http://www.tcmagazine.com/tcm/news/hard ... le-laptops
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4369/asus ... ndy-bridge
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386149,00.asp

Very nice and sexy, I've always been a fan of ultra portable laptops. Shame I haven't needed a laptop since I finished uni, my Toshiba Portege doesn't get to play more than once a month these days...

Hmm... ...it's lovely and I reeeeeeeally want to like it and everything but...

...it's just a Wintel rip-off of a MBA. It's like listening to Oasis playing ‘I am the Walrus’ - it's a wonderful, exciting facsimile but that's all it'll ever be: a copy.

Sorry but if I'm going to shell out proper money, I want a proper original idea. Besides, with that Asus badge on, I might get laughed at.



(IMO)

So nobody else is allowed to make a thin laptop out of aluminium unibody just because apple has done that earlier? Interesting...
I think you are more likely to get laughed at for being superficial and pretentious rather than for having an ASUS (at least when between adults)

That's not what I said.

If you would please wind your neck in long enough to read my post, you'll find that I think it's a rather good laptop. My issue is that it's purely an MBA knock-off; Asus seemingly haven't made any attempt to be original. It just looks like they bought an MBA, took it apart and figured out how to copy it. It's a Cyrix Book Air.

It's sad.


No need for that. You asked for opinions and I gave mine.

The fact that it doesn't concur with yours is your hard cheese.


Indeed.

(I presume you intend the irony)

I really struggle to understand why a laptop needs to be original. (Most) people buy a laptop because it does what they need it to do, not so others would say "Hey, your laptop is so original"

But if you want to buy "cool and in" laptop just so you can take it to your local Starbucks on Sunday morning and look oh so important while watching youtube videos and browsing BBC then suit yourself. I just pity people like that...

I've yet to see an effort at deconstructing and copying an original idea ever be as good as the original itself. Companies tend to put more care into their own original ideas than just knocking off a rivals.

Deconstructing and copying? Asus is 1.7ghz Sandy Bridge Core i5 that "turbos" to 2.7ghz (plus Ci3 and Ci7 are planned) and MBA is a netbook with 1.4ghz and 1.6ghz C2D

I don't know how much you can copy there. But yeah, they look similar, both are small, made of aluminium, have a screen, a keyboard...

Looks like more "knock offs" are on the way:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/new ... -invention

That's true enough for most people, yes. But we're not talking about most people, are we?

Question: How many people do you think bought a £900 netbook purely because it did exactly what they needed it to do?
Answer: Somewhere between few and zero.

Evaluating a machine like the UX series on performance is missing the point entirely. Nobody buys a machine like this for carrying out serious work - that's not what it's for. The MacBook Air and its rivals are in a market sector where original design, posing-factor and the badge are everything. And in a market where being seen is everything, simply copying and re-badging the market-leader's design quite rightly gains nothing but scorn. Especially when, outside of Planet Geek, the Asus brand has all the cachet and prestige of a bag of chips.


Good extrapolation; well done. Except...

1. I've never been cool and am not likely to start any time soon. For instance Apple bashing seems to be cool at the moment and I don't do that. It used to be MS and IBM before them but I didn't do it then either.
2. I've never wanted to be cool; keeping up with cool seems rather too much like masturbation.
3. I've never bought a ‘cool-and-in’ anything, let alone a laptop.
4. I've never been to a Starbuck's
5. If I was in a café I would be too busy talking to my wife, doing a crossword or reading a newspaper
6. If I wanted to use a computer, I'd be at home or in an office
7. If I was to buy an expensive laptop, it'd probably be military spec. It certainly wouldn't be cool.
8. I tend to spend Sunday mornings in one particular location that certainly isn't marketed on the quality of the coffee

I strongly disagree with that. There is reason why people need ultra portable laptops, it's in the name. I understand that the majority of laptops bought today are bought to sit on the desk at home and never leave it, except for when they are taken to bed, but some people need to work on the move. Saying that everybody who buys a thin laptop is a poser is frankly ridiculous. Just because it has shiny aluminium unibody it doesn't mean that it is a fashion accessory. Unibody seem to be the best way to achieve light and rigid framework so why not use it?

When Samsung Galaxy S or Nexus S came out apple fanboys dismissed them as cheap and plasticy and not worth the "premium product" tag. When Asus brings out a laptop with aluminium unibody out the same people will say it is a copycat. You just can't win...

I think apple fanboys need to wake up and smell the coffee. Not everybody is like them and actually they are a minority in this world. Most people don't put form before substance...

It's funny because the two people who replied previously certainly aren't Apple fans.

That is funny indeed because rustybucket says he wouldn't buy a laptop that's not "original"
I wasn't talking about jonlumb here, I know what he does.

You're right there.
Know why? It's not a contest.

It looks a bit cheap and unfinished to me, I don't like the spherical brushed effect at all, just not quite my cup of tea.

But then I'm an Apple fanboy, so I would say that, apparently....

That's funny because that's one of the design cues I do like. And that screen hinge is lovely. And the trackpad.

I don't like:

• The cover badge: move it to a corner or better still lose it all together - let me see that beautiful finish
• The bottom front edge: it's a bit too acute - decrease the radcurv just before the edge to match the lid
• The finish on the lid needs to be matched on the inside - change it from linear brushed to circular milled
• The keys: these are the bit that really make the inside look like the MBA. For the love of Pete change the shape - square or bevelled would be nice. Oh and the font on the keys as well

No I didn't.


That's a conditional statement, denoted by the word ‘if’.

I don't like the MBA. I don't like it because it's useless, gadgety fashion tinsel that serves to satisfy an aesthetic. I really don't like the cutesy-pie font and the keys that can't decide if they're round or square. And lid badges in general make me want to kill, let alone ones that light up.

So, if I were to shell out big money for a premium ultra-portable, I wouldn't want it to remind me of a product that I can't stand.

I think the photos on that first site are crap. The first photo makes the laptop look scuffed, the port on the right hand side just looks like a hole, and not a very accurate hole at that, and those screws are ugly. But then all of that could be the photography of the device.

I will agree with you on the keyboard and the badge.