ASUS Zenbook UX301LA Pro Reviews

I'm slightly underwhelmed by the blandness of the Asus Zenbook UX301LA. There's nothing to really hate about it, but nothing to truly love either. Anyone who buys one wont find any real faults with it, but is unlikely to relish the opportunity to open and use it. When sitting in a computer shop, along with row after row of other similar laptops, it's hard to imagine the Asus Zenbook UX301LA drawing crowds. In that situation, the immediate stand-out feature will certainly be the price tag, and it may take a creative salesperson to convince a customer that the UX301LA is significantly better than another Ultrabook that costs a third less.

All in all, the Asus Zenbook UX301LA-DH51T includes almost everything we love in a deluxe ultrabook. The elegant aluminum and glass design catches the eye, as does the gorgeous high-resolution touch screen. We applaud Asus for going with an elegant midnight blue finish rather than the traditional silver hue. Moreover, the keyboard and touch pad perform flawlessly, and battery life is good.For $1,799, however, we expect wider viewing angles and—more important—a Core i7 processor. Considering the Core i7 ultrabooks mentioned at the beginning of this review, from the sexy Aspire S7-392 and Samsung ATIV 9 Plus to the Yoga 2 Pro, which has a higher-resolution display and a 512GB SSD, it's hard to say that the latest Zenbook is a good value. Nevertheless, if you're willing to pay a premium price, the Zenbook UX301LA won't leave you wanting. With its topnotch keyboard and touch pad, long battery life, solid performance, and luxurious design, the UX301LA is an ultrabook you'll be proud to use in a coffee shop full of MacBooks.

Stylish and powerful, but we prefer Apple’s 13in MacBook Pro

Cast from sheets of glass and metal, the Zenbook UX301LA is an attention-grabbing beauty – the only thing wrong is the price

The UX301LA is, in many ways, a worthy step forward for the company’s already excellent Zenbook line. Besides its elegant, eye-catching design, the system shaves off weight and improves display resolution while still providing decent battery life, something not all competitors can claim (we’re looking at you, Yoga 2 Pro.) But then there’s the problem of price. At $1,199, this would be an easy to system to recommend; the only serious problem is Window’s inability to scale well on a pixel-dense display, which isn’t the Zenbook’s fault. At $2,199, however, there’s simply no reason to buy this ultrabook. A MacBook Pro 13 with Retina offers better build quality, a superior keyboard and touchpad, far longer battery life, more ports and an even better display, all for $900 less. Even those who hate OS X have better options, like Dell’s XPS 13. Sure, its display is “only” 1080p, but its panel also has deeper black levels and better contrast. And the XPS, too, is $900 less (with 1080p panel equipped). If a machete is taken to the price, the Asus Zenbook UX301LA could become competitive. As it stands, however, it simply asks too much for too little.

Our expectations were high - and we were not disappointed. Right now, the Zenbook UX301LA truly is one of the best ultrabooks on the market. However, Asus does not just copy the competition in order to corroborate the reputation of its newest Zenbook. It shines (in the true sense of the word) with its own original ideas: This is the first laptop we have reviewed where Gorilla Glass has been used on many more parts than just the display itself - we are especially fond of the excellent haptics of the matte polish used on the palm rest. Gorilla Glass 3 should not only be less vulnerable than many other materials, it also helps (together with first-class input devices) to boost the top-notch feel and look of the device. The superb IPS display is another huge advantage when compared to some competitors. Image quality is good, but it is the insane resolution where the Zenbook truly shines. Then again, this choice demands a lot from the graphics card. Luckily, Asus has chosen to ship its newest Zenbook with the Iris Graphics 5100 chip. Even though it might not be the giant leap ahead we had hoped for, it is still fast enough to handle most recent games with medium details. Gamers might want to wait for the sibling UX302, which comes with a dedicated GPU made by Nvidia. The main advantage of the Core i7-4558U when compared to even less power-hungry ULV chips is its decidedly better CPU performance. Thanks to its SSD RAID system, the ultrabook should be powerful enough to handle even demanding applications.