ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life)
- 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor
- 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2 slots, 4GB Max
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM); Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn; Bluetooth; 0.3M Webcam
- 13.3-Inch Widescreen HD LED LCD Show; NVidia G210M Graphics with 512MB DDR3 + Intel GMA 4500MHD (Switchable VGA)
- Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System; 8 Cell 5600mAh Battery
The thin and light ASUS UL30Vt is a harmonious blend of form and function. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo ultra-low voltage processor and a 8 cell 5600mAh battery, it boasts an impressive 12-hour battery life for all-day computing. It also sports user-centric features such as a multi-gesture touchpad and provides an impressive multimedia entertainment experience with Altec Lansing speakers and an NVidia G210M graphics engine (users can turn the graphics card off if longer battery life is neede
List Price: $ 849.00
Price:
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Very innovative notebook,
I got to use this laptop for a few days and it’s brought me dangerously close to buying one for myself. If you are looking for a thin-and-light notebook with fantastic battery life and a small gaming life under the hood this is (in my opinion) the best choice on the market today. What sets this notebook apart is two things:
1. At the push of a button you can switch from a low power Intel 4500HD graphics processor to a higher power NVidia G210M with 512MB DDR3 RAM (this defaults on when plugged in and defaults off when unplugged).
2. At the push of a button you can enable the “Turbo 33″ mode which uses a mix of hardware (such as overclocking the cpu) and software to boost performance by up to 33%. I ran some basic benchmarks and it seemed to work pretty well.
CPU – The 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor 3MB Cache 800MHz FSB is a fantastic fit. Some of the thin-and-lights in this class ship with either a Core Solo (i.e. single core) or Celeron CPU. I tend to avoid both because the single core CPUs tend to choke on all the Internet Security software you need these days and the Celerons come with cut-down cache and now power saving modes.
RAM – The included 4GB of DDR3 is just the right amount to really start taking advantage of a 64 bit O.S. I also like that Asus used DDR3 which uses less power than DDR2.
HDD – It comes with a 500GB hard disk drive which is more than most users need today. The 5400RPM speed is slower than the 7200RPM drive you will find on some models but I prefer the reliability and power savings that come with a 5400RPM drive.
SHOW – The 13.3 inch widescreen is glossy and reasonably bright. Outdoor use will suffer from some glare but the backlit screen helps. I found the vertical viewing angles are a small tight but it wasn’t a huge deal.
GRAPHICS – As mentioned above it switches between a low power Intel 4500HD graphics chip on the motherboard (fine for most non-gaming tasks) and a more power hungry NVidia G210M that will really let you do a some 3D gaming (though newer games will still run best at reduced settings). This simple and clever innovation really sets Asus apart. Oh and either chipset can do 1080P HD video.
Battery – It’s rare to get a battery this excellent in a notebook this thin: 8 cell 5600mAh. I couldn’t get the claimed 12 hours of battery life but I got very close (doing a normal mix of MS Office tasks and web browsing I got just shy of 11 hours). Even doing very compute intensive tasks like gaming or playing back video I went over 6 hours. Most notebooks can’t run Word that long.
Touchpad – At first I despised the touchpad but as I got used to it I really liked it. It two-finger scrolling and three-finger right click which may trip you up at first but after a few days you won’t want to go back.
It comes with most of the usual stuff: HDMI port (for an external monitor or compatible TV), Ethernet port, wireless b/g/n, 3 USB ports, headphone jack, microphone jack, and a vga (for an external monitor). It does lack any kind of optical drive, so no playing CDs or DVDs without an external drive. For this you would need the ASUS UL80Vt-A1 14-Inch Thin and Light Black Laptop. It’s a “thin-and-light” which as you would guess means it is thin (1″) and light (3.75lbs). I also found it to be very silent. It comes with a facial recognition feature that allows you to login without a password but this was disabled by our IT department so I wasn’t able to try it out.
I see a lot of notebooks and I’ve generally been impressed with the build quality of Asus notebooks. The build on this model looks fantastic and it’s helped by the sleek and simple design: no fancy small bits that fall off in a year. In my opinion this is the thin-and-light to have if you need fantastic battery life but don’t want to give up all the fun. If you don’t do any 3D gaming you don’t need the Nvidia chipset and you probably should save a small money on a notebook without it such as the nearly identical ASUS UL30A-A2 Thin and Light 13-3-Inch Silver Laptop. Otherwise this is a fantastic choice for a student or business traveler who likes to do a small gaming.
