Video: ultra-sleek ASUS UL50 laptop gets hands-on treatment
ASUS vice chairman Jonathan Tsang stated back in June that his company's goal was to "provide products that are better than Apple's," and golly gee, it looks as if the company is actually attempting to reach that bar. The UL series is undoubtedly a good looking bunch, which makes us even more excited to see a near-final UL50 show up on video. The good folks over at Mobile Computer have spent a few qualities minutes with the CULV-based machine, and they definitely dug the brushed aluminum lid, crisp display and full-size keyboard with numeric pad. But look, we're not here to spoil any surprises, so why not click on through and peek the vid yourself?























do they have any smaller versions?
there are 13.3 and 14' versions too. And they make more sense, i don't see much point in sacrificing performance for being a few mm's thin on a 15.6' laptop.
looks like a mac and im not a mac fanboi either.
I am DEFINITELY not an Apple fanboy as well but it was the first thing that struck me, it does look a little like a MacBook. Asus, PLEASE do provide products that are better than Apple's but do it with your own designs. We're rootin for ya. Lately, I think we've seen that companies can definitely best Apple in aesthetics if they try but a few still copy Apple too much which isn't the way to go.
how are you so negative about apples products when you're begging a company to make a computer that compares... you're acknowledging the fact that they have better stuff. it kind of sounds like your full of shit
Ya i agree... looks like a macbook pro with a keypad =/
So it's silver, thin and has a black isolated keyboard. You might have a point if Apple even was the first to use the isolated keyboard, but they are not. It was Sony.
good for them, ASUS makes good products. To bad they will require me to pay the Microsoft tax, I doubt they will provide a cheaper OS-free or Linux version for a cheaper price
They don't "require" you to pay anything.
If you don't want Windows on your machine, don't buy a machine that comes with it pre-installed. I don't want the Mac OS on my computer, so guess what I do? I don't buy a Mac.
uh, yes they do. It's called tying. They have to refund your money from the microsoft tax of else they're committing a crime.
BTW, your suggestion is stupid. It's easy to find a nice laptop without OSX, but there's virtually no selection of laptops that come bundled with linux or no OS at all. The ones that do are ass-ugly.
You can buy Sager laptops with no OS on them from xoticpc. The more you know.
I hate it that you do get bundled OS'es too. I got my netbook and it came preinstalled with XP. Don't get me wrong, XP was a great OS but now that I've been using 7 on my desktop for a while I don't particularly want to switch back to it.
Thanks for breaking it down, HaZaRd...
It so similar to Macbook Pro
What do you guys think?
The layout is much more similar to the Vaios than the Macbook. The Vaios and Macbook both use rounded square corners, but the Vaios has more spacing. Would have been better if they used lacquered keys than painted keys as the paint rubs off eventually...
i am really attracted to this laptop. it'd be a lot easier for me to carry around to class than my current asus g50 laptop. T_T shame on me for getting a gaming pc for school.
*gaming laptop my mistake.
coool
Im so happy with my n80 asus series(best buy edition only) it only cost 650 with 4 gb of ram, intel centrino, 250 gb of hard drive and Nvidia geforce 512mb. I think its the best deal i have ever seen. And the aesthetic is awesome(gold faded to black), Asus you dont need to copy the mac. You got some of the best designs.
Fuck Macs, this reminds me of a Vaio FW.
Glossy screen, check
Chiclet keyboard, check
Aluminum body, check
OMG APPLE uses the same in their godly laptops. DEFINITELY A BLATANT COPY!!!!1!
I'll take it in black, then
http://notebookitalia.it/images/stories/asus_ul30_ul50/UL50_b_right_Open.jpg
me too.
"Aluminum body, check"
Check again, aluminium lid only.
Oops there's a mistake there:
"provide products that are better than Apple's," is actually
"provide products that copy Apple's,"
http://notebookitalia.it/images/stories/asus_ul30_ul50/UL50_b_right_Open.jpg
What about the design copies Apple? The hinge is different and it has a mouse button, the only two similar things are the glossy screen and the chiclet keyboard. Neither of which Apple was the first to use.
