The New Asus UL20A....

Okay, the UL20a has a better battery and a better processor which happens to be my two highest priorities. (Might be worth an extra $100 to me.) So the 1810TZ might be a better comparison and probably a better deal, but the SU7300 processor is a little more advanced. The main benefit for me would be that is supports more C-states so, in theory, it should be more efficient.

Just saying...

 

does anyone know the real weight?
i've seen 4.1 lbs, and the amazon site says 3.3 lbs.

can't decide b/w this and the ul30a or the soon to be released ul30vt.

 

Thats the one I got but no dice on bluetooth. There's indicator lights for the BT but no module...

 

I don't know the real world weight but according to Asus it weighs 1.5kg with 6 cell battery.
http://www.asus.com/News.aspx?N_ID=0IThtUQeJJdoflAe

 

If you just went back a few pages in this thread, you'd find out a lot of real world things about the UL20, just as in this quoted post #94

 

Asus UL20 unboxing.

 

I like that Brad at liliputing is so informative, but the this whole "unboxing" craze makes me laugh...especially the actual unboxing part!

Don't get me wrong, I get sucked into watching them just like everyone else, but I feel so dumb for watching! LOL I guess we just love seeing new stuff in "real" life??

 

I'm also a little surprise by the battery. It's no larger than the one claimed 6 hour battery in my 1410. I don't get much more than 4-4.5 hours out of mine. I don't see how the UL20a is going to get 7.5 hrs. Looks nice though..box and all.

 

Given that the actual Ul20 is still not available for buying at Amazon, it makes me wonder if Asus is almost unwilling to release this thing... I mean, everyone and their dog has released a laptop in that category and Asus is still dithering over their neutered offering (yes, I'll never get over the lack of HDMI and bluetooth in this thing -- because I'm convinced it was a "marketing" decision )

Nevertheless, glad Brad is comparing the Acer 1410 with it for size, etc. Not sure if we'll have any excitement over the Ul20 as we did for the Acer 1810t(z) or 1410...

 

Glad to see its finally almost available.

 

LOL! That was good.

 

Up here in Vancouver, I can snag it for about $720 after taxes. Not too bad as I've been looking to replace my current 6 pounder Lenovo Ideapad Y550 for something more portable for school.

I'll end up buying it as soon as I sell my Y550, but does anyone know if there will be a UL20VT? I'm hoping there's a way to achieve Turbo Mode using some sort of other third-party software.

 

Looks like it's finally in stock on Amazon.

I'd still like to see it side by side with the Acer before making my decision.

 

I ordered one today. Expected to be ready for pickup either tomorrow night or on Saturday.

I'll post pictures and a short mini-review on it when I do get it.

BTW, it costed me $715 CAD.

Cheers!

 

I ordered one last night after watching the youtube unboxing. I got the 75$ gift card deal which lowered the price to $505. Very happy with the price, but it remains to be seen how this laptop performs.
I was also a little hesitant as the unboxing/amazon pictures make the laptop look a little thick. The add says "just over 1 inch" but it looks like it's a little thicker.
The lack of HDMI isn't too much of an issue for me as I moved from a netbook to this as a standalone. I'm not going to be plugging it into anything since I already have an Ion 330 based nettop next plugged into my tv.
I've never had a 12.1 inch screen before and I'm hoping for the best. Just crossing my fingers it is not thick and keeps quite/cool.

Hopefully someone here will have a review soon and be able to give some feedback on all our questions.

 

Hey there! I'm guessing you purchased yours from NCIX? I'm also located in Vancouver and very tempted to pull the trigger. The only thing holding me back is I can't seem to find out if it's a US keyboard for Bilingual keyboard. I was wondering if you knew.

 

I wonder if this is worth the premium over the acer 1410/Gateway EC1435u (both $400 with su2300)?

 

I bought it from Anitec for about $715. It's the cheapest price around that I could find, and it only took them half a business to order it in (I ordered it in around 4PM, was ready for pickup by lunchtime the next day).

http://www.anitec.ca/product/625149...mium-64bit-centrino-2-notebook-silver-ul20aa1

One thing I can guarentee you is that the keyboard is a US keyboard! It also has the Intel(R) 1000 WiFi Wireless instead of the Atheros card that people have been complaining about.

So far from playing around with it for a few hours, it's a great laptop. I'll just place my thoughts in noteform below for easier reading.

