







Full HD Ultrabook™ Combining Beauty in Sight and Sound
Singularly Remarkable Beauty
Setting new standards in technology and fashion, Zenbook Prime measures just 0.12in. (3mm) in the front and 0.35in. (9mm) at 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.
Trend-Setting Speed and Power
ASUS engineering has been able to accomplish the feat of bestowing Zenbook Prime with uncompromising technical excellence despite its ultra-suave and compact form. An Intel® Core i5™ processor (Ivy Bridge platform) is 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.
Responding to Your Needs
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.
The Art of Entertainment
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 & Olufsen ICEpower®. Sharper high notes, clearer vocals, deeper bass, and a wider sound range all impress, completing a remarkably attractive portable multimedia package.
Pros: Works well with linux, fantastic screen, very comfortable keyboard, really great trackpad, LIGHT!, and fairly cool.
Cons: The charger plug is right angled and kind of bulky, I can see how this can cause some stress on the charge port and cause problems down the road. Not many ports.
Overall Review: I wiped the laptop with Linux immediately, so this review is entirely with respect to the Linux software stack, which may or may not make a difference. Let my start of by saying a few things about the common problems that people have with this laptop. Everyone seems to complain about the trackpad. I find it to be really great. Its large, its sensitive and responsive, and I have never accidentally touched it while typing. I'm not sure if the people having these problems have very bad typing posture and technique or what, but I really have to go out of my way to attempt to trigger the trackpad. The keyboard is also very comfortable for typing, I think some people may call it "spongy", but I personally find it quiet and easy on the finger. The trackpad is absolutely briliant, two finger scroll works very well, the movements are precise, and i like that the whole thing clicks. I tend to use middle finger for moving the cursor and index finger for hitting left/right buttons, and that doesn't seem to be problematic at all... except when my middle finger is very close the button I indent to press, sometimes it processes a two finger scroll right before the press is registered. 99% of the time when this happens it causes no issues, but a few times it might scroll a page and you might miss your target. The trackpad is vastly better than any other laptop I've ever used (I've never used Apple, people tell me those trackpads are the best). The screen is absolutely gorgeous. There is not much to say besides how much I love it. Sometimes text can be tiny and hard to see, but a few tweaks to DPI/font sizes seems to have fixed most of my issues. Can easily zoom in on pages for larger fonts if necessary. Now onto linux issues. With Kubuntu 12.10, it seems to work fairly well. Keyboard backlight doesnt work by default, as well as screen brightness shortcut keys. I've fixed both with a few simple scripts and kernel upgrades. The ambient light sensor does not work, but I usually turn those off anyway (I know how bright I want my screen!). With Kubuntu, under normal everyday use (development, browsing the web, some video, I easily get between 6 and 8 hours of battery life. This was with brightness probably about 50% and some of the time was spent with a powersave scaling governor. I find the display to be plenty bright at 50%, in fact at night I turn it all the way down. Again, the screen is nothing short of amazing. If anyone is looking for a lightweight linux machine, this should be one of your top choices. Also for completeness, a cold boot takes under 10 seconds, and sleeping and resuming is nearly instantaneous. By the time I open the screen and get my hands on the keyboard, I'm presented with login screen. I really wish the charger plug was smaller, when it plugs onto the side of the laptop its rather uncomfortable to have in your lap and i feel like the right angle shape is a little awkward and easy to get caught on things like the edge of the desk.