This review is from: ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Aluminum) (Personal Computers)
This is a significant product, and a long-awaited one. Previously, if you wanted to have a notebook like MacBook Air, you’d be forced to switch to Mac regardless of how much of a Windows person you were. Nothing else on the Windows side was really even remotely comparable. Now, this is the first real alternative in the Windows camp.
Is it better than the MacBook Air? It depends. If you are a Windows person, it is. Previously, you had to be seriously biased to say any Windows-based laptop in the ultracompact category is better than the MacBook Air. Now, that can be an honest assertion. But if you are a Mac person, you might still say the MacBook air is better, which could be a debatable assertion, but a respectable one.
To me, ZenBook is better than the MacBook air, even if I objectively lay aside the operating system difference, because for my personal preferences I give a higher value to some of the strong points of Zenbook, especially its thermal performance. Your preference may be different.
- - THUMBS UP FOR BOTH MACBOOK AIR AND ZENBOOK
(1) COMPUTING PERFORMANCE – First of all, in terms of the primary computing performance, including the CPU and memory performance, they’re very similar, and both are very good. Asus’ own tests say that the Zenbook is faster, but I don’t feel much of it. This is, however, mainly because both are so fast. Comparing the speed of the CPU and memory of these two computers really has very little practical meaning. Only labs would be interested in doing that. Who is going to choose a computer over another because one opens up Microsoft Word in 1.5 seconds versus the other’s 1.7 seconds? You see what I mean.
ZenBook does have much faster data transfer through its USB 3 port. It is easily multiple times faster than MacBook air’s USB 2. But unless you routinely transfer very large files, I’m not sure if this is so important. Also, MacBook Air has a thunderbolt port which I’ve not tested in comparison with the ZenBook.
ZenBook also uses a much faster SSD (nearly twice as fast as that of the MacBook Air), but for some reason, I did not notice a very big difference in actual performance. Again, it’s probably because both are already superfast for daily tasks. Gamers may tell a different story, but why do you buy an ultracompact laptop like these if you are a gamer?
(2) DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY – Both computers are extremely well-designed and well built. To me, the ZenBook is almost a bit too pretty (a bit too showy and trendy to my taste). This is usually a problem I have with Mac products, but now, you’ve got a Windows product that beats that. I wish they would make a ZenBook in all black, and with a more plain business looking (but keep the feel of the high-quality and compactness). Had Lenovo made a similar machine maintaining the basic black square-edged ThinkPad style with the same compactness and thermal performance (see below), I would nearly certainly buy the ThinkPad instead. But there’s nothing even in the radar screen on the ThinkPad side, so I caved in.
(3) BATTERY LIFE – The smaller ZenBook (UX21) uses a 35W battery and has 5+ hrs of battery life, comparable to that of MacBook Air. I did not do a strict test. But both are very good. The key is that both laptops would run through a whole day, even a busy day. That’s what matters. Once a laptop reaches an all-day battery life, further extension of the battery life really no longer matters that much, unless of course it then reaches much longer to become days or even a week. You will be doing an overnight charging anyway. It’s the mid-day recharging that brings trouble.
You may ask, how can a five-hour battery support whole-day use? Well, this actually has something to do with the instant resume feature of these computers (see below), and you have to experience it in real life to fully appreciate its usefulness.
(4) TWO-SECOND INSTANT RESUME – If you have got used to waiting for your Windows to boot up, you’d be pleasantly shocked by how ZenBook manages to always wake up in 2 seconds, unless you’ve done a cold shutdown.
Instant resume was a famous feature of MacBook Air, but now ZenBook completely matches (perhaps even surpasses) MacBook air on that. Asus designed a Super Hybrid Engine which enables the ZenBook to have a true 2-seocnd resume in the entire two weeks standby time. Asus claims it is better than MacBook Air because MacBook air’s instant resume works only for a day of standby time, and after that would take 6 seconds to resume. I did not test that. But if you use your laptop on a daily basis, both these machines have reliable instant resume, and you will appreciate this feature in your daily use.
Instant resume is not just a cool feature. It is very practical and has a huge impact on user experience. For example, without such instant resume ability, a laptop would have to…
This review is from: ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Aluminum) (Personal Computers)
Summary: The Zenbook is exactly what I had in mind when I needed a lightweight, low maintenance portable to carry on business trips with me. Tablets or netbooks were not an option because of their limited capabilities and inadequate performance.
The Zenbook is very pleasant to look at and different, but not difficult to use- in fact, my experience has been enjoyable. I’ve not experienced any problems described by other reviewers. Perhaps Asus is listening and my machine is a reflection of that.
