Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review – the best ultrabook out there right now

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Specs Sheet
Design and exterior
Keyboard and trackpad
Screen
Hardware and performance
Noise, heat and speakers
Battery life
Price and availability
Final thoughts
Comments

By Andrei GirbeaAsus Zenbook Prime UX31A, last updated on August 29, 2023

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A

Summary: The Asus Zenbook UX31A is my new favorite ultrabook, as it manages to fix most of the issues of the first generation Zenbooks, while adding a Full HD IPS screen and keeping the cool design and prices unchanged.

Our score: 4 / 5
Price when reviewed: $1099 to $1599

THE GOOD

astonishing looks, awesome IPS display, improved trackpad and backlit chiclet keyboard, solid performances, decent battery life, runs cool and quiet

THE BAD

still not the best trackpad, average speakers, can get hot when pushed

Table of Contents

Asus Zenbook UX31A video review
Design and exterior
Keyboard and touchpad
Screen
Hardware and performances
Battery life
Noise, heat, speakers and others
Pricing and availability
Wrap-up

With their new Zenbook Primes, Asus tries to fix most of the issues users encountered with their first generation ultrabooks and add a couple of extras on top, just enough to make these perhaps the best ultrabooks money can buy right now.

In this post, we’re going to talk about the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A, their 13.3 inch thin-and-light laptop and take you through all of its important aspects. This way, by the time we reach the end, you’ll know why this is my new favorite ultrabook right now, but also where Asus could have done a better job with it.

I also liked the first gen Zenbooks, they were in fact some of the best in that generation, but had some deal-breaking issues with the keyboard and the trackpad, which are now mostly fixed on the new Primes. Besides that, Asus added a new FHD IPS screen and kept the astonishing looks of their ultrabooks and the prices unchanged.

Asus Zenbook UX31A video review

The video review will tell you many things about the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A, but if you want the extras, you’ll have to read the review.

Design and exterior

We’re going to start by taking a quick look at the exterior. Of course, if there’s one thing customers loved about the first Zenbooks, that’s the extravagant looks. With a brushed aluminum body and a thin silhouette, the Zenbooks are among the most appealing laptops ever built, especially if you’re after a bit of glam, although some might find the Asus ultrabooks a bit ostentatious.

Asus UX31A Zenbook Prime – an astonishing presence

I for one don’t really dig the brushed aluminum with concentric circles design, I’d rather have something more basic on my laptop, like Lenovo has on their ThinkPads or Apple on the MacBooks, but that’s completely subjective on my part.

Some, me included, might find the finishing a bit too much

The Asus UX31A weighs 2.96 pounds and measures 0.65 inches in its thickest point, although it seems a lot sleeker, mainly because its front part is significantly slimmer than the back. In fact, you should be careful with those sharp edges, they might cause unpleasant accidents.

The Zenbook Prime isn’t however the thinnest or the lightest ultrabook in its class (the Toshiba Z835 still holds the crown there), but that’s somewhat compensated by its sturdy feel and solid build quality.

The Asus UX31A is thin and light

The UX31A lines a couple of ports on its sides. On the left there’s an USB slot, an audio/mic jack and a card-reader. On the right you’ll get a Power LED, the mini-VGA and micro-HDMI video output, another USB port and the DCIN. Given its size, Asus couldn’t fit a LAN Adapter and had to go for mini-VGA and micro-HDMI ports on this Zenbook Prime UX31A, which is a bit annoying, but at least they offer USB-to-Ethernet and mini-VGA to VGA adapters in the pack and you don’t have to pay extra for them (you’ll have however to buy a HDMI adapter though).

Left side

Right side

There’s only a sheet of metal on the bottom, with some cooling grills on the back and the two speakers carved on each edge. That means you don’t get a removable battery and you won’t be able to easily access the internals, but that’s a given with most ultrabooks these days.

