zenbook

Ultrabook makers trying to copy the look and feel of the MacBook Air could be headed for some patent trouble.

Among a lengthy list of patents awarded to Apple this week is one dubbed D654,072, which covers "the ornamental design for an electronic device, as shown and described."

Though the phrase "MacBook Air" is nowhere to be found, the drawings accompanying the patent show a thin laptop with a tapered edge, clearly matching the design of Apple's popular "ultrabook."

Blogging site Patently Apple points to the new patent as the sixth one for the MacBook Air … Read more

The Asus Zenbook looks enough like the MacBook Air that Apple is pressuring a contract manufacturer to cease production of the Zenbook, an Asia-based report claims.

Taipei-based Pegatron, an original equipment manufacturer, will not make the Zenbook for Asus due to pressure from Apple, according to a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times.

Asus did not respond to a request for comment.

The report couches Apple's demand as a choice: either stop making the Zenbook or lose Apple as a customer. Pegatron has been assembling iPhones since last year and would prefer to keep that business, according to the … Read more

Our latest Prizefight pits one of the new generation of superthin Ultrabook laptops, the Asus Zenbook UX31, against the system it was clearly designed to emulate, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air.

The Prizefight scoring system is as follows: Each judge rates on a zero to five scale. At the end of each round, we will take an average of the three judges' scores. The final score for each laptop will be an average of all five rounds. … Read more

Earlier this year, we were bombarded with news about Ultrabooks, a new category of laptop given a new name by Intel--these machines were meant to be improvements on the laptop as we've come to know it, with smartphone-like startup speed and wafer-thin, future-sexy designs.

So far, so good: the first few laptops we've seen that categorize themselves as Ultrabooks have all been excellent products. The Acer Aspire S3, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, and the Asus Zenbook UX31 all lived up to expectations, and all provide valid alternatives to the MacBook Air.

And yet, there's a problem. In my eyes, at least. And it's a big one. … Read more

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the MacBook Air should be positively blushing right around now. A sudden onslaught of Ultrabooks--the Intel-coined term for thin, MacBook Air-esque Windows laptops with fast boot times and sleek, high-end designs--has hit just in time for the holidays, and one of the most highly hyped ones we've seen is the Asus Zenbook UX.

The product doesn't shy away from an Apple-like design whatsoever, and that's not such a bad thing. Who doesn't want a thin, unibody metal lightweight laptop that starts fast and has a great battery life?

The 13-inch Asus Zenbook UX31E-DH52 has a starting price of $1,099, which includes 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD drive. That's $200 less expensive than the equivalent MacBook Air. Smartly, the Zenbook gets that part right: when competing with a product as singularly well-known and highly rated as the MacBook Air, your product has to be either better or cheaper. … Read more

The first wave of Ultrabooks has arrived.

At a press event in New York today, Asus Chairman Jonney Shih presented the final version of the UX Zenbook, the company's entry into the growing Ultrabook field. The two models are the 11.6-inch UX21 and the 13.3-inch UX31.

If these two slim laptops look familiar, it's because they, like other Ultrabooks from Acer, Toshiba, and Lenovo, are essentially Windows versions of the popular MacBook Air. Some, like the Acer Aspire S3, are pitched as MacBook Air-style devices that cost a few hundred dollars less, while the Asus (and Lenovo) versions are around the same price as an Air, but offer more features and options. … Read more