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Asus UX 21 and UX 31 vs Apple MacBook Air – ultrabook comparison

Adrian — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:44:23 +0000

When talking about super slim, portable and powerful laptops, Apple has dominated the computer market for quite some time now with its very successful MacBook Air line.

However, things could change soon enough, with ultrabooks set to enter the computer scene and steal some of the Air’s glamour. The two ultrabooks that pretty much stand out right now are the Asus UX 21 and UX 31, an 11 and a 13-incher clearly designed and targeted to compete against Apple’s best selling products.

In the following lines we will quickly compare and contrast the two ultraportable notebooks from Asus with the two super-slim Apple MacBooks in an attempt to establish just how much the computer market could change in the following months.

We will try to remain as fair and objective as possible and identify both the strong points and the weak points of all four beautiful pieces of computer equipment.

Design and build

Even though there are a few similarities between Apple’s and Asus’s designs, the UX 21 and 31 have managed to be pretty original, as well as elegant. All four notebooks impress in terms of build quality, being made out of strong aluminum and having an overall distinguished and robust look.

The Asus UX21 is elegant, slim and very powerful.

When it comes to product dimensions and weight, it is almost impossible to declare a winner, with Apple and Asus going head to head. In theory, the UX 21 and 31 are slightly lighter and thinner than Apple’s ultraportable computers, but in reality the differences are so small that they are hardly noticeable.

Keyboard and touchpad

If when talking about looks and design things are pretty even right now, in terms of keyboard and touchpad the MacBook Airs are still unbeatable. Both the 11-incher and the 13-incher come with backlit keyboards and very large glass touchpads, which impress with accuracy, responsiveness, comfort, but also good looks.

Asus’s ultrabooks, on the other hand, while not being poor, lack a few small, but important details. The keyboards are comfortable and responsive, but are not backlit, while the touchpads are as strong as they could be, but not as accurate as the ones powered by the MacBook Airs.

Screen, hardware and performance

Even though a while back the displays sported by Apple’s laptops seemed untouchable, Asus has done a great job both with the UX 21 and 31. The UX21 therefore is at least as capable as the 11-inch Air, sporting a similar HD LED screen with 1366 x 768 pixels resolution. The 31, on the other hand, is even better than the 13-inch Air in terms of image quality, coming with an extraordinary 1600 x 900 pixels resolution display.

The Asus UX31 comes with a great screen, but also with a very good quality-price ratio.

Talking about hardware and performance, the laptops from Asus are again at least matches for the Airs, featuring very snappy Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, as well as 4 GB of RAM. You also have 128 GB solid state disks, which are on-par with the one featured by the 13-inch MacBook Air and better than the one on the 11-incher from Apple.

Software and battery life

The software category is very hard to judge right now, with Apple’s laptops running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the UX 21 and 31 running Windows 7. It’s almost impossible to decide beyond a shadow of a doubt which one of the operating systems is better, as they both have their strengths and weaknesses.

On one hand, the OS X Lion is easier to use overall, has a more interactive and user-friendly interface and comes with better security. On the other hand, Windows is and will remain for probably a long time the OS with the best overall value and the most applications supported.

The MacBook Air is available in two different versions, an 11-incher and a 13-incher

As for the battery life, the UX 21, 31 and the 13-inch MacBook are pretty close, being able to run for around seven hours between charges, based on regular use, while the 11-inch Air is less powerful, with an estimated autonomy of only five hours.

Connectivity, ports and others

When it comes to connectivity and ports, the difference is yet again made by a few subtle details. The UX 21 and 31, for example, come with a USB 3.0 port, a feature that is nowhere to be found at Apple’s Airs, while the MacBooks feature the original and very popular Thunderbolt port.

We should also mention the stereo speakers, which are slightly better at Asus’s laptops, but also the webcams, which are more capable at Apple’s ultraportables.

Prices

The MacBook Air is currently available at prices ranging from 939.99 dollars (the 11-inch model) to $1,234.99 (the 13-incher with a 128 GB SSD) and $1,499.99 (the 13-inch version with internal memory of 256 GB).

The 13-inch MacBook Air is pretty much as strong as the Asus UX31, but more expensive.

Asus’s laptops are also available in three different versions right now and start at 999 dollars (the UX21 with an Intel Core i5 chipset). The other two go at the moment for $1,099 (the UX31) and $1,199 (the UX21 with an i7 processor).

Wrap-up

Being almost impossible to declare just one winner from this incredibly tight battle, we will refrain from making that kind of judgment and we will only draw a couple of conclusions about each ultraportable laptop.

