Ultrabooks a sleek and slim by design. Unfortunately, thickness often has an inverse relationship with number of ports. For many, the Ultrabook is an attractive possibility, but not entirely practical without a decent set of ports. This is not the case for all Ultrabooks, however, and here are six solid suggestions if you need a good portfolio of ports on your Ultrabook.
1. Asus Zenbook UX32
Image credit: AnandTech
In addition to the Zenbook Prime (UX21A/UX31A), which uses the existing UX21E/UX31E chassis but adds an Ivy Bridge processor and 1080p IPS screen, Asus is also working on lower-cost Zenbook UX32 model which add a bit of thickness, but also features an improved set of ports (not to mention optional discrete graphics). The overall Zenbook design is maintained, but you’ll find the following:
- 3xUSB 3.0
- full HDMI
- mini VGA
- 3.5mm head/mic combo port
- full SD card slot
- [note that the adapter for ethernet/LAN (RJ45) has been removed on the UX32 models]
The UX32 is in release-limbo at the moment, probably thanks to Intel waiting to launch Ivy Bridge at Computex the first week in June, but it will be available starting at a very reasonable $799. The top-end UX32 with all the trappings will run you $1299, and adds a discrete NVIDIA 620M GPU and a 1080p IPS display.
Nice job Ben.,
The Ultrabook buying advisor is being updated this weekend to include more information about ports too and I have an article being prepared about desktop usage. Ports can play a big role in desktop usage although there are some USB docking solutions which are quite interesting.
Chippy.
I honestly don’t know how you & Ben are going to keep up with all these new UB’s over the next few years. UB’s are about to become the “new” Android phones! Brilliant move by you Chippy for seeing the new trends coming & getting in on the ground floor, even though it was slow for the 1st year or so.
This is excited as I’ve been about the PC market since the netbook & UMPC days. MS & Intel are so desperate to stay relevant in the new world of Apple/Google/ARM that I expect to see the biggest marketing push in the history of PC’s coming up.
The Z835 is the retail version of the Z830, not the US version.
Also, I’m surprised the first one on the list is the UX32 considering it lacks full sized VGA and Ethernet which are very important ports imho.
Other than that, great article.
Thanks Tsuki, updated the article.
It depends where you are in the world. The retail version in UK and Germany is the Satellite z830. Confusing.
That is confusing… All I knew was that you could get a Z830 in the US if you got it directly from Tosh.
The vario z actually uses Intel’s Light Peak, not the USB 3 interface ( but it use the USB port ) :)
very minor detail, awesome article
All I really, really need are USB-ports. The rest can be solved wirelessly or in worst case scenario with a dongle.
I can see why a business user would want three different video-out ports, but I suspect that it’s just wasted space for a lot of people like me, mostly using the laptop at home for music, video and internet. Sure, at times I bring it to school or to the library, but even then I rarely use any other ports than the USB ports.
If I was a business user I probably couldn’t get enough ports though. If I’m at some new place and I need to give a PP presentation I just want to be able to set it up right away without any hassle. But then I probably wouldn’t care much about screen or sound quality.
I wish they would separate the different types of laptops a bit more to be able to cater to our needs a bit better.
These ultrabooks are so well endowed. I’m jealous.