ASUS Vivobook U38N

Any signs of this one in the States, yet?

ASUS Vivobook U38N 13,3" FHD IPS touch

Komplett.se - ASUS VivoBook U38N 13,3" FHD IPS touch

 

An a8 quad-core, slim chassis, chiclet keyboard, 13-14 inches, full 1920x1080, touch, and a lithium polymer battery?

Freaking applause. Actual first laptop maker to put together something like that: an "Ultrabook" that actually makes sense.

 

Yeah, I agree, I've been waiting a year or so for a sub 14 inch with Llano or Trinity to come out and this one has really high res. This one being 13'3 inch makes it pretty much like a MBP 13 but with much better res.

It will probably be available in the US shortly at aroud 700 - 1000 USD.

 

Yeah, seems to be ending up around that price. Chassis will also allow changing ram and hdd, battery pack, etc.. very neat. Like you say, it's not completely unlike a macbook air, except it doesn't have the battery glued to the chassis, has better resolution, hdmi out, and better gaming performance. OpenCL performance in CS will blow the macbook air out of the water as well..

Of course, also costs less than half the price. lol. Wonder what the reviews will be like. I'm betting on "Pretends to be a Macbook, but doesn't cost enough, and is missing proprietary plugs and connectivity options that only works with Apple products".

 

I had an Asus U24E before my E425, and i wouldn't mind this Asus.

 

ASUS already has this on their website!

ASUS - Notebooks- ASUS U38N

The spec sheet has the resolution at 1366X768 but that is probably an error since the description states its a touch screen 1080p IPS panel with 178 degree viewing angles.

 

What would the equivalent Intel based be?

 

..do you want a glib, sarcastic answer - or do you want a complicated and correct one?

 

Hell of a deal with this U38N, but is the screen matte or glossy ?

 

Says matte in the descriptions so far.

...if people are wondering how this matches up to an intel system.. An a10 quad-core 35w with an apu like this will typically match one of the new i5s at 17-20w performance-wise in any benchmark not explicitly grinding cache-hits. I.e., "real life" benchmarks.

The gpu on the a10 scores about twice the 3dmark11 score compared to the i5/i7's intel graphics. Also has the benefit of actually supporting directx11 functions, supporting all shader models fully, etc. So, very little grief if you want to run blender, or some old or new game, etc., which frequently is a real pain on intel hd graphics cards.

Note that the 35w envelope is the gpu and cpu at an average while running full burn. While the 17-20w intel is only the dual-core cpu itself at a "normal" slice. The intel processors do exceed the tdw very easily, and there's no simple way to control the clock-states.. So that when you add the intel hd graphics, the power-draw is significantly higher than the a10's 35w. A10 also idles at a lower draw. Should be even a couple of watt lower than the Llano systems, meaning that the full package is idling down towards 3-5w. Since there are no extra cards or modules powered outside of that (such as an intel graphics board or an nvidia card), that is all there is as well..

The real benefits of the apu system only turns up if you run hardware and OpenCl accelerated software, though. One well-known test often used is hardware playback of 1920x1080 video. Where you would have some 10% draw on the processor, 20-40% on the gpu, and minimal power-draw on an a10. While on an i5 you would have 90% load on the cpu, and essentially full burn on the package.

The difference here when it comes to battery life is huge. Not slightly better, or something like that - it's easily twice the battery life. Perfect example of that was the u32 versions with a Llano and an i5+nvidia card. The battery on the intel version lasted half the time when on idle, or when running the same tasks. Also did not have much better peak performance, although it did get really hot. Meanwhile, in reviews the battery life was frequently stated as being identical between the versions, since that was what Asus wrote in the spec-sheet.

Same thing comes into the picture with general low-density tasks that can run on reasonably low clock-speeds (the cores scale up and down, and can be underclocked a ridiculous amount) -- where the i5 would jump from idle to max to do some background task, or run an install, or an update, etc., you could force the a10 to run heavy tasks practically on idle frequencies, but still get processing speed fast enough for immediate "boost" response elsewhere. This means you can let the system run a compilation or some transcoding, document packaging, downloads, sync, etc., also when on battery, without instantly draining the battery. Which might be useful if you are looking for something that survives being used on battery during a work-day.

