ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I needed a laptop to carry to class for lab, and to take notes in class. My old laptop weighed about 6.5 pounds and I would have to carry it around campus all the time due to lab. Most of the time I'd end up being on campus for at least 9-10 hours and my back would start hurting because of the weight.I decided to get this ultrabook because of its light weight and its great specs. I use it mainly to take notes in class and for entertainment purposes, such as watching tv shows. It's very quick to start-up and very fast overall. The screen size is great and the speakers are also better than I expected. The touchpad, though other people have complained about it being too large and sensitive, is very convenient and easy to use. The keyboard is also very good and the keys have good resistance.I have had one problem with this laptop, however. Sometimes, when I try to power it up, it doesn't actually turn on and gives me a black screen. This is easily resolved by holding down the power button to turn the laptop off. Usually, the second time I try to turn it on afterward, it works perfectly fine. Also, the battery life and resolution is amazing! Overall, I definitely recommend this ultrabook if you're looking for an ultra portable, convenient, but still very capable laptop. It's definitely made my life easier.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Very sleek, light weight and fast. Battery lasts forever, and the display is incredible. I highly recommend it!

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Good Ultrabook with great screen resolution and great speed BUT...

Screen resolution make everything looks super sharp but also make everything super small - even if you increase size of the icons and text stuff can be hard to read (even for a person with perfect vision).

The computer comes with a ton of bloatware installed and you really have to comb through to figure out what is safe to uninstall and what is crucial.

There are issues with touchpad: it's too sensitive (you can levite your finger 1mm above it and it still detects your gestures), sometimes stops working all together after a long sleep mode (restart required), sometimes other than mouse pointing stops working - resolved by re-installing the driver.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Greatly exceeding my expectations! Discovering features on a daily basis.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use this Zenbook for word processing, presenting Powerpoint displays, photo-editing in the field, analysis of sound files, and email while traveling. The combination of a superb 1920x 1080 native resolution display and high computing power means that I can do photo-editing away from home. Its light weight and ability to connect both to VGA projectors (with a dongle which is included) and to HDMI means that I can display on almost any large external screen or projector for presentations to an audience. The keyboard is good enough for word processing and email while traveling. In short, it does everything I need it do. I prefer to use an external Bluetooth mouse, so I have no experience with thetouch screen.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use the UX31a Zenbook Prime for photography and processing and it excels at both. The laptop features a fabulous screen and is very lightweight which makes it ideal for travel and use in the field for quick edits. I bought this from B&H a couple of months back and the laptop has been flawless out of the box. Highly recommended.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Others have covered all the great things about this computer. As a long-time desktop user, this little fellow impresses me no end. It boots in no time, and the screen is a delight. The keyboard, while not having the feel of a regular stand-alone keyboard, is still adequate for touch typing. For a few dollars I bought a wireless mouse to avoid depending solely on the touch pad. You don't need to buy a cover. B&H neglets to tell you that a high quality cover comes stowed in the bottom of the box. I also bought an ultra HDMI cable from to show my photographs on the HD like we used to project slides in the old days. The pixel mapping between computer and HD is perfect although I've got to tweak the dark details of color rendition on the TV. Zooming in for details goes beyond what you could do with the old slide shows. I've downloaded a trial version of Adobe's Lightroom 4 to process the thousands of pictures I'm behind. But beware that the Adobe downloader is incompatible with the Windows Internet Explorer 9 that comes preloaded on this machine. Temporarily downloading and installing Chrome solved the problem.I did buy a 1 TB USB drive for backups. ASUS does supply a free (for how long?) webstorage connection which gives you 2, 3, or maybe it's 5 GB of cloud storage and enables one to share data and an appointment calendar with other users/devices. If you're heavily into photography, you'll need that USB drive.This is one great computer, and the backlight is nice, too.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Pros:
Great battery life
Super thin and light
Sleek
Fast
Beautiful!

No cons so far.

Best uses: if you carry a lot of stuff with you all the time (textbooks, noteboks, etc.) you would love it how this laptop doesn't add up any more weight to your backpack (or purse).

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The best ever!

