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Purchased the UX305 about two weeks ago for ~$630 (15% off at the Microsoft Store) with tax. I have nothing but good things to say about the hardware - screen,

by barake 12y ago

Purchased the UX305 about two weeks ago for ~$630 (15% off at the Microsoft Store) with tax. I have nothing but good things to say about the hardware - screen, keyboard, and touchpad are A+, and I'm getting 8-10 hours working in Visual Studio 2013. Two things not covered in the review: HDMI port is 1.4, and the SD card reader is half-depth similar to Macs. The only issue so far is the touchpad gesture software crashing Chrome sometimes when pressing alt-D to select the address bar.

nfoz 12y ago
How is the keyboard? The "thin" craze seems to me that keyboards are all disappointing compared to small laptops that I own that are 5+ years old.
- dxhdr 12y ago
  I agree. How does it compare to the Thinkpad chiclet keyboards? Those have to be the best laptop keyboards I've ever used. I'm loathe to purchase anything else just because of how important a quality typing experience is for me.
- barake 12y ago
  Very similar to current MacBooks, if not a little bit crisper. Could do with a bit more travel just like most new laptops.
imperialdrive 12y ago
umm... I am surprised you, nor anyone else (yet) mentions the power key being right above the backspace key... I've turned off or put to sleep that stupid laptop so many times I went back to using my iPad 1st gen with bluetooth keyboard and RDP lol but seriously, how they can continually overlook what clearly is a flaw? if I've got this all backwards, please share the logic behind it
- dangrossman 12y ago
  Hit the Windows key and type "power button" to open the power options control panel. Set "when I press the power button" to "do nothing". You can sleep/hibernate/shutdown from the start menu/screen, or automatically when you close the lid. I have a UX301. The first time I accidentally hit the power button while working, I disabled it.
  - joshuapants 12y ago
    This is exactly the fix I would apply if I had this, but you would think they'd make it so that you had to hold the button down for more than a quick key press to put it to sleep. Seems like that would be a problem that would come up in testing.
  - imperialdrive 12y ago
    roger that - thank you for sharing! it does jump to mind that with it disabled, I essentially lose that button due to their design, not my fat finger... oh well, compromises everywhere!
- barake 12y ago
  It hasn't been an issue, and I thought it might be. I believe all the current MacBooks have the power button in the same location. Luckily OS X and Windows let you disable sleeping when the power button is pressed.
martijn_himself 12y ago
I was initially interested in getting this for Visual Studio 2013 development on the move but very worried it is way underpowered. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts!
- barake 12y ago
  I was also worried, but figured it could always be returned. So far it's been perfectly adequate. The CPU scaling and power management seems to be balanced really well. Email is in my profile if you'd like me to time a solution build.
hospes 12y ago
Where did you buy it from for $630 including taxes? I looked on Asus's website and it is $699 + tax and is sold out: http://store.asus.com/us/item/201502AM130000188 http://store.asus.com/us/item/201502AM130000188.

by barake 12y ago

nfoz 12y ago

How is the keyboard? The "thin" craze seems to me that keyboards are all disappointing compared to small laptops that I own that are 5+ years old.

dxhdr 12y ago
I agree. How does it compare to the Thinkpad chiclet keyboards? Those have to be the best laptop keyboards I've ever used. I'm loathe to purchase anything else just because of how important a quality typing experience is for me.
barake 12y ago
Very similar to current MacBooks, if not a little bit crisper. Could do with a bit more travel just like most new laptops.

imperialdrive 12y ago

umm... I am surprised you, nor anyone else (yet) mentions the power key being right above the backspace key... I've turned off or put to sleep that stupid laptop so many times I went back to using my iPad 1st gen with bluetooth keyboard and RDP lol but seriously, how they can continually overlook what clearly is a flaw? if I've got this all backwards, please share the logic behind it

dangrossman 12y ago
Hit the Windows key and type "power button" to open the power options control panel. Set "when I press the power button" to "do nothing". You can sleep/hibernate/shutdown from the start menu/screen, or automatically when you close the lid. I have a UX301. The first time I accidentally hit the power button while working, I disabled it.
- joshuapants 12y ago
  This is exactly the fix I would apply if I had this, but you would think they'd make it so that you had to hold the button down for more than a quick key press to put it to sleep. Seems like that would be a problem that would come up in testing.
- imperialdrive 12y ago
  roger that - thank you for sharing! it does jump to mind that with it disabled, I essentially lose that button due to their design, not my fat finger... oh well, compromises everywhere!
barake 12y ago
It hasn't been an issue, and I thought it might be. I believe all the current MacBooks have the power button in the same location. Luckily OS X and Windows let you disable sleeping when the power button is pressed.

martijn_himself 12y ago

I was initially interested in getting this for Visual Studio 2013 development on the move but very worried it is way underpowered. I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts!

barake 12y ago
I was also worried, but figured it could always be returned. So far it's been perfectly adequate. The CPU scaling and power management seems to be balanced really well. Email is in my profile if you'd like me to time a solution build.

hospes 12y ago

Where did you buy it from for $630 including taxes? I looked on Asus's website and it is $699 + tax and is sold out: http://store.asus.com/us/item/201502AM130000188 http://store.asus.com/us/item/201502AM130000188.