UX31 vs. 13" Macbook Air

ok, serious decision time. Assuming both are running the same os, which is the better machine? Please try to be as unbiased as possible and outline any serious pros or cons to consider when comparing the two machines. The features I am looking for most are battery life, speed, and how well the machine functions. Thanks for the help.

 

Both have pros and cons and I was exactly on your boat. I ended up going with something else more "reliable." My rough summary:

UX31 issues are:
-wifi signal issue
-keyboard/mouse issue (minor. people complained about how they mistype but often times, people get over it)
-usb 3.0 port failure

Macbook air issue:
-heating issue (which was big down side on my list)
-can't think of anything else at the moment

Depending on your needs, either can suit you but for my case, I need internet connection and 0 heating problem. Only sacrifice that I made over UX31 was resolution and maybe the thickness/styling (which i really dont care about).

If you are in a similar situation as i am in, check out U36SD, which I ordered 2 days ago. (couple hundreds cheaper too)

 

thanks for the reply. can you shed some more light on the heating issue? is it less of an issue in the i5 version vs the i7 version? thanks

 

It is an issue of sticking components in a cramped chassis, bad thermal design and using 3 times or more the required amount of thermal paste. Typical of macbooks. Do they heat to critical levels, no. Do they run close to dangerous temps, yeah. Note that this is only if you are using the components at full capacity.

The Asus has a few kinks to work out, but it is a very good first draft of what an Ultrabook can be.

I can't believe i'm about to say this, but i'd get the MBA since it has a few other pros:

-> factory calibrated display
-> say what you will about apple, if something breaks, they have good customer service
-> some people would say the touchpad, but on windows the tp behaves like any synaptics tp.

 

where you getting this from? I dont have any issue with the usb 3.0 port..........

 

quite common. i dont know how many pages of the UX31 that you've gone through but i've seen quite of few reports of this failure. it's not that big of a deal to me but it's not something you can simply ignore (because you paid for it!).

i can't give you a direct link but i've found this pretty common on reviews on different sites.

of course, my definition of common may very well be different from your definition of common but i wanted to share what i've most frequently seen as far as problems were concerned.

 

cant say much about customer service because over 5 to 6 ASUS laptops i've owned, i had 0 problems (over 6 years). you will find mixed opinions about how good/bad they are in this forum.

just as a reference, i've had 2 gaming laptops and 3 to 4 non gaming laptops.

if i include overall my experience with ASUS, it goes LONG LONG way and also, had 0 problems.

 

0 problems with Asus either, but with my ipod, i just had to walk to the Apple store and voilà. Asus has good service where i'm concerned, but Apple did have even better for me.

 

no doubt about that. i've heard superb things about apple customer service. my point was to show how solid their products are. it just takes some time to figure out which model you want to go with and find out their "cons."

 

Personally, i tend not to go with apple, except for my ipod, zunes were always hard to come by in Canada so i never bothered to try one. I'm not the kind of guy to get a MBA or ultrabook (performance junkie), and i certainly wouldn't get a MBP due to the mentioned thermal design flaws which i saw first hand on a friend's MBP not too long ago. The kind of usage expected of a MBA shouldn't push the hardware to it's limit though so heat probably won't be an issue.

I'll give points to Apple where they are good and that is aesthetics, customer service and marketing (you know those i'm a mac and i'm a pc ads, funny how they complained when MS went back at them with the macs are expensive ads haha). I didn't include OS since that's a very subjective thing.

EDIT: I find Asus' customer support has gone slightly downhill lately though, there seems to be a few grunts to answer the phone who don't know much about what you're talking about. If i say my laptop reports an ACPI temps of 105C, but all internals are at 50C or less, then there is a problem with the motherboard somewhere. The guy reading e-mails seemed to understand though. One thing to take into account about Asus customer support is that it can vary a lot depending on where you are. The Canadian service center has a reputation of being among the best and i can attest to that, on the other hand, i think i recall one canadian G73 owner who had a lot of problem with service, but until asus does something terribly wrong, they'll still get my money in the form of desktop parts at the very least.

 

Quite surprising. Lately, I've been buying laptops from xoticpc (Great place to buy ASUS products) and they've been VERY informative as far as selections were concerned. I've been told to contact directly to them for repair, which is a good news at least.

 

I don't get the these type of threads. It's a personal choice. I was debating between 3, the Lenovo U300s, the Asus UX31 and the MBA.

The US300s isn't out yet so forget it. Everyone including their grandma has a MBA. So I went with the UX31.

And it's a freaking sweet laptop. The only issues I have after all the updates is the buzzing noise coming from the laptop.

 

Clearly, there are issues among these 2 (pros and cons) hence this type of threads exist (UX31 being the 1st generation). I don't know about you but I'd much rather do my homework and know pros and cons before purchasing ANY products.