the skinny on the U1F

the SSD is a samsung 1.8" w/ a male ZIF connector, and i'm getting it from http://dvnation.com , but you'll have to give them a call, because technically they aren't in yet. The same place sells the express card, except i think they are sold out at the moment.

 

If you don't mind me asking how much $$ are we talking about here?

 

Hi to all!

I was considering buying a U1F, but I wonder about the keyboard and the screen: indeed, I am afraid it will be a bit too small to type and work conveniently. I think that I might use it as much as 6-7 Hrs a day, for typing, web browsing, and reading academic papers in pdf.
Isn't the keyboard too small?
I am also afraid of the eye strain associated with the high resolution (which is good btw, but maybe too much...).

Thanks for any feedback.

 

SSD will prolly be around $1000, i don't know for sure yet.
keyboard is great for typing, which is the majority of what i use my laptop for. the right hand side shift key is annoying at first, but i've gotten accustomed to it after a couple weeks. the screen is beautiful and i usually stare at it for a while, yesterday i was in front of my computer for something like 16 hours. i have NoSquint for firefox, yet i rarely use it, if at all. the only thing i made bigger was the cursor...

 

Thx fallout. A few other questions nevertheless:

1. why did you choose this particular model over the S6FM for instance? I am asking this because I am hesitating between the two. The thing is, I don't really care about the fingerprint reader and the webcam of the U1F but it is considerably lighter. The S6FM however is more powerful and it has a speedier hard drive. Since I also use some mathamtical programs, I might benefit form the added speed.

2. what are the performances of the U1F with Vista? I will certainly install ubuntu on it, but still, I wonder if it's not too sluggish.

Thanks!

 

I think those hard drive prices are too high, even above what market prices are supposed to be right now, but, supply and demand I guess. Glad to hear you are getting one though, let me know how it is.

 

I was curious on the complaint of the right shift key, as I never use mine. I only ever use the left shift key, even when capitalizing letters that I type with the left hand.

Anyhow, I guess I could play the waiting game forever to wait til it gets Santa Rosa but then Montevista will be right around the corner and who knows how soon the next chipset will be after that. I guess if it plays Warcraft 3 decently that's all I really care about =) Any feedback would be appreciated!

 

I guess I'm a mutant as well. I touch type but I never use the right shift key.

 

LOL, I just noticed the right shift key on my keyboard, LMAO! I have never ever ever ever used that key in all my life!

 

Yea, I barely ever use that key, I only use it by accident

 

i use a program called vi a lot, and i was used to my old ibm keyboard, but now i've gotten used to it. i still hit it every once in a while, but once i tried to use my old ibm again, i realized how much i had already conformed to this laptop. I had wanted an S6, but i think leather is rather tacky. it's a "look at me" feature. though, if you can find yourself a carbon fiber version, that would be one slick machine. I chose this laptop over the S6 because of the weight, size, and screen. I practically never use a cdrom, unless i'm installing an OS, plus i knew i was gonna have to get me an SSD drive, because shaving power consumption was my plan from the start. I use my laptop for work and surfing the net, most of my work consists of accessing computer's over the net and telling them to do stuff. Portability vs. performance is really just a question of what you really use your laptop for. I mean c'mon do you really need to shave off 5-10 ms off a pi calculation. as soon as i get my SSD, i plan on formatting my current drive and installing Xen so i can have it to play with and teach myself how to use it, and with the SSD, i'll install OpenBSD and Ubuntu and possible a stripped down version of XP. Unlink most people, i think vista is prolly the nicest version of windows out there, but it's still, is missing alot of software and driver support, which is enough for me to ditch it. i'll let you guys know how much battery life i can squeeze outta XP. Can you even benchmark an SSD?
BTW i used the asusrealbattery life program which also confirms you only get 3 1/2 to 4 hours of battery life from a 6 cell.

 

Hello

I have bought this laptop and according to me it's perfect

About battery life, I get 2h with 3 cells and 4h with 6 cells in intensive use (Wifi On, bluetooth off, screen light 50%)

When I work only on microsft office (word) and check my mails with outlook (wifi on, bluettoth off, screen light 50%) i get 2h30 and 5h. (battery saving mode)

 

hey have you figured out how to scroll with the fingerprint sensor?

 

I am sorry, I don' know how to do it.

It could be great

 

You don't scroll with the fingerprint sensor... you scroll with the touchpad. Dragging your finger from left to right along the bottom of the touchpad will scroll horizontal. Dragging your finger from top to bottom along the right side of the touchpad will scroll vertical.

