* OFFICIAL UL80VT and UL50VT / VS Owner's Lounge *

Just ordered this from Amazon with the gift certificate: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0016P7HTU/ref=oss_T15_product

Hoping to see the laptop itself today or tomorrow. May be next week on the case, will post here about how well it fits, etc.

 

Hey can you guys tell me how to see what speed the processor is running at? Where do I see it is either at 1.3 or 1.7GHZ?
Thanks!

 

I just downloaded the Intel Processor ID Utility and that seems to be working just fine for me, again thanks.

 

can someone tell me how to turboboost my processor?

and is it possible to scroll down a webpage using my touchpad only?
i think the sticker on it says to use 2 fingers and stroke down or sideways but its not working.

also, what bloatware should i delete? i don't know whats bloatware and whats not.

 

Regarding your bloatware question, I saw this excellent post a while back and bookmarked it:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=380681

 

Angrystudent13, you can turn turboboost on with Asus` application in the start menu.

Two fingers scrolling works fine for me with Windows and Ubuntu as well as ExpressGate. I wonder if your fingers are too close together?

Ⅰ only deleted the free trial of the virus scanner. Besides that there was no real bloatware on my computer.

As expected, the nvidia driver v. 185 crashed the GUI on my ubuntu. I am trying to figure out how to blacklist the nvidia driver so I can get back into the GUI.

 

For those having issues with the trackpad and the gestures on it. You need to download the new drivers/updates for it and it corrects that issue.

 

Hello guys. Im not sure if this has been asked already. Im deciding on getting ul30vt or ul80vt. There has been some issues on the wifi of the ul30. My question is: is there also an issue on the wifi of ul80vt? Specifically the one from amazon. I really need a good internet connection and i dont want to lost my connection while on class. My class uses ebook that needs internet connection.

 

I have the UL50Vt which has the same Atheros chip as the UL80Vt and it works great. Picks up several neighbors even blocks away.

 

Nice! I guess il b getting it then instead of ul30vt that might get same problem as other ul30. So ur saying ul30vt has different wireless chip compare to 80vt and 50vt? How about ul50 and ul80 without vt, do they have different chip?

 

I was one of the folks that had poor wireless connectivity with the UL30A. I just received my UL80VT today, and I'm happy to report that the wireless in it is where it should be, super signal strength, and no drop offs at all.

Build quality of my unit is pretty solid. I am noticing the 'clicky' left side of the keyboard that other folks have reported. The UL30A had a more rubbery feeling keyboard, the UL80VT has an inferior, more plastic feeling.

In terms of carrying the thing around the house with one hand (like my trusty 1000ha), the weight isn't a problem, but the width is. I'm thinking 12 or 13" may be the sweet spot for carryability in a thin and light. That said, I can carry it around ok, definitely not a deal breaker.

The single click bar at the bottom of the trackpad was great on the UL30A, I have had some minor issues getting used to the sweet spot for right click on the Ul80. One positive I do notice is my left hand isn't accidentally dragging over the trackpad as it was with the UL30, the palmrest spacing is good.

Performance is very good with the default windows 7 reinstall drivers, I'm in the process of reloading all the essential asus specific drivers, so I haven't tried turbo mode or the discrete graphics yet.

The bloatware is hideous. Though I didn't time it officially, it seemed to take longer to do the initial boot into the shipped hard drive with all the bloatware on it (I wanted to check the wireless), than it did to swap out the hard drive (for a 500 GB) and reinstall a clean version of windows 7.

Bottom line: with good wireless signal strength, and a solid build, I'm very pleased with my purchase so far.

 

I'm planning to get an external 1920x1080 Monitor (22-24"/HDMI) to hook up with this laptop, so I'll have a bigger screen/resolution when I'm at home. Do you guys think I'll see a huge fps drop in games (Left 4 Dead/Team Fortress 2, etc.) going from 1366x768 to 1920x1080?

 

does the UL80vt support 2 finger scrolling?