Of course, you're not going to get peak speeds on the raw processing power tasks. Add an extra cup of coffee when exporting a video-project, and so on. But if you're buying a computer for facebook/youtube+ stuff anyway: then this is what you want. Same for low detail gaming - you will be able to run a lot of games on battery on a laptop like this (while you would not be able to do that on an ultrabook without uneven performance drops until you would plug in the power-cable). Also without necessarily draining the battery too fast. Same with watching film, etc. So for that use, it's a very neat setup. There's a thread further up on the board in the Aftermarket upgrades, etc., with some practical benchmarks on what you might expect. The 1600Mhz ram and so on on this laptop should increase those scores a bit as well.

Basically, in the "good enough for browsing, and a bit more" segment - this is the undisputed winner. Honestly wouldn't be able to make me get an i3 or an i5 dual core with a dedicated nvidia card over this if you paid me money to do it. Since that makes very little sense for the use a laptop like that is intended for.

 

A correct one, sorry if my question seems goofy. I just didn't know they had any real touch screen versions out yet.

 

Could we add RAM ? because engaget said 4gb is max.... How about cpu performance ?

 

Well.. Engadget also says the iPhone is the body of Christ.

Apparently they've soldered 2Gb on the board, and there's one expansion port. Meaning you will have max 2Gb 1600Mhz ram in dual channel mode if you buy another.. say, 8Gb chip. Might be one of the strangest ways to save 10 bucks in laptop making history, but hey..

What we don't know yet is what sort of braindead settings Asus will pick for the bios. Which may or may not limit the types of 208-pin dram you can upgrade with. Note that any recommendations they're going to list will be at best guesswork by people who haven't the faintest clue what hardware they've actually put in the box.

 

This may be my next laptop. Dual storage(Confirmed?), Still fairly compact, 1080p IPS with touch, decent graphics and more than adequate processor, Solid build, and cheap AMD price. I was expecting to spend $1200+ on my next laptop.

 

This looks very good... so they are giving it 5 hours battery life, not bad.. i guess that means 3-4 in "real life". I get about 5 from my u33jc with Windows 8.

The only thing that worries me is the non removable battery, but I guess all ultrabooks are made like that now..

I just can't ignore the Asus transformer book... its really tempting, but it will be at least 1300 for the core i5, and I don't know how its going to handle the heat since the motherboard and all is behind the screen..

 

Mm. No, going by the hardware config (and assuming it's similar to the u32u/llano setup other than the processor), it means about 5h of video-playback, with wifi on, screen on full light, etc.

 

I'm throwing money at the screen Asus, take it!


Seriously, this is the exact notebook I've been waiting for. Any word on when this will be available in the US?

Also, I've been out of the loop for awhile... does PSCheck work on Trinity like K10Stat did for llano? Can we still undervolt the chip? If it's anything like llano, the potential battery life is much, much better than the stock battery life.

 

Exciting. I hope this, or similar software works with this laptop. It's been years since I've used a laptop with a AMD processor.

 

Hey everyone.

I have an Asus U38N sample for a couple of days so if you have any specific questions about it, just shoot.

Mike

 

cheers.

where are the vents?
are they hidden behind the hinge, and is the base completely smooth.

one hard-drive or two?
128GB and 500GB /or/ 128GB or 500GB........... + both 2.5" /or/ 2.5" and mSATA

can we have some game benchmarks using the same settings as here for comparison:
AnandTech - Intel Dual-Core Mobile Ivy Bridge Launch and i5-3427U Ultrabook Review

 

The vents are placed like on the UX31A, with grills on the belly and behind the hinge.

Not sure what you mean by "base completely smooth"? But it's very much like on the UX31A, like i said above.

I'll have to check on the storage options. My unit comes with the 128 GB SSD. Not sure if I'm allowed to open the unit, since it's a test lease...

I'll run the games, but I don't have all the titles used on Anadtech...

 

Oh my goodness Mike, you are one fortunate fellow! But on to the question for me:

How's the screen? I know some places say it's matte..But I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a matte multitouch display.

