Asus UX21A Zenbook/Ultrabook Owner's Lounge

------------- Install Guide Windows 8 v1.0: Added 2012-10-30-------------
Windows 8 was MUCH simpler to install, and for purposes I will get to below, I opted to format the drive to GPT (using GParted) and use the UEFI version of the install (google it if you are going to use a USB key to install Windows 8 to make sure you boot UEFI version).

1. Installed Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation (UEFI using GPT partitioning).

2. Updated BIOS 215 (UEFI 2.53)

3. Installed drivers:

Note 1: if something is not specifically mentioned (e.g., Lifeframe), I didn't install it. I listed stuff I haven't installed but will in the next day or so at the end.

Note 2: I pulled almost everything off of ASUS's driver site for UX31A, as that seemed to be updated earlier than the UX21A site (which only listed the drivers today 10/30), I did notice a couple of drivers that were listed on the UX21A site as being an earlier version, but as I already installed the ones from the UX31A site, I didn't bother to uninstall them--I'll post something here if it causes an issue). Differences in the version numbers are noted in the parens after each respective entry.

Realtek
Audio 6.0.1.6710

Intel
Chipset (USB included): 9.3.0.1021
Graphics-Video: 9.17.10.2867 (9.17.10.2843 on UX21A site)
Wireless 15.5.0.43
Bluetooth: 2.6.1210 (2.5.0.0248 on UX21A site)

Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Drive 6.0.5.1080
Rapid Storage Technology driver 11.5.0.1207
Management Engine Interface 8.1.0.1252
Rapid Start: 2.​1.​0.​1002

ASUS
Smart Gesture 1.0.32 (1.0.29 on UX21A site)
USB Charger Plus 2.1.4
Instant On 3.0.2
Keyboard Device Filter Utility 1.0.0.5
Power4Gear Hybrid Utility 2.0.4
ATKACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities 1.0.0023 (1.0.0022 on UX21A site)
ASUS Wireless Radio Control 1.0.0.1

ASIX
AX88772B USB-to-Fast Ethernet Adaptor 3.16.1.0

Not installed

Intel Wireless Display (WiDi): 14.8.8.75
Intel Wireless Display Application: 3.5.34.0
Infineon Trusted Platform Module Application: 4.3.000.3137

4. Attempting to install Mac OS X 7.8 (Mountain Lion) with Clover multi-boot. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.

------------- Install Guide Windows 7 v0.1: Added 2012-09-24-------------

Thanks to the peeps who created the guides and posts:

Asus UX31A Fresh Install Guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/680250-asus-ux31a-fresh-install-guide.html

Asus Utility and Bloatware Guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/380681-asus-utility-bloatware-guide.html

I've updated the first post with version 0.1 of my install guide for the UX21A:
Anything not specifically outlined in my "guide" may be found in those links, and just doing a search. I'll update things as I go, but I've been jammed up trying to get my old Firm's notebook data-sanitized so it can go back to them.

Outstanding issues:
1. Keyboard!!! See the first few posts below, but I bought one that had a Japanese keyboard, and it's completely different than what I expected: keys are WAY smaller, and all the non-QWERTY keys (punctuations, etc., are different).

Did I mention I'm not Japanese?

2. Oh, the usual trying to make sure everything works with BT, and other things I haven't hit yet.

I. CREATE WINDOWS RECOVERY IMAGES AND BACK-UPS

A. Run ASUS Recovery DVD/BD Utility and Create Recovery Images

The first part of this process was to create recovery discs that could completely reinstall everything in case anything went south. The utility can create a single blu-ray disc or, if you want (or only have DVD burning capability), two (2) DVD discs (because the complete back-up is too large for one DVD). Being paranoid, I created both a BD and a set of DVD's, EACH option totaling around 6.5 GB.

B. Back-up Recovery Partition

The second part is to back-up the recovery partition using the procedure outlined in this article (using gparted):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...s-recovery-partition-any-other-partition.html

This part may be optional as you can always create the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) (e.g., see this link: How to install Windows RE on the hard disk - Windows RE Notes - Site Home - MSDN Blogs). However, because based on the MSDN blog the process of recreating a repair environment seems to be, well, a process; and more importantly the recovery partition on the drive was 6.4 GB, much larger than what I was expecting, I decided to just back it up.

