U30JC discussion thread

Anyone knows when is the release date?Pricing?Similar to ul30vt?

 

I've been wondering the same thing, if this would be the official 'killer' of the ul30vt.

I made a couple of posts of a little more details on it here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=467576

Base price with the i3 'looks' like it would be $869 according to xoticpc, but that was added to their site for pre-order in January....
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-u30jca1-order-p-2763.html

But as far as release I am not sure. The person in the thread above claims that he has spoken to several vendors that it should be in the hands of the resellers this week.

 

Found this page discussing the Nvidia Optimus and U30J as a test machine

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=pl&u=http://pclab.pl/art41173.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Du30jc%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26tbo%3D1%26tbs%3Dqdr:w&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhjaKUXzJwey5n70Gx03JiT76c7uyw

 

how can i get my hands on the i5 version?
here is the REVIEW
http://translate.google.ca/translat...refox-a&hs=jGZ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

 

I saw that page today too. I haven't seen it advertised on sale though but I do know it exists.

Seems like it may be a foreign item and the US gets the i3 version.

 

This can be bought in Taiwan now, but only available with the i3 350M processor. Graphics switching is done using Nvidia Optimus. Spec is a little different from the US model, 500g hdd/2gb ram (Taiwan) vs 320gb hdd/4gb ram (US).

According the the sales rep, this is the only model available. All other U/UL models using i3/i5/i7 processors are backordered with no ETA.

 

no i5? sucks!

 

god sake i've preordered this and there's no release date

 

Next week.

 

The new ETA is April 5th. I emailed XoticPC. Hope it doesn't get pushed back!

 

Picking up my U30JC today

 

whaaaat?? review after please! (heat, battery, build, gaming!)

 

April fools?

 

Help me decide U30JC vs. HP pavilion 2160US.

These laptops are at a similar price point, have the same memory and
hard drive space, but there are a few differences:

Pros for Asus:
* Slightly lighter: 4.8 lbs vs 5.2 for the hp
* Thinner, 1.2 inches vs. 1.57 inches
* Quality probably higher?

Pros for HP
* ExpressCard slot (for docking station)
* Core i5 vs. Core i3 for u30jc (or is this unknown still)?
* Slightly more pixels in screen without making laptop wider
* IR port
* 7200 rpm HDD vs. 5400 for u30jc

opinions?

 

ASUS's battery should last longer than the HP.

So far
-ASUS's 10-hour advertised = 8 hour normal use
-HP's 6-hour advertised = 2 hour normal use (basing it off my HP DM3)

-ASUS's 2 year, 1 accidental warranty
-HP's 1 year

Also if that HP uses the same touch pad as the DM3 series, might as well just forget about it and get the ASUS. I find the HP's ALPS touchpad to have horrible sensitivity and response.

Last thing, brush aluminum vs shiny plastic is quite obvious.

 

Just to compare the UL30 and this U30, was wondering how less of a battery the U30JC would have.

According to notebookcheck's mobile processor list:

UL30/80VT's SU7300 has 10 watts power consumption - advertised as 12 hour but get 9+
UL30/80JT's i5 530M has 18 watts -- advertised as 12 hour
and
U30JC's i3 350M has 35 watts -- advertised as 10 hours

 

Not April fools. I just happen to be in Taiwan for business and the U30JC is available here in limited quantities. I also own a UL80VT and let's just say I wish I had waited 6 months and bought the U30JC instead. Build quality is significantly better than the current UL series. The chassie is stiffer, palm rest is metal instead of glossy plastic (no fingerprints!!!), no keyboard flex.

I'll run a few games today and report on heat and battery. Gaming would be same or better than UL80/30 simply because it has a faster processor.

The model here has bluetooth, something I can't seem to find in the specs for any of the US models.

 

So is yours a "Core i3" or "Core i5"? I guess the $64K question is whether
what you bought is the same model that will sell in the US.

 

Core i3 350M, same as the US models. The only major difference I can spot is the inclusion of bluetooth on the TW models. My system also comes with a 500gb HDD/2gb RAM instead of 320gb HDD/4gb RAM.

Pricewise, it's around $945, so more expensive than the US model.

 

Hi eugenes,

would you mind reporting the battery life / heat of you're not busy .

I also would like to know the placement of th RAM since my current lapy's ram placement generates alot of heat (under touch pad, hp dm3)

thanks for reporting man!

 

RAM is located right under the center of the keyboard, accessible through a panel from the bottom.

 

That's excellent! I'm guessing the lappy runs pretty cool

 

Sounds great, after you have some time to really use please let us know what the battery life is like. Is it much thicker than the UL series? Or is it not that noticeable to you?

 

So the bad new...U30JC comes with a 48Wh battery, instead of the 84Wh battery that comes with the UL80VT. The batteries are physically compatible and you "should" be able to buy a 84Wh battery to extend battery life on the U30JC.

In addition, under an office environment (wifi/bluetooth, flash, email, intel gpu), the U30JC draws about 3 more watts than the UL80VT.

So we're looking at about half the battery life of the UL80VT out of the box.

 

So based on the previous posts in this thread that's...what...about 4.5 hrs?

 

hard to say since the battery he has is basically half of the 80vt, and the 30jc's processor operates on almost 4x the amount of the 80vt's.

 

Given the 48Wh battery and approximately 20% more power draw (quiet office setting), I estimate around 6 hours for office related workload and 4.5 hours for flash.

I'm still updating the system, so won't have concrete numbers till tomorrow.

