ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB71 13.3" Ultrabook

Pros: Excellent machine. Light, fast, 5-6 hours battery life, SSD is really fast, graphics are decent-ish. BUT....

Cons: I got one machine and the keyboard broke within 6 weeks... certain keys would not respond when pressed, and the problem would come and go a little until finally it came and stayed. I RMA'ed it, Newegg is great, and got a new laptop.

I've had the new one about five months now... and I just had another little episode where the keys would not respond when pressed. It went away when I hit some other keys, but... I suspect it will end up getting RMA'ed too. Maybe I should see if I can get a different brand laptop this time.

Other Thoughts: It's a lovely ultrabook. But don't get it.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I am sorry that you had issues with both of your laptops. It seems like for the most part your replacement laptop is performing well; however, you did mentioned that the computer was having issues with the keyboard. Has this issue or any other issue come up since you posted your review? If your computer is having issues and is still under warranty, I would suggest contacting ASUS Support. I have a direct contact you could email to check what options you have available with the laptop. Please make sure to include the reason for the email along with your laptop's serial number. The email is cl-jolene@asus.com. Have a nice day!

Regards,

Mark
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: This ultrabook is one of the lightest that I have ever owned.

Cons: The engineer used an extremely rare SSD along with a proprietary adapter that you can't upgrade and replaced. My employer require me to hand over the hard drive at the end of a work project. I have contacted customer service, they refused to sell me another SSD, they are only willing to send me a list of contracted suppliers that either has no inventory or will not sell it to consumer with less than 1000 units of this same SSD. I just want to buy a replacement part at a reasonable market price for same capacity SSD on in the market (less than $200 as of 02/2013 for 256gb SSD), and the possibility to upgrade the SSD like any owner. MLC (multi level cell) SSD do degrade over time, roughly in 1-2 years, and the need to replace this part become even more important than battery or RAM. I have purchased it because of its great reputation on customer service, reputable engineering, and ease to replace part before I invested fifteen hundred plus, it is an expensive mistake that I regretted for over a month now to purchase Asus product.

Other Thoughts: If you think you might need to replace or upgrade parts on this ultrabook, please don't waste your time with this model. Once your warranty is out or have the need to replace like I do, you will be left with an expensive piece of junk. Asus customer service are focused on customer service without actual solution, and their engineering along with planning department certainly did not plan to serve customer beyond their liable contracted warranty. As I still have warranty until 07/2013, but because of my special circumstance to give up the SSD for work reason, ASUS will not help me on replacing the part for reasonable price. The logic of premium product come with premium service is not true with Asus branded product, especially this model of ultrabook. For fifteen hundred plus, I get to contribute to their R&D and advertising department, but I get a flawed product, and emailed solution to nowhere.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you are not getting any support from our service department. Usually we do not sell individual parts to customers. You can send the unit in for service and then be charged to get another SSD installed. I say the best thing to do is to just purchase your own SSD and install it.

I don't understand why your work is taking your SSD inside your notebook. They should be held responsible to have it replaced or reimburse you back for you to replace with another.

If you want to upgrade the SSD, here is a photo of what it looks like. I believe this is a mSATA card type SSD.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/b4debbc8be.jpg

If you have any questions or comments you can email me again at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: light but strong and durable. The new keyboard from the earlier edition which I also own, resolved my only complaint. With the addition of the new softer touch backlit keyboard, this laptop is as close to perfect as you can get in its class. Light powerful durable.

Cons: edges are a touch sharp and the lit can be difficult to open because the base is so light.

Pros: Slim, Quiet, Fast boot times

Cons: Broken, now a brick

Other Thoughts: Bought this laptop, liked it for a the three weeks it worked, then after the battery full discharged one night the notebook froze on boot. After going through Windows Safe Mode many times a disk check ran and is unable to read several sectors of the OS partition. Not fun having to return a product after just 3 weeks of use.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the hard drive may have failed on you. If you have send your unit in for repair, you can always email me and I will update you on the repair status.

You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Have a great holiday and new year.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty USA

Pros: Good display, fast, good battery life, Blazing start up time

Cons: Still concerned about quality

Other Thoughts: This unit initially arrived with 25% of the keys not working. I went to return it but, issues with NewEgg support prevented completing the process on Friday. I let the unit sit for a day and then surprise, the non functional keys started working. I've kept the unit because I like the design but, am very concerned about it failing again. I recommend buyers proceed with caution.

Pros: Can't think of any. This is my second unit. Both failed within 1 day.

Cons: No Quality. Shipping Junk. I've now had two of these units. The first one had a USB problem straight out of the box (Smelled like it was burning). This one arrived with 25% of the keyboard keys not working. I'm disappointed with Asus and wouldn't recommend them.

