ASUS UL30Vt now available at Amazon
By Laura June 
posted December 2nd 2009 8:16PM
posted December 2nd 2009 8:16PM
Remember just a while back when we told you that you could pre-order the ASUS UL30Vt over at Amazon if you so wished? Well, it's actually, really available and shipping now. The Windows 7 Home Premium-boasting 13-incher is part of ASUS's thin and light line -- with looks we're quite fond of. It's also packing switchable graphics, DDR3 memory, and a 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU which can be overclocked. This baby is selling for $799 and it's in stock now, so if you want one -- well, you know where to find it.
[Thanks, Leonel]
[Thanks, Leonel]
Meh...Better to wait for the prices on the Nehalem based laptops to drop before buying a Core 2 Duo...boring.
@surgex Cause those Core i7 laptops are 13", light, and have 6+ hours of battery life.
@The Shadow you mean 12 ^^
@The Shadow
Wait for the next gen macbook \ macbook pro to come out.
It will probably be thinner, lighter, and last longer :)
@surgex more than 10-12 hours that the asus ul30vt gets? cheaper than $800? i doubt it. go troll somewhere else.
@surgex
Yes, but the current 13" MBP does not have a discrete GPU, nor is it $799, and the next 13" MBP isn't out yet.
In addition, yes it says 12 hours, but under heavy web browsing with the CPU OC'd it will likely get around 6 hrs like its cousin the UL80vt, which is still an amazing figure.
@The Shadow
Ohh I missed the GPU spec...now that's nice!
@ravissimo
Yeah it'll get 10-12 hours if you just let it sit there at the windows login screen...try watching a movie, playing a game, or browsing with WiFi and it'll go about 6 as Shadow said.
@surgex
Wrong, according to this review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5263&p=2
At 70% brightness, vista on balanced, wireless on it lasted basically 10 hours.
@surgex Most of all, I was impressed by its battery life. I was able to get nearly 10 hours of run time. Clearly, you’ll lose some battery life if you use the UL30VT with the discrete graphics for extended periods. But aside from the GPU, the new model is pretty much the same as the notebook I reviewed, which bodes well for things on the battery front
Not so shabby indeed, More details: http://bit.ly/asus-ulv30vt-details
According to Amazon it's actually clocked slightly lower, at 1.3GHz.
@mscdex
No it's not, that a mistake. SU7300 is 1.3 GHz
@mscdex
But overclockable to 1.8GHZ! :O (Or around that)
C'mon ASUS bring on the silver one!! I don't want the fingerprint prone black one.
Regardless of the price Asus not only makes good motherboards, they are making their mark in this laptop game. It's good to know that overclocking is possible. LOL and I would still wait on the price to drop.
Need more specs though!!!
No firewire ports either on this thing, and no express card slot so no way to add them. Instead of 2 usb ports and one firewire, there's three usb ports...oh well.
@surgex
Firewire died long ago... seriously nearly no new laptops have it anymore.
@surgex hardly anyone uses firewire now, but eSATA would have been nice. Still, considering its a thin and light, 3x USB is the most practical.
@Peytral
What!? So what do people use for digital video capturing and audio production? I know there are some lower end audio equipment that uses USB (unfortunately my m-audio fw solo and my presonus firepod are both firewire based), but what about digital video cameras? Are they using USB now too?
@surgex
I have 2 USB and 1 Firewire at my current Laptop, but honestly I prefer having a third USB. The only Firewire device I own has USB as well and you will probably not be editing video or sound (examples of some Firewire only devices I can imagine) on this type of machine.
@leito
Heh! Actually, that's what I've been looking for -- a small (13" or less) laptop that's thin and powerful enough to do audio production and video editing...The macbooks are nice but expensive...and I would rather get an i7 than a core2duo...I am hoping the next gen macbooks will be good.
@surgex im not worried about firewire, i have like 5 computers with firewire and i wont be doing editing on the go with this machine.
@surgex
Yes you are probably missing the point of this kind of laptops. A MacBook Pro or other high end laptop (I prefer Windows alternatives, haha!) will probably have better specs (performance-wise) than all this ultra-portable laptops that are a step between netbooks and FULL laptops. This isn't the best processor for video editing.
@surgex this is a thin and light notebook, and most compact pic and video cameras would utilize the SDHC card slot or USB. My Kodak Zi8 and Panasonic FX35 are both USB/SDHC for example.
Professional grade shoulder slung cameras are not going to be edited on a subcompact notebook.
