New UX31A at BestBuy - Win8/touchscreen/black finish

I received one of these online from BB about a week ago and here are my major observations:

1) Looks beautiful in black casing, but the surface is worse than a fingerprint magnet - it's a hand oil slick/hazardous waste site! And it takes a lot of scrubbing with a MF cloth and some solution to clean. It's so bad it could be a deal killer.

2) The touch screen is good, not great. Don't expect the responsiveness of an iPad or a Transformer Prime or a Nexus, but it's fine for Windows 8 use, though I'm not really fond of reaching across a keyboard to use a touchscreen

3) The glossy version of the 1080p IPS screen is phenomenal as long as there is no reflecting light. Since there is almost always reflecting light, I would not be inclined to choose it. I don't know if/when Asus will make the touchscreen version in matte, but I would hold off for that, and for a metal, not painted casing.

4) I see the same amount of "bleed" on this as I have on the previous models: not enough to care about, no more than any very bright IPS screen has. My guess is that they may have "fixed" it by lowering the brightness of the backlight, but who knows?

5) Mine has the Adata 128Gb SSD and it is fine. CDM shows 450/250 Mb/s sequential read/write
and 22 Mb/s random 4k reads, which is better than many far faster (in sequential test) SATA III SSDs.

This is not an offer to sell, but I will either return this to BB (have until 1/31) or sell it if they are in short supply and people want one. I have only used it enough to test it.

Now here's my problem: I have a UX31A w/i7 256GB Adata SSD which I have to send back (to NCIX) or open up and take the risk as to how late in the production game it came and how many incurable problems. I'm getting the sense that most of the problems have been fixed in production or can be fixed with an RMA, which I have two people with email addresses who will personally shepherd it through the repair process if needed. Do I crack it open and hope for the best? I have now tried every competing UB and like this one the best, based on the performance, keyboard, trackpad and screen of the BB touchpad unit. Oh, I also got it for 40% off retail price. What would you do?

 

Just picked one up from the local BB (finally started showing up around here). As expected - a very fine looking machine. HD is ADATA, plenty fast (despite the lack of the free space).

That said, a few issues are souring the experience right now.
- The screen hinge seems just a little looser than it should be. This is most likely due to the additional weight of the touch screen, but the lid tends to slowly work itself all the way into the completely opened position once it goes past beyond about 100-110 degrees. And that's without touching the screen. This is probably the big one, since I can already foresee the neverending adjustments of the lid during a flight or a train ride.
- The keyboard seems less comfortable than it was on the display non-touch UX31A unit at BB before it was taken down. It is not the worst chiclet keyboard I've used, but not the most comfortable either (pretty sure my Yoga had better key travel). This is one is pretty subjective, however.
- The surface is indeed very easily soiled with fingerprints (although, to be fair, the marks come off pretty easy).

All in all, a pretty nice machine, although not the godsend Win8 device the BB reviews make it out to be. I would say it is a marginal improvement over Lenovo Yoga (which I've returned due to the exterior coating durability problems). I will probably keep it if the loose hinges does not become a huge problem.

 

My first post.

I picked one of these up from BestBuy last night as it finally showed up on the website as available at my local store. I went in and had to twist the sales person's arm for him to look for it, they must not make commission because I was trying to tell the sales guy that I wanted a $1200 laptop and their website said it was available and he just didn't seem to care. After I told him I wanted to speak to a manager because I drove a long way because the site said it was available, he finally looked it up on his PC and then spent the next 20 minutes acting like he couldn't find it while on his ladder, until his coworker pointed it out to him.

I had him pull all 3 down and it is not labeled on the retail box as to what SSD comes in the box and since he could not open it to look for the SandForce sticker, he just said to return it if its not what I want. I asked him about Asus's Zero Bright Dot guarentee which guarentee's no dead pixels, he said Best Buy policy is 3 dead pixels but said if it had any I can just return it.

I got the zenbook home and to my surprise it has the ADATA SSD (8.1 WEI score), no screen bleeding issues, no dead pixels, and I am almost certain does not have a fan on/off/on/off issue. I would have preferred to skip the touchscreen for the Matte screen but that is not an option yet, so overall I would say I am happy with my purchase. The only con I can see is that it did not come with a mini-hdmi>hdmi cable and it is a fingerprint magnet(everywhere) but easily cleanable.

