I got to use this laptop for a few days and it's brought me dangerously close to buying one for myself. If you are looking for a thin-and-light notebook with great battery life and a little gaming life under the hood this is (in my opinion) the best choice on the market today. What sets this notebook apart is two things:
1. At the push of a button you can switch from a low power Intel 4500HD graphics processor to a higher power NVidia G210M with 512MB DDR3 RAM (this defaults on when plugged in and defaults off when unplugged).
2. At the push of a button you can enable the "Turbo 33" mode which uses a mix of hardware (such as overclocking the cpu) and software to boost performance by up to 33%. I ran some basic benchmarks and it seemed to work pretty well.
CPU The 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor 3MB Cache 800MHz FSB is a great fit. Some of the thin-and-lights in this class ship with either a Core Solo (i.e. single core) or Celeron CPU. I tend to avoid both because the single core CPUs tend to choke on all the Internet Security software you need these days and the Celerons come with cut-down cache and now power saving modes.
RAM The included 4GB of DDR3 is just the right amount to really start taking advantage of a 64 bit O.S. I also like that Asus used DDR3 which uses less power than DDR2.
HDD It comes with a 500GB hard disk drive which is more than most users need today. The 5400RPM speed is slower than the 7200RPM drive you will find on some models but I prefer the reliability and power savings that come with a 5400RPM drive.
DISPLAY The 13.3 inch widescreen is glossy and reasonably bright. Outdoor use will suffer from some glare but the backlit screen helps. I found the vertical viewing angles are a little tight but it wasn't a big deal.
GRAPHICS As mentioned above it switches between a low power Intel 4500HD graphics chip on the motherboard (fine for most non-gaming tasks) and a more power hungry NVidia G210M that will actually let you do a some 3D gaming (though newer games will still run best at reduced settings). This simple and clever innovation really sets Asus apart. Oh and either chipset can do 1080P HD video.
Battery It's rare to get a battery this good in a notebook this thin: 8 cell 5600mAh. I couldn't get the claimed 12 hours of battery life but I got very close (doing a normal mix of MS Office tasks and web browsing I got just shy of 11 hours). Even doing very compute intensive tasks like gaming or playing back video I went over 6 hours. Most notebooks can't run Word that long.
Touchpad At first I hated the touchpad but as I got used to it I really liked it. It two-finger scrolling and three-finger right click which may trip you up at first but after a few days you won't want to go back.
It comes with most of the usual stuff: HDMI port (for an external monitor or compatible TV), Ethernet port, wireless b/g/n, 3 USB ports, headphone jack, microphone jack, and a vga (for an external monitor). It does lack any kind of optical drive, so no playing CDs or DVDs without an external drive. For this you would need the ASUS UL80Vt-A1 14-Inch Thin and Light Black Laptop. It's a "thin-and-light" which as you would guess means it is thin (1") and light (3.75lbs). I also found it to be very quiet. It comes with a facial recognition feature that allows you to login without a password but this was disabled by our IT department so I wasn't able to try it out.
I see a lot of notebooks and I've generally been impressed with the build quality of Asus notebooks. The build on this model looks great and it's helped by the sleek and simple design: no fancy little bits that fall off in a year. In my opinion this is the thin-and-light to have if you need great battery life but don't want to give up all the fun. If you don't do any 3D gaming you don't need the Nvidia chipset and you probably should save a little money on a notebook without it such as the nearly identical ASUS UL30A-A2 Thin and Light 13-3-Inch Silver Laptop. Otherwise this is a great choice for a student or business traveler who likes to do a little gaming.
I am told I over analyze purchases and must say I have been watching laptops for a couple of years. My goals were lightweight and portable but not so small I could not read the screen and LONG battery time. After all it is a portable! I tried a 15.6 but what a moose! A 14" seemed just right but the chassis was bigger and heavier. I was afraid of a 13.3 but then it dawned on me that is was the same resolution as the 14 and only .7" smaller, not a full inch. I went from store to store lining a 14's up next to a 13.3's and I really could not tell the difference! Listen my fellow middle agers,I have exceptionally poor eyesight so if it worked for me it will for you! (no offense to my eye Surgeon, Dr. Barry Lee, he did a great job with what I gave him to work with!).
