ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop

5 Responses to “ASUS UL30Vt-A1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Silver Laptop”

1. Lethal Sildenafil
   June 4, 2010 at 11:13 pm

   to be the FIRST reviewer, i’d like to “pre review” this BadBoy of 2010! and will edit once i get my hands on it…

   i have very high expectations from UL30Vt-A1 and i believe it will deliver >99.99% of what i’ve been looking for in a laptop of this category!

   ps:
   
   “Eric C. Jahn
   
   Thanks for the tip Lethal; I just reported your review. I’ll delete mine, since I was really just making a point about yours.”
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. Constantine S. Markides
   June 5, 2010 at 12:08 am

   The specs fit exactly what I wanted. I didn’t notice until it arrived and I had unpacked and begun setting it up that it had no optical drive whatsoever. No DVD, no burner, no bluRay, nothing. I was forced to send it back to Amazon, even though the computer itself had nothing wrong with it other than marketing obfuscating what would be obvious the second it arrived at my door. I’m not really upset with the computer itself, but I am a little disappointed with Amazon for concealing such an obvious shortcoming.
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. BTX
   June 5, 2010 at 1:22 am

   Adding the following on December 12: I decided to purchase an Intel 80 gigabyte X25 SSD Drive.

   Removing the original hard drive and inserting the SSD was a breeze.

   Asus includes a DVD with an image of the hard drive for restoration purposes. I hooked up a USB DVD drive. Pressed Escape after powering up and the BIOS instantly recognized my DVD drive and allowed me to boot to the DVD.

   Sadly, the recovery process to the SSD stopped at 28%. I tried it multiple times from all 3 USB ports. I am guessing the Recovery DVD is flawed. So, I had no choice but to do a clean install using a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Retail DVD. (I had one with a 3-license deal that a family member purchased.)

   The installation was blazing fast on the SSD.

   I then used the Driver CD Asus includes to install all the drivers.

   Let me tell you, the SSD is fabulous. The computer boots up so fast. Shuts down fast. Runs fast. (Please know that I upgraded the SSD’s firmware immediately prior to the install. The firmware restores Windows 7 Trim support to the SSD.)

   I paid $250 total for the SSD. I am very happy I made the drive switch.

   The original 500 GB hard drive was fine. But I had a little extra $$ and always wanted to try an SSD. Seriously, the wake up from sleep mode and boot up truly rocks.

   It is now time for my original ASUS UL30VT-X1 review.

   I hope to address what most people would want to know.

   Speakers: Surprisingly good sound. Volume is loud. Better than most small laptops. I think you will be happy with the sound. I am.

   Touchpad: Asus, what were you thinking? Why try to be different if the difference won’t be better? While the Touchpad is usable and in time I suspect most will get used to it, I myself dislike it a lot. I dislike it so much I just had to attach an external mouse. After I put in a Logitech mouse with the tiny transmitter I was so much happier. I don’t like the feel of the Touchpad. It has these tiny dots. You truly feel the dots. It feels odd under my finger. I really hate it. The multi-finger gesture thing just doesn’t work well. Just not smooth. The glidepad is also just not smooth. I don’t like the feel at all. In my opinion, there will be many like me who just don’t like the Touchpad. And if you don’t mind either a bluetooth or standard wireless mouse, you will easily choose to go that route like I did.

   I am upset at Asus for this stupid Touchpad design. So unnecessary. Not upset enough for me to return the laptop. (Again, I’ll just mostly use a mouse.)

   The screen: If on battery and using the “save battery video mode,” the brightness of the screen changes greatly. This lack of brightness really bothered me, so I will almost always use the enhanced graphics mode. (Thanks for the comments about how one can increase the screen brightness while in power save mode. I knew that and tried that, but for some reason on my unit the brightness will not increase. Maybe I got a lemon on that respect alone?)

   The quality of the screen is fine. No disappointment here. I like the screen. Very clear and a nice positive. The 13″ screen is a good size.

   Battery: Started it on a full charge. Ran just Internet and email (nothing else) on WiFi connection. I got 5 hours. Better than most laptops. Yes, I know I’d get better battery life if I ran it with the decreased screen brightness on the power-save video card. But again, the lack of brightness bothered my eyes.

   When you first boot up the laptop out of the box, be patient. Might take 20 minutes till first full boot.

   I spent a lot of time uninstalling the crapware. Why do they think I want their lame games? They also put in a trial antivirus and trial Office 2007 with SQL Server. There is also a ton of Asus system software.

