus UX31 Ultrabook

Just picked up one of these babies 2 days ago and wanted to provide some feedback on the Wifi and touchpad... The wifi dropout issues did affect me out of the box. Once I updated the Wifi driver and boosted the wifi settings to match AC mode all has been well. Ive tethered the lappy to my phone at work and also have spent many hours on our apt network with little to no dropouts to mention. The signal remains stable.

The touchpad on the other hand is more annoying.. I think I am going to get some type of coating for the two click bottom portion of the pad, because I seem to hover my pointing finger too close and it often zips the cursor to the far left of the screen. Two touch scrolling is marginal at best. Hopefully future driver updates can clean this up a bit.

 

I wish it was that easy. I keep getting this popup that says critical update needed for the Athenos driver. When I click on it, it says I have to run Live Update which I thought I was doing. The wifi keeps going in and out, and sometimes the cursor stops working. Other times, I will click on something, and it will take 10 seconds to register. I'm not even typing this on the Asus because I kept losing it for odd reasons. I am running the 204 bios, but not sure I should change even if I knew what I was doing. I think this could be a good laptop, but it might need someone more technically proficient than me. I'm very close to sending it back.

Please forgive this last rant. I was doing something wrong with the live updating. It appears I did it correctly now, so hopefully it will correct most of these issues, although the bios is still saying its 204, and the live update says it's not complete. How do I go about changing the bios? I know how to get to it, and I've downloaded 206 and 207, but I can't see how to change it.

 

BIOS 207 is out on the ASUS web site.

BIOS 207
1. Fixed bug that system can't enroll Intel Anti-Theft.
2. Update the platform maximum TDP.
3. Fix system had black screen while VGA driver was uninstalled.
4. Improve the value of pre/ fast charging time-out.
5. Modify TPM module check flow to reduce S3 resume time.

 

Yes even a guy with a MBA said that my ux31 was better looking than his laptop.

 

Has anyone noticed a problem where the backlight frequently reduces to the lowest!! I contacted Asus and they recommend to flash bios 207 which didn't fix the issue. Any suggestion?

 

Did you mean the display brightness?

 

Hey Nick,

I just went to Best Buy to play test the UX31 and loved everything but....The Trackpad!! It even has the most current driver 9.1.7.7 and with the Pointer Speed to max, the sweep is still too small and feels laggy. I'm not sure if that's going to work for me, though I absolutely love everything else. Unfortunately, we all use the trackpad all the time.
Any more feedback would be greatly appreciated as you get more time on it.
Thanks so much.

 

No, I mean the resolution. It's kind of blurry something like a display with a resolution of 800×400!!

 

Ok, so today I accidentally hit my calculator slightly across the top of the UX31 and it scratched it so easily! Be careful with yours!!

The stress of having a beautiful laptop!!! >.<

That's one more thing that Asus needs to improve for their 2nd gen ultrabooks: scratch-resistant lid.

 

Does anyone know if it is at all possible to upgrade the SSD in this thing from 128Gb upwards?

 

That is the one more thing I was thinking about, when I was considering selling my MBA and buying a Zenbook.

I already got a Zagg full body protection on my MBA that costed me less then 10$ and you can't scratch it

Use your hands a bit and search the thread

 

I have tried!!!

Just a quick yes / no would have been fine!

 

Umm I think the search is broken.

Theoretically, you can. But where to find the exact same form factor, I don't know. Maybe someone who knows SSD alot will tell you.

Here, with some google search "UX31 ssd change"
Asus UX21 Review - YouTube

 

I was wondering what I was doing wrong prepseb!

Many thanks for that & thanks for the link - I'd not seen that vid before but it looks good!

It seems like there not yet selling the 256gb version in the UK yet so I guess I'll just have to wait!!

Thanks again,

wow

 

My bestbuy has the zenbook and 9 right beside each other on display.

 

Without being too specific... what general area of the US are you in?

I'm on the West Coast and have 4 or 5 BBs local to me but they've never had an S9 on display. I have to go to Fry's to see all the good stuff.

 

Notebookcheck just issued their detailed review of the UX31E-DH52B :

Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH52B Laptop Review - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

 

Has Gentech gone belly up? There still showing almost all ux31 models as pre-order and aren't answering their phones today.

 

It's the one in Springfield PA.

 

Interesting! because online it says out of stock!!

 

Nice positive review

 

Hey, if you want a want ASUS ZENBOOK UX31E-DH72 13.3", Buy.com has some right now!!! http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=225178757

I had signed up to get an email notification when they came in. The price is $1,426 + free shipping. I have decided to not get a Asus UX31 though.

Buy.com is good place to buy from as they have one of the better returns policies out there.

 

wonder when will the zenbooks officially be elantech touchpads. they have the driver so it means that they have it available on some batch builds!

 

UX21 review by notebookcheck.net mentions Elan touchpad.

I think for now, they're like in a couple % of units.

 

I just came back from our local electronics store (Media Markt, Germany), where I was able to test the UX31 and compare it side-by-side to an MBA. I'll try to give a short report of my impressions:

- In person, the UX31 looks even more impressive than in the pictures. I would even say it outshines the MBA in looks.

