Ul30vt

specs:

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=57XDSj2LxRg41F0d

 

OoOooO thank you very much proview. Wow. I am pretty much sold on this.

1366x768 in the 13.3" as well, same as UL80vt. Much better than 1366x768 in a 14" or 15" IMO. And bluetooth too, very nice.

Also glad to see they went with a silver casing on this. Hopefully it won't attract fingerprints like the black casing on the UL80vt does.

This looks very good....

 

anyone know how much this would probably cost?

 

@proview3r,

NIIIIICE!!! You sir, get rep!

The Asus UL30VT finally rears its head!

}:^)~

 

Looks like ASUS came out on top of laptop reliability rating:
http://gizmodo.com/5406415/laptop-r...modo/full+(Gizmodo)&utm_content=Google+Reader

I guess nobody told them about the UL30's missing antenna, eh?

Still, this is very encouraging news as I will be getting a very reliable piece of hardware.

}:^)~

 

Oooh...now this is exciting. I was just getting ready to pull the trigger on a Sony Vaio Z next week. Now I may need to reconsider. Different leagues, I know, but this Asus is looking mighty fine now with the turbo boost and dedicated graphics at less than half the price.

I wonder when this will be released. I need a new laptop delivered by mid-December at the latest....

 

I've been deciding between the same two laptops katana. Note the ul30vt actually has a better video card than the sony z!

the only problem is as there is no official release date as of now I doubt you will be able to get one by Mid December unless you make sure you are one of the 1st to preorder when it's available.

 

At first the $749 MSRP seemed excellent for this machine, but it turns out it comes standard with a 1.2ghz Celeron... meaning the Core 2 Duo version will likely cost much more.

 

Wow. This is my next laptop, for sure. Like seriously, I am now absolutely sold. Aluminum lid, sub-4lbs, 10+ hours of battery life, switchable graphics, OC'able ULV Core 2 Duo. All for significantly less than a grand. Thank you, there is a God.

 

Well, can't be much different than the $850 the ul80vt is going for can it? This has a smaller screen and no optical drive.. so it may be cheaper to make (or not)

 

Smaller laptops often cost more than larger variants with equal internal hardware... so I guess we'll see.

 

Hopefully they'll have some sort of alert set up to pre-order it, it seems all across the Internets, this laptop is coveted and drooled over.

Also, it mentions "Aluminum exterior" etc, while the UL30A mentions "Aluminum Lid" -- does this maybe suggest the vt has more aluminum goodness?

 

Yay so it's finally announced! Looking at the specs, it seems as though there is is only intel 1000 card, no more 5100? Not like 5100 was found anywhere though.

 

I'm sure it'll be only around $100 more than the UL30A.

Automatic REP for anyone that finds the first North American retailer listing!

}:^)~

 

I seriously doubt it. It's likely to retain the exact same features of the line.

It would be nice if it did, though.

}:^)~

 

Was the link given?

Embedded Intel® GMA X4500MHD & NVIDIA® GeForce® G 210M with 512 MB VRAM- switchable graphics

http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=57XDSj2LxRg41F0d

 

After some more research, I don't think I can go with the ul30vt over the more expensive Vaio Z (though I really, really would love not to spend that extra money). The reason being the screen. After some further research (notebookjournal.de for the Vaio Z and notebookcheck.net for the ul30a), it seems the asus has a really inferior screen.

The ul30a luminosity average is only 184 and contrast is 175:1 (on a glossy screen to boot).

The Z has average luminosity of 270 and constrast of 400:1 (on a fairly matte screen).

I do some graphics work, so this makes a huge difference to me. Maybe to others it's not so consequetional (or worth the increase in price).

 

Hey Katana I actually am buying this as a travel / on event laptop for my photography and share the same needs on quality of screen. The thing is how sensitive of work will you be doing on a 13" screen? In the end I decided the most i would probably do is be sorting pictures and light editing. I will be calibrating it and in general a good notebook screen in the end will not be THAT much worse than a very good notebook screen.

In the end they are all 6 bit and TN panels. The one thing about the Vaio Z is the video card isn't really good considering the price of the laptop. If you are looking at the 1600x800 vaio screen that resolution is REALLY high and things are quite small on a 13 inch

 

Yeah, also at the moment it's mostly photo editing and some other light graphics work on Photoshop. I'm planning on going to grad school next year though for urban planning and design, and I think it will be important to have a good screen to work from (not critical, but would certainly help).

Maybe I'm just being too picky though. I'm just tired of having crap notebooks.

Which is my other concern about this Asus. My last Asus had a horrendous cooling system, and the motherboard and/or GPU was fried after 1.5 years. I'm worried that this new setup from Asus, with turbomode and a dedicated GPU is likely not accompanied by any increased/improved cooling system, and could also lead to overheating in such a thin system.

 

Well the difference between the Vaio Z with the good screen and the Ul30vt could get to be almost 800$!

If you are doing the urban planning and design work I would recommend you spend that extra money on a good Desktop lcd to keep in your room. You will get a true 8 bit screen (PVA, S-IPS or MVA) and much better everything! Even the best notebook screens will not match well with a good desktop screen (I personally have a 27 inch dell LCD that i got for around 700$ for my main editing work)

 

For on-the-go editing, I think the UL30Vt screen should be fine. When at a desk, it may be beneficial to purchase a good external monitor with a high resolution. I'm not sure of any laptop screen that can replace a made-for-graphics-editing IPS panel. Besides, you can use your wacom tablet/etc at a desk, but not easily on the road.

The computer should be more than capable of running a 1920x1200 external display. Certainly paying a premium of $500-$800 isn't worth it for a minor upgrade in screen quality.

But that's just me. Your best bet is to stroll into bestbuy (if you're in US/Canada) and check one of these units out yourself. Going off specs/reviews alone, if you're unsure, is probably a bad idea.

}:^)~

 

Sorry, if this is a repost.

http://www.amazon.com/UL30vt/forum/...?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B002Q8HK7K&cdSort=oldest


From ASUS:

Hi All,
Right now it looks like the UL30VT should start shipping from Amazon.com by 12/5. Hope to have it up on the Amazon site for pre-sale by the end of this week.

The color will be black. The Asus Global website states that certain products may not be available in all markets, so the silver picture you see is for a different market (I'm not sure which).
- Check out the UL80VT-A1 to learn about the Turbo33 and GraphiX boost technologies you'll see on the UL30VT. Turbo 33 (default on) gives you ~1.6ghz equivalent on the cpu; GraphiX boost is the switchable graphics mode (on, gma, detection mode - detects when you need the boost). If you want longer battery life, you can go into the ASUS Power4Gear settings and turn the Turbo33 off - a reboot is required.
- Contrast ratio is 500:1 on all ASUS UL models

Regarding wireless LAN, we are aware of the fact that some folks are having issues with the UL30. We are in the process of testing and communicating with affected users, and will post any new findings here and elsewhere. I have heard back from one of our technical support folks that updating the driver to the latest version has worked. Version 8.0.0.238 of the Azurewave driver, found on support.asus.com (go to downloads; select Win7 64-bit when you get the OS question).



I got my CC ready.

 

Noooooooooooo!

 

what the hell? there better be silver too, i don't need some fingerprint magnet like the crap HP i'm gonna replace with this.

 

Oi.. at least my black aluminum portable dvd drive will match.. but ugh fingerprints

 

I avoided the UL80vt because the screen is disturbingly bad, did not trust the build quality (on that case in particular - seen a U80, it's horrid), and lack of bluetooth.

But... wow, this looks amazing. If only this was available yesterday...
(Un?)fortunately, I dropped my dimes on a Sony CW/FX13 (same 210m, better screen than the UL80, optical drive, faster processor, 1/4 the battery life and pretty darn bulky for a 14") for $760 last night 0_o

For what it's worth, the 210m smokes l4d2 - something else which came out last night :-D I would love to play l4d2 on a UL30!

Eat your heart out, MacBook Pro!

 

I'm actually hoping it's a black aluminum finish. I'd still buy it if it were plastic, but since the silver is aluminum, I don't see why they'd make the black with plastic.

I'm hoping it looks like this:
http://www.laptopspec.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ASUS-UL30A-X5-Thin-and-Light-02.jpg

 

I'm fine with black

 

in my country UL30A is shipped with 802.11 b/g/n and WIMAX - so the only possible variant is to have an Intel 5150/5350 card


802.11n and WIMAX requires both antennas to work properly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n#Number_of_antennas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX_MIMO

so the second antenna in the UL30A definitely should exist

 

Sorry but that contrast number is kaka - the third party reviews of the units do NOT suggest that number is even remotely close to true.

 

Any clue if Asus will ever give the UL30 series a 1600 x 900 screen? A UL30VT with that high a resolution would be the perfect notebook for me.

