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ASUS' ZenBook 3 Is Thinner, Lighter and Faster Than the MacBook (engadget.com)
At the ongoing Computex trade show in China, Asus unveiled the ZenBook 3 laptop. The ZenBook 3's chassis measures 11.9mm while the whole body weighs 910g. At the event, the company's executive said that ZenBook 3 is better than both MacBook Air and the 12-inch MacBook. As for the specifications, the ZenBook 3, which is crafted from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, sports a 12.5-inch full-HD display (1920x1080 pixels), and offers up to Core i7 processor, 16GB of 2133MHz RAM, up to a 1TB PCIe Gen 3 x4 SSD, a next-gen USB Type-C port (for power and data transfer), powerful quad-speaker audio by Harman Kardon, and a fingerprint scanner. Do note that there is only one USB port on the device. The entry-level variant featuring Core i5 processor, 256GB of SSD and 4GB of RAM is priced at 999, while the top-of-the-line model will set you back by $1,999. Asus also had nice things to say about the keyboard, though Engadget's reporter was not impressed. More details here.
Do not care if it is faster or lighter, as I want the better screen.
iApple is _always_ behind the curve like this fine site and utf-8 character encoding...
iApple is all about selling ole technology for top dollar.
CAP === 'abrogate'
iApple is _always_ behind the curve like this fine site and utf-8 character encoding...
This is an English language site... why would it need to support UTF-8?
As far as I can tell, for English language sites, the primary use of UTF-8 is for one Jihadi to leave messages for other Jihadis.
Being faster than macbook doesn't mean much. Nor does mean it being thinner - whoop de doo, easier to break by looking at it wrong way.
And runs Windows 10, awesome!
Looking out how the great shrink has been progressing, I predict that that 12 inch MacBook Pro will completely disappear from this Universe in about a decade. You can still go out an buy it however since it will be infinitely thin and light, you won't be able see or use it.
You'll just have to take Tim's word for it.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The review said the keyboard was almost useless. The screen is smaller than the Air, and they are not promoting resolution so it is probably crap. A 1 TB SSD is only $300, so charging $200 more than top f the line 12" Air. Just saying because if you don't want an air there are a lot of good machines out there, I have an HP that is thin ,light, and comes with a small power brick. If you do want an Air then this is not the knockoff to buy.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
If you think that is bad, try getting a warranty repair. ASUS laughed and me and called me a moron for thinking they would honor the warranty. They're even worse than Apple.
Both 16:9 aspect ratio for the display and Windows as an OS are non-starters for me. I want 16:10 (at at least 1920 * 1200) and a unix based OS. Apple satisfies these requirements. Are there any other manufacturers that can?
Ian Ameline
I have a Sager with only 16 GB of RAM. Running Windows is painful it makes me want to die. The harddrive constantly runs from swapping. Asus really does hate us.
It's been a few since I've gone to an Apple Store, and had an opportunity to check out the new MacBook. I loved my 2006 MacBook (black, of course) before it died in 2014, and I haven't found a worthy successor to it yet. The new MacBooks are thinner and lighter. I don't like them. Thinner and lighter are fine qualities for a cellphone but not for a laptop.
What pieces of ahit. They're trying to trick old people into buying things that are already obsolete. Windows is just too bloated for that to be usable for long.
Personally I think laptops are thin enough, maybe too thin. I like the slightly thicker laptops because I find them easier to handle, plunk down, and open the lid. The macbook air amost requires a fingernail to open. Why not make the laptop 1/2" thick and stick a bigger battery in it? Thinness seems to be the latest trend in ADD fashion.
I also don't want my phones to get any thinner. I always buy a case for my phones these days not because I need to protect the phone, but I want to make it a bit thicker so it's easier to handle and use.
But can it run TextWrangler? What I really need is a machine that will run QuickTime, TextWrangler, iTunes and Safari.
The MacBook already has mediocre battery life, and its case is pretty much solid battery except for the tiny logic board.
So ASUS comes along, shrinks the case and puts in bigger and more power hungry CPU / RAM / SSD plus extra components like the mini CPU fan and Thunderbolt controller. Guess what's gonna give?
It sounds like the original MacBook Air; great on paper but in reality a bunch of overpowered components packed in too little space, leading to crappy battery life, overheating and throttling.
I realize everyone wants ultra-mobile devices these days, but if you're tethered to a charger it's not so mobile anymore, is it?
