Review Asus Zenbook UX32VD Ultrabook

[Redaktion]

Miracles happen. The first rumors about Asus' new, revised Zenbook series made some waves: Full-HD IPS displays in skinny 13" cases.  Hard to believe: non-reflective display surfaces!  The rumors turned out to be true, in front of us sits an Asus UX32VD, one of the first specimen of the series with the sought after display panel.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-Zenbook-UX32VD-Ultrabook.75591.0.html

[zebarnabe]

Quite a shame that it goes in 'flames' when pushed a bit.... This is almost the perfect machine if it wasn't for those worrisome temperatures, this is more powerful than my current laptop, but I would not dare to do on UX32 what I do with mine.

800€ (or less), i5 Ivy Bridge (a dual core and HD 4000 seems to do the job fairly well), good thermal dissipation and low noise, at least 2h30 battery while browsing, good screen (doesn't need to be as good as this one), 13" to 15" form factor ... is it too much to ask? Maybe some 13" non-ultrabook will deliver that.

While it is in other segment Asus N56 seems to be the near ideal right now, I had my hopes for the UX32 :/

[Dan N.]

Awesome review! The first I've seen on the EX32VD. Thanks so much! Is it possible to swap the HD? I'm assuming that it is not.

[bt]

The Hitachi hard drive seems to be 7mm tall. How large is the housing? Will it fit a 9.5mm drive if I want to replace the one that comes with it?

[Ryu]

You guys give the most thorough, unbiased, and intelligent reviews on the web. U r awesome. I will definatlely buy a Zenbook UX31A...thx.

[CGNMUC]

Awesome review! The first I've seen on the EX32VD. Thanks so much! Is it possible to swap the HD? I'm assuming that it is not.

The Hitachi hard drive seems to be 7mm tall. How large is the housing? Will it fit a 9.5mm drive if I want to replace the one that comes with it?

It is possible to change the HD, but as you said you have to have a look at the thickness of 7mm. There is not enough space for a 9.5mm drive :)

You guys give the most thorough, unbiased, and intelligent reviews on the web. U r awesome. I will definatlely buy a Zenbook UX31A...thx.

:)

Kind regards

[Malmer]

48.67 fps in D3 in 1366x768 is all nice and well, but doesn't 1366x768 look absolutely craptastic on the 1920x1080 native display?

I'm wondering if 1920x1080 Low / AA off is they way to go in regards to fps/look.

[Niels]

I would have preferred a few millimeters more in thickness for better cooling and the integration of a newer, more power efficient Kepler Geforce GT 640M, like Gigabyte and Acer are integrating into their ultrabooks.

I wouldn't complain either if I could get a 13" display with the same quality but 'only' 1600x900.

Would be interesting to know, if this display supports high quality scaling, to use at lower resolutions like 1280x720 or 960x540 for games/videos... 

[SuperDuper]

I wish this 13incher was rather a 1440x810! and a 15incher a 1600x900!(i want the numpad) Full HD on 13inchs is too much. Matt IPS is worth the money though!

[Rahul]

I guess it should be visible in GPU-Z whether the GPU is GF117 or GF108. But I am guessing it would be the 28 nm variant because it's an Ultrabook.

[Darkimmortal]

How can you be unsure if it contains a GF117 chip when it says quite clearly on HWInfo64 in your stress testing screenshot that it indeed does

[Michael Von Hippel]

Is it possible to replace the mSSD on here? Also how many RAM slots are usable on the mobo and what is the max speed accepted? Also, has anyone found and 7.0mm high HDDs listed anywhere? I want to by this and the ability to install a big mSSD will be an important factor.

[axzy]

Is it possible to replace the mSSD on here? Also how many RAM slots are usable on the mobo and what is the max speed accepted? Also, has anyone found and 7.0mm high HDDs listed anywhere? I want to by this and the ability to install a big mSSD will be an important factor.

I might be wrong but only one slot may be viewable, and 2 GB is fixed on the main board.
However they write about

DDR3 1600 MHz SDRAM, 2 GB, OnBoard Memory, 2 x DIMM socket for expansion up to 4 GB SDRAM

, see the specs: http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX32VD/#specifications

[axzy]

I wonder:
1. did anybody tried installing Linux on this beast.
2. is it possible to go into BIOS settings and switch NVIDIA completely.
2.1. if  the latest is possible, I would be interesting to test each ultrabook in this mode for noise level and heat emission level, since some users may choose to tame their ultrabook to prevent  emission, and switch on only occasionally to play games.

Thank you for good review and very in-time (model is already available on some markets)!

[Jan A]

Running very hot - and the misplaced dedicated graphics card on a 13", I think not only makes the Ivy Bridge a flop, but also this Ultrabook from ASUS a flop.

The suspicious stuffing in a dedicated a graphics card for no reason, adds to the suspicion of adding automatic "end-of-life" to the device, having the graphics card trash the device shortly after two years of use.