Asus U80 Hands-on!

no update yet on availability?

 

It's been available in Canad for a month now, but no news for the US yet except Amazon having a few in stock every blue moon as far as I remember.

 

It says you can pre order on amazon. I never seen anything there indicating they have it in stock.

 

A couple weeks back Amazon had it as available only 4 left. Then the next day the site had only 1 left for the morning. Then it went back into pre-order status.

Edit: As of Aug 04 2009 @ 8:37am EST there are 4 in stock.

 

Should I purchase this now or wait a little longer?

I am a college bound student and I need one for college. What do you guys think. I am sitting here and ready to purchase. I am thinking if I wait another month, I might get it cheaper, but that will be a risk.

 

If you need it now, buy it now. If you can afford to wait, by all means do. That's the rule of thumb when buying laptops.

 

And from amazon this laptop probably will not get cheaper in a month. There is barely any supply and probably more demand.

 

supply and demand lol. Anyway, I just purchased it on Amazon and I will receive it at the latest on the 17th. I will most likely hold it for a day or two, and if I can't find it cheaper or something better than I will just keep it.

 

Check out the following Sony Vaio by the way. Sorry for the double post, but this laptop has the same specs as the asus u80v but it is 750

https://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wc...ntCategoryId=16154&XID=A:1260291:10694606::CJ

Apply this code DEALS2BUYVAIO100NW and you will get 100 dollar off.

The only problem is that it is 2 lb heavier (6 lb) and it has a 15.5" screen. The battery life is not spectacular as well. What do you guys think of that?

 

I bought U80Vg 4days back!

Spects:

P8700 2.53Ghz
4GB RAM 800
500GB hardisc

I love it so much! XD

 

Did you buy it in US?

 

This config of the U80V is available as far as I know in some western countries like France, Spain, maybe Germany, ... and in some asian countries like Singapour, Taiwan maybe Malaysia or the Philippines.

I bought mine there with 4% on the price with the code promo SITE4 or ALL4 before the tax which means that I paid 867 euros at http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00089575.html

For those who have notions of french i got my code from this site which are for french online resellers :
http://www.laptopspirit.fr/47846/re...refour-pixmania-webdistrib-grosbill-ldlc.html

They are still available. if you don't speak french you can always try to call +33 4 27 46 60 00 mon-fri 10am to 6pm, sat 10am to 4pm, french time. I'm pretty sure they ship international.

 

Hi everybody, I am in Taiwan and still waiting to get my U80V but it's sold out. Does anyone knows when Asus is going to supply the new models to its distributors?

 

I just picked up a U80A-RFRBK05 from fry's ( http://www.frys.com/product/5974094) for $600. I hope I got a good deal. It is missing bluetooth and dedicated graphics, but I think I can live without these for business use.

 

Bro :/

You got the worst U80 there is- Its some new model that has nothing good on it.

No dedicated graphics, just intel integrated.

The worst processor ( 2.1 vs the 2.53 )

For 850$ you could get a way more capable machine with better graphics + battery life + SSD ( the new UL80's in a week or so / Timeline models / a used MBA )

 

It is a refurb BB version...........

 

Hmm...I didn't see refurb written anywhere when I bought it. From the model# it seems a bit obvious though.

It was on sale for $600, which to me seems like a good deal for a well built laptop and decent specs. Now that it is refurb, I'm not sure.

 

BB just had these on outlet. Since they cleared them from stock and probably had a few left those "still new in box" that Asus couldn't sell to BB have to make it to the retail channel as Refurb. In this way they can keep in contract with the model numbers too BB.

I haven't seen issues with these on the boards so there were probably very few returns. There could be a few out there but if they are not a true refurb the retailers may not need to advertise them in this way. So in this case the model number may be more just a designation than an actual explination.

 

How is this deal at Staples.com, starting next week this will sell for $599 ? This is going to be absolutely no-gaming use for this laptop I need to buy it for my friend who is medical student and all she needs it is for her work as well as internet browsing + documentation.

http://www.staples.com/office/suppl...logId=10051&partNumber=831633&cmArea=CIRCULAR

It has following specs
Processor Intel Core 2 T6600 Mobile Processor
Memory (RAM) 4GB
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Expandable to 4GB
Hard Drive Size 320GB
Hard Drive Type SATA
Optical Drive SuperMulti DVDRW Drive
Display Size 14.0"
Display Type HD LED-backlit Widescreen
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Battery Type 6-cell lithium ion
Network Card Integrated 802.11b/g/n
Video Graphics Intel GMA 4500M Integrated graphics
Other ports Digital Media Card Reader
# of USB slots 3
Bluetooth Enabled No
Dimensions 13.81"(L) x 9.56"(W) x 0.86~1.28"(D)
Weight 4.74lbs
Warranty 1 year

I'm trying to compare this one with the one sold from Amazon here is link for same
http://www.amazon.com/UL30A-X5-Ligh...ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1259328348&sr=1-2

the price difference is not much. What do you guys think would be better laptop ?

 

The Staples one is the BB version with the T6600 instaed of the T6500. Like the UL80VT the screen is sensative to any angles. It has a narrow sweet spot. Also with the size you will not mistake this for a netbook. It is still an ultraportable though.

