Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

Guys I got a question will the backlight bleeding totally be a total annoyance to say if I were to put on a full hd movie, completely dark room, etc...?

 

GTA 4, Crysis, and Mass Effect 3 tested: Asus Prime UX32VD games test - YouTube

what do you guys think? is it impressive performance? what you expected it to? is the CPU holding the graphics card back?

is there any way you can force the computer to turbo boost?



edit:

the keyboard flex. is there this flex on your models as well??

 

Every comment I see says you only notice it on a completely black screen so I guess it depends on what that movie is.

 

Ugh... like 90% of these posts are 32VD related. Maybe it would be better to have a 31a series thread by itself.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with the 31a with the 1080p display? Do these also suffer from the backlight bleed? I'm wondering if these are of a better quality construction or different construction all together, even though it would seem unlikely.

Thanks

 

Part of the issue and that the availability of the top-spec UX31A (the DB71 or DB72) has been lower than that of the UX32VD, I'm also waiting for the UX31A(-DB71).

I would assume the so-called backlight issue would be evident through all these 1080p models - there is no reason to have different hardware for the same screens in this family.

 

I read a lot about the UX32VD with the ivy bridge core i7. But there a confusion about the CPU : is it the core i7 3517U (1,9GHz) or the core i7 3517UE (1,7GHz). I'm particularly interest about the Canadian model, so if someone that just receive it could answer me about this, I will really appreciate it. There so little info on the canadian retailer site. They indicate it's the core i7 3517U that run at 1,7Ghz.... ?&%@#....????

 

Argh regardless I am gonna pick up the UX31A, currently I got the original zenbook with 90 day return policy as I stated before multiple time, I am in love with the zenbook, for Asus's quality (will be my 3rd one Asus laptop). I don't think the backlight bleed will bother me that much, 90% of time I will use with light on and just do normal work, surf web etc... so how would I even notice the bleed when its in daylight? I may watch a movie here and there let's give it a good 1 - 3 movies per month so I think I am good. Will wait until end of August though, don't wanna purchase a laptop and not need it and keep in my closet while prices may drop!

Thanks so much guys for your opinions and help! Will keep checking back daily!

 

unless you're extremely picky about things like this and like to stare at a black screen in darkness for hours, I don't think you'll even see it. I have the 31A and I haven't seen any backlight bleeding issue. I watched a movie on it, didn't notice anything. Believe me, I've been trying to notice haha, since some people seem to mind it so much.. but no issues at all with that on mine at least!

 

Great! off topic do you watch with the backlit keyboard on for cool effects or no? lol

 

I don't think it's bad at all. The only time I've noticed the bleed is the windows screen when booting up. And even then, it's really not that bad.

I'm very satisfied with the 31A so far. Love the display/resolution.

 

I had already updated to bios 206 when I had posted my earlier comment about my loud on / off fan noise from the left fan and the right fan not working at all. Was going to update the bios again after other peoples comments about their fan behavior and the Asus winflash told me the 206 version I downloaded off Asus' global website is older than the current version. Then I was going to update the bios through the bios flash utility (reboot computer and press F2) when Windows told me it was updating user features and sat at 15% for the longest time with the hard drive just thrashing away. I went away and came back after some time and it was at 17%. After a while it finally rebooted.

After the reboot, and without attempting to flash, I noticed the laptop's right fan is now spinning up, along with the left at the same rpm and noise level, and it is very quiet. Now while posting this message both fans have turned off and remain off for an extended period of time. This is the sort of behavior I would come to expect.

If this continues, I am very pleased with the results, even if I am a bit perplexed with how they were finally reached.

 

lol, no not usually since it's distracting, but I did have it on the brightest setting when I was testing for the bleeding effect. I also turned off all the lights in my room too but even when the screen was dark/black, and the keyboard was lit on the brightest setting, I didn't notice anything that distracted me on the screen.

 

Mostly people are interested in having a dedicated GPU haha

For those getting the UX31A or who have the UX31A Ive made a thread specifically for us for general discussion and reviews/feedback etc.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/672878-ux31a-zenbook-prime-official-thread.html#post8646606

 

So I was sick of all the UX32VD people flooding the forums with their own posts, therefore Ive decided to make this thread for UX31A people.

