Asus Zenbook Infinity (UX301LA) User's Lounge

Since they are out (at least in Europe) - did anyone get one delivered yet?

 

Yes, got mine today (i7 4558U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 1440px Screen).
At the first boot I got the notification "There was no Battery found". I thought maybe just a bug and unplugged the power supply for testing -> Boom, instant off. Also no power on without the power supply.

Luckily my local dealer had just another unit, so I could replace it. Second one is running fine.

I'm going to bed now, will do a clean Win 8.1 install tomorrow.

LG
atHoC

 

I just gone mine today! My wallet is screaming but I'm loving this thing so far. I got the DH71T SKU (i7 4558U, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD, etc...). Hopefully some other people have gotten their units by now as well, I'm curious to see what they're getting in terms of battery life...So far I'm getting estimates of around 7 hours from Windows. It seems a little low compared to other ultrabooks but I guess that's the price you pay for having the i7 4558U in this small of a chassis...can anyone else chime in?

 

Where did you buy your's?

What was the price?

What ultrabooks are you seeing that gets 7+ hours?? Even the new Macbook Pro advertises "9 hours" but only gets around 6 or 7 in real world usage.

Look forward to your reply.

 

Micro Center had exactly one unit, the DH71T, in stock when I went their last Sunday. The notebook was $2000 but I ended up paying $2500 after taxes and a 2 year full coverage protection plan. I don't recall where I've seen 7+ hours exactly, just random reviews for other ultrabooks. Also I feel I should clarify, Windows estimates around 7 hours when doing light web browsing and other less demanding tasks. However when I'm doing things like programming the usage time drops to around 4. If I'm programming and have youtube videos or other streaming video running in the background with maximum brightness, I've seen the estimate drop to 2 - 3 hours.

This is definitely an upgrade from my old laptop as well as the MacBook Pro I use for work but is still a little less than I was expecting from Haswell this generation. But again, it's the trade off you pay for having a more powerful CPU in a machine this small.

 

OK - I have a strange request for an Infinity owner...

When it's idling, does it make any noticeable electronic hissing, buzzing or tapping sounds (audible in a quiet room if you put your head near the keyboard)? I don't mean fan noise.

I ask because I'm about to send a 2nd brand new HP Spectre 13 back that does just that (even more audible once the screen goes off off for power saving - changes from hissing to tapping). If I buy a UX301LA, I just want to make sure it won't have the same problem as the HP.

Thanks in advance.

 

If I put my head right next to the laptop I can just barely hear the fan whirring but that's about it.

 

Thanks for that. I hope no-one was looking - it probably looked a bit strange!

 

Do any other UX301 owners have any complaints about the keyboard? I think it's the one weak point of this machine, certain keys feel a little too flimsy to me ( the space key in particular ) and it flexes slightly in certain areas of the keypad. It detracts from the overall premium feel of this machine, although it still looks beautiful with that backlit keyboard.

Don't get me wrong it's not bad by any means, it's just not up to same standards set by the rest of the machine. Has anyone else noticed this or is it just some build quality flaw on my particular unit?

 

I've been drooling er looking at the UX301LA-DH71T which appears to be back ordered at most places. The price point for me is high by about $500 (in terms of what I'm willing to pay, not necessarily in terms of the quality of the device). I guess I have two questions:

- Do you guys expect any black Friday deals on this item?
- Which vendors have the best support and return policy? I have a microcenter near by that I know lists this model.

Thanks!

-Fred

 

Fred, greetings from HP 1300T forum! (Great minds think alike!)

First, I don't expect there will be significant discounts on this model on BF. It is still quite new, is apparently quite a "looker" and Asus never provided for much discounting on the predecessor UX31A until it was out for more than a year and the new models were about to be released. Note last paragraph with idea of looking at last year's Ivy Bridge premium Ultrabooks and I think you will find some great discounts for some exceptional products, as good or better than this year's crop of Haswells.

