Asus ZenBook UX32A review

Although the ZenBook UX32A follows the same design queues as Asus’ previous Ultrabooks, such as the top-end Asus ZenBook Prime UX31A, a few concessions have been made to make this model cheaper. Primarily, the case is a little thicker to squeeze in the mechanical hard disk, although at 18mm at its thickest point, it can hardly be considered chunky.

A slightly thicker case does have one advantage: there’s more space for ports, although Asus has still opted to bundle adaptors for VGA and Ethernet, rather than squeeze them into the chassis. You still get three USB ports, a multi-format card reader, 3.5mm headset audio jack and an HDMI video output, but having to keep extra adaptors handy is a minor inconvenience.

Underneath the brushed metal lid lies a Chiclet-style keyboard, all-in-one metal touchpad and a 13.3in display. Unlike the more expensive ZenBook Prime with its Full HD display, the UX32A has a 1x366x768 screen. As you might expect, viewing angles are limited, but the matt finish helps diffuse light reflections and both brightness and contrast are respectable. Colours appear slightly too vibrant, with an unwanted slight blue hue. There’s also not a huge amount of screen tilt, which could make it difficult to work in cramped locations such as in a plane seat.

The keyboard was something of a stumbling block with the original ZenBook, but thankfully Asus has rectified that here. Each full-size key has a very springy action and plenty of travel. The entire keyboard tray is now backlit, making it easier to work in the dark, and the function keys behave as you would expect, unlike on other laptops where they are often remapped to multimedia shortcuts.

Less impressive is the touchpad. The smooth surface creates very little friction and is sensitive enough to span the whole desktop in one movement, but the integrated buttons occasionally interfere with cursor movement, particularly when dragging icons around the screen. However, for the most part it works problem-free, so with some adjustment you won’t have too many issues.

In terms of performance, the UX32A is a fairly standard mid-range Ultrabook. Powered by an Intel Core i5-3317U processor running at 1.7GHz and paired with 4GB of RAM, it managed a very respectable 51 overall in our multimedia benchmarks. It was slightly hampered by the 500GB mechanical hard disk, which isn’t able to match an SSD for file transfer speeds, although the presence of a flash-based caching disk helps keep start-up and resume times well within the Ultrabook specification.

With the CPU also handling graphics duties, you shouldn’t expect stellar gaming performance from the UX32A. Intel’s HD 4000 can handle older games, but more modern titles such as Dirt 3 will struggle to achieve a playable frame rate. Even so, 19.8fps is one of the fastest results we’ve seen from an Ultrabook with integrated graphics.

Battery life at just under seven hours is pretty good, but it puts this laptop mid-table and you can get better battery life at the same price. The UX32 is a decent laptop, but the basic screen is a little disappointing. For £750 there are other equally impressive Ultrabooks, such as the HP Envy 6, that are better buys. While if you’re looking for slim and cheap try the Samsung Series 5 Ultrathin.