U36 or wait for Sandy Bridge?

anyone find a release date for the U36SD out there?

 

I'm still refreshing all my local stores... nothing yet
I heard late may release tho..

 

I have been looking at current and upcoming 13" ultraportable Sandy Bridge laptops from various manufacturers for quite a while (ASUS being my first choice), and almost all of them use the i5 2410, and like yourself I also do not want a stripped down processor. The Lenovo X220 is an exception, and I was considering it, but it has a mixed bag of good and bad user reviews. I also wish ASUS would make matte screens available in their models, or at least more models.

 

I've never heard complaints with Lenovo thinkpad products. But they are generally considered business laptops.

As such, they usually don't have good video cards. The two things they excel at are screen and keyboard/input.

My issue with them is that they are a tad heavier, and ugly as sin.

The x220 isn't really in the same league as the u36sd, it serves a different purpose - easy docking options, usually older, trusted components rather than newer tech. If you want a laptop that still works 8 or 10 years from now, buy a thinkpad.

I wouldn't consider the 2410m to be stripped down. I think that most users will not need the additional encryption or virtualization capabilities of the other processors. Basic performance is the same across the sandybridge i5's. Running a little lower frequency will mostly just save you some battery life.

 

Just to correct your Thinkpad generalizations:

1. Their base screens are not historically anything special.
2. they are generally as light or lighter than the competition.
3. Their components are typically bleeding edge- with the exception of graphics, since they have the W (workstation) class for graphics.
4. Appearance is definetly subjective. I know this because some people find the mx11 to actually be good looking.

 

That's a good point. The thinkpads are super customizable. The ones I've seen have full hd matte screens so bright they'd burn your eyes out. Definitely not the stock screens.

 

maybe there's no U36SD

 

There is. I tweeted questions with ASUS about it. I'm thinking we'll have to wait for awhile, though. Not sure they've sold enough of the 1st gen i5 version yet to want to replace it

 

Found following

ASUS U36SD-RX004 13,3"/ i5-2410M/ 4G/ 500G7/ GT520M/ WiFi/ BT/ FP/ bezOS - ASUS.AS - notebooky ASUS, netbooky Eee, LCD, komponenty a další sortiment zanèky ASUS

If you translate into english, the main text is

Status:
New New
Code: NBA-U36SD-RX004
Product number: U36SD-RX004
Asus
Category: Model U36 (13.3)
Warranty: 24 months
Availability:
expected June 30

So june 30th is my new target date to watch.

 

Interesting! If those specs are true, they're taking a step down on the NVIDIA GPU with a GT 520M?

NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M - Notebookcheck.net Tech

"Compared to the GT 420M, the 520M offers only 48 instead of 96 shader cores."

(Talk about confusing product numbering, huh?)

This is quite annoying. The U36 IMO is by far the sleekest design ASUS has ever put into a laptop (if we ignore the glossy plastic around the LCD).

It seems as if they're insisting on a particular price point, and then fiddling with the specs to make it match. And then not giving any options for proper updates. Like the i5 2410M being the only i5 model without VT-d and AES-NI. And you cannot get a U36SD with a better processor (I asked ASUS on Twitter).

Now they're throttling down on the dGPU, which is doubly silly, because the 420M in the first place was supposedly only marginally better than the on-CPU iGPU. The 520M would seem to be the same or worse then. Which means it's a useless battery sucker at worst, a CUDA accelerator at best. (EDIT: Notebookcheck state this it is still slightly faster than the Intel GPU)

This design deserves more models! Like exchange the dGPU or card reader with 3G or 4G WWAN, or a mSSD, and give an option to upgrade to a better processor.

Me not likey

 

Ummm, I disagree with your disappointment a little.

The u36jc has the 310m gpu. Which has 16 cores, and was about twice as fast at 3d rendering than the Intel GMA HD. The new sandy bridge HD 3000 are slightly faster than the 310m. Mind you, the intel 2410m may only have the HD2000, I'm not certain.

I think all that ASUS is thinking is to step up to something that gives you a speed boost over the sandy bridge.

They appear to have chosen the 520m. It's power draw is quoted as 17watts, it's a 48core gpu. from this you'll get 40-70% better performance than the HD 3000.

Remember that the goal of the u36 is to give you huge battery life in a nice sleek package. If they stepped up the GPU, it would be to the newer 540m (96 core like the 420m - terrible numbering system, I agree). Problem is, that's a 35watt power draw. Yes, you get something a lot faster, but this would do 2 things:

1) battery life - this one is obvious
2) HEAT! one of the primary issues on these ultrathin laptops is heat.

