Sleeping well
The UX21E, like other Ultrabooks, makes use of solid-state storage instead of a hard disk. While this invariably means you get less storage space, the performance of the SSD drive in the UX21E wavered between remarkable and awesome. Indeed, it seriously skewed my benchmark tests, as the results are insane. Take a look at the same chip used on the Acer and Samsung, outperforming the latter that also features an SSD, by a 20 per cent margin. Asus even offers a Core i7 version of this model with a 256GB SSD, if you really need it.
Benchmark Tests
PCMark 7 Results
Longer bars are better
On the other hand, the one thing this computer is not good at is 3D gaming. Don’t do it: you will only be disappointed. 3DMark 11 didn't play nice but 3DMark 06 notched up a score of 4084. As for battery life Futuremark's new Powermark benchmarking application ran for a respectable 184 minutes.
What it’s amazing at is resuming from sleep. Asus claims it can wake from Sleep mode in two seconds, but my own test result of four seconds (from closed case to working Windows 7 desktop) is no slouch. Waking from full Hibernate took 15 seconds; starting up from cold took a mere 23 seconds, and it’s not accompanied by urgent fan whirring or farty hard disk noises. I used the UX21E throughout a week, here and there, putting it into Sleep when not it use, and I only had to recharge it once.
Asus is fairly generous with its bundled extras, including this tough slipcase
Verdict
The Asus Zenbook UX21E is thinner, lighter and much more fun to use than I thought possible for an 11in notebook. Built to last and to impress, it manages to look amazing and cute at the same time. If the viewing angle on the display had been a few degrees wider, I would have rated the computer 90 per cent: I liked it that much. Asus also deserves kudos for including a tough slipcase, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter and a mini VGA-to-VGA adapter in the box, rather than charging for these as optional extras. ®
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Asus UX21E Zenbook
COMMENTS
tedious troll
This kind of lame trolling is why every right minded individual hates apple zealots
Not slagging the Air...
However, I think Apple could learn something here by including a slip case and maybe even monitor/Ethernet adapters. After all, they aren't the cheapest tin in the world and putting a few extra items (one of which is a protective measure) would put some polish on the product.
Yes indeed, it does look very similar to a MacBook Air. Which in itself looks very similar to the Vaio X505 of 2004. What's your point?
I am truly unsurprised that you.........
............posted that as an AC.
Fair play to Asus
Finally someone has done what the whole ultrabook project was about, made a macbook air clone which is good enough and at the right price to get some windows based machines into that marketplace. I've only ever had good experiences with Asus kit and my Transformer is excellent.
Shame that the screen has such a poor viewing angle, a good screen makes such a difference on a machine you use a lot, but other than that doesn't seem to be much to complain about here.
I'd rather spend £60ish more and get the 11" Air with comparable spec and better screen personally, but if the slipcase, accessories and OS make a difference to you then I can completeley understand going for the Asus.
It's nice to see some proper competetion in this sector, can only be good for the consumer.
