prime vs air 13

[fakebun]

Hi guys

I'm torn between Macbook air 13 and Asus Zenbook prime UX31A-DB51. I like Air's look and its fabulous trackpad+keyboard and overall performance, but I like prime's 1080 IPS display. I don't know enough about either to make a decision, but my budget is $1200 and I plan on using this laptop for at least 5 years. Gaming is the last priority.

I would've waited for the prime with discrete GPU, but school starts in a week.

Please convince me (and maybe recommend me to where buy for a good price)

Thanks...

 

[crab0]

I have the 2011 Air and love it (when its not having hardware issues grr) but then TN panels must die...

I'd go with Prime though I do love OS X so I don't know if given the choice myself which way I'd go (probably insane over tech anxiety ). The new plastic keyboards are suppose to be an improvement and your getting a better display than almost any other laptop (at least, consumer laptop).

 

[AlexAL]

Here's a sale for a $800 Zenbook. With that budget I'd get this laptop and a 24" IPS screen like the Dell. And spare change for a Big Mac.

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/310877

 

[gorcorps]

Here's a sale for a $800 Zenbook. With that budget I'd get this laptop and a 24" IPS screen like the Dell. And spare change for a Big Mac.

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/310877

That's an old sandy bridge version. With his budget he can (and should) get ivy bridge

 

[philipma1957]

5 years is a long time for a netbook to not break.

last I looked 3 year warranty is the max on an apple with no breakage insurance. If the Asus would come with a breakage policy I would get the asus.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00863L2PK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER


it comes with a 1 year full warranty including breakage.

http://completewarranty.asus.com/Content/US/ADP/ADP.aspx

not sure if you can buy an extended warranty but running around a college is an easy way to break a machine.

 

[Sunburn74]

I believe asus offers a 1 year accidental damage warranty and a 2 year parts and labor warranty that overlaps.

 

[Aikouka]

I've been considering going to an Ultrabook as well, and while the Air is certainly a nice machine, it comes down to whether I want OSX or not. Honestly, I may use iOS devices, but I have no desire to use OSX. I've been considering the same ASUS Ultrabook that you're looking at. Anand's review of it was pretty good.

 

[gorcorps]

I've been considering going to an Ultrabook as well, and while the Air is certainly a nice machine, it comes down to whether I want OSX or not. Honestly, I may use iOS devices, but I have no desire to use OSX. I've been considering the same ASUS Ultrabook that you're looking at. Anand's review of it was pretty good.

I don't think he reviewed this one. He reviewed the UX21 from what I see, and again... that's 2nd gen and we're now on 3rd gen. I'm not sure if anything changed on the outside though so much of it should still be valid.

 

[fakebun]

is it me or I should sell my organs for the max ram and SSD on either prime or air purchase because they are not upgradeable?

 

[gorcorps]

is it me or I should sell my organs for the max ram and SSD on either prime or air purchase because they are not upgradeable?

Well don't buy crap you can't afford, but you don't want to skimp on something you'll need. RAM IMO isn't an issue, but the HDD size could be.

 

[fakebun]

ya.... so SSD isn't upgradeable huh...

 

[TheStu]

ya.... so SSD isn't upgradeable huh...

I think that the SSD in the Prime is replaceable, it should be using standard mSATA drives that you can get at Newegg.

For the Air, right now the 2012 model doesn't have any third party options out there, but you can always look on ebay for someone unloading one pulled from a working system. You just need a special screwdriver to get into the Air. OWC made replacement SandForce blade SSDs for the 2010 & 2011 Airs, so i would imagine that they will do the same for the 2012 model.

 

[fakebun]

sigh I was hoping prime to be upgradeable...but it seems like (unless I read wrong) the 2012 prime aren't upgradeable. Now the only problem left is prime has IPS 1080 screen while air has longer battery life and overall performance. Other than that it's just the issue with using an external HDD and mouse...

I don't suppose an external HDD is compatible with both mac and pc?
Can PC mouse be used on a mac?

 

[TheStu]

sigh I was hoping prime to be upgradeable...but it seems like (unless I read wrong) the 2012 prime aren't upgradeable. Now the only problem left is prime has IPS 1080 screen while air has longer battery life and overall performance. Other than that it's just the issue with using an external HDD and mouse...

I don't suppose an external HDD is compatible with both mac and pc?
Can PC mouse be used on a mac?

1: Set the external drive to exFAT, it will be readable on modern OSes
2: Any USB mouse or keyboard should work, but why bother?

