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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ananduser - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
DPI scaling is only an issue with 3rd party programs. Windows featuring the best DPI scaling currently for desktop OSes.Conficio - Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - link
... does the article not demonstrate that DPI scaling even in some popular MS programs does not work?is ti fair to conclude, that either it is an inherent problem with the Windows 7 OS or it is so complicated APi wise that even Microsofts in house programmers can't get it right?
piroroadkill - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
11.6 and 13.3" 1080p? Very nice. I'd rather it was an 8:5 ratio but still, very nice.GeorgeH - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
That screen is a thing of beauty - Asus laptops just went from a personal overall 'meh' to 'hell yes'. Here's hoping Asus also starts adding high DPI models to their desktop display line.MobiusStrip - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Only if it's matte, which isn't specified in the chart. Otherwise it doesn't matter what kind of panel is in there; you'll be looking at yourself and the stuff behind you, and not the images generated by the computer.mike8675309 - Thursday, May 24, 2012 - link
I nearly had to spend some alone time when I read the resolution of this thing in an 11" panel. My goodness, I love it. That's higher resolution than what is standard (and even available in some) in many 17" laptop displays. Curious who makes that panel and for what other applications. Must be made of some rare stuff.Cygni - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
This picture:http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/mobile/ASUS/Ze...
Goddamn REALLY asus? You are really going to release a picture with razerback aliasing, oval mic ports, and spellcheck underlines to the press? You have to be kidding me.
Also: lol mini-vga in 2012, jesus christ.
MobiusStrip - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Ha ha ha! You're right; that's pitifully unprofessional.Sunburn74 - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Geez people,Try and remember what the purpose of the machine is when filing complaints.
Kegetys - Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - link
Seems quite impressive, something I would have wished to see more detail on is the noise levels. My UL30VT with SSD keeps the fan completely off when its sitting idle on my desk and also on light desktop loads. Its awesome when it makes no noise at all*, that even a very slowly rotating fan inevitably does. I can leave it on during the night an sleep a meter away from it without being disturbed.* There's some slight electrical noises, but they arent audible from normal use distances.