   My laptop unit weighs a smidge under 4 pounds…basically it is 4 pounds. It’s light, but if you have it resting bare on your legs for hours you are going to feel a bit uncomfortable from the 4 pounds. On the positive, after hours on my bare legs, the unit never got too warm. Temp was nice.

   I wish the laptop weighed 3 pounds or less, but the 4 pounds total is not a deal-breaker. I make this particular comment because Asus calls it “Thin and light.” It’s thin. And I guess it’s light compared to a full-size laptop. But when I think “light” for a laptop I think 2 to 3 pounds…not 4 pounds. (I agree with the comments that this laptop is not really heavy. I didn’t mean to make it sound like it is heavy.)

   The laptop boots up fast. Runs as fast as you’d expect from the specs…and I am happy with the speed.

   Body: Fingerprint and body oils magnet. Again, Asus, what were you thinking? Just plain dumb. The black looks nice, but your prints will be all over the thing.

   Keyboard is fine. Most will be OK with the keyboard. I like it.

   Value: You know the price on this model will drop to $500 in 2010. If it was $500, I’d be more forgiving on its Touchpad fiasco. But for $800, I have to reduce stars because it was so unnecessary, as was the decision to make it a fingerprint magnet. Stars off for that too. Again, some won’t mind the Touchpad as much, but a lot will agree with me.

   I am also reducing it 1/2 star because of the crapware and the fact they call it “light” when it weighs 4 pounds. How about “Thin and comparatively light”? (OK, commenters. Go ahead and tell me I just shouldn’t keep it on my lap for so many hours straight. I know.)

   I am keeping this laptop. It’s a great start by Asus. But if they released a similar model that corrected some of the disappointments, I’d sell it in a second and buy the newer model. If one is not in need of a new laptop now, maybe wait until Asus gets the next model right(redesigned touchpad, no-fingerprint magnet body, maybe a pound lighter but not necessarily).

   Rating: 3 / 5
4. Dude in LA
   June 5, 2010 at 2:13 am

   I’ve been using laptops for the past 15 years. While the Asus UL80vt-A1 is sleek and stylish, the mouse and touchpad is the worst I’ve ever used. HONEST! The left and right mouse buttons take a very strong thumb to press and click… to the point where it feels like I’m going to break the button. I’ve never seen a touchpad like this and it just doesn’t work. To use the keyboard and mouse together, you actually have to stop typing and concentrate just on using the touchpad. They should work harmoniously together.

   Plus, when I received the computer, the battery didn’t hold a charge. When I called Asus customer support, they were friendly, but the only option I had was to ship the computer to them, have them determine and fix the problem, and then send it back. Sorry… but I rely on my computer for work and just can’t live without a computer for a week or more while they figure things out. I also asked them if they would ship me a new laptop and I would return the “1-day old” defective laptop I received… but that wasn’t an option.

   All I can say is… I’m glad I bought this through Amazon because of their amazing customer support and return policy. They gave me the option to get my money back OR order a replacement laptop. Due to the terrible touchpad, I opted for a refund! Their return shipping options are the best too and don’t make you do all the work. Thank you Amazon for supporting your customers!
   Rating: 1 / 5
5. arby4
   June 5, 2010 at 3:13 am

   I have been using this notebook for some weeks now and I have found it to be a great replacement for my netbook. In the past I would carry around 15-17inch notebooks then about one and half years ago I got a 9 inch netbook to use when I wanted something that was light, smaller and easy to use. Then after using the netbook for about 6 months I tried to use it as my main PC. There were only two issues that I found that were bothersome was the speed of the CPU and screen resolution. With the ASUS UL30Vt I have found one that is light, fast, and has a better screen resolution. The ability to switch between using the Intel graphics and the NVIDIA graphics was a plus. I have yet to find a need to switch the notebook to Turbo mode because I am not a gamer (I have better things to do with my life, despite my son being a big gamer). I have found that I can get more than a full day’s usage without needing to be connected to a power source; that equates to about 8+ hours. I would have be surfing the web and doing some heavy computing. The full size key board did take a day to get use to after being on the netbook’s small key board. Unlike others, I have not really found the one button for the mouse to be much of an issue. Having the built-in Bluetooth was a big plus along with being able to upgrade the RAM to 8G (if I ever decide to). I would have given this product a higher rating if it had been an 11.3 inch because that is what I really wanted for my replacement of the netbook. I have yet to fly with this notebook but I expect it to preform well there (we’ll see when the guy in the seat in front of me leans all the way back). I am looking for a bag to carry this notebook in and I have not find the prefect one yet, so i’ll use my old one from the 15 inch days for now.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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