Asus UX31E Zenbook 13.3 inch Laptop - Silver (Intel Core i7 2677M 1.8GHz, 4GB RAM, 256Gb SSD, LAN, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit)

With the Zenbook, Asus announce their presence in the Ultrabook market, a standard set by Intel for ultra-portable notebooks - and one that looks to Apple's Macbook Air as its main rival. As such, Ultrabook notebooks are intended to be less bulky than their standard cousins, to boot quickly and to have a considerably longer batterylife. On these three counts the Asus certainly succeeds, not without some sacrifices however.

The first thing that most people will notice is how incredibly thin the Zenbook is, thinner than my previous notebook's lid alone; it tapers to a near knife-like edge. With a 13.3" screen, it certainly doesn't present a bulky form and is easily transported in satchels and the like. A smart sleeve is included to protect the notebook and when its in this it feels like you're carrying nothing more than a padded envelope. It is also a lovely looking machine, with a brushed aluminium body that has a radial pattern to the back of the screen.

The video I've included here shows me starting the machine up, logging on and shutting down again, this is with only one non factory installed program - AVG antivirus. Even considering the near clean install, boot up speed is quite impressive, the only slow bit was me fumbling with a plaster on my finger and typing in my fairly long password (changed now!). Face recognition software is included as an alternative to password entry, however I found this too reliant on the same lighting conditions as when it is set up, also a person wearing glasses seemed to confuse it somewhat.

Something else you may notice from the video is how silent the notebook is when it starts up, this lack of noise continues as you use it. This silence is largely due to the lack of optical drives and to quiet fans. Firstly the hard drive is a 256 GB solid state drive (SSD), that means there is no moving magnetic disk; this particular drive is made by SanDisk, noted for removable flash memory. Another drive worth noting, is absent here, namely there is no CD- or DVD-rom/writer drive, which at first came as a surprise to me, the reason for this omission being the requirement to keep the whole thing so thin. This might not be the huge drawback that it first appears, considering the relative infrequency with which some people would use these drives and the increasing availability of software and media in downloadable format. Creating a virtual disk is also an option and the software is included, so you can create your restore disk as a 'disc image'. If you do want this particular computer but require something to read/write disks then there are external drives available.

I, so far, have been impressed by the performance in playing media and in office applications. There is less 'thinking' time between initiating a task and it being carried out. The fast SSD is complemented by an Intel Core i7 CPU and 4GB of RAM. It gets pretty good benchmark scores as well but falls a little short of a Macbook Air which uses the same processor.

Connectivity is good but not great; there is a super fast USB3 port to one side as well as micro HDMI, micro VGA, SD card reader, headphone jack, built-in microphone and Bluetooth 4 but only single band wi-fi.

The display is good, with good viewing angles and resolution, though the glossy screen surface does produce a fair amount of glare and I did find there wasn't a great deal of contrast. The sound is great, which may be something to do with the Bang and Olufsen speakers.

The keyboard is of the Scrabble tile variety - what the Americans call Chiclet - I really like using it, it just feels right to me, however the overly sharp edge of the wrist rest could be uncomfortable for some. Also, the lack of backlighting means using in low light conditions is difficult. The mouse pad is large and easy to use, though it takes a little getting used to the varying functions and it seems to require 'waking' each time it's used i.e. your initial contact isn't registered as a movement of the pointer. I liked not having a portion of the pad being reserved for the scroll function, as this was often accidentally touched in other notebooks, often sending a webpage flying up or down - instead two fingers on the pad are used instead and this is just one of a few different gestures which have useful functions.

Overall, this is a great looking, ultra portable notebook with impressive performance and quality build. Do think about this if portability is an important benefit for you because you'll barely notice this in your bag or briefcase. As an all-round home machine, where portability is not hugely important you may be able to get more for your money though.

This laptop is truly a thing of beauty. A spun aluminum lid catches the light with a beautiful moiré pattern, and it feels solid and well built in the hand. It's fantastically slender and thin, and almost looks like some sort of minimalist place mat for dinner when closed, rather that a computer.

The keyboard is, at first glance, horrible. In fact it is a joy to type on. Very responsive and comfortable, with a nice tactile feel.