I've grown very attached to my U1F over the past few weeks. I agree, it is awesome! I also get TONS of compliments about it around campus.

 

I'm trying to pick between the U1F and S6Fm. Both each have their great advantages and disadvantages, its a hard decision really. Too bad nobody here has both to compare.

I like the U1Fs design and style and that the hard drive bay is accessible on the bottom unlike the S6, also like the built in webcam. I like the S6s Core 2 Duo processor and 2.5" hard drive. And I'm not sure I can live without the optical drive, I wish it was at least included the external one with the U1F since its the same price basically as the S6Fm. U1 is more mobility and S6 is more performance.

 

the manual says you can use the fingerprint software to let you use the finger print sensor as a scrollpad too, but i just haven't figured out how to do it. or maybe they took it out...

 

after installing windows Xp on my SSD, i njow get 30 minutes more outta my 3 cell. The SSD is a 1.8" Sandisk and hdtach says
random access 1.7 ms
sequential read avg. 60 MB/s
cpu utilization 0%
burst speed 66.2 MB/s
and the drive ended up costing me 1000$
is it worth it?
well, we'll see once i deck out linux and see how OpenBSD runs on this thing. If anyone interested in that let me know.

 

Holy crap you have the Sandisk SSD? You're my hero! Could you pleeeease run a few more tests on it, like for instance PC Mark 05? That way we can compare it to the results of the trustedreviews.com test of the U1F and see how much improvement the SSD gives. How long does it take for XP to boot/shutdown/hybernate? Thanks!

PC Mark 2005 is downloadable here: http://www.futuremark.com/download/pcmark05/

30 minutes extra battery life over a 4200 rpm HD is *very* impressive if you ask me. It should yield 30-60minutes extra battery life over 5400rpm and faster notebook HDs.

 

Excellent! Did you bought it from Dell or what? I'm tempted to buy one now, but my Gateway NX100 only accepts 2.5" hard drives.

 

Hey thanks for the update. I plan on installing an SSD on my U1F as well. Can you give us a seat of the pants performance comparison? I would expect the U1F to feel quite a bit faster after the upgrade. I think for the majority of the work most people do on this class of machine HD speed makes a larger impact on performance than the CPU does.

 

Bump, for great justice

 

windows Xp does about 10-15 sec's for everything to be loaded
sleep takes about a second
ubuntu w/ beryl does about 7-8 secs booting up
i couldn't get futuremark to work on my machine, no clue why.
if you want an ssd for this machine, get it from dell they're only $550 shipped, apparently i got screwed

 

Where did you bought it from?

 

I gonna buy the UF1, but I will wait until something bigger than 32 Gig to come out for the SSD (solid state drive).

 

fallout, I'm a software developer and I will need to work on the laptop for long periods of time. It's comforting to know that you also need to work on the laptop for extensive amount of time.

Question, is the cover lid easy to scratch ? Does it annoy you that your laptop constantly have finger prints on it ?

 

hi ,

I have bought the u1f and about the external drive, in UK I have got the external burner and also one 6-cell extra battery. I really liked it , but after reading ur post , I was just wondering , whether if 32gb ssd express cards are compatible with this model , can u kindly advise me whether if can buy a external ssd express card in near future which is compatible .

vijay

 

If anyone is interested in a cheap U1F I have one for sale on ebay. Just do a search for U1F my username is duffyanneal.

 

hi guys,

I just want to give a mini review about u1f, I bought this laptop at microanvika.com for 1300£. Specs I got are
- 3-cell and 6-cell
- external dvd burner
- 1gig of ram only(after vista slowness, I ordered 1 gig stick which was just 30 pounds.)
- vista
First , of all , I have removed vista completely and installed XP on the machine . Thank god , asus provides all the drivers for XP.First impressions of the laptop , WHEN I HAD vista are --- its just a bit slow to my liking .May be as it got only 1 gig of ram. I just dint like that at all in vista. ANd also in Vista lof of VPN applications that my company use doesnt support . So i really wanted XP on it. I even thought of giving it back in case if it failed with XP.

