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[HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]Asus Zenbook UX31A Touch

For christmas, I got an asus zenbook touch. Best ultrabook I've ever owned. For 1100 dollars, you get an i5, 128gb ssd, touch screen, and intel 4000 graphics. It is a little steep for those specs but the build quality and touch screen completely make up for it in my opinion. It actually comes with a bunch of accessories too, a folio case, VGA adapter, micro usb cable, and an ethernet adapter. I can write up a full review if anyone wants.
I can answer any questions about it, too
Available here

I was eyeing that exact model at my local Best Buy earlier this week. I'm really torn between this Zenbook and Lenovo's Yoga.
Couple of questions:
How's the Battery Life with casual use?
Wifi issues?
SSD speeds? Did you get the Adata SSD or Sandisk SSD (should say on the box)?
Light bleeding in the screen? This was a major issue with the previous non-touch UX31As.
Is the paint chipping off by any chance?
My main worry with this Asus is that it only has 4GB of RAM and it cannot be upgraded. I'm just not sure if it'll be enough, how does it perform with this amount of RAM? Any hiccups when multiple web pages are up?
I believe that's about it for my questions lol. Thanks if you reply, I haven't logged into XDA for like a year and luckily I happened to find this thread. I really am digging this ultrabook, I need something durable, quick, and light for school that'll last me a good 3 years minimum while retaining its functionality as it was on day 1. Damn you Lenovo and your upgradable RAM, this would've been an easier decision if the Yoga didn't have upgrade options lol.

atticusmas said:
For christmas, I got an asus zenbook touch. Best ultrabook I've ever owned. For 1100 dollars, you get an i5, 128gb ssd, touch screen, and intel 4000 graphics. It is a little steep for those specs but the build quality and touch screen completely make up for it in my opinion. It actually comes with a bunch of accessories too, a folio case, VGA adapter, micro usb cable, and an ethernet adapter. I can write up a full review if anyone wants.
I can answer any questions about it, too
Available here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm enjoying my Toshiba T925u. It has about the same specs, but an 11.5 inch screen (not as high in resolution). It has a slide out keyboard for typing, or can be used as a tablet. A bit more expensive at around 1100. Toshiba is expecting them in stock in mid January; they seem to be out of stock everywhere.
Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using xda premium

stellar said:
I was eyeing that exact model at my local Best Buy earlier this week. I'm really torn between this Zenbook and Lenovo's Yoga.
Couple of questions:
How's the Battery Life with casual use?
Wifi issues?
SSD speeds? Did you get the Adata SSD or Sandisk SSD (should say on the box)?
Light bleeding in the screen? This was a major issue with the previous non-touch UX31As.
Is the paint chipping off by any chance?
My main worry with this Asus is that it only has 4GB of RAM and it cannot be upgraded. I'm just not sure if it'll be enough, how does it perform with this amount of RAM? Any hiccups when multiple web pages are up?
I believe that's about it for my questions lol. Thanks if you reply, I haven't logged into XDA for like a year and luckily I happened to find this thread. I really am digging this ultrabook, I need something durable, quick, and light for school that'll last me a good 3 years minimum while retaining its functionality as it was on day 1. Damn you Lenovo and your upgradable RAM, this would've been an easier decision if the Yoga didn't have upgrade options lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get the yoga, there's a plethora of problems with it. Light bleed is present but not a big deal for me at all. SSD speed is lightning fast, boot time is like 3 seconds. 3 seconds for a cold boot. No paint chipping. Battery life is around 6 hours with causal use. I actually have no idea what ssd it is.

atticusmas said:
Don't get the yoga, there's a plethora of problems with it. Light bleed is present but not a big deal for me at all. SSD speed is lightning fast, boot time is like 3 seconds. 3 seconds for a cold boot. No paint chipping. Battery life is around 6 hours with causal use. I actually have no idea what ssd it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Toshiba also boots in about 3 sec.
Sent from my IdeaTabA2109A using xda premium

If only US Bestbuy shipped internationally
Does anyone else know of any vendors for this besides ExcaliberPC (it's on backorder/preorder - confusing status)

Hey buddy will you able to put some pictures up for it?
Reason I ask is because I am an international buyer and wanted to see how the all black really looks over the weekend press shots, thanks
atticusmas said:
For christmas, I got an asus zenbook touch. Best ultrabook I've ever owned. For 1100 dollars, you get an i5, 128gb ssd, touch screen, and intel 4000 graphics. It is a little steep for those specs but the build quality and touch screen completely make up for it in my opinion. It actually comes with a bunch of accessories too, a folio case, VGA adapter, micro usb cable, and an ethernet adapter. I can write up a full review if anyone wants.
I can answer any questions about it, too
Available here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Vishs87 said:
Reason I ask is because I am an international buyer and wanted to see how the all black really looks over the weekend press shots, thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure I will soon enough

