ASUS Zenbook UX31A Ultrabook (recertified): Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz, 13.3" IPS FHD LED (1920x1080), 4GB Memory, 128GB SSD, Win 7 $618 + Free Shipping

Quote from encg : I'm not sure if you guys are new to craigslist, but these types of ads pop up all the time. They're scams. That's it. What's your location and did you choose budget shipping? The 13th doesn't sound bad.

Jacksonville FL is location and ordered from buy.com. Yes I did budget (free) shipping. Really excited to get it and rolling the dice on the SSD is kinda fun too, lol.

Quote from jtw1 : Just fyi, I got this craigslist response back in July 2012. It is a scam, dont bother following up. Hi, I am getting back to you regarding the Asus Zenbook from Craigslist My name is Jessica and I am now in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The laptop is still available and I hope you are still interested. I am selling the laptop for $450 USD. I have attached some pics with it to this email. About the laptop I can say it's in perfect shape, as I used it only for a few weeks. Included in the $450 price is everything that came with the laptop and also the warranty papers. I tried to be as thorough as I could with the presentation so you can have all the info if you decide to go ahead and buy it. So what do you think? Do you want my laptop?

thanks for the confirmation, i was wondering if we can scam the scammer, like sending them a fake $1000 western union, and ask them to ship use the laptop and keep the rest of the money.

like the mac book dude that send the scammer a notebook binder.

You can arrange it be done via western union and then have the cops go bust them when they get there to pick it up... Thats about the only way I have seen it happen...

Quote from jackbauer24 : thanks for the confirmation, i was wondering if we can scam the scammer, like sending them a fake $1000 western union, and ask them to ship use the laptop and keep the rest of the money. like the mac book dude that send the scammer a notebook binder.

The thing is that the guy doesn't even have the laptop to begin with though.

ANYWAY, I ordered Sunday 6am EST, it shipped this afternoon, and is scheduled to arrive via FedEx on 12/12. YES!

Got my laptop. Has backlit bleeding on the sides of the display.. It is going back to BUY.COM.. Wondering how the refurbished even passed quality checks.

Quote from raju_77 : Got my laptop. Has backlit bleeding on the sides of the display.. It is going back to BUY.COM.. Wondering how the refurbished even passed quality checks.

Can you take a photo of the bleeding with a black background and in the dark?
That's the only thing I'm afraid of. I'll welcome the SanDisk if I get a unit without bleeding.

+1 To the pics of backbleed... A little is to be expected. I tend to be more lenient, but I just want to know what was enough to put someone over the top to go ahead and return it.

I can see the backlight bleed on 5-6 spots on 2 sides of the Zenbook, as I switched on. It sort of puzzled me and I did not set it up further. Do you think I am over-reacting? I will go ahead and set it up fully and get a picture . Got the RMA anyways since it did not allow me to create an RMA initially saying opened and defective ones can only be replaced. Called CS and they created one with refund because they do not have one to replace.
I do understand that IPS panels can experience this bleeding but this was a little beyond what I expected. Let me check and get back.

- sent by iPhone App Deals & Steals 3.5.8 -

First of all... This is not a TN panel, its IPS <-- Don't call your fantastic IPS a TN panel, its like calling your ferrari a ford....

Second, Almost ALL IPS screens have some backlight bleed around the edges, usually the bottom or top being most prevalent. Asus is known for having more than others. I have a transformer infinity tf700t and it has some pretty rough bleed, but its only ONLY noticeable on a fully black background with the brightness turned all the way up. The first computer that I didn't notice any bleed was my 2300 macbook pro retina, but I did have a horrible dead pixel near the center of the screen.

At this price though, if your bleed is liveable, I'd totally bear with it. We got a great deal and if the computer runs well, then I'd stick with it. If its got other issues, then eh... maybe a refund... but just something as small as bleed... bear with it.

Here is a link from a well known website where the OP asks about bleed and how he can assure he has none (ANSWER: Its not possible with today's technology)

http://www.overclock.net/t/129111...t-bleeding

This is a link to a video of what bad bleed looks like... Honestly, I'd probably live with that if the color gamut was nice... Read through some of the comments too, one mentions the massage technique to make it better... Its something to try...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voXY9t3Rv0w

Quote from Corrosive : First of all... This is not a TN panel, its IPS <-- Don't call your fantastic IPS a TN panel, its like calling your ferrari a ford.... Second, Almost ALL IPS screens have some backlight bleed around the edges, usually the bottom or top being most prevalent. Asus is known for having more than others. I have a transformer infinity tf700t and it has some pretty rough bleed, but its only ONLY noticeable on a fully black background with the brightness turned all the way up. The first computer that I didn't notice any bleed was my 2300 macbook pro retina, but I did have a horrible dead pixel near the center of the screen. At this price though, if your bleed is liveable, I'd totally bear with it. We got a great deal and if the computer runs well, then I'd stick with it. If its got other issues, then eh... maybe a refund... but just something as small as bleed... bear with it. Here is a link from a well known website where the OP asks about bleed and how he can assure he has none (ANSWER: Its not possible with today's technology) http://www.overclock.net/t/129111...t-bleeding This is a link to a video of what bad bleed looks like... Honestly, I'd probably live with that if the color gamut was nice... Read through some of the comments too, one mentions the massage technique to make it better... Its something to try... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voXY9t3Rv0w

Sorry.. I actually did mean IPS panel but was writing on the iphone so got it wrong.. I did check.. Yes the bleed is slightly there not too high to make an issue.. I have them at more than 7-10 spots right at the bottom and the right side a slightly larger bleed. So guess it should be okay and can be lived with and also I am hoping that the glue settles down in some time to avoid the bleed..

And I got the Sandisk drive as well for people looking at what hard disk that is being used.. The laptop does feel a lot slower to me starting different applications... Not sure if this is going to be the case throughout.. I also have a Vivobook to compare and I feel that to be a lot snappier than this one.. Its Windows 8 and has a cache drive... The biggest gain on this laptop is the display panel - IPS, non-reflective.. Awesome..

Now my concern gets manifold on whether to retain this or keep the Vivobook (thanks SD to change my mind and helping me to dig further).. The Vivobook can be upgraded with RAM and SSD while this cannot.. But everything else is pointing towards keeping this (good screen, good keyboard with backlit, no reflection)... My wife likes the new touch screen and she wants to keep the Vivo.. Will play around and see.. she may need some convincing to keep the Zenbook and hopefully I am not regretting either way...

The zenbook blows the vivobook out of the water... You are comparing a machine that costs 2x retail though. I honestly can't find an area where the vivobook would win... maybe touchscreen, but when you compare the low rez and not so great viewing angles... its a moot point. Also whats the point of more ram on a machine with an I3? Ok, sure, more is always better, but at anything more than 6gb your processor will be the bottleneck and not the ram. As far as SSD upgrades, 128 is plenty... not the most, but plenty. USB 3.0 portible drives are getting cheap so that would be a good option instead of having to replace an internal drive.

I will admit though, the vivobook is a cool little machine too, but its not exactly in the same league as the zenbook. If the vivo was a tad thinner and had a better screen, I'd be much more compelled to consider this a fair fight.

Either way, I envy that you have them both in your possession... I can't wait to get mine.

Back in stock but now $710.69

Aw man. I've been looking for a new laptop all month. This would have been perfect. Stupid finals week made me miss it!

Ended up getting the square trade 3 year warranty for $62 after a 30% off coupon. With the build quality being questionable, I figured why not get a warranty. If anyone else is interested, there is a thread from a year ago that is still constantly updated with codes... if you use one, just rep the person you got it from and post that you used it.