II. Install Windows

A. Upgrade BIOS

I'm not going to repeat all the warnings, etc., but find the thread with how to flash you bios in the general ASUS forum and follow it. I would recommend it because these notebooks have been spit out so quickly that it makes sense to have them updated IF YOU ARE GOING TO COMPLETELY REINSTALL YOUR SYSTEM ANYWAY. If you have a running system, then it makes sense to look at what benefits you get if you update the BIOS, IMO.

B. Burn a DVD or create a USB

I used a 4GB USB key and "copied" a Windows 7 Ultimate iso on it:

Microsoft Store Online

If you don't have your original DVD, you can use one here:

[Direct Download Links] Download Official Windows 7 RTM with SP1 ISO (32-bit and 64-bit) - Tweaking with Vishal

Then just input your key. As everyone knows, an unactivated Windows 7 will only work for 30 days.

I was surprised how fast/easy it was to install Windows. I didn't need to add any drivers from the ASUS site (see below), and the default drivers (generic VGA, etc., worked). I believe it's because I upgraded the bios before I did anything, and I also cleaned out the partitions so it was just one big partition using the gparted disk I created (see I.B.).

III. Install Drivers and ASUS Utilities.

This is still a work-in-progress as I'm not done installing everything, but here are the drivers and utilities I've installed, with a listing of explanations I found by just googling. I need to update them with the references of the links to the sites, and will do them eventually. In general, I downloaded everything from the ASUS site:

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX21A

In addition to the ASUS site, softpedia.com also has a pretty extensive list of UX21A drivers (I haven't checked, but I think they have them all, actually):

Searching for: asus zenbook ux21a - Softpedia

This is just ONE article discussing what one person removed (instead of not installing):

http://notebookheavy.com/2012/05/07/clean-up-the-asus-zenbook-bloatware/

A. Drivers:

Audio_Realtek_Win7_64_Z6016668.zip [installed]

Audio.

Bluetooth_Intel_Win7_64_Z2120206.zip [installed]

Bluetooth.

Card_Reader_Realtek_G73SW_Win7_64_Z61760010010.zip [installed]

I don't know why this is needed because the UX21A doesn't have a card reader, but I installed it anyway. What's another 8 MB?


Chipset_Intel_Win7_64_Z9301020.zip [installed]

Chipset.


DPTF_Intel_Win7_64_Z6011067.zip [installed]

Intel® Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver - Some posts from people who have the UX32VD noted it causes fan problems ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/684157-asus-ux32vd-random-fan-speed.html). I installed it and haven't had any problems with it.

IRST_Intel_Win7_64_Z11101006.zip [installed, then removed]

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) - I believe this is for RAID. Quite hilarious as the SSD is SOLDERED onto the motherboard. Intel Matrix RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MEI_Intel_Win7_64_Z8101252.zip [installed]

Intel Management Engine Interface--Used for remote management, and I don't think most consumers will need it. I tried uninstalling it once I found out what it was. But then I had an "unidentified device" in the Device Manager, so I put it back in, because I'm like that. Architecture Guide: Intel® Active Management Technology | Intel® Developer Zone

There is an Intel Mangeability Engine Firmware Recovery Agent that may be removed.

USB3_Intel_Win7_64_Z105235.zip [installed]

Intel USB v3 drivers. Some people have said you need to have this for Windows 7 to be installed from USB key, but I didn't find it necessary. It's probably best to have it on a USB key that you can plug into the system anyway.

USBToFEA_ASIX_Win7_64_Z1020.zip [installed]

USB to Fast Ethernet Adapter--you need this to support the USB-to-ethernet adapter that comes with the computer.

VGA_Intel_Win7_64_Z815102761.zip [installed]

Native graphics driver.

WiFi_Intel_Win7_64_Z152019.zip [installed]

Native network driver.

ASUS Smart Gesture (Touchpad Driver) [not installed--see below]

Instead of the ASUS one, I installed this:

Elan Touchpad UX31A Win7_64_10.5.9.0 https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B93qmqYil_3TQlhyaEdyT05GWlE

Although this says it's for UX31A, it's actually the same driver package that can be found at softpedia.com, but compressed at half the size using 7z compression format. http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...er-functions-elan-touchpads-zenbooks-etc.html

So far, not too thrilled with how sensitive it is, even with the maximum typing-protection turned on.