For those that have the UX31A already, please give a quick review on what you think about the laptops performance, which SSD you received, and possibly comment on any faults/technicalities youve noticed and what you did to fix them.

Also for those interested, feel free to say why you've decided to go for the UX31A instead of UX32VD

Personally I'm going UX31A because I prefer a unibody chassis, I am no tech-wiz so I'd rather not mingle with the internals of the laptop to upgrade SSD/RAM (as people with the ux32vd are doing), and also the only gaming I do is Diablo 3 and thats not a graphics demanding game, infact people were able to play it with 20+ fps on INTEL HD 3000.

And also the super-slim chassis is also appealing

 

ok i got 2 of them one that i returned cause of the keyboard, backspace had problems it had a dead spot. this one had no bleeding it was perfect,
but then the new one in exchange that i got have bleeding in the right side and lower parts is not much but u can see it when the screen is black
and i can confirm that is adata ssd
now the only thing i cant figure out is how to use the mic in a 3.5 jack cause i have to press the volume up or down while talking so it can be used,, need help here which mic headphone should i get?
also for the people asking about the sd card, yes it sticks out of the computer.
my pc came with 2 partitions but u can always transform it to a single partition with the recovery option

 

Yeah, not me. Doesn't play well with Ubuntu.

This is almost more confusing, to have an additional place for us to follow.

 

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.

 

Travis, nice to see some input on the fans.

It's strange that the first BIOS update didn't stick properly. Mine updated successfully to 206 on the first try through the WinFlash utility. Windows reacted in the same way and updated some components.

But, in my case the fans still do these 'bursts' where they immediately go on and off in half-a-second time spans. The laptop is mostly completely silent with no fans turning when browsing etc. It's only that these fan bursts need to be fixed by Asus, since they should wait longer and do the cooling work for a longer time so it's less annoying to the user.

Edit: The fan bursts are at a pretty low rpm, so you'll only hear them in silent environments. Most people probably wouldn't notice at all.

 

Hmm, this is quite interesting. I've been having trouble with my fans being either off or at max, most of the time at max. Can I use an USB with the BIOS file on and use the F2 flash utility? The only "how to"-guide I found was using a 3.5" floppy.

 

The touch portion is probably for the Asus Tai Chi

 

I don't have my UX31A yet but from the ASUS website the utility looks to be flashing inside of Windows.

"Windows BIOS Flash Utility"

 

Just out of curiosity, how much does the SD card stick out? Being that the 256GB SSD is a bit small, I'll probably just keep a 64GB card in to hold all the random media files.

 

Here's an interesting link for all interested in the UX32VD. They show how to install an SSD and RAM upgrade, as well as doing some gaming tests which shows some pretty impressive performance out of the Nvidia 620M: Asus Zenbook UX32VD Teardown, SSD Upgrade, Ram Upgrade, Gaming Benchmark, and Review | Tek Syndicate

 

It appears that the UX31A only comes with ADATA SSD, as Ive heard not one person who have claimed they received a sandisk one. Ive also heard people saying ASUS have confirmed that they are switching back to ADATA.

Mine ships in on wednesday, but even if I get a Sandisk I wont be too dissapointed as I don't run a server, I don't do photo/video/mp3 editing and I don't really care about transfer rates. So yes, in real world performance the difference is minimal.


Honestly I agree with what you said about the bezzel, it could look so much more aesthetic with a thinner one. They should have stolen what the HP Envy Spectre did and fit a 14inch screen into a bezel typically fit for 13.3'' inch laptops.

Tried any gaming on it yet?

Also I should say that I chose the UX31A because the primary use is for university and I'm there about 4-5 hours a day.

Now there is no need to have a mobile gaming laptop because a dedicated GPU would waste the battery really quickly, which I need to last through a day, and I have no intention to play at uni anyways. And at home I have a gaming rig at home so I wouldnt use a laptop for gaming.

So yeah Im going for ultraportability + aesthetics + the fact that I don't need to worry about buying/upgrading. I just need a finished product with nothing extra required to do.

 

Not really. This thread is UX32VD dominated, which means people wanting the UX31A have to read through pages to find posts relating to it.

But each to their own I guess

 

Hi there..