I was surprised at the negative comments on engineering design, choice of components, etc. The emphasis on the keyboard and touchpad are understandable in that they are different – the manual explains how to use the keypad and what to expect. I’ve had electrical “pops” on many laptop chargers, and this one did so about 5% of the time. Asus provides a solid warranty on its laptops. And, I have dealt with their support organization before on warranty work and service calls, with positive results, except one, where it took time for them to find a replacement laptop – the outcome was satisfactory.
Pros:
1. The Elan touchpad works very well and has a sensitivity region that shrinks in size when you are typing on the keyboard so that you don’t accidentally activate the touchpad while typing. 2. While a source of complaints, the keyboard and keys definitely enhance the look. Keys provide positive feedback with a “tactile click” created by the key giving way when it is pressed down far enough. It’s also reliable – key presses that failed were not the computer’s fault. 3. When done working, I just close the lid on the machine to suspend my work – (it has “sleep” rather than “shutdown” as the default option to power off your computer). 4. To resume (hours or days later), I simply open the lid and login -much the same as any laptop only the response is much quicker – about 2 seconds. My wireless reconnects fast enough that I can go directly to the Internet and start browsing, or refresh my Outlook to get the latest mail. 5. The extremely small footprint allows me to store the computer anywhere, even inside a leather notebook that normally holds a pad of paper. 6. Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0 for greater speeds and new capabilities 7. Good speakers and audio 8. Tiny camera and good microphone. The mic even works with WSR…..not great 9. My old USB DVD/CD player works fine. 10. Crisp easy to read display
Cons: 1. The keyboard keys are the “chicklet” style found on other Asus, Apple, etc. computers and if you are not used to them they can be difficult to type on simply because they are flat across the top as opposed to the tapered keys found on many keyboards (e.g. ThinkPad) and are low-profile (i.e. short). Personally, all keyboards require some time to adapt to them. 2. I/O ports are limited but adequate. 3. Must carry the port adapters if you need Ethernet or VGA – I personally don’t need them. 4. 4 GB RAM limit, hopefully this will change with higher density chips. However, with the SSD being so fast, virtual memory use is not noticeable to me. 5. Wireless limited to 150 Mb/s – fast enough for real-time data over wireless, but 300Mb/s would be desirable. Most routers still only support G (54 Mbps) in public places, hotels, etc. So I couldn’t use it anyway.
In short, the Zenbook represents a significant step forward in mobile technology. I will benefit from Asus’s innovatation and the reward/cost ratio is clearly on my side.
Update 12/18/2011: I’ve used the computer daily for the last month traveling around the country without any issues. I carry it in my backback or luggage along with my Lenovo work computer. I’m actually starting to depend on the handy mouse pad gestures – quite nice. The graphics chip can drive a full HD TV (1920 x 1080) and its own monitor concurrently – e.g., watch/listen to amazon movies while I use run programs, handle email, and/or browse the internet on the lower resolution builtin display.
Very portable, convenient and reliable. Still very pleased with the purchase.
Update 2/10/2012: Just had my first interaction with Asus support – the laptop was accidentally damaged; I sent it in under the ADW warranty and it was back in my hands 2 days later – Fixed! 1 day to transport in each direction and 1 day for the repairs. As expected, Asus covered the transportation in both directions.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: ASUS Zenbook UX21E-DH71 11.6-Inch Thin and Light Ultrabook (Silver Aluminum) (Personal Computers)
I bought this beautiful ultrabook at Frys last week and kept it for 5 days. I actually bought it right off the back of the truck that had just arrived. I was truly excited to get this machine(BUT): The keyboard is truly bad. The trackpad started off bad until I realized I needed to run an update from Asus to get all the drivers updated. The trackpad improved greatly with the updated driver, yet is still FAR lacking compared to a MacBook trackpad I do not know why).
Back to the keyboard. No driver can fix this keyboard. The keys are flat on top. The keys sit very close to the surrounding material underneath. You can push a key at the corner and touch the underlying material and not register a key push. I cannot replicate this on any other keyboard I have in the house. This means you bottom out the key before it registers the key push. Bottom line: you miss every fifth letter unless you hit the key right in the middle. I like to keep my job and I need to spell correctly. Therefore:
I took this machine right on back to Frys. The machine is truly beautiful (prettier than the MacBook Air). The sound from the speakers is very nice and it is much quieter than the MacBook Air (which we also own) because the implementation of the internal fan is much better on this Asus machine. The screen is nice too.
The keyboard sucks though and the trackpad is merely passable. I hated to take it back, but how Asus turned this into the Anus with a keyboard that doesn’t work is beyond me. What screwed up committee let this happen?