TPM_Infineon_Win7_64_Z37000 [not installed]

The TPM driver gave me a TPM not found error when I tried to install it, and reviewing whether I needed it for Truecrypt, I found this in Wikipedia:

TrueCrypt and the Trusted Platform Module: The FAQ section of the TrueCrypt website states that the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cannot be relied upon for security, because if the attacker has physical or administrative access to the computer and you use it afterwards, the computer could have been modified by the attacker e.g. a malicious component—such as a hardware keystroke logger—could have been used to capture the password or other sensitive information. Since the TPM does not prevent an attacker from maliciously modifying the computer, TrueCrypt will not support the TPM. TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux - FAQ

Thus, I decided not to bother to even try and troubleshoot the error as I don't need it for Truecrypt.

B. Utilities:

ASUSTutor_Win7_64_Z104 [not installed]

Presuming it's some interactive manual, so I'm not going to use it for now.

ATKPackage_Win7_64_Z100020 [installed]

ATK ACPI driver and hotkey-related utilities. This enables Fn key shortcuts and should be installed. You want your volume function keys to work, right?

FaceLogon_Win7_64_Z100014 [not installed]

"Smart Logon - Substitute your windows login password with face recognition. A niffty but non-essential feature. This utility is actually not so smart, people can logon with a picture of you. Recommend not using and instead, use a strong password."

IATS_Intel_Win7_64_Z2003 [installed but not activated]

"Intel Anti-Theft Service - Intel® Anti-Theft Technology (Intel® AT) is now available on all 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ processor powered Ultrabook™ devices and on select Intel® Core™-enabled laptops." I believe the service costs $25/year, and there's a 3-month trial. You can also find Norton, McAfee, and Lo-Jack (yes, the car theft recovery people).

LifeFrame3_Win7_64_Z311 [installed]

"LifeFrame - Imaging software for recording/capturing audio and video. Serves as a security software with motion triggered image capture when set to the Monitor mode. Not essential for webcam to work."

Liveupdate_Win7_64_Z317 [not installed]

"Live Update - A utility that automatically downloads and installed the latest drivers and BIOS for your notebook. "This program is known to be extremely buggy and rarely works. I'd highly recommend you to uninstall this." Based on that glowing review, I decided to not install it."

MyBitCast_Win7_64_Z1004 [not installed]

"With MyBitCast Windows 7 desktop widget, all your memos are synced to your computer automatically allowing for immediate access when you return, so you’ll never miss a thing in your life. MyBitCast not only increases work productivity and life quality but it is just like your personal digital secretary that follows you wherever you go."

USBChargerPlus_Win7_64_Z213 [installed]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/614627-what-asus-usb-charger-plus.html

"It lets you use a USB port to charge a device while the laptop is in sleep mode. Basically it just allows the USB port to draw more power while the rest of the system is in a low power state." But I think people should read the thread.

Wireless_Console_3_Win7_64_Z3032 [not installed, but will probably try it out--the Fn keys work once I installed the ATK utilities, but is a pain.]

"Wireless Console Utility - Also known as Wireless Console 3. A program that helps to toggle between wifi and bluetooth. Not essential for wifi and bluetooth to work but is possibly needed when you do not have dedicated WLAN or BT on/off buttons on your notebook. In such a case, the only comfortable (w.r.t. number of keypresses) way to cycle through WLAN--BT on--off, on--on, off--on, off--off states is with this utility."

