ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A Ultrabook review: a high-res display, and a much-improved keyboard

DNP  ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A an Ultrabook with a topnotch display

ASUS made a grand entrance into the Ultrabook race with the Zenbook Prime UX31E, which brought a sleek design and lovely, high-res screen. That machine was one of our favorites in what was still a budding category, though we took issue with the shallow keyboard and uncomfortable touchpad. The company recently started shipping its new Zenbook Prime series, including the 11-inch UX21A we checked out a few months ago. But there’s also a follow-up to the 13-inch UX31E on the market: the ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A. This laptop offers a retooled keyboard, Ivy Bridge chips and a 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display, starting at $1,069. So how does the new 13-inch Zenbook stack up in a crowded field of high-end ultraportables? Join us past the break for the full report.

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ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A Ultrabook review: a high-res display, and a much-improved keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Maximus V Extreme E-ATX Motherboard

ASUS-Maximus-V-Extreme-E-ATX-Motherboard

ASUS has released their newest E-ATX motherboard ‘Maximus V Extreme’ for the Japanese market. Based on Intel Z77 Express Chipset, the board supports for Intel LGA1155 processors and is equipped with four DDR3 DIMM memory slots (up to 32GB RAM), five PCI-Express 3.0/2.0 x16 slots, one PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slot and one mini-PCIe 2.0 x1 slot. Connectivity-wise, it has six SATA 6.0 Gbps, three SATA 3.0 Gbps, one mSATA, eight USB 3.0, eight USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. The Maximus V Extreme is available now for 40,000 Yen (about $509). [ASUS]

Transformer Pad TF300TL LTE tablet revealed with Tegra 3

It appears that the quad-core ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL tablet will be hitting Germany and Austria later this month, complete with support for 4G LTE. German site TechFokus reports that a press release gives the TF300TL a middle of August release for both countries, so it won’t be much longer before it launches in at least some parts of the world. At the moment, it’s still unknown when it will arrive in the United States, or any other countries for that matter.


The TF300TL is expected to cost around €629 ($772) if you want the optional keyboard dock, and €529 ($649) if you don’t. ASUS has been building this up as the first quad-core 4G LTE tablet, and it comes complete with a NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor. You’re packing some power under the hood, and you’ve got 4G LTE to boot. What more could you want?

According the ASUS announcement, the tablet also comes with 32GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, a 10.1-inch display capable of 1280 x 800, and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich installed. The TF300TL will come in the same colors as the currently-available Wi-Fi only version (red, white, and blue), and German carrier O2 will be offering a special white tablet. It all sounds great, but as stated above, we’re still waiting for ASUS to announce it for other countries.

If this this tablet is indeed landing in Germany and Austria later this month, then it may not be long before ASUS starts talking about launch in additional countries. That, of course, depends on how quickly the company wants to release the tablet worldwide, but we’re hoping for a speedy announcement. Stay tuned, as we’ll update you if ASUS makes any announcements for the availability of the TF300TL in other countries.

[via The Verge]


Transformer Pad TF300TL LTE tablet revealed with Tegra 3 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


ASUS Transformer TF300TL LTE-enabled Tablet

ASUS Transformer TF300TL LTE-enabled Tablet

ASUS is back with its latest gadget in the form of the Transformer TF300TL. The tablet supports for LTE at 700MHz and 1700MHz frequencies and HSPA+ at 850MHz and 1900MHz. The ASUS Transformer TF300TL will launch in Germany and Austria later this month for a suggested retail price of €629 ($774) with keyboard dock or €529 ($651) without keyboard dock. [The Verge]

Gartner reports Western Europe desktop shipments down, portable PCs up in Q2 2012

Gartner reports Western Europe desktop shipments down, portable PCs up in Q2 2012

When it comes to technology and the end of a financial quarter, you can bet your wage there’ll be an analyst report or two letting you what’s what. And according to Gartner’s latest estimates for Western Europe, PCs didn’t fare too well in Q2 of this year, with a 2.4 percent decrease in shipments compared with the same period in 2011. Consignments of mobile PCs (read: not tablets) grew by 4 percent, while desktops floundered, dropping 12.8 percent. Of this, a minor growth of 0.4 percent was recorded in consumer PCs, while the professional market decreased by 5.3 percent. Among the big hitters, HP remained at the top of the pile despite losing some market share, and Acer remained in second position with a mild increase in the same. ASUS put in a healthy performance, moving the company up to bronze medal position, while Dell dropped off the podium to fourth. The vendor statistics for the whole region were echoed in France in Germany, but during the quarter Apple managed to break into the top five in the UK market. Meike Escherich, principal analyst at Gartner, attributes the overall performance to economic uncertainty in the region, as well as lackluster demand in the wait for Windows 8 machines. We don’t want to spoil all the fun, so a comprehensive breakdown of the numbers awaits you at the source link.

