Asus taking part in the early Ultrabook market with an early sale starting…today

After Acer’s S3, Asus have recently announced two new products taking place in the early Ultrabook market and they take place in the new Zenbook brand: the Zenbook UX21 and the Zenbook UX31.

Both come in different configurations, the UX21 coming in two different models with a 128GB SSD and a choice of either an Intel Core i5-2467M or a Core i7-2557M. The UX31, on the other hand, presents three models: two different configurations with a Core i5-2557M CPU equipped with either a 128GB of a 256GB SSD, while the third comes equipped with a Core i7-2677M.

Other than the specs, being branded as an UIltrabook, they both feature a slim body with a light frame, yet that’s not the only difference. The UX21 features a 11.6” display with resolution of 1366×768 while the UX31 is 13.3” with a resolution of 1600×900. The weigh is rather light, 2.4 and 2.9 pounds respectively, Acer does have the upper hand on this aspect although the size is as competitive as the Acer S3, with the UX21 ranging from 0.11” at the front to 0.67” at the rear, the UX31  ranges from 0.11” at the front to 0.71” at the rear, therefore justifying the small change in thickness to the small  jump in performance.

Featuring an aluminium body, a glass trackpad and an all metal keyboard, whether the weight loss is important or not, this new ultrabook is still extremely stylish.

Now comes the time of the features that challenge the other products as much as the specs, whether they are Apple or not. As a matter of fact, Asus features the same kind of instant-on feature as the Acer, as it claims to allow the Zenbook to resume from sleep in just two second, while the battery life of the UX21 is said to last up to five hours continuously while maintaining a stand-by time of seven day, which at this point both Apple and Acer have the edge. The UX31 features slightly more, with seven hours of runtime and ten days of stand-by.

The last specifications of the Zenbook include 4GB of RAM, only one USB 2.0 port, however, costumers will be happy to find a USB 3.0. The incorporated connectivity features are microHDMI and miniVGA outputs for the display, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 for internet and other wireless tasks. The media features include a 0.3 megapixel webcam and stereo speakers with Band and Olufsen’s ICEpower technology.

The release date of the Asus UX21 and UX31 can’t get sooner than this, as they launched today in the US with a price ranging from $999 to $1499 depending on the configuration choosen.

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