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The sdd is the slow version , is 3 times slower . Reinstalling the OS is a pain and you will lose an extra 25 GB of your sdd for a recover partition. Asus support poor, ask something and their answer is totally out of the subject. The screen is good BUT you have to keep it at full brightness that will kill your battery, so.....not portable.
Video card is poor , not able to see hd movies.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I wish I could rate this 0 stars. The product started rebooting randomly and then freezing from the start. Tried running checkdisk which froze midway indicating a hard driev problem. Then the charger stopped working.
Returned it to the ONE service center in north america (which is in California) with the turnaround of approximately 4 weeks. Once I got the computer back, it turned out that they ignored the hard drive issue and just sent me a new charger. Running checkdisk again freezes the computer.
Several emails and another 46 minute conversation with customer service later, I am shipping the computer back to service again tonight. I guess I will update this in about a month but this whole experience has been a big nightmare.
Try to buy this from a place that takes returns and exchanges because the product is often defective.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Excellent product. Unfortunately, memory, hard drive cannot be upgraded...otherwise it would be a 5 star rating.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Great service and fast delivery all the way to Australia. The computer is everything I expected and better than any Mac could hope to be.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

This is a very nice laptop. It feels solid and well built, yet light weight. The screen, which was a major selling point for me, is beautiful, though I do find myself increasing font sizes (e.g. ctrl + in firefox) in order to make things large enough for my old eyes to read. I also like the lighted keyboard, and battery life so far as been great. I have not kept track of time but it must be 7 or 8 hours. The thing also boots very quickly....15 seconds from power on to password prompt.

There were some, but not too many, extra programs loaded. I just uninstalled most of it. It would be nice if there was some documentation telling what each of those extra programs does, with a pointer to online documentation.

Only a couple minor negatives. First, there is some "light leak" as others have mentioned, especially along the bottom edge of the screen, though it is rarely a problem. Second, the mousepad is a bit large so the left and right "buttons" are farther apart than I expect so sometimes get a "left click" when I intended a "right click". Third, I had issues with the recovery partition related utilities. The supplied backup utility would only back up to a DVD drive, which the laptop does not have. Be nice if you could back up to a memory stick. I then tried to get into the recovery console by hitting F9, to see if there were any backup options there. It was not clear when during boot to hit F9 so a few times I missed the right time. Then when I did get it right, a menu flashed on the screen but it immediately started doing something as if I had pressed enter. I did not want to "Recover" at that time so powered off. After that, my Windows partition was still ok but the recovery partition was hosed. I ended up just deleting that partition and the partition for the "instant on" utility and expanding my main partition to reclaim the 14GB taken by those two partitions.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use the PC for work and find that it's very compact and light to carry in comparison with my previous PC's that I had to carry along to sites. I like the back lit key board as I have to work at night sometimes and there is no lighting and can still type. What I found that was not to great about the PC is when I got it, it used to disconnect from my Wifi, after I installed the new wifi drivers , the problem cleared and since have had no problems connecting to my wifi.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I bought this laptop for school, and it hasn't disappointed. The design and construction is amazing. The body is sleek and clean and very visually appealing. The SSD is incredibly fast and it allows for a near instantaneous start up. It is also super quiet, the only noise it produces is from the fan/cooling system. The full HD screen is clear and crisp and makes using this laptop very pleasing. The trackpad is brilliant. Albeit not as intuitive as a Mac, it still does the job.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Love the laptop. Very light, quick, long standby mode. Great speakers.

Takes a bit of getting used to the keyboard and the trackpad.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The screen is incredibly sharp. The battery lasts a long time and it is the perfect laptop for someone who needs to carry it around everyday.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Seems tiny, but with Ivy Bridge CPU and SSD is plenty fast barring serious processing needs. Chassis is a beaut, like the feel of the keyboard.Had to adjust the trackpad, was too sensitive. There are online FAQ's for this. Comes installed with all kinds of ASUS software and no clean Win7 install disk, so rather than formatting and reinstalling I uninstalled the bloatware myself. There are guides for this as well. Since the software is adjustable to fix my complaints, I'm rating 5 stars based on the hardware. The IPS screen is great, and with such dense pixel pitch it looks very sharp.I would not necessarily recommend this laptop for people who don't know what they're looking for - this is low on connectivity to get into such a small form factor, including not having a CD/DVD drive. If you don't need that and some of the other things it gives up, and know it, then go right ahead and buy this.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Great seller and fast shipping! I purchased this laptop for my wilfe and she loves it a lot. Light weigth, sleek design, great machine. As for the install, just a few clicks it connects to my wifi at home. I would recommand it to user whose looking portable and easy to use.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I needed a laptop to carry to class for lab, and to take notes in class. My old laptop weighed about 6.5 pounds and I would have to carry it around campus all the time due to lab. Most of the time I'd end up being on campus for at least 9-10 hours and my back would start hurting because of the weight.I decided to get this ultrabook because of its light weight and its great specs. I use it mainly to take notes in class and for entertainment purposes, such as watching tv shows. It's very quick to start-up and very fast overall. The screen size is great and the speakers are also better than I expected. The touchpad, though other people have complained about it being too large and sensitive, is very convenient and easy to use. The keyboard is also very good and the keys have good resistance.I have had one problem with this laptop, however. Sometimes, when I try to power it up, it doesn't actually turn on and gives me a black screen. This is easily resolved by holding down the power button to turn the laptop off. Usually, the second time I try to turn it on afterward, it works perfectly fine. Also, the battery life and resolution is amazing! Overall, I definitely recommend this ultrabook if you're looking for an ultra portable, convenient, but still very capable laptop. It's definitely made my life easier.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Very sleek, light weight and fast. Battery lasts forever, and the display is incredible. I highly recommend it!

