Asus UL80JT info

These wireless issues sound troubling...and I'm sure that you guys fiddled around with the drivers as much as you could. One of the reviews on the Best Buy website had a similar issue. I think I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on this, and if the wireless is acting up, I can hopefully return it without having to pay a 15% restocking fee, since it's a hardware issue!

 

Did not have any wireless issues, worked like it should from day one.
Also, the touchpad is really great, and since it is seamless and without any lowerings, it looks very neat.

 

Bought one UL80J couple days ago.

I am noticing a small whine. I think it has been reported before? You know that electronic noise? If I am on a website and scroll it goes away as I'm scrolling but other than that it seems constant. Didn't notice it before couple of minutes ago.

I too had one instance with the wireless adapter not being on. I had left it open to download a game demo on Steam while plugged in. Came back hours later and the wifi was down and couldn't get it going w/o a restart.

The left click mouse button has a slight give to it on mine. You press lightly and it will make audible click but not register. It requires a full press to register and it makes a more solid noise. This is a minor quibble IMO. Might be just a bit of broken plastic or something that makes the back of the piece hover slightly over the actual button underneath.

Performance and battery life are just fine with this. Overall I'm happy about it, but will do further checking as I only have a 14 day window to return/exchange.

Mass effect 2 performance on native resolution with just default settings seemed a bit slow TBH. I'd guess 15-20FPS in action scenes. Have not tried with custom settings at all.

WoW ran just fine with Medium settings and a Max distance. I did not venture into a city so I don't know how that would turn out but in Undead starting zone I was at 40-60+ FPS.

 

Yep, for the whining there is an easy solution.

Source: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Forum- How to eliminate high pitch noise?

 

Just went to Best Buy and bought a UL80J

After I remove all the crapware, I'll post benchmarks either tonight or tomorrow!

 

wow. thanks zuzler for the info. i'll get around to doing that

 

Initial impressions: very sleek. The brushed metal lid and palmrests don't necessarily pick up fingerprints, but skin oils/dust mites are easily noticeable. The rest of the surface area around the keyboard is the same rubberized plastic found on other Asus laptops available from Best Buy, and these do not pick up fingerprints or oils at all. The screen is good, nowhere near as bad as people made the other UL laptops out to be. The fan is great at quietly pushing a lot of air out out of the vent, and even when running PCMark Vantage (as I'm doing right now), the bottom-left side of the laptop is a little warm, but not noticeable through my shorts.

The palmrests remain cool to the touch, although the left one is slightly warmer than the right. The keyboard has a bit of flex if I really push down on the keys, but it does not leave me with any concerns about the build quality. I'll have to get used to typing on this keyboard, though. The keys have a bit more resistance to them than on my old laptop, and I'm new to chiclet keyboards. The touchpad, at least on the UL80J from Best Buy, is made of the same brushed metal as the palmrests. The texture is a bit too smooth for my liking, but having used an HP Pavilion whose plastic touchpad generated too much friction, I'm sure I'll get used to this. The pad gets warmer than the palmrests when the laptop is under load, but not uncomfortably so. The multitouch gestures are intuitive and usable right out of the box. And contrary to the other UL models this particular UL80J has independent right and left click buttons! They are not nearly as hard to click as the ones on the previous UL laptops.

I have had no issues with the wireless yet; as a matter of fact, I'm getting more bars than my desktop, which typically gets 2-3!

Edited to fix typos (apparently I can't tell my right from my left...)

 

Hi Everyone, first post!

So my 15" MBP hinge has been completely destroyed, and it would cost about 1000 dollars to replace that. Yeah...no thanks.

That was my first mac, and honestly it was okay, but not worth the price premium. I really like the fact that it was really thin and lightweight, but also pretty powerful.