As far as where to buy any Asus laptop I can say from experience that Xotic PC in California (can't recall where) is an exceptional reseller that provides excellent support and has certain policies and capabilities that many traditional resellers - like Micro Center and all the "usual suspects." First, they give you an unconditional 30 day return/100% refund allowance. Second, they can customize virtually any product they sell, including Asus, though I think the UX-301LA may have little or not customizing options. On a previous generation UX32vd they offered to switch out the HDD for an SSD of your choice, add RAM to the maximum of that machine, change the wifi card, etc. What's more, they did not overcharge for these upgrades and they fully warrantied them within the time frame of the warranty you purchased for the whole computer. For example, last January they were offering upgrades from an internal HDD/SSD cache to a 256GB high end SSD for about $300 including labor, at a time when these were selling as parts for around $250 or more, so there was no markup on the parts and a very fair charge for the labor. Also, they do all their own repair and, if a warrantied part must be obtained from Asus, they act as go-between so you don't have to deal with that very difficult company. They offer pretty much 100% phone support for anything. You can find reviews of resellers on resellerratings.com. Also, many of the best Asus resellers are also Sager/Clevo resellers, and you can learn a great deal about them in the Sager/Clevo forum of NBR.

Btw, back to price, I have to agree that the price of the UX301LA is way over market value ($500 is pretty accurate IMO). If your budget is such that $2,000 for a more or less "standard premium" (my term!) Haswell ultrabook is no financial sacrifice and you want to "buy the best, at all cost" I suppose this one becomes more attractive. I actually think that the previous generation of this breed - from Samsung, Asus, Acer, etc - offer virtually identical performance (save a bit of igp improvement) for clearance prices that now hover around $1,200 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD and I'm not hearing great things about the battery life of this model anyway (not just from the poster on this thread; from other "real life" measurements vs. review "torture tests." Alternatively, I might give HP a little time to work out that crackling noise and get a fine Haswell Ultrabook with the same specs at also around $1,200. Just my opinion; apparently yours too. One last thing: if Xotic or one of the other highly rated Asus resellers as noted above still have Asus UX32vd units in stock, you might want to consider getting one of those, having your RAM upgraded (I think 12GB is max, probably more than ok) and the HDD removed and a 256-512GB SSD put in. I would guess the total for that would come in at around $1,500 and it would be a fabulous machine with battery life not much different from the 301LA and a superb FHD screen with much better color gamut and accuracy than the WQHD in the 301LA, much brighter too, and I personally find no appeal of the higher resolution screens that Windows, even 8.1, can't scale to, and we are years away from many apps or programs supporting it. Oh, and, even if not from Xotic, I do think there will be some excellent BF discounts on all of last year's Ivy Bridge premium Ultrabooks, including the Asus UX-32vd, and adding your own RAM and switching out SSD should be a very easy DIY.

I don't think that kind of quality deficit is one you should have to put up with at the lofty price of this product. A recent review FWIW, found no such problems and was unequivocal in its praise for the keyboard. So you should probably return it for a replacement. Also, there were no such problems on the predecessor UX31A, though that model suffrered from a host of other quality problems out of the box; all could be fixed, but at great "wear and tear" to the buyer. In the last 4-6 months of production, the previous models appear to have turned around those problems significantly. The takeaway for me: like many other manufacturers, Asus does not get it right in the first shipments of a new product and you are well within your rights to return and replace it for anything less than "perfect," and repairing or even replacing keyboards on a new, high end product, is neither appropriate nor is it likely to perform as if it came off the production line - properly.

I don't know what "old laptop" you are comparing it to, but it isn't very hard to find a current day premium laptop that isn't a major upgrade from a non-retina Macbook Pro. Your battery life is abysmal, but I suspect something is amiss with your unit to get such low endurance. One thing that never ceases to confound me is how, with every succeeding generation of Intel chipsets the claim has been for "significantly" better battery life and it has never really been experienced by users. I think Haswell is different - hence my thought that your unit has a problem - but there too the "real" experience of users is quite different from even the most "brutal" of battery life testing programs devised by professional reviewers. I have found (unscientifically) them to be about 25% more optimistic than most actual user experience. Of all, I find notebookcheck.net has the most accurate readings, especially their "wlan, surfing" measurement. Even on Haswell notebooks, the ones that get 7-9 hr. ratings from just about all reviewers score more like 5-7 hrs. on this test and, I suspect, is reflective of actual usage, despite the fact that the loops others claim to use to test battery life sound more taxing than notebookcheck's, which measures lower battery life. You'll find in their test of the UX-301LA that the "WLAN/Surfing" battery life was 6.25 hrs. Thus, none of the "heroic" numbers claimed by others, including on professional tests, but still better than you are achieving. (Btw, what screen brightness do you generally use. If you are usually close to full brightness, that could cost you 1-1.5 hrs.)

