Gadget repair company iFixit has disassembled Asus's latest ultrabook, the Zenbook UX32VD, and concluded that it represents a happy medium between ultimate thinness and repairability. Trade-offs exist that might not matter to the average consumer, but could certainly entice hardcore geeks.

At the basic hardware level, the Zenbook UX32VD compares favorably to the 13" MacBook Air. It has a 13.3" 1920x1080 pixel IPS display, an aluminum chassis, an illuminated chiclet-style keyboard, and what appears to be a much-improved trackpad. It comes with an ultra-low voltage Core i5 or Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB of RAM standard (2GB is soldered to the logic board), and available SSD storage. Ports include 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, audio out, and an SD card slot. Standard video out is handled with a mini VGA port, though Asus includes a standard VGA adapter.

Unlike the MacBook Air, however, the UX32VD comes equipped with an NVIDIA GT 620M GPU with 1GB of DDR3 VRAM, one SO-DIMM RAM slot, and enough space inside for a 2.5" drive. The 48 Whr battery is also easily removed and replaced with simple tools. Along with well-labeled connectors, common Torx screws, and limited use of adhesives, iFixit gave the UX32VD a "repairability score" of 8/10.

The repairability and upgradability easily trumped that of "the soldered-RAM-and-proprietary-SSD MacBook Air's meager 4 points," according to iFixit's Miro Djuric. "Even the [UX32VD's] LCD is completely replaceable, provided you're keen on using a heat gun and exercising a bit of patience."

That doesn't mean the Zenbook UX32VD avoids having its own set of trade-offs. While much thinner than standard notebooks, it's still a "few millimeters" thicker than the MacBook Air, and appears to be slightly heavier depending on configuration. Storage is, by default, a 500GB 5400RPM hard drive paired with a 22GB SSD cache. It's a compromise between speed and capacity, but at $1,300, we think a larger SSD boot-volume could be paired with optional HDD or SSD secondary storage. Lack of a Thunderbolt port may not mean much to you personally, but the MacBook Air has it if you need it—the Zenbook doesn't.

The battery has slightly less capacity than the MacBook Air's 50 Whr. It's just a four percent difference, and one we might normally call a wash, but it also has to power more hardware—namely, the discrete GPU and the HDD. Asus claims the battery lasts "7+ hours," but our experience suggests you'll see less than that on average, whereas a MacBook Air tends to live up to Apple's runtime claims.

iFixit has been particularly critical of Apple's use of proprietary parts, fervent use of adhesives, and soldered-on, non-upgradable parts, all in the name of ever-thinner, more portable machines. There has been some evidence to suggest that the vast majority of consumers rarely crack open a laptop to upgrade or repair it, so Apple's position is not entirely unreasonable. But it looks like Asus has decided to offer an alternative to that approach which still provides a good mix of portability, performance, and price.