The answer to this question is simple – it depends on what you’re using it for…
The ASUS Zenbook UX31E has been taken to task quite extensively over the past few weeks and I plan to stress it out even further as time goes by. However, today I am looking at the noise created by this ultrabook in two ways – work noise and fun noise.
Work noise is, basically, how much this laptop roars when it is being pushed to the limits by various benchmarks or processing tests. While it was chugging through the stress created by PCMark 07 and 3DMark Vantage, I could barely hear it at all. If I put my ear close to the side of the Zenbook, I could detect a very faint hum, almost as if the Zenbook were singing itself through the workload.
Compared to the roar I have with my desktop PC and the whirr of the fans in the ET2410, this machine is almost as a ghost. When used on the train to open up heavy files in Adobe’s InDesign yesterday, the Zenbook took very little time to open the document compared to other machines I have tested – mere seconds. I’d have to use a mouse if I wanted to work within these INDD files, I find it too time consuming on any trackpad, but the fact that the Zenbook can open them with such ease is a huge bonus.
But I digress…
The reason I was asking the Zenbook UX31E to open these documents was to see if it got embarrassingly loud while I worked on the crowded train. Well, you couldn’t hear it at all. People breathing were louder. So, while the Zenbook does hum a tad to the tune of the workload, it is not going to have people stare at you because you’ve increased noise pollution in a public place. The perfect excuse to hang about in a coffee shop then…
The second sound I tested was the fun sound. That’s my incredibly technical term for me playing really loud music and videos on the Zenbook. This ultrabook comes with the SonicMaster technology that was co-developed with Bang & Olufsen ICEpower. As a long standing fan of Bang & Olufsen, I was particularly keen to see how it panned out.
I played LastFM.com on full volume, terrifying the neighbours, a DVD or two, and some TV shows. To find out how well the ASUS Zenbook UX31E performed, tune in next week…
Tamsin