The bottom

Lifting the lid, you’ll also find aluminum covering the interior, with a lighter finish for the palm-rest and the area around the keys and a darker finish for the screen’s bezel. The screen’s hinge looks good, with a punctured design and it’s solid as well, while hiding the cooling exhaust behind it.

The entire palm-rest is spacious, with a wide-trackpad in the middle and you should notice that there’s nothing piercing the shell, as the Power button is masked as one of the keys (the top-left one, and it’s stiffer than the others, so you won’t accidentally press it – although sometimes you might confuse it for the Del Key that’s usually placed in that corner).

The interior is just as beautiful

All in all, there’s just nothing wrong I can say about the UX31A when it comes to looks and build quality. Sure , I would have loved regular sized ports, but I can live with the adapters as well.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard and trackpad were problematic on the first gen Zenbooks and luckily Asus managed to address most of their issues. They replaced the tacky silver keyboard with a new chiclet one, with dark keys and illumination.

There’s a backlit chiclet keyboard on the new Zenbook Prime

This way, the keys are more robust, better spaced and offer a bit better travel and feedback, which makes typing on the UX31A an overall pleasant experience.

Still, the keys are just not firm, that’s why I still prefer the keyboard on the U300S ultrabook, which just breathes confidence.

As for the trackpad, that looks a lot like the one on the first gen Zenbooks, although Asus now only uses Elan trackpads and dumped those faulty Sentallics. They’ve also worked on the software and as a result I was overall satisfied with this trackpad, as it’s now accurate and not as jumpy as before.

Single-taping is still a bit problematic though and I couldn’t find a way to make the touchpad a bit more sensitive. So i did have to pinch the touchpad more than I’d want for it to register my commands, sometimes even two-three times in a row. Annoying.

Multi-touch gestures seemed to be working fine, and Asus includes a bunch of them, involving one, two or three fingers. And the trackpad on my test unit actually managed to properly cope with palm-rejection as well, which is usually a problem with wide touchpads like this one.

The trackpad worked just fine most of the time

Screen

The Zenbook UX31A is just another proof that every laptop should have an IPS display. The 13.3 inch panel offers Full HD resolution, which allows incredibly crisp images and texts, but is a bit problematic as well, giving Windows 7’s inability to properly scale up fonts and interface elements. If you’ll leave those as default though, everything is going to be very small on this screen, which can be annoying and even cause head-aches.

Except for that, this is arguably one of the best displays I’ve ever seen on a laptop: it’s sharp, decently bright (although it could be brighter), offers good contrast and excellent colors. And it’s matte, which means you’ll be able to use it even outside, in bright light, but it’s not the same kind of matte I get on my ThinkPad, it’s a non-glare finish that still allows some reflections.

As for the viewing angles, they are like night and day compared to what we get on regular TN displays, but I for one would have still preferred to be able to lean back the screen a bit more.

There are however some issues with IPS screens: light bleeding around the edges and bright spots, and they are present on the UX31A as well. They are only visible on dark static images, so you’ll hardly notice them otherwise, that’s why I for one don’t find this particular aspect that much of a problem. In fact, I had similar faults on all the devices with IPS panels I encountered, from tablets, to laptops and monitors, and I managed to cope well with them in the end. So don’t worry, you’ll be fine with the light-bleeding on the Asus UX31A as well.

Hardware and performances

It’s time now to see how does this laptop perform during everyday use. The UX31A is built on an Intel Ivy Bridge ULV hardware platform, with integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4 GBs of RAM and SSD storage. You can choose between a Core i5 or faster Core i7 processors and my test unit came with the latter.

What does this mean? First of all, this laptop boots in under 30 seconds and resumes from sleep in around two. It’s also snappy during daily activities and deals well with multitasking. You can use it for some serious tasks as well, like editing videos and photos, although it’s not really designed for those. It will also handle all kind of multimedia content and even some games.

You’ll find some benchmarks I ran on the UX31A below and you can see that the Core i7 CPU does push up the results.