Thanks, if you get time would be nice if you could email me one or two as I'm looking to order it from my friend who is out on holiday in the states right now and back to the UK on the 12th, my email is [email protected] thanks a lot
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda app-developers app

i'll post them here in 10
Edit: Attachments.

atticusmas said:
Don't get the yoga, there's a plethora of problems with it. Light bleed is present but not a big deal for me at all. SSD speed is lightning fast, boot time is like 3 seconds. 3 seconds for a cold boot. No paint chipping. Battery life is around 6 hours with causal use. I actually have no idea what ssd it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My sister and I just picked up two Yoga 13's last week. We both love them. The only issue we had was the wacky SSD partition scheme they had on them, but there was a fix available, and easily found, on the product support page. I'm loving mine. It replaced a 2 year old HP DM3 laptop.

I am looking into this model. Very much like the design and specs.
Wanna ask you whether the Windows 8 installation files are located in the SSD? If so... Can I remove them and save the installation files in a USB stick to install the OS later? From what I gather.... The ultra book does not come with installation files...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD app

guntherfurlong said:
I am looking into this model. Very much like the design and specs.
Wanna ask you whether the Windows 8 installation files are located in the SSD? If so... Can I remove them and save the installation files in a USB stick to install the OS later? From what I gather.... The ultra book does not come with installation files...
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes you can, just press "windows key + R" and type recoverydrive.exe, the window will guide you through the rest!
I've got the australian model (silver) but it does seem to come with torx screws on the bottom, dont feel like unscrewing them but is everyone sure you cant upgrade the ram on the touch model? I thought the porblem with the prime models was that you couldnt detach the bottom at all..? (but you seem to be able to with this model... 10GB ram would be nice )

10gb of ram would also be a bad idea in general.
In a laptop you only get 2 slots. Usually each slot will have a max capacity of either 4 or 8gb. To get 10gb across both slots, well, they don't make 5gb sticks so you would have to go with an 8gb and a 2gb. However you get access issues with unmatched sticks, its computer building 101, wherever possible use matched sticks (capacity, access speed, timings, everything, for all intents and purposes just use 2 of the same model). You could do 8gb or 16gb easily enough.
I personally live fine on 4gb. I seriously don't see why the majority of people need more. Although a few of my games have occasionally pushed me past 4gb used so I am considering upgrading to 8.

SixSixSevenSeven said:
10gb of ram would also be a bad idea in general.
In a laptop you only get 2 slots. Usually each slot will have a max capacity of either 4 or 8gb. To get 10gb across both slots, well, they don't make 5gb sticks so you would have to go with an 8gb and a 2gb. However you get access issues with unmatched sticks, its computer building 101, wherever possible use matched sticks (capacity, access speed, timings, everything, for all intents and purposes just use 2 of the same model). You could do 8gb or 16gb easily enough.
I personally live fine on 4gb. I seriously don't see why the majority of people need more. Although a few of my games have occasionally pushed me past 4gb used so I am considering upgrading to 8.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, but with as with the UX32VD I assume that if the ram would be replacable (which it probably still isn't) it would be only one slot, the other dimm is soldered on. So unmatched sticks (2 + 4 or 2 + 8) would be the only way to go. Just googled a little bit and it seems that the normal UX31A was also openable (i thought it wasnt) but only the battery and the SSD is exposed then, so probably no luck for the touch model after all.

cuberob said:
I know, but with as with the UX32VD I assume that if the ram would be replacable (which it probably still isn't) it would be only one slot, the other dimm is soldered on. So unmatched sticks (2 + 4 or 2 + 8) would be the only way to go. Just googled a little bit and it seems that the normal UX31A was also openable (i thought it wasnt) but only the battery and the SSD is exposed then, so probably no luck for the touch model after all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can't really speak for the UX, but on my Yoga, there is only ONE dimm, and there is not another one soldered on it. It's either single channel 4GB or single channel 8GB (8GB is the max for the motherboard and dimm).

Finally got the ultrabook. Enjoying it.
Just wondering whether is there any reason I should keep the ASUS apps that came with the ultrabook? Are they considered bloatware?
Any major consequences if I uninstall them?

Just an update.
I'm running Mint Linux on this ultrabook now.
Quite like it.
There's no need for Windows.

The biggest bug that needs to be disabled

yeah thats right
Nexus 10 is have THE most irritating bug of them all.
therfore we need to get the ****er away as soon as possible.
i have paid for a 1700Mhz CPU Tablet and i want that speed.
i will pay 50$ to the person that comes with information how to get rid of THERMAL THROTTLING CONTROL.
just send me a PM if you know how to get rid of this ****.
dont write the solution here just send me a PM
to the other girlies
just enjoy your 1000mhz performance N10s while playing MLP lulz

pg_ice said:
yeah thats right
Nexus 10 is have THE most irritating bug of them all.
therfore we need to get the ****er away as soon as possible.
i have paid for a 1700Mhz CPU Tablet and i want that speed.
i will pay 50$ to the person that comes with information how to get rid of THERMAL THROTTLING CONTROL.
just send me a PM if you know how to get rid of this ****.
dont write the solution here just send me a PM
to the other girlies
just enjoy your 1000mhz performance N10s while playing MLP lulz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im confused. Why wouldn't you want this solution posted openly here??

if you want to let your cpu die.. go ahead...

werked said:
Im confused. Why wouldn't you want this solution posted openly here??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
His account is disabled atm, so I don't think it matters at all now He's complained quite a bit on a kernel thread about it already, and was already presented with an option to change the throttling on his own (perhaps someone should just send him that method that was already mentioned and get $50 lol), but still proceeded to "troll".
In any case, disabling thermal throttling is... probably not ideal. Tweaking it slightly may help, but totally disabling it will probably just lead to some part of the device not taking kindly to the heat (I imagine the LCD screen first, followed by the back plastic).
If you have a modified back and heatsink solution though, I'd say go for it (not that I'm responsible for whatever might happen though).

Well, I, for one, would be entertained by seeing pictures of the back of an N10 with a nice big molten bulge on the case over where the Exnos used to be.

pg_ice said:
yeah thats right
Nexus 10 is have THE most irritating bug of them all.
therfore we need to get the ****er away as soon as possible.
i have paid for a 1700Mhz CPU Tablet and i want that speed.
i will pay 50$ to the person that comes with information how to get rid of THERMAL THROTTLING CONTROL.
just send me a PM if you know how to get rid of this ****.
dont write the solution here just send me a PM
to the other girlies
just enjoy your 1000mhz performance N10s while playing MLP lulz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's "girlies" got to do with anything?? Are you implying that girls are happy with small and slow?? Judging by your probable life experiences, you should know that's not true.

I only wish op could see desktop cooling systems. My gaming rig has (and most people's) have massive cpu heat sinks. Laptops have the same problem as this. Surely bypassing the heat sensors that protect your processor and your tablet will eventually lead to you melting your processor.

drcujo said:
I only wish op could see desktop cooling systems. My gaming rig has (and most people's) have massive cpu heat sinks. Laptops have the same problem as this. Surely bypassing the heat sensors that protect your processor and your tablet will eventually lead to you melting your processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have laptops from 2003 and 2006 that did not throttle... they did run pretty hot too. My friend has a gaming laptop too that also, does not throttle.
I'm sure the chip itself has some kind of rated max temperature, but the chip itself is not the only thing to worry about. You have the back plastic, that flimsy piece of plastic around the camera area, the LCD screen, other neighboring chips, etc.
A heatsink would direct the heat of the chip, safely past any other component of concern, but a (decent) heatsink does not exist on the N10. I would of just put some kind of heatsink thing across the entire top part of the tablet (where the detachable plastic is), since, under normal use, you hands don't go up that high anyway. That way, heat wouldn't just be built-up in one concentrated area, but who knows, maybe there is some reason Samsung chose not to do it that way.

Home-Made Android Console???

Hi, XDA Community!
Is it possible to make my own Android console with components off the internet?
I was mainly aiming to by the OUYA but betting on a Tegra3 device isn't convincing enough after seeing the potential Tegra4 has.
So, is there a way to make my out Tegra4 device with simple AOSP ROM to hook with my TV and use whatever I like???

If you have to ask, then no. Do you own the necessary equipment to even solder a tegra chip to the main board?

That's exactly my question.
Is it anywhere possible to create an Android console with PC-like components?

You can give this a whirl I suppose.
www.howchip.com/shop/item.php?it_id=BRIX5250A

www.gamestick.tv
Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 on XDA

That Exynos board looks nice enough though I was looking for one with Tegra4 for game support.
Samsung is doing a good job too, anyway ?
And for the second link, it looks good plug-and-play-wise but its components are a bit out of date (only 1GB RAM... etc.).
Still good to know there's people working on that, though.
Seeing how I can't let go of my Android phone, I wanted a full entertainment center on a bigger screen.
I thought the OUYA would blow my mind but then came more ?

Fredrick Sylar said:
That Exynos board looks nice enough though I was looking for one with Tegra4 for game support.
Samsung is doing a good job too, anyway ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I find it extremely unlikely that Tegra 4 would come out with a Dev Board of some sort. Tegra is generally quite closed when it comes to this sort of thing. Samsung on the other hand does license its chips to other people.

Then probably waiting a little for a board with their Octa chip.
I don't know if it was possible but a custom kernel to operate with all 8 cores and liquid coolant would make one badass entertainment center ?
EDIT: thanks fellas.
You've been really helpful.

Is the HTC One the end of phone development ? - first impressions ....