BUt here comes the good news. I have done a clean install of XP , removed the Vista completely and installed all the applications including TPM Module and also finger print software. Now the U1f is simply superb.As the other guy(falloout mentioned).This is simply one of the best ultraportable and beautiful screens, I have ever used. I used to have SZ2xp before and the screen is better than my sony sz series.All the applications are running extremely fast and never ever lagged behind.Due to the core duo processor , its just a bit slow only when u run more than 8 applications at the same time.I would have preferred Core2 duo , but u cant get everything in one notebook.And regarding the keyboard , as the other user mention , the shift key on the right hand side is one key further which sometimes confuses you , but u will get used to it slowly .And regarding the feel of the keyboard , I would say for such a ultra portable , the keyboard is really solid and very easy to use.Actually I think I am typing much faster on this keyboard.And its really very comfortable typing on this rather than sony tx seris or macbook.(I tried typing on sony tx and a 13inch mac before and it was a bit difficult.).ANd one more important thing is with my sony sz , I had to be really carefull the lcd screen while opening it coz its too thing and a bit flimsy , where as U1F is simply stunning as the led screen is covered with some sort of magnesium alloy or something.
Keyboard restpad is made of leather and attractive.And the exterior cover is shiny black , so I have just order a laptop sticker from http://www.aspoke.com/order_cat5.php?skin=MetalCircles&name=Metal*Circles. And the weight is simply stunning with 3cell battery, its 998 gms. Where as with 6-cell its just 1.2 i guess.Regarding the battery life I dint really tested it coz I am hardly away from a power plug, but my 3-cell battery I got it for more than 2 and half hours.And forgot to mention one important thing , the screen size is 1366*768, so the default font DPI settings are small , which makes the font look even smaller, but just change the DPI Setting to 120 and the fonts and text looks cool and very nice. SO Anyhow this laptop looks so beautiful and stunning that i named it as Black Beauty.

Pros:
1) Excellent Performance for that size
2) Truly ultraportable- < 1kg
3) Superb Screen- Lot of settings u can use with Asus utlitity
4) All the accessories given like BT mouse , cloth extra battery and cover etc
5) BT 2.0 which is important for me.
6) Looks cool n stunning
7) Solid build - not like Sony SZ Premium Screen or TX screen.
8) 4 USB Ports, 1 firewire , express card slot and multi card reader , no where I have seen this many in ultra portable.
9) External dvd burner doesnt need external power.
Cons:
1) Slow with Vista (may be due to my ram)
2)wish 6 - cell battery was more than 6 hrs
3) wish the processor was ULV Core2Duo.

 

hi ,

screen is simply superb, just set the font settings for 120DPI and you wont have any problem using it , even the keyboad is stable, solid and nice other than a small glitch of right shift key i mentioned in my review

 

screen is simply superb, just set the font settings for 120DPI and you wont have any problem using it , even the keyboad is stable, solid and nice other than a small glitch of right shift key i mentioned in my review.
And regarding its not scrathc prone , but its too shiny , so i ordered a laptop skin from aspoke.com

 

I have also thought about s6f , and the reasons i opted out were weight , coz if u use 6-cell battery it will be 1.6kgs weight and also, i dont used dvd rom any more which should save.IT looks a bit bulky for my liking. Looks are also not so good with leather.

regarding the vista , I have unistalled as it was slow with 1 gig of ram.I installed xp and its simply superb now even with 1 gig of ram.

I just hate Vista so much.

 

hi ,

I hope u can answer this question for me. Is it possible to use a ssd for the expresscard on u1f.Coz in future I might go that way.And also do u have any pics or any guide how you have installed the 1.8inch ssd drive in the notebook. I will do it in some months time .

And one more question is is it possible to install an OS on SSD Express card in case if the U1f is compatible with SSD Express card.By the way Am using XP? Hope u can give me some feedback please?

 

Vijayvasa thanks for your review!

What do you do for a living and what are the usual tasks you do with the notebook ? I'm trying to have a better idea of what a Duo Core 1 Ghz can do...

 

Hedwig, what would be your uses for your notebook? ULV chips can handle more than most think, really all but the most demanding things. They pack a punch, beleive me.

 

Rahulnirmal I will be using the laptop to program (software development) 40% of the time. Surfing 50% of the time and watching movies 10% of the time.

I generally use Apache Tomcat, MySQL, Eclipse and Java. At times I will need to do a bit of photoshop for web application layouts.

I'm looking for something lightweight because I've experienced dragging a 5.5lbs laptop back and forth from home to office and it's not fun at all.

 

hi,

Am an IT Application Developer , and i can understand ur question as I used to have the same questions before I bought U1f.

