ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71 Review

You can't blame ASUS for wanting to diversify its Ultrabook lineup. Not when it has an awesome full HD screen that's even better than the MacBook Air's. For the UX32VD, ASUS added discrete Nvidia graphics to this glorious display. Yes, this a 3.2-pound laptop that can game. ASUS did trade the full-fledged SSD on the UX31A for a 500GB hard drive and 24GB SSD combo to keep the price reasonable. How reasonable? Try $1,299, which is only $100 more than the Air. Find out if this ambitious ultraportable has the oomph you need.

Design

Click to EnlargeYou didn't expect ASUS to cram discrete graphics into the same super-slim chassis, did you? The good news is that the UX32VD isn't much thicker or heavier than the UX31A. The newer Ultrabook has a 0.21 to 0.72-inch profile and weighs 3.2 pounds, compared with 0.44 to 0.66 inches and 3 pounds for the UX31A. That's still plenty portable.

The UX32VD features the same sleek spun-metal lid found on previous Zenbooks. The deck and bottom are also aluminum, but the internal frame structure is a plastic aluminum composite instead of the aluminum unibody design on the UX31A and MacBook Air. While that's a bit of a letdown, the design still felt sturdy in our hands. Plus, the UX32VD has flatter edges than its cousin, making it more comfortable to hold and carry.

Display

Click to EnlargeIt's just glorious. The 1080p IPS display on the ASUS UX32VD is the best you'll find on any 13-inch laptop, with ultra-wide viewing angles and superb contrast. Not only is this panel sharper than the MacBook Air's (1980 x 1080 versus 1400 x 900 pixels), it delivered deeper, richer colors when we viewed the "Ice Age 4" trailer on YouTube on both machines.

This matte display also does games like "Batman: Arkham City" justice. We could easily make out individual whiskers on Hugo Strange's scraggly beard.

As for brightness, the UX32VD registered an average of 368 lux using our light meter. That's not quite as bright as the UX31A (423 lux) but it beats the MacBook Air (268 lux for the 2012 model).

Our only complaint is that the full HD resolution can result in very small text on screen when surfing the Web and using other apps. You'll have to zoom in.

Audio

Click to EnlargeASUS leverages Bang & Olufsen's IcePower technology to power the bottom-mounted speakers. The MacBook Air produced louder sound when we streamed Coldplay's "Paradise" from Google Play, but the UX32VD had a warmer, more robust sound. The Air sounded harsher and tinnier at full volume, while the ASUS did a better job balancing Chris Martin's vocals with the strings and keyboard.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Click to EnlargeThe revamped black keyboard on the UX31A shows up here as well, complete with 12 percent better travel. That doesn't sound like a lot, but to us it's the difference between a comfortable typing experience and a mushy one. The UX32VD's layout is plenty spacious and provided snappy tactile feedback.

We just wish ASUS would stop with the function key combos and just let users adjust the screen brightness and other settings with a single press. The keyboard backlight proved plenty bright while trying to bang out an email in the Lincoln Tunnel.

We can tell that ASUS is taking touchpad performance seriously because it includes a dedicated Smart Gesture suite that lets you toggle all sorts of settings, from tap to select and pinch-to-zoom to show desktop (three fingers down). More important, the clickpad on the UX32VD performed fairly well in our testing, thanks to a recent driver update.

Click to EnlargeThe large 4.1 x 2.75-inch surface provided smooth and accurate navigation, and it did a nice job of palm rejection while we typed. Pinch-to-zoom gestures were smooth, but two-finger scrolling stuttered at times. Flicking through photos with a three-finger swipe and rotating with two worked perfectly. You can also show the desktop with a three-finger flick down and reveal all open apps with a three-finger swipe up.

Heat

The addition of a discrete GPU makes the UX32VD a notebook that runs hotter than the UX31A. After streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured a relatively cool 84 degrees Fahrenheit, but between the G & H keys the temperature reached 99 degrees and the underside registered 97 degrees. We consider anything above 95 to be uncomfortable.

As you might expect, gaming resulted in higher temps. After playing "Batman: Arkham City" for 15 minutes, the UX32VD reached 102 degrees between the G & H keys and 100 on the bottom. The lower right corner on the bottom got as high as 105 degrees. While gaming, the fan did become loud, but not enough to distract us from fighting evil.

Ports and Webcam

Click to EnlargeThere is a benefit to the UX32VD's beefier profile other than its graphics prowess: a better port spread. A full-size HDMI port (no adapter needed), a mini DisplayPort and two more USB 3.0 ports line the right side. The UX31A had only two USB ports and a mini VGA port. The left side of the machine houses a USB 3.0 port and SD Card slot.

Click to EnlargeThe 2-MP webcam on this notebook offers decent performance, but the included LifeFrame software is confusing. For instance, you press the play button to start recording 1280 x 720-pixel footage. The filters and frames are more frivolous than fun. Our face and our surroundings looked a bit fuzzy, but the blue color of our shirt was accurate.

Performance

The $1,299 Zenbook Prime UX32VD ships with a 1.9-GHz Core i7-3517U processor, the same chip that powered the higher-end $1,499 UX31A we reviewed. (The UX31 starts with a 1.7-GHz Core i5 CPU for $1,099.) You also get 4GB of memory, which is a little skimpy for this price. However, this model doesn't use all flash memory like the UX31A. Instead, ASUS pairs a 7,200-rpm 500GB hard drive with 24GB SSD to speed up boots and application load times. This gives gamers more space for storing the latest titles, but it impacts overall performance.