 

Hi all, just want to let you know that I finally made the move on the Asus UL80VT-A1. I've been searching for a good laptop for about two months now and I had my eye on this one for quite a while. I looked at many brands and model, but the Asus UL80VT-A1 got me in the end. I received it last friday. After a weekend with it here is my review.

Strengths:
- Very stylish laptop. Aluminum lid looks very nice.
- It’s thin and light, very portable.
- Battery life is awesome. Spent 4 hours working on it (internet, word, etc.) on quiet office mode, battery still had under 4 hours left!!!!
- Large palm rest area makes for comfy typing. Keyboard layout is also very good and easy to work with.
- This laptop was running for 2 days and never got hot. It is also very quiet.
- Performance is great for that type of laptop. Switchable graphic gives you the best compromise between battery and performance.
- Comes with windows 7 x64.
- Asus warranty is one of the best in this industry: 2 years with the first year total protection. Also, no dead pixels for 30 days protection.

Weakness:
- Some people/reviews complained about build quality, but I can say it is not that bad. I do get some light keyboard flex on the left side. No palm rest creakiness as some reported.
- Screen has bad viewing angles. Resolution could be higher.
- Webcam is subpar, though not a big selling point for me.
- Asus bloatware is awful. Only good softwares to keep are power4 gear, data security manager (managing all passwords) and fastboot. Took me about half an hour to uninstall everything else.

So overall I'm very happy with my purchase and I highly recommend it to everyone.

 

I wish the laptop had a gtx240 and a intel GMA switchable graphics. That would be awesome!!!

 

just ordered my UL80VT the other night.. i cant wait to get it in.

just one question. i know some say the viewing angles are bad but are you atleast able to get it so that the screen looks alright with out any inversion at the top and the bottom being not washed out like on some cheaper laptops?

also hows the back lighting any bleeding?

thanks

 

yes it does but i dont really like it and don't use it much. it isnt very smooth and too jittery.

 

I simply do not understand how people can be complaining about bloatware. Have you guys even SEEN what HP and Dell laptops come with when you first turn the machine on?

Asus has maybe 2 or 3 bloatware programs(anti-virus, office trial, etc). Most of them are truly utilities you are GOING to use. I actually spent a lot less time removing bloatware than I expected. Compared to Dell or HP, this thing has little to no bloatware.

As for people complaining about the initial boot time, I agree that it was a bit long. But it is DEFINITELY not due to the bloatware, it is due to the first initiation of windows 7 on your computer. I know this to be a fact because the 2nd time I turned on the computer, all the bloatware was still on the pc, yet the boot time was 1/5 of the time I turned it on the first time.

________________________________________

So I finally decided to keep the laptop and not exchange it for the ul80vt. The reason for this is because of the nice big screen. I recently tried Street Fighter IV on it, and I think that it is the best alternative to playing it on an HD tv. It looks absolutely gorgeous. Secondly, I originally felt the ul50vt was a bit too big for me. I bought a nice belkin sleeve for it from fry's and to my surprise, it fit in my backpack(jansport) very snuggly. If any of you guys have questions about games on this laptop, feel free to ask. I am currently installing NBA 2k10 and Dynasty Warriors 6. I have tried l4d, l4d2, tf2, CS1.6, CS:S, C&C:RA3, Borderlands, COD: MW2, and a few others. Feel free to shoot questions my way.

 

hey did you guys peel your stickers off safely or will it leave glue marks and stuff.

also whenever i close my lid, the notebook turns off and i have to press power again. how do i stop this? i just want it to go into a low power state and start up immediatly when i flip the lid up.

 

I left the intel, nvidia and win 7 stickers. All others removed without leaving any glue.

 

Power settings.

 

For using Ubuntu, couldn't you guys just disable the secondary gpu? This would save so much power.