After I found out how much it would be to replace, I went to Best Buy to look at what was available. I came across the UL80J and it was everything I was looking for. I have a couple of questions about this laptop before I buy:

-From perusing this forum, I understand that it does have the Core i3-330um, but DOES have turbo boost. I've never had an ULV processor before, so are you getting rid of a lot of performance by going with this option (I won't be playing any games, but will be using Photoshop and various music creation software occasionally, and watching a bunch of tv shows online lol.)?
-I'm confused with the battery. I understand that The battery that the laptop comes with is apparently not the best battery you can get. Could someone send me a link to the most powerful one (I tried searching for it but I couldn't find it)? And to anyone who has the laptop, how does the stock battery really stack up to the 5.5 hour benchmark with regular use (ie web browsing, listening to music, watching some youtube/hulu videos, you get the idea.)?
-Is there a bunch of crapware on the thing (Not really a deciding factor of if I'm going to get it, just wondering how much work it's going to be to get all the junk off).
-Anyone have experience with any of the warranty packages best buy offers? Is the 250 dollar 2 year advanced warranty worth it?
-Any other issues or things that you want to talk about?

Thanks for your help!

 

Argh, I hate making decisions. Engadget just posted a review of the other laptop I was looking at (that was actually sitting next to this on display at best buy haha.) and they're pretty happy. Toshiba Portege R705 review -- Engadget. From what I can tell, for 100 more dollars than the ASUS, you get the i3-330m instead of the ULV model and intergrated Intel HD graphics instead of the optimus hybrid found in the UL80J. Battery looks like a tossup (that 8 hours is complete bs). Like I said, I'd be using the computer for basic use and occasionally Photoshop and similar programs, no games. Anyone have any suggestions?

O and, the WiDi looks cool and is definitely a plus, but on the same note, I might not use that too terribly much (if at all, if nothing but for the 100 dollar connector you have to buy), so you can negate that in your recommendations.

 

no optimus = no games = fail
looks like such a nice laptop too

 

I just looked at the PerformanceTest benchmarks...and the i3-330UM ranks in at 1300 (under the Core 2 Duo 2.0ghz). The i3-330M ranks above a Core 2 Duo 2.66ghz. To put my MBP into the comparison, it had a 2.53ghz Core 2 Duo processor, which is right at 1900. This makes it seem like the processing power of the i3-330UM is quite low, and the non-ULV better than what I had. Are dedicated graphics important in my situation?

 

I'm not a typical believer in Best Buy's warranties...even though I'm taking my brand new laptop back to them today! Apparently it died during a BIOS update...a full 4 hours after I bought the damn thing.

Anyhoo, I didn't get to test the battery at all, since in those 4 hours I had managed to drain the battery, run some benchmarks, and then charge up the battery while updating drivers and such. PCMark Vantage score was in the low 4000s with Turbo33 on (around 400 more points than the UL80VT), and the 3DMark Score was around 3300, which apparently can be blamed on Optimus (apparently it lowers scores on both 3DMark and the WEI alike). My apologies for the inexact figures...I forgot to write them down before I bricked my laptop ).

If you're going to be playing games or doing anything that involves 3D rendering, dedicated graphics are a must. Even though the 310m is an entry level card, it's better than nothing. HD video, on the other hand, is handled by the integrated GPU very, very well. I watched a few 1080p trailers on Youtube and a clip of Planet Earth I had downloaded from the Microsoft website, and all of them ran smoothly and without stutters.

The Portege would be a good laptops for your needs, as are the Acer TimelineX models (although the build quality/keyboard on these leave much to be desired, according to reviewers). Both are available without dedicated graphics, and feature full Core i3 processors or higher.

 

does the big ul80vt battery fit in this chassis
i'll buy the best buy version and upgrade battery if it does

 

Hello:

I have been following this thread for days now and finally got registered here. I registered but NEVER got an email to confirm my registering so started again and this time it worked.

After reading all these posts and hearing from Yahoo Forums and this one of the problems with the wireless not working well on the BB UL80J and Poor Chanda Bear's experience with the new one I think I am going to stray away from my desire for the BB UL80J and go with the UL80VT.

Other than the possible chassis squeaks, (I am looking at buying silver model) smaller HDD, and no OPTIMUS, I feel the warranty is far better, and from what I am reading, the Intel SU7300 is NOT that bad of a deal. Plus it had a good battery life compared to the BB UL80J.

I really wanted to go with one with OPTIMUS because switching is on the fly and seamless, where as changing on the UL80VT, the screen blanks out for 2 seconds while the process changes.

I am NOT a gamer but want a good laptop that will last me a while.