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Good Ultrabook with great screen resolution and great speed BUT...

Screen resolution make everything looks super sharp but also make everything super small - even if you increase size of the icons and text stuff can be hard to read (even for a person with perfect vision).

The computer comes with a ton of bloatware installed and you really have to comb through to figure out what is safe to uninstall and what is crucial.

There are issues with touchpad: it's too sensitive (you can levite your finger 1mm above it and it still detects your gestures), sometimes stops working all together after a long sleep mode (restart required), sometimes other than mouse pointing stops working - resolved by re-installing the driver.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Greatly exceeding my expectations! Discovering features on a daily basis.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use this Zenbook for word processing, presenting Powerpoint displays, photo-editing in the field, analysis of sound files, and email while traveling. The combination of a superb 1920x 1080 native resolution display and high computing power means that I can do photo-editing away from home. Its light weight and ability to connect both to VGA projectors (with a dongle which is included) and to HDMI means that I can display on almost any large external screen or projector for presentations to an audience. The keyboard is good enough for word processing and email while traveling. In short, it does everything I need it do. I prefer to use an external Bluetooth mouse, so I have no experience with thetouch screen.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use the UX31a Zenbook Prime for photography and processing and it excels at both. The laptop features a fabulous screen and is very lightweight which makes it ideal for travel and use in the field for quick edits. I bought this from B&H a couple of months back and the laptop has been flawless out of the box. Highly recommended.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Others have covered all the great things about this computer. As a long-time desktop user, this little fellow impresses me no end. It boots in no time, and the screen is a delight. The keyboard, while not having the feel of a regular stand-alone keyboard, is still adequate for touch typing. For a few dollars I bought a wireless mouse to avoid depending solely on the touch pad. You don't need to buy a cover. B&H neglets to tell you that a high quality cover comes stowed in the bottom of the box. I also bought an ultra HDMI cable from to show my photographs on the HD like we used to project slides in the old days. The pixel mapping between computer and HD is perfect although I've got to tweak the dark details of color rendition on the TV. Zooming in for details goes beyond what you could do with the old slide shows. I've downloaded a trial version of Adobe's Lightroom 4 to process the thousands of pictures I'm behind. But beware that the Adobe downloader is incompatible with the Windows Internet Explorer 9 that comes preloaded on this machine. Temporarily downloading and installing Chrome solved the problem.I did buy a 1 TB USB drive for backups. ASUS does supply a free (for how long?) webstorage connection which gives you 2, 3, or maybe it's 5 GB of cloud storage and enables one to share data and an appointment calendar with other users/devices. If you're heavily into photography, you'll need that USB drive.This is one great computer, and the backlight is nice, too.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Pros:
Great battery life
Super thin and light
Sleek
Fast
Beautiful!

No cons so far.

Best uses: if you carry a lot of stuff with you all the time (textbooks, noteboks, etc.) you would love it how this laptop doesn't add up any more weight to your backpack (or purse).

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The best ever!