I would say even though almost all specs are the same, they have worked out most of the bugs from even the UX31A non-touch. Everything seems very fluid and I am very happy, other than not really needing a $1200 ultrabook, I see no reason to return this finely crafted machine.

I certainly appreciate all the data I get from threads like these so if there is anything you guys would like me to check on this machine, let me know.

 

Man, the recovery partition is a whopping 20GB on this model. I don't suppose there is a way to remove that partition and recover the space without a complete format and reinstall, is there?

 

On my UX31A (non touch screen), the program that lets you make recovery disks also allows you to delete the partition as well.

 

Hey guys, thanks for all the impressions so far, they're really helpful. I'm considering either this, or Acer S7 (but don't like the price, the glossy screen, and the not so great battery life), or Lenovo Carbon X1 (not available yet and the screen is non-IPS, HD+ but possibly less glossy).
I still have a few of questions, though.
1) Does anyone know if the RAM is soldered or if it's possible to upgrade? Maybe there's even a second slot?
2) Someone mentioned that the touchscreen is 5-point only. Can someone please test and confirm that?
3) Has anyone tested the battery life? Or at least has general impressions?
4) What exactly is the return policy for BestBuy? Open box vs non-open? Do you have to pay restocking/return shipping fees etc? Is it different if you buy online vs offline?

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

I can answer a few of these questions. I bought this system yesterday, just wanting to test drive the whole ultrabook/touch/Windows 8 thing.

1) I don't know. My hunch is soldered but, again, I don't know.

2) Correct. My test shows that it is a five point touch screen. I turned on the setting to show touch feedback in Windows and touched all of my fingertips to the screen. No matter how I touched the screen, I only received feedback from five touch points.

3) This is my first ultrabook experience and all but my impression of the battery life is quite good. I fully charged the system over night and I've been off AC all day. I've been using wifi on medium-low brightness and I'm going to hit 6-7 hours without any issue.

4) I asked this question at my local store at the time of purchase. They told me 30 days, whether it's been opened or not. No sort of restocking fee or anything.

Now, for a few more impressions:

The screen. It's very beautiful and I don't think 1080p on a screen this size is so bad but the gloss just isn't for me. I work in an office with halogen lighting and many windows and the reflections were kind of a nuisance. I also wish it were brighter in daylight conditions. I see very, very minimal light bleeding in the dark on a black screen but nothing that I would ever complain about.

Windows 8 / touchscreen. I can see how the touchscreen could be useful if you're a tablet kind of person but I've spent most of my time so far figuring out how to properly use Windows 8 without it. I have to say that touchscreens on laptops mostly seem like a way to smudge up the screen rather than enhancing productivity. That's my opinion of course. I feel like I can certainly hit WINDOWS and search for an application quicker than touching through the start screen.

Performance. Very good. Nearly instant-on resume. Shutdown / restart is very quick. The system has been nothing but silent for me, even when doing a bit of compiling and such. Very slightly warm on my lap but in no way hot.

Keyboard / touchpad. I've followed the issues with touchpads on the ASUS systems but I think this one's perfectly average. I wish it were slightly more sensitive to the touch but I can only find settings to adjust the gestures. I find the keyboard to be crisp and the three-stage backlight works just fine.

Fit and finish. There's no doubt that the black casing is absolutely beautiful. Additionally, the system is solid; there is no creak or flex anywhere on the chassis.

Hope this helps. Again, I don't have nearly any basis for comparison with regard to ultrabooks but I like this system. Alas, I'm probably going to return it in favor of a non-gloss screen and perhaps user-replaceable parts. Possibly the X1 Carbon or Dell 6430u if its screen upgrade ever shows up.

 

How can you tell what harddrive you have?

 

You can phone Asus Customer support line and give them your serial number and they can tell you. If you've already opened the box and fired up the machine, go into Device Manager and it will tell you.

