Asus UL30JT

In the youtube vid from zedomax, it seems the only difference between the JT vs the VT is:
-the laptop shell is matte finish instead of glossy

Is this correct?

 

what a shame, i was hoping for an i7. The i5-520UM is not that much better than the SU7300 according to notebookcheck numbers, it will be better, but if the UL30VT goes below $700 the slight % in performance increase wont justify even a $900 purchase for me, unless of course optimus is really all that worth it. The GPU is essentially the same so not much to comment there. Ill have to wait for the first batch of reviews when it comes out to fully decide. hopefully the UL30VT drops to $650 by then and i can add a 80GB SSD, But $650 is probably too hopeful.

 

Take notebookcheck reviews with a grain of salt. These ULV i-processors are not readily available yet so their benchmark ratings are not a good representation.

 

Without full benchmarks it is hard to know for sure, but the 520um is ranked just higher than the SU9400. Plus, it gets tricky with the intel Turbo Boost AND the Asus Turbo33. We really do have to wait for those first reviews and benchmarks to know how the UL30JT will compare to the UL30VT. I think estimates are around a 30% increase in CPU performance, but at the expense of some battery life.
It really becomes a balancing act between the VT and JT. By the time the JT is out you could probably snatch a VT for close to $700. For me, Optimus and Turbo Boost are worth the wait and cost. I just don't see myself manually switching the graphics and CPU all the time to get the most out of the VT.

Good analysis. Agreed.

 

do you think the best is asus ul30JT or acer 3820TG (but this have many configuration) ?

 

Despite what I've heard about the Acer keyboards, I still favour the TimelineX.

 

Here in Denmark there is going to be a 90 dollar difference between the new macbook pro and the UL30JT, so do you guys think that I should buy the Mac now or wait for the UL30JT?

Isn't the C2D processor in the mac better than an I5 Ulv in the asus (although its of cause an older processor.)

Which is better the dedicated 310m gt or the 320m in the Mac?


The quality of build of the mac is of cause better but which of them would you buy?

 

the asus DRESTORYS the 13in macbook in all angles.


I have a 2.4 unibody MacBook from when they started selling them... 2yrs ago. As far as I'm concerned the "new" 13in macbook is 2008 tech with a 2010 mark up.

 

although c2d is old tech, you cannot help but see that the c2d processor used in the mbp13 is better than the i5/i7 ulv processors here. if the new mbp13 gets 7-8h out of its claimed 10 hours, it makes it a viable choice for those attempting to find a good balance between power and battery life.

as far as everything else goes, both have comparable gfx cards
similar battery life
both have okay screens
but macbook has its famous unibody
but macbook doesnt have hdmi out. u need a damn $10 dongle

 

I'm in such a soup.
my dad arrives next month and will stay with me for a month and definitely needs a laptop (either a pc or a MBP with windows running in VM).
I've held off on buying a laptop since beginning of the yr because I was waiting for the ul30jt and the mbp refresh.
The MBP refresh has left a bad taste in my mouth and for the $$$, i'm strongly gravitating towards the asus ul30vt or ul30jt or the new acer timeline 3820
problem is, as of today, I can only buy the ul30vt with no estimate for ul30jt or the timeline laptop and now, I face a May 5th deadline to get a new laptop.

failing this, my only alternative would be to buy like a $200 laptop (used) from craigslist or something but buying a 13" laptop should not be so difficult

 

I just checked on notebookcheck's benchmark list and the i5 um520 is number 160 while the mac processor is number 44. (although the i5's position on the list is made from speculations.)

Apple themselves say that the 320m is quicker than the 310 but not much.

The UL30JT and the macbook both are rated at 10 hours. So maybe the mac is in fact a better buy?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=449726

u30jc although availability is limited now

 

As for the price on the ULxxVT models...if you purchase one through the Bing cashback program, you can already pick one up for $700. Just a heads up for those mentioning prices a few posts back.

 

Do you have the refreshed Macbook?

 

Maaaaaaaan. I hope the UL30JT / PL30JT comes out soon. I really need a laptop right now and these seem perfect for me. The PL moreso, just hoping its not more expensive.

 

No but i'm thinking about buying it instead of the ul30jt because the prices here in Denmark are almost the same. Does anybody know the Real battery life of the MacBook if it is between 8-9 hours i Might buy it.

