Asus UL30A

Soldato
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Picked up my laptop last week, and thought I'd post my thoughts on it after having it a few days.

Aesthetically it's a really nice looking machine, it feels well built enough (certainly doesn't feel cheap).

The keyboard is pretty nice to type on, the layout is decent enough and there's not too much flex in it. The trackpad took a while to adjust too, and is a little over sensitive - but overall it's pretty good. It's no a synaptics pad, it's Elan and the multitouch drivers aren't quite that of synaptics - but 2 finger scrolling and double/triple finger tap all work well.

Screen viewing angles aren't great, but I normally find myself looking straight onto it, so not a huge concern for me. Brightness at 50% is more than adequate for me, compared to the LED screen of a Dell XPS M1330 it's much brighter IMO, I have it set to about 35% most of the time.

This version has a Celeron SU2300 with 3gb RAM and performance seems about on par with what I was expecting, flicking between media player, Chrome and Photoshop snappy enough. Although the SU7300 version is probably moreso. It seems to play 720p MKV's (H264) fine at around 50% CPU load, Flash HD I haven't got playing smoothly yet as Flash 10.1 BETA is a bit laggy for me in general useage so I've taken it off for now.

Battery life is great for me, exactly what I wanted it for. I'm managing at least 8 hours before I need to charge it - this is surfing on WiFi with brighness down to 35-40%. Even after several hours use, it's only warm to the touch so it's not going to set your lap on fire, and the fan noise is minimal.

A nice plus was the charger is pretty small, about the size of 2 Mars bars back to back - so not big at all.

I paid £399 for it (also got £20 Quidco), I was also considering the Acer 1810TZ and Toshiba T130 which both start about £460 so this was a bit cheaper than both, has better battery life than both of those and IMO the best keyboard and trackpad combos. I also think it looks better than either of those two.

Pics:
 
Associate
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very nice man! im looking to get one of thesse. thanks for the pics and review!

did you pay 399 brand new? cant see it that cheap anywhere?
 
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Soldato
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is this the Asus UL30A or the Asus UL30 ?

The UL30 has the Celeron

The UL30 A has the Core 2 Duo

?

There's no such thing as a UL30. That store has mislabelled it.

http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8CwAK6XZ0pekc7aI

As you can see the UL30A does come with a rubbish celeron and also the SU2300 which is just a core 2 duo with 1MB cache labelled as a celeron. The su2300 is still a penryn chip. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penryn_(microprocessor)#Penryn-3M

As per your other post, I think its your best option. Remember to look at quidco to get £20.
 
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Soldato
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As previously stated, there's no such thing as a UL30; it's just the store's labeling.

The Toshiba T130 is nice, and I did like it, but there was nothing in it's favour over this.

An Acer 1810TZ would be a better option than the Dell 11z, mainly due to the awful trackpad on the Dell. I personally found the Acer's pad a little too small too, but it was ok.

I'm regularly getting over 8-9 hours WiFi surfing on this thing, I'm really impressed with the battery on it, and performance still seems fine for me - wouldn't mind upping the RAM to 4gb but memory prices are pretty high at the moment so I'll wait until they lower (hopefully!) I think.

Also, most of the cases/sleeves for the Macbook Air fit this thing nicely, as it's very similar in size. I've just god a 'Contour Design' one and it's really snug :)
 
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As previously stated, there's no such thing as a UL30; it's just the store's labeling.

The Toshiba T130 is nice, and I did like it, but there was nothing in it's favour over this.

An Acer 1810TZ would be a better option than the Dell 11z, mainly due to the awful trackpad on the Dell. I personally found the Acer's pad a little too small too, but it was ok.

I'm regularly getting over 8-9 hours WiFi surfing on this thing, I'm really impressed with the battery on it, and performance still seems fine for me - wouldn't mind upping the RAM to 4gb but memory prices are pretty high at the moment so I'll wait until they lower (hopefully!) I think.

Also, most of the cases/sleeves for the Macbook Air fit this thing nicely, as it's very similar in size. I've just god a 'Contour Design' one and it's really snug :)

awesome man, think im going to order it tomo!
 
Soldato
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If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask. Biggest 2 flaws on it (IMO) are the speakers and the trackpad buttons.

The speakers are actually pretty good, for a laptop anyway. The problem is that they're underneath and having it on your lap for instance, will muffle the sound.

The trackpad buttons is the 1 button rocker style (same as the Toshiba) which is sometimes a little awkward to use as you need to press at the end of the button. This is a laptop design that really needs to die off, Asus aren't the only guilty ones of this stlye...
 
Soldato
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On the box and base of the laptop does it have a sticker warning about mercury in the lamp? As I was surprised about that now RoHS standard is about, but I got mine UL20A from the U.S.

Edit: Photo of laptop base and box label.
al20u.jpg
 
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POB

POB

Soldato
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I'm having great trouble choosing between this and the Dell 11z.

This one looks great, and I like the keyboard, but its going to replace a netbook so it might be a bit big.

Also for the extra £100 between the two, you get 1gb more ram, and a better battery.
 
Associate
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Any1 know how this compares to the asus 1201n thats just come out? was thinkin of gettin 1201n but now i see this, hmm

Im looking for a netbook/small laptop for the mrs for university.............
 
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POB

POB

Soldato
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Any1 know how this compares to the asus 1201n thats just come out? was thinkin of gettin 1201n but now i see this, hmm

Im looking for a netbook/small laptop for the mrs for university.............

You just may have found me my ideal system :D

I was worried the UL30 would be a touch too big.

Found the 1201n for $449.99 and off to America in a couple of weeks :)
 
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