One additional difference, Asus added a physical on/off button for wifi on this model.

 

Wonder why he claimed it only used 3 more watts, maybe he meant 3x more watts.

 

I should have said 3000mAH more, based on the system power draw shown in Tweak 7. ~17000mAH on the U30JC and ~14000mAH on the UL80VT. Basically, expect about 1/2 the battery life of the UL80VT. More if the 8 cell battery from the UL series can be used in the U30JC.

This is assuming that power is being drawn at the same voltages from the batteries, something I haven't checked.

 

Is the 8-cell battery physically larger than the usual battery, resulting in the battery sticking out?

 

According to the specs I've seen, the U30JC has an 8-cell battery.
So apparently, both it and the "VT" have 8-cell batteries. Is it just
that the cells are bigger in the VT, doubling the AHs available?

 

I compared the 8 cell from my UL80 to the 6 cell from my U30 and they are physically the same, with the 8 cell being more dense and weighting more. I just don't want to swap batteries before making sure they are electronically compatible.

Maybe North America U30's come with 8 cell vs the Taiwan model's 6 cell. It's not the first time Asus released slightly different models to different regions of the world.

 

UL30, UL50 and UL80 can all share the same battery.

 

But the voltage ratings on the batteries are different. If the voltage is simply used to calculate the final Wh, then the U30JC will run for about 6 hours on the 8 cell and 3.5 or so on the 6 cell.

 

I've just brought back from the store my new U30JC. My previous notebook was ASUS UL80VT, like eugenes's. I was pretty disappointed to find out that battery voltages are different, so I won't be able to switch the batteries between the notebooks.
Actually, I would rather purchase a UL30JT, or an ASUS 3820tg, but time was pressing, and the latter two models are not likely to become available soon. So I guess I'll have to start liking the U30JC.

 

My U30JC is a replacement for a U6ep, so all in all, it's a pretty big improvement. Now Asus just need to release an 8 cell battery.

 

Can you please take some photos? Also, McVla - how is the build quality compared with your UL80VT?

 

I noticed both you and Eugene bought this even though you already owned a ULxxVT. Is it that you guys were not satisifed with the performance / build of the VT? The reason I am asking is because that is one of the laptops I am considering.

 

according to eugenes it's significantly better than the UK series. I'm guessing its got something to do with the overall thickness (makes you think that its more sturdy) or the aluminum finish instead of plastic.

 

Just got in touch with a local retailer about the U30JC and will probably pickup one once I get off work.

The notable system spec that is advertised is as follows
CPU : Intel i3-350M (2.26GHz)
Memory : 4GB DDR3 1066 DRAM; 2 x SODIMM socket, Up to 4G
Battery : Li-ion 8 cell
Hard Drive : 320GB 5400RPM
Optical Drive : 8x Supermulti DVD RW Dual Layer
Bluetooth/Finger Print : No/No
Camera : 0.3M
Warranty : 2 Yr Global/30days ZBD/1 Yr Accidental Damage : 2 Yr Global/30days ZBD/1 Yr Accidental Damage

If I do get it, post up a short review with pics.

 

I personally never knew this so I thought I'll post:

 

I had no serious issues with my 4-months-old UL80VT. And I would have kept it for a year or two more. However, a colleague of mine is in a dire need of an upgrade, and since I do the purchases for the firm, I also enjoy Droit de seigneur when it comes to electronic gadgets. So I take the new laptop, and he takes mine.

Apparently ASUS' models differ slightly around the globe. The reviewer of UL80VT on this site had an issue with rattling keyboard. http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5346
I am from Russia, and I do not confirm this issue with UL80VT, neither did guys from eastern Asia, who posted here. My version also had bluetooth onboard. So my opinion may be irrelevant to the real device you put your hands on. However - the case of U30JC is surely stronger. I just can't get it to flex anywhere except the optical drive area. The UL80VT did have some flex, but it was quite OK with me. The screen is pretty flexible on both models. The keyboard on the U30JC feels more coarse, but I can't tell if I like it or not. I will probably type more in a couple of days.

About battery life. Most ULxxVTs come with 5600mAh 15V battery, that makes 84 Wh. U30JC comes with 4400 10.something V battery, which makes 48Wh. In addition the latter uses more power hungry CPU, so I don't expect it to last more than 3 hours in real life. Haven't had time to test it yet.

And I'm having an issue with U30JC already...(( An attempt to install Windows XP from a CD ended in BSOD. And it's not about AHCI drivers, because the CD had the drivers incorporated, and it worked fine with UL80VT. It seems to me I'll have to mess with XP Mode in Win7...

 

Thanks for the info

 

if you get it, would you be so kind and write short review? i think lot of people would be sooo thankful

 

Thanks for the post McVla, looks like it stands with 6 cell in Asia and 8 cell in North America.

 

Thanks a lot for the info, much appreciated.

 

Not to go off topic but I've read somewhere that Acer will be releasing Timeline i-core processors "M" that will get up to 10 hours of battery life. This doesn't seem possible to me

 

ASUS U30JC tested to have more than 4 hours battery life

http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...howthread.php?t=467576&page=2&highlight=U30JC

Do you think your BSOD with Windows XP is caused by Nvidia Optimus?

 

Babel Fish, while useless, is utterly hilarious. I want a "double obviously card".

10.8V, 4400mAh, 48Wh; pretty average.

However, I can't even seem to find the page with battery life testing.

 

4.9lbs is quite heavy :S for the "thin and portable" laptop