Notebook Hunter

It was inevitable the price would decrease, and for only $635 at The Good Guys the 11.6in ASUS Zenbook UX21E-KX007V is excellent value. This entry-level ultrabook has a low-voltage 2nd Gen Intel Core i3 and 4GB of RAM, ensuring that it’s got enough grunt to run productivity applications and similar programs.

It’s amazingly light at 1.1kg and thanks to the 11.6in screen it’s really tiny as well. However, the port variety isn’t that spectacular: you get one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, one Micro-HDMI and one Mini-VGA port as well as a headphone jack. The other thing worth noting is the build quality. Other ultrabooks certainly look nice, but the ASUS Zenbook UX21E (and its larger cousin the UX31E) are still the gold standard.

The Good Guys have marked this product as “To Clear”, so it’s their new permanent price until they run out of stock.

See the special online here.

See a summary of the specs below.

Processor
The UX21E features a low-voltage 2nd Gen Intel Core i3-2367M (1.4GHz), a decent low-end processor that can fluidly run productivity applications and some more intensive software.

Graphics
It comes with an integrated graphics solution called Intel HD Graphics 3000. It’s on par with a low-end dedicated graphics card, and is sufficient for modern games at the lowest settings.

RAM
4GB of RAM is enough to run several programs at once smoothly. It’s more than enough to ensure fluid overall system performance with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Storage
A 64GB solid state drive is really small, but it has fast response times for reading and writing data. It’ll require strong user discipline to avoid filling it up quickly.

Screen
It sports an 11.6in (1,366 x 768 resolution) gloss screen. The resolution is quite high for the screen size.

Portability
The UX21E has exceptional portability, because it weighs 1.1kg and is 17mm thick at the thickest point.  It’s more than light enough to be taken anywhere without any problems whatsoever.