U30JC discussion thread

Yes, ASUS keeps us all confused.

In the last box of the upper section of the U35Jc description, it reads:
"Slim aluminum chassis houses a powerful standard voltage CPU and compact optical drive."

... but they then put N/A on the Optical Drive line further down -- and the 3.75 lbs and the <1" thickness would imply there's no ODD. Plus, if they come out soon with the U35Jc, what's the point? The difference to justify its existence? Having a non-ODD model in the U30 line would make sense.

And, though they've posted drivers for the U35Jc (no manual), they still don't have it listed on their product pages, so they may not be decided on what they're going to include yet.

Beats me.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484551-asus-world-magazine-may-june-2010-a.html

The UL30Jt is listed as no optical drive and the same 1.7Kg weight. But it won't be the first time ASUS move ad facts around.

Where did you read the release date of May 31st? ... oh, I see. It is listed as coming in stock May 31st on several European sites.

 

I'm heading out to Taipei again in 2 weeks. Will do some recon for you guys

 

amazon now in stock , not i7

 

I'm on the verge of buying the JC cause I can't wait any longer for the JT's. Size is there any pics comparing the width of the JC to the VT/JT I need to see how much bigger this thing really is? I currently have a HP DV2000 14inch is it going to be as thick and heavy as this?

 

You are too kind, sir.

Eugenes, the main thing I'm curious about is what model actually comes equipped with what. Of course, items like BT & HDD size are always negotiable.

Thanks!

 

Well, the Jt HxWxD is given (we hope) in the ad in the last page. The Vt & Jc dimensions are given over on Amazon (and in the ad). Here's the ad page link again that has all three's dimensions:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484551-asus-world-magazine-may-june-2010-a.html

This may sound odd, but I made paper templates by cutting & taping to get the upper dimensions & paper measurements to visualize the depth to get an idea of what each looked like before I ordered.

Then I took a couple of older notebooks (incl my wife's Mac) & weighed them on a gram/oz electronic scale to get a feel for the weight in my hand. I added a paperback book to my netbook to get the U30Jc's weight & carried it around the room. Worked for me.

Oh, and as for comparing it to your HP DV2000, another review puts the DV2000's weight at 5.4 lbs (like my old Dell). The U30Jc is 4.8 lbs. That's about a 10oz/270gm difference. The DV2000's thickness is 1.5". The U30Jc is 1.2" at its thickest point. Not counting the little protruding rubber bumps, my case measures 1 1/16" thick with the lid closed. You can do a paper drawing of the U30Jc vs DV2000 upper dimensions to get a feel for the look-size difference.

Short answer: no, the U30Jc won't be as bulky or heavy as your 14" HP DV2000.

 

X42JV are comming too: they're basically 14" slightly thicker (36,5mm versus 29.9mm) U30JCs with full voltage icores and 335m video card.
They cost about 100€ less but have no USB3.0

 

6.6mm = 1/4" thicker. Ouch.

... but I do like the 335M GPU!

 

And it's official at last, AnandTech's excellent & thorough review says of the (black) backlight bleed issue:
"The test results above confirm our suspicions that this is yet another lousy laptop display (YALLD).

It surprises me when I see other reviews talking about the display being "above average" or having good black levels. To be clear, a black level of nearly 1.0nits (The U30Jc rated at 0.94 nits) qualifies as pretty severe backlight bleed and is in no way "black". For a display running at 200nits, we would like black levels closer to .30nits. ASUS has done this (and more) with the 1005HA, 1001P, and the G73Jh; now we just need better quality displays in their nicer "budget midrange" offerings.

The LCD remains of dubious quality at best. We've seen worse displays, true, but we've also seen many better displays. With a price of $900, it may be asking too much to get a decent LCD in the mix, but ask we shall! Next update, ASUS, please give us something like the G73Jh display, only smaller (or the 1001P display, only larger)."
AnandTech U30Jc Review

With the U30Jc's black-rating at .94 nits, it's not impressive. Hence why full-screen movies or HULU-watching reveals very noticeable washed out blacks (grays) in the lower 1/3 of the screen. I did the same experiment on my wife's 1-yr-old 13" MB; same problem and same cheap screen, but the new MB's & MBP's (watching the same video) do NOT show this problem. Beautiful, real blacks. Apple wisely improved the MB's screen to be equal to the MBP's.

 

@Genetx

sorry can't seem to find the PM button but I noticed you are dutch too.
Do you by any chance know if this laptop is available in the netherlands anywhere yet? Can't seem to find it... (my best try would be pixmania.be but they only offer the azerty keyboard which is a no go for me) Thanks!

 

Sad I haven't got an U30Jc, as I am working on a dv2000-laptop at school that was left as it was useless (only running Linux, which I use for my project).

