Asus UL30JT

The laws of physics are mutable afterall.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666065650

Bronsky

 

The Alienware is a big chunk of plastic. Let's not kid ourselves.. look at that thing. There's basically no reason for it to look so chunky. Dell has never cared about weight or battery life, except for those super-extra light ones they came out with (adium or whatever).. and those are pretty much ONLY focused on weight

 

Um, the Alienware is so huge due to the powerful gpu in it that needs some serious cooling in such a small case.

 

*Continues to patiently wait for the UL30JT*

Thanks guys!

 

Also note that the m11x has a 33 5M, whilst the Z has a 33 0M. Not an earth-shattering difference, but a significant difference nonetheless.

I dabbled with the idea of getting a Z, but with the specs I wanted it cost twice as much as the m11x I had configured, for which I would have gotten a better processor, better design, 1lb-1.5lb less weight, a slightly better screen, half the disk space (but SSD granted), half the battery life, a slightly better keyboard with worse backlighting, and a worse GPU. Oh, and a built-in optical drive. True trade-offs with real potential gains to be sure, but not ones worth an extra $1200 to me.

And, as a previous owner of an m15x, I can tell you that the biggest drawback to the Alienware design is that it makes the computer seem 2" larger than it should... so a 15" Alienware looks like other 17" computers, etc. That in mind, 11.6" seems about right. And Alienwares don't look nearly so gaudy if you set the lighting to white.

 

Hmm.. Well if the JT is only going to have an ion2 in it.. Is there a notebook out now, or has been actually announced that is similar to the UL series? ion2 or better, i3/i5/i7, 13-14" screen, < 4.5lbs, etc, that isn't ridiculously expensive?

 

The JT seems worth the wait because it fixes literally everything I dislike about the VT or improves upon whats already there. The rubberized palm rest is a huge deal for me. That thing will make the entire experience with the laptop better, not to mention more battery life than the X1 but still in black. I am not sure how you guys feel, but I much prefer the look of the black notebook as long as it doesn't have the shiny palmrest.

Tack on 1GB of video memory, and a freakin' i7 (ULV, but who cares!?) and this may be the perfect laptop.

Just wish we had some kind of release date. I have been waiting for this damn thing since it was announced.

 

I fear that the UL30Jt won't be out for another 1-2 months, because those laptops that ASUS announced that will have Optimus aren't here yes.

 

Lol, no . The UL-series of Asus is also all plastic...and i would rather have a sturdy plastic build over a thinn easy flexible (maybe breakable...) build, which is the UL-series from what i have read unfortunately....thinner is not better!

I dont't quite understand the extremists wanting notebooks to become lighter and lighter on the expense of a better buildquality....

Saying all this, the M11X will most definitely really sturdy.
It weighs a bit over 2kg which is still reasonable.

 

For me Footprint, is more important than the Weight. Like.. I can carry up something sturdy and manuvere it with one wrist, if it's a solid piece of construction.

I hope that m11X and JT will both be very sturdy.



Is there any gaming benchmarks out there now of the UL30 VT? I wonder what 210m gives in actual performance in games, when 310m will be the same.



Also do we know how much of an improvement mobile core i7 will be and how energy efficent it will be compared to su 7300?

I mean... would a core i7 run much better in GTA4 than 7300 CULV ?

 

yes because i7 has turbo boost!!

 

Fail to mention that the VIAO is like almost twice as much as the JT will be and the profile of the VIAO is like 1" at it's lowest point to 1.3" thick, whereas the JT is <1" thick at it's highest point.

Again that's the difference of additional cooling to the video card.

Again the JT is not meant to be a gaming machine, it's suppose to be a sleek, low profile laptop with some balls.

I hate seeing how people are comparing it to the m11x and other models that aren't even based on the same concepts that the UL line stands for.

 

I disagree insofar as these are all laptops designed with a fair amount of mobility in mind, and presumably the people attracted to them place a high premium on mobility. The JT and, say, the m11x may differ in ancillary goals, but they at least have that in common.

Then the issue becomes one of trade-offs. For example: I'm not a hardcore gamer by far, but I like the occasional round of Fallout 3 or Dragon Age. My current laptop, a Sony VAIO SR-490, has a GPU similar in benchmarks to the 210M, which is perfectly serviceable for my needs (the battery life, on the other hand...). However, if, all else equal, the m11x has a better GPU, then why not consider it?

