Asus UX31a vs Samsung S9 - Comparison Review

Product comparison between Asus UX31a and Samsung S9.
-Both units I'm reviewing have the standard i5 Ivy Bridge, 4gb ram, and they both have the SanDisk SSD u100.

PREFACE: I'm looking for a new ultra-portable laptop mainly for email, web surfing, MS Office, and a little bit of gaming. I've updated each laptop with the newest drivers using their software update programs. It's my first time ever using an Asus, and Samsung laptop.

BUILD QUALITY: Both notebooks have superb build quality. They both sport a unibody aluminum chassis, and its as solid as a macbook. I can confidently hold the laptops anywhere with one hand, whether the screen is open or not. No flex whatsoever. Its worth mentioning that you can open the lid with one hand.

DISPLAY: Both screens looks great. Viewing angles are amazing and color reproduction looks excellent in both, but some colors seemed a bit off on the UX31. For example, the color blue looked purple-ish. Skin tone seems more natural on the S9. Blacks and whites looked better on the S9, whereas the UX31a has a slight yellow tint in the whites -I'm going to assume that the UX31a has a "warmer tone" in color. There is noticeable backlight bleed on the bottom corners of the UX31a, but nothing too distracting.

On the highest brightness setting - When watching the same movie side by side. The S9 was brighter, and the colors were more vivid.


(Max brightness)

On the lowest brightness setting - The UX31a screen is brighter, and provides a better image overall. On the other hand, the S9 loses the vividness of color.

I like the fact that the S9's screen can tilt roughly two inches more than the UX31a because I'll be using the laptop everywhere and in awkward angles.

In a sun lit room w/ max brightness - This is where the S9 shines. The UX31a's matte screen does a decent job under the sun, but the S9 is better. When tilting the UX31a's screen downwards, I could see the full reflection of my hands, and keyboard; whereas on the S9, reflection is almost non-existent.


KEYBOARD - As promised, Asus has really improved the keyboard. The UX31a keyboard has more travel, better responsiveness, and is better overall than the S9's keyboard. It takes a bit of time to get comfortable with the smooth and flat keys on the S9. I can say that I enjoy the S9 keyboard better than the Sony Z2.

Both have backlit keyboards with adjustable brightness settings which do their jobs as intended. The LED lights on the UX31a (power switch and wifi key) is quite bright, and can be a bit of a nuisance in the dark.

SOUND: Unfortunately, Asus has decided to downgrade the sound quality from the previous generation. I find that the S9 has slightly more bass, and overall better sound quality than the UX31a. The S9 is also surprisingly loud for a laptop.

TOUCHPAD- Both touchpads were updated to the latest drivers. I liked the S9's touchpad more because I felt that it best resembles the touchpad of macbooks; which is arguably the best touchpad on laptops today. The touchpad on the S9 felt smoother overall.

HEAVY LOAD: When gaming, both laptops get significantly hot near the ventilation slits, but the S9's entire keyboard just gets uncomfortably hot, whereas the ride side of the UX31a's keyboard got warmer. Under full load, they both seemed pretty quiet.

In conclusion, I've decided to keep the S9 mainly due to the great screen. It's important to me to have the best matte screen possible since my entire room is sunlit, and the fact that I'll be taking the laptop everywhere with me. In my opinion, I think 1600 x 900 is perfect for a screen this size, so 1080p wasn't a deciding factor for me. I think the S9 is a marvelous looking machine. The dark blue matte changes color like a chameleon under different lighting conditions. The aquamarine green backlit keys are subtle. The thin bezel makes me want to scream like a little schoolgirl.

Feel free to post any comments or ask me any questions

 

This is brilliant! You covered everything I'm interested in and managed to be succinct about it. I really appreciate the comparison.

I'm glad I went with the SS9, I can't wait until it arrives.

 

Are you ordering it from the US?

 

Yep, ordered it from Amazon US. I didn't want the multilingual markings that the Canadian model has.

 

thanx for the write up. I have a few questions:
* so you say build quality is equal?
* there is a small weight diff, do you notice it in practice?
* and how about battery life, how does that fare?

 

-Build quality is equal. I find that both are equally solid because of the unibody design.

-The S9 is slightly smaller, and weighs less, but the difference wasn't really noticed by me.

-I didn't have enough time to test the battery, but I can say that the S9 recharges rather fast, and be prepared to have both plugged in when you do something intensive like playing video games.

 

Sorry for being lazy and not looking it up myself - but what kind of panel does the S9 have?

Edit: Became unlazy - thought they were all standarnt TNT panels, but that is what I get for assuming the S9 was the same across sizes.

 

S9 13" uses a PLS panel.

 

Last thing samsung 1600 x 900
and asus ux31a, you can choose: 13.3" 16:9 HD+ (1600x900)/ IPS FHD (1920x1080)
100% asus display is better...

 

But there's many reports of backlight bleed that I can't ignore... It doesn't seem rare for a discerning user to go through 2-3 returns before finding an acceptable level of bleed.