But as Quatro stated, it will be less bulky. The dv2000 isn't that much smaller compared to my 15,4" F3Sc, nor does it feel like it's weighing less.... The U30Jc is only slightly heavier compared to the HP dm3 I also had in my hands. That laptop was noticably lighter and smaller. The U30Jc is thicker, but still not as thick as my F3Sc, which I found rather slim compared to other notebooks before the thin-and-light hype.

 

Hi, I don't wish to thread-crap or anything but what are your opinions on the HP Envy 14? Discussion can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq-voodoo-pc/472085-hp-envy-14-availabilty-etc.html


Obviously, it isn't a fair comparison because the Envy is considered a premium product and will release with a base price of 1000. Additionally, the 2 laptops are each catered for different uses and the U30jc is more advantageous in some instances, including:

-insane battery life (nearly double that of Envy 14's base battery)
-more affordable
-the u30jc can be purchased now whereas the Envy 14 is not yet released

These are just some things to get the ball rolling.

 

If anything, I think Asus is the more premium product.

 

I agree with this. x2.

 

Hi everyone, first time posting and I saw that the U30JC was in stock at Amazon earlier today so I jumped on it and bought it. I was so excited that I bought it with the fastest shipping and it should be arriving 2m 5/20!

Been reading about the bloatware attached to the laptop and the general consensus is to back up restore files via DVDs and then reformat correct? I'm kinda new to this, but the best way to install Win 7 over again is to make a small partition for Windows system file and create another partition for the rest?

 

Do a clean install and use the driver disc (at least, if it is still delivered with the laptop) to install the drivers. Don't use a restore function.

Best way is indeed to make a small partition for Windows, but don't make it too small. 50GB would be absolute minimum, but if you use more large applications like the Adobe CS5-collection, some developer tools etc (like me) you would like to make it 75GB or bigger. Then after Installation, move your documents location to the D: drive (google for that). That makes it easier to format your laptop in the future as you don't need to backup your files. That is the big advantage of partitioning.

 

Cool, thanks for the tips!

I'm also interested in the possibility of dual booting with OSX. I have this Dell Mini 9 that I bought on Craigslist that someone installed OSX 10.5 on that I love and would like to find out a way to do this on the U30JC. Probably will do games and MS word on Windows while photo edit in OSX.

Any good guides or threads out there? I'm also doing my own searching and I'll post anything I can dig up.

The U30JC name is popping up in this discussion but no real guides

Ask Engadget: what's the best 13-inch Core i5 / i7 Wintel ultraportable for running OS X? -- Engadget

 

Thank you Quatro... our the best that U35JC looks tempting and it looks slimmer though. When does that come out?!

 

Some European sites have it listed to be in stock May 31st. I've no idea about the US nor if the promised May 31st turns into reality in Europe either.

The UL30Jt is out in Taiwan and some countries, but still hasn't been released in the US. Who knows when things will actually be available here, (of course, you may not live in the US.)

 

Umm.. im not sure if this has been asked before but... Is there really no black version of the U30JC ?

 

No, I don't think so. To get black and a similar set up (though the hinges, touchpad and palm rest/lower chassis look different), you'd need to get the soon-to-be-released UL30Jt.

Were you wanting an internal DVD drive or not?

 

No.. not really. I mean, an optical drive is always good to have but i wouldnt mind not having it. It just seems like the UL30JT is taking forever to be released and im thinking it will be kinda expensive compared to the UL30VT. So maybe im better off buying an UL30VT... i will be playing games though, at lower settings i suppose.. so im wondering if the difference in gaming will be significant with the processor and the nvidia 310m the JT version comes with.

 

It might be worth your while (perhaps you already have) to go over to the UL30Jt thread and look at the (very) few who've bought the UL30Jt in Taiwan or nearby, and see what their benchmark scores are & compare them to the Vt scores.

When the Vt is overclocked to 1.733GHz, it does very well. Weirdly, it would appear that the Vt oc'd did better than the Jt in 3DMark06, though I wonder if the Jt oc'd has been compared to the Vt oc'd and how they fair in various benchmarks.

The UL30Vt is a good machine and seems to play games comparably to the UL30Jt & U30Jc.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this? I only own the U30Jc.

 

A question, everyone:

Is the NVIDIA G 310M GPU CUDA-enabled?

My GPU-Z says it isn't, but I thought it was.

Okay, this NVIDIA page says the 310M is CUDA-capable:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html

Yet when I install CodecAVC 2.0 and then run a DVD under MPC 64, the green CodecAVC icon that should show up in the Taskbar isn't showing up. It says it comes on when CUDA is enabled.

Is there some app I can run to see if CUDA becomes enabled on my U30Jc? Does MPC 64 use CUDA?

UPDATE: Someone wrote about MPC+CUDA,
"Go to View->Options->External filters.
Click Add filter...
Select CoreAVC Video Decoder and click OK.
You might also need to go to Internal Filters (in Options) and disable the H264/AVC (DXVA) filter."

