Asus Zenbook UX21 - First few days with it

My Asus Zenbook UX21 arrived yesterday, and its been a great experience so far. I have little experience with Apple products, but the feel of a premium product is created by numerous details both large and small and you are constantly reminded of them.

The problems mentioned in previews regarding the trackpad have all been fixed in the final commercial product, all you have to do is click "Yes" on first boot-up to apply Asus updates. The second gripe previewers had was with the keyboard and there I can see what they might've been talking about. In contrary to previewer's, I would consider the keyboard to be too stiff rather than have too much flex like often reported. We might be describing the same phenomenon, though, as I too suffer from the occasional letter being left out when typing, just like previewers warned. My biggest problem with the keyboard is the placement of the "Del" and "Power" keys right next to eachother. Luckily a custom Asus dialog screen pops up when you press the power key as to make sure you didn't press the key by accident.

Sound from the speakers is very good. I'd still much rather have headphones connected, but for the occasional video viewing they're really great. I can also listen to music if no headphones are available with comfort.

The "instant on" feature is superb, and now a necessity to me on devices as portable as this. Apple people will be more than familiar with this function: it enables the device to come back from hibernation into usable state in around 2 seconds. Just close the lid, pack it away and forget about it. The device has been designed for this use, and so the battery will last for about a week in this state and should the battery run out it will do a quick backup of everything going on so you won't lose your precious work.


Previewers criticized also the viewing angles especially on this 11.6" Zenbook, but I must say that doesn't matter the least to me. I'm glad that the dude sitting next to me on a train won't be able to just gaze over and see what's on my screen. I don't think anyone watches movies off these things, at least not with friends. The screen could be less glossy, but its not as glossy as my old laptop that actually made using it hard in most situations. So again, I'm very content.

Ideally, I would've wanted to get a netbook with built-in 3G,  but soon noticed that these seem to have gone out of fashion. Finnsh operators still have some models in their selection, but I wasn't in the mood of making a 2-year contract just to get my hands on a 3G-enabled device. Luckily my DesireZ and N9 work fantastically as WiFi hotspots, effectively negating the need for a 3G SIM-slot.

Performance wise the machine is great. I'm a big Starcrat 2 fan, and I'm happy to report that SC2 runs decently on Medium settings applied automatically by the game after hardware inspection. If you want to stay on top of what's happening in the game, you might as well switch to "Pro" graphics settings, which means "Low" settings for those unfamiliar with SC2 progaming. ;) Installation of SC2 is always a 2-4 hour feat, as first you download the installer and then you apply all the updates to the game. Thanks to the solid state drive in the UX21, the game installed in record time, clocking just under 3hrs. This is a good hour faster than on my desktop PC. Bravo.

I have no opinion whether this netbook is a "MacBook Air killer" or anything of the sort, but I feel like I've got pretty much everything I would've wanted from the Air and more: premium feel, premium look, but all the app compatibility I could dream of. Not to mention support for accessories: I depend on no single manufactuer for them, everything proprietary has been compensated by Asus by providing the required dongles with the sales package. When comparing the UX21 to other ultrabooks out there right now, Asus fends distinction for itself by the premium design and manufacturing materials. Other ultrabooks at this moment look like plastic toys compared to this thing, even if they cost almost as much as the Zenbook.

Off to install Jolicloud on this thing.




Links to reviews of the Asus Zenbook UX21: 


Anandtech's in-depth review into Ultrabook technology and how the UX21 fares in this regard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7YxrWIAVjY

Introduction to the UX21 and a little about the media playback on this device: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwbOzI4u4ew

UltrabookNews' great written review: http://ultrabooknews.com/2011/11/20/asus-zenbook-ux21e-detailed-review

Collection of reads on the Microkia alliance: summing up, material for opinions

This piece will serve as a sum-up of the events around the Nokia-Microsoft alliance, but more than that these articles are the basis for my opinion that is still slowly forming about all this. I also hope to address a few misunderstandings that might get popular on the web about things relating to this alliance.

UPDATE 9th of March 2011: Added link to Symbian's new UI. Forgot to include this!

Nobody can claim to have not been surprised come February 11th 2011 and Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop's announcement that Nokia would form a "strategic alliance" with Microsoft. Conversation has been heated on the internet, with people arguing the pros and cons of this marriage.

I really love sitting down and getting to the bottom of things I care about, so here's some of the articles I've read about the Microkia alliance. Initially I planned to draw some kind of conclusion of all this, but this proved impossible. New articles pop up daily, so I can only show you which articles gave me the most information I felt I could use. I hope you enjoy this collection.