3DMark 11: E1202, P642;
3DMark Vantage: E11626, P3076;
PCMark 07: 4323
PCmark Vantage: 10316;
CineBench 11.5: OpenGL 16.429 fps, CPU 1.89 pts;

My test unit had a 256 GB SSD onboard, but only about 185 GBs were actually available for programs and content, with Windows installed and all the things Asus bundles on this laptop (aka, a bunch of crapware and one or two useful apps). Also, I’ve noticed some reviewers claiming the SSD is slightly slower on the UX31A, but my tests showed it was actually very fast on my test unit, which was in fact a retail version, one you can buy in stores yourself.

I’ve also tried bunch of games on the Zenbook Prime, although this is clearly not a gaming machine. Still, it managed to deal well with older or simple titles, like Angry Birds or Heroes 3, but also with some modern games, like COD: Modern Warfare 3.

In fact, if you’re willing to run games on 13 x 7 resolution with details towards low, you’ll get playable framerates in a bunch of other popular games, like Word of Warcraft or even Starcraft 2. But for RTS and FPS games you’d need at least consistent 40+ fps to be able to properly enjoy the experience, which this laptop can’t really offer unless you’re going for even a lower resolution.

Battery life

There’s a 50 Wh battery on this laptop which translates in about four and a half hours of daily use, with browsing, listening to music, chatting, editing texts and some photos, etc. Looping a 720p movie with the screen at 70% and Power Saver mode ON will push it to about 5 hours of life.

That’s alright I’d say and can get better (even close to 6) when using the computer lightly, dimming the screen and turning of the keyboard’s backlightning, but there are ultrabooks out there that can offer 1 or 2 hours of extra use-time on a charge.

The battery life is average

You’ll also appreciate the very compact charger, with a long cable, perfect when traveling. It’s quite small, at 25Wh, so it will take a while to charge the laptop while using it, but that’s something you’ll get used to.

The charger is compact and light

Noise, heat, speakers and others

During everyday activities the Asus UX31A is going to remain fairly cool and quiet, and while the fan does kick in from to time, it’s far from being too noisy.

However, when pushing the laptop onto more serious tasks, the entire body will get slightly warm, while the bottom and the interior as well (on top of the keyboard and on the right palm-rest area ) can even become hot. This usually happens with aluminum covered laptops, but I find it unpleasant, as it will make your palms sweat.

The laptop runs cool during average use, but can become hot when pushed

I should also mention a couple of things about the Bang & Olufsen audio system on this laptop, with speakers carved on the edges of the laptop facing down, one on each side. For ultrabook speakers, they provide above-average sound quality. However, I wish they were a bit louder, as they are not able to perform properly in a noisy room.

As for the Webcam on top of the screen, it does a good job in apps like Skype or Google Talk.

And there’s one more thing: Asus opted for the latest Intel Centrino wireless solution for their Zenbook Primes, which translates in better Wi-Fi performances and adds WiDi. Some customers have reported Wi-Fi issues with their versions, I did not encounter any of them on my unit, but you should keep an eye out for those.

All these come with a proper price

Pricing and availability

And then, there are the prices. Given the looks and all the features, you shouldn’t be surprised that the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A is one of the priciest ultrabooks in stores. The base config starts at $1099, with a Core i5 processor and 128 GB SSD, while the top version will get to $1499, with a Core i7 CPU, 256 GB SSD and TPM.

In fact, here are some of the available options you can pick right now (available with slight discounts via this link):

ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB51 – $1099 , with Core i5 CPU and 128 GB SSD
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB52 – $1199 , with Core i5 CPU and 256 GB SSD
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-AB71 – $1399 , with Core i7 CPU and 128 GB SSD
ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A-DB72 – $1499, with Core i7 and 256 GB SSD

Wrap-up

In the end, I can state that I’m glad to call the Zenbook Prime UX31A my new favorite ultrabook, so I’ll be adding it to my list of best available ultrabooks very soon.