But I still don't get a CUDA icon in the task tray.

Nor do I get one with WMP playing a DVD. Clearly I don't understand CUDA, what apps are written for it and under what circumstances it works.

 

Anybody know how the new Ubuntu runs on the u30jc? Especially power consumption wise. The long battery life is super nice and I don't want to give that up. Thanks

 

I would be interested in hearing some opinions on the virtues of the U30Jc vs. the UL30Vt. From what I can gather, the U30Jc would be slightly faster, slightly heavier, contain and optical drive and get a bit less battery life. While the UL30Vt would be slower, lighter/thinner, last longer on battery and require an external dvd-drive. Any opinions?

 

This question has already been beaten to death. These two laptops both have pros and cons and will most likely interest two different kind of people.

- If you are anal about weight and battery life and thinness, ul30vt-a1 it is
- If you want an all included laptop (with ODD), more than "slightly" more powerful (2cores/4threads faster cpu), faster gpu, automatic switching of gpus, with a more than acceptable battery life >8h, u30jc it is or even u35jc depending on the final specs.

I personally do not mind the weight and i do really love the u30jc, it allows some good level of upgrades down the stretch.

Pricewise, you can score a ul30vt-a1 for $685 at JR after BCB
and you could have scored a u30jc for $791 at one point with tigerdirect afterBCB

I still do think that these two laptops give the most bang for the buck.

 

That's a fair summary, tho' 2.26GHz on a 2 core/4 thread (virtual 4 cores) would be more than "slightly faster" than a 1.73GHz overclock on a duo-core, IMO. In my daily office apps use, I doubt I would see a big real-world difference between the two but benchmarks would show a bigger difference.

The U30Jc is about 5mm thicker.

The construction of the U30Jc chassis appears to be more solid and very pretty with the added brushed aluminum palm-rest & trackpad.

The U30Jc has Optimus' automatic switching which is nice, but not a deal-breaker for some.

Tests show that the U30Jc runs cooler & cooler to the touch as well. My fan is exceptionally quiet.

 

have beening wait for this one come back in stock from TigerDirect for one month. now still unavaiable,,
instead, i buying a MBP 13 from ebay, for 1000USD after cashback.,

..not a bad deal i think consider MBP has better scrren, backlit keyboard,
unibody, similar cpu and gpu less than one inch, looks more permium. just have to learn some apple os,, first Apple computer.

 

I also like the construction of the U30jc but I'm waiting for the U35jc to lighten the weight. If the U35jc can maintain similar battery life to the U30jc and be a little cheaper in price also, then I'm sold.

 

If the U35Jc is the same as the U30Jc except with no ODD (ASUS ads+specs are confusing on this point so far, IMO), why would you think it will be cheaper?

The13" (no ODD) UL30Vt wasn't ever cheaper than the 14" (w/ ODD) UL80Vt.

And if the U35Jc is newer, it will even more not be cheaper. Typically, if ASUS removes the ODD, then they add BT or a larger HDD, but not a cheaper price.

 

Never mind!

 

I predict we'll get the same non-uniform designs for the upcoming notebooks. E.g. 2GB RAM/500GB HDD/BT in Taiwan, 2GB RAM/350GB HDD/No BT in China, 4GB RAM/320GB HDD/No BT in US.

 

Only thing though, is it seems the U30JC has an aluminium palm rest area while the U35jc may have plastic palm rests. Aluminum is better IMO, but may make it slightly heavier.

 

^ Have you looked at pictures or looked at it in person? How do you know?

 

Sorry if its been covered, but can someone tell me what optical drive is in the U30? Will it burn d/l?

 

The optical drive is a 8X DVD/±RW DL Super Multi drive.

 

thank you

 

This article seems to show photos of both the UL30Jt and the U35Jc. Since the UL30Jt looks externally a lot like the UL30Vt design, I'm guessing the photos of the U30Jc-aluminum-clone are actually the U35Jc, which has an aluminum palm rest & trackpad like the U30Jc has.

Then again, the photos of the black UL30Vt look-alike has a sticker on the palm-rest that reads " U35Jc". So I'm not sure.

Is it even possible that the photos show that a version of the UL30Jt has an aluminum palm-rest & track pad and the U35Jc now has a black plastic body?? That doesn't even make sense, esp as we can see ASUS' photos of the UL30Jt now on their product site.

And he describes one of the two models as having a blu-ray/DVD drive (the thicker aluminum case) while the model with the plastic body has no DVD drive.

We know that the UL30Jt has no ODD.

All that to say that the U35Jc may well have the same chassis and aluminum parts as the U30Jc.

