Asus U1 Ultraportable

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/hands-on-with-the-asus-u1-ultra-portable-1-78-pounds-of-core-du/
1.78lbs, ULV Core Duo, up to 1.5GB ram, 80GB hard disk, 11.1" screen. Seems like its pretty cool, and insanely light, unlike the $2200 pricetag.
Does anyone know the release date?

 

Thanks for the heads up. I hope the battery life is decent. At least the battery location gives the possibility of an extended battery if needed.

 

It has a port replicator... *drool*

Hot...

 

Yea, and actually, for its specs and weight, its a pretty good price. A Sony G will run about the same amount, as will the TX and Asus S6. The more comparable HP nc2400, Gateway E100, and Dell D420 all are a few hundred cheaper, but they are about 1.5lbs heavier, which is approximately double the weight. Insane.
They are making my FJ feel fat

 

Basically it's a 1 spindle version of the S6...... I talked about this model a couple months back. There are two important things that come to mind when I see the model the showed at CES..... first, I've never been a fan of anything with a gloss finish... anything that's not a car seems to look a little tacky. The finish on the U1 seen here is very much like some of the incoming ASmobile models we have coming this spring. IT's nice, but I don't think it'll be for everyone. Also, not having an optical is great for me and a lot of other people.. The only problem is that it's enough of a problem for enough people to make the market for a model like this in the US, very, very small. We'll probably import it in small quantities, but it simply won't be a big sell..... but this IS the sub 2lbs system Asus really needed in their lineup between the S6 and basically the 7" R2 UMPC.

 

Justin, so is this what you showed us as the S7 a while back?

 

Wait, isnt the notebook you were talking about the S7, and didnt it turn out to be a 3lb 12" single spindle with a rotating webcam, a W5 without an optical drive? I do remember you saying before that the S7 would be a 11" single spindle, I guess that turned out to be the U1.

Glossy finish: The Toshiba Quismo and the Sony AR manage to pull off the glossy finish quite well, as does the whole HP/Compaq lineup...

 

No, the S7 is the S7........ The S7 is basically a 1 spindle W5.

The U1 although a little different, appears to be a 1 spindle S6 w/ 11" widescreen.

See, the U2 (12" regular ratio, 1 spindle) never came here...... basically an S5 two years newer...... That didn't come here for a few reasons - regular ratio, slightly not perfect touchpad, and relative poor sales of the S5 from a few years back.

Now remember, the M5 which was basically an S5 with an optical drive, sold MUCH better than the S5. I loved the S5, but not everyone could do without the optical drive being IN the system. So all of that will have to go into consideration. I know for a fact that this past year would have been different if the S6 didn't have an optical drive.... because it wouldn't have come in. Every year we as American's get closer to accepting the tech that has really been available in the far east..... this might be the year we can actually "accept" a sub 2lbs laptop...... The next thing we'll hear is that someone things it's "crap" because it won't have a dedicated graphics card........ there are always a couple of those people...

 

This is pretty much a product of a wild orgy between Sony VAIO TX, Sony VAIO SZ, LG T1, and the ASUS S6F.

 

Ah, I thought the S7 was an 11.1" as well.

 

this system is tempting, and with the external video card, ooooo so nice

 

It would be CPU limited by the ULV CPU. The S7 would be a better choice if it has a normal Core 2 Duo.

 

Don't go and knock a low voltage cpu...... it's LV for a reason and that reason is due to a smaller thermal envelope, sacrificed for the thinner and therefore lighter chassis. They have their place and few things get to me more than when someone handcuffs a model (notebook or any sort of device), simply because it has something different and isn't as "good" as a full sized variant.... Just understand that there's a happy medium with things like laptops and you only pick out things on paper without understanding the real world affect of the change. The truth of the matter is, the S6 is one of the best systems Asus has ever made - and the LV cpu in that makes it because it has plenty of power as is, but cuts down on excessive heat and also manages a bit better battery life..... two things that are important when you're trying to shove everything inside a tiny 11" notebook.

I'm just saying, it'd be one thing if the chassis was 1/3 thicker or something, but you have weigh the options..

 

No, I understand completely Justin, but for use gaming with something like the XG Station it would be best to go with something with a regular Core 2 Duo; I guess the W5 would be the smallest. Still really small, not quite **** small.

 

i know that it wont be the perfect notebook for gaming, but something so portable that can decently handle modern games is all i need to satisfy my occassional gaming needs
with just onboard gfx (intel), there is little chance of playing modern games
and all in a portable format

 

Most people on the go that need or want a sub 2lbs laptop, usually don't have to sequence dna or something....... It's usually internet, email, word, im.... maybe doing presentations or something like that..... There's really only so much you can do on an 11" notebook.

I think the XG station is going to be pretty sweet, but I don't think it's really MEANT for the >13" club..... I think it's meant models more like 14 and 15" models without gpu's....... I know that Asus had a sweet.... SWEET plan for a 15-15.4" to replace the V6, something that was thinner than the V6 (not the V1 that sorta does actually replace it), but a model thinner and perhaps even without an optical drive...... With something like that, you could get down to 4lbs for a 15" notebook........ but have the physical computing power and screen size that an external graphics card would really be great - but a system you can still take anywhere.

I'm not sure if that's really going to happen at this point, but I think there's more use for a model like that now that some of this tech becomes available.

 

Well, at the CES booth, the demo units were both W5F's, which gives an indication of the market they are aiming for. And screen size really doesnt matter with the XG station, because it powers an external graphics card.

The ULV Core Duo really does limit the gaming, its fine for everyday tasks, but for max performance, it really isnt that good.

A 15" notebook thats 4lbs would be really cool, but I dont think that 2lbs could be cut just by ditching the DVD drive.

 

No, it doesn't matter, but a graphics card like that you'll see in the XG can really power highend graphics at more than a 12" size....... more than a 17" with ease. I'm just saying that although you're right it's marketed at ANY notebook with an integrated graphics chipset, it can really have two purposes......

1. it'll be staying home, and when you go home, are you going to really want to game on an 11 or 12" system... especially when you have simply unreal graphics like you'd get with the XG? No..... However, since you're home, you could always hook the XG up next to your nice big 61" 1080p HDTV and simply hook your notebook up when you get home.... it has plenty of power to computing wise, so that's not an issue at all.

2. I see more of a demand then for those larger screens like I mentioned, but super, super thin........ Asus makes the Sharp notebook line... THAT's what I'm talking about... Asus can certainly make models based on similiar designs to those Sharp notebooks and compliment them with something like the XG station....... But then again, Sharp really doesn't sell their notebooks in the US... and it's because the market for those types of systems don't fit the current american market... but no one says the market wouldn't change, especially with something like the XG coming out.

I'm not saying 2 pounds could be cut by ditching the optical drive alone, but 3/4lbs could.. .and since the V6 came in at a hair over 5.5, we can get to 4 3/4 easily...... Ditching the cooling and space required for a dedicated card can also help, but probably not another 3/4 by itself. However, going with a smaller, more powerful battery could... switching to a 6 cell that is as powerful as last years 8 cells could get us awfully close.... I'd say 4 1/4lbs and sub 3/4" thick. But then again, it's all about the market. Without buyers, it wouldn't make it practical because they need a certain number of units to justify whatever price they need to sell it at..

 

Interesting how it has a built in webcam and fingerprint reader. Will Asus refresh the S6 line with these features for instance?
Also, is Asus not a fan of the instant-on media functionality permeating so many notebooks?

 

a model, is a model, is a model. The biggest exterior change I've seen over the years on an already designed model was the inclusion of memory card readers on the 3rd generation of M3's..... Some models have gotten different touchpads (like the W3v - W3j), so a finterprint reader in the fashion of the V1/V2/U1 is possible, but unlikely. I doubt either feature will be updated on that model at all - and if so, not for the next model year.

 

Thank you Justin and I wish to apologize if I hadn't already for pestering you so much about the S6F, I wasted your time and mine, which is a terrible thing, I won't bother you again, I'm really sorry. Thanks for putting up with me for as long as you did.

I assume this uses a 1.8" drive correct? The S6F will of course have better performance due to it using a LV and higher clocked CPU with a higher FSB as well, 667 vs 533 on the U1. Still, the U1 looks tempting but the very short battery life I hear it attains really kills the value of it no? Whats the point of having the U1 with very low battery life?

According to the pics on Engadget, does this have leather panels, I think I saw em on the palmrest, it sure looks sexy in all that blackness.

 

im personally looking forward in getting a u1 hooked up with the external video card and an external monitor. gaming on an ultraportable like the u1 is definitely limited, but at home, it can still perform a lot of the desktop tasks that i have become used to.

im still using an old amd 2800xp, so even an ulv core duo will probably give me similar performance.

i probably missed it, but what cpu is the asus u1 expected to have? the ulv 2400?

 

Yeah, I keep hearing about this external video card that just came out for notebooks, whats it about? I think they said its not really a videocard you can use to play games with right?

Yes, the U1 will have a Core Duo ULV processor, 1.06 ghz.

 

Bothering is a bad word..... I help anyone and everyone with questions up to a point. Since you had to bring the apoligy to the thread, I said there is no need for that, but I only like to explain things once and believe I went above and beyond what I'd typically do to try to help you understand the S6...... I'm just done with that. Forget about it and move on. I'd be willing to help you with information on anything else, but I refuse to force feed information to someone that doesn't fully read or understand it.... Scratch that... I refuse to do it more than twice - I'll give everyone a break the first time.

That's all.

On to the U1 - don't jump the gate too quickly - it's not ready for production and I'm sure options will vary and we don't even have an ETA on the unit. To "hear" it has short battery life is complete BS... the model as CES hasn't been in anyone's hands long enough to kill the battery, so anything you've heard is fabricated.

Asus will be expanding their "fashion" lineup with a lot of new models with leather and more "bling"...... until ordering day, we will not know which versions of which models will come to the US in one way or another..... but in those pictures, yes the model at CES had a sexy black leather palmrest that almost just blended right into the chassis....... just a hint of texture makes all the difference

 

Oh, it has leather...Interesting, it blends very well, I didnt notice it before.
Battery life should be pretty decent, even though its probably only 3 cells, it uses a ULV cpu and 1.8" hard drive, so it should get at least 3 or 4 hours. With the extended cell battery, it should rival the Sony TX's 8 hours.

 

My sense is that it's underpowered, to be quite candid. A 1.1Ghz ULV is just gonna be ploddingly slow opening Microsoft Outlook in Vista. If all you use it for is Wordpad, you'll be fine!

For just one more pound, the S6F is a much better lappy. But I can't deny that a machine that light will not have everyone's tongue dropping out of their geeky mouths!

Did you say leather?

 

I have to disagree with it being underpowered. I know the 1.0 ghz Pentium M ULV chip in my Lifebook P5020D was plenty fast for me, even with "only" 512 megs of ram, it was extremely responsive and speedy in the simple tasks I did, internet surfing, using office applications, etc.

These are fantastic processors and can do a lot more than many people realize. The Asus S6F will weight more than one pound more than the U1, its at least twice as heavy as the U1, which some travelers will really notice.

Yes, currently, the Asus W6 and S6 have leather editions with leather on the lid and palmrests and I know the S6 can also be bought without leather panels to save a couple hundred bucks, not sure of the W6. The U1 also seems to have leather panels on the palmrest as well.

I feel that now the U1 is way better looking than the S6 and considering it is more powerful and fully featured than the U1, I wish it would have the webcam and fingerprint reader of the U1.

 

I run my P-M at 800Mhz on battery all the time and it's plenty fast. That amazed me, since I had an old PIII-M @ 1.4 that felt slower then the PM @ 800.

With SpeedStep on when plugged into the wall, it rarely steps beyond the 1.06GHz-1.4Ghz steps unless I'm running things in MATLAB or Photoshop or something like that... Or I have 2-3 Firefox windows open with animated pop-up adds (they use a lot more CPU then you might think!)

So yes I'd agree people don't give modern CPUs enough credit. The improvements in cache size and branch prediction have greatly reduced the number of pipeline flushes and therefore the number of wasted cycles compared to older CPUs... Combine that with things like macro-ops fusion... That was a big part of Intel's strategy with PM/Core Duo/Core 2 Duo - make each cycle more efficient at getting work done, add new features, and add more cores; all of which was in reaction to the P4 failing.

 

You'd be quite surprised as Jumper said....... yes Vista Aeroglass will bring the best systems to their knees..... But don't under estimate even the ULV Core Duo's....... But before we get into anything on it's configuration, we should wait to see what if any version we'll be bringing in here.

 

Since the notebook is already very thin and light, is there a way to dock the external optical drive onto the bottom of the notebook as for example to use it for a portable dvd player perhaps? I know you could always rip a movie to the hard drive or whatnot. And I rarely do need the optical drive on my notebook when travelling but just for a few times, the ability to slide on and off the optical drive from the notebook would be nice.
It is confirmed to have a 1.8" hard drive yes?
We'll just have to wait and see for more details.....

 

OK, already! You guys sold me! One U1 for the left coast! Justin, you'll let us know when this lappy enters your order system. Since I rarely watch movies on my notebook, I'm always working in-flight , I won't really miss that DVD drive.

And since I resolved to dramatically reduce my carry-on load, you just can't beat its weight.

 

The Thinkpad X Series has that. They are 12" machines though, and the 'ultrabase' is $200, optical drive is $169. The optical drive + ultrabase dock onto the bottom of the notebook....

 

I'm also quite excited about it too and if I can sell my laptops and other stuff and work a bit till Februrary, I can hopefully afford this, its starting price is about $2200 correct? Can't wait to hear of more details like the battery life. Its confirmed to have a 3 cell battery which keeps it very light, but I wonder what its battery life shall be.

 

You're not going to see the U1 in the US until late Q3, easy.

 

Question to Justin@PROPortable:

Can you resolve the conflicting reports on the weight of this machine? Engadget says 1.78 lbs and AnandTech 2.2 lbs:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/hands-on-with-the-asus-u1-ultra-portable-1-78-pounds-of-core-du/
http://www.anandtech.com/displays/showdoc.aspx?i=2904&p=11

Did they possibly get shown different configurations, e.g. battery capacity? Thanks!

 

Laptop magazine has a review of the Toshiba R400, quoted by Engadget, that suggests that a lappy without dedicated graphics card and a low-powered CPU will groan under the weight of Vista:

"The 1.2-GHz Intel Core Duo processor and integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics were 'overmatched by the OS.'"

Food for thought.

 

styling reminds me of the V1 and V2

 

Asus had the weights listed in KG, but I don't have a good look. The model will have multiple batteries, and the base battery is supposed to make the unit under 2lbs..... However I think in their reports they may have just converted to KG incorrectly more than anything.

 

It is said that the U1 will have a OED screen which will make it much easier to see outside than most other laptop screens and it is said that battery life will be roughly 6-7 hours from a source I read, didn't state which battery they used.

http://techdigest.tv/2007/01/ces_2007_asus_u.html

 

The OLED screen has a LOT to do with it's weight and battery as well, as power consumption is considerably lower than even the lcd's in something like the W7.

 

Looks like you were incorrect no? Keeps it'll come out in the U.S this month or next.