I want to run Ubuntu on it too and not sure how that will work out of the box as it were. I am not a programmer, and I know that others who have loaded UBUNTU on their machines have said that it doesn't recognize the dual graphics cards, so both will be running at the same time and will drain the battery faster etc. Anyone know about this?

I don't know what has driven the prices back up on the UL80VT around the 4th of July it was $689.00 and the a2 model is now $737 at BH Photo- still no sales tax, a wireless card that works, reliability, unlike Chanda Bears experience just after 4 hours of use, smaller hard drive, SU7300 processor, it just sounds better to me. I just pray the chassis and other things I have been reading about the UL80VT won't be an issue for me.

Any other thoughts and comments from anyone would be appreciated before I dump $740.00 for my first LAPTOP.

Thank you to everyone- nice to be a part of this great forum!

 

The price also hit a low of $650 on amazon.com one time while it was $689 elsewhere. I think I will be avoiding the UL80J as well due to the issues...

 

Well, I returned my UL80JT today for a full refund. My Best Buy was out of stock, so I wasn't able to exchange it for a new one. So I am now debating whether I should get another one from a different Best Buy, or maybe get a U35JC instead.

I did manage to play a few minutes of TF2 before I bricked the laptop, and I was slightly disappointed. Reviews from late 2009 said that the UL80VT was capable of playing Source engine games on high, but TF2, being particularly intensive on the cpu and gpu thanks to its oodles of particle effects, was very difficult to play on the UL80J. The most curious thing: I got the same framerates (teens to 40s occasionally) regardless of what settings I used. Having everything on high (with no AA or AF) yielded the same choppy gameplay as scaling back the resolution and setting everything to medium or even low. I'm not sure what the bottleneck was: the ULV i3 or the 310m.

But TF2 is notorious for its unstable framerates. Even on my desktop, my fps can go up and down from 30-40 in intense firefights to the low hundreds when traversing maps.

 

Elembytes - I am in the exact same place as you, looking for a solid/mobile laptop without breaking the bank. I thought the BB ul80J would be perfect. I returned the one i bought due to the wireless issues. Now i have my eyes set on the HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx for $770. It has a full blown i5, 4gb, 500gb. Ive played around with it and its pretty solid. check it out.

 

Hi Benydesl:

I started out looking at netbooks thinking that is what I was wanting for travel, watching t.v. while traveling etc., but the more I looked the more I wanted slightly larger. I am approaching 50 years of age and have diabetes and my eyes just aren't that great so the Asus started to come into play. I teach computers in elementary school and for years have been DELL now we are HP as they were the lowest bidder (of course) one of the tech guys in our district showed me too where some of the HP stuff said COMPAQ and that we know is junk. So think I'll stay away from HP but thanks. I am still considering the Asus UL80VT however, think it is a good machine and for about $40 more than the BB UL80jt with it's problems, and so forth, you get a far better warranty, even though the HDD is smaller, plus buying online you save $$ on sales tax as well. Just my observations but still trying to decide. I keep praying that a big SCHOOL SALE will hit the online markeplace and drop prices again. At one point the UL80VT was as low as $689. Will see. Thanks for the information and suggestion though!

 

BB UL80J: Bettery life under power saver mode with ASUS Turbo 33% on 5.5 hours of normal internet/word processing usage seems on target.

Also from what I see ANY video is run through the NVIDIA card YouTube, Hulu, VLC...

 

Thats odd, because I installed the Nvidia testing tool app (the one that showed up in all those demos/reviews for Optimus) and my gpu was incredibly stubborn. It wouldn't even switch over during PCMark! That is, before I manually set it to turn on for that program. When I watched HD Youtube videos, the gpu didn't turn on, nor did it activate when I used WMP to watch a 1080p video clip I had downloaded.

Either way, I'm going to be ordering my U35JC from J&R within the hour ($800! And only $760 after Bing Cashback!). Farewell, UL80JT

 

lol i used the same tool. The little box that says its on or off. Flips to on with even regular YouTube... maybe I should play around with the settings to see if I can get it to not turn on w/ flash video and the like to see if it runs well and maybe get better battery life?

I'm sure you'll be just fine w/ the U35JC

 

I've been in the same place as you over the past couple of weeks (hoping the UL80JT would fit, then discovering its cousin, the U35Jc). The one thing holding me back is the 13 inch screen which I worry is a bit small. Like you, I'm hoping that it will run stuff like TF2 or L4D. Just wondering your opinion on that matter, as well as the i3 processor versus an i5, which I'm considering waiting for. Do you think the i3 is sufficient? I really don't no much about the new line from Intel...