 

In that case I'm not sure whether I should just go for the UL30VT-A1 now, or wait for the u35jc. It seems as if the main difference is basically going to be the CPU anyway. Although I find my SU7300 in my Vaio Y now a little slow sometimes for uni work.

 

FYI - It is back in stock at portableone.com for $878 shipped. Portable One

 

Oh! So you already have an SU7300 C2D notebook. If that feels a little slow for your uni work, you wouldn't want the UL30Vt as it has the same SU7300 processor.

The i3 or i5 (2.26GHz - 2 core/4 thread) should be faster than your SU7300 machine. Is the U35Jc more desirable than the U30Jc because it has no DVD drive (if it indeed has no DVD drive) and so is lighter & thinner?

 

What are you doing that the SU7300 seems slow for, if you don't mind my asking. Mine is clocked at 1.9Ghz and I have never felt any type of slowdown.

 

I thought I'd mainly be using my laptop for typing up papers etc. but I've ended up using it for some PLC programming which is a bit laggy for my liking. Also, I pushed it a little and tried virtualising a windows XP install on it which ran extremely slow. I don't have to use virtualisation on the go, but it'd be convenient.

The U35jc is definitely more desirable because it has no DVD drive. If due to that it's thinner/lighter then I'd prefer it. Besides creating recovery discs, I haven't even used a disc in the past year or so of uni.

 

I hope the U35Jc indeed has no DVD drive, but I'm not fully convinced yet.

 

The hands on impression at bit-tech says the U35jc is significantly lighter due to no optical drive, hopefully they're right

 

Yes, but beside the Taiwanese reviewer repeatedly switching notebook names (i.e. ULC30, UL30, U35Jc, UL35Jc), he says the UL30 has the ODD and is over an inch thick w/ hefty weight. Since ASUS doesn't have a ULC30 notebook and the only new UL30 they are coming out with (that we know of) is the UL30Jt , I must assume he means the UL30Jt.

So several things become apparent, since the UL30Jt HAS been released in some places, unlike the U35Jc.:
1) The UL30Jt for sure doesn't have a DVD drive & for sure has a black plastic chassis, palm-rest & dimpled trackpad.
2) He reviews 2 notebooks: the U35Jc & the UL30Jt. One he clearly & repeatedly says does not have a DVD drive and the other does.
3) The photos show an aluminum clad notebook that looks IDENTICAL to the U30Jc.
4) The other photos show a black aluminum-lid/plastic palm-rest notebook with two buttons above the keyboard ... which looks IDENTICAL to the UL30Vt and the UL30Jt pictured on ASUS' site.
5) It is safe to assume that the UL30Jt is a next gen/variation of the UL30Vt and the U35Jc is a next gen/variation of the U30Jc.

So if the UL30Jt does NOT have an ODD, it makes sense that the other unit in his review WITH an ODD/blu-ray is the U35Jc.

As well, it seems more logical that the aluminum-clad/aluminum palmrest/trackpad is also the U35Jc while the black plastic-based notebook is the UL30Jt.

The only problem with this assumption is the sticker on the palm-rest of the black plastic unit appears to read "U35Jc".

But given the other facts, I think ASUS confused the stickers on these review models.

That, or NEITHER unit will have an ODD, which then begs the question, what unit was it that he reviewed WITH the ODD/blu-ray?

Then again, in the latest ASUS product magazine:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/484551-asus-world-magazine-may-june-2010-a.html
ASUS lists the U35Jc as coming with a "compact optical drive", but the thickness & weight seem to indicate that the U35Jc has NO ODD. And and next to "Optical Drive" it reads N/A.

For me, it's not settled yet. I hope you're right since it would make sense to offer the U30Jc body without an ODD and number it "U35Jc".

We'll see.

 

My U30JC is likely significantly lighter than anyone else's on this board, simply because I have a 48Whr battery.

That is likely the case for the bit-tech hands on, as the weight of a notebook optical drive is not exactly anything "significant".

 

But the reviewer doesn't really weigh the units. Rather he says, "the UL35Jc is thinner as it loses the optical drive; it's significantly lighter than the UL30, despite having an aluminium cover, but the trade off is that inside it's all plastic."

So he only says that the UL35Jc (he means the U35Jc) is thinner & lighter, has no ODD and its chassis is entirely plastic.

And seems to say that the UL30 has an ODD, is heavier & thicker and the chassis is made of aluminum.

That's why I think he's got the units backwards.

The released UL30Jc does NOT have an ODD, is thinner & lighter than the U30Jc and its chassis IS made of only plastic.

** On the U35Jc, it is significant that all European sites offering pre-orders on the U35Jc, show it NOT having an ODD. As I said before, perhaps neither unit will have a DVD drive, yet which unit did he review that DID have an ODD? And which unit had the aluminum palm-rest & touchpad? It couldn't be the UL30Jt as stated in the review. :confused2:

 

The review is poorly written.