 

Sorry, I'm not quite up to reading the entire topic, but can anyone help me with my decision to buy a ul80vt or not? I'm torn between the ul80vt and one of the ul30 models. I certainly like the bigger screen and lower price tag of the ul80, but I've heard that the screen isn't spectacular and that the build quality is a bit lower. I'm usually fairly careful with my computers, and I don't fly too terribly often. Any comments? Thanks.

 

I am considering a UL80vt. One use of it would be to watch movies when traveling on an airplane. I'd want to place it on the fold-down tray usually used for meals/snacks.

I read one comment that said a 14" notebook PC is too big to comfortably use in coach class unless you happen to get an exit aisle seat. Can anyone who has used laptops on an airplane comment on this?

 

I am also interested to know, I will be traveling more once I start college and it would be great if the UL80VT fits nice in economy class,

 

Something interesting I just noticed. When the integrated graphics are being used, the TurboBoost sets the processor speed to 2.1ghz. Much faster than the 1.3ghz default! But when the discreet graphics are enabled, the processor speed is set to 1.7ghz, probably because of the extra heat from the discreet graphics card.

 

i know quadron posted some screenshots, but i was wondering if anyone has played DRAGON AGE ORIGINS on the UL80vt-A1 or UL50vt yet?

how did it run? was it playable? on what settings?

this is the only game i'd like to play on this laptop.

 

Yes. Since the graphics card is the Nvidia 210M it won't be able to handle at 1920x1080. You will see a huge drop in FPS i believe.

It runs the current games smoothly because the resolution is so small. It won't be able to handle it at higher resolutions. You'll have to play it at 1366x768 or 1280x800 on the big monitor as well.

 

That's sad to hear

 

Hi, So I've had my UL80VT-A1 for a couple weeks now, and I really enjoy it. I am just going to give you my impressions of it so far. I am by no means an expert!

Pros:

Battery Life: (I'm not going to go into this, because everyone knows it is stellar)
Wireless: (I was worried from previous accounts [mainly for the ul30] that it would be bad, but it performs beautifully. I get a much stronger signal than my girlfriend's Acer. I've gotten easily over 1 mb/s on my standard cable. This is with the Atheros chip)
Performance: (It handles 1080p youtube in full screen wonderfully, using the 210m of coure, It stuttered on the intel graphics using battery saving mode which is to be expected. I havent tried any games)
Appearance: (It looks beautiful, perfect size. Although It attracts fingerprints like crazy)
Trackpad: (I really like the trackpad, I had to turn up the sensitivity, but it performs beautifully. Occasionally it senses accidental clicks, but I've never used a laptop that doesnt)

Neutral:

Screen: (The screen is very beautiful, but has poor viewing angles. I use 75% brightness when plugged in, 40% brightness on battery and it is bright enough for word processing)
Fans: (Funny that a lot of people dont talk about this, but the fan runs for 80-90% of the time, although very quietly. It only turns off using the intel graphics, and will only stay off for roughly 3-5 minutes before turning back on. The fan on the NVIDIA graphics is a little louder, and I can feel it output more heat, but it is still very smooth and quiet. The fan ramps up quite quickly when you are doing anything graphics intensive, even though the bottom of the laptop still feels cool).

Cons:

Build Quality: There is a small amount of flex when it is on a hard surface to the left of the trackpad but it does not bother me too much. However, when it flexes, it squeaks a bit which can get annoying. This only happens when I place by palm in a specific area, and is not an issue when I have it on my lap (the majority of the time)

Other Notes:

I was having a small issues with the Power4Gear software. Whenever I would switch to performance mode, the taskbar would autohide (even though I set this option off several times, it would always do it going from battery mode to performance mode). However, once I updated the Power4Gear off of ASUS' website, the problem was fixed.

I also had a couple issues with not being able to switch the brightness after switching between the profiles in the Power4Gear software. Since updating it, I havent had this happen yet although I havent tested it very much.

I have no problem with wobbly battery, or any issues with the keyboard. They are both solid, and there is no rattling.