 

It's a touchscreen and it's glossy. I haven't seen a matte touch display in a while and that's actually good, because matte screens are incredibly difficult to clean (I know, I have one on my Lenovo )

I've posted a very short unboxing over here: ASUS VivoBook U38N unboxing, quick look and preview - YouTube , but more will come I do have to be quick though, I'll only have this for 2 or 3 days, so I might not be able to test everything.

 

Thanks for the video and the response about the screen. I've been checking this thread a couple times per day for updates like this

Definitely looking forward to your final review of the product, and especially the gaming performance.

 

Congratulation for having this interesting laptop! Meh...glossy screen . Could you please to post a HWinfo64 screenshot and maybe a 3DMark11 score? I also would like to know if it's has available mSata port or not, but to tell I think you should take the laptop apart into small pieces. Thanks!

 

Thank you MikeTLB for taking the time to do all of this. You my friend are very fortunate to have this in your hands before anyone else. :thumbsup: I know some of my questions will be answered with your completed review but I'll just list them anyways.

How about...

1. What is the brand and model number of the display panel? (LG, Samsung, CheMei, AUO, etc.?) In your opinion, how accurate are the colors, blacks/whites and viewing angles? Can you benchmark these metrics? Does the touch panel support up to 10 inputs? How responsive is the touch input?

2. What is the brand and model number of the touchpad? (Synaptics, Elan, etc.?) In your opinion, how good is the touchpad? How good are the click buttons?

3. What is the brand and model number of the wireless WIFI card? (2.4/5GHz, ABGN, BT 4.0, etc.?) In your opinion, how good is the wireless card in terms of speeds, connectivity, signal strength, and functions?

4. What is the brand and model number of the SSD? Can you run a storage device benchmark? Does it operate at SATAIII speeds? Is it 2.5"? is it mSATA drive? Is there an mSATA connector on-board? If so, is it capable of fully utilizing SATAIII speeds?

5. What is the brand and model number of the on-board RAM and RAM module? (JEDEC timings? CAS CL? 1333, 1600, 1.5/1.35V etc. ?)

6. Using temperature monitoring software, how hot or cold does the U38N get while at idle, light load (web browsing, movies), and heavy load (gaming, prime+furmark)? (Record ambient temperature too)

7. Using your your hand and your own opinion, how hot does the chassis bottom/top feel when the U38N is under heavy load? Areas like the palm rest, underneath, and by the hinge tend to get hot.

8. Is there any throttling of the CPU or GPU during intensive workloads such as Prime+Furmark at the same time? How about while gaming?

9. Is the SD card reader capable of fully utilizing SDHC SDXC UHS-I Class 10 cards? Can you benchmark the SD card reader with a fast card? Do the SD cards sit flush against the chassis?

10. How is the fan noise? In your opinion, how loud is the fan at idle, light load, and heavy load? From the official FCC pictures, I know it has two fans so this might potentially lead to a loud laptop but I hope this isn't the case.

11. In your opinion, how good is the keyboard and keyboard backlight? Is the backlight adjustable or just ON/OFF? How does it feel to type on this keyboard? Are the keys shallow or do they provide sufficient feedback, tactility, and travel to make for a great keyboard say compared to Lenovo's AcuType keyboards?

12. What is the brand, model and specification of the battery? How is the battery life? How is the energy consumption during idle, light load and heavy load?

13. In your opinion, how good or bad are the speakers?

14. In your opinion, how good or bad is the webcam?

15. In your opinion, how good or bad are the hood/lid/display hinges? Sturdy, strong, wobbly, insufficient, problematic, etc.?

16. If you can open it, can you post a few more high resolution photos showing the internals? Otherwise maybe even just exterior shots comparing it to another laptop or an iphone thickness or something like that?

17. Can you benchmark with as many tests as possible like Prime, Furmark, 3DMark11 3DMark 06, OpenGL, AS SSD, Windows WEI, etc. etc.?


And just in case some of you didn't get to see this yet, here's the official FCC photo of the U38N internals:

 

Whoa!

Thanks for the FCC picture, though. Cool to see.

