







Setting new standards in technology and fashion, the Zenbook Prime measures just 3mm in the front and 9mm in the back. It uses precision-crafted aluminum throughout its monoshell build, ensuring light durability. The cover features finely-etched concentric circles that embody the infinite nature of Zen thinking, and the entire design has been optimized to offer a holistic approach towards combining beauty with speed, and balancing work with play. To maintain this look and feel, ASUS has developed a lineup of Zenbook Prime accessories that are just as attractive and sophisticated.
ASUS engineering has been able to accomplish the feat of bestowing the Zenbook Prime with uncompromising technical excellence despite its ultra-suave and compact form. Up to 3rd generation Intel® Core i5™ processors are at the heart, while SATA 6Gbps SSD storage outpaces normal hard drives by up to four times. Similarly, USB 3.0 ensures data moves up to ten times faster than USB 2.0, and Bluetooth 4.0 offers the latest version of the wireless connectivity standard. Dual band 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi derived from top-end ASUS router technology ensures the fastest networking, and to keep all of this cool, a proprietary V-shaped air channel drives heat away before it can cause instability.
Intelligent power management and extreme efficiency have resulted in Zenbook Prime offering two-second instant-on resume, similar to your smartphone and creating an always-on ultrabook that doesn't make you wait. It can also stay in standby for up to two weeks with the security of automatic file backup to prevent data loss. The battery lasts 25% longer than those found on other notebooks, helped along by two distinct operating modes that can be switched instantly: performance mode in high demand applications, and battery saving mode during daily computing tasks. For a genuinely personal and discrete user experience, Zenbook Prime offers facial recognition to minimize the risk of unauthorized usage.
Zenbook Prime fields a vivid full HD 1080p IPS panel that brings visuals to breathtaking life with 350cd/m² brightness and 800:1 contrast. Its anti-glare materials reduce distracting reflections and unsightly fingerprints, while IPS technology affords wide 178° viewing angles so more people can look on with better quality from almost any direction. Even in the dark, Zenbook Prime shines, using a high-comfort backlit keyboard so you can keep working and enjoying without disturbing others. And for face to face communications, the built-in HD camera does your conversations great justice.
To complement its superior visual finesse, Zenbook Prime includes exclusive ASUS SonicMaster audio technology, developed together with Bang and Olufsen ICEpower®. Sharper high notes, clearer vocals, deeper bass, and a wider sound range all impress, completing a remarkably attractive portable multimedia package.
Pros: Beautiful looking. The best looking LCD screen I have every laid eyes on...from ANY angle, HANDS DOWN! Doesn't show fingerprints. Stays Cool. Immense hibernate time.
Cons: Glorious in form, left things to be desired in function. Many unnecessary programs/bloatware taking up precious SSD space. I was unfortunate enough to receive one of these with the Sandisk SSD...and it may as well not even be a SSD with the way it performs. I will tell you how I knew, before I even ran AS SSD benchmark. I removed a few of the unnecessary programs from the laptop and then installed the few programs my fiancee needed to do what she does. After a couple days I asked her what she thought of this Ultrabooks Ultra performance. She replied, "It seems a little slow compared to my (old) dell." Her old dell was the Studio XPS 13, the first gen of XPS laptops. Which I had installed a 1st generation seagate SSHD into a couple years ago. It wasn't particularly slow, but this Zenbook PRIME should have easily been able to best it. I started playing around with it and noticed that simple tasks were taking longer than they should have. I ran AS SSD, with newest Intel drivers, got the following: Sequential Read - Write: 389.07 MB/s - 232.08 MB/s 4K Read - Write: 6.52 MB/s - 7.45 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - Write: 25.67 MB/s - 6.91 MB/s Access Time Read - Write: 0.571 ms - 0.531 ms Sequential times are fair, but this thing falls flat on its face after that. I'm pretty sure my Patriot Pyro from 6 years ago would have outperformed this ______ Sandisk SSD in the latter 3 tests. Aside from the lackluster SSD performance, the WiFi was at first disappointing. Disappointing turned into utter failure, literally. I tried everything I could to get the WiFi to work again after it stopped. I updated the BIOS, All drivers including WiFi, Uninstalled the WiFi card from Windows and manually installed drivers from ASUS's site, Windows troubleshoot/Auto Repair, and using the included Intel WiFi diagnostics tool. The Intel diag tool told me that I needed to power cycle my modem/router or that I have a problem with my internet connection. Being a nerd, the FIRST thing I tried was to power cycle my modem and router, LOL. I have 11 other WiFi capable devices in my household and they all connect just fine. When the WiFi was working, on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz, the SpeedTest.net results were worse than any other WiFi device in my house. Which include my 3570k powered HTPC, the old XPS Dell laptop, my ASUS K55A laptop, my ASUS eeePC 1215P netbook, and both our HTC Rezound cell phones. Compared to the other PCs in my house, the ping results were 5x higher(59ms compared to 10-12ms) on the Zenbook, while the download/upload speeds were between 50% and 75% of what the others were showing.
Overall Review: I am extremely disappointed in ASUS as a brand and the Zenbook name as a whole after my 2 bad experiences with this Zenbook Prime and the UX31E-XB51 I received mispackaged twice. I went to a local retailer and bought a Toshiba Satellite U945-S4140. I was impressed at the speed of the included Samsung 32GB mSATA SSD which I installed Windows 7 onto just to see how well it would perform. What is even better is the fact that the RAM, mSATA SSD, HDD, and WiFi cards are all housed under one cover which only requires removing ONE screw! This Ultrabook uses 2 RAM DIMMs so you get the speed/power of dual-channel DDR3, unlike the Zenbooks. I upgraded both the boot SSD and the included HDD to a SSD. Now my fiancee has an Ultrabook with dual SSDs! Sure this Toshiba doesn't have the s e x appeal of the Zenbook, but it worked properly out of the box. Plus if the SSDs, RAM or WiFi card fail, I can easily replace them...this can't be said for most of these items on the Zenbooks.