ASUS' 11-inch U2E laptop gets reviewed

You already knew those lucky souls over at PC Perspective had a U2E of their very own, but now that you're done gawking at the unboxing shots, how's about a bona fide review? Thankfully, ASUS' 11-inch ultraportable is indeed the latest lappie to be put through the proverbial paces, and as expected, it performed like a champ -- considering it's wee size, of course. The machine didn't blow by any benchmarking sessions or anything, but again, it was never meant to be your primary gaming rig when heading off to a LAN party. All in all, reviewers found very (and we stress very) little to complain about, and even went so far as to call it "one of the best notebooks to hit the ultra-mobile market, ever." Not at all enthused about the MacBook Air or Lenovo X300? Then by all means, give that read link some love -- chances are the U2E is just what the doctor ordered.

[Kamall @ Mar 4th 2008 8:02PM]

This is the Vaio TZ's main competitor, same 11" screen and form
factor. I do like how this can be upgraded to 4gb of ram vs 2gb in
the TZ and uses the newer 965 chipset, X3100 graphics vs 945/GMA 900
in TZ. And VGA and micro-DVI output vs just VGA output in the TZ.

By the way, I am a Sony fan and own the TZ130N/B model and love it. Though my future may be Asus. I hear their notebooks get mediocre battery life in general, but if their battery benchmarks are true, its quite impressive and on par with the TZ. My next notebook may be Asus's next U series with Montevina. But I can't wait to see the successor to the TZ also.

With the previous U1E, the ram and hard drive were both accessible on
the bototm, why did you remove that from its sequel Asus? Its the same
as the TZ now.

[dave @ Mar 4th 2008 8:04PM]

...MSRP of $1999 USD The SSD version of the U2E (U2E-A2B) will be available near the end of March with an MSRP of $2699.

Nice, but not THAT nice

[Naveed @ Mar 4th 2008 9:59PM]

I like it when the first post is informative. Especially when I dont RTFA. I was planning on buying montevina ASAP, but HP just ordered me a new laptop(warranty on 3.5 year old laptop), so I guess I have to get use out of that first for atleast a year. Montevina sounds exciting though, weve been on DDR2 for a while now.

[Mush @ Mar 4th 2008 10:02PM]

Why is it that Something like the U3S which came out last year didnt get as much reviews and stuff? =\ im confused

[webon @ Mar 5th 2008 2:59AM]

@mush: battery life was shite.
@Kamall: TZ2x FTW

[RyanTV @ Mar 4th 2008 8:21PM]

Sorry but 1.06GHZ?

FAIL

Even in an ultra portable - I'm going to expect a bit more horsepower at that price point.

[matthew @ Mar 4th 2008 8:28PM]

enough with the FAIL comments... that 15 minutes passed a long time ago

[Homeboy @ Mar 4th 2008 8:31PM]

You're missing the point. This is a true ultra portable with a small finger print and excellent battery life. The power is adequate for surfing, word processing and DVD playback on the go. More powerful processor = shorter battery life. This is designed for real road warrior who want something snappy with battery life which last long.

And honest, the price is not that bad either if you compare with what Sony is charging for their TZ-series.

[Reader @ Mar 4th 2008 8:33PM]

1Ghz really isn't all that bad. Comp I'm typing from has a 1Ghz and 1.5gigs of RAM. Runs everything I need it to from Office 2007 to EVE Online (When I played). Quake 4 laughed at me trying to install it though :(

[Wolfticket @ Mar 4th 2008 9:03PM]

That's 2x 1.06GHz cores remember, and they are new core 2 duo GHz, not Pentium 4 ones.

[Yubastard @ Mar 4th 2008 9:10PM]

@wolfticket ^^^

that is a nice argument.

[Bazza @ Mar 4th 2008 8:50PM]

Its not too shiny, its not too black, its neat nice and looks well built. I like it.

Not a poser, not a wall flower, its just right and does what its meant to do.

[Kamall @ Mar 4th 2008 8:52PM]

Right, my Vaio TZ has the same processor as this Asus, Intel Core 2 Duo ULV U7500. Yes, 1.06ghz looks slow on paper but with 2gb of ram, it can run many tasks asked of it, short of heavy number crunching, gaming, etc. of course.

These processors pack more punch than you think. I can't wait to see the Montevina ULV processors in the next Asus/Vaio 11" notebooks.

[Peter Payne @ Mar 4th 2008 10:12PM]

Damn, color me impressed. I like this so much more than the cramped EEE PC I dick with while watching TV late at night.

[The Dude @ Mar 4th 2008 10:52PM]

"On the bright side, ASUS did indicate that buyers of the 32GB SSD model will get an external 160GB drive included at no cost."

That's pretty damn awesome and would alleviate by sense of claustrophobia with the small SSD. The thing is I wouldn't have the extra money to fork over more $$$ for SSD to begin with but it's good for those who do. I'll be keeping an eye on Asus when I have the money and urge to splurge on another notebook (in the ultra-portable class, anyway.)

[webon @ Mar 5th 2008 2:55AM]

The SSD version of the U2E (U2E-A2B) will be available near the end of March with an MSRP of $2699.
yeah that ain't cheap

[boe @ Mar 4th 2008 11:36PM]

Slow processor, slow OS - what's the hype about?

[webon @ Mar 5th 2008 2:57AM]

price point, size (11inch), looks, battery life.

[brian @ Mar 5th 2008 12:10AM]

"Not at all enthused about the MacBook Air or Lenovo X300? Then by all means, give that read link some love -- chances are the U2E is just what the doctor ordered."

Incredible...you took the words out of my mouth

[Arash @ Mar 5th 2008 2:36AM]

Does anyone know when this is going to be sold in Europe and what the price indication is going to be?

[ijyt @ Mar 5th 2008 4:41AM]

Old U6S was £1,600, exchange rate for U2E says £1,300, so expect it around that spectrum.

[Cal @ Mar 5th 2008 11:55AM]

Problem is that America almost always get things cheaper, I'd be looking more at the £1500+ price point

[bo derek @ Mar 5th 2008 10:40AM]

Still no better than the Vaio G...which also runs for about 8 hours without that chunky 9-cell sticking out the back.

[ijyt @ Mar 5th 2008 4:33AM]

My god, that's the sexiest ultraportable I've seen.

But unfornutately the price is way out of my range. I'd love to have it but... the Asus Eee PC 900 wins this time.

[qwert @ Mar 5th 2008 5:10AM]

me likes.
now just give this thing a real operating system and a non glare screen and get rid of the goddam fan.

[ijyt @ Mar 5th 2008 10:42AM]

I'm sorry, but how much more real can you get? Are you suggesting Vista is fake?

Instead of whining like a little boy about how much you don't like it, go buy another XP cd and install that.

[Arash @ Mar 5th 2008 8:43AM]

They shouldn't price this above the 999 euros! Otherwise its just too expensive.

I love the Eeepc 9 inch version. I wish they would make a 11 inch version with 2x the options and 2x the price. I would definitly pay 800 euros for a nice 11 inch laptop, without any heavy specs, but with enough to make it a nice portible business laptop.