Asus UL30JT

Hey Spawn782, speaking of jumping ship, did you notice this post:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6188959-post103.html

In Canada, they have the U30Jc with the i5-430M (2.26GHz) that comes with Turbo, meaning it can go up to at least 2.53 (and even faster if ASUS ships it with Turbo33 33% boost) AND bluetooth for $940 USD.

Not bad. The US-version of the U30Jc comes with an i3-350M (2.26GHZ) 2 core, 4 threads, NO Turbo, and NO bluetooth for $869 ... if you can find it in stock!

 

wow. the Canadian version got an upgrade

 

Very odd indeed since several Canadian sites I looked at had the same specs as we have in the US.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6188889-post539.html

But here's the link to Infonech Computers. The very specs he was talking about. A real upgrade for the Canadians indeed!:
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=450921

 

Now the UL30JT is listed in 5 sites in Sweden.
The estimated arrival date varies between 2010-04-30 and 2010-05-04.

In other words:

Veeeeeeery soooooooon

 

Wow....thanks for the heads up on that Quatro, I hope it doesn't affect the battery life negatively, but looks like the U30JC for me Unless the reviews for the UL30JT comes out really good, but even by then I may have already purchased the U30JC.

 

I hope the UL30JT comes really good as I know lots of you guys were waiting months on this and putting of purchasing a laptop until this is released.

 

ya i can't wait any longer so currently looking for alternatives or perhaps just settle down for ul30vt.

 

HI tku,

Could you please provide links....

Thanks

 

Asus UL30JT-RX008V [UL30JT-RX008V] - 9.934.80SEK : B-ray.se :: Dator Prispressaren, din Internetbutik

WEBHALLEN.com - Asus UL30JT-RX008V - Core i5 / 4GB / 500GB / 13.4" TFT / GF 310M / BT / Win7 HP

JME Data / ASUS UL30JT-RX008V

ASUS UL30JT CI5 520UM 4GB/500 NVIDIA 310M 13.4" W7HP - Populära UL30 med Core i5 och GeForce grafik! - Specifikationer

B-ray.se :: Dator Prispressaren, din Internetbutik claims May 3.
WEBHALLEN.com claims April 26.
JME Data / Välkommen claims April 30.
Dustin home - Hemelektronik på Internet - 222 claims May 5.

 

hmm.. 9900KR

means

1,866 SGD
1,358 USD


omg.

 

If something is 9900 SEK, it usually means about $999 in USA.

 

means 1372 in SGD?

hmm.. almost impossible.

SG is selling UL30VT @ 1298. how can it be 1372.

no news yet from my side. kinda demoralizing.

 

UL30JT is already on sale in korea.. for around $1300USD at the moment. seems like it's been on sale for few days actually. there are few reviews of the purchase already so..

 

Hi bumskee....

Could you provide links to the few reviews....

Cheers

 

no I meant like "fast delivery" and stuff like that regarding the store. Not the UL30JT review.

 

Spawn buddy. After all of your deliberation, what finally swung you over to the U30Jc? The i3 (or i5-430M) 2.26GHz as opposed to the UL30's i5-520UM 1.06GHz speed?

Yeah, I can afford to lose the extra 1-2 hrs battery for the constant access to 2.26GHz.! It's nice.

... of course, to be fair, when I use "Quiet Office" mode or "Battery Saving" mode, the processor leaps down to 0.93-1.2GHz so it slows down to the i5-520UM range anyway.

 

Looks like Intel's working on putting out the i7 CULV variants now.

Intel said to be prepping 1.46GHz Core i7 ULV processor for this Fall -- Engadget

Hopefully this means they'll push the i5's out faster. I want the PL30JT already!

 

Well I really wanted the great battery life of the UL30VT and light and portable design, but I was always concerned that the CULV processors may buckle a bit under my regular usage.
I am a software developer and web developer so I usually have Microsoft Visual Studio Running with about three or four windows open, while simultaneously having either adobe photoshop or illustrator running (this is where I do the design part for my software) and of course I have a web browser usually chrome (for my research) with around 25 tabs open simultaneously. Most of my applications have a database backend so I also have SQL server express running. So I was bit concerned on how the CULV processor would not be able handle that load too comfortably.

