With the release of
Windows 7 has come a serious onslaught on new laptops. Great news for us, since we love choices -- but we don't really get a chance to take them all for a spin.
ASUS's UL80Vt caught our eye for a few reasons. The company's increasingly attractive designs coupled with a really eye-catching price made it likely that this laptop (which is caught somewhere between a full-sizer and a netbook) could be on a lot of people's radars this holiday season. The 14-inch, CULV laptop boasts an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU and, interestingly, switchable graphics. So, we decided to give this bad boy a try for ourselves -- so read on for our full impressions.
Look and feel
We're really fans of ASUS's recent
Seashell design, so when we opened the box, we were heartened to see that it is carrying some of the elements we love over to this model. ASUS's dimpled trackpad and metal mousing button is all over its laptops these days, and it fits right in with the design of this laptop. Overall, the UL80Vt is an attractive package -- super glossy and fingerprint prone, to be sure -- but sleek and slim following the recent trend. It isn't the most rugged build quality we've ever seen, to be sure -- it's thin, light, and also easy enough to bend or warp in your hands if you give it a try -- but it also doesn't have any hallmarks we'd designate as cheap feeling. Essentially an update of the
UL30A with a bit more screen real estate, and the welcome addition of an optical drive (plus a few performance-focused changes we'll hit on below), it's got a very solid feeling build, and the flush, chicklet style keyboard is really enjoyable to use -- especially with the nice, large palm rest.
Unfortunately, the mouse button isn't oriented or placed in a pleasing way, making the user experience pretty unenjoyable. The metal button is quite tight, and while it feels like it could loosen up a bit with repeated use, it's so stiff as it is that we were constantly having to press it several times to get one click to register. On top of that, it's recessed to the point of being nearly inaccessible to your fingertips, making for a rather annoying time. The trackpad, on the other hand, is pretty pleasing to use on its own -- just not in conjunction with that button. The multitouch gestures which ASUS has built into it are actually completely usable, with basic, programmable functions. The 14-inch, 16:9 screen is sufficiently bright and vibrant, but not overwhelmingly beautiful or clear.
Specifications and performance
Performance-wise, we're really very impressed with several tricks the UL80Vt has up its sleeve. This light laptop has switchable graphics (NVIDIA GeForce G210M and Intel GMA 4500MHD) allowing for toggling between discrete and power-saving integrated graphics, which automatically kicks in when the laptop isn't attached to a power supply. The discrete graphics can also be manually turned on and off with the button on the upper half of the keyboard, directly opposite from the power button. The UL80Vt is also packing a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU overclocked to 1.73GHz by default, another option which can be customized if you're not into that sort of thing. It also boasts 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. One thing which is nearly unmatched in our experience of similar laptops is battery performance -- this one is quite simply amazing. The slight amount of extra weight that comes with the 8-cell lithium ion battery will not be grudged by anyone when they realize that ASUS's 11.5-hour life estimate is seriously accurate -- and also possibly the first time we've ever out paced a battery's estimate when we got 12 hours, and 15 minutes out of this thing. In a world where most laptop battery life estimates are sheer jokery, this one, we were pleased to find, was dead on.
Other than than that, it's a pretty standard affair -- we didn't have any hiccups or major complaints, though the speakers aren't the greatest we've ever heard. For a thin and light, the UL80 seems meaty enough to us -- especially in this price range. Boot times are pretty quick, and we can't really see taxing this machine with standard use. Obviously, portability and a long battery life are the real draws here. It's got three USB ports and a multicard reader, plus VGA and HDMI outputs and an Ethernet port.
Wrap up
ASUS's ever-expanding lineup of reasonably priced laptops are also looking more sophisticated than your standard units, too, and their looks are pleasing to us. They seem to have found a nice sweet spot here at about $825 -- plus a $100 gift card if you buy from Amazon -- and while this CULV laptop's not going to be standing in for anyone's gaming rig any time soon, it's a real win for the thin and light category, where you expect certain tradeoffs. In this case, thankfully, battery life isn't one of them, and there are enough useful, pleasing features about this unit to outweigh the minor performance and hardware issues we found.
posted Nov 11th 2009 3:15PM
Fast news today today?