Other Thoughts: No Quality. Shipping Junk. I've now had two of these units. The first one had a USB problem straight out of the box (Smelled like it was burning). This one arrived with 25% of the keyboard keys not working. I'm disappointed with Asus and wouldn't recommend them.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you were having problems with the keyboard. But now it's working properly again.

Next time if you have a problem, feel free to email me and I will do what I can to help you out.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Thin
Aesthetically pleasing
Backlit keyboard
Great battery life
Snappy
Fantastic screen.
Great computer for school-related activities.
Wifi was consistently great and responsive

Cons: Touchpad is bad. If it weren't for CTRL-Z I'd have lost countless hours of essay-writing.

Less than two months of ownership and the charger, be it the charger itself or the port on the laptop, isn't working. So I have myself a nice paperweight until ASUS actually gets back to me.

Speaking of which, reaching them is incredibly frustrating. I just sent an inquiry but it left me no confirmation message, just reloaded the screen and deleted all I had written. Is it sent? I guess I'll find out later.

I've taken great care of the laptop, keeping it in the included carrying case when it isn't in use, but the serial number on the bottom is still almost faded away.

Other Thoughts: For $1500 I shouldn't have to worry about things crapping out before I've even had the thing for two months. It was great until that happened, but it shouldn't have happened. This ultrabook would be screaming for 5 stars if it could still turn on.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that you need to send the unit in for service.

Please contact me so I can help you get an RMA number. If you have already received an RMA number then you can email me if you would like the status of your notebook repair.

You can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty USA

Pros: looks promising...if only it wouldn't just be a blank screen...

Cons: won't power on, right out of the box, even with a fully green light from the power adapter.

Other Thoughts: hopefully this in a human error on my noobish part and my very very expensive fresh out of the box completely new laptop will power on soon? I unboxed this pristine looking notebook and plugged it into the power adapter, waited for the indicator light on the power cord to turn green, then pushed the power button with no response at all...ugh this is so frustrating and saddening...

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Sorry to hear that the unit did not work right out of the box.
I hope you returned the unit for a replacement and you are utilizing the laptop at it's full potential.

If you have any questions or comments you can email me at cl-jeffrey@asus.com which I reside in the U.S

ASUS strives to meet and exceeds our customer expectations within our warranty policy.

Regards,

Jeffrey
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Snappy, especially with the SSD. Boots in a few seconds, shuts down equally quickly
Terrific display. Bright, clear, good color.
Size and weight.
Backlit keyboard
Decent sound
Battery Life is good

Cons: Not a fan of the touchpad, but I am not a fan of any touchpad
Pricey
In a perfect world, it would have another USB port

Other Thoughts: I purchased an Open Box version from Newegg. I’ve been using it a couple of weeks as a replacement for a 6-year old IBM. So far, it is everything I wanted and expected. The very first thing anyone notices is the display. The downside is text can be small, but that can be changed on a application by application basis. I’m a touch typist and the keyboard is fine. I wouldn’t trade my desktop keyboard for it, but I’ve had no problems. The wireless has been reliable for me, both at home and on the road. The build quality feels solid.

There are software controls for pretty much everything, although there is also a fair amount of bloatware to selectively remove. Some of it is useful, some redundant.

I redid the partitions. It comes with about 102GB for drive C and 128 for Drive D. I generally keep Windows and system utilities on about an 80GB C partition. Since this is Home Premium I had to shrink C, delete D completely, then create a new D for what was not used by C or the backup partition.

My only gripe was finding the Windows activation key, which is on the AC adapter (odd place, since wall warts have been known to need replacing. Asus didn’t even know where it was). I shouldn't complain, because based on where Windows booted to during setup, I think it was an open box because the original buyer could not find the key, either.

I always use a wireless mouse with notebooks, so the touchpad is not an issue for me, and my not liking it is a personal thing, anyway. It could be the greatest touchpad ever invented and I wouldn’t like it.

Overall, I'd recommend this Ultrabook to anyone in the market. Like someone before me, I did a fair amount of research into 13-14" notebooks, and am quite happy with this one.

Pros: Clean compact and a nice replacement for my mac air. Needing to go back to a windows platform for work issues this caught my eye. they really did a nice job with the quality and featurees they built in. Had a quirky touchpad out of the box. I hit the right touchpad button a couple times (I think) and it was perfect. they seem to have built in a lot of fuctionality to the touchpad, so if it seems funny initially, hook up a remote mouse to navigate and my guess is you will be able to get it fixed. took me about 30 seconds. They have automatic touchpad disable when you are typing option. My wife would love that because she is always dragging her braclets across her touchpad while typing and telling me the there is something wrong with the computer because the mouse jumps. Has a secure delete functionality built in. Very nice as well.

Cons: Can't think of one right now.