New Year, New Laptop

Didn't know what to blog about, so I decided to talk a bit about my new laptop. I got it a few weeks back, just on the first week that school started. Since I always post unboxings on my instagram anyway, I thought why not do a quick review as well. I haven't really done a tech review before so it might not be the best, here goes!

Firstly, the model of this notebook is the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31LA. Yeah, it's a mouthful, I know. Basically, the Zenbook is Asus's flagship line, and they have a hundred different variations of it covering different price points, much like what Samsung likes to do, can't understand why. This model is actually quite exotic, in a sense that you can't find it in Singapore. I've asked around their official stores as well, they don't even know what I'm talking about. Sheesh. I had to import mine from the US by buying off eBay. They are now instead trying to push the UX301LA, which is an overpriced glass-topped version of this that has too high resolution. Everything looks too small and drains battery. Not really something I need.

This UX31LA is pretty light with a full metal body and a strong sturdy construction. It's about 90 grams heavier than a Macbook Air coz of touch, but still 200 grams lighter than Macbook Pro Retina. I like the shiny top cover too! But what's really special about this notebook, is that it packs the latest Intel Haswell processor, and has a pretty sharp 1080p full HD touchscreen (take that Macs!).

I think the most notable improvement this has over previous models, is the change to Haswell, and hence the much improved battery life! It shows 9 hours here, but I've actually seen 10 before, so it's not that accurate. Depends on usage. It's quite amazing though. On my normal daily usage, which is quite heavy: involves many tabs open on Chrome, watching videos, working on documents, and some programming, it lasts AT LEAST a solid 8 hours. Battery life on this has been stellar, and I'm quite please about it. Nowadays, I don't need to lug a charger to school!

Part of the reason I chose it, is also because of the typing experience. This keyboard layout is nice and roomy, backlit, full-sized and has decent travel. Great for working on reports and programming tasks. Also one of the reasons I chose it over the Acer Aspire S7, which has a weird keyboard. The humongous trackpad, is also pretty good and located dead-center in the palm rest area. Something many manufacturers still don't do. Drives me nuts. As an aside, I could never really get used to the Macbook keyboards. The "command", "ctrl", "alt" keys are swapped around. It's really iffy when you need to Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy/paste. Hard to unlearn more than 10 years of muscle memory.

I can't emphasize enough how good the construction and industrial design of this notebook is. It's sexy. Probably the best looking Windows laptop out there. The vents have air intake and exhaust at the hinge area, so the warm air is blowing away from you, and not frying your legs. Not that you would notice though. Thus far the UX31LA has been completely silent, unlike my old Dell which sounded like an airplane taking off. Also, the heat is barely noticeable. Normal tasks don't warm it up at all, and it only gets lukewarm when I'm playing some Dota 2.

What about software? Unfortunately, most PC manufacturers are still pushing only Windows 8. Hence, they are not optimized for Windows 8.1 yet. What this means is you have to upgrade it on your own, and find driver updates yourself. Also, Windows 8.1 seems to have a sleep/wake bug that's driving me crazy. Other than that... Not much other issues. Asus doesn't really bundle that much bloatware. Nothing that I can't remove at least. I've spent some time customizing my Start Screen to look really cool too! Basically it's split into Desktop Programs, Metro Apps, and Websites. Just the most commonly used ones, so I don't need to scroll. I also like to keep my desktop clean, so I only have like 4 icons there for my school work.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with this new laptop. It does everything I expect it to do and then some. The screen is amazing. 1080p Full HD is great for watching shows, and YouTube videos. Text is crisp, and things are not too small to see. Also doesn't eat as much battery life. The build quality is amazing. Ain't never seen a Windows machine look this good. Also lightweight and easy to carry around in the included carrying case! The keyboard and trackpad is good, and allows me to be really productive. The processor doesn't really lag, and can handle some occasional light gaming. What more could you need right?

Tech Specs for Geeks:

Processor: Intel Core i5 4200U
Memory: 8GB RAM
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64 Bit
Battery: 50Wh
Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Full HD