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|This laptop is the BOMB!!! (In a excellent way),
I am told I over analyze buys and must say I have been watching laptops for a couple of years. My goals were lightweight and portable but not so small I could not read the screen and LONG battery time. After all it is a portable! I tried a 15.6 but what a moose! A 14″ seemed just right but the chassis was larger and heavier. I was worried of a 13.3 but then it dawned on me that is was the same resolution as the 14 and only .7″ smaller, not a full inch. I went from store to store lining a 14′s up next to a 13.3′s and I really could not tell the difference! Listen my fellow middle agers,I have exceptionally poor eyesight so if it worked for me it will for you! (no offense to my eye Surgeon, Dr. Barry Lee, he did a fantastic job with what I gave him to work with!).
I have a powerful desktop so I did not need a desktop replacement class Laptop. I also can’t stand a slow poke so a netbook was out and so was a celeron. The T6600 CPUS are the sweet spot for price and value and they are plenty snappy but they are power hungry (compared to the SU’s). The SU7300 was just the ticket. Yes, I got the TURBO 33 VT version but I don’t reckon that matters at all. I wanted it for bragging rights only. Same goes for the separate GPU, I want to hedge my bets in case I do some vector art editing. I am NOT a gamer.
I wrestled with the lack of a DVD drive but hey you can download ANYTHING, DVD drives are really on the way out, don’t sweat it!It’s worth the size and weight savings. The keyboard is REALLY FANTASTIC, I am not a touch typist and the keys have nice spacing and definition. (I would have paid HUGE money for a back lit keyboard but that just narrows the field TOO MUCH. Touchpad is fine also but I live with my Logitech NANO V450 mouse anyway.
The battery life is the real deal and that sold me on this unit. I am coming up on 4 hrs with wifi, bright screen, remote desktop, iTunes, 2 browsers and only down 25% on the battery. Seriously! I charge it and leave without the power cord. I really wanted the silver cover after seeing a black one in person it really showed finger prints. Silver is FANTASTIC!
Another thing I like about the VT version is a small bit quicker DRAM and Bus, I don’t believe anyone could tell a difference but it makes me feel like I have the latest and greatest and am hedging my bets regarding being outdated sooner then later. If you need to save a few dollars, don’t worry about it!
There are no compromises here and if you don’t know ASUS, they have been around FOREVER and have been an OEM supplier since, like FOREVER! Don’t get hung up on the huge name companies, it means nothing! The ONLY complaint is the lack of documentation. I got NOTHING to help me figure out the VT features like discrete graphics switching or the Turbo boost (That’s the over clocking feature. It steps the CPU up 33% This is VERY unnecessary, I can not come close to pushing this thing in standard mode.) I suspect most will never adjust these features anyway but HEY ASUS, are you listening? Send me a manual, pdf is fine! If its on here somewhere then you made it too hard to find!
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|Light, Powerful, Cost Effective 13.3″, a “Must Have”,
I have been following the 13.3″ laptop market for the past year waiting for someone to offer one with a powerful video card at a honestly low price. ASUS has done it with the UL30Vt! This is the second ASUS we have in our household and it certainly does not disappoint — the build quality is as excellent or better than the other name brand laptops we have in our stable and I traded a 14.1″ HP for this. I do not regret it.
Pros:
– Light — I can carry it one handed anywhere I go and I’m not worried about dropping it.
It is like carrying a spiral notebook!
– Fantastic video card — The laptop automatically switches between an intel video chipset
(low power demand) and a powerful NVIDIA card when as you plug and unplug the laptop
into the powercord.
– Fantastic screen — the HD screen is awesome and looks better than others provided by other
well known brands.
– DDR3 Ram — blazing quick and low power usage.
– Intel Power efficient processor — while the intel chip is rated below 2.0 Mz, it runs
quicker than my 2.6Mz chip on my work laptop that also has DDR3 memory. Don’t know how,
but it gets better “Experience Ratings”. Also, you can overclock the chip using ASUS
software, but I haven’t needed to.
– Cool — the machine runs cool. I have never had it become uncomfortably warm.
– Battery life — battery lasts a long time. Have place in a 7200 RPM HDD to replace the one
provided by ASUS… and the battery lasts 10 hours or more.
– Looks — holy smokes, looks cooler than my daughter’s school MacBook Pro. I cannot
keep her off my machine.
– Keyboard — I was a bit leery of the ‘chicklet’ keyboard as I learned to type on a a
“Selectric”. But, the keyboard supports my heavy typing style and hasn’t slowed me down.
Cons:
– A bit more ‘bloatware’ than I expected, but most was ASUS software to try to make the
machine more ‘user friendly’ Had fun figuring out what to turn off…
Overall?
– A fantastic buy and I’m glad I waited. There are at least two other named brand laptops that offer a similar laptop
(switching video cards to save power) but they run at least twice this price or more. ASUS made a winner here…
… and I’m the ultimate skeptic of computer hardware.
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