Asus Zenbook?

I had a thread going not too long ago about the 2010 Macbook Air, which I ultimately passed on.

Well, looks like the "Ultrabooks" are out now. I was at Microcenter today and saw Acer's version, and sure enough, it was nice and thin. I liked it.

Asus also released their Zenbook line a few days ago. A bit more expensive than the Acer ones but my impression is that the Asus ones are nicer.

Anyways, not sure if any of you will be able to answer, but is there a huge difference between the i5 and the i7 procs they are offering?

i5-2557M
i7-2677M

This will be my travel notebook. I also want to be able to to some light editing in Photoshop CS5. I tried doing this on my big Sony Vaio laptop (Core2Duo chip from a few years ago) that I brought to my trip last week and it was pretty dog slow. I was wondering if I will see a real performance boost from either the i5 or the i7 version of the Asus laptops. It will have 128GB SSD as well.

Hey sorry to drag up an old thread, but I've been researching these for weeks and I'm probably going to pull the trigger tomorrow. I was ready last week but I remembered I want it to be a 2012 tax deduction.

As a final bit of research I searched it on here and found this thread. These two links sold me on it. From what I understand the 2nd gen I5 is plenty. The I7 is overkill.

http://www.shellypalme​r.com …book-air-vs-asus-zenbook/

http://techcrunch.com …-inch-macbook-air-review/

This is the one I'm going with. Hundreds extra for an I7 and 256 gb SSD doesn't seem worth it to me. I travel with 3TB of portable hard drive space anyway.

Let me know what you decided to do.

I too have been looking at the Zenbook, I would like to have the i7 processor. Maybe someone will see your post that has tried both processors and give a good idea of the performance in respects to photo editing and any aspects that would show us some good direction on this new book.

mdaddyrabbit wrote in post #13631666
I too have been looking at the Zenbook, I would like to have the i7 processor. Maybe someone will see your post that has tried both processors and give a good idea of the performance in respects to photo editing and any aspects that would show us some good direction on this new book.

I've read several reviews of the 2nd gen I5 Macbook Air where photographers said it was easily running CS5 for what it's worth.

I decided to wait for the 2012 models. I've read that they might come out with better procs designed for these and rumors about them being touchscreen to get them Windows 8 ready. (?)

I checked it out in person at a local store and it looked really nice. I really want one, but I decided to wait for the next gen ones.

Any dates on when the specs or release will be?

mdaddyrabbit wrote in post #13639015
Any dates on when the specs or release will be?

I think at this point, it's all speculation.

I finally got mine. I have to say I really like it. It's really snappy, a great size and weight.

The first time I PP images it was crazy slow and I started to freak out, but then realised it was in power save mode. I switched it to high performance and it was all good.

I'd highly recommend it. For me the 13" I5 with 128 GB SSD made the most sense. For $999 it's by far the most bang for buck. And 64 gb thumb drive can be had for $50 now, so I'll probably grab one of those too.

Thanks Adam for sharing your experience with the Asus Zenbook. I plan on buying one in a couple of weeks. If you have anything else or more experiences that you would be willing to share please post or PM me.

Please post - others also have an interest in your continuing experience with this one.

I'm in early stage - to dump my wife's netbook, give her my laptop, and get me a new ultrabook.

The Ultrabooks look promising to me. With ultimate portability and power they are hard to dismiss as replacement computer and a real contender in the computer world.

for those whoe use ultrabooks... what's your experience with displays. From what I am reading anything under $1k has mediocre displays ?