* It's quite solid and fairly built.
* Exceptionally light.
* The aluminum metal top cover feels good and gives it a nice look.
* The screen bezel is a glossy black plastic, but it scratches quite easily as I already have a few minor scratches on it.
* The touchpad works great despite being molded with the rest of the casing
* The touchpad button can be hard to press at time.
* Screen is sharp, and can extend quite back.
* The keyboard is easy to type with, and has minor flex only when you push hard.
* The dedicated button to switch between power modes is handy.
* Not a lot of bloatware, just a couple of software, and the rest is typical ASUS utilities.
* The panel on the bottom of the laptop opens up to the HD/RAM slots for easy swappage.
* Battery estimates on W7 gives me about 5 hours on max brightness and with WiFi on, so I'll assume on medium brightness you can easily hit 6 hours.

Another thing I really like is that one year accidental warranty that covers water, lightning, fire, and drops. The guy I spoke to said that if I registered it within 60 days, the warranty would get extended to two years, and he also mentioned that there is a repair center in Richmond, woo!

One thing I dislike is that the panel to remove the keyboard is a little loose on mine, so when hit the top F-keys, it'll make a noise and descend a few millimeters. I'll email ASUS and see what's up since it's so minor I don't want to bother going to Richmond.

 

I wish they had a black version of this one.. I really like the look of the black finish UL30-X5..

 

LMAO! Rep just for your handle!

 

For those curious as well, the Windows Experience Index on Windows 7 HP x64:

Processor: 4.1
Memory: 4.7
Graphics: 3.4
Gaming Graphics: 3.3
Primary Hard Disk: 5.8

 

Yes! US Keyboard! Sounds great! And thanks for the mini-review. I'll probably be picking one up at Anitec too then. It's a bit cheaper than NCIX to boot. Thanks again!

 

HERE WE GO!!!!! GREAT REVIEW!!

http://www.liliputing.com/2009/11/asus-ul20a-review.html

Thanks to Brad Linder for this!

Mine will be arriving this week.

 

It is a nice review. The only thing I don't like about it is the small battery and that you have to use power saving mode to get decent battery life out of it. They should have shipped it with a larger battery like the Acer 1810 has. That way you could get really good battery life out of power saving mode.

As nice as the UL20a looks, I think the Acer 1410 for $399 is still a better value.

 

One thing I dislike is that the panel to remove the keyboard is a little loose on mine, so when hit the top F-keys, it'll make a noise and descend a few millimeters. I'll email ASUS and see what's up since it's so minor I don't want to bother going to Richmond.[/QUOTE]


My keyboard panel is also loose. I wonder if that's just the way they're built. I got mine from amazon.com, and I live in Ohio. EDIT: wireless card is Intel BGN 1000, Ethernet Card is Atheros. Still don't seem to get a good signal. GOnna mess around with the settings Otherwise the laptop is pretty nice. battery is the 4400mAh - quotes about 6 hours on wifi with 50% screen brightness...I lke the brightness about 75%

 

I received mine from Amazon today.
The panel on my keyboard is also loose - it is on the right hand side and noticeable when typing. In fact it even clicks slightly when hitting the keys on the upper right hand side of the keyboard.

It is a shame as this is the only fault I have found so far and I am not sure if it is worth sending it back for something so trivial (and yet very annoying).

Anyone else have these issues ?

 

3 other people before you just said they also had loose keyboard problem.

little things like this is what makes me hesitate to get this

 

i see you have the dell 11z coming. Would you mind doing a comparison when you get to the ASUS? thx.

 

I emailed an authorized Asus repair center by my house, and here's what they said.

"By all means bring it in to get looked at, worst case scenario is if I am unable to fix the issue I can always send it to ASUS for further examination. That's a fairly common thing with ASUS notebooks however, there may just be a screw too tight or in the wrong place."

 

Great - let us know what they say - I liek mine except for the keyboard cover and so far it has outperformed any of the other similar machines I have tried (including HP DM3, Inspiron 11z)

 

it outperforms the other machines in what aspects?

 

*oops sorry, double post*

 

In day-to-day usability and battery life.
For example - I watch a lot of itunes on my laptop - usually while surfing and checking email etc. Both the DM3 and the 11z - would drop frames and pause when trying to multitask and the UL20A doesn't.

Also the battery life on the Asus is far superior - I got just under three hours our of the DM3 and it ran hot as hell - somthing the Asus beats it on hands down - the Asus remains pretty cool in comparison and with similar useage I am getting an hour more extra life out of it.

 

well i ordered this notebook on amazon last week, and it says i won't be getting it until AFTER december 25 . this is way too long, and they can't even tell me how many days after 12/25 it will be. anyone know where else i can buy this? not very many etailers carry this yet.

 

GenTechPC has them in stock.

 

great, thanks i just got one. i'll post my experiences and tweaks with this notebook. i'll probably make an unboxing video also

 

hi whitefiredragon,

i got my UL20A-A1 yesterday from amazon.com
i also have this loose keyboard cover problem. if i press 0, 8, 9, or F7-F11 the cover sinks down a little bit and it makes a noise. i will call ASUS on monday and see what they can do about it. my brother tells me i am a cry baby but it is a big deal! the noise and feeling is uncomfortable. i hope your unit does not have this problem.

