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MBA contender

L

Lunchb0x8

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 2, 2010
604
35
Quirindi, NSW, AU
I know, everyone always posts about some laptop that they think is a contender for the title of portable machines etc...

I think I have found a windows based machine that fits into the category for MBA contender as far as light, small and portable goes.

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX21E/

Just picked up the i5 version for a work PC, is so far a fast, powerful and comfortable to use machine.

Is also very pretty!

Is not quite the same as the MBA, but s very close in design and function.
 
What's your experience with the trackpad? I have read in several reviews that it is not just awful but one of the worst trackpads to ever grace a laptop. Is it really that bad from your experience? Other than that it looks like a great MBA competitor.

I have been eagerly reading every ultra book review and so far I like the Lenovo u300s the most from the reviews. The design of the laptop is beautiful.

Only two things are missing from the current line of ultrabooks..
-backlight keyboards
-better screens/resolutions

Plus the price, isn't Windows supposed to be cheaper? ;) Right now all of these ultrabooks are on par with MBA pricing.
 
Matthew9559 said:
What's your experience with the trackpad? I have read in several reviews that it is not just awful but one of the worst trackpads to ever grace a laptop. Is it really that bad from your experience? Other than that it looks like a great MBA competitor.

I have been eagerly reading every ultra book review and so far I like the Lenovo u300s the most from the reviews. The design of the laptop is beautiful.

Only two things are missing from the current line of ultrabooks..
-backlight keyboards
-better screens/resolutions

Plus the price, isn't Windows supposed to be cheaper? ;) Right now all of these ultrabooks are on par with MBA pricing.
Click to expand...

they are cheaper, not by much, and in some cases not enough to go with one over the similar MBA, the SSD's on the samsung are SATA3 so 500MB/s and not 200 or so in the MBAs tho.

part of why they're cheaper is probably the displays, they all kind of suck :S, 3 of the 5 ultrabooks have backlight keyboards.

screens quality and resolution on most is indeed lacking a bit, i'd add better trackpads to that list.
 
Was $1399 AUD, the trackpad, whilst not quite as good as my MBP, is pretty decent.

And 1366*768 is terrible resolution for an 11.6" given it is the same as the 11.6 Air, I think you might be a bit wrong there.

The screen is beautiful IMHO, the keyboard is a little soft, but responsive enough.
 
Lunchb0x8 said:
I think I have found a windows based machine that fits into the category for MBA contender as far as light, small and portable goes.
Is also very pretty!
[\QUOTE]

Yeah I checked one out last weekend at Best Buy ... it is darn sweet.

The screen is sharp and the machine tests very close to new mbas in performance.

Might have to think about that one for my daughter heading off to college next year.

*** Update:

Not sure if the asus is the one I liked. There was a 13 inch one with 1600 x 900 screen but maybe it was the samsung new ultra book? The best buy store I looked at had two new ultra books side by side and one was somewhat cheesier and the other one with the higher res screen the clear winner. Price difference was close to 150 bucks if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Trav29 said:
I have also read the keyboard on the other Zenbook isn't very good.
Click to expand...

I have seen negative reviews on the keyboard, as well as poor battery life. Also the fan is reported to be loud and almost constantly on. While it is certainly another entry into the market place, I am not sure it would be considered a legitimate "contender."
 
entatlrg said:
Screen sucks, trackpad sucks end of story.

There's reviews out there confirming that too.
Click to expand...

This.

If you've got a poor screen, and a terrible interface via trackpad, the whole machine is just a total non-starter.

As a former Windows box user, I can say with absolute certainty that I will never even consider another non-Mac until somebody figures out how to nail the completely effortless multi-touch trackpad interface like Apple has. It's the first laptop I've owned where I don't have to haul around a USB mouse to comfortably interact with it.

It doesn't get more fundamental than the user input and screen. If those are poor, then it's just not worth it unless the machine is faaaaaar cheaper, -but then you've probably got a whole other set of issues with it...
 
Finally we can compare "apples to apples" with these windows ultrabooks.