I have a powerful desktop so I did not need a desktop replacement class Laptop. I also can't stand a slow poke so a netbook was out and so was a celeron. The T6600 CPUS are the sweet spot for price and value and they are plenty snappy but they are power hungry (compared to the SU's). The SU7300 was just the ticket. Yes, I got the TURBO 33 VT version but I don't think that matters at all. I wanted it for bragging rights only. Same goes for the separate GPU, I want to hedge my bets in case I do some vector art editing. I am NOT a gamer.
I wrestled with the lack of a DVD drive but hey you can download ANYTHING, DVD drives are really on the way out, don't sweat it!It's worth the size and weight savings. The keyboard is REALLY GREAT, I am not a touch typist and the keys have nice spacing and definition. (I would have paid BIG money for a back lit keyboard but that just narrows the field TOO MUCH. Touchpad is fine also but I live with my Logitech NANO V450 mouse anyway.
The battery life is the real deal and that sold me on this unit. I am coming up on 4 hrs with wifi, bright screen, remote desktop, iTunes, 2 browsers and only down 25% on the battery. Seriously! I charge it and leave without the power cord. I really wanted the silver cover after seeing a black one in person it really showed finger prints. Silver is GREAT!
Another thing I like about the VT version is a little bit faster DRAM and Bus, I don't believe anyone could tell a difference but it makes me feel like I have the latest and greatest and am hedging my bets regarding being outdated sooner then later. If you need to save a few dollars, don't worry about it!
There are no compromises here and if you don't know ASUS, they have been around FOREVER and have been an OEM supplier since, like FOREVER! Don't get hung up on the big name companies, it means nothing! The ONLY complaint is the lack of documentation. I got NOTHING to help me figure out the VT features like discrete graphics switching or the Turbo boost (That's the over clocking feature. It steps the CPU up 33% This is VERY unnecessary, I can not come close to pushing this thing in standard mode.) I suspect most will never adjust these features anyway but HEY ASUS, are you listening? Send me a manual, pdf is fine! If its on here somewhere then you made it too hard to find! :)
Buy ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) Now
I have been following the 13.3" laptop market for the past year waiting for someone to offer one with a powerful video card at a fairly low price. ASUS has done it with the UL30Vt! This is the second ASUS we have in our household and it definitely does not disappoint -the build quality is as good or better than the other name brand laptops we have in our stable and I traded a 14.1" HP for this. I do not regret it.
Pros:
Light -I can carry it one handed anywhere I go and I'm not worried about dropping it.
It is like carrying a spiral notebook!
Great video card -The laptop automatically switches between an intel video chipset
(low power demand) and a powerful NVIDIA card when as you plug and unplug the laptop
into the powercord.
Great screen -the HD screen is awesome and looks better than others provided by other
well known brands.
DDR3 Ram -blazing fast and low power usage.
Intel Power efficient processor -while the intel chip is rated below 2.0 Mz, it runs
faster than my 2.6Mz chip on my work laptop that also has DDR3 memory. Don't know how,
but it gets better "Experience Ratings". Also, you can overclock the chip using ASUS
software, but I haven't needed to.
Cool -the machine runs cool. I have never had it become uncomfortably warm.
Battery life -battery lasts a long time. Have put in a 7200 RPM HDD to replace the one
provided by ASUS... and the battery lasts 10 hours or more.
Looks -holy smokes, looks cooler than my daughter's school MacBook Pro. I cannot
keep her off my machine.
Keyboard -I was a bit leery of the 'chicklet' keyboard as I learned to type on a a
"Selectric". However, the keyboard supports my heavy typing style and hasn't slowed me down.
Cons:
A bit more 'bloatware' than I expected, but most was ASUS software to try to make the
machine more 'user friendly' Had fun figuring out what to turn off...
Overall?
A great buy and I'm glad I waited. There are at least two other named brand laptops that offer a similar laptop
(switching video cards to save power) but they run at least twice this price or more. ASUS created a winner here...
... and I'm the ultimate skeptic of computer hardware.
Read Best Reviews of ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) Here
I have owned this laptop for about 10 days now and used it both at home and on the road. That being said...
The Good:
Absolutely beautiful screen display
Very lightweight
Battery life (not anywhere near 12 hours though, closer to 7)
The Bad:
Rude, non-existent Tech Support
HDMI / Graphics switching is buggy
Bloatware is overwhelming
Keyboard dropped keystrokes (knd of lke ths) when typing at moderate speeds.
My problems began when Win Media player would suddenly "pop up" unexpectedly. I believe this was due to the touch screen being flush w/ the front wrist pad. Somehow the combination of my keystrokes and inadvertent touchpad entries launched the program. Solved this by uninstalling media player but shouldn't have had to do this.