Asus have put in dozens of keyboard shortcuts that do everything from lock out the keypad, to adjust the screen display lighting presets. There isn't a proper keypad, but I don't think most people would miss that.

Sound is, for a laptop, very nice. It's still a bit tinny and thin - don't expect hifi sound, but as the PC itself is so incredibly svelte it's amazing that it is as good as it is. There is a headphone socket conveniently placed on the left side edge.

Other inputs are an SD card slot, two USB slots (one each side) and two micro-HDMI slots. There is, however, no network port - you need to use a supplied adaptor for that. There is also no DVD! This can mean installing software can be a bit of a pain - you'll find yourself downloading software from websites.

It has power to spare, and is perfect for editing HD videos and the battery life is superb. A handy little app on the desktop lets you know how much power you have left, depending on what you're doing (gaming, watching films, etc)

The touchpad is multi-touch, with enough options and gestures to have you re-reading the manual to remember how to do what. Most gestures are 'standard' from a phone, and is nice. It's a nice big touchpad and handily de-activates itself when it detects that you're typing. No more cursor launching itself across the screeen.

The screen quality is incredible. Vibrant,sharp and very bright. VERY bright. Far too bright. This is actually a failing of the thing as the default settings for the screen are so insanely bright it's uncomfortable to work with. Headache inducing in fact. The first thing I found myself doing was turning down the brightness, but this is where things get a bit complicated. There are number of different screen settings (vivid, theatre, gamma, normal) each of whch changes the colour response. Also depending on what power setting you're using (performance or battery saving) the screen brightness, contrast and colour change again. This is maddening if you're trying to edit photos or do any film work as you have no idea what colour anything is. Get things just right, and power saving might kick in and everything changes again. It's incredibly annoying. I assume these 'features' can be turned off, though I've not worked out how to do it. Asus,pick a colour and stick with it! This is apparently 'splendid video technology'. No it isn't. It's irritating.

Supplied software is refreshingly free of spam software that so many PC manufacturers install for you. There is a folder of Asus bit and pieces you can install yourself if you want to. The most useful I've found, and fun, is the face recognition software. Instead of typing in your password when you turn on your PC, the webcam comes on and recognises you. It's a lot of fun.

Also is Asus own version of cloud storage, something called 'vibe' which I assume is a music thing and I can't get to work, and some other bits and pieces you'll probably never use.

Other downsides other than the weird colour shifting screen is the sealed body. It won't be a problem for a long while, but as far as I can see there is no way to replace the battery when it starts to lose life. A bit of open heart surgery with a torx driver will be required at some point. Similarly, you can't open it up to increase the RAM. 4Gb is a bit miserly for a top end laptop like this, and it although it's plenty now it will somewhat limit the useful life of the thing. The speed of the solid state hardrive might well compensate for that though. Boot up times are suitably impressive - from cold to login screen takes about 15seconds. It comes with Windows 7, which is fine for me, but if you wanted 8 then you can update for a minimal cost at Microsoft's website. (they do a discount if you've bought a new PC since Win8 came out)

It comes with a nice substantial sleeve to carry it about in, and as I said at the start the build is very substantial and I have no fears about damaging it in transport.

So, it's a beautiful object, incredibly fast and a delight to use. The only problem is the screen display (not the screen itself) which will require a pointless bit of tinkering with to get the best from. Very happy.

The ASUS Zenbook UX31 is a slim, super-thin stylish laptop that for sure will attract everyone is looking for an Ultrabook.
It has everything that you have dreamed of, I got the UX31 with 1.8-GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, WLAN, BT, Webcam, Windows 7. It has also a high-res 1600 x 900 display and excellent audio as well as an excellent Keyboard with well large, and well-spaced metal keys.
I only noticed two things that can be improved in future versions; 1) in my view what is really missing is the backlighting keyboard, which I found it really useful on my Macbook Air and 2) the battery life, 5h is not enough for one day work and that does not fit with the rest of the outstanding equipment.
Overall, I have to say that although I enjoyed my Macbook Air for the last 5 years, I am really happy to come back to Windows and get this outstanding Ultrabook, Zenbook UX31. Really, I do not regret my choice. Not at all.