So, I would be inclined to return the unit for a replacement. You shouldn't have to make any "allowances" for a product this advanced and this expensive! Good luck, and enjoy!

 

Thanks for the Xotic reference. Very good to know!

I guess one thing the UX301LA-DH71T has that the t13-3000 doesn't is a higher end processor. The I7-4558U with the Iris 5100 graphics is a nice upgrade from the I7-4500U with HD 4400 graphics. For light 3D gaming this would be nice, but the cost differential doesn't quite bring me there...

 

Thanks for the in depth response. As I'm getting close to the end of the 15 day return window for this laptop, I'm starting to think about returning my unit due to the potentially faulty keyboard. I'm not quite convinced about the battery life faults though, isn't 7 hours for web browsing about in line with most Haswell ultrabooks? Especially on this model which has a processor with a higher TDP compared to pretty much every other ultrabook on the market. If you have any benchmarks/torture tests I'd love to see them.

Going back to my keyboard though, this may be a potential deal breaker for THIS particular unit. Like I said in my previous post, the keyboard is not bad (it's actually a good keyboard), it just isn't at the same level of quality as the rest of this keyboard. BUT, you make a great point that I should settle for nothing less than perfect, especially on a product this expensive.

So, I'm probably going to return this unit sometime this week and try to pick up a XH72T version of this laptop.

 

FWIW, I have seen at least one negative review of the keyboard:

Asus Zenbook UX301LA review | Digital Trends Reviews

 

I checked out Xotic and they look like a great site, but I don't think they sell the zenbooks. I couldn't find any on there...

 

You have to scroll all the way down and you see some of the Zenbooks. I saw a number of UX32's, and the very last one under Asus is the UX51 (see below), and I suspect they may not have updated their listings. I would call them and ask if they can get the model you want; I'm pretty certain they can. Note: their prices seem to be pretty much straight list; that could be a deal killer.
View attachment 105430

 

Hmm...interesting he seems to have some issues that I'm not seeing at all (touch screen flex for example). Anyways the keyboard issues described in the review are different from the issue I'm having which I think may be due to a quirk in the build quality of my particular unit. The space key on my keyboard just feels/looks a little off. I've decided I'm going to return my unit and try another one to see if this issue is resolved.

Aside from the space key issue though I'd put the typing experience as easily comparable to a MBP, I wasn't really sure what he meant when he said the flat keys made typing more difficult. I do agree the key travel on this machine is average but I'd attribute that to how slim this thing is. Anyways, I will let you guys know if my issue is resolved when I return and hopefully get my replacement on Wednesday.

 

I thought the keyboard and touchpad were excellent during my approximately 2 weeks with this laptop.

I also didn't feel like the screen flex was an issue, but to be honest I didn't use the touchscreen much at all...

 

Hi -- need some advice. just bought the asus ux301la i5.... haven't opened box yet because i keep wondering if i should exchange for the i7. i'm not a gamer... but i thought this site would be a good place get solid opinions and recommendations

 

hi -- i just bought the ASUS Zenbook UX301LA-DH51T 13.3" with 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U Haswell CPU. I'm not a gamer, so maybe that's enough but thought i would get some good input here as to whether i should return for the i7 (once i open the box, i cannot return)

 

I don't own the laptop yet, but if you are not a gamer, then the i5 is more than good enough!

You'll get a longer battery life using the i5, due to its lower power consumption. Your really big benefit in this case of upgrading to the i7 is graphics performance, and it sounds like you don't need that. If you're just surfing the web, watching videos, and running office applications, the i5 is more than enough power!

 

Hey all,

I just picked up one of these and everything is working fine to my knowledge and I'm very happy with the build quality and such, but one question I have for other owners, do the viewing angles of the display seem a little weak compared to other IPS panels in your experience?

 

Can anyone confirm what type of SSD is used ? mSATA/nGFF/ Regular ? The asus tech support mentioned regular SSD, but am not sure if he really knew.

Thx

 

The SSD is it's own propriety port; made by Samsung. Not mSATA. In other words, you won't be upgrading this; you will be remaining with the harddrive your model came with. Unless you managed to find/salvage one of the higher tier SDD from someone else's Zenbook.

 

Just purchased a UX301LA-DH71T and wondered if anyone had done repartitioning on the hard drive. The 256GB SSD in my unit was partitioned into OS and DATA partitions and a separate Recovery partition. So far, I have combined the OS & DATA partitions into one SYSTEM partition of 217GB as shown below. This works fine.

.

I'd also like to recover the space occupied by the 20GB Restore partition by moving this to a USB drive. Can anyone tell me if this can be done and how I would restore from this USB drive if needed?

Also, what is in the 900MB Recovery partition?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Anyone getting poor battery life? I'm getting 3-4 hours at best just browsing the web and watching some youtube videos. Right out of the box the battery wear level was at 6% which i thought was king of high for a new computer. I have the i7 256gb version.

 

I'm not sure if Infoseeker is correct about it being a proprietary port either... Because according to Review Asus Zenbook Infinity UX301LA Ultrabook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews the SSD's are on an M.2 host (NGFF) and may be one of only three ultra portable notebooks I've read about using native PCIe. The others being the Sony Vaio Pro 13 and the latest Macbook Air using native PCIe. However, Apple uses a proprietary connector and a customized Samsung SSD while Sony uses the M.2 connector. See: Sony VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook M.2 Native PCIe SSD Review - 1GB/s Performance Fastest Ultra Speed To Date | The SSD Review

I wish someone else could crack open their Zenbook Infinity and confirm that the dual SSD's are inserted into an M.2 connector and that the controller chip on the SSD is a PCIe controller rather than a SATA 3 controller. Besides the screen and faster processor/Iris GPU, this newer technology, if truly present, could also explain the substantially higher cost of the UX301 compared to the UX302.

 

I got my UX301L at the end of November, loaded with Windows 8. After new year I upgraded it to Windows 8.1. Shouldn't have done so! Has caused me a lot of troubles and problems. After the upgrade it's (almost) dead silent. System sounds, like message alert, work, bot nothing more advanced than that. Been on to ASUS support. They tell me it's a driver issue. The Realtek sound driver has been modified by ASUS. Therefore the available Realtek 8.1 driver update does not work (have checked to make sure). One has to wait for ASUS to release a new sound driver. However, ASUS support states that it's not sure that they will be providing an 8.1 sound driver. INCREADIBLE!! Moreover, ASUS support told me "they recommend that their PCs be run on the OS they're supplied with"! A brand new PC, and you cannot upgrade to the latest available OS!?! That means if the OS would be too bogus, and you want to upgrade to a new OS, you can't! UNBELIEVABLE!!
ASUS support adviced that I should run "refresh" on the PC. This means I have to totally re-install all SW I'm using, and set up the PC all over again!
I just bought this PC, and ASUS has left me in the dirt! I regret buying ASUS, and never will again!
If anyone out there has experienced this same issue, and has found a solution other than refreshing and reinstalling, please let me know.

 

ASUS doesn't make drivers, Realtek did and customized for ASUS with the same major functionality.
Try the latest Realtek Audio Driver below.
Realtek 7111

Procedures:
Remove existing driver, reboot, install new driver, reboot.

 

Thanks for the tip. However, Realtek states that you should download specific laptop drivers from your manufacturer's web site, because they've been adapted. But, yes, of course I tried this on my way to finding a solution. The solution, in the end, was weird. I Googled through gazillions of foras, and ended up at this one. Response #13 solved the issue. Really weird, but, hallelujah, let there be sound!