I had Visual studio , SQl Studio, etc. I also hava Java Dev Environment like netbeans etc. I do quite lot of surfing and movies tooo. Sometimes I run 3 or 4 applications and also scan the computer , but ULV Core Duo really does the work without hanging. I used to have Sony SZ2xp before , and its 1.7 kgs.
u1f is just 1kg and it has ULV Core duo and it still does all these things with a lesser weight.

I am happy with my purchase and it really rocks and in future I hope I can change the 1.8" toshiba drive with 64 gb ssd from samsung.

Hope the answer will help u.

 

It does help me a lot thanks vijayvasa.

The Toshiba R500 just came out and it looks exactly like what I need. 12.1" WXGA, LED screen, ultraportable,etc.

*Lightest model configuration of 1.72 lbs is based on a 64GB solid state drive (SSD), a 3 cell battery and no optical disk drive. The Portégé® R500 with the solid state drive will not be available until the end of July 2007. Weight may vary. See Weight Legal Footnote at www.info.toshiba.com.

 

vijayvasa do you think you can take a picture of your notebook and can you include yourself in the picture ?

Most people take pictures of the entire notebook but that doesn't give a good idea of the size of the notebook. It actually makes it look really big since it's all that we can see in the picture.

Can you also take a picture of your notebook with Visual Studio running or Netbeans, in the notebook's native resolution ? I just want to get a better idea of how much space there is to work with those IDEs. Don't take the picture too close to the screen. Take it at a normal viewing distance please.

The price has dropped a bit on the U1F on NCIX.com. It used to be 2416$CA, now it's like 2349$CA. I think I decided on the U1F. I'm just gonna wait a bit just to make sure that I don't buy it out of sheer hype. Maybe the price will drop a bit more with the competition about to hit the market.


Thanks.

 

I own this laptop, and i did a clean XP install too.
I like it very much

Here is a short video i made so you can see the size of laptop
compared to another asus 15.4 inch

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aEh4OAlMgFQ

The 6 cell battery last for about 4 hours for me when i watch movies from the harddrive on airplane.

Ive ordered a 9 cell now for longer flights.

 

Mmmm, Guiness

 

Hi Esspen,

Yes, I've seen your video like at least 10 times on youtube. I also saw the one by ICUBES.US but he shakes the camera too much.

Esspen, I would have liked to see an application running on it. Just to see how it looks and give me a better idea if I can live with the small size of the screen.

I went to my local stores but they only have 12.1" and up on demo.

Where did you buy your laptop? It's hard to find in Canada, even online canadian stores.

 

ok, i will take a video now

 

Here is a picture.
I have no problem at all reading the text, and i dont think it is to small at all.



Dunno why the screen looks "bend", might be coz of refresh rate and my camera get confuzed (its dark in the room, my laptop is in my bed)

I bought mine in norway.
I was going into the shop to buy a diffrent laptop, but when i saw this asus i was sold.

I didnt know any specs about it, i just bought it and left

 

You my friend, are my hero LOL! Awesome videos

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GDyUsbG2hLA

Here is a crappy video (its 3 am here) showing a few apps in motion.

WHen i watch the video the screen looks damn wide in these vids,
wider than infront of my laptop.

 

alright.. I'm sold.

 

Seeing you drag windows around and clicking here and there really helps evaluate the responsiveness of the laptop.
I was really scared that Core Duo 1.06 Ghz would choke often. I'm still scared but not that much anymore.

Thank you very much !!

I'll buy the 64Gig SSD (solid state harddrive) at the end of this year when the price drops to like 400-500$CA (hopefully)!

 

U welcome.

I have the 1.5gig version and running XP

I tried with vista, and it actually was looking good with full aero (animations and such) but the disc activity was horrible, so i switched to XP

 

I intend to use WinXP and Ubuntu anyways.
I might consider installing Vista after the next
3 years but by then I'll probaby be shopping for
another laptop as all my laptops only lasted 3 years.
Not that they broke, just that I got tired of them.

I used photoshop and Esspen's screenshot image to
evaluate how big 11.1" screen is. My desktop LCD 17" monitor
is a lot bigger than 11.1". Using photoshop I cropped the image
to give a realistic border to the actual screen area of the U1F. I
then proceeded to resize the image until I obtained about 11.1"
diagonally (literally measured 11.1" with a ruler on my desktop LCD 17" monitor)
I then set the image as desktop background (with no stretching) and that's it.
I now have rough but better idea of how things will look on the U1F
(In Esspen's video, he compares the U1F with an A4 paper. This
also helps to create approximately the dimension your image will need to be).