Last year, the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A was one in all our final victory laptops because of its incomparable style and beautiful one,920x1,080 IPS screen. The Zenbook Prime bit is that the latest model of Asus’s premium Ultrabook and, as its name suggests, currently adds a ten-point touchscreen to the combo.
BUILD and style
As with previous Zenbooks, the Prime bit affected instantaneously. Its Full HD resolution appearance super sharp on its thirteen.3in show and therefore the touchscreen was fast and responsive. we tend to had no hassle sound on files and gap new web tabs despite its high resolution and swiping from either facet to access Windows eight shortcuts worked anytime.
It’s a pleasant addition, and one we'd expect given the continued push toward bit support, however the $64000 star continues to be its very good IPS panel. colors were punchy and vivacious throughout our solid image tests, and its shiny show solely helps to form them stick out of the screen even a lot of. Blacks and whites were deep and true in addition, and its distinction levels were equally very good. Our high distinction check photos were packed with detail, significantly in darker shadow areas, and hues were made and correct. It remains one in all the simplest Ultrabook screens we’ve seen, that is simply in addition considering the value.
Asus Zenbook Prime bit UX31A
Otherwise, little has modified since the previous model. The Prime bit still weighs a paltry one.4kg and measures a mere 9mm at its thickest purpose, tapering to simply 3mm at the terribly front of the laptop computer. It’s a shocking piece of style and its brushed aluminum chassis appearance good and classy aboard its shiny black edge. an enormous quantity of engineering has gone into the screen hinge in addition, as you'll open the lid with only 1 finger.
Ports ar restricted, however this is often expected given the meager size of its chassis. 2 USB3 ports, associate SD/MMC card reader, a small HDMI output and a combined electro-acoustic transducer and electro-acoustic transducer jack ar all you get, though you furthermore mght connect the laptop computer to associate external show via VGA victimisation its bundled adapter. You’ll in all probability need to attach it to a zealous set of speakers, though, as its integrated Bang & Olufsen ICEpower speakers were to a small degree dissatisfactory. whereas our check tracks had lots of bass, higher frequencies were emphatically tinny, that detracted from our overall audio expertise.
Asus Zenbook Prime bit UX31A
Luckily, the Zenbook Prime bit was a joy to use for everyday tasks. The bouncy backlit keys we tend tore all right spaced and gave an excellent level of tactile feedback whereas we typewritten, and that we were affected with the quantity of travel there was between the keys and therefore the keyboard receptacle. we tend to were to a small degree cautious of the facility button being incorporated into the most keyboard, though, as its position within the high right corner is often wherever the Delete secret is set. fortunately the facility button can solely go if you press and hold it firmly, therefore any accidental slips won’t suddenly flip the laptop computer off unexpectedly. The all-in-one touchpad was terribly correct and responsive whereas navigating the desktop and multi-touch gestures like two-finger scrolling worked absolutely.
Asus Zenbook Prime bit UX31A
PERFORMANCE AND BENCHMARKS
The Zenbook Prime bit isn’t short on process power either. we tend to were to a small degree thwarted to visualize it had been still running one in all Intel’s English ivy Bridge processors instead of the newer Haswell varieties, however its 2GHz Intel Core i7-3537U processor and 4GB of RAM still delivered a high level of performance. It’s good for workplace tasks in addition as a lot of stringent programs that need multi-threading, and its overall score of fifty one in our transmission benchmarks puts it on par with the holler XPS thirteen. this is often really some points previous the Haswell-based Samsung Ativ Book nine and, however in observe you’d be onerous pushed to inform the distinction, even once victimisation multiple programs right away.
Instead, it had been the Prime Touch’s battery life wherever we tend to felt the absence of associate ultra-low voltage Haswell processor most keenly. It lasted seven hours and forty two minutes in our lightweight use check with the screen set to 0.5 brightness, that is nice by English ivy Bridge standards, however it simply can’t vie with the 11-odd hour battery lives created by the Samsung Ativ Book nine and and Sony VAIO professional thirteen. this is often a shame, as this might have turned the Prime bit into a present winner.
Like most Ultrabooks, graphics ar handled by its integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip, however the Zenbook Prime bit performed astonishingly well in our Dirt encounter check. after we set the standard settings to High on a one,280x720 resolution, it managed seventeen.5fps. This isn’t anyplace close to quick enough for taking part in fast action games, however most Ultrabooks fail the check altogether. Lowering the settings conjointly created far better results than different ultraportables. we tend to managed a way sander thirty-nine.2fps after we set the standard to Low and disabled the anti-aliasing at a 720p resolution.
We’d advocate projecting with this resolution if you’re adamant concerning taking part in the newest 3D games on the Prime bit, though, as we tend to had to line the standard to radical Low before we tend to saw a comparable thirty eight.8fps in Dirt encounter after we accumulated the resolution to its native one,920x1,080. Older titles and 2nd games from the Windows eight Store ought to still work absolutely fine, though.
CONCLUSION
The Asus Zenbook Prime bit remains one in all the foremost fashionable and powerful Ultrabooks we’ve seen, however its option to keep on with third generation Intel Core hardware rather than choosing newer fourth generation elements means that it risks falling behind different a lot of fascinating laptops just like the final victory Samsung Ativ Book nine and. The addition of a touchscreen could be a nice additional, however the cheaper Ativ Book nine and will everything the Prime bit will, and more, for roughly £200 less.
.gif)