 

[fakebun]

Thanks guys

This is still a huge debate for a simple mind like me.

 

[Aikouka]

I couldn't resist anymore, and I ended up buying a Zenbook Prime. I originally bought a Transformer TF300 hoping that the keyboard would be suitable for the random lounging around, but it's simply not. I tried using it for entering in all of my movies into a spreadsheet, and it was just too arduous. I went and got my old Dell M1530 and did it much faster.

Speaking of my M1530, it has a crummy battery, and it simply doesn't last long... maybe 1.5-2 hours for normal web browsing unless I'm very conservative with my power use. That's what I get for buying a non-OEM battery.

 

[Sunburn74]

Bought the prime today. Couldn't resist either. Took a long look at the series 9 but ultimately its still a TN panel at the end of the day...

 

[fakebun]

argh tears...why couldn't there be a landslide of advantages to help me choose one..lol

 

[Sunburn74]

I'm actually a little pissed off at the machine.

1) The SSD is advertised as a 128gb ssd, but the drive itself states its a 124gb ssd. As if thats bad enough, there is only 101gb of ACTUAL SPACE when formatted. I don't understand where my missing space is...

2) I have a bit of backlight bleed

3) The elan driver doesn't offer chiral scrolling like synaptic drivers do. Once you get used to chiral single finger scrolling you'll never go back.

 

[Sunburn74]

Oh I found it, hidden recovery partition. Nice job asus.

 

[gorcorps]

Oh I found it, hidden recovery partition. Nice job asus.

Recovery partitions have been on every single laptop I've bought and used in the last decade. Why you're blaming Asus in particular is beyond me.

 

[Aikouka]

argh tears...why couldn't there be a landslide of advantages to help me choose one..lol

For me it was just a matter of OSX vs. Windows. It may be "ungeeky" of me, but I like Windows and I'm too used to it to want to use OSX. Although, having a machine to facilitate iOS development could have been interesting.

Unless you're referring to choosing among the Windows ultrabooks.

 

[TheStu]

I'm actually a little pissed off at the machine.

1) The SSD is advertised as a 128gb ssd, but the drive itself states its a 124gb ssd. As if thats bad enough, there is only 101gb of ACTUAL SPACE when formatted. I don't understand where my missing space is...

2) I have a bit of backlight bleed

3) The elan driver doesn't offer chiral scrolling like synaptic drivers do. Once you get used to chiral single finger scrolling you'll never go back.

1: There is also the issue of SSDs not showing you their full capacity, a portion is set aside for performance reasons

2: That sucks

3: Single finger scrolling? Weird... how do you invoke that versus just moving the cursor?

For me it was just a matter of OSX vs. Windows. It may be "ungeeky" of me, but I like Windows and I'm too used to it to want to use OSX. Although, having a machine to facilitate iOS development could have been interesting.

Unless you're referring to choosing among the Windows ultrabooks.

And I am the opposite, I prefer OS X (especially on a portable!) over Windows. Though, Windows 7 is a fine OS with plenty of features that I wouldn't mind seeing in OS X. All that said, in my opinion, it (Windows 7) is just terrible on a small screen or low resolution.

 

[fakebun]

I don't know the details of it, but it seems like it is harder to maintain cleanliness and performance on win7 (given that I don't download random crap) and it seems like OSx was designed to keep everything efficient with the way the system throttles its resources.

I guess I would have to go with air if I don't watch bluray or do HD gaming on an ultrabook. If a PC 2 button mouse works and I can use a NTFS external harddrive primarily for PC on my mac I think I would be more inclined to buying the mac. Since 256gb model of both cost the same

 

[Aikouka]

All that said, in my opinion, it (Windows 7) is just terrible on a small screen or low resolution.

OSX does certainly handle scaling a lot better, and the newer retina MacBook Pro is a good example of that. Although, the MacBook Air doesn't need scaling.

Do you think Apple will try and release a 1080p monitor on the next Air?

I don't know the details of it, but it seems like it is harder to maintain cleanliness and performance on win7 (given that I don't download random crap) and it seems like OSx was designed to keep everything efficient with the way the system throttles its resources.

I run Windows 7 on every machine except for my little ASUS eeePC 4G Surf (runs Windows XP), and I've never had a problem with it and cleanliness/performance. I rarely reinstall Windows, and I've only done it once on my current desktop. I installed a new SSD, and decided that I wanted to create a back-up, and giving myself an unadultered OS install was the best option for that.