Wireless_Display_Intel_Win7_64_Z30130 [not installed]

"If you're not familiar with WiDi, it's essentially a technology built into select laptops running Intel's latest CPUs and chipsets that allows the laptop's display to be wirelessly duplicated on a remote screen (say, a big-screen TV). Though the transmitting hardware is built into the laptop itself, the receiver is a small box that retails for $99 and plugs into the HDMI port of your TV. The big problem with WiDi is that there's perceptible lag between the laptop and TV, making it fine for set-it-and-forget-it video playback, but useless for gaming or real-time Web surfing. It also can't play certain kinds of DRM-protected content, such as Blu-ray, and the current version tops out at a 720p-resolution signal."
Hands-on: Is Intel's Wireless Display a game changer? | Crave - CNET

-------------2012-09-21-------------
Well, mine will be here on Saturday, at which point I will replace the Japanese Windows 7 with an English-version Windows 7 Ultimate, most likely starting off with this guide as a reference:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/680250-asus-ux31a-fresh-install-guide.html

Then, I'll update this post to include a guide (or a link to a guide) with my experience.

Having searched for UX21A, and not finding a dedicated thread thereto, I'm starting this. I'm hoping that the dearth of posts about the UX21A is because it's not available everywhere yet, so people haven't picked them up, and not because of anything else...

Anyhoo, I'm sure people will not be shy in letting me know.

 

Good idea. I'm considering buying one of these, and I'd love to hear people's opinions about this baby.

 

I got it in July the week it came out at yodobashi camera (online store). I keep the screen resolution at 1920x1080 which makes things a little small at this screen size. If I lower the resolution, sometimes program buttons like "ok," "cancel," etc... get misaligned. I don't really mind, because the whole system is incredibly light and a bigger screen would add weight (I was looking for as light as possible).

I don't have any complaints so far except for UEFI and installing windows 7, but I attribute that to my inexperience with it (the first time I've seen it). First problem was couldn't get the computer to boot off of a thumb drive, after poking around for a few hours I gave in and bought an external dvd drive (buffalo). Oddly enough I could boot from the flash drive when the dvd drive was plugged in. Then I discovered I couldn't save the recovery partition if I wanted to install windows 7 (something about UEFI and partitioning, once again inexperienced). I went and made an image of the recovery partition (and made the recovery disk using their pre-installed software) before I wiped out the disk. Installed windows 7 from the thumb drive (while keeping the dvd drive plugged in to make the thumb drive bootable . . . I still don't know why it works like that) ran on over to the ASUS website and downloaded all the drivers/software and what not. I believe it all works. Some of the preinstalled software only comes out in Japanese e.g. intel graphics and media control panel

edit: keyboard mapping is a little odd. I told windows I have a j-keyboard. It picks up the kana keys and most it maps correctly, except for two keys. yen doesn't map (it shows up a / instead) and the caps lock button is non functional (it switches alphabet to kana and vice versa). Everything else works including the media keys

 

Was the DVD drive USB 3.0? So I guess you didn't install anything using the DVD drive, just the USB key.

What version of Windows 7 did you use?

What was the bios setting you used for the USB boot?

I'm guessing when you said:

You meant that you had to delete it and just create a new partition? I've heard people having to delete GPT.

What happens if you tell it you have a non-J-keyboard?

Lastly, you installed everything from ASUS website, right? Why do you think some of the software only comes out in Japanese? The thread I pointed to above for the UX31A mentioned the drivers were pulled from the component makers. Maybe you can try those sources?

Sorry for having so many questions, but you're one of the first people I've found to have done this, so the more information I have, the better I can try to put some sort of guide together.

Oh yeah, haha. How much did you pay, just for other people's data point.

(Supposedly mine will be delivered tomorrow!!!)

 

DVD drive was usb 2.0. Flash drive was USB 3.0 . . . so I figured the flash drive would make for a faster install

I installed windows 7 ultimate OEM (same copy as my self built desktop)

The bios setting was . . . well I have no idea how UEFI works. So when I booted I jumped right into bios and changed the startup order to the flash drive first N.B. the flash drive was only visible when I plugged in the DVD drive, otherwise I couldn't see the flash drive

Yes I deleted everything on the hard drive, including the recovery partition. I didn't have a choice. I believe this is due to how UEFI and how partitioning works (GPT and all that jazz). I don't know if its possible to wipe only windows or re/install windows over itself. You'll have to ask someone who knows more about UEFI.

It assumed I used a US keyboard, because that was my default localization setting. Nothing bad happens. A few keys are addressed differently (the media keys still work the same). If I remember correctly the @ sign on the j-keyboard corresponds to / on the US keyboard.

