Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Couldn't agree more, Merkman.

The most certain way to ensure you have a problem is to go into it believing that the problem is already there.

 

it's just the backlight bleed and the splotches on the screen. Here's a recent video of a guy gaming and the black screen looks terrible. Starts at 45 ish seconds. Asus Prime UX32VD games test - YouTube

 

What is the max res of the HDMI port to an external monitor? Ideally I'd like to hookup a 27"/30".

 

I'd be happy to oblige you by taking it off your hands, as I haven't been able to order one yet due to my present location.

 

Wow based on this video, that kind of backlight bleed will bug the crap out of me. And the keyboard has some insane flex compared to the Samsung S9. Gah... what a turnoff. Samsung has some weak points too, in that the memory is not upgradable and it's more expensive. Not sure which one to pick anymore.

 

i'm going to go with the S9, i can always close a program to manage memory but i'm going to be looking at the screen all the time and using my 17 inch macbook pro has spoiled me in terms of expectation when it comes to a flawless screen.

 

I didn't see any backlight bleed during that video except when he intentionally went to a complete black screen to show it. In all the games he played there was nothing or did I miss it? I'm not sure it would be an issue unless you solely use this for watching movies on the night sky on a cloudy day.

 

Yes, that will work. You can find further info regarding the replacement on this thread and Youtube; just use their respective search functions.

 

What would possibly require 10Gb of memory? Would playing something like Diablo III not be throttled by the GPU or CPU before the 6Gb RAM?

 

Nothing..even if you deleted the pagefile(bad idea in its own) and opened 50 apps you still wouldn't use 10GB. Of course doing that would cause enough other problems that RAM wouldn't even be on your mind.

 

It's a defect. Mine is perfectly flush on both sides. That said, it is harder to press in the corner than the center. From working with MacBook Pros, this appears to be normal for this kind of touch pad.

1080p resolution

Yes, they will both work, but why would you only add an extra 2Gb RAM? Go for 8Gb for $55 instead.

Swapping out the HDD and memory isn't a big deal - it's a little fiddly and you need a Torx T4/T5 bit (I forget which one, but it is tiny) to open the back. I got my Torx bit from Sears. To remove the HDD, you have to unscrew the battery. You should also disconnect the battery power before doing anything further after opening the back. The RAM is trivial.

Thus far I have had no issues whatsoever - everything works fine, no hot pixels, no fan noise, nothing. I also, however, upgraded the BIOS to version 206 - it shipped with v.203.

As to the whole backlight bleed issue - yes, you can see it when you have a blank screen when booting up, but the moment you see anything on the screen it vanishes. Pretty much exactly like my HDTV.

The Clevo/Sager is completely different from this. I guess it depends on what you want ...

Try running a couple of virtual machines, eclipse development environment, an application server and doing remote debugging. You'll run out of memory pretty quickly.

 

Are we sure that video isn't a preprodution model? We know those had bleed, and correct me if I'm wrong but the users posting here haven't seen anything that bad.

As with the keyboard - I don't think anyone with one from the store has had the same flex issue as the pre-production model, and yet people keep bringing it up like its fact.

I don't work for ASUS, and I can buy whatever brand I want. But some of you are creating doubt and you haven't put your hands on one, or even seen it yet. Let's stick to the facts, so we are ALL the wiser.

Sorry. Rant off.

 

In mine both the top right and top left are stiff/not able to depress and flush with the bezel.

Lower down I go the more it "clicks" until I get to the bottom left and right where they are supposed to be mouse "click areas".

I created the .iso files to the computer's D:\ then copied them of the computer using the network but you could do USB external HDD.

Then I installed Windows using USB thumb drive on the SSD, left Windows on the HDD.

Made sure it was all fine, and probably a day from now I will wipe the HDD's Windows install.

Having Windows on the HDD still made it easier to config while installing Windows on the SSD. (Get drivers, etc, etc..)

See the sticky thread in this forum about how to install Windows, etc...

 

can someone with the computers clarify me how the microphone works?
i cant make it work when plugged in the 3.5 jack...
i tried with 2 mic/earphone and it just works if i press any button in the controls (volume up or down) while depressed mic doesnt work
what headphones mic combo u guys using ??????

 

Why would you want to do any of that on an ultrabook?

