

With so many laptops on the market it takes something special to impress us. And that's exactly what the Asus Zenbook UX301 did at the IFA electronics show when we popped in to Asus' tranquil off-site showroom.

The 13.3-inch stunner is slim and the topped with a Gorilla Glass 3 lid that gives it a distinct finish along with reassuring toughness. And that's high praise even before opening up this powerful laptop.

Lift the lid and the Asus logo glows on the rear. Very cool indeed. But the big reveal is its screen, all 2560 x 1440 pixels of it - it's incredibly high resolution and looks amazing.

Silver-coloured keys sit well against the white base, and if you're not in the typing mood then that touchscreen capability coupled with Windows 8 means you can finger-tap your way around tiles and the desktop. But all those grubby finger-marks on that high-res screen? We'd rather not.

There's power aplenty on the inside too. Intel Core i7, 4 or 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD for storage - but , oddly, no Nvidia graphics options in the UX301 - make up one mean machine.

But it's largely all about how it looks. If you're in the market for a small, thin and light laptop to give even the MacBook Air or 13-inch Pro a telling off then this Windows 8 device is it.

No price or release date as yet, but we doubt it'll come in for less than the four-figure mark.