I’m also happy to see that Asus listened to their customer’s complaints about their first generation ultrabooks and managed to address almost all of them with the new laptop, improving the keyboard, trackpad and screen, while upgrading it to the latest Intel hardware platforms.

All in all, I sure like it, as the Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A is my new favorite ultrabook

It still has its issues, with the rather slow SSD, average speakers and potential font-scaling problems, but I for one could actually live with them.

On the other hand, the Zenbook is expensive, like I already said above. But if you want the best, you’ll have to pay for it. And don’t forget that it’s still cheaper than a MacBook Air, while out-featuring it on certain plans.

Otherwise, you can find cheaper ultrabooks in stores, that might be better fitted for a budget-oriented buyer, including the mainstream Asus Zenbook UX32 line, the HP Folio 13 or maybe the Samsung Series 5 Ultra.

Disclaimer: Our content is reader-supported. If you buy through some of the links on our site, we may earn a commission. Terms.

Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com. I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.

36 Comments

FW

August 12, 2012 at 7:03 pm

Another question: Are there any 15-inch Ultrabooks out there at all (say, is the new XPS 15 considered an Ultrabook?) or the screen is too big to be packed into an Ultrabook? I am asking this because 1080P screen on my current 2011 XPS 15 makes reading a bit painful already, and I have to scale all the fonts up to compensate for it. It is difficult for me to imagine 1080P on a 13.3-inch screen. 15-15.6 seems to me the good screen size for surfing the internet and typing (as the readability is still ok even if I open two pages next to each other).

Thanks!

Reply
- Mike
  
  August 16, 2012 at 4:37 pm
  
  Yes, the Dell XPS 15, the Samsung Galaxy 9 Ultra 15 and the HP Envy 6 are some of the 15 inch ultrabook available right now.
  
  Reply
FCM

August 15, 2012 at 10:06 pm

Hi Mike Im trying to buy the UX31A-DB72 Zenbook but I find that it has been discontinued in several webs (i.e. b&h), do you have any new info?
Do you recommend any other similar ultrabook?

Reply
- Mike
  
  August 16, 2012 at 4:51 pm
  
  I don’t know anything about that. Amazon doesn’t seem to have it and they sell it for a third party shop. I’ll ask my guys at Asus but I’m not sure they will be able to tell me anything about the US models, they are a bit different over here. I’ll send you an email if I find anything…
  
  Reply
Michael

August 18, 2012 at 2:40 am

Hey Mike,
Have you had wifi connectivity problems with the ux31a? I purchased mine recently and have experienced download speeds of around .7 mbps. Whether it be here at my house or anywhere else, the internet speeds remain atrocious. I sent it back to Asus and they said the problem was resolved, however it wasn’t – they sent it back as “repaired” even though it got even worse speeds than before. All the drivers etc. are current, and even I.T. people that I’ve called have been baffled. Do you think this is a hardware problem? Have any suggestions?

Reply
- Mike
  
  August 19, 2012 at 3:28 pm
  
  Michael, I’ve heard some buyers had problems with Internet speed on their Primes. However, my unit did not have any issue, it seems like only some units are affected.
  
  Anyway, I’m not sure what you should do… send it back to Asus and claim to have it fixed. If not, return it.
  
  You could go on notebookreview.com on the forums and read the Owner’s Lounge for the UX31A, you might find some proper advices there. But you’ll have to take your time, there are hundreds of posts there…
  
  Reply
Mohit Saxena

September 7, 2012 at 4:22 am

Hi Mike, found your review extremely useful. Planning to buy Asus Zenbook Prime UX 31A XB72. My question is … How easy or difficult will it be to load Windows 8 once it is available. Will it reduce / impair the efficacy of the Zenbook in any way if Windows 8 is loaded. How long before UX31A be available with windows 8.

Reply
- Mike
  
  September 10, 2012 at 5:02 pm
  
  the laptop will sell in stores with windows 8 probably by November.
  
  On the other hand, you’ll be able to install win 8 on this one easily with an external optical drive or a flash drive, if you buy the upgrade.
  