Of course not, but as far as design maybe ....
I have been looking for a phone to upgrade from my iPhone 5 for sometime.
I missed the screen size and resolution of my old Galaxy Siii and although the iPhone is very nice there are a number of frustrations. For example having to go home button-next screen-settings-WiFi-off/on just to toggle WiFi is ridiculous, or to not have any browser choices with flash, etc. etc.*
Studying the market it seems it's between the One and the S4. The Sony Z has a few unique features but is not attractive. Other phones like the Motorola HD are nice but not really comparable on features. Once you have seen a 1920 screen you can't really go back.
On paper the S4 has a slight advantage although I applaud HTC for trying to end the pointless pixel war. As a amateur photographer I can say that all mobile phone cameras are [email protected] so why have bigger files which just waste space ?*
However once the phones are in your hand it's another story. The One is just beautiful. It it a phone you really want to just pickup.
I went to buy a S4 and came out with a One, for pretty much the same price.
The S4 is not only plastic fantastic but the design is still stuck in the iPhone 3 groove which Samsung originally copied.
The S4 is a great phone, but for me the One is almost perfect. The screen size and weight, the design, the georgeous screen, the software, the speed.
Sure, nothing is perfect, the One get a bit warm in use, it would be nice to have a SD card slot, a polishing cloth would be nice in the box etc. but this really feels like sniping.
It's difficult to know where phones go from here. Apart from 1tb of flash storage and a 5000mah battery I can't think of anything. I don't need more size, resolution or speed really. I suppose a display port or HDMI would be good with a keyboard and mouse in the box to use as a computer, I mean this is more powerful then most peoples PCs and Macs right ?
I take my hat off to HTC and wish them speedy restoration of their former glory!

Just a correction... It's not as powerful to the current PCs & Macs.
It might be quad core and has almost the same ghz that CPU processors but truth is it's too tiny to be of match to computers. Perhaps the performance of quad cores here is comparable to dual cores of computers right now or might even be single cores. And much more less on the GPU side.

colonel said:
Apart from 1tb of flash storage and a 5000mah battery I can't think of anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said the same about upgrading from my HD2 about 3 years ago. There wasn't anything sufficiently BOOM for me to upgrade.
I had WM6.5 and 'Droid on the SD (while Android was still effectively in beta) and the new phones back then were a bit gimmicky compared.
Can't find the post but I said I wouldn't upgrade until 2GHz/2GB RAM/Quad Core/1080p and I didn't.
So, back to your question? Where next?
1TB storage? Nah. 64/128GB will be the new 16/32 more like. With micro SD.
5 working day battery - it'll be about real world longevity rather than tech specs, which will lead to a big row as people don't get 5 days gaming
Where next? Frikkin' lasers! What else can be packed in?

Riyal said:
Just a correction... It's not as powerful to the current PCs & Macs.
It might be quad core and has almost the same ghz that CPU processors but truth is it's too tiny to be of match to computers. Perhaps the performance of quad cores here is comparable to dual cores of computers right now or might even be single cores. And much more less on the GPU side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes and no
most folk have PCs with an Intel 3000 or less for graphics.
you are right about size, which is why a display port and keyboard/mouse would be great

compact_bijou said:
Where next? Frikkin' lasers! What else can be packed in?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats the thing
I always say I don't need more and then someone comes up with something I never thought of and I can't live without LOL

4K Screens, PS3 graphics and flexible screens. Unfortunately, not many companies focus on the battery life which is the sad reality.

mahay_love said:
4K Screens, PS3 graphics and flexible screens. Unfortunately, not many companies focus on the battery life which is the sad reality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Battery tech is the NBT. Has to be.
Otherwise, if they add anything else in to devices, we'll have to be no more than 12 feet from a plug.

I sincerely hope the race for bigger marketing numbers ends at 1080p displays: 1080p is already absolutely 100% pointless on a phone-sized screen. However, in other ways, screen performance has a long way to go: I want something that goes brighter than my HTC One (which still has legility issues in bright sunlight), has less reflection from the screen, has more resistance to damage and scratches, and combines an OLED-like black level with properly calibrated colour accuracy and white point, and no screen-burn. (And a way to calibrate the screen that doesn't require a custom kernel).
More performance is never a bad thing.
2GB of RAM is nowhere near enough, especially with 0.5GB being dedicated video memory. I'm looking forward to 4GB devices.
Mobile GPUs have quite a way to go, too, especially in terms of memory bandwidth: I'd like to see manufacturers experimenting with EDRAM.
Camera sensors could also be massively much better than the sensor on the One (although whether the market would accept that is another story: you'd probably have to make the phone significantly thicker). I'd like Xenon flashes to become more common, too.
Personally I'd like more onboard storage available at a lower price. Phones which have 16, 32 and 64GB models charge a ludicrous premium for the larger capacities.
The lack of USB 3.0 is a problem using OTG storage.
Headphone output, while quite respectable on phones like the One, could still be a lot better.
Probably the single biggest thing that needs improving is battery life. I'm lucky if I get four hours of real-life use out of my One if I'm browsing the web over 3G. Really you need at least twice that.
Dissipating heat will, I think, increasingly become a problem in the future. I can't see a smartphone ever incorporating an audible cooling fan.
HDMI output still has a few issues.
And finally the whole thing needs to become more rugged. Sony's Xperia Z is decidedly undesirable in many other ways, but the water-proof and dust-proof features are great (or at least they would be if they didn't require a compromise in terms of speaker quality).