Has anyone of you lucky owners tested Diablo III with the VD? Well, I like to know some more fps and quality numbers than the 2-3 seconds of zoomed footage in the "funny" youtube teardown vid.

I'm planning to switch from my 3820TG to this "master"-piece in the near future...

Thanks in advance...

 

"UX31A Zenbook Prime Official Thread" has been merged into this existing Zenbook Prime thread which covers all models. If you want to start an owners lounge for actual owners of a particular model, go ahead.

 

Sure thing !

 

hi people owning the 1920x1080 when im working on my photoshop and skype and firefox,,, i see everything so tiny,
i scaled my windows to 125 and it looks good but seems windows doesnt scale it to some of the programs..
my question is how can i scale everything to be in 125%???

thanks if you reply

 

does the UX32VD come with i7 1.7ghz or 1.9??

 

No - this is a problem with some apps that don't scale properly. Until they're fixed, there's not much you can do.

1.9GHz (at least that's what mine is).

 

It might be cheaper if just buy the Laptop from one of those places where you don't to have to pay tax. I ended up buying it from Newegg since I dont get taxed. If I bought from Amazon or BB I would of ended up paying 1400+. iInstead of 1289, since I had a 10 dollar coupon.

 

In the chart that has been posted multiple times in this thread it shows the VD only coming with 1.7 regardless of model. Intel i7-3517UE and actually I guess there is only one VD with an i7. I'm beginning to think that chart is not right though as I was sure the UX31a i7 was 1.9 and that chart shows them as 1.7 too.

Here's a link to the chart but again I'm not sure if it's right.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-ux21a-ux31a-ux32a-ux32vd-56.html#post8622617

 

here in hong kong i saw i5 ux32vd, but screen was not HD

 

some say 1.7 some 1.9GHz??

and the SSD is it 24GB or 32GB??

specs are really confusing

 

From the ASUS US site here is what they say about the VD and the UX31A

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX32VD

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK Prime UX31A

Both say the i7 is the 3517U which Intel says is 1.9 so the chart posted in here is wrong.

 

thanks!

what about SSD? Asus official website says 24GB, some people here has 32GB??

 

Mine shows the following:



Note:
1. the SanDisk 32Gb drive (the M4 is my 500Gb SSD that I installed).
2: The 4 virtual processors (dual core w/hyperthreading == 4 virtual cores) @ 1.9GHz

 

guys stop confusion....

I think really all ASUS UX32VD i7 are 1.9

The ASUS UX32VD with i5 don't comes with full hd screen

Yes, it's a 32Gb ssd installed but you only see 24Gb...

If you have others question feel free to pm and I'll reply/copy past the answer here.

 

Been following this thread for a while, and I just received the UX31A-DB51 from Amazon last Friday.

I'm pretty new to laptops and ultrabooks in general, having owned only one so far. I was wondering what sort of temperatures are typical for the CPU? I'm using HWMonitor from CPUID and when plugged in on high performance mode, I can reach 70degC when just using Firefox, and around 50-60 when on battery mode. Is this normal?

I'm more used to desktops where you can keep everything much cooler, but of course, laptops and ultrabooks being thinner means less cooling ability. (My old Gateway is dying and has CPU temps of 90degC and shuts itself off all the time)

Also, I can't seem to get my ethernet to USB adapter working. I get an "ID Address isn't properly configured" error, which is funny because I am able to connect to the Internet using my old laptop and its ethernet port. Tried updating the driver, but apparently there is nothing to update. Anyone else try using it yet?

 

What was confusing was the incorrect chart posted here that everybody keeps referring to as if it were correct.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-ux21a-ux31a-ux32a-ux32vd-56.html#post8622617

 

Newbie here! Got the UX32VD. Screen is great (very little bleed if looking for it on pure black screens, can get over it.) I am NOT a fan of glossy screens as the reflections just kill usablilty in normal rooms. MBA had a nice anti-glare coating like expensive camera lens and has that purple reflection look. SO much better than 99% of the reflective, glossy screens on PCs. But the Zenbook has a very nice MATT finish that doesn't reflect and is still very sharp. Both MBA and Zenbook screens are good units. THANK YOU ASUS! Keyboard is SO MBA like it is wonderful, except you can see the backlights on the Zenbook when look at low angle but not at all on MBA. Multi touch works really well for a PC and is acceptable.