Notice how the price is in the same ballpark now? There are cheaper ultra books (check out the toshiba one for $800), but they come with less hardware (core i3, for example).

Mac's still win though, imho. Why? Because they have a Hardware / Software holistic design to them. They design one with the other in mind... "one team".

So the cheeky reply/question to these types of threads of: "ya but does it run Mac OS X?" is pretty valid. =)
 
From a design point of view it's also a bit of a calamity.

The radial gradient of the outer shell and the matte-ish linear finish inside clash horribly. It looks like it was put together by someone who's spent 10 minutes fannying around in Adobe Illustrator.

"this design also looks totally unique" -- You are fooling no-one, Asus.
 
entatlrg said:
Screen sucks, trackpad sucks end of story.

There's reviews out there confirming that too.
Click to expand...

I used it in person at BestBuy, the Screen KILLS the Airs IMO. Better resolution and colors look better. Also the trackpad was fixed in an update. They have a faster SSD also. If most of my software was not already purchased for Mac at this point, and BestBuy didn't have $200 off the 13in Air I'd probably have switched back to Win7.
 
I've purchased exactly one Asus product. It was a 16" notebook about 1.5 years ago. The unit was defective (couldn't charge a battery), and they made me pay to ship it back to them. Whole thing took 6 weeks, several hours on the phone, and shipping out of the country and back.

Also, the trackpad was awful, and the keypad missed keystrokes if you typed > 40 wpm.

(Fortunately?) it died after 13 months.

I know, sample size of one and all that. Still, I'm never giving that company my money again.
 
blueroom said:
Doesn't run OS X. Do not want.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to say.

I love how they show graphics on that page that look OSX'y and notice they never show windows on the screen at any point in time
 
iRCL said:
This is exactly what I was going to say.

I love how they show graphics on that page that look OSX'y and notice they never show windows on the screen at any point in time
Click to expand...

That's common because then the company has to pay royalties back to Windows for the use of their product in advertising.
 
altecXP said:
I used it in person at BestBuy, the Screen KILLS the Airs IMO. Better resolution and colors look better. Also the trackpad was fixed in an update. They have a faster SSD also. If most of my software was not already purchased for Mac at this point, and BestBuy didn't have $200 off the 13in Air I'd probably have switched back to Win7.
Click to expand...

After doing some double checking yes the Asus was the one I liked at BestBuy.

The screen is sharp and the higher resolution 1600 x 900 will make it a top pick in the ( admittedly limited ) ultra book marketplace.

Seriously if you are Acer or HP or Samsung and you knew already Asus was going to do 1600 x 900 why would you put something out below that and also below the macbook air?

Early reviews on amazon do complain about trackpad and network connection but ( apparently ) windows driver updates have fixed ( many? all? ) problems there.

Yes some people complaining about the keyboard.

It looks like some competition is finally entering this area which should be good for all consumers no matter which machine people ultimately decide on!
 
johnhurley said:
It looks like some competition is finally entering this area which should be good for all consumers no matter which machine people ultimately decide on!
Click to expand...

All these threads about "MacBook Air Killer" and "MBA Contender" -- The reality is that they aren't either of these things. OSX is the primary reason that I own it, and it's not available on any of the so-called "competitor" ultrabooks.
 
johnhurley said:
No viable hackintosh approach?
Click to expand...

Naw some parts aren't compatible.

Having played with the Zenbook and Samsung 9 Series, I prefered the 9 series as its trackpad and keyboard were nicer than the Asus. Neither compare to the Air though, and OS X is the main reason I want the Air.
 
johnhurley said:
No viable hackintosh approach?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have thought so. It's debatable whether any Hackintosh is ever really feasible in anything other than self-built PC boxes that use compatible components and some older netbooks, and those netbooks can't run anything past early snow leopard builds because Apple canned support for the Atom CPUs to stop people doing precisely that.

Not an option as far as I'm concerned. Others may disagree, and I'd be happy to be shown a competitor Ultrabook that runs Lion identically to an Air, but I really doubt that I'll see it.
 
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