Ul30vt

It's now available for pre-order at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XZLURC/

I am a little concerned though as it calls it the UL30VT-X1. Doesn't the X indicate it uses the smaller 4400mah battery instead of the 5600mah one? It makes no sense that they would use the smaller battery on the model with discrete graphics so I hope that isn't the case here.

 

It's rated at 12 hours.. 4400 would not achieve this.

 

The UL30a-X5 is rated at 12 hours too and it has the 4400mah battery

 

That's not factory overclocked

 

I will likely order this laptop if it turns out to have the higher capacity battery. Some more detailed specs and a more definitate ship time would certainly help... But they just posted it on the site today, so I will give them some time to correct this information. I am looking to get 3 hours out of thus puppy under full load (games, unplugged with G210)

 

I am torn. I am not a gamer at all and don't really need the Nvidia graphics but I do want the Turbo mode as it seems silly to give up that much performance. Now it seems if I want that extra performance I have to give up a couple hours of battery life too! I wish Asus would make it possible to enable Turbo mode on the non-VT models. I would gladly pay say $30 to do so cause then I would just the UL30A-A2 which is also in the silver color I prefer anyway.

 

Just buy the UL30VT and never use the G210M... In other words, you don't really sacrafice any battery life unless you enable the G210. I don't see a problem here...

 

I wonder if the UL30vt will qualify for the Amazon $100 gift card promotion that they've been running on the other Asus UL line of laptops.

Anyone know?

 

It had better, unless the promotion is over before 12/5

 

Well, 3D will come in handy in the near future, so you'd be wise to get the UL30Vt. Here's why:

1) OpenCL/Cuda - many apps are taking advantage of the extra processing power of modern GPUs
2) O3D/WebGL - Yep, 3D is coming to the web for games, visualizations and other apps, rendered in the browser. It's good too, check out: Google's O3D
3) It's only a matter of time before more apps use 3D for advanced compositing and general acceleration (ie. flash, browsers, video players, etc)
4) Paying the $100 now saves you from paying for a new laptop when you suddenly realize that you need some form of 3D acceleration. There's a reason Mabooks have 3D in all models.

Even for a non-gamer 3D should be a consideration when purchasing a new computer.

}:^)~

 

It had better or else what?

It's a pretty fairly priced laptop as it is. Did Asus promise you it would be included? (asking honestly here)

The Asus rep said it would ship out 12/5 but he doesn't mention how many amazon will get so who knows depending on when you order it.

And even if you guys don't use the video card now it's a good idea to get. A lot (well not a lot a few) apps are trying to integrate the GPU's power in everyday task now..

Example Photoshop CS4 acceleration .... Flash 10.4 ... And i'm sure there will be more in the future

 

I guess, the ul50vt doesn't have it which is weird, but the 80 does.

 

I hope buy.com will offer the UL30vt, cuz Amazon charges me tax.

 

Just pre-ordered from amazon and they didn't charge me tax.

 

Well even if they don't give the gift card, I'll still get about $25 through my Amazon card.

 

An Omen, became available on my birthday, 11/19/09.......

Edit; I noticed the tabs holding the back of the keyboard line up with my U81-a, it may be possible to get the backlit keyboard on this with a slight power mod..........

 

I haven't heard much in the last few days about the wi-fi problems that many UL30a and UL80vt users are experiencing, and whether they will apply to the UL30vt. Someone posted that the newest driver recommended by the ASUS rep on the Amazon forum did not solve the problem for his/her UL30a.

Some users are adding a 2nd antenna and reporting improvement, but it isn't clear whether the improvement is enough to completely eliminate the wi-fi performance issue, or if it just improves it from poor to mediocre. Also someone else posted a quote from ASUS support that said adding a second antenna will void the warranty.

For those of us who rank wi-fi performance as one of the most important criteria for a laptop choice, it seems risky to order the UL30vt until they actually ship and people start using them and reporting on how the wi-fi performs.

 

You can always wait and see how those who pre-ordered (me) react.

 

Thanks, that's probably the only way to know for sure. It would be nice to get in on the first wave orders, but wi-fi performance is important to me, so I guess I'll wait for the reports of early adapters.

 

I live in Washington.. so yeah they charge me tax

 

Only black?
-1 ASUS... stop making so many mistakes.

 

I agree, we can only get the black version UL30 here in NZ. The silver version looks much nicer. No sign of the UL30VT here, won't be surprised if it never makes it here.