  Reply
Daniel

October 15, 2012 at 9:33 pm

I just recieved the ux31-db51. I love it, however, I have been working with Windows 8 since early beta. I looked everywhere for support for Windows 8 to no avail for this model.
Is there a special or secret web site for Asus downloads for windows 8 that you could share with me?
I appreciate it.
And you're article was spot on … although the sound and keyboard on mine are quite acceptable.
Thanks,
Daniel

Reply
- Mike
  
  October 16, 2012 at 9:35 pm
  
  Hey Daniel, you can either go ahead and install windows 8 and hope that everything will work fine (should work with win 7 drivers). or you can wait for win 8 to be official released and then asus will probably have official win 8 drivers for it. by the start of November, I’d say
  
  Reply
Dominik

October 23, 2012 at 8:12 am

I’m the proud owner of a UX31A-R4002V (256GB ADATA SSD) and here are some additional Informations I would like to share with you:

Using the ElanTech-Touchpad Driver (V11.5.2.1 – can be obtained from the ASUS Homepage: http://support.asus.com/Download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=Touchpad&os=30) works just better than the ASUS Driver, including gestures, back and forward swipe in FireFox and so on…

I tested SC2: 1920×1080, Textures: medium, models: high, Terrain: medium, rest: low and it runs perfectly fine for a Ultrabook (means: 60-100 FPS with no action, avg. 40 FPS with maxed army in battle with drops to 35 sometimes, coukd drop to lower rates when 2 maxed armies show up, but still playable)

Tested on Win7 x64 (clean install without bloatware)

Reply
- Dominik
  
  October 23, 2012 at 8:13 am
  
  Edit: also the ElanTech Driver fixes the non-responsive top part of the touchpad.
  
  Reply
Angelynn

November 3, 2012 at 10:13 pm

Mike–
Helpful article! Wondering this: is the RAM expandable or stuck a 4GB? I’m guessing it’s not but maybe I missed something? I’m looking at the UX31A, but I’m wondering if you have suggestions for alternative. Something i7, with/without SSD, and possibly expandable (8/+) RAM?
Thanks much!

Reply
- Mike
  
  November 7, 2012 at 4:40 pm
  
  the RAM is soldered so upgrading it it’s going to be very difficult, if possible. so maybe if you can find an 8 GB config… but i didn’t find one :(
  
  Reply
Eddie

December 17, 2012 at 2:39 pm

Andrei, I would like to buy a 14 inch ultrabook. Which is the best you recommend? Let’s say in a price of maximum 1200 euros.
I saw very few reviews about Lenovo u410, for example – one of the models I was looking at. Also, I have an eye for Toshiba U840-10Q.

On the other hand (and on topic) presuming that I want to buy a 13 inch model, what is your opinion, between ASUS UX31A, Toshiba Z830 and Acer Aspire S7?
Thanks!

Excellent site! Chapeau bas!

Reply
- Mike
  
  December 31, 2012 at 12:27 pm
  
  I’d probably go with the Lenovo for a 14 incher, although the screen is rather poor.
  
  For 13.3 inchers, if you don’t want a touchscreen, then go for the Asus. If you do want the touchscreen, see the Aspire S7 instead. IN either cases, i wouldn’t go for the Toshiba (the Z930 is their latest model) because that one has a rather flimsy screen and I’ve heard several complaints that it can easily crack
  
  Reply
Harsh

February 6, 2013 at 1:47 am

Would you recommend buying this model used for around $600? Amazon has it for $685 and I have $100 Gift cards to use @ amazon… or should I go with the first gen model brand new for about the same price? The 1080 is really the only reason I am considering used.

Thanks for your help!

Reply
- Mike
  
  February 6, 2013 at 10:08 am
  
  for that kind of money it’s a good deal. that’s the core i5 config with the 128 gb ssd, right?
  