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Waiting on Windows to finish swapping is not fun. It can take hours to recover. For me, loading IntelliJ (a slow and crappy text editor made for Java development) causes Windows to be unusable for nearly two hours on a machine with only 16 GB of RAM. I can't believe Anus is doing this to us.
If skinny eliminates all but one USB port, fuck right off.
I have the previous Zenbook and it has 3 ports. Too skinny for an Ethernet Jack, but I was willing to live with that. One USB port isn't enough.
The question is, will something on it break within 6 months? Asus has terrible quality control compared to Apple. Thinner and lighter don't really make a difference if it doesn't last long enough to do the job.
I am marvelling at how, despite the fact that Apple is basically shitting the bed with their product lineup, they are still treated as the benchmark by which all other computer products are measured by.
I guess this is what happens when an entire industry focuses on the race to the bottom, rather than focusing on quality products.
enjoy your debate over paid advertising
Ten or so years ago I could not have imagined that someday I would not be a Mac user. OS X was part of my holy trinity of favorite operating systems. Linux had long since established it's mainstay, while FreeBSD was and is just plain fantastic as a server os.
People argue that Apple's whole lineup was and continues to grow stale. This is true, but I personally have no allegiance to brands that put out an OS, I have allegiance to the operating systems. As the first few years of my fling with Apple OS, X seemed to be getting better and better. Minor UI tweaks, smaller and smaller OS. I'm going to get to into because I'm not here to give a review but there was a point for me personally where I felt they just kinda fucked up the whole gui. I was out.
I am very particular of operating systems. I recently got a BlackBerry Classic (and yes I get maid fun of ) Everyone has asked why I didn't get the Priv. Then they are confused since I "Like BlackBerry" yet tell them if I was going to get an Android it would be a Samsung. I try to explain how it all about the os and what that means, but I only receive blank stares.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
One: the PC vs Mac spec war is basically meaningless, because people who buy Macs want OS X, and people who buy PCs don't want OS X or don't care, and never the twain shall meet.
Two: "At the event, the company's executive said that ZenBook 3 is better than both MacBook Air and the 12-inch MacBook... it sports a 12.5-inch full-HD display (1920x1080 pixels)..." -- OK then, it's NOT better than the 12" MacBook's 2304 x 1440 screen.
Three: Remember when laptops were as big as a phone books? Like in the 166 MHz ThinkPad 380 days. BACK THEN, making them thinner and lighter was a worthy pursuit. But bragging that your laptop is 11.9mm thick instead of 13.2mm, and 910 grams vs. 920? WHO GIVES A SHIT! That's a difference of 1.3mm and the mass of two US five-cent coins. Are you fucking kidding me? Ugh. They're thin enough now. Quit making them thinner and put some battery or ports back in. (This goes for all OEMs, and double for Apple.)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
the following connectors embedded/extensible and accessible with dongles - power, 2 X Display Port 4K , multiple 10GE connections, as many USB 3 as you might want as well as extension of the system PCIe to even allow external graphics adapters (Although I think the internal Core i7 Skylake graphics will be pretty good) and huge amount of direct connect NVMe (direct to processor cache) external SSD drive support. That little USB-C port is why you don't need any other ports.
I see this term in product descriptions frequently. What does this mean and why would I care if a laptop (or flashlight or whatever) is made out of aerospace grade aluminum vs. some other grade of aluminum? It's not like I am planning patching a hole in my airplane or spacecraft with my laptop. I always assumed the term was just a marketing thing that sounded sort of cool, but is there some specific technical reason why "aerospace" grade vs some other grade? I care about "light and strong", but many types of aluminum alloys are light and strong. Wikipedia suggests that the term refers to a specific alloy.
And the screen sucks to. It's only half the resolution of my 2012 MacBook retina. Asus has a time machine...to the past.
Some vendor needs to be courageous and start marketing their hardware as having boat grade aluminum. My Alumacraft bass boat is a heck of a durable craft.
Some of us would rather run the Mac OS on a slow fat computer than run Windows on a fast thin computer. The hardware isn't really that interesting for regular folks surfing the net and watching Utube or using MS Office. Just need something to get the job done without any hassles or malware.
There is the issue of fashion however. Slim is sexy. Nevertheless there is only one laptop that makes an impression at Starbucks--it's the one with the lit up Apple logo. The beauty of this is that the mass of humanity can focus on keeping up with the latest latte fashion without worrying about lots of arcane computer fussery.
You can put a V8 engine in a Yugo, but you still have an unmanageable user interface.
It's the OS that counts.