The 11-inch MacBook Air is therefore the most affordable right now, but it is clearly the one that can’t compete with either the UX 21 or the 31 in terms of performance and battery life. The other three are pretty close, with the UX 31 coming with the best display, the 21 with the best hardware configuration and the 13-inch Air with a balanced overall system, as well as great keyboards and touchpads.

The price tags are also pretty close for these three, which could mean that Asus has a very good chance of overthrowing Apple’s supremacy. However, we should keep in mind that the MacBook Air has another ace up its sleeve, and that is the quality and professionalism guaranteed by the Apple trademark, two qualities that are very important for most of the technology enthusiasts we know.

Apple Mac Mini- an Apple experience in a small, compact package

Mark — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:44:17 +0000

The Apple Mac Mini is a nettop from Apple and it’s the company’s new try of capitalizing on the booming niche of nettops. The mini computer is aimed at those who want a complete Apple experience, but don’t have the room to host a Mac Pro in their living room. Or maybe you just need an entertainment machine to complement your other Apple gadgets, like an iPad and iPhone.

The design is completely revamped- the mini computer has an aluminum enclosure and smooth, round edges. In front, all you get is a disk drive, while all the ports are in the back, including a HDMI port for hooking up the computer to a big screen TV. The 1.4 inch machine has the power source incorporated in the slim design, so you won’t have to step over the power brick every time you pass by the Mac Mini.

The nettop has a 20% smaller footprint than the previous entry in the series, as well as taking in 25% less power than its predecessor. But all the environment friendly features, although admirable, are less important than the performance and pleasant user experience the computer can offer. So let’s take a look at how and with what the Apple Mac Mini can keep you entertained.

In front you only have the DVD drive

It has a Core2Duo dual core processor, with a speed of 2.4 GHZ, which means you get 2 separate physical processors, splitting tasks between them. This gives superior support for multitasking, as there’s enough fire power to deal with demanding operations running at once. The system comes with 2 GB of RAM, while the system supports up to 8 GB. Apple computers are known for delivering good performance with less hardware resources, so 2 GB should be enough for some decent computing.

Nevertheless, you should think about upgrading the system memory because the video card shares RAM from the resources of the overall system. The Gforce 310M video card takes up to 256 MB of RAM and can deliver smooth HD performance and some gaming, as well as being power savvy. Anyway, considering it’s an integrated video card, don’t expect the same performance you would get from a dedicated video card.

In terms of storage, there’s a 320 GB hard disk drive, spinning at 5400 rpm. The Apple Mac Mini has a DVD slot that supports disks up to 8x writing speeds, so you won’t have to connect a secondary DVD drive to the nettop for watching movies straight off DVDs. In terms of connectivity, the Apple Mac Mini is pretty well covered. It has WiFi, blue tooth, as well as an Ethernet port for connecting to the internet via a cable.

On the back there are all the neccessary connectors, including USB and HDMI

There are also 4 USB 2.0 ports, which are good for connecting some peripherals and removable media to your computer. There’s also a SD card, FireWire Port and MiniDisplay output. Unfortunately, there’s no USB 3.0 port, which would have been great for high transfer speeds. In terms of software, the Apple Mac Mini comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, as well as additional Apple proprietary software like iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, which are all entertainment driven applications.

The Apple Mac Mini is available from Amazon for about $669, which is a good deal, if we’re to think in Apple prices. Their products are always more expensive than other brands, but most users tend to spend more on Apple products because they want to take part in the highly appreciated Apple experience. Besides that, you get a good mini computer, with low power consumption and hardware strong enough to deliver HD playback and good gaming at high frame rates.

MacBook Air 11.6″ Reviewed

Mark — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:54:38 +0000

It doesn’t happen very often and when it does people get all excited and splash their savings on a netbook. Yes, Apple released the new Macbook Air 11.6” and some lucky hands from slashgear.com got to play around with it. The first in this series was one of the most controversial products of the company; most die hard Apple users loved it because it featured the company’s core values (design and portability), while some critics raised concern over the poor performance and inhibitive price tag.

This new model is still expensive for the market of netbooks, but it’s a significant price cut from its predecessor (1.000$<2.500$ in my math) . Apple’s ultraportable boosts everything is new and “green”: NAND flash storage and low voltage processors and GPU’s. The CPU is a Intel Core 2 Duo (1.4GHz or 1.6GHz), the memory module has 2GB DDR3 (or you can have 4 GB for an extra 100$), 64GB or 128GB of NAND storage (which helps keeping the ultra slim Apple look), NVIDIA Geforce 320M and the battery should hold for 5 hours with wireless on. The display is 11.6-inch running on a 1366 x 768 resolution.

