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Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA now shipping for $800 USD

Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA now shipping for $800 USD (Source: Asus)
Asus ZenBook 13 UX331UA now shipping for $800 USD (Source: Asus)
The new entry-level SKU is $300 to $400 cheaper than the current UX331UN SKU by axing the dedicated GPU and halving both the LPDDR3 RAM (16 GB to 8 GB) and internal M.2 storage (512 GB to 256 GB).

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

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Allen Ngo, 2018-08- 6 (Update: 2018-08- 7)