Just FYI Macbook vs ASUS UL Series...

I am a long time PC user. I have always built my own desktops and used them for gaming and school work. My latest gaming rig has an i7 920 oc'd @4ghz, 6gb ram, raid 0 setup, radeon 5870 and does everything in the world I could imagine, also has the new windows 7(which I love).


Well I had finally ventured into feeling like I would love an Apple for a laptop at school........before I read this thread on these forums http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428444 that was about the UL series Asus vs the Apple MBP 13" which is the one I was considering buying and after reading so many guys tell about how much the UL has the upper hand over the MBP and was quite a bit cheaper (the 13" MBP built how I wanted was around 1500) than the Mac so I pulled the trigger and purchased the UL80VT-A1. I thought I was getting a sweet alternative, something with the new win7 I love, and it is also something I would not need to learn new things about.

Now note, my roommate has the larger MBP with all the bells and whistles (paid 3k+ for) so I have seen one and messed with one in person. This Asus arrives and I am very excited to open it up! It seems to look okay.............until I open it. There is absolutely no comparison in build quality, looks or attention to detail on this thing. I'm not sure what all the dips on that forum who said that the ASUS was a superior product were thinking, or how they could EVER say that it was even close to a competitor. Maybe the price? The whole "battery lasts for 11 hours" conversation is retarded, you have to turn off the good video card and then the entire screen and all of your desktop look like a giant turd. It will get 4-5 hours max out of the non-integrated vid card. The keyboard is a pos, no back light.......it also is flimsy as hell. The mouse pad feel like crap, and it has a black piano finish inside and chrome that shows fingerprints EVERYWHERE!!! I used it for 2 hours today at school and it looked like it was touched by every kid on campus, when it was only me putting it in and out of my backpack 3 times.
Oh and the mouse pad is so ty and sensitive that it double clicks on its own, i was on my 2nd page for an online geology class writing a response on our forums and it some how highlighted like 3 paragraphs (my hand slid slightly across or something) and i kept typing so it deleted what i was doing. This sent me into a rage, and I immediately got online @ amazon, got my refund request and the laptop will be picked up tomorrow via ups for a full refund.

So again, if someone says that the UL Series is a great alternative, it is not. I dont care if the new ul30vt is silver and doesnt smudge as much. It is now just a giant turd in my eyes.

I guess I will have to wait for the new MBP to come out eh? I looked on the mac buyers guide and it says not to purchase right now. I'm impatient and jumped the gun thinking I may be able to purchase a pc that would be equal to the mac. I was wrong.

I decided I'll also do an install of windows 7 on the mac and be able to dual boot with it. This is pretty common right? So lets say I do need to do something on windows that mac os cant do, I wont have any issues.

Just my rant, sorry about the length. I just am excited to soon own my own MBP. Any recomendations on HD's or Ram upgrades? I hear you can do them on your own a lot cheaper? I just can't wait for the superior build quality, customer service and reliability that the Mac offers. I am also excited to learn the Mac OSX I hear it is great once you get used to it.

 

/ownage.

da13371lama wins teh internetz.

 

So to summarise you just can't go beyond the looks of a laptop...
You are envious of the looks of your Roommate's MBP.
Maybe this warrants the purchase of a Macbook Pro.
I just hope you don't make it seem like everyone goes for looks in a computer.

 

The Asus UL series is NOT known for their sturdiness, for sure.

 

The same played out debate over and over. There are tradeoffs for everything.

 

Aye, exactly, so I agree let's not get off on tangential arguments again....

Asus isn't marketing the UL as an alternative or even in the same league as the MBP line... they're going up against Acer, Dell and MSI with this series. It's supposed to be a good, upscale ultrathin model line within that particular market segment, and it competes pretty well in that area, I think.

 

I think what the OP learned is that specs are not all that makes a good notebook.

What sets MACs apart are not specs or even benchmarks but the whole user experience. R&D that concentrates on innovation and usability, Design that concentrates on a quality look and feel, good aesthetics, proven components that smoothly and reliably work together as a system, Release cycles that result in a well tested, refined product that can be well supported, Support from well trained, knowledgeable, onshore resources - all these things make for the user experience that results in a user base that rates the products higher than any other brand.

Not that there are not quality PC's out there, and not that ASUS is of low quality (they are not) but in general specs are feature lists are driving much of the differentiation in PC's. That results in products with relatively little innovation and usability R&D from system manufactures, relatively short design cycles that do not maximize the smooth interoperability and reliability of systems, relatively short release cycles that do not facilitate quality support, and price pressures that for the most part prevents the kind of experience most MAC users get.

I've owned high end Sony VAIO Z series notebooks before. The number of specs and features these machines pack into a compact lightweight packages is phenomenal. These are among the highest quality PC's I've ever owned.

But all those leading edge high spec components are not well tuned or well integrated or all that stable as a system and the fast release cycles and small component batches make for a support nightmare.

As a result, I am much happier with a MAC that on paper seems to offer less computer for more money. But the relatively modest component spec and modest feature count has R&D and design and build quality and support behind it that allows me to spend more happy, hassle free, productive time using my MAC than I ever had with a PC (even a premium one far more costly than even a MAC).

MAC's aren't perfect for sure, and they are not for everyone, as often particular needs (be it ultimate speed or pricing or a particular feature set or whatever) are more important than a MACs premium user experience.