Of course, all else is not equal, and that's really what's at the heart of these discussions. The m11x's GPU may not be worth a last-gen processor to some. The JT's i7 may not be worth the lack of a backlit keyboard. And the two models are probably not going to be identically priced. Etc.

 

I've asked ASUS about the availability of the UL30Jt on their official Facebook page, and they have answered me:

If you are looking at the UL30Jt information from http://zedomax.com/blog/2010/01/08/asus-ul30jt-hands-on-review-ces-2010/

that model will not be available at the moment. U30Jc is the next Optimus Model in line, not the UL30JT.

 

What is the difference between the UL30Jc and the UL30JT?

*edit - it looks like you can already preorder the Jc

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u30jca1-order-p-2763.html

 

It's the "U30JC" (no "L"), and the big differences are as follows:

1. The U30JC has an optical drive
2. It's about 1lb heavier than the UL30JT
3. It uses an i3 rather than an i7 processor, but with a higher clock speed
4. It too uses the 310M GPU, but with 512MB less VRAM

Xoticpc has the details here, where you can actually pre-order it now:
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u30jca1-order-p-2763.html

 

PrimitiveWallflower covered most of it, I'd like to add that the i3 does not have Turbo Boost and it is not a ULV processor.

 

Which means the ul30jt will have a better battery life? (ULV processor)

Or probably the same, since it has a more powerful GPU...?

 

Subtract the price of the alunimum body, the SSD drive, the optical drive (I think the real difference in the profile is the exclusion of the optical drive in the JT, not the graphics card cooling issues) and the Sony name premium and you have a laptop about the price that the JT will probably be offered for sale. The point was that the inclusion of a GT325M or a GT330M is clearly possible and the perfect time to do it is during the redisign phase when you are adding a new CPU. I don't use my laptop for gaming but have a very high demand for graphic presentation and manupulation in my business. In fact, I think the often heard distinction between a business laptop and gaming laptop is less clear every day. Business has more and more demand for graphics in its operations. I don't think the issue is whether or not Asus COULD put a better card in the JT, the issue is whether or not they WILL. I think they won't and I think it is a very short term view. I only say this becasue I like the machine and would prefer buying a $1,000 JT rather than a $2,000 Sony. For my needs, the 1GB 310M (which is only a bit stronger than the 512 MB ION 2 slated for a 10" Acer 532g netbook) makes no sense in this machine and it will be outpaced by better, more well designed machines in no time. Clearly, the inclusion of better graphics in ultrathin and lights is the trend. I just think its a missed opportunity.

Bronsky

 

Same GPU, so the UL30JT will have better battery life.

 

m11x is designed for gaming in mind, portable gaming at 11" weights like 4.5 lbs, comes with all the alienware bells and whistles like backlite keyboard and lights all around. It has no switchable graphics, has probably nowhere in the same battery life the UL30 series has interms of real world battery usage, even though Alienware claims it to have at least 6 hours battery life.

JT is suppose to be a sleek, slim, light weight and a powerful laptop with a long battery life, that's what the Asus UL series offers. It was never meant to be a gaming laptop. The VT and JT gives you the option to ramp up the graphics so you can play your 1080p videos via HDMI out without any lag, and yes allow you to play games to a certain degree. Most probably designed in mind for the WoW addict who wants to be able to login and check AH prices or do a few dailies and farm a bit. Probably not 25man raid worthy unless you play on the lower scales, and even the that's questionable, then again I have standards for how games should should be played at, and I wouldn't buy a non gaming laptop to be fully enjoying games, that's just stupid.

The two laptops are completely not even in the same genre of laptops as one is purely a gaming laptop and one is a switchable GPU laptop that offers longer battery usage for those that work/study in the day and play at night. Just because their portable doesn't put them in the same play field.

That's like comparing a Civic to a Porsche, just because their cars, or because they both have wheels.

 

Bronsky! I get that you are upset about the fact that the JT won't have a better GPU, but come on man! I have seen quite a few posts from you where this is your primary point.

From what I have seen the 310m is a great card. Who cares if it is an ion2? Its more than twice as powerful as a 9400m, the GPU in the Macbook, better known as the Ion. It packs a huge punch for such little power drain. It won't play Crysis on high, but it will blow away your so-called "high demands for graphics presentation and manipulation" Many graphic designers rely on the 9400m in their Macbooks, I seriously doubt you will need the power unless you game.

