ASUS Zenbook UX31-RSL8 13.3" Ultrabook

Pros: very nice body, i turn it on, super fast. tried going on the internet, wireless doesn't work.
called tech, gave me very basic instructions, long story short. had to download/install wireless driver myself, doesn't work. reboot/setup the whole system, still doesn't work. conclusion: whoever refurb'ed this laptop, apparently messed w the wireless hardware inside or possibly removed it all together.
so disappointed that the laptop came and i can't use it! now THREE weeks later i'm STILL waiting for my replacement.

Cons: besides the fact that the wireless doesn't work, not much yet....

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

I apologize for the issues that you are having with the refurbished notebook. If the driver reinstallation and the factory reset did not work, then it is most likely the hardware at fault. If you are still within 3 months of purchase, your laptop will still have a warranty on it. Please contact myself, or our customer support and we can help get you can RMA set up. I can be reached at cl-tien@asus.com. I’ll be more than happy to assist you.

Best Regards,

Tien
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: This laptop is beautiful. Gorgeous design to rival the Air, high-resolution screen, lightweight.

The hardware is powerful, enough RAM, a sizeable (relatively), fast SSD, a wonderful i5. Windows 7!

Amazing pricepoint. Only a few minor bezel scratches for the 1000 is savings, hardly noticeable without inspection.

I think I may have bought the last one.

Cons: The keyboard is pretty poor, as is the touchpad. Not terrible, but not great either. The keys need to be hit dead on, and the touchpad is easily accidentally bumped, resulting in your text being inputted in the wrong place. This wouldn't be a problem if I could turn off tap to click, but the touchpad drivers are insufficent and buggy, making this impossible.

Speaking of drivers, they are relatively weak. The bloatware is pretty bad.

Overall, these seemingly minor errors make what could have been an amazing laptop something of a chore to use. Had I payed full MSRP, I would be very disappointed. That said, for $550, it is easily the best choice in the pricerange.

Pros: This refurbish in particular had, as other stated, 1600 resolution, as opposed to what is shown here. Computer had very light dents and overall looks pretty new. Changer is really scratched - but comes with a protective film so after removing it it looks fine.

Where are these refurbs from? Comp/USA. Mine came with a sticker that reads exactly that. Another company bough Comp/USA as it was backrupt, and now decided to get rid of Comp/USA name, and this happened during Dec 2012. So these Refurbs likely have to do with that reoganization and may be the reason why there are so many of these refurbs.

I got this for my sister, and it came with Adata SSHD and Elan touchpad, which was the best possible options. I hope my sister would like it. I looks great - like timeless. Since it all aluminum, the computer doesn't look modern, or old.

My only concern is the battery, as there's no indication on how to change it - or if easy at all.

Software: it came with all drivers updated, and a fresh Windows install.

In general, the computer is nice looking. The only con is that the HD 3000 integrated card is not great - but you can't have everything. For light games, it'll be superb, and for 995 of tasks this computer works perfectly. The solid state disc makes things really blazing fast, but this has been mentioned already.

Cons: Touchpad...maybe due to multitouch gestures, sometimes behaves strangely. I also think the design is flawed. The button surface is shared with the main touchable area, and there's no clue except for lots of practice of when you reached the limit. It will just "stop working" at some point...where the buttons start. You can get used to it and it's not a huge deal.

Other Thoughts: A nice buy if you value style, compactness and your budget. The Solid state disc is a must. I also have one and never regretted for one second the extra cost. It sames you a couple of days of waiting (combined) during the year. I've gone from minutes to seconds for Outlook searches, for example, and I do like 10 searches a day at least - to name one example. But stand by to On in 2 seconds - I no longer care to disable Stand By in 5 min. It's like an iPad.

Pros: I am a technologist at a California UC. The truth is, it does not have the fit and finish of an Apple Mac Air, that being said, it is very close and very acceptable. Everything works wonderfully. I picked up this $1200 (when it first came out) ultra-book for 529.99 in March of 2013.

I bought this for my wife, who just started grad school. It replaced our 6.5 pound HP. She needed something light and fast. She did not want to lug around a beast and this did the trick.

