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 November 11th 2009 3:15PM
The dm3z is the AMD version. From what I've read at the notebookreview forums, the CPU is about par with the SU7300 (not overclocked), but battery life is worse and it runs hotter. However, it generally works just fine, does look very nice and can be had for pretty damn cheap at Office Depot.
There's also a dm3t with the SU7300, but I don't think the Nvidia G 105M config is switchable. And it's more expensive anyway.
The rumor on the Amazon discussions for the UL30A is that the UL30vt (switchable graphics) may be released in North America sometime in December. That's the machine I'll be getting if it is.
I have a DM3z which I got from Office Depot. :) Plays Fallout3 on medium with only slight lag, and the only part that gets hot is the HDD because it is a 7200 rpm. And that is mainly when I am listening to music or downloading files. It is actually quite cool when I play Fallout. For the money you can't beat it for a small laptop.
already looks dated. envy changed the game
Great. And another more detailed review here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3665
I really like the sound of this laptop for portable light gaming. CULV CPU is much faster than atom and the G210 512MB graphics card is (apparently) about 50% faster than 9400M. 14" display is LED backlit. Anandtech measured nearly 13 hrs battery (idle) or nearly 9 hrs battery (websurfing). And that's in Turbo (overclocked) mode for the CPU.
And the graphics are switchable *on the fly*. So you don't need a dock to play games and it doesn't matter if you're in or out. "Oh I want to play games" - switch G210 graphics on and play. "Finished playing games" - switch off graphics and start saving batteries... Appreciate that the G210 is not powerful enough for many v modern games but I think it would be about switching to different type and/or older games when using this, and still have an uber powerful gaming desktop as well.
Sorry to sound like a fanboy but I rarely get enthused about laptops (so many compromises) but I finally think we're at a stage where they have a very good balance between all the things I want (low power but powerful CPU, game playing power and long battery life + portable & light).
Few comments / Errors that would be nice to know for a new purchaser :
1) The amazon gift card is "upto" $100 and NOT $100 on purchase.
2) The long battery life comes at using Asus's power plan which disables aero (which is not the big hiccup), disables your wallpaper (again not a hiccup) BUT on the UL30A1-X5 it REDUCES the maximum processor performance to 60% of capacity thereby making running a bunch of apps switching quickly between it EXTREMELY hard and resulting in multiple crashes for me. I assume it's the exact same thing on this one. Furthermore, I really do think a laptop like thsi should be put under some kind of power use, not basic use on a 14.1 inch laptop especially when they come with Core 2 duo processors.
I've got bought an ASUS with a core 2duo etc, damn fast. An intresting feature of their later laptops is the slashtop instant on internet. Very quick to get on-line. Does this thing have it?
I'm waiting for the Timeline version from ACER. You know they have to be working on something close. They wont let acer take over the battery life game. I have the 15in timeline and I love it, but when I get Mathematica, R, minitab, facebook chat *cough* and a few excel sheets rolling I get real sluggish.
Tips to both of both companies. ASUS upgrade your webcam to the crystal eye 720p. Both of them put a configuration out with a 1080p screen. I'd take the hit in battery life for the extra space to work with. At least 1600x900!!! Am I right?!
Love Asus's new designs.
I've been keeping my eye on this laptop since they announced it. From what I read online, Best Buy is supposed to be getting this laptop and they have updated the glossy palm rest with a rubberized one. As soon as I see this for sale at BB, I'm all over it.
advantages, is in accordance with required a lot of people, especially for students ...
advantages, is in accordance with required a lot of people, especially for students ...
http://www.gadgetdug.com/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-acer-laptop-timeline/
Wow, as bad a Engrish but not nearly as entertaining.
Glossy must die.
I have this laptop; I got it almost two weeks ago. I must say, I'm very happy with the purchase! To address issues: the keyboard is perfectly fine, I really like the chiclet-style and it types like a charm (not noisy nor showing any signs of flex).
With the concern of reducing processor speed to save battery life, my laptop's been running perfectly fine with MS Word 07, Firefox, WL Mail, and data acquisition software all at once, and I haven't noticed any drop in performance. The only time it staggers is when watching HD video, but that's expected. Switch to a mode with dedicated graphics, and everything runs smoothly.
Gave up reading at "dimpled trackpad" - can't stand those things.
The gift card from amazon is exactly $100 from Amazon with purchase of this specific model. Bought it myself but they are out of stock at the moment, but I have already received the gift card. They take off $100 from the laptop cost and charge you $823.
@(Unverified)
I bought this also, my Visa bill has a $723 and a $100 charge on it...
Engadget, are you paying attention..
should stick some flaming sticker too .. it will be faster 2.00 GHz
The specs on this thing are amazing considering the ~$850 price tag. On top of that it doesn't look like a boat anchor heading to a rave, like some lappys with discrete graphics. I'm willing to slip my stick in this sweetheart.
I also bought this unit, my Visa bill has $723 and $100 charges on it.
The computer is a sweet unit.