 

what means backlight bleed? Please explain for dummies.

 

No problem! It's when light seeps through the edge of the screen, from under the bezel. If your screen is on but black, it should be all black - with backlight bleed you will see light at the edges.

It seems to be a common manufacturing issue with the Zenbook Primes. It's an overwhelming thread, but a search of posts might give an idea of the extent of the issue. There are also photos and videos of the problem.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/search.php?searchid=9398

 

Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.

For me, it's not big deal.

P.S: I love my asus ux32vd I like that it has nvidia 620m gt and 2ssds: 256gb and 32gb.... 10gigs of ram...

 

Oh wow, this is actually exactly what I was looking for. I'm personally deciding between these two and the Z3 now haha. As such, I have a few questions that I'd really appreciate some answers to. :]

Notebookcheck states that the UX31A has great color reproduction where the S9 does not. The UX31A is also supposed to have stronger contrast, and yet in your pictures, it seems like the opposite is true. If color was calibrated to be less warm, do you think that the same would still hold true? And is the S9's color reproduction as poor as they say? And how do the viewing angles compare between the IPS and PLS technologies?


Also, the backlight bleeding is very much a personal issue, and it really doesn't bother most people- apparently it only creeps up during static black screens, so it's mostly just apparent during boot-up haha.




Oh, and lastly, congrats on finally making the purchase, chicgeek! Based on what I've read here, I may soon be joining you on the S9 track!

 

A review on this forum said that the PLS has better viewing angles. I am quite satisfied with the IPS viewing angles. Now I can lay on my bed while watching a video without the colors getting all washed out. I am used to TN panels.

I notice the backlight bleed but I guess I have not watched anything that is consistently dark so I have not been annoyed by it. It is noticeable.

 

Thanks! I think the only person more relieved than I about finally aking a purchase is my boyfriend. Apparently I'm a bit scary when I get into 'research mode'.

Keep us posted as to when/if you make your jump!

 

@minnus

15" model uses a TN panel and the 13" uses the PLS panel.

@oink

I only see a review about the X3B (HD 3000 graphics) on notebookcheck.com. I haven't calibrated the colors on either of the notebooks, so I can't comment on that. Both screens have very good viewing angles, and are both equally good thanks to the IPS/PLS display.

I'm no color expert, but in my view, the yellows and blues look slightly different between the screens. This is probably due to the slight yellow tint, but I find the yellows on the S9 more natural. I'm not too fond of the yellow tint because I like my whites white. The difference in the color blue was more noticeable. For example, I was watching the new 2012 BMW M5 commercial "Bullet", the blue car looked slightly darker with a purple-ish tone to it. To confirm this, I watched the same video on my old glossy screen laptop, and my iphone 4. However, I'm sure this can be fixed if you calibrate the colors.

 

Which model has the best battery life ? What processor to choose i5 or i7 ?

Anything with better battery life that the series 9 15 inch ?

 

What's the gaming like on the S9? I just bought (and returned) a UX32VD with the GT 620m from Micro Center. It didn't seem like the dedicated card did too much for gaming performance... I had to set it down to 1366x768/high or 1600x900/low to get decent frame rates in Diablo III.

Thanks!

 

Were you running your VD with upgraded parts?

 

30% underclocked HD 4000 (what is used with the ULV processors) certainly isn't going to do you better than the 620m. I play D3 at 720p with everything on low or off.

 

Stock parts and OS installation. Wasn't planning on keeping it for any length of time due to the cost at Micro Center (just wanted to test it out), so I didn't want to buy or install upgrades. I'll be upgrading to 12GB of RAM and a 120GB HyperX SSD once I get the machine for real.

Are you suggesting that it's possible that the jumpiness and seeming lack of performance boost was caused by the bloatware or 4GB of RAM?

That's too bad about the underclocked HD 4000... Sounds like I'll be better served with a UX32VD.

I know this is bringing up a model outside of the thread, but what about a Sony S13P? Anyone know if the screen and audio are really that much worse than the UX32VD?

 

Screen, Definitely. And if the audio is anything like my vpcz1190x (worst speakers on almost any laptop I've tried), then yes.

 

Cool, thanks. Pulled the trigger on the UX32VD today!

 

The 620m on the UX32 is definitely better if you are keen for gaming, but for casual gaming, I find that the HD 4000 serves well. I'm currently running D3 on the lowest settings except for Detail which is set to high -D3 runs pretty smooth.

@laptopaddict

The i7 would probably use more battery thus the i5 would probably have slightly more batter life.

 

Hey there, I am very interested in how you were able to order this laptop through Amazon.com. It kept telling me that they can't ship to my Canadian address.

Thanks in advance

 

I personally like the screen of my UX31A vs. th S9 screen 100x. I looked at them side by sie at the MS store and the Asus was much better!

 

I got it shipped to Point Roberts, just across the border from Vancouver.