Shasarak said:
More performance is never a bad thing.
2GB of RAM is nowhere near enough, especially with 0.5GB being dedicated video memory. I'm looking forward to 4GB devices.
Mobile GPUs have quite a way to go, too, especially in terms of memory bandwidth: I'd like to see manufacturers experimenting with EDRAM.
Camera sensors could also be massively much better than the sensor on the One (although whether the market would accept that is another story: you'd probably have to make the phone significantly thicker). I'd like Xenon flashes to become more common, too.
Personally I'd like more onboard storage available at a lower price. Phones which have 16, 32 and 64GB models charge a ludicrous premium for the larger capacities.
The lack of USB 3.0 is a problem using OTG storage.
Headphone output, while quite respectable on phones like the One, could still be a lot better.
Probably the single biggest thing that needs improving is battery life. I'm lucky if I get four hours of real-life use out of my One if I'm browsing the web over 3G. Really you need at least twice that.
HDMI output still has a few issues.
And finally the whole thing needs to become more rugged. Sony's Xperia Z is decidedly undesirable in many other ways, but the water-proof and dust-proof features are great (or at least they would be if they didn't require a compromise in terms of speaker quality).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, thats pretty much the whole 9 yards
battery life is the main thing for me and it seems most other people
I am sceptical of camera. physics demands a bigger sensor and it ain't going to happen in the form factor.
most people don't need better quality, judging from alot of DSLR shots I see
a display projector, or holographic display would be nice. then I can show people photographs when I am visiting wihout any other equipment

I'm still waiting for a phone that turns into a plane and flies me to my own desert island id be really happy with that

jiggle_ said:
I'm still waiting for a phone that turns into a plane and flies me to my own desert island id be really happy with that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a real danger they get the spec of the island wrong you could get dumped here:
http://www.theworld.org/2012/11/the-history-of-hashima-the-island-in-bond-film-skyfall/

colonel said:
a display projector, or holographic display would be nice. then I can show people photographs when I am visiting wihout any other equipment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a little doubtful about putting a projector into a device that's hand-held and uses a touch-screen interface: the picture will wobble around like crazy every time you tap a button.
---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------
There's one very important development that's needed on the software side, incidentally: at the moment mobile web-browsers still don't do a sufficiently good job of parsing desktop-oriented websites. There are a number of issues involved, but one of the more significant ones is that there's no accepted way to emulate moving the mouse cursor to a specific position without actually clicking on something. This means websites that depend on mouse-over events - things like menus that pop up when you move the cursor over a link - never work correctly.
One of the things I had hoped Samsung might do with the GS4 (but, as far as I know, didn't) is use their "air gesture" technology to achieve this: hold your finger close to the screen to move the cursor, and actually touch it to click. A device like the S-Pen could achieve the same thing if it's pressure sensitive: move while pressing lightly to move the cursor, press harder to click. There have been other attempts at this in the past: the original Blackberry Storm, for example, had a touch-screen that was effectively one large physical button, so it could tell whether you were gently tracing your finger over the screen or actually pressing. But I've yet to see a way of doing this that works nicely.

Shasarak said:
I'm a little doubtful about putting a projector into a device that's hand-held and uses a touch-screen interface: the picture will wobble around like crazy every time you tap a button.
There's one very important development that's needed on the software side, incidentally: at the moment mobile web-browsers still don't do a sufficiently good job of parsing desktop-oriented websites.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually that reminds me of another aweful thing about the iphone.
when you are editing online forms, e.g. an ebay advert, the iphone just goes mad.
firstly spelling suggestions go out of the window. it starts making odd suggestions about words you have never heard of.
secondly it does weird additions. so you are typing and it suddenly replaces the last three words with something totally out of context.
apple have improved this. It used to be impossible to even use on web forms, but it stil needs alot more work.
chrome and webkit (and IE on Windows Phone for that matter) are vastly superior in this aspect.