 

Well Asus commented on the wireless issue. They said it was limited in scope and those affected will need to send their notebooks in for repairs. I guess it was only limited to 2 of the models.

 

here in Europe, Sweden. They seem to sell the silver Edition Ul30VT. Yay for us!

http://www.alina.se/Produkt.aspx?r=sc&T2=UL30VT-QX030V

can someone take a look at it? Is it the same Ul30VT? only Silver.

 

Am I the only one that wants the black version? I think black looks super classy and slick. Besides, I currently have a black computer (palmrest/back) and have no problems with fingerprints whatsoever.

Every once and a while I wipe it down with microfiber for maintenance, but that's it.

}:^)~

 

I find the color a non-issue. However, it's their money so let them complain if they want to. Hardware issues on the other hand can affect everyone so it's good to see that ASUS has responded to the wireless issue on the Amazon thread.

 

hey peope
am i making a big mistake if i bought hp dm3t with
160 gb ssd
su7300/105m
4 ddr3 ram & extra battery for 950 $
i think the ul30vt is deal that cant be missed
but i need a laptop soon max mid December
when is the asus seeing the light ??

 

I like the black too. Not huge deal really. I have both black and silver (gray, whatever) laptops.

Well, if they can't give me 1600 x 900, I'm hoping well see a UL20VT. At 12.1", I can deal with the lower resolution. Or, they should make a UL10VT 11.1"!

 

I suppose it depends on what you're looking for. Both machines are quite solid and have strengths in different areas. The dm3t (supposedly) is quite beautiful. The UL30Vt will perform better with longer battery life. However, the UL30Vt is supposed to have a less than stellar screen. There are pros and cons with each one.

Your best bet is to carefully compare them both -- hands on, if possible -- and make an informed buying choice, rather than rushing to spend your money.

Anyway, the UL30Vt is to ship early December (the 5th, I believe). This was a message from an 'asus rep' in Amazon's forum. It's price should be comparable to the UL30a, though slightly more expensive ($100?).

}:^/~

 

Yeah, seriously. I'd prefer black, but would be very happy with the silver as well. I'll be happy to purchase either one, though I'm going to play with a UL30a first before making the final buying decision.

The difference in size between the 13 and 12 should be negligible, though the 12 will have smaller specs. Looking at amazon, you get quite a bit less with the UL20a including much lower battery life (7.5hr, probably due to a smaller number of cells). The weight is around the same, but the price, however seems to be lower, so this may be an acceptable trade for some.

I personally think the UL30 is an excellent balance of features.

If you're looking for smaller pixels, though, by all means, wait for the UL20A, though I curious as to why....

}:^)~

 

Quick post of what ASUS has shared in the Amazon forums

No word from anywhere on the size of the battery. The only place you can order it so far is from

http://www.amazon.com/UL30Vt-X1-13-...6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258821657&sr=8-6

At 799.00 is cheaper than I thought it would be at first... but that might be because of the battery.

 

It's exactly $100 more than the UL30a-X1, so I'm guessing that the the UL30Vt-A2 will cost somewhere around $899US -- $100 more than the UL30a-A2.

}:^)~

 

My ideal notebook would be the UL30VT with a high quality screen, preferably 1600x900, but it looks like that will never happen. The only thing that comes close is the Sony Vaio Z but that costs $1800+. I'd gladly purchase an upgraded UL30VT with a nice quality screen for $1000.

 

I just noticed the UL30vt, and as usual I went lurking on the NBR forums looks like an awesome lappie at this price point, especially with the G210. Toss in an SSD and it surpasses even the MBA imo. Has anyone seen benchmarks/gaming framerates for the 210m GPU?

 

@bingoberra: if you check out the official ul50vt and ul80vt forum in the asus owner's lounge, I put a few posts in the last 3 or 4 pages about some rough benchmarks regarding the 210m. They are actual real examples in games, not general benchmarks using 3DMark

 

Great posts zehpanda!

Here are links to your UL50Vt 'rough' benchmarks:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428368&page=39 (#331)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428368&page=34 (#385)

Are you serious that you can get ~8 hours *while* gaming?! That's INSANE! I was honestly expecting 2...

I'm going to search that thread for information on running Ubuntu as I'd love to dual boot, and it would be generally good info for some of us here...