 

The difference on the Best But Asus UL80J model and the Asus UL80JT from other online stores is that the "JT" means that the "T" is for "Turbo Boost", where the Best Buy model doesn't have that. Plus with the Best Buy model you only get 1 year warranty and you lose the 1 year accidental warranty.

 

The "Best Buy" Asus UL80J oppose to the Asus UL80JT that is found online is that the "T" stands for Turbo Boost. Meaning the Best Buy model doesn't have the Turbo feature. Plus you lose 1 year warranty buying from Best Buy plus the 1 year accidental warranty as well.

 

A few pages back, I think it was confirmed that the best buy model actually DOES have the turbo, despite its name. Some talk about a button or restarting the computer. They could have been talking about something else though

 

Yes, the Best Buy UL80J does have turbo33. The sticker on the bottom of the laptop says "UL80JT." The ExpressGate button on the top left doubles as the button for Turbo33. I would post screenshots of the CPU readings with Turbo33 on and off, but I lost those pics with the laptop

As for game performance, it would probably help if the CPU wasn't struggling. Even at 30fps or so, TF2 seemed to be very choppy. The game isn't Crysis, but it's a very demanding game when you take into account how taxing the particle effects can be, even for a quad core processor and a mid range DX10 video card! It's notorious for its unstable framerates, but after playing for a few minutes on my UL80J, I couldn't help but think that the the ULV processor just wasn't cutting it. It's a shame that I didn't get to try any other games before I had to return the laptop...then I'd have some more accurate information for you!

 

Figured I would post a review...since I have had it for a week....

I really do like the look, feel and size of this laptop...

But there always seems to be that one thing.......and this one is a big one.

I play only 1st person shooters so I will describe my experiences with the games I havd tried on the laptop.

Call of duty Mw2....I am very dissappointed to say that the optimus has let me down. The computer will not switch to the faster graphics card. I downloaded the test tool and even downloaded nvidia's new driver for the fix and it still does not recognize the game. This might be a real deal breaker for me. I might just have to return the laptop because of the over hyped optimus does not work as good as they want us to believe.

Battlefield BC2.....single player plays just fine...multiplayer was not working yesterday but I just got it to work on medium setings and all seems to be fine.

Call of duty4 MW....started playing ....works fine

Flashpoint dragon rising.....I was getting a ton of lag from singleplayer....

everything else on the laptop seems great, although I have not really tried the wireless to know if I have problems.


I really do not know what I am gonna do... I am contemplating the samsung-q430-11 from best buy with the I5 processor $829or getting a refurb Asus G60 from tiger. I love the Asus g60 other than the battery life(but there are 9 cell batteries available) and the warranty is really short being a refurb....but what can you expect for $729,,,,I really like the fact that the g60 can have another harddrive added and has the 320gb 7200rpm harddrive included.
My buddy has this laptop and is very happy with it. He has told me that it will play all games on higher settings.


Anyone want to help me decide on which option
1.keep the ul80j
2.samsungq430-11
3.refurb g60
4. other suggestions?????????

 

Did you get the U35Jc with the i3-370M 2.40GHz from J&R or customize it on a different website?

 

I got the one from J&R because I'm cheap I was never planning on customizing anyway, even if I ordered from Gentech/Xotic. Another $200 for an i5 put the laptop out of my price range.

Also, ndm: have you tried telling Optimus which card to use? Open up the Nvidia properties from the notification area and poke around in there, I remember that I had to tell Optimus to switch to the 310m for PCMark and 3DMark, so that might be your problem: it just doesn't recognize the game.

 

Sounds like a PEBKAC issue...

 

I too am going to be mainly playing MW2 on my U35JC eventually. Is it possible to manually start a game and force discrete graphics using optimus?

 

Yes and it's quite easy. If you can manage to use a computer without poking yourself in teh eye, then you ought to be able to do it.

