ASUS Zenbook (UX21) Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 22, 2011 8:00 PM ESTPerformance
Raw CPU performance of the Zenbook's UX21 is obviously within the realm of the 11-inch MacBook Air, however its SSD really pushes it ahead of the MacBook Air in a lot of the PCMark 7 tests. PCMark tends to emphasize the benefits of an SSD but it really does illustrate just how much of a difference an SSD can make. A lot of the faster systems we've reviewed with mechanical drives simply feel slower than the Zenbook as a result of the latter having an extremely capable SSD. If there's any impact that Ultrabooks have on the market I hope it's the more widespread use of SSDs by OEMs.
Gaming performance is not a strong suit of the Zenbook UX21. Pretty much anything with a half-way decent discrete GPU is going to put this thing to shame. While you can play some games on the Zenbook, if you're planning on doing any real gaming with your notebook you probably don't want an Ultrabook.
Boot and Resume Time
ASUS did a lot of BIOS optimization work to make the UX21 boot as quickly as possible. In its default configuration you don't see a POST screen; instead you get a quick flash of the ASUS logo before immediately being dumped into the Windows 7 startup sequence. The whole process from power off to desktop takes 16.7 seconds, which is actually marginally little quicker than a MacBook Air from off to OS X (17.2 seconds).
Resume time is even more impressive. By default the UX21 goes into a suspend-to-RAM state when you shut the lid. Resuming from this state takes just a hair over 2 seconds (I measured anywhere from 2.04—2.22 seconds)—it's quick. The WiFi usually takes a couple more seconds to become active beyond that, and Windows doesn't remember your previous brightness setting just whatever setting the active power plan was set to upon resume. Other than those two hiccups, the experience is just awesome.
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Fastidious - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Seems like a lot of sacrifices for thinness. If they were cheaper it would have more appeal but I'd rather get something like a M11x for that kind of price. I wouldn't mind the price staying the same if they had a real GPU.Dennis Travis - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Excellent review Anand. Watched the Video also. It very MBA like but I guess the Air is still a bit better in a few ways, but still nice first attempt by Asus.guste - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Anand, there are probably more of us Windows folk buying the MacBook Air, than you think. I just bought an 11" Air, last week and I've enjoyed it. I just hate that I have an OS on here that I'll never really use (I've tried, but there are much less options for control!). I was fairly certain the Aspire S3 would be a cost-cutting dud (and it is), but I was excited about the Asus. After reading your great review, I'm going to stick with the MBA, but I'm sure that Asus will nail it on the second go round.I really hope you take a look at the upcoming Lenovo U300S. If I hadn't needed a new machine right now, the Lenovo would have been at the top of my list. According to Lenovo's websiste, it's launching in November.
solipsism - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
"(I've tried, but there are much less options for control!)"Are you talking about Unix over Windows or Unix over Linux? I can't imagine there isn't much you can't control in Mac OS X.
coolhardware - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Thanks for the nice review Anand. I'm looking forward to seeing one of these systems in person.Here is something (free) that might help with some aspects of the trackpad:
http://www.jdhodges.com/2011/09/smooth-two-finger-...
I would be very curious if it works with the UX21, because it DEFINITELY helps with my Dell V131 and M6500.
Thanks again for all the hard work you and the crew do bring us tasty tech reviews!
arnavvdesai - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Anand, do you feel that there is a compromise being made when going to the 13" model which has a much higher Resolution compared to the Air? If using as your main computer, I would prefer to have the highest resolution possible.Also, because it is at higher resolution is the panel configuration different compared to the Air?
bludragon - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
Hmm, if this had been around when I was shopping I might have been tempted. An IPS display would have done it... As it is, I'm still quite happy with a Thinkpad X220 with am mSSD, IPS display, and a 320Gb 2.5in mechanical drive for media and backing up the SSD :-) The only thing missing on that is a higher res display. 1366x768 feels a little vertically challenged.The U300s looks nice, but suffers the same vertically challenged display. They say it's 'HD', does that mean IPS? It would be nice if they at least offered an upgrade to IPS option like the X220. If it's TN then the 13inch ASUS is looking better for the extra resolution.
mrboonmee - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
The only 1600x900 option so far is on the UX31, I wonder how much better that panel is? still not matte of course.hopefully the trackpad improves.
adrien - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
0.3MP webcam, why are laptops stuck at such low resolutions? =/Darkstone - Sunday, October 23, 2011 - link
You commented on the lack of a second USB 3.0 port, probably routing issues... However, i have a different theory. The USB 3.0 port requires a driver to work. Installing windows on a device with no working usb ports, nor a dvd drive would be a total nightmare. I'm glad that USB 2.0 port is there.