@Oldie812 ^ ^: Great synopsis and I agree with you on all points after using the Black Touchscreen UX31A. Too few people seem to pick up on your - very accurate, I believe - observation that there is no magic to having a touch screen with Win8 nor is it particularly difficult to use a mouse or trackpad for navigation in W8. Plus it is unnatural and uncomfortable to stretch your arm over the entire keyboard deck to reach the screen. I think it would be much more useful on a "convertible," in which you could fold the screen over the keyboard and use it like a tablet, especially if it had a Wacom dual digitizer and you could use a stylus on the screen. With it all, I might choose a touchscreen version if it had a matte screen and didn't add too much to the price, but I would not use it often. Also, there is a weight penalty to the touch screen.

The two things you didn't mention about the black finish were:

1) How badly it accumulates hand oils and how difficult it is to get them out. It's as if the top layer of the finish is slightly porous and you really have to rub the marks out

2) Still unknown, but I never trust painted surfaces' durability. Chances are the black is an extremely thin layer, with some kind of sealant over it (the culprit for the finger/hand oil magnet, I think) and beneath that I would expect some silver colored base metal, that I am worried will show through from any decent sized hit.

Bottom line: if you want a UX31A the non-touch version is your better bet. What remains to be seen is if Asus really made some design/manufacturing improvements on the touchscreen model or if it just reflects the company's finally getting it's act together on quality control.

I am more than ready to be proven wrong; please, new owners, take issue with everything I've said if you disagree.

 

Unfortunately, the touchscreen version does not seem to come with such software.

 

It is there but it's part of Windows 8 under "remove everything and re-install windows". Once you click the "get started" button, deleting the partition is in one of the options.

Two other comments
1. The black finish is beautiful, but it is FAR AND AWAY the biggest fingerprint magnet I have used

2. The "asus smart gestures" software which controls the trackpad is one of the most unreliable pieces of junk software I have seen in a good while. It frequently crashes (with no way short of rebooting to restart it) and when it happens the trackpad either stops working completely or the scroll and swipe from the side functionality disappears.

Issue number two is really bothering me, to the point I might take it back, but then I look at the screen and pick it up, and I'm back in love again

 

The ASUS smart gesture has an update which makes it better, also the ATK patckage, it has fixed all of my issues.

 

Almost off-topic.

The thing is touch is very useful after a while Learning what works best with keyboard/mouse and what works best with touch (moving things; quickly selecting).
But I think one shouldn't disregard the rapidly coming future.

For example Cakewalk has updated its Professional music software to work with touch & I am quite sure it will revolutionize the way many people write/mix music.
It will no longer be necessary to purchase huge expensive DAW controllers that cost many times the prices of a computer.
If touch laptop or all in one desktop such as the Dell One 27 are any good, I predict a huge success with many (pro) applications such as music, 3D modelling and many other where you have complex applications with many parameter that can be graphically represented.

That's why my next notebook will absolutely be touch enabled. It may seem new and counterproductive today, in 3 years it will be like breathing.

Personally I am still hesitating between the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch, the Acer S7 (although in both cases 4GB RAM is pretty darn little) and the Dell XPS 12 (can go to 8GB). Lenovo Carbon X1 Touch perhaps if the screen is any good but the screen of the standard X1 is at best mediocre so I don't expect any miracle.
So looking forward to more shared expériences with the UX31A touch and perhaps youtube videos?

 

Wish I could say the same. If it helps at all, its so small I cant tell

 

Unfortunately they not release in Asia yet(their homeland). Could one of the owner take a video review ? Just curious about the shape and color.I cannot find any video of it on YouTube.do you think touch version better than non-touch? Just worry about glossy screens.it seems I have to wait at least 1month for i7 with 256 ssd. Sighhhh.

 

Earlier in the thread I posted a link to an Israeli website with a short video review
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4318537,00.html
There are also some high-res images posted by Snipester.

The black version is BestBuy exclusive, so, chances are, the rest of the global market will get the model with the standard non-touch UX31A color scheme (brushed aluminum body, off-blue lid). With regards to shape and feel the machine is identical to UX31A, with the exception of the glossy screen (it is also 0.1kg heavier). To my knowledge, there are no non-glossy touch screens available on ultrabooks right now. Even the famed Lenovo X1 Carbon will have a 'semi-glossy' screen, whatever that means. I could be wrong however.

The glossy screen is less of a problem for me, perhaps because the environment where I work does not have bright lights right behind me, and because most of the laptops I've owned had a glossy screen. However, the lid hinges that do not stiffen in the open position are a problem, as the screen is easily moved back while interacting with it.