A journey on Google offered up the suggestion of uninstalling IE8 to solve the keyboard entry lagging and that did seem to help but the jury is still out on that one...
As far as the HDMI connection is concerned: One of the reasons I got this particular laptop was for the HDMI port (wanted to watch Netflix on my bedroom TV) so this was perhaps even more upsetting than the keyboard problem and warranted a call to tech support. Woe to anyone needing to call ASUS tech support. For my money you are much better off spending a day searching for the answer on Google or dropping the extra bucks if you know a local tech. My first call ended w/o tech ever picking up and the second, a day later, was answered after about 15 minutes on hold. Not great but not terrible for tech support waits I guess. My real problem was with the lack of support and interest I received. After the requisite "is the laptop turned on... is the tv turned on..." I was told "It should work." Well duh! I know it SHOULD work! The problem is that it DOESN'T! After 10 minutes of this the tech told me that he had done everything that he could do and it must be my HDMI cable (which I had already informed him worked perfectly w/ my DVD player) or my TV was unsupported. When I mentioned that it could be any number of other things as well he acidly replied "like WHAT?!". Um, maybe the HDMI port is bad? Maybe the driver is corrupted, how about a bad anything else you can think of on the motherboard? His suggestion? Wait for a few days and try again! If I still had a problem I could call back. Nice eh?
Well, now for the good part. I did get the HDMI to work on my tv. How? Google, perseverance on my part and a very informative laptop help site. The guru there mentioned that the graphics accelerator that ASUS uses in this, along w/ other UL style laptops, is buggy and screws w/ the displays during certain power stages. So a simple button push, a tweak in the graphics properties, and I got it working (for now at least).
Overall
Very attractive, fast to boot (win 7), good battery life, and an absolutely gorgeous screen display that is marred by subpar hardware-driver-software interaction, poorly located touchpad and support that does not come anywhere near deserving of the name.
If you get this and it works well out of the box you will probably like it a lot. If you have to call for help save yourself the trouble and go for a long walk. Who knows, it may work when you return.
Want ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) Discount?
I did a LOT of research on this baby before I bought it and have NOT been disappointed. I had no issues with it out of the box what so ever. A couple of things I did, neither of which are necessary for an average user:
1. I did a clean install of Windows 7 64-bit and re-installed all my drivers without a hitch.
2. Over clocked the processor to 1.9 and had no problems at all. I should also add that I had been using the machine without over clocking it and thought it was plenty speedy. After the over clock, well, it just got better.
I was planning on upgrading to a SSD but I can barely even hear the stock drive when it's spinning and the thing is blazing fast (I can only imagine what people using a faster internal drive or a SSD drive are getting for response times, but I'm very happy with it as is). I think I'll wait for SSD prices to drop a bit before making that investment.
Trackpad wasn't responsive enough for me with the original settings, but it was simple enough to enter the settings and increase the sensitivity. Found it to be nice to have the dimpled texture as it helps me know when I've moved my finger off the trackpad while navigating the desktop.
Display is great. I guess some people may be used to something I'm not, but the viewing angles are more than good enough for me. Streamed HD video via Hulu, etc, is crisp and smooth.
No problems with the wireless at home, at a cafe, etc.
I don't do a lot of laptop gaming since I have a PS3, so I haven't had a chance to give that a go using the discrete Nvidia card.
I'm a touch typist so the non-backlit keyboard doesn't bug me, but it might be nice to have. Probably install one in a few weeks. The current keyboard is good enough, probably give it 4 or 4.5 stars. Not as loud as some would make it out to be.
The thing is light and I have no problem carrying it around. I use the Zeroshock case throw it in my backpack no prob.
Did I mention that this thing is fast? Yesterday I had MediaMonkey open playing music/podcasts, 4 youtube videos open but not playing, 6 other browser tabs open in Chrome, a pdf file open, an open office doc open, and doing some PHP work using Kodomo edit on the IIS webserver I setup on it. I'll try to remember to update this once I get a virtual box up on it running Ubuntu.
I'm in love and her name is ASUS.
I needed to upgrade my tech for a low cost and this fit the bill. I considered Chromebooks and netbooks which were around the same price point. At the price I paid, $350, I got a full laptop. The screen is great, I was surprised that the size of it and that the keyboard had a numeric keypad.