The basics of the matter

To start you off, here's a videoclip of the bossman himself, mr. Stephen Elop in Engadget's well-rounded interview:





AllAboutSymbian.com were naturally there on Feb 11th, and they summed up what was said in the press event:

http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/12584_Nokias_new_strategy_and_struct.php


Articles focusing on the business side of things, impact on industry:

Being a Finn, I'm quite concerned for everyone in the threat of losing their jobs. A few finnish blogs have been written in finnish talking about it, the one below is a good read in English:
http://www.ecyrd.com/ButtUgly/wiki/Main_blogentry_130211_1

Tomi Ahonen (@tomiahonen), the king of mobile analysts and his first reaction:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/first-analysis-of-nokia-microsoft-alliance-wow-this-is-good-for-microsoft.html

Tomi went on to twist and turn the possible outcomes of this alliance, but failed to find out how there could be a bright future ahead for Nokia:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/when-things-get-even-worse-than-you-thought-1st-preview-of-potential-for-nokia-microsoft-partnership.html

In short, Tomi feels that the once great Nokia will be reduced to a hardware vendor, as they no longer have the luxury of having their own software to run on their devices. Tomi fears that Nokia will become a Dell, just another company putting Windows in a box and shipping it to the world. Tomi feels the greatest shame of all will be that Nokia is sacrificing all the good that Nokia is, for something it thinks everyone wants it to be. Tomi sees no future in this.

A great moment in all this came as Tomi posted something to help his friends in the industry find another job, reassuring them and giving tips:
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2011/02/to-nokia-colleagues-being-laid-off-or-fearing-for-job-survival-here-a-little-bit-of-advice.html

Also worth checking out are the comments to the above post:

"Come together, get investors and buy AAVA mobile. Bring new Qt-based MeeGo and Symbian AAVA phones to the world. MeeGo and Symbian are both open source. Elop can't remove that license even if he wanted to. Kill the mother company. It's not just the hardware, it's the software stupid!!! If anyone starts this, you have a guaranteed €50.000 investment from me. There are many people like me who would help you guys start the next Nokia.
All the best for the future."

I guess people with some forte read Tomi's blog (even though they're not too clear on the status of Symbian ;) ). Later on, Aava announced that they are not interested in becoming the next Nokia. So sadly, this is only fantasy.

The internet went rampant with claims that Steve Ballmer had put a trojan horse into Nokia. Intuitively, it did make sense as Elop had just come from Microsoft, and sha-zam, come the first big announcement it would be about creating a strategy together with Microsoft. Fishy!

The Wall Street Journal has caught on to the real story, though:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703561604576150502994792270.html

Articles thinking about Nokia's plans going forward:

For very many people, the Microkia alliance is the exact fix for Nokia's wavering situation.WP7 looks good, is something completely new and between the lines people want to be relieved that another company besides Nokia will actually be in charge of Nokia software.

The article below supports the alliance:

http://www.osnews.com/story/24400/Why_Nokia_Chose_Windows_Phone_7_and_Why_It_s_a_Good_Move

Here's a passionate post from CellOuts.net about why WP7 is the best thing for Nokia right now:
http://www.cellouts.net/2011/02/nokiamicrosoftthe-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend/

A fascinating incident was the coming forward of '9 young investors' looking to sell a "PlanB" to the Nokia board of executives:
http://www.planb.com

What followed after Plan B was PlanC, PlanD ... and eventually the entire alphabet of plans for Nokia:
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/02/16/nokia-alphabet-of-back-up-plans/


Articles mostly about the survival of MeeGo, Symbian and/or Qt:

For me, the bigges thing about the Microkia alliance was Nokia reducing MeeGo down to a developmental platform (again). Maemo-MeeGo was supposed to be "step 6 of 6" towards a commercial product, but this turn of events put MeeGo back to square 1. Other concerns of mine were the resources and effort put into Qt, now seemingly being thrown away. What's the truth behind the future of the software side of things?