 

Super weak graphics card. I bet the laptop will cost around $900. Asus has a tendency to put a premium price tag on anything with a 1920x1080 display.

 

Super weak gpu compared to what, a 7670M or even the 7970M? Then yes that statement is very true.

But the 7620G/7600G (and I'm positive the Radeon 8550M too) will still beat an Intel ULV HD4000 and possibly even the standard HD4000 (mobile of course) found in Intel's Ultrabooks. This laptop is competitor to Ultrabooks and some would rather have the added gpu power instead of the cpu advantage Intel offers. Some people pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for an ULV HD4000?! Are they crazy? Maybe, maybe not.

Meh, its up to the individual and their wants/needs/budget/etc.

Also we still haven't seen the ULV A8 fully tested with dual-channel RAM and information is scarce.

Sent from my SPH-M580 using Tapatalk

 

ah cheers.

smooth = no vents on the bottom, but oh well.

ah, perhaps it is only either/or.

any of them would be good.

 

from the video preview: A10 + 6GB = awesome

hoping that model is available to buy in the UK!

 

Does your model come with dual-channel memory?

Could you run a couple of game benchmarks? Preferentially something that can be compared to benchmarks of Intel ULVs: Skyrim, Batman, Civ 5, Diablo 3... 3D Mark 11 scores as well please!

Could you also check the speeds of the SSD to confirm if it is SATA 2 or SATA 3?

Also please test the temperatures of the notebook under load (Prime + Furmark) to compare those results to the Asus U32VD.

Those are the things I would like to know the most and that I believe are doable in a 2-3 day time frame.

 

A8-4555M = Fail, not even sure it can run counter strike

Asus should have put a A10-4600M inside.

 

It "failed" already yet it hasn't even been released (the u38n, not the A8-4555M)? I don't think so Kallogan. OEMs are failing.

This A8 in a mobile device of this type will likely prove very popular (specifically to those that will take advantage of the GPU(s) like gamers, CAD users, and gpgpu acceleration in apps like WinZip. It's strength is its GPU of course and to a lesser extent its performance-to-cost ratio (ignoring the 1080p Touch IPS Panel and rest of the specs). Yup, a 35W A10 in a chassis this size/type is long overdue, we've already been over this in the Trinity thread a million times. However, I think all this exposure on these websites helps AMD reach more customers. It also exposes you to what the other side has to offer too.


Anyways, here's Counter Strike Global Offensive hardware requirements:

Counter Strike Global Offensive system requirements (minimum)
CPU: 3GHz single-core Intel or AMD processor
RAM: 1GB for Windows XP, 2GB for Windows Vista / Windows 7
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible 256 MB graphics card, Nvidia 8000 series or AMD 3000 series.
Operating system: Windows XP SP2
DirectX compatible sound card
6 GB of hard drive space

Counter Strike Global Offensive System Requirements (recommended)
CPU: Dual core Intel or AMD processor
RAM: 1GB for Windows XP, 2GB for Windows Vista/7
Graphics: DirectX 10 compatible 512 MB graphics card, Nvidia 400 series or AMD 5000 series.
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit
DirectX compatible sound card
6 GB of hard drive space

I don't see why it wouldn't play it at more than 30fps average at 1366x768 resolution and "medium" settings (detail settings adjusted accordingly). If it can play at 1080p (even on "low-to-medium" detail settings) then i'll be surprised and happy. Set expectations accordingly too!

 

Hey guys.

I'm getting back with the replies to the questions posted here and on Youtube in a day or two, I'm busy with all the test right now. I'll Also get back with replies to those 17 questions above

There are however two things I cannot do: 1. open it . 2. run the stress test , because this is a lease.

 

Would love to see GPU-Z of that 8550M. Theres no info anywhere.

 

Well, i'm not paying a premium price just for a 1080p screen without any decent hardware to enjoy it.

As for the 8550M version, the A8-4555M is so weak that it will bottleneck it anyway. So how powerfull is the 8550M doesn't matter much in this lap since it'll underperform.

 

Are you kidding? 4Cores with 7600G Radeon in 19W TDP is fail? Show me a similar APU at the competition side! Otherwise if A10-4600M can handle Counter-Strike GO in 1080p Very High, 4XMSAA, FXAA, 8XAF near 39 FPS, than I assume A8-4555M is also enough for medium-high level details...

 

i'd say your time in this thread is done then, eh?

 

OK, here we go:

1. What is the brand and model number of the display panel? (LG, Samsung, CheMei, AUO, etc.?) In your opinion, how accurate are the colors, blacks/whites and viewing angles? Can you benchmark these metrics? Does the touch panel support up to 10 inputs? How responsive is the touch input?

I don't own a calorimeter. It's an IPS panel and it's say it's quite good. Supports only 5 touch points from what i can see, I tested it in Paint.

The product ID for the screen is CMN1343, so it's the same as on the Asus UX32VD. Don't know how to check out the manufacturer, maybe you can help

2. What is the brand and model number of the touchpad? (Synaptics, Elan, etc.?) In your opinion, how good is the touchpad? How good are the click buttons?

the hardware ID for the trackpad is SYN0A00, so i think it's an Elan, right? It accurate and works smooth, but the click buttons are very very stiff on this unit. Still, it's a sample so...

3. What is the brand and model number of the wireless WIFI card? (2.4/5GHz, ABGN, BT 4.0, etc.?) In your opinion, how good is the wireless card in terms of speeds, connectivity, signal strength, and functions?

Broadcom BCM43228 wireless module, with blue tooth. Works fine, nothing bad to say about it. A bit slower when further away from the router than the Centrino N6235 in my Lenovo, but not an issue

4. What is the brand and model number of the SSD? Can you run a storage device benchmark? Does it operate at SATAIII speeds? Is it 2.5"? is it mSATA drive? Is there an mSATA connector on-board? If so, is it capable of fully utilizing SATAIII speeds?

sanmdisk SSD U100 128 GB , 6 Gb SATA

5. What is the brand and model number of the on-board RAM and RAM module? (JEDEC timings? CAS CL? 1333, 1600, 1.5/1.35V etc. ?)

hynix, PC3-12800 1.5V 11-11-11-28 at 800 Mhz

6. Using temperature monitoring software, how hot or cold does the U38N get while at idle, light load (web browsing, movies), and heavy load (gaming, prime+furmark)? (Record ambient temperature too)

with HWInfo i get around 75 degrees Celsius tops when running games or benchmarks. On everyday the CPU is at around 55 -60

7. Using your your hand and your own opinion, how hot does the chassis bottom/top feel when the U38N is under heavy load? Areas like the palm rest, underneath, and by the hinge tend to get hot.

It's running quite cool I must say I'm quite surprised

8. Is there any throttling of the CPU or GPU during intensive workloads such as Prime+Furmark at the same time? How about while gaming?

Can't stress it. Did not see any throttling either but I'll run Skyrim for a while and check out the logs after that.

9. Is the SD card reader capable of fully utilizing SDHC SDXC UHS-I Class 10 cards? Can you benchmark the SD card reader with a fast card? Do the SD cards sit flush against the chassis?

I don't have an SDHC Class 10. Tested it with a 32GB class 6 and works. Only half of the card goes in, like with the zenbooks

10. How is the fan noise? In your opinion, how loud is the fan at idle, light load, and heavy load? From the official FCC pictures, I know it has two fans so this might potentially lead to a loud laptop but I hope this isn't the case.

the fans are a bit annoying. they are always ON and they are spinning fast. More about that in the review

11. In your opinion, how good is the keyboard and keyboard backlight? Is the backlight adjustable or just ON/OFF? How does it feel to type on this keyboard? Are the keys shallow or do they provide sufficient feedback, tactility, and travel to make for a great keyboard say compared to Lenovo's AcuType keyboards?

I'll talk about this in the review, but it;s the same keyboard a saw on the ux32A


12. What is the brand, model and specification of the battery? How is the battery life? How is the energy consumption during idle, light load and heavy load?

Still testing battery life. Not sure how to find out what;s the manaufacturer, but it's a 45,640 mWh battery

13. In your opinion, how good or bad are the speakers?

Decent. Overall good enough quality, but a bit barren. Also, they could have been louder. I'd say they are on par with the ones on the ux31a and ux32a

14. In your opinion, how good or bad is the webcam?

it's OK, as long as there's enough light around

15. In your opinion, how good or bad are the hood/lid/display hinges? Sturdy, strong, wobbly, insufficient, problematic, etc.?

Feels solid. But the aluminum foil on the hood is very thin, so there's some flex when pressing the lid. Also, it tends to scratch easy. I think the inner frame is made from plastic, like on the ux32a, not metal like on the Zenbook Primes.

16. If you can open it, can you post a few more high resolution photos showing the internals? Otherwise maybe even just exterior shots comparing it to another laptop or an iphone thickness or something like that?

I can't open it

17. Can you benchmark with as many tests as possible like Prime, Furmark, 3DMark11 3DMark 06, OpenGL, AS SSD, Windows WEI, etc. etc.?

I'll have these in the review.

Anyway, the review should be up in a couple of days on the site, I'll let you know once it's available. Sry for no replying to all the questions here, but time is short and I have to focus on the laptop as much as I can

 

Pretty sure it will end up at something like twice the 3dmark11 score compared to a hd4000 card (desktop or mobile -- same cr.. *cough* same card). With less than half the power-draw..

It's still not extremely high, obviously - but it's a fully featured dx11 card/completely implementing shader models, that sort of thing -- at a very low watt package. And that alone would have been worth a lot, even if the performance of the graphics card had been around the level of, say, what you get on a zenbook..

 

Since you also reviewed a Zenbook when you do the comparison could you have a side-by-side comparison of gaming benchmark numbers?

 

I like how the U38N has double fans. It seems it should run cooler and maybe throttle less. I hope you can investigate this a bit in your article. Looking forward to it.

 

Thank you for everything MikeTLB! I understand you cannot answer or perform everything I asked but you have been more than helpful and considerate with us. I always enjoyed your Youtube videos and never knew you were on the forums here. Your reviews and videos are among the best out there (I'm not just saying this because you have the U38N).

Looking forward to your completed U38N review/preview!

-David

 

I would assume that the fan problem may be due to software issues. The same issue has been mentioned for the UX51.

 

Ugh. The same case as the UX32, average keyboard and mouse, and a lot of fan noise. The sole redeeming feature is the touchscreen, but I doubt I will touch my screen often. For $900, I would rather buy the Zenbook Prime. I'm out.

 

If the hinges are as weak as the ones from the ux32vd and ux31a, the display will tilt back while touching it.... they are just not strong enough. The display even fell back when I lifted up the notebook.

 

Is there flex in the keyboard tray?
Push rather hard down on the keyboard(a bit harder than most people's typing, not extreme), does everything flex?
Is the screen as bright as the one on the UX31A?

 

Could you try PsCheck, and see what kind of results you get?

Tutorial here
How to undervolt Trinity APUs using AMD PSCheck (Tutorial) - YouTube

In a nutshell, it lets you tweak the "p states" (power states) of the CPU, the operating frequency and voltage at given core loads.

With my old A8 llano laptop and K10stat (the equivalent of PScheck for llano) I had room for HUGE undervolts and overclocks, giving me at least 50% more battery life while browsing and over 33% more CPU performance under load with very conservative voltage/clock settings. Thats incredible, and that's one of the reasons I want this machine so bad. However, the U38N is one of the first machines with binned ULV trinity processors, and I hear they may not have as much voltage headroom as llano.



EDIT: (facepalm) didn't see the 5 other pages, I'll read the rest of the thread.

EDIT2:
Also, this A8 is actually a full trinity die with 384 shaders... it's not even in the same league as Intel HD 4000. Could you check if undervolting the GPU is possible? This machine could be a monster gaming machine on battery, something that's impossible with a discrete GPU.

And thanks for the unboxing and answering our questions.

 

The 7620G should be able to overclock using AMD OverDrive (and PSCheck for voltages and locking frequency states) and with updated (12.11) AMD video drivers I'm sure we'd see the U38N gaming performance doing better. Odd that it didn't do better. Maybe because of immature BIOS and or video drivers?