ASUS UL30Vt-A1 pops up on Amazon for pre-order: silver, 5600mAh battery, $849
By Darren Murph 
posted January 4th 2010 6:13AM
posted January 4th 2010 6:13AM
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posted January 4th 2010 6:13AM
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It has a Geforce G 210M + GMA 4500MHD and 4GB of DDR3. Not too shabby for a CULV.
I have the UL30A and love it. It plays all my Hulu video at high settings, full screen and the battery lasts forever. And I only payed $650 from Amazon 2 months ago (has gone up in price since release). I truly do not see the need for a dedicated graphics card since the 4500MHD already handles media by itself.
@AuDioFreaK39
That G210 is awesome. I've gotten near 4,000 3D Mark 06, can play Crysis on Medium at native res. Dragon Age, BioShock, Mass Effect all play beautifully.
And when it's time to watch Hulu/Netflix in bed, I switch it to integrated graphics (on the fly), and get 8 hours battery life.
It's basically a full-fledged laptop with the weight and size of essentially a MacBook Air, for half the price.
No complaints here!
@AuDioFreaK39 CULV is something what every notebook should have for this time. SUS UL30Vt-A1 will be available to you but not ASAP! This gizmo is available for pre-order, (price tag will be at $849) but there is no definite date when this will be available for delivery. More details: http://bit.ly/asus-ulv30vt-details
The only downside is that the display is almost as mirror-like as a Macbook Pro.
@Ducman69
Tell me, where do get displays that are not mirror-like anymore?
I've noticed a new breed of glossy display trolls that seem to be taking over.
@Streetfights - There are three types of screens; uncovered matte and glossy and glass covered glossy. While this Acer is of the second variety, its still pretty bad.
This is just too great a sacrifice of function for a minor aesthetic benefit:
http://img1.digitalversus.com/news/6/6439/web2%281939%29.jpg
@Ducman69
There's a huge difference between Acer and Asus.
This is perfect for people like me who stays on board an airplane for 19 hours just to get to Hong Kong from the US. I would like to see Mac Users find an extra battery =D
@Techie
Well if you bought your Macbook Pro at the beginning of last year like I did, then you would have the opportunity to easily hot swap your battery with the touch of a button.......
It just goes to show that when you LISTEN to your customers the results can be amazing. I hope many companies that have traditionally shunned customer feedback in favour of their own internal think tanks take note. This traditionally includes companies such as Sony and increasingly companies like Intel - to name just a few. Customer feedback drives products of tomorrow, not companies.
my ul80 comes in the mail tomorrow! I'm very excited. That's the 15.6in model for the people that aren't up on the numbering.
@dds1043 Are you looking for the 15.6"? If so then you are not going to be happy tomorrow... the 15.6" is the UL50. The UL80 is a 14".
@dds1043 BTW if you order the 15.6" on newegg right now they are giving a free 16GB Zune HD!
@(Unverified) Are you sure it's a 16GB Zune HD? I didn't see anything other than just ZUNE MP4 player.
@thatsme
Add it to your cart, and it tells you.
ASUS UL50Vt-X1 has been added to your cart.
Your shopping cart includes FREE GIFT(s)
Microsoft Zune HD 3.3" Black 16GB MP3 / MP4 Player
@ridata Of course I'm getting it from Newegg and getting the Zune HD and I meant 15.6
I have a big question.
Is the cable the connects the screen the same on most laptops? I found a couple of places for the model of LG LED 15.6 1080p screen. :)
It's either this or the UL30A... My only issue would be the lack of proper linux support for the switchable graphics. There are some solutions, but they're not close to being stable or day-by-day usable.
Asus, you are fucking amazing. :)
@thoughtmonster
right now there is a Linux module to switch on/off the card, but it will need at least an X server logout and login. We aren't at the same level of functionality that Windows has for this laptop, but other switchable graphics laptops are screw'd up in Windows 7, and no updated drivers are available. On OSX, the switch also needs a logout and login, BTW :-)
Sorry for the silly question but.... the specs list a 0.3 magapixel cam. 0.3? Really? i thought the bottom of the barrel today was 1.3???
Typo?
@jnoel
0.3MP (640x480) is fine for video calls which is all this camera is for.
@jnoel
It's not like you're going to use an integrated webcam for serious artistic photography.
@(Unverified)
I hear you guys, but then again for 850 bucks I would think it would have been a better cam.
In an era of faster internet connections, HD everywhere including YouTube etc, you would think webcams would be getting better and better.
@jnoel - pretty sure webcams are still relegated to cyber sex use, and too high a resolution would be as bad as installing Walmart florescent lighting in a strip club.
@Ducman69
LOL
Well for me, I travel a lot. So this is how I say goodnight to my kids about 120 days a year....
