Asus Zenbook UX31E review

Ultrabooks have arrived to challenge the MacBook Air

Traditional devices such as laptops and netbooks are under severe pressure as manufacturers roll out increasingly powerful smartphones and tablets.

Sales have been suffering and, in an attempt to keep portable x86-based devices relevant, Intel has teamed up with companies such as Asus to launch the Ultrabook category.

Asus has decided to brand its UX31E Ultrabook as a Zenbook in an attempt to differentiate itself from rivals Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba, which will all release devices before the year is out.

Beautifully crafted machine
At first glance, the Zenbook looks remarkably similar to the Apple MacBook Air in terms of design, and a closer look reveals that the specifications are similar.

The Zenbook has a solid metal chassis and a lovely aluminium finish, making this one of the best looking Windows-based laptops on the market. We think it looks every bit as good as the MacBook Air, and the metallic finish means it's not going to get as grubby as the Apple device.

The V-shaped design of the chassis means that the frame has a thickness of 3mm at the front and 9mm at the rear, and the laptop looks particularly impressive from the side.

However, a feature we don't like is the sealed back, which makes it impossible to swap out the battery on the move, something that travelling business users are likely to want to do.

We expected the full-body metal chassis to add significant weight, but the Zenbook tips the scales at a very reasonable 1.3kg, about 50g lighter than the 13in MacBook Air.

Ultra-bright display
The 13.3in LED backlit display offers a maximum resolution of 1,600x900. Details are very crisp, but we did find icons and fonts a little on the small side. This could be a problem for some people and, since 1,600x900 is the optimal resolution, changing the resolution seems only to distort the picture quality.

The display is almost too bright when turned up full, especially in an office environment with overhead lighting. We found that the white background pierced our eyes when typing documents, for example, and needed to be toned down. It does work well in low-lit conditions, though.

Asus Zenbook UX31E review

Ultrabooks have arrived to challenge the MacBook Air

Core i7 power
The Zenbook's performance is extremely impressive when connected to the mains and using the 'Entertainment' mode, as the device ekes every last drop out of the Intel Core i7 2677M dual-core processor.

The standard clock speed is 1.8GHz, but it is capable of churning out 2.4GHz using the TurboBoost technology. This is backed up by 4GB of installed RAM, which allows the Zenbook to fly though everyday applications.

Performance does dip when switching to battery, as the processor power is cut to 60 per cent. This is noticeable only when playing back resource-hungry multimedia content such as an HD movie, and the setting can always be changed. Of course, if performance is increased, the battery life will be affected.

Resume times are definitely the best we've seen in Windows-based devices, and offer a taste of what to expect when Windows 8 is launched. Asus claims that the Zenbook can resume from sleep mode in two seconds thanks to its Super Hybrid Engine II and 128GB SSD, and we can confirm that this is the case.

Boot-up from a cold start isn't quite as impressive. The Zenbook took 19 seconds to boot up without a password and 25 to 30 seconds when it was necessary to enter credentials. Restart times are similar to this, and will be improved only when Windows 8 arrives.

We were also impressed with the web page loading times, which are certainly the fastest we've seen on a laptop.

All style, but not quite enough substance
One of the most important features of any laptop is the quality of the input, and unfortunately the Zenbook let us down here. Visually, the keyboard and trackpad are really well designed. The metallic keys of the island keyboard look stunning and are well proportioned, and we particularly liked the large backspace and left shift keys, although the arrow keys are a tad small.

A bigger flaw is the shallow depth of the keys, which offer hardly any feedback when pressing letters. This makes it easy to misspell words as you think you've hit the letter, but simply haven't applied enough pressure.

Similarly, the trackpad is huge, but performance isn't great. Asus has tried to emulate the Mac OS X Lion interface by introducing multi-touch gestures, but the execution is poor. Swiping with three fingers downwards is supposed to lead directly to the desktop, but it doesn't work every time and the transition is very jerky.

Other attempts to make the laptop easier to use include two finger scrolling and pinching to zoom, but the trackpad often gets these two gestures mixed up, so you find yourself zooming in on text or images when you are just trying to scroll.

It's conceivable that people will get used to the keyboard, but the same can't be said for the trackpad, and an external mouse will be needed.

Asus Zenbook UX31E review

Ultrabooks have arrived to challenge the MacBook Air

Connectivity and accessories
With such a thin chassis it's no surprise that ports have been kept to a minimum on the Zenbook. This saves weight and makes the device as portable as possible.

Asus has provided a USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 port for most basic connections. A micro HDMI and mini VGA connector are also included, along with a two-in-one SD/MMC card reader. Like the MacBook Air, there is no Ethernet port, and enterprise features such as Trusted Platform Module and a fingerprint reader have been left out.

Apple has phased out optical disk drives, starting with portable laptops, and other manufacturers are following suit, so it looks like the DVD drive is going the way of the floppy disk.

Most programs are available to download, and most consumers will probably be able to do without the drive. For those who frequently use DVDs or CDs, it's still possible to plug in a portable drive via a USB port.

Thankfully, Asus provides some accessories in the box to get buyers up and running without having to faff around for extra kit. These include a USB to Ethernet adaptor and a VGA adaptor to plug the device into a larger display. A snazzy button-up carry case is also included, which looks like a large envelope, and there's a little pouch for the USB accessories.

Hard-working battery
We found the Zenbook pretty impressive in terms of battery life. We managed to get four hours with non-stop use including internet browsing and having applications such as Skype and Microsoft Word active.

Moderate use, and activating the sleep mode during lunch time, allowed us to go beyond five hours, and it's possible to go further by tinkering with the settings, although we didn't quite manage to get to the touted seven hours.

If you need to create content on the move and require Windows 7, the Zenbook is a good option and is definitely more useful than any tablet or hybrid. The £999 price tag is not cheap, but it's still £100 less than the 13in MacBook Air model with a Core i7 processor and 128GB SSD.

However, it might be worth waiting to see whether the Zenbook is bested by Ultrabook offerings from Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba.