Asus UX21 and UX31 Ultrabooks Have Arrived, Start at $999 (€732)

Showcased for the first time back in May of this year, Asus' UX21 and UX31 Ultrabooks were finally launched in the US, under the new Zenbook brand, with prices starting at $999 (€732) and going all the way up to $1499 (€1099).

The ultra-thin notebooks weight in between 2.4 pounds and 2.9 pounds (1.08 and 1.31 Kgs), and are housed inside an all-aluminum body with glass trackpads and an all-metal keyboard.

On the inside, the Asus Zenbooks are powered by Intel's Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge ultra-low voltage processors, which are paired together with 4GB of system memory and a SATA 6Gbps SSD with capacities starting at 128GB.

The rest of the specs list includes USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, stereo speakers with Bang and Olufsen's ICEpower technology, a 11-inch screen with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels in the UX21 and a 13-inch 1600x900 display in the UX31.

Run time is estimated at five hours for the Zenbook UX21, while its older brother can go up to seven hours without requiring a recharge.

Asus' ZenBooks will be available in five versions, two for the UX21 and three for the UX31, but all of these feature a 2-second resume from stand-by time.

"Today's introduction of Asus Zenbook is a vivid proof that Ultrabooks are ushering in a fundamental transformation of personal computing," said Tom Kilroy, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of Sales and Marketing Group.

"In the few months since Intel first unveiled this new type of device, Asus has delivered an amazingly light design powered by the visibly smart performance of the second generation Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors. 

“It's packed with the security, responsiveness, and other exciting features, that deliver on the promise of the Ultrabook, to offer the most complete and satisfying computing experience," concluded the company's rep.

The Asus Zenbooks be available right now in retail, with prices starting at $999 (€732) for the UX21E-DH52, which comes equipped with an Intel Core i5-2467M processor and an 128GB SSD.