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Authors bio is coming up shortly. 
Finally,
This is a significant product, and a long-awaited one. Previously, if you wanted to have a notebook like MacBook Air, you’d be forced to switch to Mac regardless of how much of a Windows person you were. Nothing else on the Windows side was really even remotely comparable. Now, this is the first real alternative in the Windows camp.
Is it better than the MacBook Air? It depends. If you are a Windows person, it is. Previously, you had to be seriously biased to say any Windows-based laptop in the ultracompact category is better than the MacBook Air. Now, that can be an honest assertion. But if you are a Mac person, you might still say the MacBook air is better, which could be a debatable assertion, but a respectable one.
To me, ZenBook is better than the MacBook air, even if I objectively lay aside the operating system difference, because for my personal preferences I give a higher value to some of the strong points of Zenbook, especially its thermal performance. Your preference may be different.
-
- THUMBS UP FOR BOTH MACBOOK AIR AND ZENBOOK
(1) COMPUTING PERFORMANCE – First of all, in terms of the primary computing performance, including the CPU and memory performance, they’re very similar, and both are very good. Asus’ own tests say that the Zenbook is faster, but I don’t feel much of it. This is, however, mainly because both are so fast. Comparing the speed of the CPU and memory of these two computers really has very little practical meaning. Only labs would be interested in doing that. Who is going to choose a computer over another because one opens up Microsoft Word in 1.5 seconds versus the other’s 1.7 seconds? You see what I mean.
ZenBook does have much faster data transfer through its USB 3 port. It is easily multiple times faster than MacBook air’s USB 2. But unless you routinely transfer very large files, I’m not sure if this is so important. Also, MacBook Air has a thunderbolt port which I’ve not tested in comparison with the ZenBook.
ZenBook also uses a much faster SSD (nearly twice as fast as that of the MacBook Air), but for some reason, I did not notice a very big difference in actual performance. Again, it’s probably because both are already superfast for daily tasks. Gamers may tell a different story, but why do you buy an ultracompact laptop like these if you are a gamer?
(2) DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY – Both computers are extremely well-designed and well built. To me, the ZenBook is almost a bit too pretty (a bit too showy and trendy to my taste). This is usually a problem I have with Mac products, but now, you’ve got a Windows product that beats that. I wish they would make a ZenBook in all black, and with a more plain business looking (but keep the feel of the high-quality and compactness). Had Lenovo made a similar machine maintaining the basic black square-edged ThinkPad style with the same compactness and thermal performance (see below), I would nearly certainly buy the ThinkPad instead. But there’s nothing even in the radar screen on the ThinkPad side, so I caved in.
(3) BATTERY LIFE – The smaller ZenBook (UX21) uses a 35W battery and has 5+ hrs of battery life, comparable to that of MacBook Air. I did not do a strict test. But both are very good. The key is that both laptops would run through a whole day, even a busy day. That’s what matters. Once a laptop reaches an all-day battery life, further extension of the battery life really no longer matters that much, unless of course it then reaches much longer to become days or even a week. You will be doing an overnight charging anyway. It’s the mid-day recharging that brings trouble.
You may ask, how can a five-hour battery support whole-day use? Well, this actually has something to do with the instant resume feature of these computers (see below), and you have to experience it in real life to fully appreciate its usefulness.
(4) TWO-SECOND INSTANT RESUME – If you have got used to waiting for your Windows to boot up, you’d be pleasantly shocked by how ZenBook manages to always wake up in 2 seconds, unless you’ve done a cold shutdown.
Instant resume was a famous feature of MacBook Air, but now ZenBook completely matches (perhaps even surpasses) MacBook air on that. Asus designed a Super Hybrid Engine which enables the ZenBook to have a true 2-seocnd resume in the entire two weeks standby time. Asus claims it is better than MacBook Air because MacBook air’s instant resume works only for a day of standby time, and after that would take 6 seconds to resume. I did not test that. But if you use your laptop on a daily basis, both these machines have reliable instant resume, and you will appreciate this feature in your daily use.
Instant resume is not just a cool feature. It is very practical and has a huge impact on user experience. For example, without such instant resume ability, a laptop would have to…
Read more
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|ASUS ZENBOOK REVIEW,
Summary: The Zenbook is exactly what I had in mind when I needed a lightweight, low maintenance portable to carry on business trips with me. Tablets or netbooks were not an option because of their limited capabilities and inadequate performance.
The Zenbook is very pleasant to look at and different, but not difficult to use- in fact, my experience has been enjoyable. I’ve not experienced any problems described by other reviewers. Perhaps Asus is listening and my machine is a reflection of that.