Nokia CTO Rich Green got up on stage to talk about the future of all the mentioned software:
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/02/16/nokia-cto-rich-green-talks-meego-symbian-qt-windows-phone-and-a-new-disruptive-platform/

Here's a look at what we know about the new Symbian UI. If Symbian's dead, then when's the funeral?
http://mynokiablog.com/2011/02/23/the-new-symbian-ui-nokia-n8-new-homescreen-for-upcoming-firmware-update/

Another twist in the software plot was news that Microsoft had banned all open source software at their Windows Marketplace. Linux veterans were grabbing their waraxes from the closet again, as Microsoft and open source have a somewhat heated history. Here's Simon to give us a more devoted look at the entire story behind this incident:
http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/02/microsoft-bans-its-own-licenses/index.htm

Qt and MeeGo have for long felt like proof-of-concept software, and now with the Microkia announcement, people feel that they will finally be laid to rest. At least in the mobile world. Here's an article from CellOuts.net talking about Qt and developers:
http://www.cellouts.net/2011/02/nokia-betrayed-their-developerswhat-developers/


With Finnish company Digia picking up Qt, the fate of Qt doesn't seem so dark after all:
http://www.digia.com/C2256FEF0043E9C1/0/405002251



Further reading, some videos and podcasts for easier information consumption

Its hard to reach any conclusions about all this, as new news articles pop up almost daily. Mobile World Congress was a great MeeGo event, with the unveiling of the MeeGo tablet UI:



So it seems MeeGo will be able to survive even with Nokia not being part of the effort. However, will "MeeGo handset" be critically affected by this remains to be seen.

It turns out, that Qt isn't dying either, as it has already found a new owner. Symbian definitely has a timeline though, as expressed by Rafe from the AllAboutSymbian podcast from Feb 12th 2011. Symbian still might interest a lot of people for a couple of years, with the UI upgrade coming out and all that.

What is still in the balance, then? Well to me its definitely Windows Phone 7, and how it will deliver. There's news of trouble on the software front for Windows Phone 7, as the "Mango" update (also referred to as "WinPhone 7.5") struggles to make it out before 2011. Bare in mind, Elop wants to publish a Windows Nokia phone during 2011 (see video interview in the beginning of this article). Has Nokia, the company deemed incompetent of producing software in time teamed up with another company suffering of the same flaw?


And finally

I hope the reads collected to this blogpost have been useful, and I want to leave you with one more that seems to have a more "universal" feel to it.

The next blogpost supports WP7, but it also discusses UI paradigms to such a level, that I think it might be current even a year or two years from now:
http://www.christianlindholm.com/christianlindholm/2011/02/the-beauty-of-the-nokia-microsoft-deal.html

Please leave me a comment if you have additional "good reads" on the subject!

- Chris

A Collection of Good Reads on Nokia

Inspired by an article written by Kyron over at Maemofanatics.com, I decided to put together a list of links to interesting articles about Nokia and the mobile industry.

With Nokia World 2010 coming up it's good to stop for a moment and make sure that your perspective of Nokia is accurate. So below I've tried to list the articles that have profound insight or a more holistic view of the mobily industry. All articles below understand that the history of the mobile industry didn't start with the iPhone nor even the Motorola Razr. The articles are in no particular order.

#1) The already mentioned article from Maemofanatics.com recapping the past 8 months of Nokia: http://www.maemofanatics.com/show-and-prove-why-its-too-late-for-nokia-to-be-secretive/

#2) Juhani Risku, former Nokia CEO shares his thoughts on how Nokia should be "rescued": http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/22/nokia_manifesto_risku/

#3) Symbian-Freak  Chris McFann: "The truth about Nokia, Symbian, Maemo, Nokia N900 and the Nokia N97", written about a year ago in August 2009, this article still rings true: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/009/08/chris_truth_about_nokia_symbian_maemo_the_n900_and_n97.htm

#4) Feel that Nokia should adopt Android? Read this to find out why that's completely off: http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/010/07/why_symbian_and_meego_are_best_for_nokia_1.htm

#5) Hear it from the horse's (Anssi Vanjoki's) mouth: Nokia will not adopt Android: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703571704575340543144779152.html

#6) Check yourself in to what MeeGo really is about in this good summary by Kyron over at Maemofanatics.com: http://www.maemofanatics.com/meego-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt/

#7) A great recap of sir Tomi Ahonen's report on the marketshare situation Q3 2010. Mindhsare, marketshare and the truth about Apple's influence: http://mynokiablog.com/2010/07/23/nokia-cant-compete-in-the-high-end-really

And finally:

#8) What exactly did current Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo inherit? Is the buzz generated by Wall Street Journal really accurate? Another one of Tomi's children gets shortened down, this time by Mobile Industry Review here: http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2010/07/nokias-fall-from-grace-the-background-story.html


What do you think of these articles? Are there any more like these worth knowing about?

Let's hear about it in the comments.

- Chris