The Asus Zenbook 13 UX331 series has been available since January in the form of the UX331UN. That particular configuration ships with a Core i7-8550U CPU and GeForce MX150 GPU for a relatively high asking price of about 1200 Euros or almost $1400 USD. Users who may have wanted a less expensive SKU without the dedicated Nvidia GPU have been out of luck until today.
As revealed by the Asus press release below, the Zenbook 13 UX331UA is now available with Core i5-8250U and i7-8550U options for $800 USD and $900 USD, respectively. These cheaper SKUs have the exact same chassis design as the UX331UN but with integrated UHD Graphics 620 only. For light tasks like word processing, streaming, or browsing, the UX331UA should prove more than sufficient while saving users hundreds of dollars.
The 13.3-inch Zenbook 13 series competes against other prosumer laptops like the Dell XPS 13, Lenovo Yoga 920, Apple MacBook Air, Razer Blade Stealth, and Acer Swift 7.
The timing of the news is mere weeks ahead of IFA 2018 where Asus is expected to unveil new laptop designs. Until then, we recommend checking out our two review pages on the UX331UN for more details on the chassis and its features. Major online retailers like Amazon, Adorama, and Newegg are already holding the UX331UA in stock and those who purchase through Amazon can save an additional $50 with the coupon code as described in the press release below.
CPU | 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8550 (UX331UA-DS71) 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-8250 (UX331UA-AS51) | ||
Display | 13.3" FHD NanoEdge wide-view display | ||
Operating System | Windows 10 Home | ||
Graphics | Intel® UHD 620 | ||
Main Memory | 8GB LPDDR3 2133MHz | ||
Storage | 256GB SATA SSD | ||
Connectivity | Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with ASUS Wi-Fi Master Bluetooth® 4.2 | ||
Camera | VGA webcam | ||
I/O ports | 1 x USB-C™ 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A 1 x HDMI 1 x microSD card reader | ||
Keyboard and touchpad | Seamless one-piece chiclet keyboard Large touchpad with ASUS Smart Gesture support Touchpad-mounted fingerprint sensor | ||
Audio | Harman Kardon audio system with 2 x high-quality stereo speakers and smart amplifier | ||
Battery | 50Wh Lithium-polymer battery | ||
AC adapter | Output:19V DC, 2.37A, 45W Input : 100 -240V AC, 50/60 Hz universal | ||
Dimensions | 12.2 x 8.5 x 0.55 in 310 x 216 x 13.9mm | ||
Weight | 2.47 lb 1120 g |
Source(s)
Asus