- When test-typing, all keys that I pressed were registered and I wasn't able to reproduce what was showin in a movie here in the forum. But I found the keys to be very wobbly. So much that it was an unpleasent to type on the keyboard. The MBA and VaioSA did a much better job.

- The touchpad was a Sentilec touchpad with the newest drivers installed. Moving the cursor, clicking, dragging etc. was working without any problems. I also didn't have any problems with either using the buttons or touch-clicking. But all of the multi-touch gestures I tested (two-finger = right click, two-finger = scrolling) worked only very rarely.

- The screen was good in my opinion. At least I didn't notice anything unusually bad compared to other screens.

Overall, I have to say that I really like the UX31. I also believe that it will only be a matter of time before the trackpad problems will eventually be corrected with better drivers. But unfortunately the keyboard has turned out to be a deal-breaker for me. When I don't press the buttons right in the center, they tilt which leads to an unpleasent typing experience, as it makes the buttons feel unstable and flimsily mounted (note again, that I didn't experience missed key strokes only wobbly keys!).


Regarding the touchpad, I have a question for those people who have already experienced the UX31 and an MBA with Bootcamp: Are the Bootcamp multitouch gestures (two finger right click, two finger scrolling) better then the UX31 ones or equally bad implemented?

 

Guys,

Just wanted to mention that i have just purchased this in the UK and it is getting delivered on Monday..

As previously mentioned currys have reduced the UX31 from £1199.99 to £999.99

However, i noticed a 10% off voucher code (GRAND10) for purchases over £1000 at currys.

Therefore, if you add the cheapest item possible (100 transparent cd sleeves) for £1 this will bring your purchase over £1000.

Using this voucher i managed to purchase a ux31 for £901 including delivery FOC

Bargain - hope this helps someone..

Smut

 

Is that the 128Gb version Sumtty?

I've been scouring the UK for a 256Gb one but coming up empty everywhere!

I'm tempted with the Buy.com - at $1.6/£, the 256Gb is only £840ish. Good old rip off Britian!!!

Does anyone happen to know what the keyboard layout is for the Far East version os the UX-31?
Does is have Chinese characters as well as UK letters on the keyboard or can you specifiy out there just a UK layout?

Cheers,

Wow

 

Was there UX21 too? I wonder if I would find those models in Polish Media Markt's soon

Two finger scrolling and two finger right click works very good via Bootcamp on MBA. But that's it for the multitouch - no more gestures.

 

No, they only had the UX31 (with I5 and 128GB SSD) for sale, for 999 Euro.

 

my local best buy has the UX31 with i5 cpu in stock.. but all the reviews say terrible keyboard and poor trackpad even with new drivers.. i just can't bring myself to buy a crappy keyboard, its an important part.. def not enough to get me to replace my SA25 for sure.. i wanted something even lighter, (probably an 11-12" screen) but the UX31 isnt good enough.

 

I just ordered one on buy.com, will see how it compares to the series 9 I had :/

Was looking at the i5 versions and i7 version and based n benchmarks there doesn't seem to be much advantage t the i7..am I mistaken?

 

hi @ all
Yesterday i received my ux31 (i5, 256ssd) from amazon.de. I tested everything till today and this is some kind of my first resume on this machine:

Pros:

Very very solid build quality, and beautiful to look at

The Keyboard is "something else" then all other keyboards i have used, but after one day of usage im allmost fully used to it. I missed some keys sometimes but its not that big issue to me as i though it would be. The keyboard is capable of registering all keys even while really fast typing.

The touchpad is working pretty well for me (in windows). All multi touch gestures get recognized as well as i can imagine. But im not a reference multi touch user. (touchpad: latest update, bios 206)

The sound quality is realy amazing! I never expected something like that out of such a small notebook

I think its too early to lose words on battery runtime, but it seems to be like 4-6 hours depending on usage. (Im fully okay with that)

Cons:

The wifi is maybe the dealbreaker for me... I updated the driver, the bios is up to date to (206), but i cant get a signal strength and data troughput like on other older machines. The troughput is changing all the time between fullspeed and allmost nothing. To have continuous internet connection i have to stay realy near to the router. I already set the power saving mode for the wifi device to Maximum power and disabled the MIMO power saving but noticed no improvements. A lot of people have similar problems, so i think its not a single failure on my machine.

Linux is running quiet well in all but the touchpad (no scrolling). Even suspend / hibernate problem is solved. The touchpad producer Sentelic doesn't provide a driver for linux, so atm there is no hope.



If i cant solve the problem on wifi in the next days (new driver or something) i will return my zenbook.
I hope i could help some people to decide on buing or not.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.
(Sorry for typo mistakes, im a german

 

A lot who? I don't have this issue.

The up-to-date bios is 207 not 206.

Have you tried to install the up-to-date WIFI driver? And not just the BIOS?

 

Yeah i updated the driver allready. (See my post - section wifi).

Maybe i should try the new bios but in the changelog is nothing written about wifi... (im worried about the warranty when i flash and install to much...)