I've been thinking about getting an ASUS UL30Vt recently, but was somewhat put off after playing around with a UL30A in a local store The base of the keyboard gave in too easily. I've also read less flattering comments on the Internet about the quality of the screen. And I didn't like the touchpad much... it seemed hard to get used to. Does anyone have the same concerns? I like everything else about the machine obviously.
@fatjoe
Actually I was kind of let down by the multitouch. I was hoping for swipe gestures for webpage navigation.
This will likely become mine, assuming nothing else similar comes out of CES that tempts me more.
where have i seen this computer before???
Compared to the HP dm3t I ended up getting, I'm constantly faced with buyers regret when seeing this laptop. The specs I bought the dm3t at, brought the price higher than this ASUS, but only beats it in the processor while losing out on everything else that matters too, like battery life, and even the graphics card.
At least HP has a generous return policy...
@Kyang
Doesn't the dm3 also have the same SU7300? And besides, the UL30Vt can overclock from the 1.3 GHz to 1.73 GHz.
@Peytral
I selected sp9300 while, "Customizing" it. All of the listed ASUS's on Amazon have a bigger hard drive too. Ah well.
Good setup as for specs on this ASUS product. I like!
Though I can't see an indication for sure at Amazon, I believe the A1 models come with a 2 year warranty, versus a 1 year warranty for the X1 models, which is a nice extra in addition to the battery upgrade for $50.
@smackrabbit Just like the UL30A-X5 and the UL30A-A2 differ in color (black vs. silver), battery spec. (4400mAh vs. 5600mAh) and warranty (1 year global and 1 year accidental vs. 2 years global and 1 year accidental), so do the UL30Vt-X1 and the UL30Vt-A1.
It looks like the X1 model supports up to 8GB (but comes with 4GB). The A1 model has a maximum of 4GB.
ahh... too expensive, i would prefer the sony vaio's anyday
@madmax123
Show me a vaio for $850 with around 10 hours of batt life with switchable graphics and a overclockable CPU.
Did they soften up the trackpad button so your thumb doesn't explode when trying to click on it? It seems every Asus I've played with in the stores recently has this deal breaking problem...
I don't quite get this model. Besides turning the trim silver and reducing the maximum memory to 4GB, what has changed? Why is it $50 more?
@bernardchen
Longer warranty, Bigger battery and it comes in silver. That is about it really. I think the RAM Limit is a typo, either on ASUS or Amazon's part. They should all be the same internally.
@bernardchen
The batter has more mAh (5600 vs 4400 for the X1) which will get it closer to the projected usage time.
@HaoleM I see. Amazon said 12 hours of rated time and an 8 cell battery for both, so I couldn't tell if it was a higher capacity battery.
I got the UL80 last week and think it's better for me since it has a slightly larger screen and built-in DVR-RW drive which makes it a little heavier, but still fairly light. It has the hybrid processor and both graphics cards and I also believe the rest of the specs are about the same. Kick ass!
Besides a few quirks, this is most probably the best laptop on the market for me (good performance and v. good battery life).
I've been looking into getting the UL30VT-X1 since early December and nobody knows when it's going to hit Europe (i.e. UK or Belgium). I've trawled the forums and the internet. ASUS doesn't seem to care about us fellow Europeans at all. Their Belgian website for example (www.asus.be) reminds me of web design back from the days of angelfire and bash (hah!).
i am 18 months away from my next laptop, but ill take the '11 UL30Vt, please
I find it amusing that this comes out, Amazon's price for the UL30Vt-X1 goes back down to $800 when it was at $950 for a while...
This is awesome, awesome. I was hoping they'd release the Vt variant in less fingerprint-prone silver, and my hopes were rewarded!
Now if only Asus can avoid discontinuing this model before I can get the money to buy it...
Can anyone confirm if this thing has space for 1 or 2 hard drives?
I presume only 1 but 2 would be awesome for SSD + storage HDD...
I did my research when the x1 came out, and i've been waiting for the silver color and bigger battery... and now I bought mine! and it arrives the 24th of this month WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
My last laptop was a sony FW series, 16.4 inch, 6.2 lbs, with blu-ray burner. I replaced the HDD with a 7200rpm sea-gate and lowered the voltages on the processor and still added about 30 min of batter life to the sucker. I loved it, but it was unnecessary since my desktop had a q9550 that i got running @ 3.6ghz and 1133mhz 5-4-4-10 ddr2 (i've had it for a long time) and more boring specs and so on, whatever.
Cant wait to get my new laptop since all i want it for is simple gaming and watching movies on my big screen for hours and hours and hours.
I have the UL30A-X5, its that one above in all Black without the Nvidia Graphics. bought it back in Novemeber and its the best purchase I ever made! I LOVE IT! THANK YOU ASUS, nobody else does it better when it comes to computers!