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For our tests, we compared the UX31A to Acer's Aspire Timeline Ultra M5-481TG gaming Ultrabook, which we also have in the orbiting HQ for review. The Acer laptop, one of the recommendations from our back-to-school laptop guide, features a slower 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U processor than our Zenbook review unit, but also includes a dedicated graphics card in the form of NVIDIA's GeForce GT 640M LE. For the GPU benchmarks, we measured the M5's results using both the dedicated card and the integrated card—the switchable graphics on that laptop can be disabled in favor of the same Intel HD 4000 integrated GPU in the Zenbook Prime.
The Core i7's extra speed and cache give it a slight leg-up in all of the CPU benchmarks, though obviously this lead would evaporate if we were using the Core i5-toting base model. The (very) slightly faster version of the HD 4000 in the Zenbook also edged out the version in the Acer laptop, but a comparison to that laptop's midrange GPU shows the kind of boost that you can still get from a decent dedicated graphics chip.
iFixit gave the UX32VD version of the Zenbook high marks earlier this month when it they tore the machine down—iFixit found a removable battery such as Hp HSTNN-OB37 battery , Hp RQ204AA battery , HP Pavilion tx1000 battery , HP Pavilion tx2500 battery , HP HSTNN-IB39 battery , HP HSTNN-OB53 battery , HP Presario 2210B battery , HP HSTNN-IB75 battery , HP Pavilion DV7 battery , HP Pavilion HDX18 battery , HP HSTNN-OB71 battery , HP Pavilion DV3000 battery , one usable RAM slot, and an upgradeable standard hard drive. The UX31A Zenbook makes fewer such concessions to repairability.
The Zenbook Prime is generally specced well enough that this lack of upgradability isn't a huge problem, but Asus offers no version of the laptop with more than 4GB of RAM. This is going to be fine in many cases, at least for now, but people with more demanding, RAM-hungry workloads may need to wait for a version that packs more gigabytes in the memory department.
Most of Asus' bundled software can safely be ignored—the most notable programs are a couple of desktop widgets, one of which estimates the amount of standby time remaining (which also lets you choose whether the computer sleeps or hibernates with its lid closed) and another that switches between "high performance" and "power saving" power presets; a LiveUpdate program that keeps the system's drivers and bundled utilities up-to-date; a utility called SecureDelete that promises to delete files securely; and a feature called FaceLogon that adds facial recognition technology to the login screen. My experience with FaceLogon was a bit mixed—I wasn't able to get it to respond to any still pictures of my ugly mug, which is good, but it did have some trouble detecting my face when the lighting conditions and angles were different from those in the initial picture I took to set the feature up.