On PCMark 07, which measures overall performance, the UX32VD scored 2,277. That showing is well below the UX31A (4,989) and 13-inch Air (4,380), owing mostly to this Zenbook's lack of a full-fledged solid state drive.

The UX32VD was also slower to boot Windows than its UX31 cousin (44 seconds versus 23 seconds), but its time is on a par with the ultraportable average. Most Ultrabooks with full SSDs take less than 30 seconds. Fortunately, this machine woke from sleep in just 1 to 2 seconds upon opening the lid.

As expected, this Zenbook's file transfer rate also trailed competing Ultrabooks. It took the laptop 3 minutes and 44 seconds to duplicate a 4.97GB folder of multimedia files, which translates to 23 MBps. That's well below the 58 MBps ultraportable average, which mostly includes full-SSD models.

This Zenbook Prime took 5 minutes and 26 seconds to complete the LAPTOP Spreadsheet Macro Test, which uses OpenOffice Calc to match 20,000 names with their addresses. This showing soundly beat the Ultraportable category average (8:22) and 13-inch Air (6:47) and didn't trail the UX31A by too much (4:59).

The UX32VD can also transcode video in a hurry. It took the notebook only 17 seconds to convert a 5-minute 1080p video to an iPhone-friendly format using Cyberlink MediaEspresso. That's faster than the UX31A (30 seconds) and Dell XPS 13 (29 seconds).

Graphics and Gaming

If you want to get your game on, the UX32VD will be happy to oblige--so long as you keep your expectations in check. The GPU inside this Ultrabook is Nvidia's entry-level GeForce GT620M with Optimus technology, which switches between Intel's HD 4000 graphics and the discrete chip automatically to save on battery life.

How good is the gaming performance? At its native full HD resolution, the UX32VD reached 62 frames per second on "World of Warcraft" with the settings on auto. That's nearly double what the UX31A achieved with its integrated GPU (36 fps). The action was a still-smooth 40 fps when we bumped up all the settings on the UX32VD.

Click to EnlargeWe then gave "Batman Arkham Asylum" a whirl, and this Ultrabook eked out 30 fps on 1366 x 768 pixels. We wouldn't even try playing this game with an integrated GPU. Catwoman's reflective suit and pouty lips looked great on the 1080p display, but we did notice some hitching when battling multiple goons at once. You can forget about playing this title at the laptop's native resolution; it mustered only 22 fps with the settings on low.

The UX32VD also excelled on synthetic graphics benchmarks. It scored 1,123 on 3DMark 11, compared to just 594 on the UX31A and 800 for the category average. The 13-inch Air scored 624 on this test in Boot Camp mode.

Battery Life

One of the other corners ASUS cut in order to cram a discrete GPU into this Ultrabook is endurance. The UX32VD features a 48 watt-hour battery, compared with the larger 50 watt-hour battery inside the UX31A. As a result, this notebook lasted 5 hours and 16 seconds on the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 40 percent brightness.) The UX31A lasted more than an hour longer (6:28), and the average ultraportable lasts 6:44.

Software

We're not a fan of the pop-ups that the Zenbook Prime hits you with out of the box. McAfee Internet Security was particularly annoying, so you'll want to either activate it right away or uninstall it. The UX32VD also kept reminding us to register our system. Just do it and get it over with.

Click to EnlargePre-installed utilities include ASUS WebStorage (which gives you 2GB of cloud storage but only for one year) and the more valuable Vibe Fun Center for accessing Music, Games and Books. You'll also find FaceLogon for logging in via facial recognition, ASUS Secure Delete for shredding files and Power4Gear Hybrid for toggling power profiles.

Support and Warranty

ASUS covers the Zenbook Prime with a one-year warranty that includes parts, labor and one instance of accidental coverage as well as 24/7 support. See how ASUS fared in our Tech Support Showdown and Best & Worst Brands repots.

Configuration Options

The $1,299 UX32VD-DB71 comes in one configuration, which includes a 1.9-GHz Core i7 CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB 7,200-prm hard drive augmented with a 24GB SSD. Shoppers looking to spend less can opt for the $1,099 UX31A, which is thinner and lighter and features Intel's Core i5 CPU, a 128GB SSD and integrated graphics. Or you can step up to the $1,499 model of the UX31A, which offers the same 1.9-GHz CPU as the UX32VD but sports a larger 256GB SSD.

Verdict

The $1,299 ASUS Zenbook Prime UX32VD is sort of a niche Ultrabook for those not satisfied with Intel's graphics performance, and on that basis it succeeds. You get the same sweet 1080p IPS screen and rich Bang & Olufsen speakers as the UX31A, and Nvidia's GeForce GT 620M GPU provides enough muscle to play some of the most demanding games (albeit at lower resolutions). There's a reason why the UX32VD was out of stock at multiple online retailers as we wrote this.

However, this Zenbook Prime's graphics upgrade comes at the expense of battery life, additional heat and a thicker and heavier design. We would be more willing to live with these trade-offs if ASUS equipped this version of its Ultrabook with a full SSD instead of just an SSD cache. And we suspect that a lot of people would be willing to pay extra for it. For now, though, the UX32VD will surely satisfy as long as you know what you're giving up.

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