  Reply
  - Harsh
    
    February 6, 2013 at 9:48 pm
    
    Yes Mike that is the configuration. Also for the HD it says Hard Drive Interface — Serial ATA
  - Mike
    
    February 7, 2013 at 11:51 am
    
    sounds good then. i believe that’s a nice deal for the money
  - Harsh
    
    February 7, 2013 at 7:26 pm
    
    Thank you!
jai

February 19, 2013 at 8:10 am

Hello Mike,

What is the differences between Asus Zenbook UX31A-R4005H and Asus Zenbook UX31A-R3001H. I use laptop mainly for work eg: use of mathematical softwares eg matlab etc. Which is one would you suggest? Tq.

Reply
- Mike
  
  February 19, 2013 at 8:29 pm
  
  Jai, ar eyou sure there’s a UX31A-R3001H ? From what I’ve seen, there are some shops listing it (very few) and the specs are identical to what you’re getting on the UX32VD-R3001H (1366 x 768 px screen, hybrid storage and Nvidia 620M graphics).
  
  ON the other hand, the UX31A-R4005H comes with 1920 x 1080 px screen, 128 GB SSD and integrated graphics. Both have the same cpu, amount of ram, etc etc
  
  Reply
lbstrat

June 27, 2013 at 6:27 pm

Hi Mike, I need an ultrabook, would like a touchscreen, for a medical practice where I will be using the device mainly for electronic documentation and word processing. I was looking at the Asus 11.6 model, but am not sure the i3 will be fast enough. I think I am leaning towards a 13.3″ size. What is your recommendation?

Thanks for your help!

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  June 28, 2013 at 1:19 pm
  
  for word and documents, the i3 should be enough. The 11.6 inch model is available with i5 and i7 processors as well though
  
  Reply
John Swint

August 16, 2013 at 5:09 pm

Hi Mike,

After almost waiting for a year, I finally made the decision. It is the Zenbook Touch with i7 and 256 GB. I was actually thinking of waiting for the Infinity which should be on the market 31 October, but seeing the first prices in Europe (2200 euro), I couldn’t see the benefit in that kind of extra money. The Zenbook Touch has been 1500 euro so far, since the beginning of this year and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that it came down to 1300 euro. Now how much more should you get for 900 euro between the Touch and the Infinity? Since my previous notebook was more then 5 years old and needed replacing, although that Acer Clamshell still works (not the battery though), I really wanted slimmer, lighter, faster etc. I have managed with the old Vista, but it was never perfect. The Touch with Win8 will need some getting used to. I do like the looks though and everything works fine to me. Keyboard, battery life (I charge it like a phone, every once in a while), screen. When I saw it the first time out of the box in a shop, I noticed also the sleek sleeve. And the matching pouch for the adapters. Maybe a pouch for the charger would have made it all complete, then you could actually disconnect the power connections to prevent it from getting bend. All-in-all nice looking and well working machine, it weighs half of my old one and is a third of the thickness. Speaking about mobility. Working mostly just on the battery anywhere any time.

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  August 17, 2013 at 11:02 am
  
  Hey John, thanks for your feedback, I’m glad you like it.
  
  The best part about Infinity is the Haswell platform powering it, which will make it more powerful and more efficient. YOu then get the very high resolution screen and all the others, but like you said, it’s hard to justify paying over 2G for a laptop
  
  Reply
Bafvun

February 13, 2017 at 7:37 pm

Would you still buy a used zenbook ux31a (~450$) if the newer ones were too expensive for you?

Reply
- Andrei Girbea
  
  February 14, 2017 at 4:59 pm
  
  Perhaps yes. It still gets a decent screen and the hardware is alright for daily use. Buy maybe you can also find some newer models discounted?
  
  Reply
zflo

December 10, 2021 at 11:18 pm

Does any one succeed in upgrade from 4GB RAM to 8GB?
Yeah I know, i know… The RAM is soldered.
But damn! Isn't there any way to unsold it and replace it by a 8GB??

Reply

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A review – the best ultrabook out there right now

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