I think the U30JC is a good compromise in terms of battery life, size and performance for my needs. I have no plans of gaming so I dont need any fancy graphics card, but the fact that it has a graphics card (some what low end) is a plus.

Initially I was fixated on the thin and light series like the UL30JT, but looking at it realistically the U30JC may make more sense for my needs. I like the fact that the CPU throttles down when in low usage like you said as that saves battery and I wont always have a million applications running at the same time.. for e.g if I am in a meeting, but it also can throttle upwards when I need the increased performance. I know the UL30JT can also do this, but I waited long enough for that laptop and I need one now, and I am not even sure if the UL30JT running at full over clock would be able to match the performance of U30JC.

So based on these factors I think ill go with the u30jc

 

I'm very similar to you, except I run my work applications in a Virtual Machine, which I'm sure adds a little bit of extra grunt needed. I also welcome a discrete graphics card. I would be playing light gaming on it, but honestly it's more for future-proofing. More and more things are taking advantage of the GPU. Windows Aero... Flash videos are able to with the latest version of flash. The next version of major browsers will also be doing GPU rendering... so weak GPUs (integrated Intel) will not reap any benefits from these future things.

I think I'm wanting a non-ULV processor, now... Probably an i5 because it can overclock itself. I wish the U30JC had an i5, and dropped the CD drive to save space/weight..... But if the UL30JT gets a full power i5, I guess that will be equivilant to what I'm wanting. Hopefully we don't lose rigidity and build quality by waiting for the new UL30 series...

 

Actually Quatro posted some links a few posts ago, there are a couple of Canadian sellers with the i5 version of the U30JC. I must give him some rep points for this useful posts, also I believe the i5 in the UL30JT is the Ultra Low Voltage version.

 

Well, the review is out and its not pretty. I have been watching this thread for months now and to see this review puts me back at square one.

ASUS UL30Jt review - Noti

Review Summary:

With the above said, would you still buy the u30jt ? If not, what else is there to consider at 13" screen thats light and has a bit of grunt? I would like it light and portable over having an optical drive.

- ul30vt + SSD?
- macbook pro with Win7 installed? (not an osx fan)
- Sony T, TZ, Z series ?
- what else?

 

There needed to be a comparison between the UL30Jt and the UL30Vt in CPU-intensive tasks. I don't really see the basis for claiming it's "not faster at all" in that regard, because unless something is very wrong there should be a big difference between a 2.1GHz Nehalem and a 1.7GHz Core. The battery life test didn't seem at all rigorous, either.

 

3D Mark 06 reflects only 3328 compared to 210M at 3434.. hmms..

i was expecting a slight advantage over the 210M though.

 

As I posted in the Acer 3820T thread, I decided to go the the Sony Z, specifically the VPCZ114GX/S (i5-520m, 192gig SSD).

With 12.3% Bing Cashback and the $300 Sony Trade Up program (for trading in any old clunker of a laptop), overall price is about $1540:

2100 @ tiger direct
-260 Bing cashback
-300 rebate (Sony Trade Up Promotion)

Not bad at all, the premium over the price of the UL30JT (whatever it may be in the US) is worth it to me, especially considering the better screen and build quality of the Z. Not to mention built in disc drive and still ~3 lbs.

Lower battery life for sure, but I can deal with that. Plus I will have it next week

 

maybe I will just go for ul30vt instead.. :S that sucks.. thought i had it down with ul30jt.. ;(

 

nice specs, price too high for me. got other better alternatives ?

 

yup.. am more leaned towards the UL30VT side as well.

Kinda sad.

 

The worse part is I like many others out there put off buying the UL30VT since January in anticipation of the UL30JT

Hmm looks like Asus screwed themselves a bit there, if they did not showcase the UL30JT since Jan, a lot of customers would have bought the UL30VT at the regular price, now with reviews like this I can see lots of customers now buying the UL30VT at the now reduced price, or jumping ship to another laptop.