Concerning the Mac Air, presently, there is not a Windows machine that can compete with the Fit & Finish of an Air. However, ASUS comes the closest. I live in a Windows ecosystem, so this was an obvious choice.

ASUS - Great Job on the Ultrabook! Cheers!

Side Note: This is my second ASUS laptop purchase and I have not had one issue. ASUS you are my favorite Windows portable manufacturer!

Cons: None - others complained about the keyboard. My keyboard works just fine.

Other Thoughts: Purchased on sale with code - $529.99, this deal cannot be beat. I was concerned about it being refurb, that being said, everything works without issue.

Pros: Thin.
Fast. (SSD, i5 processor)
Responsive keyboard.
Great battery (as far as I'm concerned, 5-6 hours is great).
High resolution 1600 x 900.
Came with minimal bloatware.
Sexy.

Cons: Arrived with disclaimer stating 'no windows recovery'.
Not a big deal for me.

Other Thoughts: My whole life I've been thrifty.

Sometimes the money is worth it and sometimes it isn't.

I'm glad I went with this product.

So far... very impressed!

The future looks bright (and so does this screen!!)

Pros: Lightweight, Fast, Decent sound, sexy laptop.

Cons: the power key is right next to the delete key, has a ton of bloatware that needed to be removed. Missing some drivers and this model is not listed on the asus support site.

Other Thoughts: Takes some scavenging to grab all the correct drivers but if you know what your doing this will make a great laptop for you.

Pros: Fast, Form factor, when the OS worked it seemed nice. ASUS supplied software enhanced the experience well. Doesn't have Windows 8. Good battery life. Refurbished price was right.

Cons: When I opened the box there was a nice note stating: To protect the privacy of the previous owner we wiped the entire hard drive, including the recovery partition. Now there is a way to "burn" a disc (a backup of the OS) but if your machine behaves like mine did you will find installing a backup of a flawed install is not going to help.

Other Thoughts: The machine is a nice machine, and it is very fast. I have purchased refurbished equipment in the past and NEVER have I seen a machine so messed up after being refurbished. It shipped with the incorrect touchpad driver installed, and I am guessing a number of other incorrect items which would account for the blue screen reboots I was experiencing. The keyboard does work but requires a firm touch, I found it would miss some of my keystrokes. The touchpad works well once the proper driver is installed. Did I mention there's no recovery partition?

Pros: -Very fast, can run ArcGIS, Utorrent, netflix, VLC, Word, excel and 15 tabs at the same time with no interuption
-Screen is 1600X900 and very bright
-2 second instant on from sleep is better then I expected

Cons: Battery only lasted 2:10 min after I gave it everything I could. Under normal use it lasts a little bit over 4 hours. But since the instant sleep/resume works so well 4 hours seems to last much longer.

Other Thoughts: Like others say the model number is UX31E-1ARY, but all specs are the same as advertised. Except the resolution is better then the stated 1366X768. I would buy this again even at a higher price.

A Passmark 8 benchmark scored the zenbook at 1523 and the CPU at 2643

This model has the worse Sandisk SSD but it seems fast to me.

I will edit the post if any of the issues previously reported come up.

Pros: Awesome hardware! The finish and the feel is excellent. This is a VERY pretty machine. The quality flat blows my wife's crAAPL Air away and it was 1/3 of the cost, and my Azus has MUCH better video resolution and internals too.

I love this machine.

Cons: Came with Trend Micro antivirus preinstalled, Win7 Home Prem instead of Win7 Pro, there are a few goofy pre-installed desktop gadgets, one for the battery life is in the auto load folder (making it irritating so I deleted it.

Other Thoughts: I'd have preferred to have a 'No OS version' since I never intended to use the Win 7 Home prem license.

Pros: I own a MacBook Air and wanted a Windows laptop about the same size/weight. This is it! The gestures and everything work very similar. I wiped this laptop and put Windows 7 Pro on it. It runs very fast, sleeps well and has great battery life. Even the power block is similar to the MacBook Air. If you want a moderately priced laptop that is very fast and light. Get this one.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: The metal finish on this unit is awesome looking. A lot of people say, "but it only has a 128GB hard drive". How much HD space does someone need? 128GB is huge. If you are storing more than that, you need an external solution anyway. A huge boot/OS hard drive is NOT a good thing.