}:^)~

 

I just found a post regarding Ubuntu on the UL50Vt:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=5461916#post5461916

Here's the gist:
Everything works very well out of the box but.....
The graphics card is on by default, and the screen is at max brightness, severely cutting into battery life. So expect 3 to 4 hours if you're running Ubuntu 9.10. You cannot shut the G210M in the bios, so your stuck for the time being. Also, the poster couldn't get the external display working, though was confident it would be possible with tinkering.

I expect there will be fixes in the future, but if you're considering the UL30Vt and want to run Ubuntu, be advised.

}:^)~

 

Hey Captain,

I'm assuming to dual boot you will have to format your hard drive and do a clean install. If so, where are some good directions so I can do this?

Thanks,

You and the Captain can make it happen...

 

As I was reading this thread, I was surprised nobody really commented on the supposed to 500:1 contrast ratio on these screens that the Asus rep said on the Amazon forums.

While everyone was busy trying to find if it was possible to buy a replacement screen and comparing the UL30a screen reviews a few pages back, couldnt it be possible that with a supposed 500:1 contrast ratio that the screen for the UL30vt could actually be good?

Or were people just trying to get a higher res? (Sort of confused on my part here...any clarification could be good.)

 

Thanks a lot! (and thanks captain for pointing in the right direction) looks really promising. I didn't expect that much from that card. The fact that it's not the awful 4500mhd is good in itself, but judging from your experiences it should easily top the 9400m/ION.

 

Hi Ghost!

Check out this community wiki for dual booting Windows and Ubuntu. It seems to be fairly thorough and concentrates on Vista, but considering that Win7 is basically a Vista service pack, I'm guessing it'll work well with Win7 also!
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Considering that you'll have the Asus 'express gate' as well, it will be kind of like a 'tri-boot'!

};^)~

 

Based on preliminary tests, the G210m smokes the 9400m. It's almost 2x the performance, scoring around 3400 in 3Dmark06! The 9400m scores around 1800 on average. The fact that it's switchable adds a further smack to the 9400m/ion. This puts its performance slightly below the 9500m gs, though it has double the shaders.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3665&p=5
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-G-210M.17638.0.html

For those wishing to get even more performance out of their cards, additional overclock may yield good results. The XPS 16 with the G210M scores around 4700 in 3dmark06! This is dependant upon the CPU used, which suggests that the performance scales quite a bit with CPU (on this test at least).

However, the G210M with turbo33 should be enough for todays challenges. The exceptional battery life is astounding as generally you have to trade one for the other!

I'm looking forward to trying PCSX2 (playstation 2 emulator) with the UL30Vt. Something tells me it'll work rather well. The PCSX emulator (playtstation 1) works on my netbook, so I don't expect this will be a challenge .

};^D~

 

There is no possible way he is going to get anywhere even close to 8 hours while gaming. From what I can tell, you are looking at 3 hours tops during a TF2 session of sorts.

3 hours under full load is still really good though. My HP Mini 311 will loop 3DMark 06 right around 3 hours and has a considerably less power draw... The larger battery on the Asus would make up for the power consumption difference, thus giving it right around 3 hours under full load.

 

I think 3-4 hours battery life per charge might be resasonable on ul30vt, even though it has a relatively large battery. I am using ACER 1410 with 6 cell 4400mhz battery, and it usually runs out in 2:20 hrs on battery while playing old titled 3d games.

 

It's more wishful thinking newbiecomp.

The only current 13 inch laptop out there that has higher res than the Asus is the Sony Vaio Z which retails for almost a 1000$ more than the current Asus ul30vt. People hoping for a screen like that at this price level are frankly in their own dream world. As i've mentioned before the macbook pro's current screen is 1280x800 and so is a lot of other 13 inch notebooks and those people seem to be doing fine with those. If you really need something higher I would suggest a bigger screen. And BTW... while the Vaio Z screen is "better" it's still not really that great when you compare it to a desktop lcd.

I'm sure there are people who can use and justify at 1600x800 screen but most people should be more than fine at 1366×768 which is what the current ul30vt provides. And in a sense that's why Asus did not release it in a 1600x800.

In general though when you talk about notebook LCD screens you talk about bad and worse. All laptop screens are TN 6 bit panels meaning they display 262,144 colors vs. 16,777,216 that a good 8 bt lcd would. Desktop LCD's can be A LOT better than notebook screens. I maybe wrong but the best Notebook screen out there right now is the RGBLED screens on the current Studio XP16, Envy 13 and some workstation laptops. But even that screen is not as good as a good desktop lcd monitor. When you talk about "good" in this sense which a lot of graphic designers could benefit from is the screens can display a much more accurate array of colors. These screens usually also has much truer black levels and much better viewing levels.