 

I'm having an issue with the computer still on and closing the screen. The keypad seems to be causing the touchscreen to register even though the screen is turned off. Sometimes I'll hear it typing in the password field for logging in, very annoying... hope this is fixed in a future update...

 

I would like to consider this machine, however why should i get this instead of Yoga? I am looking more for differences in daily use (touchscreen/touchpad response, wireless, battery life, overall daily functionality). Thank you

 

I almost bought the lenovo myself. I don't remember any difference in the daily use. I actually liked the touchpad better on the Yoga and it's 10 point touch, not 5. I picked the asus though cause it has a backlit keyboard, wireless display (widi), better screen resolution, only one harddrive instead of both c: and d: drives making it harder to deal with the small amount of memory. I also realized as much as I like the idea of a convertible, I myself wouldn't play with the tablet form all that much.

 

I also just picked one up at Bestbuy for $1099 + Tax.

Went through the setup process and during just basic browsing and updating the apps that came with it, my wifi keeps dying.

My wifi is a hidden network secured with WPA2. When its *not* working though, i would click on the available networks icon near the clock and see an option for "Hidden Network" What exactly is that and does anyone know why this keeps happening?

 

My only complain is the exhaust vents at the back below the hinge. This kind of design results in quite some wind noise. Now Sony seems to be the only one that put the vents on the left side fo their untrabook and slim ones.

 

For you UX31A touch owners...

What kind of battery life are you getting?

 

Sad no 8gb/256 ssd option

 

So after returning the lenovo yoga 13 back to BB, recently got the asus zenbook ux31a touch for $1099 + tax. About a $100 more expensive than yoga but definitely worth it.The ssd is so much faster (I made sure it was ADATA XM11 by calling asus with the serial #, took me 3 tries, but go it). The screen is much nicer, I actually like the glossy screen, but yeah it does suck when you angle it such that the overhead lights will shine on the screen. I would have preferred the spun metal but BB only sells the black, which isn't that bad. I don't use the touch screen that often, I like having the convenience of it when I do need it. At times, I'll use the touchpad primarily for scrolling, but the majority of the time, I use an external logitech mouse as I feel I'm most productive that way (or probably too used to a mouse after all these years). Even after all the updates (windows updates + asus updates) there are still some updates you need to do. I went to intel and it said there was an update for widi and wireless which I promptly did and removed the exclamation mark on the device manager for the only device that it had a problem with.

As it relates to the fan noise: this was a major issue I returned the lenovo yoga which seemed to have it running non-stop and the cpu util was a 2-3% even if the system had been idle for many minutes. The form factor was great though. I liked sitting at a coffee shop and using the tent mode, something harder to do with limited desk space. Now the asus ux31a touch solves the two issues for the most part. The fan noise isn't that loud when it does kick in. It does kick in occasionally to frequently depending on what I'm doing with the pc (that I expect). In battery mode, I have the fan set to passive which I imagine will just slow down the cpu when it hits TDP rather than kick in the fan though I haven't tested this yet. I ended up removing some of the bloat ware mostly using the sticky and the rest having to google each of the "asus" items in program manager and uninstalling it. I added a PIN for faster login (and a compromise I can live with). I ended up removing the intel antithreat (McAfee) crap as it's only free for a few months then they want you to pay, screw that.

Now the yoga had 10 point touch whereas this has 5 point. It won't register more than a one finger touch in the paint app so I'm probably not doing something right here. Come to think of it, neither did the yoga. The yoga's edges weren't as sharp as the asus which I wish was slightly more blunted, but it is something I can live with. My other option was to wait for Haswell but my old thinkpad x61t was showing it's age despite the ssd/ram upgrade/os upgrade. I'll probably sell the old one off now. Yoga also did not have an intel wifi which makes quite a difference in performance and how quickly it connects upon resuming from standby. I use the ultrabook to look stuff up when I study so I need it to wake up quickly and then stay quiet most of the time while I study. This asus is the closest it gets to my way of working/studying. It didn't come with a microhdmi adapter so I ordered a cable from monoprice. I wish there was a mini display port so I could connect it to my 30" 2560x1600 but ah well. The other port is minivga not DP as some reviews incorrectly mention. The yoga took me a long time to clean partition and fresh install and I decided not to go through with it on this as there is still quite a bit of space left and uninstalling the bloat is quicker (though not perhaps cleaner).
So I plugged a 32gb sd card in the side slot to add more space but the card wouldn't go in all the way, only about half way. It works but a tad annoying that it sticks out that far. Same thing with the tiny logitech universal usb dongle. The thinkpad the sd card went in all the way and the usb was recessed so as to hide it.

