ASUS U80V-A1 Review

I have ordered one U80V that is to my wife, and was planing to try it out an see if I liked it also. In that case I also would buy one. I was planingto buy they G50VT-EX100C incase the U80V wouldnt meet my requiement in gaming, but the more I read aboutt the shortage of the U80V I am not sure I dare to wait and just go for once also. So the question is do I dare to wait.

Anyone know anything about the G50VT-EX100C?

 

I know that when I Google it none of the pages come up in English.

I can tell you that a 980GS in the G50 performs better than the 4570 in the U80V.

 

That comparison is not really apples to apples....
I can tell you that the power usage on the 4570 does not compare to the 980GS.


Also, what the hell is going on with this system.. i want it... discontinued... does any one have a clue?

 

Where did you find those drivers...on Asus' website I only see options for Vista 32/64-bit.

 

Vista drivers work with 7.

Most of the time.

 

just resinatll the drivers that run the keyboard lights and touchpad very simple. It even comes with a disk, or you can get them off the asus website.

 

Thanks - Asus website worked like a charm. Windows 7 is running flawlessly.

 

Yes I love it now after reinstalling the drivers. I still need to install the splash express gate thing but i don't see myself using it very much.

 

a lot of people seemed to get this already. anyone know of any online places to buy it? i have a serious buyer for the mac so i am ready to move to this soon if i can find a place to buy it.
amazon appears to have it out of stock btw. i am not in canada so that doesn't help either.

 

amazon is the only US seller that seems to carry this model at the moment. I heard tiger direct had some, maybe tryin callin them to see if they have any. maybe next month other sellers might start to carry em'.

 

Also anyone who has the U80V, PLEASE PLEASE put some headphones on and dont play any audio. See if you can hear static. like the processor, HDD, etc.

 

Haven't used it myself as of yet - seems kind of gimmicky to me.

As far as I know, you're out of luck for now. Amazon seemed like the only place to get it.

Messy, I just went to test it out. I find that with my Zune Premium Buds, which are in-ears, I can hear those noises distinctly, and are quite distracting. However, as soon as I plugged in some cheapo headphones (which sounded surprisingly good), I could not hear the noises AT ALL - even maxed volume. My suggestion - use headphones.

On a side note, what are you guys using to get decent battery life out of the unit? With screen brightness reduced to about 20%, bluetooth off, backlit keyboard off, wifi on and undervolted cpu (0.925V all across) I'm still getting only slightly above 3 hrs. Light usage I would say. Initially, the battery indicator on W7 told me close to 5 hours (which I reckoned was actually closer to 3). I did a full charge around 10%, and now it's telling me 3 hrs.

Maybe I should try another full discharge cycle....suggestions?

 

IIRC, you sent it back to Amazon and they fixed it for you?

I got my U80V last Wednesday so I'll try to test headphones when I remember.

 

Also, can someone tell me how to disable the backlit keyboard? Thanks.

 

To temp disable it, just use Fn + F3 to turn it off.

If you want to permanently remove it...try uninstalling the driver for it.

Update on the noise issue: tried various earbuds, all to the same conclusion: static. Also connected two sets of speakers and heard the same static, albeit lower-pitched. The only exceptions to this static rule are cheap earbuds/headphones from airplanes, probably because they can't even pick up the frequencies.

 

Yeah, I do that, but then when the screen refreshes after either exiting the screensaver or the monitor turns on, so does the backlit keyboard.

That's certainly not what I wanted to hear.....

 

Bad shielding on the jack I guess...you might want to try and take apart their unit and put some tape around the contact point between the mobo/chassis and jack. It might work.

Anyways, I should think that this problem is fairly common among laptops and PCs. It's not a terrible issue, but more along the lines of poor layout (probably trying to fit everything into a 14" chassis).

 

amazon seems to have removed the u80v from their website after they ran out of stock...

 

No. I told amazon about the static and they sent me a replacement. I sent the old one back today; after completely disecting it

 

I think ASUS KNEW this machine had some problems and they still released it. SOBs

 

If this static is the worst problem to arise out of this laptop, then I can surely live with that. One of my old Dell Inspiron's had the same problem and I lived with it...

 

I wonder why people still don't have this on eBay.

 

True, considering there's so much hype around it.

While the static issue does raise some concern, it's really not that big of a deal.

 

Also, does the best buy version u81a has this static problem?

