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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Johnmcl7 - Sunday, September 16, 2012 - link
Nor were they the first with an ultralight design either so they need to stop with calling everything a copy of the Macbook Air as it just makes the article writers look ignorant. What is particularly strange is that they even acknowledged the Sony X505 on the first MBA review but seem to have forgotten since so we're back to everything being referred to as Apple again even when they were years after other companies with the design or technology.John
ueharaf - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
i want a vaio z2 comparisson with 1920 x 1080p on both displays...contrast..brights...vieweing angle,etcRoland00Address - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5530/sony-vaio-z2-ev...The sony z2 has a negligable lower black point and a higher color gamut.
The asus has a higher contrast ratio, higher brightness (useful when outdoors), and better viewing angles (due to the fact the asus is ips and the z2 is tn.)
Sunburn74 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Anand,You did a really nice job with the review. However, I think your battery life comparison is lacking. Can you find way to be more open concerning the varying battery sizes of laptops when discussing their battery life? Something like an adjusted battery life chart or battery life vs size ratio chart?
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
Battery life doesn't scale with screen size; you can have a 13.3" display that will draw more power than a 17.3" display (at the same brightness), depending on a variety of other factors. It's moderately interesting to consider "best battery life in a [xxx] screen laptop", but that's about as far as I'd take it.Stuka87 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
For Diablo III to run on intel graphics, you need to turn off AA, an check the box that says "Low FX".I have personally run the game on an i7-2620 (Dual Core, Mobile i7, HD3000) and it ran fine. But that Low FX option and AA is what made it playable. The other settings did not have much of an effect.
Mumrik - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Fuck yes... More of this please.MobiusStrip - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
The specs chart is lacking a critical characteristic of the screen: glossy or matte?Endeavour1934 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
It looks like it's semimate, like the VAIO Z and S displays. But I could be wrong...slagar - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Stunning. Love it. Truly impressive job Asus. True, 4gb RAM is a little of a downer for future-proofing, but I think we're looking at laptop of the year here.