Ivy Bridge Zenbook with FHD IPS screen UX21A UX31A UX32A UX32VD

125% is the default windows scaling isn't it ? At least that's how mine came configured.

I guess there is no good solution for this problem.

 

Honestly at first it was an issue, but I think my eyes got used to it and it looks fine.

 

HI again all!

A am having a problem with the fans. The one to the right is spinning randomly when the temperature stays below 50 degrees. The left one does not spin at all! I know some people had problems with the fans and it have been addressed already but I cant find a solution for this... advice is appreciated.

EDIT: I found this iintel dynamic platform thermal framework application. With this application off my computer, both fans spins. It does not spin in random interval any longer.

Does anyone know what this application does exactly besides from managing the thermals from the cpu?

 

So I was going to go pick up the UX31A at best buy and was hoping to get in on the free xbox 360 for students promotion. Unfortunately, they're no longer sending out coupons for it when you register on best buy's student page. However, the guy at best buy told me they're still honoring the coupons if you already have them. I know I saw a few people on here who were able to get in on the promotion. Would anyone be willing to send me a copy of the coupon? Thanks!

 

Just received one from Amazon. Has the crap Sandisk drive. Bought 4 of them from various places, all had Sandisk. The transfer speeds are retarded slow. What a piece of . Sending all 4 back.

 

Is the SSD lottery pertain to the 128 and 256GB drives or just the 128?

Thanks all

 

UX32VD Laptop Fan Noise - Just wondering if someone could replicate this test for me. I saw a post in the ASUS forum about someone who uninstalled his Asus Live Update. (Sorry dont know his name to give him credit). For whatever reason, this stopped his fans from cycling.

I also uninstalled Asus Live Update. While running on battery I restarted, let the laptop come up to temperature, put it in sleep, opened the lid and have been monitoring the fan with Speedfan without seeing any random fan spin ups. Repeated the sleep and monitored fan while surfing. No random fan spinups.

I dont know if this is due to system temperature or what at this point but was hoping that someone with a UX32VD would try to replicate this please.

Cheers,

Edit: After testing this for some time I see the fan alternating from 3200 to 3400. An audible change. When will Asus update the bios or drivers for this.

 

My touchpad seems to be quite loose on the left side and kills my overall experience with the UX32VD:



Video demonstrating (90mb):
[video]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/506136/upload/ZenbookTouchpad.mov[/video]

 

15 inch zenbook with 650m graphics card and dual ssds announced on Engadget

 

Surprised anything is being announced without touch this close to Windows 8.

 

.... Are you F**king kiding me!? After all this wait, so excited I might get the UX32VD in a week... and now this... This beautiful 15 incher gets announced and probably won't get released for a few months.... I'm so torn right now I just don't know what to do... I just don't know if I can wait that long, but I know I'll want it when it's out... DAMN YOU ASUS!!! (Oh, and I'd probably put Win 7 on that sh*t).

 

Everyone if you are in the same position as me and deathalo, you can do what I have done before. Go to sams club or Costco and just purchase a laptop from them, they offer 90 days return policy, so if you went and bought one today you would have enough time to purchase on black Friday and have a few days to return it.

 

Great idea, and I'm a member of Costco, but I don't think they carry the UX32VD... If they did I'd totally do that...

 

Does anybody know if the SSD lottery is for the 128 and 256GB SSDs or just the the 128?

 

No I mean just buy a random ultrabook or something preferably a low price one and just "borrow" it.

 

Anyone heard more about the UX32A? It's priced at £750 on amazon, and is listed as the Ivy Bridge, FHD spec'd one.

Just a few questions: UX32A is the thicker one? If so, I can swap the 500GB HDD for a 256GB SSD 830, and kick up the RAM to 8GB? Would be awesome if that's the case. Oh, and is the screen matte on it? It's listed as anti-glare.

Thanks for any answers

 

Gotcha, but I think I'll just keep the UX32VD from Jittles until notebook review & a lot of other people get hands on time with the 15", and until I see the final price/ specs. I want to make sure it has the exact same quality IPS screen as the UX32VD (maybe minus some bleed, but I care more about color). Jittles has a no questions asked 30 day return policy (they pay for shipping too!) so if by the end of that period, the 15" looks like a winner, I'll return it and probably just buy the 15" from them when it comes out.

 

You guys are the reason why return policies suck. Costco used to be very liberal with their policies and now they are cracking down.

Buy and keep or go without quit working the system so you can "borrow it".

 

I would not play with 30 day return policy not enough time considering 2 months away from windows 8. You are gonna buy and return twice or wait a while before buying?

 

EXACTLY!!! I've been waiting for the UX32VD to become available. And now Asus is doing this to me!! Oh....I can't believe it.

Seriously, this 15" looks more interesting the UX32VD. Especially with the 650M.

 

They are in stock on Amazon, seller J&R video. Good return policy if there is problems. There were 6 left when I just purchased mine. Good luck!!

 

Yep, so so glad I returned my ux31a and got a cheaper (and surprisingly much more stable) vizio to hold me over until windows 8 machines hit. Now I can take my time and get something black friday.