 

so im guessing all UL80VT models have a proper working Atheros card?

I was going to wait for the UL30VT because I thought the UL80VT also had problems getting signal through wifi but i'm starting to get a little impatient. hehe.

 

Since it ran mw2 fine, dragon age should play no problem at medium.. it's not a really demanding game, and it's not real dependent on fps

 

i know alot of you say it has poor viewing angles but is there an actual sweet spot for vertical? sometimes you get laptops where the top is inverted and the bottom is washed out no matter where ya adjust the screen.

i just hate laptops were on dark scenes all the blacks at the top of the screen go inverted and get a shimmering look to them.

can some one please answer this question i would appreciate it

 

So would you say that the build quality issues are slightly exaggerated? It still feels like a decent PC? I'd really like the slightly larger screen coupled with the lower priced of the UL80vt, but I'm a little concerned about the PC being too flimsy...

 

The left keyboard flex is noticeable, but not a deal breaker. Otherwise, I'd say the build quality is good, and it's a solid feeling machine. My company is a 99% Dell shop, and other than the keyboard flex, the UL80vt feels more solid than the Dell E6400's I have set up at work.

 

Dragon age origins runs smooth as silk on medium settings (ul80vt).

 

Guys, I have a question about fn keys. Everytime I use the fn key with the play button (down arrow) i starts windows media player. The thing is that I use winamp for my music, but it doesn't allow me use these keys with it. Any way I could fix that?

 

thanks guys!

 

could someone please answer my question. ive asked a few times yet no response yet.

 

i think i'm going to get one of these.

i'm thinking about getting an SSD as well.

any of you guys install one on your own? was it different than such an installation would have been on another notebook? which SSD did you go with?

thanks again guys. reading through this thread has helped convince me, albeit in a realistic manner that the UL80vt is the right notebook for me.

 

also, for those with SSDs installed.

is the difference noticeable? have there been any problems?


thanks!

 

I dont think this one was posted yet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112400044.html

 

When displaying normal images, the colors usually look good. For dark scenes, if the screen isn't angled right, there's often a gradient where the top of the screen is darker than the bottom. Sometimes it's hard to adjust the screen to get a uniform level of darkness, though the effect usually isn't too bad. It's most noticeable when the screen is completely black and there isn't much light in the room (when there is light in the room, a black screen will act as a mirror). Also, sitting farther from the screen helps.

 

After playing around with it for a while, the build quality does seem to be lacking along the front edge. If I push down roughly 2 inches left and right of the trackpad (near the edge), the palmrest will flex and I can see the the top part slide a couple millimeters or so from the bottom. When resting my hands on it, however, the right-side flex is unnoticeable. The left side does flex when moderate pressure is put on it. It only does this when I initially put my hand down, however. When typing, it is unnoticeable (although sometimes I can hear it squeaking faintly). Seems there is definite room for improvement, but with all the pro's about this laptop, it seems very insignificant to me

 

I have one with a SSD, X-25 G1 (G2's were out of stock) that xoticpc installed. As for a noticeable difference, I dont know what it would be like without the SSD so hard to say. I can say this thing is smoking fast, well to me anyway. It is definitely the fastest computer I have ever used. In saying that, I dont game so it is smoking fast to open apps, search the web, be ready to go once I am on the desktop screen after bootup, etc. No problems other than backup software wont work.

 

Can anyone answer my previous question?

 

have a look here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=150016

NB get 64bit drivers.

 

Thank you!!

 

I threw in my 60gb ocz I had for games in my desktop. It's about as easy an install as possible -- just a cover and a drive mount.

It's pretty fast, not as fast as possible, but the disk score is 5.9 now.

4.9 cpu / 5.4 memory / 4.9 aero graphics / 5.9 game graphics / 5.9 hard disk

 

So after 3 days with the ul80vt, it started making the palmrest creak sound. Damn. I really thought I avoided this issue. Quadron, I know that you sent it to Asus to fix that, what heppenend finally?