Wow, look at all those stickers!
You can just pull them off you know. There is no need anymore nowadays to let those stickers hanging...
All those stickers let you know its good.
you can peel them off i think :)
you can peel them off if you want :)
Good that it doesn't have one in track pad.
You can take the stickers off but if you place them on another machine you will violate the EULA
And if you read the article after this one (the one about win7 adopting a mac look and feel) you'll notice that Simon thinks that win7 is more stable that OSX.
Most Win7 laptops have more stickers than a Mac..... I believe that there is a direct correlation between stickers and stability of the OS.
Stickers increase the laptop's max speed. Duh.
Keep those stickers on. They make great wrist protection. I took my stickers off my 2 year old ASUS laptop when I got it and the silver coating is wearing off pretty badly. They're cheap protection and they probably work well.
laptops is the new nascar
Interesting reasoning... do you still have the plastic cover on your leather couches? ;)
So wait... switchable graphics. Between what and what? I'm guessing a 4500MHD for battery, but the other card?
Nvidia 210M w/ 512mb GDDR3
G 210M, which is a pretty good card for some light to moderate gaming. This laptop looks really really solid. If I was in the market for a thin and light, this would be at the top of the list.
Oh, wasn't in the original article when I posted :-)
no no no. switchable graphics means you can swap out the stickers for more stickers
Unless you need that dvd drive, probably better off with the UL30a, which gets insane battery life. Looks like this one has a discrete video card though, versus the 30's GMA4500HD integrated though, so that might push more folks into the 80's camp.
12 hours must be with discrete graphics off, how much with it on?
I'm guessing 4-5 hours.
I looked at the specifications section, but didn't see the, you know, specs.
Exact CPU speed?
Screen resolution?
Exact graphics configuration?
RAM?
HDD?
Says 13.4" at the top then 14" further down - which is it?
Weight?
14-inch 720p (1366x768) display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Ultra Low Voltage processor (1.3GHz/3MB L2/800MHz FSB) overclocked to 1.73GHz/1066MHz FSB
Switchable graphics: Nvidia GeForce G210M w/ 512MB GDDR3 dedicated and Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated
4GB DDR3-1066 RAM
320GB 5400RPM hard drive (Seagate Momentus 5400.6/ST9320325AS)
802.11n wireless (Atheros AR9285)
DVD Super Multi drive
Two-year warranty w/ one year accidental damage coverage
8-cell Li-ion battery (5600mAh)
Weight: 4.8 lbs
Dimensions: 13.5” x 9.6” x 1.1”
MSRP: $849.9
specs are up...finally
Well, it may be thin, but it certainly isn't light! Weighs the same as most todays laptops.
Hence, I would only ever buy this for its battery life (if I needed one), and possibly the looks, but it is just as heavy on the shoulders as a proper core2duo machine, only significantly less powerful!
Yuk. It's so glossy and shiny. Anything to attract customers, I suppose.
Agreed. Very nice hardware inside but there is just wayyyy too much gloss everywhere on this machine that it might be a dealbreaker for me...
I hope someday every laptop manufacturer would get the hint from Sony's high end ultraportables that laptops with matte surfaces can be many times classier and sexier than those with gloss everywhere...
The discrete graphics are provided by a nvidia geforce 210m card. I'm getting this imported it hopefully should come tomorrow, really excited. I wanted to do some photo editing and a little bit of light gaming, so the discrete graphics were a must.
How does the batter fit?