 

How's the battery life and keyboard on that Vizio? I was really excited for those to come out but the reviews kinda battered those two things. If my UX32 has QC issues I'd consider a Vizio. Like their tvs a lot.

 

Yeah, just saw that.

ASUS ZENBOOK UX32V-DDB71 13.3" IPS FHD Ultrabook PC - Silver Aluminum in PC Ultrabooks | JR.com

Figures. I just jumped ship and pulled the trigger on an S9 this weekend. Still waiting for it to get here. Oh well. Nothing but nice things to say about jr.com though.

 

This week, I have bought 3 Asus UX31e from different Sam's clubs, The have lowered the price to $498, From the corporate office. A good unit, Keyboard a bit flaky, but 6-7 hours battery life.. Surfing mainly. I think that is what most of us do. Look around, they might be out there.

 

The keyboards on the ux31e are horrible. I literally felt frustrated when trying to type.

 

I had to agree with you for the first few days, But learned real quick that if you touch with the fingernail, you miss a lot of key strokes, But for $500 each, they are great notebooks. I had a Samsung series 9, withing a month the battery life was down to 2 hours. I'll take the flaky keyboard any day. Also the trackpad from Elan works very well. The Samsung was a pain in the cabooooose.

 

Try f9 key, sorry not quick

 

took mine back to BB 2 hr battery

 

After going through 4 ux31a i5s and 2 samsung series 9s I ended up going with a vizio. I got the ct14-a0 model, 1.8ghz i3 ivybridge, 1600x900 display, 128gb 3.39lbs. on walmart rollback for 641 which IMO can't be beat. Right now the best vizio deal is the i5 15" model with IPS 1080p display for $899 from walmart and sams.

I have done a couple battery tests on mine and usually get about 5.5 to 6hrs of battery life primarily doing desktop publishing and photoshop work. If you pushed it hard with video, etc. your likely to get about 4hrs. Not the best but not the worst either. I had the screen at 1/2 brightness in the tests which is VERY bright and since then ive kicked it down a notch and it still looks great.

One thing ive found since doing my tests that has helped extend my battery life is the screen off button. You can toggle the screen backlight on/off whenever you want so I always hit that when moving away from it for a few minutes instead of waiting for the screen to timeout. This probably buys me another 1/2 hour or so. I'll also toggle it off if im having the computer do something that I don't need to actively look at... I think the screen is the biggest power draw so this helps to extend things alot. I thought it was a useless feature when i got it but have found it quite handy.

The keyboard is a bit different... instead of island keys they keys almost touch each other. I actually like typing on it, it has a good feel and I haven't had any trouble with it and I type 70-80wpm. After using it for a week or so now I like it better than alot of the island keyboards ive used. I do REALLY wish it was backlit though.

A couple other things worth mentioning... out of the box the machine is really clean... no intel/windows/etc. stickers on the outside and NO BLOATWARE on the inside. For example the asus and samsungs I had both had 80-90 tasks running after startup, the vizio has 58. They went out of their way (and aren't getting the payola other makers get) not to fill up their machines with bloat ware and trial ware. As a result it has almost an appliance feel, like a TV... you open it up and use it, you don't have to spend time wiping it and reinstalling everything from the start.

After all the troubles I had even buying an asus or samsung without issues getting this vizio has been a joy. I did return the first one due to a stuck pixel on the screen but otherwise haven't had ANY issues with these. I'll definitely look at Vizio first the next time I upgrade.

If you have any other questions about the vizio fire away. It has really surprised me.

 

What I mean is 30 days should be enough time to find out whether or not the 15" screen is of the same caliber, the price, and the release date. If all those factors meet my requirements I'll return the UX32VD and wait (hopefully not too long) for the 15" to come out.

 

How do I stop the backlit keyboard from auto turning on? Travelling with bus now and turns on everytime we drive into an tunnel..

 

I don't have my Zenbook in front of me right now. But look for a icon on the "A" or "S" key?? It's somewhere on the left side of the keyboard. Hold the Fn key down and press the key with the icon. That turns off the automatic light sensor and will also turn off the backlight.

 

Maybe I should have just left it on so I could see the keyboard, because that picture on the A was almost as big as the letter! Thanks, fn+A sorted it.

 

Anyone have any idea when the UX21A w/ 1920 x 1080 resolution is gonna be available in the states? A few merchants have the UX21A instock now, but only with the the low resolution screen. =/

 

The fact that all Vizio machines are Microsoft Signature machines means that they all will come with the MS software load which is a big plus. It's surprising that the MS store is trying to dump them..probably not enough profit for them.

 

Probably never. I don't think the 1600x900 UX21e ever made it here either.

 

Is it possible to upgrade the warranty of a UX31A to something beyond 1 year?

I know Lenovo offers this and it's a plus to the X1 Carbon.

 

wow, the announcement of the 15" makes me glad I didn't buy the UX32VD and got the UX31A instead. Went all portable!

On a similar note, been enjoying the Zenbook prime quite a bit. The portability is impressive and the screen is great. The only thing I would have liked is a slightly longer battery life. I used to worry about the integrated graphics, but realized I never really need to play games on the move.

Usually when I'm traveling, it's for leisure so I'd rather be doing something else.

 

I am interested in buying the UX32VD and have been following this thread for a while. It seems that it's back in stock in most places and there was a rumour that ASUS was recalling the units in order to fix the QC issues. I would appreciate it if someone who bought one in the last couple of days reports on the build quality and whether they experienced any of the issues outlined here - light bleed, fan noise, etc. I really hope that ASUS fixed the QC problems with the newest batch.

 

I don't think that the UX32VD and the UX31A are that different in terms of portability. I am reading about the 15" model with interest, but it is a totally different machine, it will be at least a pound heavier than the UX32VD and is way more powerful. It comes down to portability vs power. The only thing that I wish the 13" model had is a full voltage quad core, but that would create all sorts of other issues.

 

It seems as though Asus as finally got their together with the ux32vd, Jittles says their shipment should be coming in tomorrow, and today I finally got an email from about my order placed over a month ago. Apparently Amazon now says it'll ship soon and I should receive by the 5th, Jittles estimated I'd receive by around the 5th as well (they said that a few days ago actually). Here's hoping I get one soon.

Oh and the reason I ordered 2 was to see if one would arrive sooner, at this point I'll wait till both orders come and see if the Jittles one has any major issues (it's a bit cheaper), then compare it to the Amazon and decide which to send back, luckily both have free return shipping.

 

It doesn't look like microsoft is dumping them to me. Walmart has them discounted pretty well though. I think its a combination of vizio will relesae a refresh in october with win8 and they are playing with pricing to see where they sell best price wise, this is their first pc and all.

 

When you get the two laptops, please let us know how's the build quality. I am very eager to hear if there are any improvements in the new batch (in terms of QC).

 

They already dumped the 14 inch a month ago and the people in the store said they would love to get rid of the 15 inch too. The reason they give is that they don't sell because people associate Vizio with cheap tvs. Personally I doubt that is the real reason.

 

Well no, both are very slim machines. But the UX31-A is slightly more portable and has a larger battery.

Plus for me I would have upgraded the SSD on UX32VD leading to it costing more.

 

Is the UX32VD available in the UK anywhere?

 

Laptopshop.co.uk for new Laptops, Refurbished Laptops, Laptop Batteries and AC Adapters

They get their next delivery on Monday, if you are lucky they may have one free.

I recommend calling to check availability rather than trusting the web site.

 

I just got a new UX32VD from Adorama a couple of days ago or an order placed Aug 1st. So I assume it is coming from the new batch.

Overall, the build quality of this computer is very good. However, some of the same old problems are still there.

Clarification on configuration:
- Screen: still IPS 1920x1080. There were speculations that they are changing it to 1600x900
- HD: 500 GB at 5400 RPM
- SSD: Sandisk 24 GM (originally it was 32 GB)
- Processor: Core i7 1.9 GHz

Common problems:
- Screen light bleed at the edges are still there. I will post photos soon.
- Touch-pad: It is not evenly leveled with the left side slightly higher than the right. This does not really affect its operation, but it should not be the case in such a relatively high-end laptop. They now have the Elan drivers installed out of the box.
- Fan noise is very low. I didn't notice intermittent on/off variations as previously reported.

I hope this provides some update on the build quality.

 

After going through 4 different UX31As at Best Buy looking for one with an ADATA drive, I ended up returning it for a refund. They didn't like the idea of me continuing to exchange the same laptop any more, so I cashed out to buy it elsewhere. It's a shame because the free Xbox made it really cheap, but that had to go back too. I ended up contacting a bunch of sellers on Ebay to see if I could find one with the ADATA drive. Most people had no idea which drive it was, either because they didn't actually have it with them or they didn't want to open the box, but eventually I got lucky and found one. I got it and have been using it recently, and it's a great machine. There's a small amount of backlight bleed around the edges, but it's not an issue. It's invisible when you're using it and is hardly noticeable when the screen is dark. The touchpad could maybe use a little tuning, but it's pretty good. And the SSD makes it very fast and zippy, I haven't noticed any real when real wait while loading things.

I'll defend my hardlined stance on getting the faster ADATA drive. The system is only as fast as it's slowest component, and memory storage is always the bottleneck. That 10% increase in reading and writing speeds affects nearly every use of the computer, and is much more effective than going from a 1.7Ghz i5 to a 1.9Ghz i7. It's the most cost effective speed upgrade method, so it was on obvious decision.

So it's a great computer and I'm glad I got it, but have kind of been annoyed by the runaround given by Asus and by association Best Buy in getting the right model. The entire point of having different models models is to standardize distinct computer builds by hardware, so there shouldn't be a variance of speed among computers of the same model. So I'll just try to find solace in the fact that I got the ADATA drive, and hopefully they'll stop using them in the future so mine becomes rare and valuable.