While I'm at it, I'll share a couple of other issues and findings:
My mouse pointer/cursor disappears from time to time after the 8.1 upgrade. Solution: Windows+P to disable multiscreen (split or extend doesn't matter), and then Windows+P again to re-enable multiscreen, and the mouse pointer/cursor is back.

A third thing I encountered, but where I cannot tell if it's an 8.1 issue or if I just accidently hit a key combination: I got blue boxes/frames around everything I clicked/selected/wrote. Caps Lock+Esc gets rid of it.

Btw, I found out there's no difference between UX301L and UX301LA.

 

Realtek driver is universal, all brand-related customization are all contained in one package.
Good to know that the solution worked, so it wasn't a driver but windows issue instead, a weird one too.
Thank you for sharing as it can definitely help someone else out later! :thumbsup:

 

Hi guys, I am interested in purchasing a Zenbook infinity right now, but I was in Hong Kong few weeks ago seems like they are selling a version with only 1920 resolution screen... I can't seem to find one with the 2500 resolution screen...

Where can I purchase it at the moment? I can't seem to find any places that have it.... I am in Canada now and looking for it.

Also for the 2500 resolution screen with 256 x 2 raid SSD i7 which model number is it? Thanks!

 

I've seen several of these posts about HDMI audio not passing to an external monitor (e.g. TV). I had this problem and found the solution, so I thought I'd pass it on. My PC is an Asus UX301LA notebook running Win 8.1 with an Intel Iris 5100 Graphics adapter and Realtek HD Audio. While what I found may not apply to your system, I'm guessing it does to many.

The problem was recognizing that for HDMI output with audio, there are three (3) drivers involved:

1. The Display driver (e.g. Intel Iris Graphics 5100)
2. The Audio driver (e.g. Realtek HD Audio)
3. The Display Audio driver ("Display Audio" part of the Display driver)

After installing the latest drivers for 1 & 2, I then:

- Rebooted the PC
- Plugged in the HDMI cable to my TV
- Switched the PC display to Duplicate on the external monitor (TV)

At that point my Device Manager looked like this:



and my "Playback devices" in Sound looked like this:



I then installed a new driver for the "Display Audio" device. The new driver was part of my (Intel Iris 5100) Display driver files and located in a folder called "DisplayAudio". There was no Setup.exe for this driver, so it had to be installed manually - in other words, right-clicking on the Display Audio device in Device Manager and selecting "Update Driver software" then "Browse my computer for driver software".

After installing this driver, I did the reboot, plug-in in HDMI cable and set Duplicate display again (you have to do all three steps after each new driver install).

At that point my Device Manager looked like this:



and my "Playback devices" in Sound looked like this:



HDMI with audio is now working properly for me.

If you find a similar situation on your system, this should work. Good luck.

 

guys I would like to buy this laptop (configuration UX301LA-XH72T with i4558u and 512 gb ssd) in white colour. But I cant find it anywhere. Any help?

 

HI Guys,

I have the Asus UX301la i7-4500 2 x 128GB Windows 8. Im having a displayport issue that Im hoping someone can assist with. I have an AOC i2269vmw monitor with displayport. It didnt come with a mini displayport to full displayport cable so I bought one 3rd party. But I cant get it to work. When I plug the monitor into the laptop using the mini displayport to displayport cable the laptop does recognize that the monitor is plugged in. I can see under Windows 8 Resolution both monitors and i can set resolution size for each etc BUT the monitor reports there is no signal. Its just a blank screen and it eventually switches into standby.

If i plug in using HDMI there is no issue, everything works ticketyboo.

Has anyone else had a displayport issue? Or any ideas what i can try?

Thanks
clinto69

 

XoticPC is a reseller from the U.S but they can ship it to Canada as well. MemoryExpress also lists the UX301LA but currently they are all sold out. You can also try eBay.ca but this is not recommended.

I don't think it's released yet...plus I think it looks ugly because the screen has a thick black frame that ruins the whole white look. The outside looks amazing though.

