First Look: Asus Zenbook Prime Is a Top Ultrabook Contender

• By Alexandra Chang

The ASUS Zenbook Prime has a stunning, full HD
matte display. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

ASUS introduced the world to the Zenbook less than a year ago, offering up a sleek PC ultrabook that could go head-to-head with Apple’s MacBook Air. Now, the company is on track to release an entirely refreshed lineup — dubbed the Zenbook Prime — this summer. After spending a few days with a near-final, “Technology Preview” model of the upcoming 13-inch Zenbook Prime UX31A, we can report that it’s definitely a worthy contender in the ultrabook market.

The Zenbook Prime sticks to its predecessors good looks and competitive price — you get a rock solid, aluminum body in a super thin and light wedge-shaped design for $799 to $1599, depending on the model. The UX31A weighs 2.86 pounds and measures in at 0.11 of an inch at its thinnest and 0.35 of an inch at its thickest. Yes, it does resemble the MacBook Air, but ASUS has included a few unique design flairs of its own. (For comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Air weighs 2.96 pounds and is 0.11 to 0.68 inches thick.)

The top of the ultrabook is made of spun metal that appears in concentric circles, giving it a very classy look. And when you open the laptop, you’ll find a chiclet-style keyboard surrounded by smooth, champagne hairline metal. There’s no denying that ASUS’ Zenbook Prime is a stylish and slick device. 

Despite the similarity in name and the generally unchanged industrial design, the Zenbook Prime has several notable improvements over its predecessor. For one, it’s powered by Intel’s latest third-generation Ivy Bridge platform and Intel HD Graphics 4000. The model we received at Wired came with a Core i7 processor, but you can also opt for Core i5 or Core i3 processor.

The Zenbook Prime includes a new backlit keyboard, with ASUS’ built-in ambient light sensor, which will adjust keyboard brightness according to your lighting conditions. It’s a welcome feature, especially for people like myself who tend to work at night or in darker settings, like on a plane. 

But perhaps the most impressive new features to grace the Zenbook Prime is its Full HD IPS (in-plane switching) matte display, with a 1920×1080 resolution. ASUS touts that it has a 72 percent color gamut, 350 nits of brightness, a 800:1 contrast ratio, and a 172 degree viewing angle. In other words, it’s a killer display with excellent color reproduction at various angles, and doesn’t suffer from the glare. So far, display is, by far, my favorite part of the Zenbook Prime. 

The Zenbook Prime maintains its Bang and Olufsen ICEpower audio system, which sounds noticeably more powerful than other ultrabook speakers. The notebook also features solid-state drives up to 256GB, 4GB of memory, Bluetooth 4.0, and dual band Wi-Fi. You’ll also get two USB 3.0 ports, mini VGA, Micro HDMI, audio jack, and an SD card reader. And one of the USB 3.0 ports doubles as a USB device charger, allowing you to charge a smartphone or tablet through the computer, even when it’s off — a feature that is starting to show up in several new ultrabooks. 

As for the software, ASUS offers several add-ons to the typical Windows 7 fare, including its Vibe Fun Center, Instant Connect Installer, and Tutor. Like the Zenbook, the Zenbook Prime features the company’s Super Hybrid Engine II Technology. ASUS claims that the Zenbook Prime will have a 2-second resume time from sleep mode, get up to two weeks of standby time, and up to 150 days of battery life in Hibernate Mode. While I didn’t have enough time to test the last two claims, the Zenbook Prime did live up to its resume time estimate, and was always speedy to wake up. 

Two things I don’t particularly enjoy about the Zenbook Prime are its loud fan and the touchpad experience. According to ASUS, the Zenbook Prime is up to 7 degrees cooler than competitors, and that’s probably true. The Prime never felt as warm on my lap as my MacBook Air, but it seemed like the fan was whirring in the background the majority of the time — even when I was doing minimal web browsing. It’s a trade-off that some might not appreciate. 

And the touchpad, while decent, annoyed me when I was using multitouch gestures. There would be a slight lag at times, and if I was quickly scrolling through a page, using the two-finger scrolling gesture, there would be a strange, jerky scrolling effect toward the end. 

Still, the positives outweighed the negatives in the ASUS Zenbook Prime. And keep in mind that we received a “Technology Preview” model, so it wasn’t completely polished. We’re looking forward to spending time with the final Zenbook Prime in the coming month, so keep an eye out for a full-on review soon.

The wedge-shaped Zenbook Prime is only .11 to .35 inches thin. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

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