 

Aw...son of a BIATCH!! I might just end up getting the U81A. I really want that backlit keyboard though

 

A lot of people (myself included) are drawn to the U80V because of the backlit keyboard. Truth be told: while it is a useful feature to have, it's not really necessary if you are a touch-typist. The only time I've found it useful is at night if I decide not to turn any lights on...which is rare. Most of the day it really couldn't make much of a difference.

Anyone with the BB U81A please let us know about the sound coming from your headphone jack.

 

i am still interested in this laptop, but all the resellers here (canada) tell me it has been discontinued.

 

Infonec is still selling them...the only problem is their website is down half the time...

 

took the plunge myself, made the trip to infonec, and bought it in person =D

looking beautiful right now, but having trouble connecting to my wireless..

 

Wireless was pretty much instant for me. Instantly detected my home network. Entered my my network pass, done.

tcee - mind checking the headphone jack on yours?

 

I plugged headphones into my laptop the other day, and yes while there is noticeable static when there isn't any audio playing it doesn't really make a difference when I have music or anything else playing.

And it only is really annoying if you have the volume turned up to the maximum level with nothing playing. Other than that it seems pretty bearable to me. And I've had this laptop for about 2 weeks now and I didn't even notice this problem. Probably because when I've used the headphones there is always some audio playing.

 

k this is really p-ing me off. it's telling me i have an unidentified network with limited access and it's public.

have yet to check headphone jack though

 

ill call tomorrow, but i am pretty sure that they just haven't bothered taking it off their website yet. I'll bet a slurpee that they dont have any actual stock, and that once they contact their distributor they'll come back and tell me it has been discontinued.. like ever other seller in the last week and a half.

 

GOD DAMN IT!

i am ready to order this lappy.... but ASUS has dropped the ball on getting it to distributors.

I am leaving for school in 3 weeks, which leave a very small margin for them to get their act together.... if i cant find this by then, i will buy something else.

 

you might wanna get that slurpee now. i bought mine from them just today =P

 

now you've got me excited! i hope they have it.

Any one here why it has been discontinued?

 

probably had issues right off the assembly line; note there seems to be a frequent occurrence with the audio jack static. I'm wondering myself why Asus is considering this laptop a lost cause and pulling the plug when this laptop has so much potential. I noticed that right after the vendor for staples canada took the u80 off their list, amazon.com which never had more than 5 in stock, suddenly had full stock which sold steadily for a few weeks. I even noticed that they got restocked a few times. But now its been pulled off amazon.com too and according to another post, canadian stores are telling people its discontinued. My assumption would be Asus wanted to clear its inventory and move on. As silently as this laptop entered the market, it has silently left it

 

I've contacted a few resellers, and one of them suggested that Asus might have decided to change its mind on releasing this model into Canada. He said he would have to get in touch to Asus to find out.

I've also tried contacting Asus, but they haven't been much help. Rather, they've tried to get rid of me: someone from sales told me to just "google it," when I asked about its availability in Canada. I'll continue to try and contact Asus though. I won't give up!

 

Interesting. Why is ASUS so reluctant to make the U80V more available? It's like some kind of conspiracy

 

its them darn al quida and taliban. buyin up all laptops so they can have a super LAN party.

 

wahahahahaahahahahahahahahhahahahahaa

 

It'd be pretty dumb to give up on a laptop like this because of one audio jack...this laptop is pretty much flawless in every other aspect.

What is Asus thinking...

 

stupid taliban.

 

so for some reason, the n key on the keyboard is REALLY loose. loose to the point where it basically is dangling.. quality control fail.

 

My space bar is the exact opposite, in that it's too stiff. Sometimes it doesn't register when I hit it.

 

Infonec ran out. They now have none left and are unable to get more.

 

wow i must've been really lucky. maybe i got the last one in stock?

 

Thanks for the advice guys! I decided on going with the Asus, and I ordered it about 4 or 5 days ago, but now I am almost convinced that I'll get an email soon saying it's unavailable - which sucks!

Now I'm looking for good alternatives. Something of the same power as the u80v, especially the GPU. Any suggestions?

Oh, and a good design is always a plus .

 

I just got off the phone with infonec, and they suggested that perhaps a different model will be available. The one that WAS available in Canada and the US was the U80V-A1 model, but Asus may be introducing another model, perhaps one with a better processor, different hard drive...etc.

(When I mention a change in model, it will still be the U80V, but it may be called something different, for example: U80V-A2? Just for clarification.)

 

yeah, I've heard lots of speculation, and although I am eager to believe it, I am trying to maintain a healthy level of skepticism. Still would like to hear why the U80V-A1 was discontinued so rapidly.