Sometimes it worked perfectly, other times I had to fiddle a bit. The magnetic hinge that keeps the Zenbook closed works somewhat like a MacBook Air's, but the narrow lip is harder to catch with your fingers and pull apart. Asus spent a lot of effort on the Zenbook's design, and it shows. I found that fellow office-workers were more eager to check it out than the typical laptop. The Zenbook's got a great coffee-shop quotient: it's easy to slip into and out of a bag, and odds are you'll draw a fair amount of casual attention from nearby latte-sippers when using it. There isn't any Ethernet jack, but Asus includes a USB-to-Ethernet and VGA dongle with the Zenbook, along with an attractive brown, nylon mailer-envelope-style sleeve to protect your laptop investment. USB, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack line the left side, while a USB 3.0 port, Mini DisplayPort, and Micro-HDMI port line the right. Ports line the sides of the Zenbook UX31, just like on the MacBook Air. A weight of 3.1 pounds is still light, but it's a tad heavier than the MacBook Air, Acer S3, and Lenovo IdeaPad U300s. The bladelike teardrop shape of the Zenbook is even curved like a MacBook Air, but it's slightly more bulbous: its 0.71 inch of maximum thickness is cleverly concealed, but I could tell the difference when I slipped it into a messenger bag. Brushed metal on the bottom is only interrupted by a rear speaker grill and four black rubber feet. Inside, the metal surfaces are brushed in a subtle vertical pattern. Radial metal lines on the back catch light and give the Zenbook an industrial-design flavor. The Zenbook, made of unibody aluminum like the MacBook Air, has a darker gloss to its back lid and a heft that makes it almost feel more like magnesium or steel. The experience is that similar, down to the square plastic wall charger with a removable plug tip. Take the Asus Zenbook out of its foam-lined jewel-box packaging, and you might think you'd accidentally bought a MacBook Air.
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If your idea of an Ultrabook is a Windows version of a MacBook Air with a slightly lower price, then consider the Zenbook your product: just be forewarned that the keyboard, touch pad, and battery life are less impressive than the audio/visual bells and whistles. If I were buying a Zenbook, I'd stick with our $1,099 review model and live with the limitations, glad that I had a MacBook Air-alike that saved me a few dollars along the way. The 13-inch Zenbook UX31 gets more expensive in 256GB SSD and Core i7 configurations, climbing up to $1,449 at its highest price. Those are somewhat minor issues for what's otherwise a very solid and impressive thin laptop, but at a price north of $1,000, these are issues anyone would pay attention to.
Nearly 5 hours isn't shabby, but it's not industry-leading. Battery life is short of the Air's lofty numbers, too. It feels like the opposite of the silky-smooth experience on a MacBook Air. Excellent speakers, sleek design, and a high-resolution screen are accompanied by a finicky keyboard and touch pad, giving the ever-so-slightly-off sensation when working on the Zenbook.
Smartly, the Zenbook gets that part right: when competing with a product as singularly well-known and highly rated as the MacBook Air, your product has to be either better or cheaper.Ĭheaper, it is: as for better, I'd have to disagree. That's $200 less expensive than the equivalent MacBook Air.
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The 13-inch Asus Zenbook, despite looking at least as expensive and high-end as laptops such as the Samsung Series 9, has a starting price of $1,099, which includes 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD drive.
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