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The sdd is the slow version , is 3 times slower . Reinstalling the OS is a pain and you will lose an extra 25 GB of your sdd for a recover partition. Asus support poor, ask something and their answer is totally out of the subject. The screen is good BUT you have to keep it at full brightness that will kill your battery, so.....not portable.
Video card is poor , not able to see hd movies.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I wish I could rate this 0 stars. The product started rebooting randomly and then freezing from the start. Tried running checkdisk which froze midway indicating a hard driev problem. Then the charger stopped working.
Returned it to the ONE service center in north america (which is in California) with the turnaround of approximately 4 weeks. Once I got the computer back, it turned out that they ignored the hard drive issue and just sent me a new charger. Running checkdisk again freezes the computer.
Several emails and another 46 minute conversation with customer service later, I am shipping the computer back to service again tonight. I guess I will update this in about a month but this whole experience has been a big nightmare.
Try to buy this from a place that takes returns and exchanges because the product is often defective.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Excellent product. Unfortunately, memory, hard drive cannot be upgraded...otherwise it would be a 5 star rating.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Great service and fast delivery all the way to Australia. The computer is everything I expected and better than any Mac could hope to be.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

This is a very nice laptop. It feels solid and well built, yet light weight. The screen, which was a major selling point for me, is beautiful, though I do find myself increasing font sizes (e.g. ctrl + in firefox) in order to make things large enough for my old eyes to read. I also like the lighted keyboard, and battery life so far as been great. I have not kept track of time but it must be 7 or 8 hours. The thing also boots very quickly....15 seconds from power on to password prompt.

There were some, but not too many, extra programs loaded. I just uninstalled most of it. It would be nice if there was some documentation telling what each of those extra programs does, with a pointer to online documentation.

Only a couple minor negatives. First, there is some "light leak" as others have mentioned, especially along the bottom edge of the screen, though it is rarely a problem. Second, the mousepad is a bit large so the left and right "buttons" are farther apart than I expect so sometimes get a "left click" when I intended a "right click". Third, I had issues with the recovery partition related utilities. The supplied backup utility would only back up to a DVD drive, which the laptop does not have. Be nice if you could back up to a memory stick. I then tried to get into the recovery console by hitting F9, to see if there were any backup options there. It was not clear when during boot to hit F9 so a few times I missed the right time. Then when I did get it right, a menu flashed on the screen but it immediately started doing something as if I had pressed enter. I did not want to "Recover" at that time so powered off. After that, my Windows partition was still ok but the recovery partition was hosed. I ended up just deleting that partition and the partition for the "instant on" utility and expanding my main partition to reclaim the 14GB taken by those two partitions.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I use the PC for work and find that it's very compact and light to carry in comparison with my previous PC's that I had to carry along to sites. I like the back lit key board as I have to work at night sometimes and there is no lighting and can still type. What I found that was not to great about the PC is when I got it, it used to disconnect from my Wifi, after I installed the new wifi drivers , the problem cleared and since have had no problems connecting to my wifi.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

I bought this laptop for school, and it hasn't disappointed. The design and construction is amazing. The body is sleek and clean and very visually appealing. The SSD is incredibly fast and it allows for a near instantaneous start up. It is also super quiet, the only noise it produces is from the fan/cooling system. The full HD screen is clear and crisp and makes using this laptop very pleasing. The trackpad is brilliant. Albeit not as intuitive as a Mac, it still does the job.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Love the laptop. Very light, quick, long standby mode. Great speakers.

Takes a bit of getting used to the keyboard and the trackpad.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

The screen is incredibly sharp. The battery lasts a long time and it is the perfect laptop for someone who needs to carry it around everyday.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Seems tiny, but with Ivy Bridge CPU and SSD is plenty fast barring serious processing needs. Chassis is a beaut, like the feel of the keyboard.Had to adjust the trackpad, was too sensitive. There are online FAQ's for this. Comes installed with all kinds of ASUS software and no clean Win7 install disk, so rather than formatting and reinstalling I uninstalled the bloatware myself. There are guides for this as well. Since the software is adjustable to fix my complaints, I'm rating 5 stars based on the hardware. The IPS screen is great, and with such dense pixel pitch it looks very sharp.I would not necessarily recommend this laptop for people who don't know what they're looking for - this is low on connectivity to get into such a small form factor, including not having a CD/DVD drive. If you don't need that and some of the other things it gives up, and know it, then go right ahead and buy this.

Comments about ASUS UX31A-DB51 Zenbook Prime 13.3" Ultrabook Computer:

Great seller and fast shipping! I purchased this laptop for my wilfe and she loves it a lot. Light weigth, sleek design, great machine. As for the install, just a few clicks it connects to my wifi at home. I would recommand it to user whose looking portable and easy to use.