ASUS Zenbook Prime (UX21A) Review: The First of the 2nd Gen Ultrabooks
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 22, 2012 2:46 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- CPUs
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- Zenbook
- Zenbook Prime
- Ultrabook
- Notebooks
The Display in Numbers
The new 1080p panel looks good, but does it make any sacrifices in its performance? Thankfully, no. Max brightness is down a bit compared to the previous generation, but it's still higher than any of the portable Macs and much higher than your typical PC displays. Black levels are much improved over the original Zenbook as well:
The resulting contrast ratio is almost tablet-like:
It's not just the basics that ASUS delivers well on, color accuracy is top notch:
Color gamut is shy of the MacBook Pro but much better than the previous Zenbook and the MacBook Air:
Size is definitely an issue here. While I think the 1920 x 1080 panel will be a very good fit for the 13.3-inch UX31, there's a smaller subset of folks who are going to appreciate it in the 11.6-inch UX21. Personally I think it's fine but at 189 PPI the 11-inch Zenbook Prime is going to be a tough sell for those who have a tough time looking at small text.
Text on the 11-inch 1080p panel
ASUS' solution is to ship the UX21 with Windows set to 125% DPI scaling by default, unfortunately most applications (including many of Microsoft's own) don't deal with non-integer DPI scaling very well.
Here's what the default desktop looks like at 125%:
And here are examples of applications that don't behave well with Windows 7's DPI scaling:
In Skype, some text elements are tiny while others are huge. PCMark Vantage is an example of where you see this as well:
Here the scaled text actually can't fit in the area allocated for it, while the rest of the text is entirely too small.
There's not much you can do to work around this today with Windows 7. You're either going to have really small text or have to deal with funny scaling. This is unfortunately a major downside to not controlling the OS layer, ASUS is at the mercy of Microsoft to get scaling for displays with high pixel densities right. Windows 8 should be better in this regard but I ran out of time to try it out on the Zenbook Prime before the embargo lift.
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sonelone - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
I really wish more manufacturers would do something similar to Sony's Vaio Z series, having a slim ultrabook but also giving it the capability of a dedicated GPU when plugged in. The UX31 would be the perfect laptop for me if it had that.Impulses - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Are you gonna be reviewing the larger model as well?JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
Yes, both of them is the plan. Stay tuned....nortexoid - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
They should seriously consider a Trinity option. Nobody will be doing heavy CPU lifting on an 11 inch ultra book so Trinity will be more than adequate in the CPU department. Imagine how awesome it would be to play games with decent frame rates on this thing.piroroadkill - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Have you checked HD 4000 performance? It's not stunning, but it's way better than I imagine you think..bleh0 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
I've seen them and while they are close Trinity could be put in with lower costs, similar battery life, and in some cases better gaming performance.Since the models don't ship with Thunderbolt you aren't losing any ports either.
ananduser - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
HD4000 barely offers playable rates. And when it does the experience as a whole is choppy. So, if you're willing to spend top dollar on an ultrabook, you better not care about light gaming.JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
Define "light" gaming. For me, it means 1366x768 and low to medium detail levels, and for that the HD 4000 is certainly adequate. Now if you're wanting medium to high detail settings and a higher resolution -- never mind native 1080p! -- than no, HD 4000 isn't going to be remotely close.chrnochime - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Now that the display is finally not the cause of the whiner's reason for whining, I wonder how many are actually going to put the money where their mouth is and buy this laptop.Sunburn74 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Nah they'll just find things to complain about like how 4gb of ram isn't enough and how it doesn't make them coffee in the morning and take the dog out for a walk. Its really sad actually, how when anyone who's not apple makes a marvelous machine that is darn close to perfect, the PC community (with its schizophrenic mindset) just criticizes it and eventually ignores it to death. Hopefully that won't happen here.