I've got the UL30a, and it is very nice except the battery does not fit very tightly. Maybe that is why it hets 12 hrs on a charge though...
the review is incorrect in stating tat this laptop has a 13.4 in screen. it has a 14 in screen and weights 4.41 lb w/battery (which noticably heavier than the 3.75 lbs of the ul30a)
Asus UL50VT-A1 is on my list for a new laptop...I was wondering if you have a review for that one. Thanks!
I bought an Asus 13.3" laptop with solid specs (~3ghz C2D, 4gb RAM, 320GB HDD, 1GB dedicated Nvidia 9600m) from of all places Best Buy, the only downside was that it is some crazy pattern/brown and no BT which I don't use. Total it was $899 and it has been one of the best laptops I've ever owned. That still doesn't mean my next won't be a Mac Pro for the actually pleasing color, backlit keyboard, and even better battery... but for the time I bought it, it was easily the best available for the money. They make good gear, they just need some design help.
What was the model number/name?
As far as I know, the only 13.3" notebook with a 9600M GT in it is the LG P310 and that's only available in Europe and S Korea.
The closest Asus is the F6Ve-B1 which has an AMD 4570 which is good deal slower than a 9600M GT.
It is an ASUS X83Vm-X1. I had two details wrong now that I'm home (it's a 14.1" screen, and a P8400 C2D which is actually 2.26Ghz) everything else I had right and those are minor differences.
The additional graphics card seems a little pointless? Can someone give me a real life examples of why I'd switch from the onboard to the discrete graphics if we rule out gaming?
How can you ask someone to justify a better graphics card if you rule out gaming? That's what its there for. That's like saying:
"The additional battery life seems a little pointless? Can someone give me a real life example of why I'd switch to using battery power if we rule out using the laptop while its not plugged in?"
No. Gaming is the obvious example, which is why I ruled it out. I'd like to what else people would use the discrete graphics solution for.
Many reasons. Aside from gaming, there's many other uses for discrete graphics. A lot of people needs AutoCAD app for work and school. 3-D modeling for movies, games, and etc. Since the graphic card supports CUDA, there's a photoshop plug-in to accelerate the work. Mostly anything that uses 3-D stuff and needs help from CUDA takes advantage from the discrete graphics card.
Flash will be hardware accelerated by nVidia and ATI graphics cards in the future. I'm not sure if the Intel 4500MHD will get it though.
12 hour battery life is insane! Only thing missing is an SSD drive. They make laptops ultra quiet :)
Greetings - Great review and photos. The reviewer on Notebook Review really dinged this laptop for a cheap keyboard. Did the keyboard have excessive flex or did it seem cheap and noisy to you? Thanks!
It IS a bit noisy -- but I really like that in a keyboard to be honest. Doesn't seem flimsier to me than other keyboards of this type, though like I said, the laptop as a whole is a little less rugged than I'd like. Pretty good construction overall.
T
Wow - quick response - Thank-you!! I was seriously considering the UL80 until NBR tore it up in their review. I really like the switchable graphics and long battery life. Another possibility, though, is the Dell Studio 14z - plus it has a backlit keyboard available. Are you familiar with the 14z - any comments on a comparison between them? Thanks again!
Check out these two forums, hopefully you will find your answers there:
OFFICIAL: Dell STUDIO 14z Owner's Lounge
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=385240
OFFICIAL UL80VT and UL50VT / VS Owner's Lounge
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428368
the 14z is heavier than the UL80vt being just under 5lbs @ ~4.8 versus 4.4lbs - check with a dell representative for a confirmation.
Can you guys (Engadget) please weigh every laptop you get in as a standard procedure. This gives the true weight. The manufacturers make stuff up and usually don't give the extended battery weight. The work "light" isn't cutting it.
I have a Sony Vgn-z series and its kinda similar to this, except ... way more expensive.
It looks like a decent laptop
i dont know why there are so few laptops with hybrid graphics. I do not want a computer any larger then a 13.1 inch. But i want some gaming power.
HP DM3z is a 13" with switchable graphics