Everything installed off the ASUS website was in english except the "Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel." The widgets, the autoupdate thing, wireless drivers/software etc... was all in english. I suppose I could run over to the intel website to see if I can get an english version of the "Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel," but I don't really care honestly. I bought the laptop for work, travel and some really light gaming (think tetris and puzzle games). It should be noted that the "Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel" is almost entirely in katakana so should be easy pretty easy to work with.

Got the laptop off of yodobashi camera's website so it was ￥124,200 for the 256gb SSD version. Joshin has it cheaper ￥116,820, but at the time I ordered it yodobashi would get it to me in a few days versus a couple of weeks. I needed the laptop ASAP and I could use the yodobashi points pay for other computer parts that joshin NEVER sells.

 

Okay, thanks, @aznxshinobi. Extremely helpful. Did you follow these instructions for backing up the recovery partition?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/125071-how-backup-restore-asus-recovery-partition-any-other-partition.html

I'm trying to make recovery discs now (actually as ISOs), but I'm not sure what the check box option that starts with "Windows ..." at the bottom means (see enclosed). I should mention I don't speak a lick of Japanese, although, being Chinese, I can read a very tiny amount of Chinese (and it helped here and there, haha). I created two sets, both with and without that checkmark, and the files seem to be the same size. Any ideas?



In case anyone is curious, here's a picture of the Japanese keyboard:

The mapping is not working properly for the English install I just put on, and I still need to figure out what utilities to use, but once I get everything squared away, I'll update the first post. Everything went fairly smoothly, even updating the bios to the latest version. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS) and 12.10 (beta), but neither of these worked that well "out-of-the-box", and I didn't have time to work out the kinks, so that will have to be a thread for another day...

 

After a few days of using this, I'm starting to think seriously about replacing the keyboard. More irritating is the touchpad is really sensitive, as I've observed before--it IS quite hilarious because the touchpad is so huge. Lastly, I've noticed that the Intel Wireless Manager, while adding some features, seems to be slow to connect to my my ASUS RT-N66U when the laptop wakes--even though I've never left the house. I've switched the wireless "management" to the built-in Windows one, so we'll see what happens.

As to awake time, I've never created that 4GB partition to store sleep data for InstantOn, but it installed and even mentioned on the next reboot that it was working (i.e., it popped up a gadget to let me enable it). It seems to wake pretty fast from when I close the lid. I just have to figure out a way to test it without having to let it sit for two weeks to see if it actually stands-by that long. If any one has any ideas of how I can test it, I'd be more than happy to do so.

Also, anyone has "factory configured" InstantOn configured, if they can let me know what they see in terms of time to "resume" between Hibernate and InstantOn, that'd be cool.

 

Updated first post with install guide for Windows 8.

 

I just bought the i5/128gb version sight unseen (except on the net) being sold by the MS store for $699. I like it a lot except for one thing, which for something which has just shown up as Windows is installing a slew of updates: the fan sounds like a plane taxiing to the runway and, at moments, as like it's just starting its take-off run, including the high whine that's heard from inside the cabin. Is this normal? Most laptops' fans run up some under heavy load, but I've never heard anythng just loud or such a high pitched continuous sound.

 

Anyone know how to set the turbo boost on this? How about a way to set the keyboard backlight off as default?

There are a lot of basic settings and options undocumented in the manual. We could use a guide, or a collection of tips here in addition to the Win 8 update.

 

If I try to connect the UX21A to my TV, the output resolution to the TV tops out at 1280x1024. The TV has a native resolution of 1920x1080 (the same as the laptop), but for some reason Windows doesn't have that resolution as an option. Can anyone tell me how to get the laptop to output 1920x1080 to the TV?

 

I would check your TV's user's manual. Some TV's will not go above that resolution unless you connect it using HDMI. I have a 42" Samsung that doesn't have this issue, and a 42" Sharp Aquos that does--both of which were bought around the same time a few years ago.

FYI, if you need to, you can buy a micro-HDMI-to-HDMI plug at MonoPrice.com.

 

I ended up buying an HDMI cable, and the issue was resolved. I had to set the HDMI input on my TV to "dot by dot" otherwise half of the taskbar and edges of the screen were cut off.

 

I'm buying a Zenbook 11" and can't decide what screen to get: 1366x768 or 1920x1080 ?

