U30JC discussion thread

Well, "better" is a relative term. Thie U30Jc can't even come close to the quality & sturdiness of the MBP aluminum unibody.

What are the specs of the present MBP? Isn't Apple upgrading it soon?

 

It was available not that long ago. It appears to be out of stock again at Amazon, XoticPC, Newegg & GenTechPC.

But like before, it should come in stock within a day or so.

... I admit it, even with it's flawed screen, I REALLY like my U30Jc.

 

The 13" MBP has had a recent update, and it now has a 2.4/2.66GHz Core 2 Duo with integrated Nvidia 320M graphics.

Overall performance should be very similar, with the U30JC likely slightly faster overall in both CPU and GPU. The integrated 320M seems to be quite fast, almost as fast as the discrete 310M as far as I can tell.

So, the question is whether $1200 for the MBP can be justified compared to the $900 U30JC for very similar performance. The MBP's advantages in battery life and overall quality could be enough to justify this, but it all depends on your needs.

 

nVIDIA's numbering/branding system confuses me (their intent, I suppose.) You're saying the 310M is slightly faster than the 320M GPU?

Does the new MBP outperform the U30Jc in battery life?

That surprises me, though the Core 2 Duo (like the SU7300), probably consumes less power than the i3. Is that correct?

How much better, really, is the battery life of the MBP over the U30Jc?

Is the MBP switchable graphics or does it have the 320M only at different power levels?

 

The 310M is discrete, while the 320M in the MacBook Pro is actually an integrated chip - albeit a rather powerful one with 48 shader cores.

I'm not entirely sure about the difference in battery life, though.

 

Hi all,
for the ones who have this laptop, I'd like to know what's the maximum opening angle of the monitor?
If someone could post a picture that would be great.

I want to know this because when I use my current netbook (Asus 1000h) at home I have it full open between me and connected to my 22" monitor.

I'm thinking to change my old netbook to U30JC or UL30JT.

Thanks in advance.

 

GenTech told me they get a shipment in tomorrow. Amazon just happened to get another 4 laptop's in Saturday when I got up that morning so I ordered from there. If you want one, I would call GenTech and put an order in and it should ship out tomorrow(if everything still holds true about them getting more stock in).

 

It would be good if we could see a MBP (new one) vs Asus u30jc comparisson review kinda thing.

 

as far as i know, battery life should be comparable. 7-8 hr with wifi on and internet browsing. it might last longer on the u30jc watching youtube vids because u can offload some of the processing to GPU with flash 10.1 beta. as of yet, flash 10.1 does not offer gpu acceleration for OS X.

as far as processor goes, i believe i3 is faster by a bit and probably more power efficient since u have the intel vid card packaged with processor whereas mbp 13 has that nvidia integrated card.

the mbp 13 does not have any sort of switchable graphics card. i think this is only limited to the 15 and 17 inch models.

to be honest, i think i am more swayed more aesthetics than anything. and to use c2d technology... it's been out for years! perhaps i should wait for their next upgrade, possibly in september/october, when they eventually get with the program and use i-core on their 13-in. however, apple updates their products every 5-12 months, so who knows when they will update.

 

I really can´t decide between U30Jc and 13" MBP.

MBP has slightly better battery life, backlit keyboard, bluetooth, better display and most importantly higher quality, not-so-bulky case (well I haven´t seen U30jc in real life but that is what I have read).

The Asus has slightly more power, HDMI, propably 300€ lower price(!) and Windows 7 which I prefer over Snow leopard (I use both OS daily).

U30Jc without a optical drive whould be cool...

Please help me to decide

 

well would u rather use a os X or windows 7

 

i have no real preference and enjoy both OS, especially now that windows has upgraded to 7. and i've noticed i've gone off-topic in this u30jc discussion thread soooooo i'll stop posting haha

 

I would rather use Windows 7. I like more windows window management and It always gets the latest software before os x (and game selection is much wider...)

 

thanks!

you totally recomend it? would you buy it again if you had to replace it for some reason (i.e. stolen)?

is it really heavy and bulky as they say?

 

haha, add me to the crowd who is mulling the macbook pro or this machine. Due to the underwhelming upgrade of the MBP I have been deciding on whether to get this machine for 900 or trying to get a used macbook pro for maybe 700 bucks.