 

Wow. This time we Americans are getting shafted by higher pricing.

Before the usual VAT, how much is it there? Will the refreshed MBPs be about the same price?

 

Sorry, wasn't around when the PL30JT was being discussed. What's the difference again?

 

Matte screen, Lojack included, two buttons on the touchpad instead of a single bar.

 

and just BLACK too right? no silver.. that's what I thought..
I am waiting for these now.. god..

 

The approach that Apple took in redesigning the 13" MBP was to add a new integrated GPU which appears to be an upgraded version of the Ion 2. It is called the 320M but it is not like the 300 series GPUs in that it has no dedicated ram. I would think it will not outperform the 310M but that is yet to be seen. As an integrated chip however, it should go a long way toward keeping the MBP battery life where it is projected.

Bronsky

 

Huh? Didn't Nvidia lose licensing rights to have their graphics chipsets included on Intel's CPUs? What's going on here?

 

Yep. I like matte screens. I'm wondering though, do they usually up the price of the laptops or are they the same costs to manufacture anyways?

 

I think the position taken by Intel in the litigation over NVIDIA's rights to mate integrated chipsets with intel CPUs was that the NVIDIA chipset rights stopped with the Core2Duo chips. So, the integrated 320M falls under this license.

Bronsky

Actually, this design might be useful in 11.6" subnotebooks. An SUxxxx/320M combination might be killer in a 10" or 11.6" ultralight.

 

PL30JT definitly coming in europe next month.

 

I'm guessing that's after 25% VAT? If so, NICE.

 

I just spoke with australian shop here and they reckon it will be in stock in late APRIL.. hmm.. maybe they have NFI... tho all PL30JT are listed as RO025X instead of RO030X as previously posted, wonder what the difference is, spec seems to be the same... arghh.. can't trust these computer shops.. :S

 

UL30JT will have:
1) Optimus automatic graphics switching. VT is manual switching.
2) i5-520UM dual-core 4-thread processor (1.06GHz -1.86GHz with TurboBoost33). VT is SU7300 1.3GHz TurboBoost33 to 1.76GHz.
3) nVIDIA 310M (nearly same as 210M) but with 1GB VRAM. VT has 210M GPU+512MB VRAM.
4) 10 hrs hoped-for battery life. VT has 12 solid hours battery (in real tests with Word, but no wifi.)
5) JT may only come in black. VT comes in black & silver.

 

If the PL30Jt is hitting Europe next month, that's in line with Intel's ULV summer announcement. Still kind of makes me wonder what Mr. Asus on facebook meant by "long time."

 

Even though its not dedicated it still has 48 pipelines while the 310m only has 16. Wouldn't that give it the edge even though it uses shared memory?

They are both a lot more expensive than in the US so you really shouldnt be mad. The prices here in Denmark are going to be:

Ul30JT: 1454,92 USD

New Macbook Pro: 1536,75 USD

 

Maybe to get people to stop waiting on the UL30JT and boost the sales of the U30JC?? Or maybe 2 months is a long time by his estimation.

 

Exactly, he meant buy the U30JC now!

 

Bronsky, I noticed in your sig that you have the Acer 1410T...how much of an improvement in speed (at least perceived speed) did swapping in that SSD bring?

 

Night and day. And the Intel that I put in there is more of Intel's value SSD, not as fast and the larger units. The 5400rpm drive seemed to be forever loading. I did the ram upgrade (4GB-800ghz) at the same time but I had the ram in first. The SSD had far more impact on speed than the ram did IMO.

Bronsky

 

Very nice. I have been impatiently watching the UL30VT prices, and the US release dates for the Acer 3820, and Asus UL30JT for months, trying to come to a decision on which to buy. I preferably want a laptop by the end of the month...but absolutely need one by the end of May.

Each day that goes by makes the UL30VT + Intel SSD sound more appealing, if for the mere fact that I could have it now.

 

Also, for what its worth, and to stay more on-topic...I found this article while dredging the internet tonight after work.

http:// www. digitalstar.com.au/detail.aspx?ID=44328

I am not familiar with the site, or their info, but they have the PL30JT listed with an ETA of May 2010, and a price of $1599.00. Granted, it is AU so the prices are probably quite skewed, and the release date for Australia may have no relation to the US release...but its something...right? Hah.

 

Here in America, we're a lot more price conscious with the diversity of offerings available. I won't pay $1400+ for this if I can get a shiny shiny MBP for much less.

