Asus Zenbook UX21 (UX21E-DH52)

PCMag Editors have not yet tested the Asus Zenbook UX21 (UX21E-DH52). We did, however, get some hands-on time with the laptop, and have tested and reviewed the Asus Zenbook UX31 ($1,099 direct, 4 stars).

We got our first taste of the newly announced Ultrabooks back in May, when Asus gave PCMag a look at its UX21 at Computex. Now branded as the Asus Zenbook UX21 (UX21E-DH52), the overall product is the same, but the company has now provided more details about pricing and what comes in that slim chassis. Two configurations of the Asus Zenbook UX21 will be offered in the United States, with the base configuration now retailing for $999.

Design & Features
That the the Zenbook UX21 looks similar to the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Thunderbolt) is no accident. Like the Air, the UX21 is extremely thin and light, measuring only 7 millimeters thick at its thickest point and tapering down to a mere 3 millimeters at the edge. It's also a scant 2.42 pounds?within 3 ounces of the MacBook. It has several unique features to it as well, like a sound-system designed with Bang & Olufsen's ICEpower audio technology.

Like the Apple MacBook Air, which utilizes a one-piece "unibody" design, the Asus Zenbook UX21 also includes all-metal construction, which Asus is calling a "monoshell." The aluminum chassis is hardened for improved durability. Across the palmrest, the brushed metal runs vertically, like a fine wood-grain. On the lid, however, Asus uses a metallic-spun finish, with concentric circles radiating out from the logo.

There's more to this new design than brushed metal, and Asus knows it. It equipped the Zenbook UX21 with an Intel Core i5-2467M processor, a dual-core 1.6-GHz CPU and one of Intel's newest Sandy Bridge chips. It's also the same processor that we saw in the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Thunderbolt). It's paired with 4GB of memory, which doubles the RAM found in the MacBook Air.

There's not a lot of room in that slim aluminum chassis for drives, so the traditional spinning hard drive is replaced with a solid-state drive (SSD), and the optical drive is jettisoned completely. Intent on outdoing its competitor from Cupertino, Asus equipped the UX21 with a 128GB SSD?twice the size of the drive in the MacBook Air?and a USB 3.0 connection. The ultrabook also comes with a USB 2.0 drive, and there's the option to upgrade the drive to 256GB.

The UX21 has a chiclet-style keyboard, and the keys share the same metallic gleam of the aluminum monoshell. The keys type smoothly and easily, but the low height of the keys may take some getting used to. The glass-topped touchpad is very smooth beneath the fingertips, and two separate right and left mouse buttons click quietly.

Perhaps the most exciting aspects of the Zenbook are the near-instant boot and wake times?two seconds from standby mode?and the amount of time that the Zenbook can stay at the ready. The Asus Zenbook UX21 (UX21E-DH52) is estimated to be able to spend a full two weeks in standby mode, and to last seven hours while browsing the Web.

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