- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How they compare
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Compare with...
- Alienware M Series M18x
- Sony VAIO S Series
- Apple MacBook Air 4th Gen
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
- Samsung Series 5 Ultrabooks
- 11.6"
- Core 2 Duo 1.4 GHz Dual core
- 2 GB DDR3-1066
- 128 GB SSD
Released September, 2011
Rated 100% by by tyler (Feb, 2011)I bought the macbook air 13 inch with 4gb ram upgrade and all I have to say is this thing is amazingly fast at basically everything.
- 13.3"
- Core i7 1.8 GHz Dual core
- 4 GB DDR3
- 256 GB SSD
First seen on March, 2012
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Apple MacBook Air 3rd Gen compared to the ASUS Zenbook UX31E-XH72
GHz1.4
Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400
Rated 60% by by M.D.C.--The-FranchiseBetter to select the Pro, where you can buy your own drive/RAM and save hundreds over Apple's configurations yet get superior performance and value.
1.8 GHz
Intel Core i7 2677M
screen size
11.6"
13.3"
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by A.-Llamas--Aurora (Dec, 2010)Finally, one of the best thing I love about the Air is the full size keyboard and the higher quality screen which although does not adds to its performance but makes the Air very comfortable to work with compared to other small size notebooks.
screen resolution
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by tyler (Feb, 2011)The only thing that made me hesitate a little were claims saying it wouldn't handle 1080p video that well but me for me it handles 1080p HD videos just perfectly.
cpu speed
| 0 GHz | 1.8 GHz | 2 GHz |
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by Tanner-D.-Silva (Mar, 2011)The MacBook Air has a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Dual Core), the original iPad has a 1GHz single core A4 chip (iPad 2 has a 1GHz dual core A5 chip).
processor
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by Alex-the-Ukrainian (Apr, 2011)I have a quad-core PC desktop at home and I just sold my i7 macbook pro.
memory
| 0 GB | 4 GB | 4 GB |
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by Paul-R.-Thomas--Paul-R. (Dec, 2011)So I think the word on this is, it depends what you're doing but I don't think you really need the RAM upgrade, I am perfectly happy with 2GB.
Performance Real world tests of Apple MacBook Air 3rd Gen vs ASUS Zenbook UX31E-XH72
3DMark06 CPU
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by Paul-C.-Huang--Paul-HuangThe performance is good enough, so I am unconcerned about benchmarks.
cinebench r10 32Bit
MacBook Air 3rd Gen by seraphicD (Oct, 2010)SPEED - The computer feels surprisingly snappy for the rather low-end processor speed.
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the ASUS Zenbook UX31E-XH72
| Much more l2 cache | 3 MB (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400) | vs | 0.5 MB (Intel Core i7 2677M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6x more l2 cache; more data can be stored in the l2 cache for quick access later | |||
| Faster RAM | DDR3-1066 | vs | DDR3 |
| More than 30% faster RAM; data is transferred to/from RAM more quickly | |||
Advantages compared to the Apple MacBook Air 3rd Gen
| Much faster turbo speed | 2.9 GHz (Intel Core i7 2677M) | vs | None |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compared to all laptops, 2.9 GHz turbo speed (Intel Core i7 2677M) is just OK | |||
| Is hyperthreaded | Yes | vs | No |
| About half of laptops are hyperthreaded | |||
| Better CPU benchmark score | 26.28 | vs | 11.45 |
| Around 2.5x better benchmark score; the CPU performs better in various benchmark tests and will likely perform better in real-world applications | |||
| Bigger screen | 13.3" | vs | 11.6" |
| More than 10% bigger screen | |||
| Faster processor | 1.8 GHz (Intel Core i7 2677M) | vs | 1.4 GHz |
| Around 30% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster | |||
| More RAM | 4 GB | vs | 2 GB |
| Twice as much RAM; run more applications and have more browser tabs open without slowing down the system | |||
| Higher resolution screen | 1600 x 900 | vs | 1366 x 768 |
| Around 40% higher resolution screen | |||
| More storage capacity | 256 GB | vs | 128 GB |
| 2x more storage capacity | |||
| Better cinebench r10 32Bit | 6,672 (Intel Core i7 2677M) | vs | 2,894.4 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400) |
| Around 2.5x better cinebench r10 32Bit | |||
| Better 3DMark06 CPU | 2,729 (Intel Core i7 2677M) | vs | 1,192 (Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400) |
| Around 2.5x better 3DMark06 CPU | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Apple MacBook Air 3rd Gen | ASUS Zenbook UX31E-XH72 |
Competition What else you should consider
 | 5 | Samsung Series 5 Ultrabooks 5-way tie: Has a memory card reader |
 | 7 | Apple MacBook Pro 5th Gen 6-way tie: Faster maximum data rate |