Has anyone used a stylus with this screen?

 

I just spontaneously pulled the trigger on the zenbook touch at my local Best Buy and I'm glad I did. I was debating for the past couple weeks on this machine or the Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch and my doubts about the Zenbook's keyboard were laid to rest after testing it out for a while. Now my only gripe is the limited 128gb ssd. The lack of total space (60gb total) is really limiting for the work and schoolwork I do so I sent out an email to Asus asking when the i7 and or 256gb model would be avail. Hopefully we're not waiting too long for it.

 

Is the SSD user replaceable to a bigger one?

 

So ram is NOT upgrade able but ssd is?

 

Okay, just tried to use my stylus from the x61t tablet and no go on the asus ux31a touch screen.

 

Went to check this out at BB... Totally like the design and color. The LCD screen is amazing. Sound is not as good as Lenovo Yoga. Most disappointed piece for me is the 4gb ram limit. Ideally want a laptop where I can upgrade later on ram and ssd if there are issues or need bigger. The fact they soldered the ram, turned me off....

Sad I want to get the laptop too

 

You are not alone!

The Zenbooks and their likes have such appealing design, class-leading display and impossibly thin and light chassis and perform like a champ for everyday tasks, but suffer from the same inflexibility and limited available configurations that are common to ultrabooks and the MacBook Air: soldered-on RAM, SSD modules and CPUs that can never be upgraded from the configuration you purchase initially. I imagine you already know that Asus offers an alternative model with a very similar design and the same wonderful 1080p IPS display and enables expansion to 10GB RAM and up to 512GB SATA III SSD in the UX32VD, which also has a low end but somewhat useful d-GPU (nVidia 620) included - whether you want it or not. The UX32VD is alone in the market for slim "ultrabook" form factor notebooks with such upgradeability. And if you feel you must have a touchscreen it is highly likely that as I write this post the touchscreen/Windows 8 version will be released.

Even then there are tradeoffs to deal with: the chassis is not as rock-stable as the UX31A/MBA "unibody" construction because to expand it you have to be able to unscrew the bottom. The other major tradeoffs you have to accept with all of these vs. slightly heavier and thicker "ultraportables" like the Thinkpad X230 are a ULV cpu, irreplaceable battery and fairly stiff price to end up with the configuration you seek: $1,250 for the base configuration plus some $300 to get it to 256GB SSD and 10 GB RAM and over $500 to go to a 512GB SSD and the added RAM for a final cost of $1,550 - $1,750. It's still a pretty fair value at that cost compared to a comparably equipped Sony Z - about $2,000 - $2,500.

I'm finding it interesting to observe that many people who had initially panned the notion of the ultrabook/MacBook Air as a "serious" notebook computer are now trying to make it work for them because they are such appealing pieces of kit and, who wouldn't prefer their lightweight sleekness to even "ultraportable" alternatives like the Sony Z and Thinkpad X230 that offer comparable or higher performance at comparable or even lower cost but lack the pizazz of the Zenbook/MBA designs? Seems to be the case that one way or another components are getting ever thinner and more energy efficient such that their packaging can be slate-like in weight and thickness and evermore powerful with better and better high res IPS-like displays. It comes down to the old addage: 1) thin and light; 2) powerful; 3) reasonably priced. Pick any 2!

 

Agree...

Because of the fact, I find myself split between the current 3 - X1 Carbon Touch / Yoga 13 / XPS 12....

Oh well. CES didn't announce anything surprising except the Samsung Ultra 7, but that is a different class of it's own.

 

Has anyone tried reclaiming the 20GB recovery partition, similar to what's outlined in this yoga thread? Would be nice to have the extra space, SSD is filling up rather quickly

Re: Ideapad Yoga hard disk allocation - Page 13 - Lenovo Community

 

What about the UXVD version of the Zenbook? You have to add your own SSD and buy up some RAM but are the others you mention available in 8GB RAM or 256GB SSD?