...omphaloskepsis often...
people (who aren't programmers looking for a Unix that works) buy Mac books because they're a Veblen good. At least that was the reason my college bound kid had when pressed for it.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
So why didn't you say so? Because you're AMERICAN, that's why!
I think you mean "Looking AT how", but then, you ARE American, aren't you, so who cares about using the right words?
Please, tell me that I can buy it with GNU/Linux pre-installed! Please :)
The glare finish which Apple popularized (thanks, Apple) is profoundly irritating to use under almost any lighting conditions other than complete darkness.
ZenBook 3 is better than both MacBook Air and the 12-inch MacBook.
They are not only not in the same league they are not even playing the same game.
I'm tired of this bullshit. The ZenBook does not run OS X. At least not legally. At least it does not come with a disk.
So no one cares if it is "better than < insert your hate Mac >"
As well we can soon compare the next Tesla with a Tada running on natural gas or a plane for a boat for that matter.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I have a cheap (~$200) LG IPS monitor and it's completely fine when rotated vertically, so I'm sure any IPS panel will be fine. I'd bet your Dell has the ability to use VESA mounts, so even if its own stand doesn't support rotation you could probably just get a stand to use instead and mount it using the VESA mount points.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
Things that definitely would be broken (besides the machine itself is very convenient):
1. Do not buy HDD (if there is no way - never choose Hitachi HDD)
2. Power cord or socket soon will be broken. Don known if they use special kind of brass for central electrode of power socket, but prepare extra money for that socket replacement in 2-3 years. Our ASUS representative says power sockets do not fall in warranty.
3. Cooling system highly susceptible to dust, vacuum it frequently - or you will hear unpleasant sounds.
4. Very limited model list of DDR3 module for memory upgrades. Plan upgrade at buying and test memory works at proper rate.
Pro Zen - it not heats as hell (or Macs)
It is fast, really.
It is light and pleasant to carry.
If skinny eliminates all but one USB port, fuck right off.
I have the previous Zenbook and it has 3 ports. Too skinny for an Ethernet Jack, but I was willing to live with that. One USB port isn't enough.
Exactly. And yes, I apply that standard to the MacBook and the Pixel, too. For one thing, it instantly means you can count on purchasing a Port Replacer Docking Station to the tune of about $200, and then either dragging it around with you everywhere, or suffering the pain and embarrassment of not having a critical port available when on the road. And the Power connector shouldn't be shared with ANYTHING, period, full stop. Say what you will about the MBA, but at least it has 2 USB 3.0 ports, a dedicated MagSafe power connector, AND a Tumderbolt port. Plus an audio out/in port and an SDXC card reader. Yes, it doesn't have an Ethernet port; but a $30 adapter takes care of that, when needed. To me, the MBA is what better describes a PRACTICAL minimum for Ports in a size-conscious laptop. NOT this ASUS POS, the Pixel, or even the new MacBook.
Huh? I'm not sure where you're getting your hate for the Chromebook Pixel in this case. The Pixel, in addition to two USB Type-C ports, has two USB 3.0 ports, a TRS jack, and an SDXC slot. By my count that puts it at the same connection count as the MBA, and I'd personally take two Type-C ports over a magsafe and a lightning port (but of course that's preference; if you're in the Apple ecosystem of devices already you might well prefer differently) which is the only difference in terms of ports and slots.
Now, I can't actually buy the current-gen Pixel because Google for some unknown reason won't sell it to Canada, only the US and UK, but that's another story entirely and has nothing to do with what we're talking about, I just bring it up incessantly because that's what annoys me about the Chromebook Pixel.
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!
It's not your mere 16GB of ram that's the problem.
The problem is (likely) a slow ass dog of a 5400 RPM hard drive that was foisted off on you with the cheal-O model.
Unless you don't need/care about iCloud and only use iTunes to import your CDs, and don't rely on your labels of choice. I don't log into my iTunes account on my Mac and my music collection is a mix of iTunes, mostly CDs, and some MP3s I bought from Google Play and Amazon. When I can buy gigs of storage for pretty much nothing these days, relying on any Cloud-service is absolutely stupid IMO.
And you can say hardware isn't everything, but I imagine that if your latest MacBook were the fastest all around, you wouldn't be shy to brag about it. And for most tasks, because computers have been fast enough for a long time, it's easier to excuse away better specs... But for people like me, hardware is absolutely essential, since some of my programs require as many threads and as much RAM as I can afford, so speak for yourself.
Just to sidestep the PC vs Mac comparison, let's compare this to its predecessor the UX305CA.