The Asus seems like a much better deal, although there is a Sony with a Core i5 for 900 as well and I don't really need that long of a battery life...

 

Yes, I use both OS' daily as well. My wife has a 13" white Macbook while I have an ASUS 1000HA and a U30Jc. At work I use both platforms and am surrounded by MBP unibodies.

The MBP aluminum unibody IS really, really nice & solid. No one else even comes close in that kind of precision of a one-piece body. My wife's 13" white Macbook is 1 1/16" thick. The U30Jc is 1 3/16". The diff is hardly noticeable to the eye.

My wife's 13" Macbook (not a MBP ) weighs 4 lbs 15.5 oz. My U30Jc weighs 4 lbs 12.7 oz. Again, the diff isn't noticeable.

I prefer her screen dimensions. I like the extra height of the 16:10 screen compared to the new 16:9 screens like the U30Jc. I often need more screen height than width in my desk work apps. But so goes tech trends.

The MBP's screen is superior and diff tech than the plain 13" white Macbook. My wife's plain Macbook's screen is very comparable to my U30Jc color & contrast/black depth-wise.

My U30Jc's screen is sharper focus, or so it feels and much brighter when both are on max brightness. Both are glossy and have limited viewing angles. Again, the MBP's screen is a whole diff animal and, in the store, compared to the plain Macbook, looks of a better quality. I can only compare my U30Jc to my wife's white Macbook's screen here at home. I prefer my screen, quality-wise. I prefer her dimensions.

The U30Jc does not feel bulky in my hands. They've tapered the front a bit for visual thinness. And they've cleverly rounded/tapered the back area of the battery & notebook that makes it feel thinner in my hand and fits in one hand easily.

You used a great word "quality". I'm certain that while my U30Jc looks really, really classy & sharp and feels solid, I think the MBP's body is true quality (who can compete with that). After all, it is molded/cut out of ONE piece of brushed aluminum. The U30Jc's brushed aluminum plate lid & palm rest, while beautiful, isn't that thick and can't even come close in true quality.

I'm not sure the MBP's battery life is better at all. My general wifi/surfing & business apps at 60% brightness & Balanced/Office mode net me about 7+ hrs.

Bluetooth USB dongles are microscopic and very cheap these days. I wouldn't make that much of a concern.

I'd have loved a backlit keybrd. I'm a hunt-n-peck guy, though I do it fairly fast, I still need to see the keys. So I clip on a Mighty-brite Lite to my screen bezel if I am typing in the dark & my wife's asleep next to me. To be fair, that doesn't happen very often. So the backlite keyboard would be nice, but isn't a big need for me. For those who can touch-type, the backlight is mere asthetics.

The more-power issue depends. Mac OSX is just better optimized than Windows, IMO (though my wife has crashed her Mac far more times than I have my PC ). Having said that, I prefer using Windows 7 because I get tired of OSX's limited menus and insistence that it (& iTunes) knows what is best for me. A nice but-too-expensive SSD would make Windows 7 pop and snap every bit as much as the Mac ... so I'm sticking with Windows.

But the hardware power/speed utilization is partly dependent on the OS being run, not just the GHz of the processor.

That's my long answer to your brief question.

BTW, I really, really am enjoying my U30Jc. Feels really nice.

 

Short answer? Yes.

Really heavy & bulky?? No.

3/16" thicker than the no-DVD-drive UL30Vt, that was described as slim & light, doesn't make for thick to me. Feels great in one hand. The extra pound for the DVD drive IS an extra pound. But what is "heavy"? A regular paperback weighs about a pound. My U30Jc weighs less than my wife's new 13" white Macbook, and her Macbook, once upon a time, was described as slim & light!

E.g. All of the notebooks are "thick & heavy" compared to the Macbook Air. But who wants to compete with that?

If you don't want the DVD drive and want to save on weight but also want the newer i-series processor, then wait for the U33Jt (though this may only be available in the more-expensive "bamboo" line) or the UL30Jt. Or if you don't want to wait, then go to an Acer or some other company.

