Aside from one piece, the UX31 is the ultraportable (er, ultrabook) Windows users have been waiting on for oh so long. It’s fast, it’s got great battery life, and it costs less than the MacBook Air. (The $1,399 Core i7 unit I was sent is still $200 less than Macbook Air). However, that one piece — the trackpad — is so incredibly important to the end experience, that it seems to negate all those other amazing.
The laptops had more than just a few things in common with Apple’s MacBook Air – aluminum chassis, teardrop designs, buttonless touchpads, fast resume times, and 11.6- and 13-inch screens. However, unlike other PC manufacturers that have dared to mimic Apple, even better, it planned to stay competitive on price – the Core i3, 128GB UX21 costs $999 and the Core i5, 128GB UX31 runs $1,199 ($200 less than the similarly spec’d Air).
Asus did throw in its own design ideas and we’re not talking its usual black plastics and shiny stickers lining the palm rest
However, unlike other PC manufacturers that have dared to mimic Apple, Asus promised to focus on style and refinement without cutting corners on the parts of the computer that make the experience. And even better, it planned to stay competitive on price