 

Because, like anything else, an ultrabook is a computer. It just has a different name. There's nothing wrong with its processing power or anything, so why not? It has 2 cores, hyperthreading so that it appears as 4 cores, 10Gb RAM, a 500Gb HDD, and a 1080p screen. Why would you not want to? And conversely, why would you want to play a game on a screen that is only 13.3"?

To quote Asus, it gives "Superior Mobility". This little ultrabook is faster than my T61p; about the only thing the T61p has on it is the physical size of the screen, so to me it's the ideal combination of computing power and mobility.

 

I just cut 3 full pages off of this thread by merging consecutive posts!

The bloat on this thread is INSANE! Some of you have stacked 3 to 5 posts!

PLEASE, use multi-quote to reply to multiple posts at the same time, and use the edit button to add to a post instead of posting multiple times in a row.

If you don't know what I am talking about, please see the multi-quote link in my signature.

Forum search is broken. Here is how to search the thread: https://www.google.com/search?q=http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/659073+words_go_here&ie=utf-8

 

It has totally different uses from say a Dell Latitude..it is not even close to being made to do the same job. If you think it will you will be very disappointed and it doesn't matter if it is this one or a Samsung or a Sony or any of the others.

 

I'm well aware of that from the design perspective. I'm also pretty familiar with the differences between laptops. I'd say you'd be a whole lot more disappointed trying to do serious gaming on something that really has an underpowered graphics core, regardless of whether it is discrete or integrated, than doing compute-intensive and memory-intensive tasks on something that has a CPU that is more than adequate for the task.

All laptops are compromises; the UX32VD just has a different set of compromises to, say, a $3800 MacBook Pro with 16Gb RAM, a 768Gb SSD and a 2.7GHz i7. However, to say that it is wholly inappropriate for some reasonable computing tasks is doing it a bit of a disservice.

FWIW, it can quite happily handle me running 2 linux virtual machines at the same time while doing remote debugging on the host OS with eclipse (which, btw, is a whole lot more resource intensive than visual studio).

 

I didn't mean to imply that..I just said it's not meant to do what it would appear would be done by an SE or some similar job in an IT job..that's why people who work in those jobs usually have their companies supplying their laptops and those companies don't supply ultrabook to do those functions..those are reserved for the suits that do not but email or watch their stock value crumble.

 

Yeah, I suppose I'm a bit of an atypical computer user - 25 years in the software development field - so I have a slightly different perspective from many others in that I have reasonable expectations for this device - I don't expect it to providing blazing performance in everything, but rather I expect it to provide a great compromise between mobility and performance. For the really big computing tasks, I use my dual-processor quad-core monster machine with 32Gb RAM. The cool thing about this is that I can remote desktop into it from my little UX32VD because the screen resolution is so great.

 

I just removed the backplate on my UX32VD to install a 4GB Corsair Vengeance SO-DIMM, and did a test to see how the fans works while it was naked.

There are two fans - a right and a left fan, that works on the same copper heatpipe running over both the CPU and GPU. When I booted it up naked and browsed around a bit, I could see how the fans sometimes does these small 'burst' spin ups. Both of them spin up for half-a-second and then die.

When running some intensive tasks like Prime95 and MSI Kombustor they got running to quite a high rpm and maintained that rpm. When I closed down the test programs they slowly started to lower the rpm, but the left fan continued spinning at a high rpm while the right fan was slowing down and stopped. So the left fan stayed in this pretty noisy mode until it suddenly stopped, then span up to that rpm again, stopped and did like that for a minute or so - all this despite that both the CPU and GPU were already around 45c or so since long.

I've mailed Asus about the fan controller issue, and hope to get a response within a couple of days.

Again, you in this thread who got the UX32VD - Can you observe how the fans work while using the computer for browsing and light tasks? Do they sometimes spin up and down really quickly (in half-a second bursts)?

 

Ya, I was planning to do that too and leave it in there for eternity..I guess it won't fit into the sleeve nicely if the SD card is jutting out?

 

For browsing and light tasks, I don't hear or see anything w.r.t. fans spinning up. When I'm doing 1080p video rendering and everything is pegged at 100%, I hear the fans, but they're still pretty quiet. They shut down pretty rapidly after the rendering finishes.

Check your BIOS version - mine shipped with v203 but the Asus BIOS utility downloaded and installed v206. I faintly recall it saying something about updated thermal stuff, so you may want to look into that.