Android AIO's

Does anyone have any thoughts on the latest models of Android AIO's?
Personally I'm falling in love with the ideer of having a huge android on the angled table in front of me.
Many of them also doubles as an external touch screen for a pc with easy switching between function modes.
The one I look to buy is an acer DA223hql from amazon.de.
It's a bit pricey, and only has one gig of ram, but the size seems good for my reach and I like the 1080p resolution.
No argument that higher resolution is better like the acer TA272HUL's 2K or Lenovo ThinkVision 28's 4K, but those are both out of my price range and to big for for comfortable use.
The DA223hql seems to be the best compromise so far.
In my searches I stumbled upon a maintenance manual on Lenovos website which shows how to disassemble and replace the ram and hard drive on the Lenovo N308, and the components look like regular pc parts which makes me druel of the thought of a cheap Tegra 4 device backed by 4 gigs of ram and 1 - 1.5 TB of built in storage.
But the N308 is a 1600x900 TN panel with IR dual touch, and rumor has it that third party file explorers can't access the hard drive.
So I'm not sure i could live with those limitations.
I've not yet been able to find any reviews on the DA223hql and it seems to only be on sale in Germany so far, but several times my fingers have clicked the "add to cart" button.
I've just not been able to click "proceed to checkout" yet.
Please, someone give me some insight into these AIO's.
I trust android to be right for me in this category.
I trust that 18-22 inches is a good size if placed correctly.
I don't have much trouble living with android 4.1 or 4.2
I can manage to live with one gig of ram, though more would definitely be nicer.

lindarne said:
Does anyone have any thoughts on the latest models of Android AIO's?
Personally I'm falling in love with the ideer of having a huge android on the angled table in front of me.
Many of them also doubles as an external touch screen for a pc with easy switching between function modes.
The one I look to buy is an acer DA223hql from amazon.de.
It's a bit pricey, and only has one gig of ram, but the size seems good for my reach and I like the 1080p resolution.
No argument that higher resolution is better like the acer TA272HUL's 2K or Lenovo ThinkVision 28's 4K, but those are both out of my price range and to big for for comfortable use.
The DA223hql seems to be the best compromise so far.
In my searches I stumbled upon a maintenance manual on Lenovos website which shows how to disassemble and replace the ram and hard drive on the Lenovo N308, and the components look like regular pc parts which makes me druel of the thought of a cheap Tegra 4 device backed by 4 gigs of ram and 1 - 1.5 TB of built in storage.
But the N308 is a 1600x900 TN panel with IR dual touch, and rumor has it that third party file explorers can't access the hard drive.
So I'm not sure i could live with those limitations.
I've not yet been able to find any reviews on the DA223hql and it seems to only be on sale in Germany so far, but several times my fingers have clicked the "add to cart" button.
I've just not been able to click "proceed to checkout" yet.
Please, someone give me some insight into these AIO's.
I trust android to be right for me in this category.
I trust that 18-22 inches is a good size if placed correctly.
I don't have much trouble living with android 4.1 or 4.2
I can manage to live with one gig of ram, though more would definitely be nicer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
don't have much input, but they are tempting me too. I may be wrong but I think android is currently maxed out at 2gb of ram and cannot handle any more. If you get one lemme know what you think, I am hoping it would be better than a chromebook experience.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

Just ordered an acer DA223hql
As far as I know android is based off of a 32 bit Linux system and is able to address up to 4gb ram.
probably 5.0 will be 64 bit which should allow ram in the terabyte range, not that I think anyone would need more than 2-3 gigs for a long time.
My Note 3 has 3 gigs, the LG G3 comes in a model with 2 gigs, and one with 3 gigs.
The Acer I've ordered has only one gig, which in my experience means I'll need to manage how much I'll have open at once.
A bit annoying but what's a guy to do.
With a little luck the ram will be replaceable.
Apart from that, the snapdragon 600 should be plenty fine for running a mostly stock android.
Unless of course the software is poorly optimized.
Not much hardware in the world can save you from poor software.
That's the scary part of being an early adopter.
At least it's not Acer's first attempt at this, so they have a little experience.

lindarne said:
Just ordered an acer DA223hql
As far as I know android is based off of a 32 bit Linux system and is able to address up to 4gb ram.
probably 5.0 will be 64 bit which should allow ram in the terabyte range, not that I think anyone would need more than 2-3 gigs for a long time.
My Note 3 has 3 gigs, the LG G3 comes in a model with 2 gigs, and one with 3 gigs.
The Acer I've ordered has only one gig, which in my experience means I'll need to manage how much I'll have open at once.
A bit annoying but what's a guy to do.
With a little luck the ram will be replaceable.
Apart from that, the snapdragon 600 should be plenty fine for running a mostly stock android.
Unless of course the software is poorly optimized.
Not much hardware in the world can save you from poor software.
That's the scary part of being an early adopter.
At least it's not Acer's first attempt at this, so they have a little experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
4 gb would make sense since it is just a 32 bit linux after all. Not sure where, but I read the 2gb thing somewhere previously. I had heard that most of those aios also used standard ddr3 so my guess is that it should not hurt to try. With the extra hdd thing, I'm sure the problem could be solved via software. Most apps on a stock kit kat build cannot write to the ext sdcard, might be the same problem you heard about regarding the added hdd.
Anyway lemme know when it comes in, if you have root and an unlocked bootloader I will most likely order one too.
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app

It'll unfortunately take a few weeks to get here.
I'm Danish but live in Cyprus.
Sadly Amazon.de wouldn't ship it to me down here, so I had to order it to my dad's address in Denmark and then when it arrives there he'll forward it here.
Sucky way but at least I'll get the one I want.
As for the limited access to the hard drive in the Lenovo model, I have no idea.
It runs 4.2 JB so it can't be the kitkat thing.