 

why would that be the perfect notebook for you? why do you need a 13 inch screen with a 1600x resolution?

 

Right now, I'm using an A8Js and it's 1440 x 900. Good amount of desktop real estate and the text it great. Had a look at the Sony Z series 13.1" with 1600 x 900 and it works for me.

 

What kind of gpu temps can we expect while in Nvidia mode with this little guy?

 

Yeah so you are talking about a smaller screen and higher resolution than you have now.

Go to the Sony Z thread of these forums and ask around to what people think about it. A good amount of people choose the lower resolution on the Sony Z

I'm not saying you can't use it... It's just when you are changing things like DPI to have comfortable viewing for txt size what are you really benefiting from having that resolution?

 

To each their own man. I've tried the Sony Z 1600 x 900 in store. The default size for text and stuff was extremely comfortable with my eyes about 1.5 feet away from the screen.

That's why I said 13.1 @ 1600 x 900 would be perfect for me, not for all those people in the Z threads opting for lower resolutions.

 

I agree with you. 1600 x 900 on the Z screen is very sharp, and I had no problems with reading text while testing it at best buy. Screen quality is amazing compared to the glossy junk beside it... I would gladly pay a little bit of a premium for a higher res (not a sony style premium though).

 

I have the Z750D from Sony and agree that the 16x9 screen is nice. However, I highly doubt that they'll put it in the UL30VT. 90% of the people out there won't care. However, hopefully for those who need high res screens, you can opt for it from resellers that can customize them for you.

 

1600x900 would be a nice option, but it seems as if ASUS ships complete units directly to retailers, and since there doesn't seem to be an overwhelming demand for this type of a screen, nor any visible announcements for this option, I would say that this is wishful thinking at best.

Your best option is to shell out for a MBP or a ViaoZ, or something else that offers the specs that you're looking for. It seems that there isn't too much variance among the present day Asus UL line. Even finding a one with bluetooth built in is challenging!

}:^)~

 

Here's an online retailer that sells upgrade screens (with instructions):
http://www.screentekinc.com/

I would bet that this would void the warranty, though.

Here are simple instructions for replacement! If anyone is bold enough to try, I'd be VERY interested to hear about it. I'm contemplating doing the same thing! why? Because it seems cool! lol
http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions.shtml

UPDATE:
After watching the video, I would DEFINITELY do this on my own, as it seems very, very easy to do. However, I would need to find a screen that fit the UL30, which may be difficult. Screentek seems to carry a few ASUS parts, but nothing that seems to be tailored to the UL line.
http://www.screentekinc.com/Asus-notebook-screens.shtml

Anyone have any insight for UL30 compatible screens? This would be a fun project, and the thought of a high-res, high-quality, matte screen has me all hot and bothered!

}:^)~

 

It would be the same resolution almost... I do not see anything close to 1600 x 900 on that site for a 13.3". Also all of those screens on that site are 16:10 ratio, which means it would not fit in the UL series since they are 16:9.

 

I just checked. Both Screentek and LCD4Less yielded the same results and that's nothing. WXGA++ is not available in 13.3", just 13.1".

 

Wait, what is a 13.3 16:9 screen? Wasnt it 13.1 16:9 and 13.3 16:10?

 

Isn't this UL30VT a 13.3 16:9?

 

1366 / 768 is approx 16:9

 

Yeah, I noticed that no one carried the appropriate ASUS style too. Somebody has to carry a high-res 16:9 panel that will fit the UL30Vt and be compatible. The question is who, and how much?

What about other ASUS laptop lines? Do any of them have 16:9's that would work in the UL30 lappies?

I'd gladly do the upgrade!

}:^)~

 

does the vt version have atheros aswell? the specs say that, but dunno

 

The sony z at 1600x900 is a 13.1 as far as I know. Unless there is a laptop out there at 13.3 with high res you probably won't find an lcd you can buy for the ul30vt.

If there is a laptop that is 13.3 that is high res try to find the manufacturer for that company's laptop and start your googling from there

(Note I think the macbook pro is 1280x800 at 13.3)

 

Does anyone know how the CPU in this system compares with other C2D's, like the entry level P7350? I want to sell my laptop and get this instead, but I'd like the performance to be on par with my current computer if possible.

 

With it overclocked to 1.73Ghz or so, it would perform close to the P7350, but ultimately it would be slower. Maybe 10-20%... Enough to notice? I doubt it.