Yup, from Asus support site:
BIOS 206 - 06/15/2012
1.Update EC Firmware
2.Optimize IRST
3.Support 2013 ErP Power Savin
4.Update thermal policy

 

I am doing the same with mine. I can't keep lugging my heavy Dell XPS around but need something to use to run various apps, Visual Studio, etc, etc...

Great to use when I'm waiting during one of my kids activities for them to finish up, etc... remote desktop into work or home if I need the power of a workstation, but this ultrabook will be perfect for lighter work being done locally.

 

Asus Zenbook UX32VD Teardown, SSD Upgrade, Ram Upgrade, Gaming Benchmark, and Review | Tek Syndicate

Seems doable...

 

Unlike the guy in the video though, disconnect that battery. You'll short the mobo.

 

From power button press to logon screen (waiting until the light activity stops) is about 20 seconds. When I do a logon, it's about 15-20 more seconds (loading a bunch of application/task try stuff).

 

Much appreciated for your input. I went with the smaller RAM because I'm trying to save some money. Going with an 8GB stick is more than double the price. And I think 6GB will likely cut it for anything I need.

 

Zenbook prime screen is better than that of the Macbook Pro Retina.

 

It's better in a lot of ways but doesn't have the pixel density or size advantage. It depends on your needs I guess.

 

Here are the proofs. There was one Sandforce Driven by LSI sticker on the black zenbook box that is like a apple-iphone box. The black box was inside a bigger standart box so it was not possible to see the LSI sticker unless you unpacked. There was another sticker inside the documents and I stuck it to the case myself (as seen in the photo below) FYI
FYI

 

Thanks so much for registering here and doing that! How are you liking the laptop overall? Any issues?

 

Overall, the IPS display is fantastic. The high dpi makes it difficult to view web pages but I use Zoomy Plugin which auto scales web pages zoomed-in. The touchpad is difficult to use, I find myself left clicking but the result is right clicking frequently. You can also click (not only touch) middle of the touchpad for left click. I am sure unintentional right clicking can be fixed from adjusting the touchpad software settings because there are a lot of gestures available. I had to buy the Micro HDMI to HDMI adapter because it is not included. Almost every problem with previous zenbooks is fixed with Prime. better keyboard (albeit not better looking) much much better display (if not the best in the world)
I didn't like the keyboard backlight a lot because from the angle your eyes look, you can see the individiual white leds under the buttons, so it doesn't look good but don't get me wrong I am just giving details, it is absolutely not important.
The only things apart from being perfect is a thinner bezel, better audio (yeah I don't think Bang & Olufsen is very good there is a peak at around 5khz, but it is good enough) and quad core option.
HD4000 graphics is enough. Adata Sandforce was a nice surprise, overall I don't think a Sandisk would be much worse under realworld light usage (unless you run a lot of virtual machines concurrently) it is still much better under benchmarks.
New macbook air sucks big time (no new display option)
I had a IPS panel mobile phone (HTC One X) and now I see that IPS panels are really good. It looks just like a printed piece of paper. The display is not matte as you see on lower end notebooks. It is a combination of matte and shiny displays (which I hate) Almost no glare.
Battery lasts about 4-5 hours with " moderately heavy" usage which is really good.
Although it is only 1.3kgs, it feels heavy, maybe because it is all aliminum.
One interesting thing is the computer properties page says 20-touch points, my ux31a is NOT touchscreen, but is seems the software is ready for that. May be touch enabled ux31a (or a pen enabled one) will be available later on. The smaller UX21A was showed off with a touchscreen at Taipei Computex.
I am not hearing any high fan noise btw.
EDIT: There is a lot of backlight bleeding when the display is showing full black (such as the boot screen) but doesn't bother me while windows is running.

 

Interesting about the touch panel. The question is if they'll offer the same IPS display quality with it. Thanks for the insight since I'm still considering this laptop.

 

I made a thread about this, but perhaps it would be better to ask it here.

Is it only in limited release right now? Will the new zenbooks likely come to the microsoft store/best buy/etc so that I can take advantage of the free xbox 360 student deal? Right now they're only on like 3 websites, so I'm not sure what that means.

 

They're just being slow to trickle out. Some think it's because Asus decided to make a late change to the hardware, and others just chalk it up to incompetence and disorganization.