 

Uxdv lower build

Yoga and xps can be config with 8gb and 256 ssd

 

The issue with the yoga is that it uses 2 different drives (from what I read somewhere) instead of a single drive like the UX31. There should be no issue freeing up the recovery partition.

 

The yoga uses 1 drive, with multiple partitions for recovery, data, etc. I was able to successfully install a new copy of win 8 pro and blow away all the partitions and consolidate into 1 partition.

Not sure why the complaint about 4gb/128g ram/ssd is all about. For my work it's fine. Yes, more SSD space would be nice, but you can always plug in an external 1tb hdd, 64gb sdxc card, etc. More ram, for what? How many os / virtual os are you running simultaneously? Or dealing with intensive photoshop with large files, etc. I keep a close eye on my ram / cpu utilization. There is bloatware that comes with and that people end up installing that eats up those two things. Win 8 will even tell you what you install and is slowing down boot times. I prefer a clean lightweight (both physically and software wise) ultrabook.

Really the next big thing is going to be larger battery life which will come with Haswell if you can wait later this year.

 

For me I use Lightroom a lot and some photoshop. I also will use ms visual studio and run sharepoint foundation for experimental purpose beside I want a book I can still use two years or three from now. 4gb to me is plenty for Internet and basic office function

 

I'm tired of the zenbook.asus.com website lying to me about the existence of an i7 256GB version of the UX31A touch. When will the laptop actually be out there?

 

I hate to quote wikipedia, but it happened to be my first search hit and I didn't feel like looking further. The Yoga uses "2 SSDs."

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to that, the Yoga 13 has 2 ssd's combined for the capacity. I was pretty sure that I read that they were both msata drives and people were trying to configure them as a single partition. I am not a hard drive expert and have never looked into raid configurations or anything like that. I have reformatted plenty of single drives though that contained factory partitions and never had an issue.

 

I agree. Chairman Shih should spend less time press Conferencing around the world 24/7 and more time making sure Asus' computers don't arrive one year after their announcement, if ever.
I for one will go for the Samsung 7 Ultra if it is available soon, or the XPS 12.

 

I picked up both the Yoga and this laptop to "test" from best buy. I got the yoga first and was impressed by it until I got the Asus. I use a retina display macbook pro at work and the yoga's screen is so meh. The Asus on the other hand is fantastic.

The cool thing about the yoga though, outside of the convertible (which I loved), is it has 2 mSSD slots with only one filled on arival. So you can buy a 2nd one and install it and run two hard drives. You can also change the memory. Now days having 4gb of memory and 128 gb (60 after windows install) seems pretty weak sauce.

With that said, unless something else comes out soon... the Asus is going to win out. I really love the convertible but the screen on the Yoga just doesn't cut it.

 

Acer also uses two SSDs in a raid configuration on their S7s and they have by far the fastest Crystaldiskmark results I have seen on any ultrabook..ever.

 

I hear that 100%. I have a macbook retina that I got as a gift (several birthdays/graduation/holidays forgotten then combined) and figured it would be fine to carry as my day to day school/photo companion. After 1 1/2 semesters at law school and being highly mobile I realized that I needed something a little lighter and smaller. I stalked slickdeals and picked up my ux31a for dirt cheap and have been really happy with the screen quality. Even from going from the retina display, the asus still looks crisp and dense. We are finally at a time where 1080p screens are out there, but as far as asus goes, I think theirs are some of the better ones I have seen recently.

 

Sad part they only come in 4gb soldered ram. I really like the Acer design too

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

I went ahead and proceeded with the disk reformatting per these instructions (with some minor modifications of the partition numbers, since they are slightly different on UX31A touch). One can simply delete the recovery partition, of course, but then I ended up with an eye sore of a 20GB secondary drive floating around.

Everything seems to be working as intended. Intel Rapid Start service is running and functioning normally, using the suggested test in the linked thread. The IRST icon does not show up in the system tray; however, I am 99% certain it was not there to start off with (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

I now have a nice juicy 114.24GB primary drive All praise goes to the original author of the instructions.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I used the IRST driver from the Asus support site, NOT the one linked in the thread (although they might be the same)

 

Didn't lenovo released an update on the partition for newer shipment?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

They have - a small executable that fixes the highly fragmented partitioning of the Yoga laptop. However, I don't think it will work on the Asus UX31A touch, discussed here

 

@Barrok: I am interested in hearing more of your feedback regarding the Yoga versus the UX31A. I picked up a Yoga a couple of days ago, but have been immediately disappointed by the louder-than-usual fan noise. How does the fan noise on the UX31A compare to the Yoga? Keyboard? Touchpad? Wireless?