Nice try but there is a difference between comparative styling and "Knock... off".
Well, if you can't beat 'em, might as well make an exact copy of their product.
xD
Except the amazing part is that its better. : D
That so totally doesn't look like a MacBook Pro. No sirreeeeeeeeee.....
wait it doesn't actually, looks like $2 budget Chinese knockoff actually
I like a big screen thick laptop, open up the hinge and start typin' on that keyboard, I'm get in an type on that keyboard, if it let me in I'ma own that keyboard.
what you say
Wow, there's people who write responses that are completely incomprehensible & then there's your response. I attempted 3 times to understand what you wrote & gave up. My 6 yr. old writes better than you.
If you went to a private school please request a refund. If you went to public school you must have been a jock & never attended classes..
haha i just wanna touch every keyboard in the world! don't worry dude, i understood your allusion to lil' wayne. nicely done.
The high five goes to the "Engadget is the stupidest place in the world!!!"
Yes, it was an allusion to a certain rap song that makes me chuckle every time I listen to it.
And don't worry, I try to use correctly grammar.
Looks like a cheap knock-off of this computer I know...
Originality is important.
looks like a macbook, hell it's even got the black surround screen of the newest design. yeah it's really hard to steal a sleek design and put new components in it. i hope somewhere in there the dude writing this was being facetious cause seriously, give props to them for what? and @matsta the macbook comes in an all black flavor tard. there are plenty of lappies out there that are better than macs in terms of specs, we knew this already, since apple writes the drivers specifically for each of their products since they're the software and hardware kings on their comps they're usually a few months behind most other computers that opt for a speedy release over a more compatible release. it's a personal choice, and i usually choose both lol. i personally don't care for this edition of the macbook anyway (my favorite is still my old 12" powerbook, sexy beast, perfect size), so having good specs in an apple design i don't care for, mad props asus.
@dALE true, but when you basically blatantly stole the design stylings of a product and then claimed to have made it a better machine just by sticking in new hardware pretty much calls for a ton of chuckling cause it's just total bs out of asus and we all know it.
Yeah the so called new 'macbook pro' design is a rip off of the design HP has been using for a few years now. HP has been using silver/aluminum with a black screen well before apple stole the design and said it was innovative.
I am definitely excited about the UL series. I hope to get my hands on the 13.3'. I must state that I've never enjoyed a hands on video less then that one. I'm not sure why he waited until 6 1/2 minutes into an 8 minute video to turn the laptop on. i guess it was easier to explain his sweaty finger = sticky trackpad theory that way.
lol, your advertisements are so subtle and well made.... /s
BANHAMMER STRIKE HIM DOWN
Use brushed aluminum and black bezel, and suddenly your laptop becomes a copy of the Macbook. Is Engadget populated completely by morons now? The side profile is different, the hinge design is different, the power button placement is different, the LED placement is different. This whole community is becoming like Jalopnik's "OMG I see a Civic, Corolla, 3series and A6 in that new Accord! Give me a break. Just because an mp3 uses rounded square icons in its UI doesn't mean it's a copy of the ipod's UI. Just because Asus makes a rectangular, brushed aluminum, black bezel laptop doesn't mean it's a copy of a Macbook. You damn morons.
Doesn't matter what your rank is, you hit the nail on the head. A few of the posts in this thread have links to a picture of this laptop in black and it looks absolutely nothing like the MacBook Pro. Take a look.
Prettier than the Macbook Pro, fo sho.
why of course, its an ANUS
But everyone need to meet some miracle after all the terrible stuff in the news and the economy!
"The rest of the laptop is plastic."
Thats when I stopped watching.
Well if you would have watched the entire thing he did go on to say that this series is not going to be expensive. They have to have cuts at some point and at least in my opinion I would rather have the bottom plastic to save a little money off the price and it also makes it easier to upgrade the hardrive and ram!!
This computer is not targeted at the expensive market. It only kind of looks like one :)
Meh. Still waiting for ION.
vista..what the hell? give me windows 7 or give me death
fuck you