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Ultrabooks are the Windows alternative to a MacBook Air, but until now we’ve only seen examples with 13in screens, leaving the 11in Air unchallenged. Fortunately Asus breaks this trend with its UX21; an 11in version of the Asus ZenBook UX31.
The UX21 looks almost identical to its bigger brother, with the same brushed metal finish but with impossibly small dimensions. Tapering to an incredible 7mm at its thinnest point and weighing a miniscule 1.1kg, this is one laptop you won’t mind keeping in your bag. It’s impressively sturdy, with very few signs of flex in either the lid or the main body, and it should stay scratch-free thanks to the aluminium construction.
The gorgeous styling continues when you lift the lid, revealing a speaker grille built into the screen hinge, a full-size Chiclet-style keyboard and an expansive touchpad. Typing felt responsive, thanks to the bouncy keys that are comfortably spaced apart from each other, and all the punctuation keys were where we would expect them to be. The touchpad is smooth, letting us navigate the desktop easily, although we weren’t that impressed with its integrated buttons. Moving one finger while the other is hovering over the left or right button can bump the mouse cursor around the screen, which quickly gets irritating.
The 1,366×768 resolution screen is superbly bright, and its colours also looked very accurate when viewed straight on, but they quickly became less so at more extreme angles. There’s more than enough tilt in the hinges to find a comfortable working position, but the glossy finish makes it difficult to read what’s onscreen in harsh direct light.
Audio quality was impressive, especially considering that the Altec Lansing speakers take up very little room in the chassis. Volume was surprisingly high and the mid-range sounded clean, although there was an unsurprising lack of bass from the small speakers and very high-end notes were rather sharp.
The UX21’s connectivity is rather basic, with only two USB ports, Micro HDMI and Mini DisplayPort video outputs and a combined headphone and microphone audio jack. There’s no Ethernet port or memory card reader, although a USB adaptor is included in the box if you prefer wired to wireless networking.
Unsurprisingly, Asus has used slightly less powerful internal components in the UX21 than in the larger ZenBook UX31. That said, its Intel Core i5-2467M processor running at 1.6GHz, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD are still an incredibly powerful combination in a laptop of this size. Scoring a very respectable 41 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, the UX21 should have no trouble completing your daily tasks or running your applications. The same isn’t true when it comes to games, however: this laptop managed only 13fps in our Dirt 3 benchmark.
Whatever you do, it’s likely you’ll need the battery charger nearby. Even allowing for its powerful components, we were still disappointed with the UX21’s four-and-a half-hour battery life. This is significantly less than the UX31, and not enough to get you through a whole working day.
The UX21 is currently the smallest ultrabook available, and the only direct competitor to the 11in MacBook Air. At £850, it’s also £150 less, but a few shortcomings prevent it from becoming a must-buy. If size is all that matters, however, it’s currently this or the 11in Air.