U30JC / Acer 3820TG maybe?

 

yup am waiting patiently for it but it seems that they love to ride on it? ha ha

JC too heavy and big for me.

3820TG temperature seems to be a little too high for me. At 80 odd degrees i doubt the chassis will be cool to touch.

Considering that my country average temp is between 30-36 degrees.

 

None that I could find besides the Acer 3820 TG (Timeline X), for which a US release date has STILL not been announced. Maybe the new U33 Bamboo. Again, there is no release date for that either...

Which is why I just bit the bullet and went the the Z. Top notch build quality, screen, and still ~3= worth the extra price for me. Not at $2100, but definitely after all of the rebates I got.

 

love it but hate it at the same time. Sony is a premium is my country. No rebates anyway.

Acer 3820TG is in the market in my country just that the temp of it is putting me off

one have to factor in: for a new product the max temp is already at 87 degrees.

after a couple months of usage (wear and tear kicks in) who knows if the temp will start to soar to 100 degrees.

i would not very much like the idea of having to dismantle the machine and replace my own thermal paste or cleaning the dust off every now and then

 

Unfortunately, it is a ULV chip. The ASUS page on the UL30JT list it as coming with the i5-520UM which stock clocks at 1.06GHz.

And it seems to be, oddly enough, only ONE seller in Canada, Infonec.com, selling the U30JC-X2C AND IT'S IN STOCK! with the i5-430M processor (2.26GHz) and bluetooth. They appear to be the only ones in the world that I can find selling that model. I chatted with one of their sales reps who said that all the other stores in Canada were selling the U30JC-A1 model like we have here in the US.

They don't ship outside of Canada.

How did they, and they alone, get these special units??

 

yeap, with a U it very much explains. kinda disappointing.

 

Well if you want light weight and thin, who can beat the Sony VAIO Z? 3lbs and all of the trimmings. Of course it does cost a bit more ...

 

Yeah I really love the Vaio Z series, they look great and have great specs, but its out of my budget.

 

UL30VT: 1298SGD
UL30JT: estd around 1698SGD
Sony Z: 2499SGD minimum

way out of my league as well.

 

Well, you notice I own a U30JC, and not a Sony VAIO Z.

Awesome specs and a beautiful-looking machine. But my funds are not endless.

Though one owner told me he had broken two of the Sony VAIO Z screens as they were very thin & fragile (according to him).

Frankly, if the DVD/thickness+weight were an issue, I'd go with the (soon-to-be) cheaper UL30VT as well. It's a fine machine.

I am astonished from the review that the UL30JT's overclocked i5+310M got lower marks than the older UL30VT in 3DMark06. How can that be?

 

Guys do we have any benchmarks comparing SU7300 vs. Core i5 520UM...??

 

Notebookcheck: Mobile Processors - Benchmarklist

Looks like the 620UM isn't benchmarked yet...

 

Hi people, I've been watch this thread for a while trying to decide between the UL30vt and the UL30jt or a more heavy and expensive 3820TG (But with twice the power)

Just got some questions, the UL30jt has less battery life and scores less than the UL30vt in 3dmark06...and will cost around 250 USD more?

Stock UL30vt 3DMark06 Score: 3461 points
Stock UL30jt 3DMark06 Score: 3328 points

Really what makes this better than the current UL30vt? I was waiting on the UL30jt as I assumed it would be better than the vt. But then after seeing this review ASUS UL30Jt review - Noti

I'm thinking well no, its worse off than the Vt. Is here something I'm missing here? A big disappointment or what......

Its getting hard to pick which one,. Might just settle for a Asus 1201N to tie me over and wait till December lol

 

If you're going to spend close to $500 for the 1201N, why not just get the UL30VT for a couple of hundred more. When you're ready to upgrade in December, it will probably still sell for a decent price and you have a great laptop in the mean time.