 

Well how did it go?

 

i call them today. she was very kind to me. she said she will send me a new keyboard but i told her the keyboard cover is the problem. she said she doesn't have keyboard covers so she will do RMA for me. i don't know if they will repair it or send me a new laptop. she said something of both. i could not hear her too well because of static noise. i asked her if anyone else had this problem and she said no. i guess i am the first one to call.

i didn't get an email from them yet. i think i will get it tomorrow. they will send me instructions.

 

I recently got my UL20A on amazon and I'm overall very happy with it. Only disappointing things about this notebook are lack of HDMI, and it's not available in black, but I can live with that.

However, I am also experiencing the lose keyboard cover on the top row. It's not all that severe in my case but I'm interested to hear what solutions people have (RMA, replacement, DIY fixes) to decide if it'll be worth attempting any of those options.

I have another concern that seems very odd to me. Every retailer and the box states it has an LED display, however there is an HG-warning label on the back that states the lamp of the display contains mercury. As far as I know this shouldn't be the case for LED displays and my friends UL30 does not have this label. Can anybody shed some light on this?

 

Hi, I'm heading to NYC from Dublin soon.
I'd love to pick up a UL20a while I'm there, but I can't seem to find any stores which stock it. Can anyone help?

 

I have found a few more suspicions about whether the display is LED backlit or not. To summarize:

1. My UL20A features a warning label on the bottom plate indicating the presence of Mercury in the display's lamp. A UL30, however, did not have this label.

2.Compared to the same UL30, the UL20 display tapers to be thicker toward the bottom, while the UL30 is uniformly thinner. This is a typical difference between LED and cold-cathode based displays.

3. The hue and colouring of the UL30 is consistent with all LED displays I have seen (bluer, responds differently to brightness change), while the UL20 looks like any older display I have seen, i.e. cold cathode.

Can anybody confirm these differences on their UL20's? Did I get some sort of fluke or early version? I contacted amazon (where I got it), but I'm not sure how else I should proceed. Note the box my laptop came with also stated it had an LED display.

Anyone??

 

i got the same mercury in the display's lamp sticker at the bottom of my laptop. it scared me a little. my screen has a bit of blue hint and a dark bleed at the bottom of the screen.

 

if anyone wants to truly find out and brave enough to do it, then open up your notebook and look for the display part number. google it and see if any results come up. i know the acer 1410/1810 thread they've done this to verify what type of display it is.

 

no thanks! if it is cold-cathode display, what is the risk?

 

I think the risk is just attempting to open the lcd without damaging it and voiding your warranty ;P If it contains mercury, the warning is there to ensure people dispose of the computer and parts responsibly when it reaches end of life, rather than throwing it to the landfill.

 

Hi everyone,

this is my first post. I need to buy a netbook from ebay today because they have 15% cashback from bing but I can't really decide whether to buy the UL20a or the 1201n.
I am really concerned about 1080p HD playback from youtube

1201n:

Pros:
ION chip
HDMI

Cons:
atom 330

UL20a:

pros:
SU7300 core 2 duo

Cons:
no HDMI
Intel X4500MHD

and also for the UL20a, I am not sure if it has a good build quality or not. I see people talking about a little problem with the keyboard and a screen that is not really great

I would really appreciate it if anybody can help me to decide. people with ul20a, are you guys happy with it or you are annoyed by the screen and the keyboard

thank you for your help guys

 

I'm leaning towards the UL20A myself. The dual core processor in the 1201N is supposed to run pretty hot and I'm not sure Ion's graphics performance is enough to justify the lesser battery life and overall worse CPU performance using atom instead of a CULV.

BTW, like he said, great deal on it using Bing. Buy.com and excaliberPC list units on eBay, with excaliber it's
$549-15%=$465.. pretty great deal for a new in box unit.

 

Good morning all. For my very first (pc) laptop ever, I decided on the ASUS UL20A-1A. I don't know squat about computers but I've been reading these forums for several weeks now & dispite the wireless problem that I've read about, I decided to take the plunge. In my house, 40' away from my router, my signal strength is "excellent". At the college I work at, I'm in a cement block office with a steel roof, ( sounds like a jail ) & I'm about 100' away from the nearest source & my signal is "very good". I am learning everything as I go & have used the tech support several times and I am really enjoying this fine laptop. Sorry for such a long post & a very sincere thank you for all the great posts I have read here that helped me decide on this unit.

 

how did you get 15% cashback on ebay? i only see 8%...

edit: nevermind, i found the 15%