So while asus is looking to hit a certain price point, I don't think that's where they're skimping. Word is that the screen is still the major failure of the u36sd.

I definitely agree that if asus sold fully customizable laptops, that would be amazing, but would also cost more... so, trade off I guess.

Oh, also, side note. If you're really onto a better gpu, check out the revamped k43SV laptops. A little bigger, but nice all around for the price.

 

I just got a reply from Asus Sweden marketing manager, and he says that the U36SD is scheduled for Q3 here atleast...

And now I got yet another reply from their P.R. of Notebooks, stating that it would arrive about three weeks from now.

 

@mister_b: Thanks for the infos
@F-Forward: Q3?!?! Argh! That usually means "the end of", too Guess it'll be a full year from me thinking about getting a new laptop to actually getting one...

Also slightly interested in seeing if the rumor is true that a Sandy Air is happening next month... Might seriously consider it then, and throw Kubuntu on it.

 

Q3!? I thought it was supposed to land late may... then people were saying June..., everyone else is already refreshing their thin / light laptops... ugh Asus gotta get their game on

Computex is next week hopefully we get some more news --

 

Seems like i got two posts merged by a mod above, and soemting happened with the text lol.
The second line is supposed to say that I got another reply from them (from their laptop P.R.-guy) that said about three weeks from now. So I guess that is more correct than Q3!

 

This look like a sweet laptop! Can't wait for it to hit the US

 

is there any way to verify this 3 week thing?

I suppose early Q3 would be the start of july. which is only, what? 5 weeks?

 

Well, I mailed two different persons at Asus Sweden, and got two different answers. But both are from Asus directly. My question was:

First reply from their marketing manager said:

Second reply was from a guy with the title "P.R Notebook , Eee PC, LCD" and that answer said:

I would guess that the second answer is closer to truth. However, this is specific for sweden, no way to tell if it's general for other countries too. Oh, and it was May 23 that I received the answers.

 

U36sd is available for preorder at Gentech and the rep that I talked said it would be shippin in 2-3 weeks. Any truth to this? I just bought a u31j but would much prefer a u36sd..

 

There will be a lot new models in June and first small shipment of U36SD should arrive in around 2~3 weeks.

 

YES! returning the u31..

 

What is in store for June? I want an ultralight laptop and was originally looking at the Lenovo X220, which has a lot of features that I like, but there are just way to many problems posted about that unit. I have been looking at ASUS laptops for a much longer time because of their reputation for quality, but the lack of a matte screen and the only processor choice being the neutered i5-2410M processor (In particular the lack of hardware virtualization), has always kept me from purchasing one. Why don't they manufacture an X220 killer? I suspect that would be a very high demand unit.

 

Cannot agree more. NEED VT-d and also AES-NI so that my encrypted SDD isn't bottlenecked, and doesn't drain battery just doing I/O.

However, it seems these are the cards we're dealt. I'm still considering the U36SD, but I'm also interested in seeing what the Air update that is expected next month is offering. It'll be at least twice the price, but if it sports a proper VT-* and AES-NI capable processor, I believe I'm jumping on it.

 

We don't know if the i5-2410M will be soldered on the mainboard, we will have to wait for the actual shipment arrives to test, if CPU is upgradable we will offer upgrade option.

 

Hey Ken, When you guys make those modifications, are the laptops still covered under asus warrantee ?

 

Prices seem to be coming down on the U36JC. Amazon and Buy.com have dropped their prices. Kind of tempted but I've been holding out for the U36SD. I read there's about a 17% performance increase with the SB processor. Not sure if I should pull the trigger and save about $100 with the U36JC.

 

I was wondering the exact same thing. There are thermal characteristics to worry about, timing issues, BIOS, etc. when changing out a processor. Therefore, only if ASUS had documentation certifying specific processors would I consider a processor upgrade to a unit that was only sold from ASUS with only one processor model available.

 

yeah, I'm not sure what exactly gentech does. gentech website specifically says

"-All notebooks are covered by manufacturer's warranty except components upgraded by GenTech.

-GenTech components is not cover under manufacturer's accidental damage warranty if it's provided by manufacturer.

-All GenTech parts are covered with a 1 year Limit parts warranty unless specified otherwise on special items. This coverage starts the day the item is shipped from our warehouse.
"

So it sounds like asus will honor even their accidental damage warranty, except on the upgraded parts? they must have some deal with asus about this?