If you are going to get the 1201N and can wait until June, the 1215N should be out with the N500 Dual Atom/Ion 2(310M)/Optimus. The N500 is supposto operate at 45% less power and Optimus should boost battery life in the same range as the UL30VT.

Bronsky

 

The only significant advantage of the UL30Jt over the UL30Vt should be CPU power. That was to be expected all along, given that the GPU is basically the same and Arrandale didn't really improve power efficiency much.

 

Been looking around at the UL30vt and yes its looking like a winner. For the extra 300 bucks its worth it over the 1201N. I think the 1215N with N500 / Ion 2 won't be out till the end of the year I read. Its the N450 1.66 and ion2 that will be out next month. Up for pre order now on some French websites.

The UL30jt is a disappointment. Not worth it for a slightly faster CPU and less 3dmark points. Not worth the extra 250 dollars. That could be spent on a SSD for a UL30vt..

 

Have you actually seen any comparisons of the two in CPU benchmarks? If so, I'd like to see them.

As for the 3DMark06 results, I think the lower result of the 310M had more to do with other factors than the card itself (e.g. drivers), and it's lower by an essentially negligible amount anyway. The two cards are almost exactly the same, and so this is pretty much exactly what one would expect given the specs of the UL30Jt.

 

The i5 did wPrime 32m in 25.25 seconds. Not sure what the UL30vt got around 40seconds?

 

That's quite a big difference.

 

The fact that it has Optimus should factor into that advantage as well. I believe that alone is huge compared to the VT. I love the fact that I don't have to switch graphics, close down programs and such all the time on my JC. I bet that the Intel graphics will score higher then on the VT as well.

________________________________________

To me, the processor and Optimus are what puts the JT in it's class for what they are "supposedly" going to charge in the states. I don't believe we have seen a price list here yet though? I believe it's worth $100-150 more then what the VT was when it first came out, NOT what it is now. My reasoning behind this is, in the VT the processor is fairly old technology that was no longer in production by the time the laptop was released. The JT's processor is as new as it can get, because of this, you're going to pay a little bit more of a premium for it. Let's also not forget that the VT started out higher then what it's at now. If people are going to use that logic(it's X hundred dollars more then the VT is now), wait 4-5 months after the JT comes out in the states, see what the price is and then make your decision (I bet it's high 700's, low 800's then)! <---to that statement, I would say there would be another 13" variant "about" to come out that people would be looking into as well... This is a never ending vicious circle that all of us should know to well by now!

Either of those two laptops were really designed to be a fairly powerful yet ultra-portable 13" laptop. I think ASUS has done a great job with them as the biggest gripe before was the CPU really sucked in the VT and it would be great to have Optimus.

 

Good point; I had forgotten about Optimus. However, Optimus isn't worth quite so much if the UL30Jt's battery life is weak, so I would really like to see some rigorous battery life testing, but unfortunately battery life is one of the areas where you'll barely ever see a fair test.

For a start, to properly test battery life you need to ensure the workload on both laptops is the same. It's also not necessarily fair to just test both laptops on minimum brightness, because minimum brightness for one laptop might be much darker than for another. The list goes on...
Equal workloads are a bare minimum for a decent battery life comparison, though.

 

i would wait for a review from a Professional website like notebookcheck, trusted reviews, laptopmag before i can pass a judgement over how superior the JT is over the VT....!!!

All in all i'm keen on knowing how much "%" improvement is the Core i5 520UM vs. the Core 2 Duo SU7300.

If it's not more than 10 to 15 % then it makes more sense to get the VT for a price difference of lesser than 100 to 200 Dollars.

 

Funny you should say that... On my U30JC, on battery and in high performance or entertainment mode (haven't tried on the other two), the screen will go dimmer (using the fn+dim key) then when it's plugged in. This also works in the other direction, I can't make the screen as bright off the plug as I can on, there is like a 5% difference. I can't use the laptop at full brightness anyway, it kind of hurts my eyes cause it's so bright. I don't know if the UL30VT or UL30JT is like that though. I know that the UL30A is no where near as bright as the JC panel, I don't know if the VT has the same panel as the A?