ASUS UX51Vz-XH71 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver Aluminum)

Accessories included:

* External subwoofer.

* Mini VGA to VGA adaptor cable.

* Micro USB to USB adaptor cable (not sure what this is for).

* DVD with WIN8 drivers. Not very useful for a machine without a DVD drive.

Bloatware:

* McAfee.

* Microsoft Office 10 Starter.

* MS Store.

Positives so far:

* Beautiful design, fit and finish.

* So light and thin.

* Very little bloatware so flattening is really unnecessary.

* Keyboard and screen are perfect.

* Trackpad works pretty well.

* Wi-Fi works great.

* No keyboard flex and no hot spots.

* My external USB keyboard and mouse work fine.

* Super light, solid chassis with no flex anywhere.

Negatives so far:

* The fans do run continuously. They are not loud and cannot be heard except in perfectly quiet room hopefully this will be solved with a BIOS update.

* The status lights are cool but misplaced under your hands in front of the trackpad.

* driver_power_state_failure on resume from sleep so I had to disabled the sleep feature completely this never worked in Win7 either.

* The power supply is big and clunky and has no easy way to wrap the cables.

* Ugly stickers on palm rest.

* The network connector plug is upside down so it's very hard to press the connector release to unplug the cable without lifting the entire unit up off the table. This is a real PITA.

* The mini-vga adaptor works OK with my external NEC monitor but looks a little noisy at times.

* No WIN8 Product Key is included with the system (but embedded in restore partition).

* The indicator lights for power and charging on the sides of the UX51 are too small and dim to see unless you hold the machine up to your face.

Vendor:

* I got mine from DataVision Computer they delivered on time and with no problems 5 out of 5 stars.

Summary:

Very nice laptop with excellent size, weight, performance, style and wonderful IPS display. If they fix the fan issue it will be perfect. This IS the laptop right now for those of us who really want a rMBP and this laptop is so good it makes putting up with WIN 8 worth the pain (so far).

I have owned many Dell Computers, and during my years as a Network Engineer, I configured and installed hundreds more. They had been my choice for many years after Sony stopped supporting the VIAO line with good driver updates, etc. My last Dell worked well enough, but it had a lot plastic parts, it shipped with a scraping cooling fan, and the bezel cracked quite quickly. This put me in mind that I would shop elsewhere for my next computer.

Asus had been my favorite motherboard for desktop builds, and I never had trouble with one. When I learned that they were making laptops, I was interested. I read other reviews where people talked about cooling fan noise, but this seemed silly to me. This particular Zenbook is a very compact, very powerful unit, and it made sense to me that it might run the fan most of the time, which it does. I live high in the Colorado Rockies in a secluded location, and the fan noise has never been an issue at all.

The decals that others complained about came off in five minutes with a little nail polish remover (acetone,) Kleenex, and my fingernail. The touch-pad is indeed large and sensitive, and I do sometimes find that I have brushed it unintentionally. However, Function-F9 toggles the pad off and on for extended typing. I don't know what anyone else was expecting from a big well-made touch-pad. The recovery time from sleep mode is blazingly fast; just a few seconds, and it will stand by in that fast mode for a week or more.

I hate Windows 8 as much as anyone else, but a company called Stardock software makes a little program that gives you back your start button and all that it offers. This cost five bucks (really!)

This computer is not only the finest I have ever owned, it is one of the prettiest pieces of equipment I have ever owned. The shipping carton is even beautiful. I thought the sub-woofer would be a silly item, but it works surprisingly well. With companies like Dell seeming to fall on their sword, I am happy to have my money going to a company so clearly anxious to earn it.

This laptop does not have a touch-screen.

After two months of ownership, this gets my highest ever rating.

Buy ASUS UX51Vz-XH71 15.6-Inch Laptop (Silver Aluminum) Now

It could have another star, had it been for the touch screen otherwise it is already a beautiful machine without doubt if you can afford it.

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