In the end if you are worried just ask yourself this. What do you use your laptop for? Have you ever tried to calibrate the TV? Are you willing to wait till the day manufacturers decide (if ever) that they should lower their profit margins and put better lcd's in their notebooks or people in general (not just a select few) are willing to pay more for notebooks with lcds?

BTW while the stated spec on the UL series is 500:1 i doubt the ul30vt actually achieves that.

Lastly, I actually was someone who was looking for a very good lcd on a 13 monitor not too long ago... but after i found out there are no 13inch laptops that hold a candle to my current desktop lcd I decided eventhough i could easily afford the Vaio Z with its "better" lcd. My money is better spent on the ul30vt with it's better battery life and video card.

 

Ah, thanks for the update. This sounds more reasonable. Are you also a ULX0Vt owner?


\:^)~

 

Great post!

When referring to quality the are IMO stark differences between laptop monitors of different vendors. For example, currently on my desk is a 15" inspiron and a aspire one netbook, both open. The netbook has a FAR superior screen with better white reproduction, better saturation of colour, and better contrast overall (including a smaller dot pitch). The benefits may be partially due to led back-lighting on the netbook. The vertical viewing angles on both are quite terrible, though.

That said, I *would* pay a premium for a higher quality screen if it were available. The screen is the most used interface on the machine, and better screen means a better user experience overall (all things being equal). If one is made available, I may attempt a DIY install.

Consider the ultra-expensive Envy 13, is supposed to have a very high quality screen as laptops go:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/5-ways-the-hp-envy-is-better-than-the-macbook-pro
"410-nit brightness and can display 82 percent of the color gamut"

If I could install that screen in the UL30Vt, I would certainly do it.
(side note: it's a shame the Envy 13 didn't have better specs and a lower price. The UL30Vt severely outguns in all areas except thinness and screen, at nearly half the price!)

However, neither hold a candle to a quality external monitor designed around the idea of colour reproduction. So for colour sensitive work, it pays to spend the extra hundreds and buy something up to the task. Plus, you get a higher resolution too!

The (supposed) low quality screen of the UL30s, isn't compelling enough a reason, IMO, to overlook the other pleasing attributes of the system, especially to be substituted for much more expensive machines (eg. Viao, envy 13). I suspect that as the technology improves we'll see higher quality screens throughout the industry. For now, it's something that we more or less have to live with.

}:^)~

 

Speaking of Envy panels.... It seems that the Envy 15 panel is available for sale:
http://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/HP-Compaq/ENVY~15/

I wonder:
a) how long it'll be before the Envy 13 panel is available (if it isn't already)
b) is it [the envy 13 lcd] the same quality as the original Envy 13 panel
c) can it be fit into the UL30Vt.
d) is it compatible with the UL30Vt.

For ~$200, the price is low enough to seriously consider.

Of course, the stock UL30Vt panel may be sufficient! Ultimately, I'll have to see the screen before considering an upgrade.

/:^!~

 

Hey Cap't Corrupt. I too would pay more for a better panel but I've given into the fact it's not going to happen anytime soon and I probably wouldn't want to void the warranty by replacing the panel.

Again like the Sony Vaio Z the Envy's 1600x800 screen is a 13.1" screen vs the 13.3" of the ul30vt so I don't know if it will fit correctly in the chassis. The Envy 13" is a RGBLED which is the best type of lcd used in normal laptops today (there might be a better one in some tablets).

The netbooks seem to be a aberration in the notebook world.. It might just be easier to make a more even small lcd. If your inspiron is a few years old then it's definitely due to the difference with the LED backlight.

My wish is they someday go back to IPS or PVA/MVA screens in laptops The true color production is more important to me than the resolution in a small laptop. In the end White LED / RGB LED / Glass glossy screens are really just work arounds to make a 6bit panel "better".

Envy 13 was one of my target laptops too but the standard battery is surprisingly bad and the added slice battery makes the weight and size of a normal 13 inch. Again for the money saved ($1000 if choosing the 1600x900 screen) it's hard to justify the cost considering I can buy an amazing desktop lcd for that money.

 

Yeah, thanks for the reply ippikiokami. Cleared up the confusion i was wondering about. I like the UL30vt, just waiting to see some reviews when it comes out. =D