 

Maybe the OP should look at HP DM3. Aluminum body at an Asus price.

 

1. The battery life for all laptops is advertised with the "maximum battery life". If you had a macbook(pro) with dedicated graphic card and set it as always on.. you should get about 2-3 hours out of a single battery charge. You can also adjust the power plan for "maximum battery life" in the asus tool so it doesn't look like a turd. Asus should've done that in the beginning though.

2. When a laptop doesn't have backlit keyboard advertised as one of its features, why are you expecting a backlit keyboard? Only U series have backlit keyboard, and UL doesn't doesn't because it's an ultraportable. Battery life > asthetics.

3. You can also adjust the sensitivity and customize the multitouch features.E.G, disable touchpad when typing...etc. The touchpad requires some tweaking. Once you tweak it.. it'll be fine and almost as good as macbook's touchpad. I gota admit, the huge touchpad on macbook is great.

Asus UL series... isn't really a bad alternative in other people's eyes. Not everyone cares about fingerprints on their laptop, or the smaller, needs tweaking touchpad, or the above standard, but worse than macbook's keyboard. Also, not everyone has a lot of money to burn. If you fit in above description, then ul series is probably a pretty good alternative to macbook.

 

As someone who does hardmod on his laptop (to improve design), modify the BIOS, find my own drivers, install Linux and script workarounds, buy replacement part to do repair IMO there is no such thing as a bad laptop, only bad users.
The only thing I cannot do is extend the battery life(without compromising performance) therefore I really like CULVs.

The issue with touchpad is a non issue.
There are many different synaptic touchpad driver on the net.
Some confer weird behavior while some are perfect you just need to trial and error.
The one offered for download on Synaptic Website itself is the worst quality, strangely OEM release better synaptic drivers.
Synaptic driver need abit of work on Windows to make it more comfortable to your usage but the effort is worth it.
People are simply too lazy to take 5mins to set the options but quick to complain about the discomfort.

 

Came into the Apple section expecting more to agree than having pc users come in and try to argue with me the fact that the UL series is not good.



I guess from the money standpoint it is. The material the mouse surface is made of is terrible. FACT. That can not be change.

The build quality is sub-par. FACT.

It is a fingerprint machine, and I am pretty big on the cosmetic/build of the machine. If I am spending 800+ on a laptop, I would like for it to look top notch every time I use it. I would like for others who see it to think "man that is a nice laptop" and be totally jealous of me. So that is my opinion I guess on the appearance. The UL80 looked great until I touched it a few times.

da13371ama - hey bud, get bent. Seriously. You didn't have to read the story. I have read a lot of stories on here for pages and found some pretty good info and never thought about saying "great story" afterwards, thats pretty rude IMO. But because I am a new member you've gotta try and make me look like a fool?

I honestly think that if they would have taken a little more time on this laptop, it could have been a great one. Get the build quality up, get rid of the shiny finish on the inside, add bluetooth, new mouse, make it in silver, light the keyboard up and it would be a great alternative. I'm sure that people would have paid closer to the 1k mark for some of these improvements.

Thanks for any input. I'll be waiting on the new MBP to come out.

Are there any PC's built out there with MAC quality and that look as good? If so I'm more than happy to take some direction. I just was very disappointed in the ASUS.

 

HP DM3 is the closest thing. Aluminium body, good looks and an Asus price. Touchpad isn't as good as Apple though.

Dell Vostro V13 uses a lot of aluminum too and has high build quality.

HP Probook 5310m, very high build quality and better touch pad than the DM3. More fingerprint prone though afaik.

 

You must have forgotten that sadly this forum now has more apple-haters than Mac-users. But jimboutilier summed it nicely in the previous page that specs-alone tell only a small part of what eventually forms the total user experience, but try telling that to someone who's never owned a Mac. If it doesn’t fit on a spec sheet it must be worthless, right?

Macs remind me a lot of Bose; the most ardent and outspoken bashers of the product are usually those who have never owned it; Says something, doesn't it?

 

I don't know who are the "apple haters" but jackluo923 was spot on with every comment he made.

For the record: I've owned several Macs and think both UL30 and MBP are good laptops. They're priced different for a reason.

 

Perhaps PC fans, Apple bashers or trolls would have been a better term? Please don't try to say that this forum isn't loaded with people who like to bash apple and apple users. I wouldn't go as far to say Apple users are outnumbered but its pretty close.

 

I was referring to this thread only. I have not seen any apple haters here or any post that comes close to it.

And actually the only post that qualifies as bashing and trolling is the OP's in my opinion.

 

Why do you think that? The guy bought and used the product, with no (evident) prior intention of returning it, and then reviewed it. That's not OK? But bashing apple products without ever owning them is fine? Why the large variance in double standards?

 

redryanstud, if you're looking for buying advice please make a thread in the 'What Notebook Should I Buy' forum.

This thread has served it's purpose.

Giving a negative opinion is fine. Bashing and trolling is against the rules. The choice of words in the OP make it qualify for the latter.

Again, no one is bashing Apple products in this thread. If you have a complaint about people bashing or trolling in other threads please use the 'report topic' function. Moderators will look at it.

But we're getting off topic here. If you want to discuss forum rules further please open a thread in an appropriate forum.