Asus UX31 Ultrabook

[decworld]

I think this forum is making people paranoid about hardware problems.

The reality is that almost all the issues are software based and are their solved with an update or will be soon.

[scrappygolucky]

You may be right. Here is my final call on this beast:

Pros:
Best-looking laptop I've ever seen. Super hot.
Elan touchpad is responsive.
Incredibly light.
Fairly swift relative to old-school laptops.

Cons:
Keyboard is mediocre at best.
Screen is very reflective during dark backgrounds. You probably wouldn't want to use this to ever watch movies.
Software is messing with the hardware, like wifi.

I am thinking very hard about returning this and waiting for the Samsung Series 9, which has a matte screen and probably a better keyboard, as those two features are the most important to me.

[decworld]

Scrappygolucky, good points, but I do like the keyboard.

I avoided the series 9 as the screen flex is significant and the asus is almost non existent. In the uk the samsung is as expensive for the lower spec version.

I would of bought the lenovo u300s is if has a higher res screen.

[Numa Langsam]

Got my UX31E back today. I let professionally install an anti-glare film. Now the display is almost non-glossy. Great thing. It's also possible to do this by oneself but there are experts for this who work in a completely dust-free room. It's hard to see that there's a film on the display at all.

[shinypenny]

does anyone really buy it anymore? it seems quite unnecessary to buy the ux31, or any other ultrabook for that matter, when ivy bridge is going to be released in a few months. yoga seems to be pretty nice, but it's due to q3. as for the samsung series 9, zenbook is by far better looking. but then again most laptops look like sh!t , including yoga, when compared to zenbook, especially rose gold

[decworld]

you cant delay purchases on the basis of something new thats coming soon, once ivy bridge is out the same argument will be made about ivy bridge 2...

you need it buy it, if not dont.

[laptopmaniac]

ps, remember core i7 isnt just faster, it supports other functionality such as hyper threading.

I can confirm that the i5 version (i5-2557M) has hyper threading. Four processes show up in task manager in my UX31, which can only be explained by hyper threading in a dual core laptop.

In fact, here is a list of i5-2557M features, straight from the horse's mouth:
Intel® Core? i5-2557M Processor (3M Cache, 1.70 GHz)

As far as I know the only real advantage i7 has over i5 is higher clock speed and larger L3 cache, and maybe slightly higher GPU speed.

[decworld]

laptopmaniac, seems you are correct.

my information came from that link which is perhaps now out of date

[shinypenny]

true, but there seems to be a vast difference between sandy bridge and ivy bridge. and i believe waiting an extra two months for an improved version is worth it

[laptopmaniac]

true, but there seems to be a vast difference between sandy bridge and ivy bridge. and i believe waiting an extra two months for an improved version is worth it

Difference is not much more than that between sandy bridge and its previous generation.
However, if you can wait two months+, definitely wait. There will be better ultrabooks out by then.