What im worried about is the chassis, heard the ul20a and the ul30a and the ul80vt chassis flex alot and that the top keyboard cover is loose. if the fixed the chassis and keyboard cover i would buy, but i wont until i see the reviews.
Is the inside part of the laptop (palm rest, touchpad, keyboard) glossy? I cannot make out whether they are or not from the images provided.
@Wowzers click on the image and you will see the pictures in amazon, i think there glossy,
I am trying to decide between this and the 14" UL80Vt-A1. The UL80Vt-A1 has a year longer warranty and the bigger battery, and would qualify for the $100 Amazon credit (if Amazon gets it back in stock before the deal expires mid-December). It also has a DVD, which is kind of a wash for me. The UL80Vt-A seems like the better deal, but I really want the slightly smaller size and weight.
What to do...
@andysexton i want a ul20vt but i dont know if there coming out, i like a 12 screen, i think the 14 inche is to big, but i didnt get the ul80vt because there are many problems with the chassis,some reviewers put tape on the chassis because it made sounds. search for ul80 on youtube.
i think 800 is fair, but I would snatch this up if it was 600
@Streetfights its worth it at 800. the 360 warranty and the accidental damage warranty alone makes it worth it. , you drop they fix it, you drop soda on it they fix it, you burn it they fix it.
is this a good screen?
@jskita According to reviews, not particularly.
@jskita If it's anything like the screen on the 14" model, it will have pretty good color and brightness, but horrible black levels and a very limited viewing angle. It's usable, but there are better--and worse--Asus screens.
@jskita
It's glossy, which makes it bad. Unless you like glossy screens, in which case it's still a laptop screen. :-/ Unfortunately the glossiness kills my desire for this machine; otherwise this would be on my short list the next time I bought a laptop.
How are the graphics? Will they help this thing play Hulu? (my MSI x340 with it's CULV sucks at Hulu which was a big disappointment) I'm also curious what games it might be able to handle.
@Brothernod It will have no troubles with Hulu. Hulu relies more heavily on the CPU, which is plenty fast.
Regarding gaming, it can handle almost any modern game at a modest resolution and low to medium settings. Just don't expect to play Crysis on Medium or above. 1280x720 and mixture of Low and Medium settings will be playable.
@Brothernod dude this thing has a NVidia G210M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 if you also turn on turbo so the cpu overclocks to 1.7 ghz you can play crysis on medium settings in ok frame rates or low setting with smooth frame rates.
@jodorowsky00 The 512mb of DDR3 means nothing... The G210M only has a 64-bit memory bus, meaning it can barely even make full use of 256mb of video RAM. Forget about Crysis on all Medium settings... unless you're okay with 10-15 fps. Crysis becomes playable at 25fps, and smooth at 35fps.
@aznofazns agreed, although even Crysis Warhead (graphics optimizations) is hardly a good gaming benchmark for a subcompact notebook.
You should have no problems busting out a bit of dragon age or WoW on the go at the hotel though.
@aznofazns isnt that what i said, medium choppy framerate and in low smooth. i tested it out in a 210m, and when i said the card was way better i compared it to the Intel GMA 4500MHD Graphics which it is. Why are internet users so cranky?
@(Unverified) can you name any other 1.2 intel core 2 duo prossesor with a better graphics card?
@Brothernod
su3500 shouldn't have any issues running hulu. x340 gets pretty bad performance reviews though (especially battery life).
For what it's worth, this has 2 cores, and it's overclockeable to 1.7ghz. This thing should be able to decode 1080 (without any gpu tricks).
if i needed a laptop i would be all over this. i already have a desktop and netbook. maybe i need something to fill the gap? yeah thats it.
12 hrs of battery life, the switchable GeForce 210 and just 3.74 pounds (1.69 Kg) for 800$ (530 Euros)? Well that means I'm buying one the second it arrives in Europe because it is by far the best offer around.
Whats the difference between this and ASUS UL30A-X5
@Maliberti
Dedicated, switchable GPU. CPU is overclockable to ~1.76 Ghz (~33% boost to CPU performance), bluetooth
Why do I want this thing so bad?
Tomorrow can't come soon enough!!
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Subtotal of Items: $799.00
Shipping & Handling: $17.98
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Total for this Order: $816.98
Delivery estimate: December 4, 2009
This must have sold really well because it is now out of stock... Weird...
( http://bit.ly/8sTKr0 )
Yea, it is out of stock...and someone is now selling it for $999. Booo :(