 

I'd havta agree with quatro in that i am really enjoying this new machine as well. and with my new intel SSD in it with that core i3, it is lightning fast. it may not look as good aesthetically as the MBP, but i think it looks pretty darn good. haha and i live with 4 macbook users who i think would agree with me.

 

My U30Jc appears to open about 135 degrees.

 

Thanks Quatro for your great answer!

I think that I just have to wait for the U30Jc to come available in stores in Finland so I can try it out myself to find out how it actually looks and feels

 

Ooh. A new Intel SSD. I'm jealous.

But I just couldn't add more cost to the unit. But a quality SSD would make it very fast & responsive ... and make those MBP lovers eat their hearts out.

 

Oh, sorry. If I'd known you were in Finland, I'd have given the size & weights in metric.

 

I installed windows updates (for once I didn't read them like I normally do to see which ones because I'm at work) and after the fan was blowing what sounded like 100% out the left side and wouldn't stop. It didn't matter if it was on or off AC, any of the 4 modes, windows or programs open or closed, etc. I told it to restart and when it came back up, it was the same way. I closed the lid, opened it back up and put in my password and it said that windows was installing standard VGA driver (Intel). As soon as it said device was finished installing, the fan kicked back down like it was the first time I turned her on. I'm assuming windows update had chipset drivers or something. I think it's weird it didn't fix it until I closed the lid for it to go into stand-by and then pop back out. For any others with this issue, this is what worked for me.

 

@Quadro: great answer, thnx!

it seems this will be my next notebook replacement

as for the optical drive, i really don´t use it much, but looks like we´ll be waiting for christmas before the Bamboo Series appear..

so i´m thinking to get the 30Jc version, cause i have till end of May to decide.

 

thanks for the answer

 

Hey Qautro i was just wondering if you've timed your bootup time, just wanted to see a comparison, with the normal 320gb HDD.

 

Oh wow. Now you're scaring me. I usually let Windows Update install whatever it thinks is important (mainly because a lot of the security updates I don't understand anyway.) I'm up to date, but never had your fan issue.

Over the last 10 days, I HAVE had it lock up twice while shutting down Windows and installing updates. Once it was installing update "2 of 19" and seemed to just sit on the whirling circle. I went to bed and when I got up ... it was still whirling.

On both occasions, I had to hard reset and then the system rebooted and the update picked up the updates again and installed them w/o issues.

This may be due to keeping my machine in sleep mode most of the time.

Have you been able to affect the contrast & brightness via the nVIDIA Control Panel? I haven't, no matter what I do. I can run HD movies, etc, set the CP to default to the 310M for that app ... and the contrast/brightness is STILL controlled/affected only through the Intel Control Panel & not the nVIDIA Control Panel. Very odd.

 

The UL30Jt should be coming out in the US in the next month. It is already appearing in Taiwan and word is it'll be out in Europe soon. That model has no DVD drive and so is thinner & lighter. You shouldn't have to wait until Christmas!

It should be cheaper then the U33Jt Bamboo model line as well.

 

Keep in mind I've had it for 10 days and already installed several memory-intensive apps (like Spyware Doctor) that increase the load-up times for Windows 7.

Here are my times, booting from complete shut down and wifi defaulting to ON & high performance mode:
30 sec: Windows Password screen
35 sec: to Windows wallpaper
40 sec: until Cursor blue whirling wheel stopped whirling
60 sec: until HD activity-light ceased.

From full hibernation & no password on wake up:
20 sec: Windows wallpaper
25 sec: HD activity-light ceased

From Sleep mode & no password:
1 sec: to full wake-up and no HD activity

You can see why I keep it in sleep mode most of the time.

If I need to carry it around for hours until I use it, I'll hibernate it to conserve the battery.

When I launch Word 2007 the first time, it takes <5 sec (usually about 3 sec). After that (until I reboot or the cache clears), opening Word takes <2 sec every time. But if Word is open, then opening another instance is nearly instant.

That what you wanted?

 

yup thanks! like the details seems to make good timing

 

Quatro, since you have experience with Macbooks, how is the 2-finger scrolling on the u30jc compared to macbooks?

 

Very limited features in this edition of the ELAN SmartPad drivers. My ASUS 1000HA netbook has pinch+zoom trackpad features. This U30Jc does not.