Did you get it?
I was thinking about doing similar but ended up getting tab pro 12.2.

Got it, yes
And have been playing around with it for a few days.
Here's the quick and dirty of it.
First of all the screen, as nothing about it is as prevalent when dealing with a 22 inch tablet.
It's bright and with excellent viewing angles.
Resolution is a bit on the low side considering I watch it from about a foot and a half away.
The snapdragon 600 happily chugs along on a nearly vanilla built of Android.
There is a tiny bit of lag here and there, but I chug that up more to the single gig of ram.
An interesting little side note is that the screen Wakes up when touched, so no need to fumble the side for the on-off button.
The 16 gigs of built in storage fills up quickly so an SD card is definitely a must.
As the port is a full size SD you have the opportunity for cheap and really fast cards.
I have my eyes on a 128 gig, so I can get my 64 gig micro back in my phone.
Another way to do it is to mount a USB drive, but that option is better as a secondary.
It easily reads both exFat and ntfs, so no problems with my old 750 gig USB drive.
Another side note: a big USB drive will be good for videos.
Remember that I said that I sit close to the screen?
Well the negative side of that is that ANY lack of quality in my movies show up like sitting a few yards from a nuke.
I'll need to upgrade much of my media to 1080 versions with a good bit rate. Wich incidentally means I'll need more storage.
The problems of the developing world, right?
But playing a high quality movie right in my face is awesome though.
The speakers are OK, and more than enough at my distance.
For acting as a music system I have it connected to a Phillips Bluetooth speaker, which works fine.
The biggest problem with audio is watching movies with 5.1 on stereo speakers.
You turn up the audio to hear what they are saying, only to wake up the whole house as soon as any action starts.
Maybe someone can suggest a cheap and compact surround soundbar? I don't have room for a full speaker system.
Or would a small 5.1 amp with just the 3 front speakers connected be enough?
Mostly I just need the center channel so I can hear the dialog.
Unless it gets updated to "L" it's options for audio out is pretty much limited to a mini jack.
That's as much as I have time for now.
Later I hope to get into the issues of multi tasking like floating apps and the likes.
Bonus: towelroot worked flawlessly on this one. Full root privileges, but don't forget to install superuser yourself.

towelroot
Hi
I got mind yesterday too and I agree with your statement.
It is a valid device...but when you say
lindarne said:
Bonus: towelroot worked flawlessly on this one. Full root privileges, but don't forget to install superuser yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to agree too, but for me towelroot does not work.
Can you help? I rooted many devices so far but I can not came up with this one....
Thanks in advance
silvio76

silvio76 said:
Hi
I got mind yesterday too and I agree with your statement.
It is a valid device...but when you say
I would like to agree too, but for me towelroot does not work.
Can you help? I rooted many devices so far but I can not came up with this one....
Thanks in advance
silvio76
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should not be complicated. I hope...
I installed this apk: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2h75gcp8y1r6us/TowelRoot.apk
Ran it once.
It rebooted my system.
I installed supersu, and updated the binary.
And it was done.
Have not posted a link here before, so if there is any problems pm me and I'll mail you the link or file.
I'm not next to my acer right now, so if you need to know it's firmware version I'll have to check it later.
But start with the towelroot I used.
Hope it helps.
Regards, Arne

hi
I will give it a try thanks.
Be advised 128 GB SD card is not supported....
Keep in touch
Silvio76
EDIT it works with towelroot v1, I was using v3.....
Thanks again....

No problem.
Did you try a 128 card?
Often when they write the card size limit is to avoid customers calling them and asking the where to get a "1 terabyte card" that the written specs say would work.
But it is a micro SD-XC port and unless Acer screwed something up or set a deliberate limit, the SD-XC standard reaches all the way to 4 TB, though I doubt that we'd find such any time soon.

Hi
Yes
tried a brand new Kingston 128 gb , no luck ,
formatted with a Windows pc , no luck,
partioned at 64 GB, then formatted and it works...
May be it is my card....but is strange....