Thanks!

 

Here is the breakdown from my perspective:

Functionality: I loved the Lenovo and it's convertible nature almost made me keep it. The asus is obviously functional, its super tiny though and a pain in the to open the screen but its all metal and just feels rad (granted, it has sharp edges so be careful!). Also, the rotating screen on the Yoga was very nice for showing off pictures and playing verticle games.

Fan Noise: I didn't even notice the yoga fan noise until i read about it online. I had been using it around my family so it wasn't exactly a quiet environment. Once i used it in a low sound environment i was immediately turned off by it. The asus reminds me a lot more of every other laptop I have used.. it's quiet most of the time but kicks on every now and then if it's being heavily used. Much much nicer than the Yoga. With that said, the Yoga could be fixed in an update. I imagine it is just fan profile settings that are causing it to run.

Keyboard: Both keyboards are nice. I probably liked the lenovo just a little bit more, but it wasn't backlit which is amazing for a 1k computer. If i remember right, the F keys worked without having to hold the FN button, which is not the case on the Asus. Kinda frustrating on Asus's end but it is what it is.

Screen: I know I said it before but the Asus screen is amazing. I actually tweaked the color settings over the weekend and it looks much better. Less of a yellowish/greenish tint. Compared to my RGB Alienware and my Macbook Pro Retina, it falls to 3rd place, but it is still very nice.

Touchpad: So the drivers here are finicky. It has some cool edge gesture features (so you can use the touchpad like you would a touchscreen, meaning you can swipe and see windows charms etc) except sometimes these gestures activate when you didn't mean to. So, i turned off the swipe left to right one, which switches apps and it stayed off for a few hours.. then it came back on. We checked the settings, it was off, and magically it started functioning again. Very weird. Other than that my wife and I like the touchpad a lot more than the yoga. Buttons seem to be better and I haven't had as many weird random mouse movements.

Wireless: THIS IS HUGE!!!! I have a netgear router (wnd3700 or something like that) and we had issues recently with our 3 year old sony which is why we were looking at laptops. The lenovo was a let down. I have 25mb/s internet and was almost always getting between 8-12, even when sitting by it. It especially got worse as i moved around the house. Plus it has no 5ghz connection, very weird. The Asus, I believe, uses the intel chip which is 5ghz compatible and it is 2x2. Almost anywhere in the house it gets a constant 25mb/s download and the max 4.5 upload. This is much more in line with what I want for a 1k computer.

Conclusion: I took the yoga back on saturday. The best buy guy was shocked someone would bring one back knowing how awesome it is. I totally would have kept it if the wireless and screen were a little better. I really loved the convertible but just too many other things bringing it down.

 

Thanks a lot for the comparison! Good to know about possible cons before buying, but they don't look like dealbreakers to me. Loud fan noises are. And one would think that Lenovo would have released a BIOS update for that by now, but actually there is very little feedback from their end on the forums, with people complaining about it for 2 months now, and not being helped by random users chiming in to say "my laptop is quiet", because they never use it in a quiet environment.

The wireless IS a huge point. I need reliable WiFi, and it's a mystery to all why they left 802.11a (5GHz) off of the Yoga, but probably to save money. I am also concerned about the finish issues on the Yoga, since they seem pretty common with paint chipping, etc.

Main thing right now is I'm really glad that the fan is not loud on the UX31A, and all the reviews online seem to back that up. There's so much draw to the Yoga for the convertability aspect, but in reality I would probably use that about 2% of the time, with the other 98% of the time in normal laptop mode. If I can get better screen, better keyboard, better wifi, better weight in the Asus for just $100 more, seems worth it to me. I was liking the thought of upgradability on the Yoga, but at least there's an SD card slot on the UX31A, so hopefully I can put a high-capacity SD card in there for some added storage(?)

Going to check out the UX31A at Best Buy today... if I can find one in stock!