Asus Zenbook UX21 and UX31 launched in the US, prices start at $999

You might remember we talked about Asus’s reveal event a couple of days ago, trying to figure out if the mysterious Zenbook is actually a renamed Ultrabook.

Apparently it is, as the company placed the Zenbook term in front of the UX 21 and UX 31 ultrabooks we found out about a couple of months ago. The Zenbooks will be available in the US starting tomorrow, and will cost at least $999 (849 pounds in the UK)- the 11.6 inch UX 21 and $1099 (999 pounds in the UK)- the 13.3 inch UX 31.

The prices are kind of in synch with Intel’s rule of thumb for Ultrabooks, that says that a machine in this class should cost at most $1000. If you’ll want a properly equipped version, you’ll have to pay even more than that, but considering these are some of the first Ultrabooks to actually make it in stores, it’s not such a bad deal after all.

Looks wise, these slim netbooks are truly stunning. They weigh 2.4 and 2.9 pounds respectively, and come in a fantastic metal coating. The keyboard is also made of metal, while the track pad is all glass- a couple of standards we hope will end up on most laptops anyway.

As for specs, the base UX 21 comes with a 1366 x 768 resolution display, a ultra low voltage Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi and a 128 GB SSD.

The ultra thin profile resembles the one on the MacBook Air

The UX 31 comes with a 1600 x 900 13.3 inch screen, a Core i5 processor and up to 256 of SSD storage. The UX 21 will have two versions and the UX 31 three, with the most expensive 13.3 incher to cost you a whooping 1500 bucks, but that will bring you a Core i7 processor and probably more RAM.

Standard features include HD audio, USB 3.0, VGA, miniHDMI, audio jack and batteries that could run for 5 hours (or 7 days of stand by) on the UX 21 and 7 hours (10 hours of stand by) on the UX 31.

The keyboard is all metal

As a pain killer for the hefty price tag, Asus throws in a free sleeve for the laptop. If you’re still not convinced by this 0.7-0.8 inch thin combo, you should know that any of them can resume from sleep in under two seconds, mainly thanks to the ultra fast SSD on board. This pair is definitely a contestant for the MacBook Air or Acer’s Aspire S3 and we’ll just have to wait and see how HP or Toshiba will reply to Asus’s autumnal debut.

Tags: Asus, Asus Zenbooks, Core i5, slim netbook, ultrabooks

Last updated: March 29, 2012 | Published: October 12th, 2011 | Add the first comment!