Depending on the model, some are available. What are you looking at? (I'm waiting for the UX31A-DB71, but only a handful have been up for purchase.)

 

Memin, did you encounter significant backlight bleeding issues with the display? This issue is raised by a number of people (like in the Youtube posting below) and also in buyers' reviews in amazon.com.

ASUS UX32VD Backlight Bleeding - YouTube

Thanks a bunch.

 

Thanks for the quick reply

I'm looking at the UX32VD, as I need a notebook for college. I'm also going to upgrade the RAM and add an SSD. The only places I've seen it are amazon and newegg though, which is frustrating because I want that xbox

 

No problem! I'm just sitting watching no one score in a Canadian pub full of English people.

Well, the VD has been one of the more available models. Sit tight - I'm sure it'll show up with your offer before long. I just want to get my fingers on one of the UX31As so I can finally make a decision between this and the SS9...

 

Thanks for the data ux32vdssd, then the i100 is not THAT bad, just small.

 

How many hours of battery you guys getting with the UX32VD just browsing the web?

 

Hi all.

I post this question few days ago but only got one response so want to get the opinion of the panel. Does anyone has any info on the Vizios? They have a 14", i, 256 SSD, full HD for only $1,199. Is there any major difference from the UX31A-DB71 which is the one I am most interested? After all it is a significant price difference.

14” Thin + Light | CT14-A2 | VIZIO

 

Slower memory, one less USB port, no mini-vga, heavier, lower screen resolution (perhaps not as nice of a screen). For the money, it seems like a better deal because you're getting a 256GB SSD. I guess it really comes down to build quality and reliability. I would really like to see some reviews on that Vizio.

 

Is it possible to disconnect the battery without having to disassemble the battery?

If not, I'll guess it's bigger chance to make a short-circuit from missing the screws while disassemble the battery, than just easily swap the RAM module.


BTW:
I've got a lot of useful information from this site and am now pretty convinced that UX32VD is a better buy than the SS9 900X4C (which still has potensial of 16 GB RAM). My UX32VD-R4002V is probably sent from komplett.no on thursday!

 

Yes there is a lot of backlight bleeding. I can say mine is much worse, but since the bleeding is only visible with the full black boot screen it doesn't bother me while windows is running.

 

Yes, you can disconnect the battery without removing it. See the pic here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6ZizAyD5hgnGemdLWJh5fpvgPIvNQRAlBa_34EVijOI?feat=directlink
Go to full size, magnify it to the max, then the red text is readable.
Some of the text is outdated: One can even just slide the battery down 0.5cm after removing its screws and get access to the extra 2 screws of the HDD bay. No need to disconnect the audio cables. One just needs to be careful.
Also the i100 is suspect chip is not below the Ram module, but to the left of it.
Do press the Power button AGAIN, after disconnecting the battery. Only THEN will you have no electric charge in the system. Tricky, but do it anyway (laptop facing down, screen closed, you might need some acrobatics).

 

I get about 5.5-6h while surfing and doing some light work with it.

It seems to use about 10% battery every 30-40 mins. I think it's really good for being a machine with this kind of performance and format.

The battery charges pretty quickly as well. Takes about 2 hours to fully charge it from empty.

Yes, more or less all UX32VDs seems to show some backlight bleed in varying degrees. Mine seems to have gotten better after some use though. A field in the upper right of the frame has almost completely vanished. Only got some bleed in the lower part of the screen now. Some materials might change in property when being subjected to warmth etc, and will 'set' after some time.

The bleed is only noticeable in completely dark environments with very dark film scenes or black borders.

It is still a wonderful screen! The best laptop screen you can get for a reasonable price no doubt. I've used IPS screens professionally in photo and video work for years and this one seems just as accurate as my big external monitors.

People should not let the bleed issue make or break the deal. All monitors have weaker points. Any regular TN-screen looks really weak in comparison to this one.

 

is that backlight bleeding in pretty much the same effected areas, (top right, and bottom of screen) as everyone reported so far?

ive seen backlight issues with screens, and they seem to just pop out of the factory line with variances. In some cases, if you have an exchange you might luck out and get a less effected one in my experience. But it can get aggravating

 

Any idea when this will be in stock @ Amazon? Amazon.com: ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB72 13.3-Inch Ultrabook: Computers & Accessories

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB72 13.3-Inch Ultrabook
256 SSD
i7