Do you had this much problems before bios 207 ?

 

Sounds like a faulty card on your zenbook. My router is a floor below and two rooms apart and i am getting 70% (router admin page) signal strength. Im on 206 bios and the driver for the network card is 9.2.1.432

 

My Wifi driver is: 9.2.1.459
Date: 2011-10-20

I had temporary wifi disconnect (without actually disconnecting) with the default driver.

 

I just ran a CrystalDiskMark benchmark test on my 256gb Sandisk SSD and have compared it to the 128gb Adata SSD which is Sandforce driven, here are the results:


Not an expert so can't tell which one is actually better but thought it may help people since I couldn't see same test done yet...

 

@motlking

I have learned that, for normal use, that the most important numbers are the 4K WRITES. With a score of 47 MB/s vs. 12 MB/s, the Adata Sandforce is much superior.

I would have expected an even higher score from it though as a Runcore T50 6Gb/s (SATA 3) drive has 4K WRITES of 96 MB/s (but maybe that just shows how good the Runcore T50 is).

 

Ah, that really sucks for me then hey. I thought the 4k results were quite low
Thanks for the info though, good to know!

 

Actually, that SSD is not bad. Most people probably wouldn't notice the difference. The SSD in the Toshiba Z830 (which I'm considering purchasing!) has 4K WRITES of only 4 MB/s...

 

When i read that review I was shock. How the hell could Toshiba call that a ssd....more like a HD...

 

Interesting. Thanks for that info. I'll stop in to that store as it is <20mins from me. Did they only have the UX31 and not the UX21?

 

I read somewhere they just dump those older generation of Toshiba SSD into Z830. It is shame really because Z830 have very impressive connection options and probably better keyboard than UX31.

 

I have the same driver 9.2.1.432 and have zero issue so far and the signal strength is pretty decent. But I did have issues with Atheros network card in my other NB.

 

Obviously the ADATA is better by a lot. The only think it looses in is seq writes which is kind of useless. the only time you use seq writes is when transfering large files.

so lets say your copying over a 10gb double layer dvd. The Adata would take 73 seconds to copy it over and the sandisk will take 37 seconds to copy it over.

Now lets put that into perspective, how often do you copy 10gb files over? and I am sure 73 sec for 10gb file is perfectly acceptable.

Most of the time what you do is Random Reads and Writes, thats where the biggest performance factor is.

That is why I went with the 128gb, Realistically speaking if I need more space there is flash drives, external hard drive, my own remote storage. I don't feel too comfortable keeping important data on SSDs anyways cause if they fail good luck getting your data back.

 

I only saw the UX31 If they have the 21 it wasn't on display.

How common is the keyboard problem that people keep talking about?

With my discount the difference in the Asus and 13in Air is only $100 so I'm trying to pick one. I love the Asus display but that keyboard problem could be a deal breaker for me.

 

It's not a defect that pops up; I believe ALL the keyboards have the same feel. You'll have to see if it's an issue for you personally. I don't find it to be my favorite keyboard of all time, but I'm OK with it for routine usage. I don't think I'd want to use it for hours and hours of typing, though. But then, I wouldn't use ANY laptop for serious word processing work; I prefer my desktop for that.

As far as the price goes, the Asus has a little bit of an advantage, especially if you consider the included 1 year accidental damage coverage. And if you want to be able to run Windows on the Mac you'll have to have a viable copy of Windows and Fusion (or similar).

Overall, I've been very happy with the UX31.

 

You definitely have to test the keyboard yourself. From all the reviews and user experiences I got a completely different impression then when I typed on it in person. The most prominent problems mentioned online were no problems for me at all but the wobbly feeling buttons were the deal breaking.

Regarding the price difference between the UX31 and the MBA, remember that the ASUS already comes with a mini-VGA adapter and an ethernet adapter as well as a case. For the MBA these three accesoires amount to almost 100$ put together.

 

I just got my UX31 in this last Friday and here is what I found.
Note that my primary laptop is a Thinkpad T410, arguably one of the best keyboards ever made.

The UX31 is not that bad, it's just weird. It could be the depth or spacing or the keys themselves but they don't feel all that natural. I can type the fastest with the Thinkpad with very few mistakes but when I type on the UX31, I know when I am second-guessing a keystroke. If I type a bit slower and more methodically, without looking down, then there are no mistakes. I think one just has to get used to it though. It's not like a unresponsive button or it's not like something is actually broken (At least on mine)...but it is indeed different.

Yeah one thing I didn't read up on prior to purchasing it was that the USB>Ethernet dongle is only 10/100. No gigabit here. Disappointing but it's not the end of the world. Besides that the laptop is fast, screen is nice/sharp, and I don't have many other complaint.

 

Hi everybody

I am looking for the difference in raw power between the i5 2557m and the i7 2677m found in the ux31.
According to cpubenchmark.net, the i7 scores around 1000 points better than the i5 2557m (thus being close to the i5 2410m) while when looking at notebookcheck benchmarks, the i7 and i5 2557m are very close and the i5 2410m ahead.

So I dont really know what to think... Is passmark benchmark reliable ?

Thanks