I have the U81a BB version and for general office/home use it is an awesome computer. Only older light gaming though. If you want to games get the UL80vt and if you can live without optical get the UL30vt when available.

Since Staples is brick and mortar see if you can get a hands on. You will get a much better idea that way. Don't expect 8+ hours from the battery. With Win7, 500 Gig Seagate 7200.4 and my backlit keyboard mod I see 5+ hours on the web in Entertainment mode and 45% screen doing general browsing. Video or games will cut into that severly.

 

I also am interested in this Staples deal.....


The U80a has a backlit LED keyboard even?

But the screen viewing angle sucks? Hmmm

 

That is intersesting, the BB version did not have the backlit keyboard but the pic there shows this one does? It doesn't advertise it as such though.

 

I am not banking on the backlit keyboard.

What do you guys feel about this notebook deal though? Is it a steal? It seems to be......

 

The UL80vt and this have the same screen, at least to me there is somewhat of a sweet spot. If you don't need the dedicated graphics this is better than the UL variation as the CPU is way more powerfull, this though eats into battery and expect best 5-6 hours only............

Edit; also rememeber with a UL variation you may never be able to ugrade the cpu. A bit of work but these can be upgraded............

 

I stopped at my local Staples and they had none out, I wanted to see then keyboard used............

 

It doesn't have a backlit keyboard.

Its nice though. I bought it

Not a fan of the glossy finish though. Would prefer slot loading DVD, and LED backlit keyboard is a great touch I think, and I would enjoy that especially....for DJ'ing at night. WXGA+ would be nice also, but these are all things that are for the most part out of the $599 14" price range. You can customize a T400 from Lenovo for a good price I believe now though. That notebook was / still is being considered.

 

I was kind of hoping for the keyboard as well. I did the mod and added the backlit keyboard to my U81a. It is definately sweet for dark area's. it is tough to top the power of these little box's for the price too.

These are without a doubt finger print magnets. always a good idea to keep a rag handy. I really like the port placing. Two USB's on the left side, the one in the rear gets my wireless mouse and the spare one for any USB drives. This keeps the dongles from interfering with mouse usage. The one on the right is in the rear so again I can keep the USB cable/dongle away from using the mouse. Also the fan on the left side keeps hot air from my using the mouse. If I were to use the video VGA and HDMI and even the audio in/out is on the left as well.

While not the perfect machine it is definately well thought out. Great battery life, but Win7 has something amiss. If you are on battery and from Entertainment go to Battery saver mode and back to entertainment mode power usage drops for 10.5 Watt/h to 8.5 Watt/h. no other change to of screen brightness etc. So you go from 4.5 hours of overall battery to 6 or more hours worth of battery. This has all been confirmed with Battery Bar and actual real world usage.

Edit I built one of those T400's in the config, $1124 to match what this is with web cam, 4gb ram, 320 GB HDD, 5100 wireless etc., no thanks............

 

sooo tempting to get the staples deal
no compromising on cpu power, yet still gets better battery life than my dm3 and weighs about the same. only bad thing is it's a cheaper, fingerprint magnet, plastic case and the crap 4500M, not even MHD.

i saw on slickdeals.net that they're claiming you can add the hp officejet 6000 wireless printer for the same price, but i haven't had any luck with the coupon code, it only knocks $60 off.

 

I've been looking at the staples deal too. I was originally set on buying an Asus UL30A - X5 from amazon which I still really like, but was scared off by the wireless problems people were having with the atheros network card.

I was wondering if anyone who bought the U80A has the same problems. Asus seemed like a good option since they had great reliability ratings, but after reading about the UL30A problems, I'm wondering a bit.

Can anyone tell me what type of network card is in their U80A?

Thank you in advance =).

 

I have the BB version U81a and it has an Intel 5100AGN. Not sure about the Staples version. I can say my chipset is the MHD as it accelerates h.264. tis link underfull spec's list the GMA4500MHD to; http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-u81a-rx05-core/4507-3121_7-33712900.html?tag=psum

 

That's awesome TANWare thanks. I was playing around with a couple of laptops at frys and best buy and the ones that did have the intel 5100 card had a noticeably stronger and more stable signal than ones with an atheros card. I even asked the workers where the router was located lol just to make sure it was an even comparison.

Factory81...could you tell me what network card was included with your staples U80A?

Thanks =).

 

I was thinking about getting this one from amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846

It looks like it has a more matte palm rest, can anyone confirm this? I've narrowed my 2 laptops choices down to the asus and the sony cw. The Sony actually has a faster CPU and video card and is actually cheaper its $899 out the door at amazon and the asus is $930 out the door, but I like the looks of the asus better. Tuff choice here...

 

The Sony looks like a nice computer. I think the battery life would be minimal but that is what comes with more power. So long as there aren't issues that are known with the model, like heat, it would probably make for a nice system.

 

I just bought this laptop. What color is Staples selling? I got brown, but does Staples also sell it in black?

All of the pictures show the U80 in black so when I saw it brown i was shocked.

 

Staples only carries the brown color which is specifically designed for them by Asus. From another forum, an Asus tech said that Asus also designed a80a for bestbuy, i'm not sure what color bestbuy got. Personally, I like the brown color more, it's unique and really stands out in the sea of black and silver lappies.