The features of the U30Jc's trackpad are very basic. Not comparable to the MBP's features.

It DOES do basic 2-finger vertical & horizontal scrolling, if that is what you're asking.

I like the feel of my trackpad surface more than my wife's regular Macbook. But neither remotely compare to the MBP's glass trackpad surface which is remarkable IMO.

 

Another question - could you check, if u30 has s/pdif in headhones jack?

 

I assume you mean "s/pdif OUT" and not "in".

Yes, the sound setup does offer digital output as a separate control from the regular sound.

Amazon's description page for the U30Jc lists,
"1 x Headphone-out jack (S/PDIF support)"

 

Thanks for the info. I was actually more curious about 2-finger scrolling and how it worked. On my friend's Acer Timeline, the 2 fingers must be horizontal with each other and the distance between the 2 fingers must be very exact in order for it to work. On the macbooks, all you need are two points of detection in order to get it enabled. one finger could be higher than the order and it would still work.

I was wondering how the u30jc fares

 

It's easy. Two fingers at any distance and at any angle, including vertically/higher, work just fine, just like the Macbook!

Swish down or slide down and the page goes down. Sideways and the page pans sideways (if there's more of the page then being displayed.)

Three fingers gets you the sub-menu (like a right-mouse click) or you can change what the actions do. In that, it works very, very well.

 

This is looking like the perfect notebook from my perspective--almost no flaws considering its value, performance, & portability. Plus, I actually like that it has an optical drive. DVD's haven't disappeared just yet.

Thanks to Quatro for all the helpful details!

 

ok where can I get this baby? I have cancelled the cheap dell, I had chosen earlier as a traveller laptop to set my eyes on this one, I am addicted to asus now.

 

How is this possible? I've placed an order with Amazon a week ago and it's still backordered. Arrrggg!!! They got 4 laptops in stock and I didn't even get one!

 

Sometimes, life just isn't fair ...

 

Well, I wouldn't say no flaws. The screen could be better IMO, but many other notebooks have a similar limited viewing screen that is backlit in such a way as to make large areas of black look gray or washed out. That's the way it is with my U30Jc and the $1,100 13" Sony Vaio down at Best Buy.

I'm getting used to it.

 

You probably ordered while it was on backorder at a specific price (like 872.xx), I paid 879 for mine shipped, I didn't care about the $10. It came from J&R music and computer or something like that I believe. They sold out of all the ones on Saturday in just a few minutes, I wouldn't have gotten one if I didn't get my account ready. Purchased on Saturday, got it today!

The screen could definately be better, there is no perfect angle on it when moving it back and forth from your face... You WILL see gray somewhere.

I'm still having the fan kick on high at times and it will not go off until I go into standby and then come back out. When it does it, the screen flashes on and off a few times when coming out of standby and turning the fan down. I have no idea what's causing it but I honestly didn't hear it do it until I installed updates. I think it's something to do with the video drivers so I may re-install all of that and see if it fixes it. I'll watch processes first to see if I can narrow it down that way too. Again, I've only had about 3 hours worth of playing time on the thing and the majority of that has been installing office 2007, steam with about 2 main games and then some DVD installations. I'll be transferring movies to it probably Friday if I have time and then running them back to back to see how long the battery will last. I'll try it gaming as well. I won't have time to even touch it until at least Friday if not sometime Saturday.


To all those wondering about purchasing one, I posted this earlier and I'll post it again... The lady I spoke to at GenTechPC said they get a shipment in tomorrow. I'd call and hit them up about it sometime tomorrow if you're wanting one. So far I can with a doubt say that I'm liking it. I'm an IS manager/admin by job so little problems like I'm describing above don't bother me and I think I'm the first one to start talking about issues like that. If it comes down to it, I'll reload on a different drive and see if it fixes it!

 

Tell me about it. I did try to tell others more than once about the screen.

I'm with you. I would reinstall the video drivers. I have not had your fan problem, and I'm fully updated. Perhaps you have a corrupted update? Clearly something's not right. ( "Oh really?" says Th@n@tos, "Thanks for the keen insight.")