2 things:
1. The fans. In quiet rooms, on power saving mode. doing nothing with the CPU settled down, the fans will run for 4-5 seconds quietly then go off for 5-30 seconds, repeat. Not that loud, but MBA is silent under these conditions. The unit is cool and don't really think the fans need to run here. The HDD in this unit is also VERY quiet and the fans are louder. Wishing for a BIOS fix and will have to complain to Asus to let them know this is considered a problem.

2. Express Cache. Did a F9 Factory reinstall (for other reasons) and noticed DiskKeeper ExpressCache Config was in the start menu. Then Asus Live Update updated from ExpressCache from 1.0.86 to 1.0.87 and the Config utility is GONE, as is all mention of DiskKeeper in the start menu. The ExpressCache service was present, but not running either????
-So I Uninstalled Asus Live Update so this doesn't happen again and uninstalled ExpressCache from Add/Remove Programs. Then using Asus eDriver program, it noticed ExpressCache was missing and I used it to install original 1.0.86 from the restore. And the DiskKeeper Config program was back so I can see how much of the Cache is used and what the hit/miss ratio is.
-Copied the C:\Program Files\Diskeeper folder to the D: so I have a copy of the ECConfig.exe
-Downloaded ExpressCache from Asus USA website and installed. It put on 1.0.87 WHICH HAS NO USER CONFIG IN THE STARTMENU! There is a command line interface, but why??? So I ran the ECConfig from the saved 1.0.86 folder and it gives me statistics on the cache.
-WHY does 1.0.87 not have a Config screen but out of the box, 1.0.86 does? No reason for this.

 

You can definitely see the backlight on a 2011 11.6" MBA .

So I just got my DB51 and like everybody else i also got the ADATA XM11 and I also have the bleed across the lower bezel and lower right side of the screen. Only visible on a totally black screen but their none the less.

 

is any way to install inside UX32VD any 3G WWAN modem??

 

Regarding ExpressCache update, I have noticed the same, I was quite pissed too, that the Config was gone, and one would not know anymore what the heck is going on behind the scenes with ExpressCache....

99.9% sure that there is no space for that. It is crowded inside the Zenbook, look at any photos or videos.

 

Interesting to see more reports about the fan issue. This seems to affect all UX32VDs currently and is almost certainly a BIOS issue. I also get the very short fan bursts, they sometimes spins up for half a second and immediately turns off.

I emailed Asus service about this, and just got a response. Unfortunately it was a simple cut+paste answer about sending it for repair just as expected. Didn't seem like 'Dan' who answered read a single word, or didn't understand at all was I was writing. Anyone knows if there is any mail we can use to contact the technical team directly? I suspect that it's not possibile.

Asus needs to write a new BIOS which changes the way the fans are controlled. It's not a major issue, but it'd be a very welcome improvement to get rid of unnecessary noise and power consumption.

 

Note: you can revitalize your old Gateway by cleaning its cooling system, or having it cleaned. Apply quality new thermal paste (the old one is usually fried rigid), clean fan housings (of dustballs), clean the heatsink fully (dust blocks most of it), then the temps will be as new. I do this regularly on laptops older than 2 years. Normal temps are back around 40°C. Max temps often drop 25°C.

 

So I ordered my UX32VD on Sunday morning from Amazon... Has anyone seen any stock movement on these recently, or was there just the initial burst last week? Am I really looking at ~a week wait period?

 

I, at least, have no issues with fans - mine stay off unless I am doing some serious CPU work. Clearly there is something at play here that makes mine different from yours, but it definitely doesn't affect all UX32VDs.

One possible difference: I am running Win7 ultimate 64-bit, and have an SSD instead of an HDD. Perhaps the SSD generates less overall system heat than the HDD, thus causing my fans to not turn on. It's also possible that I have some different updates than you ...

 

The old ECConfig.exe runs just fine with the new version, it is just missing. There is also a command line version that WILL give you stats on the new version, but is a pain as it must be run from an Administrator Command Prompt window and just isn't as easy as the GUI. The GUI version gives that SAME info as the command line version, so it is probably just a front end into the command line version, which is why it works. Can we send files to each other on here?