Zenbook?

[Warmacblu]

Hi all, I have been building my own computers for a while now and am in dire need of a new laptop to replace my aging 6 year old HP dv4000. I have my desktop for gaming so I do not need any mobile gaming capabilities, just looking for a nice light mobile laptop.

I have been eyeballing the Zenbooks, specifically the top end model:

http/www.cdw.com/shop/products/ASUS-ZENBOOK-UX31E-XH72-13.3in-Core-i7-2677M-Windows-7-Pro-64-bit-4/2554549.aspx

I am turning to the community for any advice or hands on experience with the Zenbooks. I am sure they will be faster than my old Centrino / 1GB laptop so I am not worried about that, just general day to day gripes or praises.

Price isn't really a concern for me and I wouldn't necessarily be purchasing from CDW but I would have to find a vendor that sells the $1500 model and I am probably going to be purchasing in May, so I have some time to decide.

Thanks for any replies.

 

[WR2]

Hello Warmacblu;

It's going to be hit-or-miss on getting an actual Zenbook UX31E-XH7 (or any UX31E for that matter) owner to drift by fall into your topic. Especially when the topic migrates off the first page of the forum.

For the near term you're probably better off scaring up expert opinions in the form of reviews by the 'usual suspects' in laptop reviews. Let google be your buddy.

And keep your eye out for a online gathering place of Zenbook UX31 owners.

 

[Warmacblu]

Thanks for the reply, I will give this topic a few more days to see if anyone chimes in. In the meantime I will check some Internet reviews and go to my local computer store for some hands on time.

 

[WR2]

Like: Asus UX31E Zenbook/Ultrabook Owners Lounge

 

[ebola28]

If you are purchasing in may, wait for ivy bridge with thundebolt (possibly) to come out. I have heard rumor that intel will be subsidizing ivy based ultrabooks so they should be a tad cheaper as well.

 

[Warmacblu]

Thanks for the link, I can definitely wait until May for a nice Ivy Bridge ultrabook.

 

[Warmacblu]

Hi all,

I have done some more research on the Ivy Bridge Zenbooks. Most of it is speculation but I wanted to get some more opinions on the matter.

Some are saying that the Ivy Bridge Zenbooks will be released with Windows 8 and will feature a touchscreen, maybe fold down to be a tablet style.

I am not interested in any of those new features and it sounds like the Ivy Bridge Zenbooks will be more expensive than the current ones. I don't really have a problem waiting for the release but the sooner the better since my laptop is getting worse and worse every day.

Do you think that for my needs, the Ivy Bridge Zenbook would be of interest?

Thanks for any input.

 

[jaguarskx]

Depends on what you want to use the laptop for. The Ivy Bridge version of the ZenBook definitely sounds like it will be more expensive.

If you do average every day things then there's not much difference between Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge in terms of CPU performance. The Intel HD 4000 graphics core is supposedly up to 60% better than the current Intel HD 3000 core. That's great if you are going to play games, but that's what your desktop is for as you mentioned.

IB will probably use a little less power so you may get several more minutes of battery life, or perhaps no increase in battery if they decide to slim down the battery to decrease weight.

 

[Warmacblu]

Thanks for the input, you make some good points.

 

[WR2]

The IB Ultrabooks will be out long before Windows 8 is released.
There will be different models of Ultrabook - including some with extra cost options for touch-screens and convertible tablets. But the base models will still have the better prices and from what I've read the IB prices should be about the same for similar models.

 

[WR2]

This is something you'll want to keep an eye on:

Ultrabook Prices Dropping Before 2nd-Gen Ivy Bridge Launch

 

[Warmacblu]

I did see that article. I'm not too sure how much I will benefit from the Ivy Bridge upgrade but when the prices start to drop on the Sandy Bridge Zenbooks, I will pick one up.

 

[nohackmove]

do not be so much hopeful. i was following pirces of ultrabooks. and i saw they got prices higher than one month before. their prices go up 20% nearly in a month. i am talking about the prices on amazon, newegg and bestbuy.

also be careful before buying a zenbook. it was the top end model.
i heard too much errors on them and
also bought one zenbook RY010V (i7 processor, 256gigs SSD 13.3"...) model and returned it after 3 HRs.

 

[Warmacblu]

I've had the Zenbook for a few weeks now and it's great. Super fast, ultra portable and is everything I had hoped and more. I like the SSD so much that I am considering one for my desktop now. The Zenbook makes my desktop look slow now because of the SSD.