Have you noticed that ASUS has new nVIDIA & Intel GPA drivers on their U30Jc site. You might try those, if you've not downloaded them yet.
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us
nVIDIA ver 8.16.11.8964 (189.64) 2010-04-13
Intel ver 8.15.10.2102 (15.17.2.64.2102) 2010-04-13

I've no idea why the ASUS ver numbers are slightly different from the nVIDIA & Intel site numbers. I hope it fixes your update glitch!

Uuh, is that with a doubt or without a doubt?

For me, because I didn't have my personal info on it for the first four days (!) I ended up with glitches twice that I couldn't seem to heal or fix, so I simply used Gparted the first time and blew away all three partitions (AFTER I'd spent 2.5 hrs burning the 4 DVD backups, since they only provide a driver/utility DVD ). Then I used an ISO to create a Win Home Premium DVD and installed from that. My notebook key worked fine. The re-install+automated driver DVD was ultimately faster than lengthy troubleshooting.

Ultimately, I installed the OS three times until it was what I wanted.

If you've little personal stuff on the disk, it may be faster to just do that! I also used the utilities DVD to automate the driver installs while I made coffee (password OFF so that it installs each driver or app I selected and automates reboot after each one all by itself.) Much easier than my first time when I downloaded & unziped all of the ASUS drivers and installed them one-by-one.

Mine is working great now, & if I need to reinstall the OS on top of itself, nothing else is lost. And even if I reinstall a fresh copy, all info in the Win, user & programs directory are stored under Windows.old. Nothing is erased.

Here's hoping you can get the fan to behave and calm down.

 

I've finally decided to get the u30jc! the fact that mbp13 still used c2d was a eventual deal breaker for me. if i plan on using a laptop for at least 3-4 years, that c2d will feel like pentium3 technology

Once I get the laptop, I plan on reinstalling Win 7 using a flash drive. Does Asus provide a CD with all the necessary drivers?

 

Yes, they provided a drivers/utilities apps DVD only. The hidden 15GB partition contains the image of the Win 7 OS.

 

thanks, i plan to just reinstall the OS entirely from a RTM iso file from msdnaa, so i'll just delete all partitions. w00t for drivers DVD!

 

Be prepared. That the screen, while okay, is the worst thing about it.

The aluminum finish on the lid & palm rest look VERY nice & feel nicely cool to the touch.

A cool thing I noticed yesterday. Due to taking air in via the keyboard, the U30Jc has NO air intake vents anywhere on the notebook. The bottom has no grills or cooling vents; nothing to accidentally cover. Only the left side has an exhaust vent. That is excellent, in my books.

 

haha, without a doubt:

I'm liking it!

You'll have to excuse me, I literally typed that up just straight from my head and didn't proof read or anything. Spent about 3 minutes on it and went to bed because I was exhausted!

I've always gotten better performance having a drive partitioned the way they have it. It was a must if you had XP on a system! My Toshiba sat lappy that I have that's 10 years old boots up in 24 seconds (bootvis was the stuff back in the day!!!). NO sata junk, PC2100 ram, 2.4ghz single, etc. To me, as they kept on with the OS progression, things have gotten slower and slower!

I haven't had a chance to troubleshoot yet Quatro, I apprieciate the help and such but I still have only touched the laptop roughly 3 hours since I've had it and the majority of that was at work will I was working on a server. I'll let you know what happens! We probably should jump off of this thread and start a U30JC owners thread so people can read benchmarks or request stuff in there.

 

Help me, Obi-wan Th@n@tos. You're my only hope!

I've just begun having a problem today you may be able to help me with. My notebook is set up to sleep when I close the lid.

Now when I close the lid, it starts to go to sleep and then wakes right back up.

I've tried this setting up the sleep/hibernate+Fn key to put to sleep, and I can watch the screen go black. It seems to go to sleep for 1 sec and then wakes right back up.

I've googled the prob & tried a few solution, none of which helped.

Any ideas?

 

Well, I was beginning to think that this had become such a thread already, since so few own the U30Jc (and limited availability isn't helping). This thread has become a combination of owners sharing plus questions from those interested or desirous to compare models.

So do you think we should start a U30JC-A1 Owners Lounge thread?