Instead of seeing it as a huge drawback because it will also be in netbooks, you should be astonished that so much GPU power will be in such a slim notebook. It wasn't long ago that I had to pay $2000 to get an 8600GT in a 1 inch form factor (ie. Macbook Pro) The 310m, even if it is a re-branded 210m should perform exactly the same.

It is unrealistic to expect the performance of a 335m in this form factor for anywhere near this kind of price. The Sony is thicker, runs hotter, and costs twice as much. This makes the machine completely undesirable to me. If I had enough cash to get that Sony, I would buy two VT's. One silver and one in black.

 

I like your post. Your're absolutely right that the only thing preventing me from buying the JT is the card. I'm not really upset and don't think its unrealistic to expect better decisions from a company like Asus. Maybe you can get 2 and send me one.

Bronsky

PS: I really do need the graphics power.

 

As long as the UL30JT can play Diablo III flawlessly, i'll be happy and purchase asap .

 

I can't help but think that differences you mention are purely ones of marketing. Yes, the m11x is geared towards gamers, while the JT is not. But personally, I have no qualms about using a "gaming" laptop if it's a better value for accomplishing my (mostly) non-gaming needs. Same would hold true if FPS were my main priority and it turned out that a ThinkPad was the best way to get a decent COD4 experience within my budget.

Beyond that, these are two laptops that, regardless of marketing, faced similar trade-offs in their design to achieve their balances of price, weight, & features. It's not like comparing the JT to, say, the VAIO Z, a computer that spares no expense. The JT and the m11x are very roughly comparable along the criteria I mentioned.

Objectively, the two laptops are going to be priced in the same ballpark for reasonably comparable specs, with the m11x probably being about $100 - $200 more after you apply the Dell EPP discount. The JT v. m11x discussion is useful in ascertaining what we would get and what we would lose for that extra $100 - $200. Even for some non-gamers like me, the extra price may be worthwhile. For those simply in the market for a baseline-spec'd JT, the question becomes whether what they get from the m11x is worth an extra $400 - $500. I imagine for these people, the answer will be a resounding "no."

 

Um...no way will it play D3 flawlessly on high. Maybe Medium or Low though.

 

Seriously?

If it won't play DIII on high settings, that's a deal breaker for me... .

And maybe medium or low?

.

 

This may not be a constructive comment, but...

lol, yeah. You probably do...

My last 3 primary laptops have all essentially had this card. The 8600m GT in the Macbook Pro, a 3670 in the Studio XPS 16, and hopefully soon the 310m in the JT. Its always been enough for me (some gaming/web dev/photoshop), I cant just assume it will be enough for everyone.

If a laptop can display 1080p videos, I always just assume its enough for anyone who doesn't game.

Sorry for the implication, Bronksy.

 

Hey man, don't get too worried. I have no idea what the system req's for D3 will be. I would just assume it should have pretty high system requirements.

 

Appreciate the input bro.

I just figured D3 will be another CS-like game and play flawlessly with no problems on all high settings.

*shrug*

 

Nah.. D3 is full 3D game with a lot of polygons and tons of "cool" graphic effects.. I think it should run on medium just fine..

 

You will be able to find settings that will make the game look amazing on the 13in screen. If you want to pump up the resolution you may have a problem. I have played Demigod on a similarly configured system, and Demigod looks just as good if not better than D3.

 

Ahh, although I hate to move away from thin and light, I think this round Alienware has stole me away and this will be the first laptop I will purchase that won't be Asus

I'm sure I'll be back soon enough though!

 

I don't see any point in pumping up the resolution... 1336x768 on 13,3" makes really high density of pixels and running the game in this native resolution is also better for the screen.

Also.. on this little screen the BA effects and AA are not as noticeable as on 26" desktop monitor

 

I personally think the m11x is really damn ugly, am I alone in this? I don't see why people keep putting it up against the JT/VT.

 

The m11x does have switchable graphics and it offers almost six hours of real world usage (ie: web surfing, youtube videos, etc.).

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews.php?reviewid=924&pageid=17

You could possibly push seven or maybe eight hours if every setting was on low.

And there is a very big difference between the 310m and the 335m. For example, the 335m has over four times the stream processors over the 310m.

 

M11x does look ugly as sin.

