Asus is the first company to enter the ultrabooks world with its Zenbook series UX31 and UX21, two ultra slim, light and good looking machines with powerful internal specifications. Both ultrabooks have been announced last week to hit the market. Lenovo has also decided to join the party with its first ultra portable laptop called IdeaPad U300s.
Which are the advantages of these two ultrabooks, a direct response to Apple’s MacBook Air? Are they powerful enough to save some money and purchase one? The idea of this new category of laptops is to offer great performance in a stylish, ultra light and thin machine for people who are constantly on the go.
Like all ultrabooks, Zenbook UX31 and U300s feature a catchy design, ultra light and slim to make easier the transportation. Both are made of resistant aluminium construction with 17mm at the thickest point for the UX31, while Lenovo’s U300s is thinner with 0.6 inch, even than the Air. Both ultrabooks have the same weight: 1.3kg. Lenovo U300s has a more business-like profile with a keyboard cooling technology and an easy to use trackpad being a plus point.
While the UX31 comes in a gray and catchy color, the U300s will be also available in an eye-catching clementine orange color, if you wanna be trendy. Both ultrabooks have the same 13..3-inch display with a better resolution for the UX31 set at 1600 x 900 pixels that is sharp and clear, offering users the chance to see great colors via a micro HDMI port. Lenovo has also an HDMI out.
As far as other physical ports are concerned, both are equipped with USB 2.0, USB 3.0, HDMI port, headphone jack plus an extra card slot for the Asus UX31. Furthermore, Asus UX31 includes a great feature that can save all your work when you’re running out of battery with less than 5 percent. There is also a camera included for both ultrabooks: a VGA (0.3MP) for the UX31 and a better one; 1.3MP for the U300s.
In the hardware zone, if we take a look at the processor area, we see that both use two speedy models: i5 or i7, depedending on what configuration you are using. Asus Zenbook UX31 uses a a Core i7 (1.8Ghz) same as Lenovo and teamed up with 4GB of RAM. In the storage space component, Asus has used 128GB solid state drive (SSD) which is more economical with power than HDD. On the other side, the U300s uses up to 256 GB SSD.
As we were saying in a recent article, more manufacturers will focus on the SSD memory because is more efficient, small and more affordable component for the system.
Basically, if you take a closer look at the below chart, you’ll see that most of their internal specs are identical with a few differences. Lenovo seems to have a better battery with a rate of around 8 hours of usage, while Asus UX31′s battery life is estimated to hold about seven hours of usage time. The price tag, an important factor in your final decision is also different for both devices, with Lenovo U300s costing $100 more than the UX31. For that you have an optical drive, a better camera built-in, more battery life time and a more catchy orange color. Yet, the UX31 is a beautiful piece, incredible thin, lightweight and durable enough to carry it while on the go.
