ASUS to Launch UX21, UX31 Ultrabooks on October 11
by Andrew Cunningham on September 26, 2011 12:30 PM ESTASUS' new 11" and 13" Ultrabooks, the UX21 and UX31, were shown off earlier this year at Computex, and now they're ready to come to market: an ASUS teaser site cites October 11 as the big day.
Both laptops sport 6Gbps SATA SSDs from Sandisk, as we reported earlier this year, a USB 3.0 port, and Sandy Bridge processors. Pictures from the Computex model also show one USB 2.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort, and a mini HDMI connector. The UX21's 11" display has a resolution of 1366x768, while the 13" display on the UX31 ups that to 1600x900.
As for price, the new laptops have apparently been priced in France: the UX21's starting price is said to be €799 (about $1100), with the UX31 starting at €999 (about $1350). This is roughly in line with what Apple and others are charging for machines in this form factor, though we'll have to wait to see what the official prices are in all territories.
Source: ASUS, Maximum PC
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plafay - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Hello,I'm french and I think there is an error when you convert the price from € to $.
In france, the VAT is included in the 999 € and the equivalent MBA-128Go is selling at 1249 € (so more or less a 25% difference between Apple and Asus).
I think you should expect the same kind of difference in the US.
Andrew.a.cunningham - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Right - all I can do is calculate the current exchange rate. We'll see what ASUS' US price strategy is after the reveal.AgeOfPanic - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Except, that a 1 on 1 conversion (dollar price is euro price) is more of a rule then using the exchange rate. It's almost always the case. So, representing that these notebooks will cost 1100 and 1350 dollars doesn't make any sense.ImSpartacus - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Either way, converting the prices of different regions is a murky task.Mr. Cunningham included both his interpretation of potential NA USD prices and unedited French EUR prices. I don't think we can ask much more from him.
OCedHrt - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
I think the point is that if you were to buy this from EU and have it shipped to the US, it would cost less than a 1 to 1 conversion.It would probably be about 900€ for the cheaper one after shipping. Or as plafay provided, a comparison with Apple's price in EU makes more sense.
Sunburn74 - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Nice laptops but Asus customer support is atrocious. Stay away imo.JoeTF - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Wait - just one USB port?Are they insane?
Andrew.a.cunningham - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
One USB 2.0 plus one USB 3.0, for two total.KPOM - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
The 6Gb/s SATA SSDs are a nice feature. For what it's worth, OWC charges $150 extra for the 6Gb/s drives over 3Gb/s drives with comparable storage capacity.For comparison, the base MacBook Air starts at EUR949, while the base 13" starts at EUR1249, so ASUS does appear to be undercutting Apple's prices. The SSDs are an upgrade to Apple, as is the resolution on the 13" model, so it will be interesting to see how the other specs compare (e.g. what processor do you get in the EUR799 and 999 models?).
KPOM - Monday, September 26, 2011 - link
Here is the original source:http://www.laptopspirit.fr/98140/asus-ux21-et-ux31...
If this is correct, the models line up almost exactly to the MacBook Air. The 11.6" version sports a 1.6GHz Core i5 and 64GB SSD at €799 vs €949 in France for the base MacBook Air. The base 13.3" versions has a 1.7GHz Core i5 and 128GB SSD for €999 vs €1149 for the base 13.3" MacBook Air. If it's true, the sweet spot would be the €1199 upgraded model which purportedly has a 256GB SSD and 1.8GHz Core i7 (compared to €1649 for the top of the line MacBook Air). I'm skeptical of the latter, since the SSD itself should account for more than €200, so maybe that's for a Core i7 and 128GB SSD.
Anyway, it appears that ASUS is attempting to undercut Apple by €150. I'd guess that the differential would be $150 in the US (meaning we'll see an $800 base model with 64GB SSD and the 1.6GHz Core i5). That would be pretty nice, and would indicate that other manufacturers ought to be able to come close when they release their Ultrabooks.