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Gartner reports Western Europe desktop shipments down, portable PCs up in Q2 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL coming to Germany and Austria with LTE in tow

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL

Our thoughts on the Transformer Pad TF300 were mostly positive when we reviewed it back in April. A lot has happened since then and, while its unlikely to still be at the top of our 10-inch heap, a helping of LTE will go a long way towards keeping it relevant. The TF300TL (as the 4G variant is called) sneaked through the FCC in late May, but we’re only now getting word about availability. According to a German press release snagged by TechFokus, the slate should be available in mid August for €629 ($776) with keyboard dock or €529 ($653) without. Sadly, there’s still no word on availability outside of German and Austria, but if you’re on O2 in one of those nations you should be able to pick up the tablet soon and enjoy its embarrassment of 4G riches.

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ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL coming to Germany and Austria with LTE in tow originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad estimated to be cornering nearly 73% of Chinese tablet market

iPad estimated cornering nearly 73% of Chinese tablet market

We’re used to seeing tablet market share illustrated on the world stage. China, however, has usually been untouched. Analysys International has taken a crack at decoding the market and has bucked a few expectations in the process: according to its estimates, the iPad’s lead is even larger in China than it is worldwide. About 72.7 percent of all tablets sold in the country during the second quarter were Apple-flavored, while homegrown hero Lenovo was a distant second at 8.4 percent. Everyone else had to contend with less than four percent and reflected the more diverse Chinese technology sphere — relative heavyweights like Acer, ASUS and Samsung had to hob-nob with brands that have little recognition elsewhere, such as Eben and Teclast.

The researchers credit Apple’s lead, a 7.8-point gain, to a combination of the new iPad and a price-cut iPad 2. We’d add that Analysys’ figures might not tell the whole story, though: China is well-known for its thriving shanzhai market, where legions of KIRFs and very small (usually Android-based) brands likely slip under an analyst group’s radar. That said, it’s still an illustration of how Apple’s influence in tablets is a distinct reversal of its much smaller smartphone share, even in a nation that’s a hotbed of Android activity.

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iPad estimated to be cornering nearly 73% of Chinese tablet market originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: ultraportables

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today we’re getting down to the very important business of helping you sift through laptops — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of August we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — you can hit up the hub page right here!

DNP Engadget's back to school guide 2012 ultraportables

Given their roots — luxury machines like the original MacBook Air ($1,800) and last year’s Samsung Series 9 ($1,649) — you’d be forgiven if you initially dismissed Ultrabooks as being too extravagant for a college-bound student. Thankfully, though, prices have sunk so low that you can now find a thin, fast, ultraportable laptop for as little as $700. The only problem, perhaps, is a paradox of choice: the selection is already crowded with dozens of contenders, and there are 100-some-odd more models in the pipeline, according to Intel. Fortunately for you, dear readers, we’ve had the chance to handle or even review many of them, and were able to whittle down the offerings to a handful of promising contenders. Whether you’re prepared to spend $750 or $1,400, we have something that’ll fit the bill.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: ultraportables originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: tablets

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re leaning back with our tablets — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of August we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — you can hit up the hub page right here!

DNP Engadget's back to school guide 2012 tablets

Your back may be straining from the textbooks, laptop, gym gear and lunch in that dangling overstuffed messenger, but you’re still gonna want to save room for one more item — a tablet. After all, while you can surf, tweet, play games and watch video from your other devices, there’s nothing like doing it from a simple glass window that sits in the palm of your hand. As the hardware gets more powerful, these devices are rapidly becoming versatile enough to let you justify leaving the laptop at home on less-intensive days, so why not check out our picks of the finest devices you should be using and abusing before, during and after class.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Refresh Roundup: week of July 30th, 2012

Refresh Roundup week of July 30th, 2012

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of July 30th, 2012

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Refresh Roundup: week of July 30th, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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