I was surprised at the negative comments on engineering design, choice of components, etc. The emphasis on the keyboard and touchpad are understandable in that they are different – the manual explains how to use the keypad and what to expect. I’ve had electrical “pops” on many laptop chargers, and this one did so about 5% of the time. Asus provides a solid warranty on its laptops. And, I have dealt with their support organization before on warranty work and service calls, with positive results, except one, where it took time for them to find a replacement laptop – the outcome was satisfactory.
Pros:
1. The Elan touchpad works very well and has a sensitivity region that shrinks in size when you are typing on the keyboard so that you don’t accidentally activate the touchpad while typing.
2. While a source of complaints, the keyboard and keys definitely enhance the look. Keys provide positive feedback with a “tactile click” created by the key giving way when it is pressed down far enough. It’s also reliable – key presses that failed were not the computer’s fault.
3. When done working, I just close the lid on the machine to suspend my work – (it has “sleep” rather than “shutdown” as the default option to power off your computer).
4. To resume (hours or days later), I simply open the lid and login -much the same as any laptop only the response is much quicker – about 2 seconds. My wireless reconnects fast enough that I can go directly to the Internet and start browsing, or refresh my Outlook to get the latest mail.
5. The extremely small footprint allows me to store the computer anywhere, even inside a leather notebook that normally holds a pad of paper.
6. Bluetooth 4.0 and USB 3.0 for greater speeds and new capabilities
7. Good speakers and audio
8. Tiny camera and good microphone. The mic even works with WSR…..not great
9. My old USB DVD/CD player works fine.
10. Crisp easy to read display
Cons:
1. The keyboard keys are the “chicklet” style found on other Asus, Apple, etc. computers and if you are not used to them they can be difficult to type on simply because they are flat across the top as opposed to the tapered keys found on many keyboards (e.g. ThinkPad) and are low-profile (i.e. short). Personally, all keyboards require some time to adapt to them.
2. I/O ports are limited but adequate.
3. Must carry the port adapters if you need Ethernet or VGA – I personally don’t need them.
4. 4 GB RAM limit, hopefully this will change with higher density chips. However, with the SSD being so fast, virtual memory use is not noticeable to me.
5. Wireless limited to 150 Mb/s – fast enough for real-time data over wireless, but 300Mb/s would be desirable. Most routers still only support G (54 Mbps) in public places, hotels, etc. So I couldn’t use it anyway.
In short, the Zenbook represents a significant step forward in mobile technology. I will benefit from Asus’s innovatation and the reward/cost ratio is clearly on my side.
Update 12/18/2011:
I’ve used the computer daily for the last month traveling around the country without any issues. I carry it in my backback or luggage along with my Lenovo work computer. I’m actually starting to depend on the handy mouse pad gestures – quite nice. The graphics chip can drive a full HD TV (1920 x 1080) and its own monitor concurrently – e.g., watch/listen to amazon movies while I use run programs, handle email, and/or browse the internet on the lower resolution builtin display.
Very portable, convenient and reliable. Still very pleased with the purchase.
Update 2/10/2012:
Just had my first interaction with Asus support – the laptop was accidentally damaged; I sent it in under the ADW warranty and it was back in my hands 2 days later – Fixed! 1 day to transport in each direction and 1 day for the repairs. As expected, Asus covered the transportation in both directions.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Stunningly bad keyboard,
I bought this beautiful ultrabook at Frys last week and kept it for 5 days. I actually bought it right off the back of the truck that had just arrived. I was truly excited to get this machine(BUT): The keyboard is truly bad. The trackpad started off bad until I realized I needed to run an update from Asus to get all the drivers updated. The trackpad improved greatly with the updated driver, yet is still FAR lacking compared to a MacBook trackpad I do not know why).
Back to the keyboard. No driver can fix this keyboard. The keys are flat on top. The keys sit very close to the surrounding material underneath. You can push a key at the corner and touch the underlying material and not register a key push. I cannot replicate this on any other keyboard I have in the house. This means you bottom out the key before it registers the key push. Bottom line: you miss every fifth letter unless you hit the key right in the middle. I like to keep my job and I need to spell correctly. Therefore:
I took this machine right on back to Frys. The machine is truly beautiful (prettier than the MacBook Air). The sound from the speakers is very nice and it is much quieter than the MacBook Air (which we also own) because the implementation of the internal fan is much better on this Asus machine. The screen is nice too.
The keyboard sucks though and the trackpad is merely passable. I hated to take it back, but how Asus turned this into the Anus with a keyboard that doesn’t work is beyond me. What screwed up committee let this happen?
Was this review helpful to you?
|