MacBook Air 11.6 out in the open

Ports are distributed on both sides of the Macbook, with the power port, the first USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack and microphone on the left, while on the right there’s the second USB 2.0 port and a Mini DisplayPort. On top there’s a ultra thin webcam for Apple’s “FaceTime”. The keyboard is full sized and includes a function key row which is thinner than the rest and there’s no backlighting, while the trackpad supports multitouch and up to four-finger gestures.

Performance wise, this Macbook is built to cope with anything you throw at it (in reasonable terms, of course). Although some benchmark tests ranked it lower than the Air from 2008, it handled HD editing, playing 720p videos and writing articles by the slashgear team. Of course, there are limitations due to the ULV processor and reduced disk size, but still is a great deal if you’re more into ultraportability and style than raw performance (anyway, has anybody seen Apple users playing 3D shooters?).

Apple iTable Coming in 2010

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 11:16:58 +0000

Not an actual Apple iTablet

OK Apple fans. The long awaited debut of the Apple Tablet is upon you.

According to the Financial Times, Apple has rented the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco in late January. While both Apple has made no comment about the event, sources familiar with the event say that Apple plans to make a significant product announcement early next year.

The device is expected to be announced in January, where it will then go into mass production and be sold a later in the year. Very little is known about the device itself, but it is expected to have either a 7 or 10 inch screen. It is also expected to look like a blown up iPhone. It’s been reported as well that the tablet has been developed under the close eye of Steve Jobs himself.

Apple Tablet leaked Pictures. This could be real.

Andrew — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 02:39:13 +0000

New leaked photos, claimed authentic, can be found at Nowhere Else. This new photos looks cool and looks real, like Apple won’t escape anymore from announcing their new product. But, shall we take it with 1 grain of salt?

Apple Tablet leaked photos

via Engadget

Rumor: Apple Tablet to Counter Netbooks, out in Q1/Q2, 2010

Fri, 22 May 2009 11:51:04 +0000

Several times did Apple has denied rumors on them making their own netbook. Apple COO once said all the things he could say to describe how they hate netbooks, despite the fact that netbooks play a big role on saving the PC market.

Now there’s another ‘rumor’ that Apple is still on to counter netbooks. An analyst at Piper Jaffray suggests that Apple is going to counter the fame of netbooks by their own unique product which is a touch-screen tablet that will cost somewhere between $500 and $700.

Piper Jaffray predicts that the device is going to have a 7 to 10 inch touchscreen display. It will also use an in-house designed microprocessor. Apple might also combine the power of Mac OS and iPhone OS to power the device. The device could also probably be out in the market as early as Q1 or Q2 of next year. Plus Apple might also negotiate and work on partnering with third party wireless providers for integrated internet access right away.

If this device idea materializes, it could probably be actually the netbook killer, but it has to be more competitive in pricing. They can work on subsidizing the price a little bit more, and probably be the gadget-of-choice of everyone. It could be an all-in-one gadget where you can call, send sms, surf the net wherever you are, or subscribe to daily papers and blogs. Oooops, is that a function of a Kindle?

Still, these are just informations that we can take with a grain of salt. One of these days, Apple will again come out either confirming or denying it.

Via AppleInsider

The Mac Wind – Video

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:59:45 +0000

I have not seen the Mac OS to work on the MSI Wind personally, but this video from Sascha convinces me enough that I now like to have a hacked MSI Wind with Mac OS. The OS itself is pretty cool, and what’s best is that everything works on the MSI Wind. The MSI Wind might be a low-powered netbook but I’m pretty sure that it can do anything you expect a netbook should do.

There’s a rumor around that Apple is building their own netbook, and currently working with Wintek for the touchscreen panel, and Quanta for the production. There’s still no leaked photos of the actual netbook but however it would look, I can’t imagine it coming just like ordinary netbooks. I’m sure, because it’s apple, it will sport very unique properties than the rest. At least physically.

Apple Thinks it’s time to build a Netbook

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:55:29 +0000

While we did not take a small bite of the Apple netbook news that spread months back, this time we might take it a bit seriously that Apple is planning to launch their first Netbook. It’s been the talk of the net for a few days already and the news are coming from very reliable sources. How about that?

The Apple Netbook is heard to sport 9.7 to 10 inches touchscreen panel, supplied by Wintek. The said netbook will be built by Quanta, ‘the netbook manufacturer’. Let’s wait and see in the coming days if this will have confirmation from Apple itself.