It's a glorified brick with angles.

 

d3 is from blizzard, and their games are always at least 3 years behind current technology.

 

Not behind, but they tend to make games backward compatible.

I really hope the UL30JT comes out soon, I would return my Envy 15 to get one in a heartbeat. =P

Maybe not in a heartbeat... but I'll think about it long and hard. ^.^

 

Is a 310 better than an "ATI mobility Radeon HD 2600 graphics with 512 mb memory"? The ATI is on my current laptop and can play my game (DDO) on low without lag thru an iphone connection, or dualbox on a normal wireless connection and I'm hoping a 310 can play it on at least medium or even high...

 

The standard (512MB) 310M is far better than the HD2600 in your current laptop. Your HD2600 does not even perform as well as NVIDIA's former GPU, the GT8600M. The 1GB 310M that is slated for the JT is probably a quantum above the standard 310M, so you should have no worries about playing DDO over your Iphone. Hope you enjoy your new JT.

Bronsky

 

I wouldn't say a quantum lol. 335m in the m11x is a quantum. This will prob give u an extra 3-4 fps. 335m would give u like 10+ fps boost

 

1GB vs 512mb of video memory on a low-end card won't make much of a difference really. The HD 2600 is slightly slower than the 310M, but you're still comparing a former mid-range GPU to a current low-end GPU. Regardless, the 64-bit memory bus on the 310M is going to limit how much of a boost the extra 512mb can improve performance by. The HD2600 is about equal to the 8600M series (both are mid-end GPUs of 2007, I believe). By no means is any of these GPUs a quantum better than the other. Hope this helps. If you want a noticeable improvement over your previous laptop, you should be looking for something more along the lines of a HD46XX/HD56XX, GT230M/330M or faster.

Source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-2600.3771.0.html

 

As a point of comparison, my current laptop has an ATI Mob. HD 4570 512MB, which is last-gen but still comparable to the 210M/310M. I can play Fallout 3 at maximum settings, though without anti-aliasing, and get 30+fps in most situations. I'd rest easy that 99%+ of games out there will be perfectly playable on the JT at some non-trivial level of detail. Obviously, your games aren't going to look console-quality, but if you're like me and play mostly Civilization with the occasional foray into recent FPSs then you'll be fine.

 

Ok maybe I got a bit carried away. In my profession, Hyperbolie is a virtue, not a vice.

Bronsky

 

do you guys think this is going to have better performance than my current laptop? or even the ul30VT-a1 with turbo.
i currently have:

hp 8510p
t7300, 4mb, 2.0ghz C2Duo
ATI HD2600

because i checked out sony s11 at bestbuy, and wow, that machine was fast (i5)!! only thing is the battery life is poor (4hrs) so if the VT or JT has comparable performance then it's done!

 

The 210 in the VT will be marginally better than 2600, not much i believe. Processors are both penryn c2d. So other than battery life I would say no.

JT will be another story im not fluent on i7 performance vs c2d

 

the i7 on the JT should turbo to about 2.26ghz iirc so yes it should be faster. And the i7 supports hyperthreading and all the junk so it would be faster but not a huge improvement.
Battery life on the other hand will be a huge difference.

 

Can anyone help me compare this laptop with my current one?

I'm using a delll xps m1530 with a t7500, 2gb ram, 160 gb 7200rpm hd, and 8600m gt.

I don't need something too powerful, but i do use a lot civil 3d and other autodesk engineering software, some free mmorpgs and such.

I'm really looking into the mobility of this one and the ul80JT since my laptop has crap battery life and is a hassle to carry around campus but i'm still undecided between the ul80 and ul30, since the ul80 doesn't look that much bigger and has the cd drive...

Also i'm pretty sure the proc. is good for my needs, but i'm not so sure about the gfx card.

ty in advance.

 

If your GT8600M does the job for you now the 1GB 310M will be a bit better. The I7 will be an improvement over the T7500. Where you'll see the most improvement is in battery life and portability. The I7 will draw much less than your T7500 and Optimus will switch to integrated graphics when you're word processing, playing music, doing research or crusing the net. The 310M will only draw power when your using it. I would guess your battery life may tripple. The reduced weight and thinness should also make it far easier to carry around campus. I would think the decision between the 30 and the 80 will depend on the final pricing of the JT. If the CD is important, you can get an external one inexpensively.

Bronsky