Scary news.
Did you try to format it from an Android device?
When I first bought a 64 card for my original Note I had to format it in the phone before it would read it.
But I also saw a guy Frankenstein'ing his Note 2 to run a 256 GB card, and that one is rated for 64 gig max...
Of course to connect a full sized SD to a phone you need a special adapter.

Hi
I tried from the Acer Da223hql at first but formatting was an endless process....it took about 20 minutes before I surrended...and switched to Win8 for the format operation. But then the card was not readable for the Acer....so I went for the partitioning.
I suspect that 64gb is the maximum allowed on this machine...
If you want more details here I am...
Silvio76
---------- Post added at 11:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 PM ----------
I also use this device as an external touchscreen monitor for a win8 laptop and it is great...
works without a glitch....
On the Android side I installed Floating apps and Floating Browser, so I take advantage of the large screen...
Try it

And the hits just keep on coming.
Dared to take it apart today (pretty scary), and it turned out that the ram is not replaceable.
Live with the gig you have.
Ah well, it was a good dream though, 4 gigs...
Have mounted a 3tb USB drive though, with no trouble what so ever.
And I connected my laptop to the hdmi for the first time.
It works but has some weird behavior.
The picture shrunken but the touch sensor works correctly, so the further from the center I touch the more offset it registres.
Both my acer and my laptop run at 1080p, and I set it to mirroring.
The laptop days it's sending 1080p at 60 hz and the Acer says the received signal is 1080/60 so I don't see the problem.
The Acers settings screen does have a section marked by a square with arrows going out. But it ain't selectable.
Haven't seen manual resizing since crt and analog monitors anyway.
Any ideas?

Hi
you are very brave trying to open it!
As far as I know these devices (based on Qualcomm Snapdragon) have integrated/soldered RAM, so I never thought to check it by myself.
By the way 1Gb is plenty in my opinion, then it depends what kind of application you have in mind (photo editing and such can be memory killer)
As external touch monitor it worked fine for me. I have a 2in1 Asus Transformer Book Win8 based and I use the extended desktop mode.
The Acer was immediately recognized as a monitor and touch input device. No issue with screen resolution and/or its alignement.
Would you like to try that setup and see if works well? If no may be is your Acer that does not work properly.
I did not touch any setting on the OSD menu.
Furthermore I installed Xposed frameworks+XHalo floating windows manager and now I have a Windows-like multitasking.....check it, it's worth the test. Several windows at the same time (Chrome, terminal emulator, Youtube) and no lag.....unbelivable.
Looking for your comments
silvio76

Thanks on the bravery comment
Just sad it was fruitless.
I feel limits when moving my big files around in the background , and think more ram would have eliminated that.
But I'll live with it.
My laptop is an Asus u38n (the ultrabook with an AMD instead of Intel).
It connects fine to our TV without the weird scaling.
I guess I'll try sending Acer a mail and see if they have some advice.
I've only just started experimenting with the multi window funktions.
Juggling 50 hour work week with being a husband and father sometimes means that things move slower than I'd like.
But even without multi window I am pretty happy with it.
I knew from my wife's old gPad that the snapdragon 600 is no slouch.
Do you know a popup client for hangouts that works the way chatheads for Facebook messenger works?
I don't use Facebook much but love that concept.
Just haven't found a hangouts client that does it that elegant.

Hi
Being an husband and a father myself I fully understand
Concerning labour hours, my yesterday working day ended after 14 hours, so......I'm done! But we are lucky to have a job nowadays.
Back on topic I'm not a Facebook user, neither my wife, therefore the only app I can suggest, which can have similar functionality, is Lilypad Hd.
You can find it on Playstore. Hope it will suit your need!
Cheers
Silvio76

Interesting little tid bit.
I needed to empty out my 64GB micro SD and chose to format it in my note 3 (running stock).
After formatting the acer told me that it was faulty and offered to format it.
I chose yes and like yours it just stood there for half an hour with no result.
So I put it in my laptop and formatted it from there ending up with the same "faulty" message.
So finally I put used my original gNote (running CM11) now there is no problems.
somehow, somewhere, there is a difference in the way different devices do it

lindarne said:
Interesting little tid bit.
I needed to empty out my 64GB micro SD and chose to format it in my note 3 (running stock).
After formatting the acer told me that it was faulty and offered to format it.
I chose yes and like yours it just stood there for half an hour with no result.
So I put it in my laptop and formatted it from there ending up with the same "faulty" message.
So finally I put used my original gNote (running CM11) now there is no problems.
somehow, somewhere, there is a difference in the way different devices do it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi in my experience Samsung Android devices have "bad" attitude in respect of vanilla Android.
They probably have some changes in the code which are not limited to the interface (TouchWiz), resulting in incompatibilities.
This is the Android fragmentation people often blame.
However when I formatted the SD card in my laptop, the Acer accepted it without assle.
I would try again formatting the SD with the PC and see if this happen again....sometimes magic happens
silvio79