UX305: $699, Core M, 8 MB RAM, 13.3" 1080p matte IPS screen (option for 3200x1800) covering 90% of sRGB, 256GB SSD, 3xUSB 3.0, mini HDMI, 12.3mm height, 1.192kg, 45 Wh battery giving 6+ hours. About the only thing it was missing was a backlit keyboard and a fan.
Zenbook 3: $999, Core i5, 4 MB RAM, 1080p IPS screen (implied touchscreen), 256GB PCIe SSD, 1xUSB 3.1/Thunderbolt, presumably HDMI via Thunderbolt, 11.9mm, 0.910kg, supposedly 9 hour battery though I usually reduce claims to 2/3 which would put it at 6 hours. Backlit keyboard, has a fan.
The UX305 was a worthy ultrabook that I've been recommending to a lot of people who otherwise would've settled for a low-end laptop. Usually their budget was around $500, while the UX305 frequently went on sale for $600 - the size, build, SSD, screen, and generous number of ports made it an easy up-sell for an extra $100. The Core M processor isn't a limitation for most people's computer use.
The new Zenbook 3 comes in at an extra $300 putting it out of reach of budget shoppers. It has a better CPU but lower base RAM, a faster SSD but only people doing video editing will notice the extra speed, loses all those ports (many people I know leave a nano receiver plugged in and use a wireless mouse), shaves a little off the weight and height, and has a backlit keyboard. Honestly, that doesn't seem worth an extra $300.
That assumption is incorrect.
Thanks, that's what I thought. I meant a quick test without buying a mount (yes, the stock base uses 100 mm spacing); at 1600 lines I'm not in a hurry for more vertical space (yet).
This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
Stop trying to make things thinner unless your going to do something with the saved space. If you can't figure out more features then default to big fat battery.
I would carry around one of those 1985 brick phones if it meant I didn't have to charge it all the time.
I have a dream that one day all people will only need to charge their phones and laptops once a week...
I don't know how a person can talk about comparing a ZenBook to a MacBook. Most people using their laptops for day to day things aren't limited by hardware any more these days... they use whatever software environment is most comfortable to them. It's not that most of us are rendering the next Pixar film, and realistically the days of "waiting for the computer" are by and large gone for most people anyway when they're mostly just surfing the web and checking social media and email. A MacBook user going to a ZenBook would face an OS change which would be much more disruptive than the positive benefit given by a bump in computing power. The target ZenBook audience is Windows users, not Mac users.
No trackpoint.
Dell monitors can’t be counted on to be VESA compliant, especially in the IPS line - the thin-and-light Dells use proprietary mounts, and don’t give you enough room to get bulky plugs into the video jacks, thanks to a “chin” - and if you do get your Displayport to VGA cable in place, you’re never getting it off again.
My monitor is a Dell S2240M. If you need a similar low-bezel model (I use this because most other monitors won’t fit my desk) I recommend the S2240L - the L model uses HDMI, whereas the M uses DVI, and doesn’t give you enough room for a typical DVI cable to plug in. As a result, my DVI port is constantly flexed, and I’m just waiting for this thing to finally let go.
Or, for expanded viewing survace at some cost of easy pocket storage the 4x6. And the batteries last one *hell* of a lot longer.
As ASUSs always does. This is a VETO for me. I use the keyboards all the time (who does not?) and it is more important than a few mm, grams or Hz.
Last time I checked computex was still held in Taiwan.
dual core, quad core...?
and I'm only making a slight hyperbole by saying that.
If you are only using a web browser (and it's configured to rendering at 130% or something by default) or if you only use terminals (and configured the font) it might be okay, but most software will look absolutely tiny. 10080p on 15.6 inch is rather hard to use already, although it looks nice. Classic Windows software, gtk2 software and most anything will just sit there and tiny.
A small laptop allows to be closer to the screen but it's still small. If hi dpi support solves this but the preferred solution is of the "pixel doubling" kind (Cinnamon, perhaps Windows?) then you're left with a 960x540 equivalent, not enough for even software that catters to a 600 height.
A 12.x inches at 1440x900, now that would be something. Pixels still are small enough on that. Seen 11.6" 1366x768 on what I thought is a rather well made HP w/ AMD APU at 1.0 GHz, the pixel density is adequate for unmodified software.
Do vendors go for big numbers like 1080p/full HD, usability be damned?
.the HP Spectre.
alive to the universe, dead to the world
how about a fat laptop with a good keyboard and a big ass motherfucker of a battery, like 36+ hours runtime.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.