- 1366x768 costs $500 less
- 1920x1080 is full HD and graphics/videos look great on it, but I heard someone say that text can be hard to read with such resolution

any thoughts?

 

If you get the chance to, you should really look at the product "in-person". I have the HD panel and the text *IS* really small and it takes some getting used to. I've turned it into a hackintosh, so trying to see if I can have it emulate a retina display.

Otherwise, it's a really nice screen.

 

Make sure there's a good return policy. If you need to get the laptop now, then $500 is a lot to pay for higher resolution on an 11.6". There will always be a next time. It strikes me as a difference more amenable to an everyday desktop or larger laptop screen. But even there, reviewers are blown away by the IPS quality, but no one seems to have taken notice that 1920x1080 isn't all that good for larger monitors, let alone small ones (compare to 1920x1200, for example). But then, each to his own needs...

 

I would def. agree with these statements. I bought this because it was a great deal ($800!) off ebay and a "one-in-a-lifetime" deal. The person bought a Japanese model, and realized that the keyboard is waaaaay smaller (esp. with all the special language keys). As I've said earlier, I'm eventually thinking of a way to get the keyboard replaced, although that may take replacing the top surface as well, haha.

I can see if you are stuck in a really small space (think subway), and need to work because you literally have to be with 2 ft. to get the full benefit of all the pixels. That being said, I LOVE having all that pixel space for doing my work--and that's kind of how I like to work sometimes.

Otherwise be prepared to hook this up to an external monitor (HDMI works awesome). If it wasn't for the fact that I'm trying to see if I can get the retina display features working, I would opt for a 13" screen at HD. Windows is not really optimized for these small screens yet, even though MS could easily make their own version of "retina" features.

Screens will be higher density, cheaper, and more plentiful, that's just the way it's going to be. It really depends on what you want and when you want.

Remember, come January, there will be another CES, and by March/April?, a new batch of computers will be out.

 

Watch for the Asus 13.3" IPS screen version on sale (and hope they have keyboard/touchpad issues worked out). NCIX had it at ~$1000 on Black Friday ( NCIX - Buy Computers, Computer Parts, Laptops, World's Leading Discount Computer Store). They didn't last long and I got up too late to catch it. What Toshiba has done with weight (2.4 lbs) in its Z935 series looks to me like the next wave. At $599, it's hard to beat at the MS Store. Plus, you get Microsoft's much cleaner setup and three month free support, which is very good and in the U.S (I've used it by phone and email).

 

New Firmware (BIOS v. 216):
ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS ASUS ZENBOOK UX21A

 

I still haven't decided between the two screens, but I'm having a heck of a time trying to even figure out which vendors are selling which, and how to tell them apart. Many product listings don't mention the display resolution at all, and asking the question is like pulling teeth. When I called ASUS to ask for a list of specifications and model number suffixes, they said "talk to the retailer".

How do I know I'm getting the one I want? I'd hate to wind up paying top dollar for the low-resolution version. Is there a list available. Can anyone recommend a vendor? Thanks, -lr

 

I have a strange problem: When the battery on my UX21A runs low (< 15 %), the laptop switches off immediately at some point (not a controlled shutdown).
BUT: This only seems to happen if the system is under "load", e.g. when watching a video via VLC or while browsing websites. If i let it run in idle, the battery runs down normally, windows gives me a warning and does a normal shutdown when its at around 5 %.

Did anyone experience this issue before?

 

Hi, I was thinking of buyin UX21A-BHI5N67 from Best Buy and found this photo.
Asus 11.6" Laptop 4GB Memory 128GB Solid State Drive UX21A-BHI5N67 - Best Buy
although all the ux21a I've seen so far on internet has black keyboard keys, this one has silver.
I wonder anyone got this U.S. version of ux21a and clear out my curiosity. I'm not sure it's really different or it's just BB's another mistake of choosing photos.

 

I think the latter. The photo is a dead ringer for the previous series, the UX21E though the BB listing is clearly for the current model, the UX21A.

 

Has anyone had issues with the hinges/lid?

 

hi, i just registered the forum to reply.

i haven't tried yet but it looks like a solution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAP-NwyE4H4