ASUS UX32A and UX32Vd Zenbooks in the Works

It looks like ASUS is planning more for the ultrabook market than the replacement of soon-to-be-outdated models, or so the murmurs on the Internet say.  

Going by what The Verge has reported, there are two all-new Zenbooks on the way, though it is unclear when the official launch will be. 

On the other hand, the prices of the ultrabooks are known, so we can at least make an opinion regarding their appeal. 

The UX32A and UX32Vd will cost between $800 and $1,100, which corresponds to 608 Euro and 836 Euro. 

In other words, the cost range is more or less similar to that of the UX31A and UX21A: $1,050 and $1,100, respectively (800.42 Euro / 838.54 Euro). 

That said, the Zenbooks will use Intel's Ivy Bridge central processing units and screens of 13.3 inches in diagonal. 

The CPU list includes the Core i3-3217U, i5-3317U and i7-3517U. 

Also, graphics prowess will be provided by an NVIDIA GeForce GT260M discrete graphics card, with 1 GB of memory. 

That only goes for the UX32Vd, unfortunately. The UX32A will still have to make do with the integrated GMA HD in the CPU. 

Moving on, the screens have matte IPS displays with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (Full HD). There will be less impressive options though. 

Furthermore, ASUS gave the ultrabooks 2 GB or 4GB of RAM (random access memory), plus hybrid storage units (500 GB with 24 GB SSDs cache) and the optional Intel Wireless Display streaming technology (WiDi). 

Finally, since Intel won't launch the Ivy Bridge CPUs until months from now, ASUS will ship the UX32A and UX32Vd with Sandy Bridge central processing units for a while. We aren't sure how many people will hurry up to buy them instead of waiting for the better processors, so we'll leave that to time to sort out.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview