Asus U80 Hands-on!

Any reason why the Sony Vaio SR 490?

It is a nice notebook but it is a 13.3 vs the Asus 14.1

I love Sony's Style which is why I love how the U80 looks.

 

Well it's pretty much the same specs in a smaller form factor. The SR series has very good build quality, although the U series does as well. Basically it boils down to the SR is lighter, but the U80 is(or at least should be) cheaper.

 

reason why sr490? yeah the specs are nearly identical, even battery life seems to be very much the same, it looks better, and i was originally looking for a 13-inch notebook before i stumbled upon asus's monster 14 inch lineup lol. if i hadn't set my mind on the u80v i would've bolted for the sony. but the difference in price right now is just too high; in canada the sr490 is being sold for at LEAST 200 dollars more which is kind of ridiculous..

 

that tends to be Sony for you tcee. I went to the sonystyle website and matched the specs on the Asus U80V (T6500 CPU, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD)

Came up to $1280.00 for the Sony vs $1050 for the Asus. I do understand that the Sony is in a smaller form factor so it will be pricier, but $230 is too much of a price difference for me.

Plus I prefer Asus warranty. The Sony is tempting though.

 

Well, I am now the proud owner of an ASUS U80V! It just arrived at my office this afternoon
I will post again after I have had a chance to unpack, charge, etc....

 

yeah. too bad i don't have the money to throw at it lol

stevo where are you from? congrats!
also haven't heard from sorrix in awhile lol

 

Do post some pics & benchmarks if you can. Or a review of it as well.

I'm down to a U80V or G51 for my laptop selection.

 

Pretty big difference between those 2 notebooks though Howitzer. What are your requirements? There is a G60 coming out so if you could wait I would wait for that one.

 

I wouldn't go to sonystyle unless you want to spend at least $100 more. For the same price that you quoted, you can get the sr with p8700, 4gb ram and 64-bit vista. Which kind of makes the comparison a lot more favorable for the sr.

 

oh yeah? where else would i go if not sonystyle?

 

I gave up on waiting for the u80v and ended up ordering an SR Vaio earlier this week. J&R has a really nice preconfigured one for $1182 (US) after $100 MIR and 5% cashback using Bing.

Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 2.53 GHz / 4GB RAM / 320GB 7200rpm Hard Drive / ATI Radeon HD4570 / DVD±R/RW / 802.11AGN / Webcam / Bluetooth / Finger Print Reader / Vista Home Premium (64-bit)

Black
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNSR430JB/

Titanium Grey
http://www.jr.com/sony/pe/SON_VGNSR430JH/

 

howd you get the 5% cash back?

edit: is it not possible to get the cashback if i'm in canada? also, do you get the free windows 7 upgrade?

 

Noooooooooooooooo tcee you are thinking about abandoning us!

Remember you cannot spell Asus without the "us".

(Actually I thinking about the Sony now too but I am trying to keep in mind the Asus warranty!)

 

yeah i want to stick with the u80v as well, though the wait really is killing me lol

i'd have to buy internationally to get the sr; it's cheaper that way.

but at the price that jr is offering the sr at, with those kind of specs, AND a 100 dollar MIR.. helll it's kind of hard to ignore lol. if i could get the bing cashback too i'll surrender to sony =P

but trust me, i'll be mulling it over for quite a while.

 

I have a bunch of friends that have sony laptops and I've heard mixed reviews about quality control and the like. The SR is a magnesium alloy case so maybe that's quite a bit better.

 

Haha, I've been looking at the SR's that jr is offering as well. 5% bing cashback and the $100 MIR put it within 100 of the estimated u80v price. Kinda ridiculous, imo.

 

The u80v was supposed to start at $899 was it not?

 

That was the rumor, yeah.

 

I'm just about ready to jump ship and go with the SR490 just because of its similar performance and stuff. I just need to find out more about the sr's games performance.

 

This is a beauty! I wish it would just come out, though.

 

It should be better than the u80v's game performance considering that the ATI Radeon 4570 in the SR uses GDDR3 RAM as opposed to the cheap DDR2 RAM that the 4570 in the u80v uses.

 

Supposed to, yes. But everything we've seen so far from international resellers is closer to 1100, and that's with the t6500. I'm very sceptical that Asus can deliver on its promised price point. And even if it is 899 with the t6500 cpu, upgrading it to the performance of the SR series will again put it within $100 or so.

In the end though, I'm just impatient

 

I keep checking with my people everyday hoping I will have some good news for you all but alas I don't.

I will check on Monday and hope I find something out.

 

This really has me annoyed. How come Canadian resellers aren't offering anything better than a T6500? Not even an option to upgrade something better? And why isn't there any word of it's ETA? They shouldn't have revealed the information so soon, if they were planning on waiting this long. Wasn't it supposed to come out Q2 2009? It's already Q3 now... I am almost tempted to go with SR490 as well, but the battery life of just 3 hrs is not enough, when compared to the 5hrs you can get out of the U80V.

 

The SR is slowly working its way toward my credit card number... Not sure how long I can hold out with out even getting a ETA or anything.

 

the sr490 is advertised to do 6 hours max. notebookcheck has it clocked at 5.5 hours with everything turned down.

 

Is this with or without a dedicated graphics card? I've read that with the ATI 4570, it was only able to last about 3 hrs, whereas it was able to reach about 5 hrs with an integrated graphics card. Could you provide a link to notebookcheck's review? I wasn't able to find it, for some reason.

 

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Sony-Vaio-SR41M-S-Notebook.18254.0.html

their model uses the ati 4570 card. scroll all the way down for the battery test

 

Thanks for that! Is the SR41M/S the same as SR490? The specs may be close enough, but perhaps the SR41 has a longer battery life? However, I still can't let go of the U80V! I love its look too much! haha I think I'll wait a little while longer. Anyone know if there are any models of the U80V available for viewing in Ottawa anywhere?

 

Ncix has it in stock now, will have to wander down to their stores and see if there is a display model.

 

why is ASUS torturing us??!!! if ASUS reps read this they better post some valid facts (dates) about this notebook. gosh if its not released by mid August I will totally boycott asus products. forever. and ever. or until they release this notebook. I'm super serious!

 

Sorry been silent, Have been at the cottage.

Just a quick question, If i put the RTM build windows 7 x64bit on the asus u80v

will i need to get new drivers? or do u think the ones they give u will be fine?


Will do a comprehensive review when i'm back.

 

so sorrix you got your laptop?

after looking in some more in the sr430 vs u80v comparison, the two major differences are the p8700 CPU and GDDR3 vram, both in the sr430. oh and teh 13 inch screen on the vaio, but that doesn't make too much of a difference for me. the lowest price that i can buy the vaio for is about $1400 CAD, while the u80v would be $1125. is the processor + gddr3 + form factor worth the 275 dollar difference? how much of a difference does gddr3 make over ddr2 anyway?

 

Interesting review of the U80v from PCPro: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/257191/asus-u80v.html

 

The higher latency and higher bandwidth of DDR3 can wash each other out in many cases. It depends on the type of program you're running but usually you'll see no more than a 2-6% increase in performance with DDR3. Sometimes you'll see a decrease. Overall, it shouldn't be noticeable (that's comparing DDR2-800 with DDR3-1066).

DDR3 ram requires 1.5 volts and DDR2 requires 1.8. You could say that using DDR3 is somewhat similar to undervolting your processor (check the undervolting guide for details). DDR3 will consume slightly less power and anecdotal evidence suggests you may see a 15-30 minute increase in battery life for the average notebook. It really is more of a percent increase in battery life but I couldn't tell you exactly how much.

 

What about 'G'ddr3 though? From what I remember reading, this makes quite a bit more difference than just going from ddr2-ddr3.

 

GDDR3 is specifically designed for graphics. It's very similar to DDR2, but tuned for GPU usage. Without getting too technical, that's what makes it faster that just using DDR2 or DDR3.

 

wouldn't it have been sweet if the u80v had gddr3, or even ddr3. that p8700 looks pretty sweet too.. someone convince me why i shouldn't go with sony lol

 

I can't do that. A T9550 and a price of 899 would have kept me on this notebook. I'd probably just get the sony. I have tons of time to wait though so I'll buy the right notebook at the right time.

(I'm looking at you inspiron 13 back to school sale)

 

i'm hoping to get my laptop around mid august, so i can wait (though it's very difficult lol). hopefully the u80v will have a better processor by then or it's price goes down, and at the same time i'm hoping the sr430's price will drop slightly as well. if nothing changes by the end of august i'm probably going to be bringing a sr430 to school next year

 

tcee I can tell you my reasons why I prefer the U80V:

1. Warranty - Asus has a better one, especially for me since I am international.
2. Screen size - I am in the market for a 13.3 to 14.1 but I am more leaning towards the 14.1. I am probably going to be less portable than you so 14 is my compromise between a 12 and a 15.6
3. Looks - Close call but I think my Asus will stand out a little more.
4. Price - Asus will be cheaper.

If Sony had a warranty comparable to Asus I would probably pull the trigger on the Sony because the Asus is dragging out its release date.

 

To be honest, when I thought this laptop was just solid black I was all for the looks. The bestbuy model (which should have the same looks as the U80V) has got little sparkly things in it. It's like glitter.

I don't want glitter on my laptop.

 

why hasnt there been a release date for this lappy?? it seems like they have been promoting this for such a long time now and its not even released?? whats up with that? maybe they wont release it. maybe there is just a huge piece of rock thats mostly covered with water and we're all just going along for the ride...

 

I can wait 3 more weeks or so, at which point I'll be moving into my college dorm. I reaaally wish it'll be released by then. I've been researching laptops literally everyday for a month now. The U80V is perfect for me.

 

yea i got my hopes up too but eventually gave up. I was looking since january.

 

Im just woundering but does anyone if the HDD could be replaced with an SSD from corsair or OCZ???

 

Yes if it's the right for factor: 2.5"

 

does the u80v have touchpad side scrolling?? because the u81 at bestbuy didnt? maybe the drivers were not up to date or something but it didnt work. anyone have any idea if the u80 has it??

 

pretty sure to scroll you hold one finger stationary while drag another up and down at the same time. or that's how my eee pc worked lol

 

Yes, you can do that or you can move the two finger

I'm french and I have the U80V... I'm the Kay_1978 's source
I'm very to have buy this laptop!
If you need some informations, I can (if I understand the question ) answer...