$1049 currently at Mac CONNECTION.

 

Nor will it cost $1400+ in the USA.

 

Accordingly, I doubt it will too.

I just converted $1,599 AUS to USD.

1,599.00 AUD = 1,478.76 USD
Australia Dollars United States Dollars
1 AUD = 0.924800 USD 1 USD = 1.08131 AUD


Market competition in America wouldn't allow Asus to price it so high.

 

here's my decision......
im going to buy MBP 15.
since MBPs have such a good resale value
i think it is worth is to try.
i could use is for about an year and sell em back when they come out with
better 13. hopely with i3 wit dedicated graphic(this one i doubt it).
apple need to think MBP 13 as a MBP. they are not seperating MBP 13 and MB 13
they are seperating MBP 13 from other MBPs like 15 and 17. shame on them.
anyways, i have about 4 more months to decide lol
forget the PL30JT or UL30JT taking forever to come out.

 

If the UL30JT is not 2x better than the UL30VT then it's not worth 2x the price.

 

Yah that is true. My only issue with UL30VT given its lower price is how annoying is it to switch graphics manually? I feel like I would leave it on all the time and kill the battery, or it would require restarts all the time. If they would release updated UL30VT w optimus I would jump on it

 

2x the price?

 

He's lookin at the Austrialian price.

 

What is it with people not doing enough research? The UL30Vt costs A$1349 at the same store where the PL30JT was A$1599, but that seems to have been conveniently ignored.

 

I think he's looking at the American price when looking at the ul30vt

and accidentally looking at the Australian price when looking at the pl30jt

 

i was so sold to this notebook when i 1st heard about it, a 13inch with i7 and a Dedicated Nvidia!? wow! i was saying goodbye to the M11X in my list

until i found out that this build comes with a G310M which is only a Entry level GPU and is not gonna run modern games like CODMW2 even on Med, let alone future games

and also, no Optimus, so it's a shame, but i hope the reason for its long release is because Asus is doing an upgrade for the Optimus

so, welcome back to my list, M11X!

if only Asus give this notebook a GT240 / GT330 even if they set this to a $1000 base, i would definitely choose this over the M11X

 

The ASUS UL laptops are, first and foremost, "thin and light" models - no-one expected a midrange GPU in them.
The N82Jv is more along the lines of what you're looking for, though it's 14".

However, why not the Acer TimelineX 13"? HD 5650 + Core i5/i7 will beat the m11x any day. The screen might not be great, but the m11x's is quite poor also, and at least the TimelineX's is larger.

 

The UL30JT isnt meant for gaming though, the M11X on the otherhand is advertised as portable gaming. And a $1000 starting price would drive away the people the laptop was intended for. (The UL series is part of ASUS Campus Life ( http://campuslife.asus.com), suggesting that the UL series is targeted towards budget-minded college students that want power+portability without sacrificing battery life)

And i dont know who told you that the UL30JT doesnt have optimus, because it does.

Also the UL30VT (older model) is more than capable of playing Modern Warfare 2. here's a video of the UL80VT with the same video card as the UL30VT playing Modern Warfare on MAX detail settings with AA off as proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCYR...F5F81899A&playnext_from=PL&index=0&playnext=1

The UL30JT has an updated 210M, so im sure the 310M will handle MW2 no problem. But it wont play crysis of course, nor was it ever intended to

just putting my 2cents out there because you cant really reprimand a laptop for not doing what it wasn't intended to do. I mean people compare the UL30JT to the 3820TG with its better ATI graphics card, but i just see that as icing on the cake for the Acer. People shouldn't speak poorly of the UL30JT just for this one reason. I mean you don't expect netbooks to have i7s do you? In its ultraportable class, any dedicated GPU is a bonus, at least in my opinion. Keep in mind before this year there were no ultraportables with dedicated GPUs under the 1k price range i don't think.

Im sure the future will tell a different story though as a few years or even months down the line we can maybe see <4lb gaming beasts that can set benchmarks under $1000 and have more than 8hr battery life, but that will probably require a leap in laptop cooling + miniaturization technology

 

Whether the 310M is a bonus or a significant detriment all depends on the price the UL30JT will be. At $800 or less, it'll probably be a great laptop, but if it goes past $1000 the CPU and GPU will start to compare rather unfavourably to the Acer.