 

I had a similar issue that got "resolved" by removing the Ethernet adapter into the USB plug on the other side. In fact, ANY USB 3.0 device in the plug next to the DP will cause it to start behaving erratically.

Frankly, I'm very conflicted about this machine. On the one hand it's fantastic looking with the spec sheet to match, on the other it seems plagued by lots of little issues that one wouldn't expect, nor should accept, at this price level. The QA has some way to go as well. Out of 5 machines my office ordered, we've had to RMA 2 immediately. The rest, although functional, have been throwing stuff at us since the beginning - like the Displayport issue.

Cheers

 

I've been thinking about the New X1 Carbon for awhile, but about 99% sure I'm going to go with the UX301 instead. Can anyone tell me if there are any speed differences between the 2x128 vs the 2x256 SSDs?

 

Can anyone report on what resolutions the UX301LA is capable of driving through its displayport and hdmi outputs?

Has anyone attempted to drive a 2560x1600 monitor by displayport, for example? (I am hoping to be able to use a Dell U3011 30" monitor.)

Has anyone tried driving two external displays simultaneously? If so, was the built-in display also useable?

Thanks so much!

 

Im not sure if its just me, but my UX301LA seems to be real choppy in day-to-day tasks such as browsing, emailing, excel and word-processing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Which power setting are you on? It sounds like you're on "power saver" so I recommend you switch it to "balanced".

 

I've had the I7 + Iris + 256GB model for five days now and so far so good.

I did notice a flimsy spacebar sound at first but now I can't reproduce it. I was a bit concerned about wireless connections at first because there seemed to be a long latency with web connections. I haven't seen other complaints about this so maybe it was my connection. I have also updated all the drivers and things are even smoother.

Although my previous laptop was seven years old, it seems like this one is blazing fast on the desktop anyway. I noticed Firefox sluggishness but these went away when I disabled certain addons, so you may want to consider that. A lot of addons are convenient but cause performance problems.

 

An annoyance I have with this machine is that the keyboard backlight comes on after waking or booting up. Is there a way to have it off by default so that it only comes on if I enable it?

Edit: You can disable the light sensor with Fn+A. Then the screen/keyboard lighting becomes manual.

 

Hey everyone, brand new owner here. Just opened it up today and already having lots of problems. Most annoyingly is the fans are super loud all the time! I am only running firefox as far as i can tell, task manager says under 10% cpu usage, and the fans are blasting at max rpm. is my unit defective? I have attached a picture of the underside and all the holes seem to be blocked. Is this what everyone's looks like? Only my center vent holes appear to have actual ventilating capability. View attachment 109354

 

My Zenbook's vents look the same. Most of the time the laptop is very quiet. I can hear the fans when I play a game, but even then I don't notice it over the game's music and sound effects. For what it's worth, I updated all the drivers I could and updated the bios.

 

how did you update the bios? My version was 204 and on the ASUS web page the last update for that is my version. Where did you get your BIOS update and to what version/date it was relesead?

 

same 6% wear fresh out of the box, and barely getting 4 hours on a full charge only using firefox.

 

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UX301LA (assuming you have the same version, but otherwise it should still be somewhere on that site).

I read that new laptop batteries need to be primed. Let it run down (but not all the way down to zero which is dangerous) then fully charge it and do this three times. Not that I get much more time out of mine, but I did choose the desktop chip with Iris 5100 graphics. I also read that it's normal for Windows not to necessarily charge to 100% when above 96%.

 

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download UX301LA

I received my laptop last week and there was a bios update available.

Which chip/graphics combination do you have? I have the Iris 5100 package and I don't think I'm going to be getting more than 4–5 hours out of this thing and I don't expect to be able to given its power.

 

I have the DH71 with iris and the 256 total ssd. Am barely breaking 3 hours if i am shotgunning netflix, and barely getting 4 total if i am jsut on reddit all day. dim screen, power saver settings.

Whcih drivers were really outdated for you? I found a bios update but no change to my constantly on fans bllwing out cold air. I even sat outside with it (it is 15F outside and they were still running!)