Notebook Hunter

At $1,289 the 13.3in ASUS Zenbook UX31E-RY009V is a deal worth considering. This Ultrabook is unique among its peers due to having a screen resolution of 1,600 x 900 on a small 13.3in screen, which makes everything appear very sharp. It’s a mid-range Ultrabook due to its use of a low-voltage 2nd Gen Intel Core i5 and 4GB of RAM, which together with a 128GB solid state drive is about par for the course. It’s also got one of the nicest finishes of any Ultrabook released to date, so in addition to being well-specced and affordable it’s a good-looking machine as well.

Processor
The UX31E features a 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2557M (1.7GHz), which is one of the better mid-range low-voltage processors that can run productivity applications and some intensive software. It can burst up to 2.7GHz using Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology if a particularly demanding program is running.

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
A128GB solid state drive is very small, but it does have very rapid response though for both reading and writing data.

Screen
It sports a 13.3in (1,600 x 900 resolution) gloss screen. This is a much higher resolution than what’s typical for an Ultrabook (1,366 x 768).

Portability
The UX31E has exceptional portability, because it weighs 1.3kg and is 17mm thick.  It’s more than light enough to be taken anywhere without any problems whatsoever.

See the special online here.