 

Keep in mind, folks, that Optimus doesn't always "recognize" applications from the start. Having Optimus instantly know how to handle application X is a crapshoot. That might seem contrary to its purpose, but like I've mentioned, Optimus did not even recognize PCMark and 3DMark when I ran them for the first time. In many cases, you need to tell it which card to use for each application.

 

Are you able, then, to set up a list of applications managed by each card?

 

More or less. I didn't have much time to play around with it, but here's what I remember (anyone with an Optimus laptop can post with more detail):

Through a dropdown menu, you choose an application or browse your hard drive for the application. You then choose what card will be used with the application, in addition to any custom settings you would like (force AA, AF, etc).

 

That's right. Through the app you can add every single executable you have on your hard drive. But most of the time, it was right the first time.

 

so i got the UL80JT from best buy two days ago. initial impressions:

the good: runs well for the most part... youtube plays well, 720p video is smooth, multitasking is good.... 3d games i've test work okay (after fiddling with drivers... don't use the latest nvidias! get the newest off asus site). also the design is fantastic, very sleek and well-built (it seems).

the bad: slow cpu, so multitasking isn't perfect... optimus has issues switching automatically... make sure you switch it manually if you attempt to 3D game. also, the right portion of the touchpad LMB doesn't work... have to click it all the way on its left side

the ugly: WIFI ISSUES!!! very often, wifi fails and requires reboot... and even a reboot doesn't guarantee it be fixed... sometimes it takes 2 reboots... i've noticed this issue in express gate too.

if we can get to the bottom of the wifi issue, this one's a keeper. not perfect, but decent for an ultraportable. if in the next week or so, we can't figure out the wifi problem, i have no choice but to return it.

 

also, has anyone here attempted to downgrade the ul80jt to XP? i am having issues getting XP to recognize the 310m gpu...

 

wifi is odd on this... seems to reinstall drivers several times now. It seems to do it when battery is low and/or when battery saver option is running. I am new to streaming media and having several computers on wifi so I don't know how common issues are.

I also dont know if the turbo33 has any effect on it...? I have watched a few movies where i lost connection or the drivers reinstalled.

However only once have i had to reboot the computer to get the wifi to work. Its puzzling.

 

i put in a "technical query" to ASUS last night. they got back to me promptly with this:

i doubt these "solutions" will work, but i will give them all a shot sometime today.

 

wuyanks, I dont have the WiFi issues. I did a full clean install of Win7 before using it and installed the latest drivers from asus.com
Everything works as it should.

But I experience a small gap on the top between the display and the frame. Hope that this will not be a dirt magnet.

 

i did a clean install of win 7 as well (ultimate, not home).

hmm did you update your bios to 211? or are you still on 210? also, which drivers did you use exactly? there are a few listed under "wireless"... thanks!

 

Uuh, currently I'm not on the Notebook. But I can say this: I didn't touch the BIOS, and I did not install any of the Intel drivers on the page. I think I installed the Azurewave drivers. Will check on that one later.

 

if possible, can you dump your bios and upload it? (if that's even possible). i may want to try to revert to 210.

 

I would like info regarding this if anyone has it

 

I dont think the 310m will auto switch in XP, the bios says something like that in its settings.

I have had no wifi issues today at all and have been online quite a bit w/ the turbo33 off and battery saving mode.

Thanks for the asus.com info, i will try that out if i need to.

Also I did not update the BIOS and I used the Azureware drivers for wifi but I am pretty sure its the same drivers that it shipped with

oh, and i did not do a clean install of win7, just rolled w/ what came on it

 

i made a few of the changes (disabled the ability for windows to turn off wifi card for power savings), and haven't had wifi problems since. not sure if it's 100% fixed though.

however, i'm having doubts about the cpu now... too slow for multitasking? seems to work okay, but... the samsung q430 from BestBuy looks better, and for the same price with the i5 450m core. only downside is 512 mb VRAM, as opposed to 1gig with the asus.

 

Tell me how to dump the BIOS and I'll try

 

Trade offs... more expensive, heavier, moar power and shorter batter vs cheaper, lighter, less power and longer battery

 

I would advise UL80JT owners to not mess around with the BIOS too much, especially when it comes to updating it. Mine would not turn back on after restarting when I tried to update the BIOS (the file was downloaded directly from the Asus UL80JT page). I'm sure it was just a fluke, but I just wanted to give you something else to be scared about tonight