Notebook Hunter

For $1,161.10 the 11.6in ASUS UX21E-KX004V is a good value mid-range Ultrabook that’s more portable than even a netbook. It also has a surprisingly good amount of computing power thanks to the low-voltage 2nd Gen Intel Core i5, which is comparable to a full-voltage 2nd Gen Intel Core i3. The brushed bare aluminium finish is also superb, making the UX21E one of the best looking Ultrabooks released so far.

The low-voltage mid-range 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz) processor can handle productivity applications and more demanding programs without difficulty, which is no mean feat given this Ultrabook weighs just 1.1kg. There’s also 4GB of RAM, which ensures smooth overall performance with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Storage is taken care of by a 128GB solid state drive, which is just enough for a core selection of important files but which, more importantly helps give the system its great performance. While mechanical hard drives found in most notebooks tend to a brake on system performance, superfast SSDs help unleash the full potential of a system which doesn't have to twiddle its thumbs while data is read and written to disk. While the 11.6in screen is small, the 1,366x768 resolution is high enough that documents won’t be squished down like in the 1,024x600 resolution screens still dominating netbooks.

See the ASUS UX21E-KX004V in the Notebook Hunter database here.

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