6 Comments »

S. Reyes said:
I had just enough money to buy this laptop at the 799.00 price point and they just decided to raise the price. Thats absolutely ridiculous, the hell with you ASUS
Rating: 1 / 5
# 23 December 2009 at 12:42 am

DrewMcG (Ann Arbor, MI USA) said:
First off: I do NOT own this laptop at this time.
I am posting to express disappointment with the (current, 12/10/2009) pricing ($949) of this model. This is a $300 premium (almost =50%) to the non-overclockable, non-switchable GPU version on Amazon ASUS UL30A-X5 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Black Laptop – 12 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium). As desireable as those features, I feel the $800 (initial) price — reflecting a $150 premium instead) was fair; at this price, its a gouge. As much as I’d prefer the smaller form factor/1lb. weight savings/thinner profile of this “vt” model, I’d have to say the 14″ model — for $130 cheaper — is a better value ASUS UL80Vt-A1 14-Inch Thin and Light Black Laptop – 11.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium).
Rating: 3 / 5
# 23 December 2009 at 1:01 am

B. Tropea said:
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
# 23 December 2009 at 1:49 am

R. Nemergut said:
Got this VT a few days ago. It is an awesome upgrade from my Eee 1005 of last year. Really fast, even after loading it up with all my stuff and not removing any of the usual junk with a new computer. I would have said 5 stars, but the new “Smart-Pad” is not too good…slow to track across screen & not adjustable, old one on Eee much better. I suppose I will adjust, but as I keep going back to my old Eee, I keep enjoying the old feel & speed of the touch pad.
Rating: 4 / 5
# 23 December 2009 at 3:12 am

U. Abbasi said:
This is a good laptop. I am using it as a second laptop for portability. If you are coming from a mac and used to it, there may be some gotchas. Specifically, the trackpad is not all that good. Also, the screen could be much better. It has a very small viewing angle from which it looks good. The HDMI is definitely nice. It helped me to not buy a second computer as HTPC. Maybe I will someday, but for now the laptop works.
Rating: 4 / 5
# 23 December 2009 at 4:36 am
Cheap Asus For Sale said:
[...] ASUS UL30Vt-X1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Black Laptop | Laptop … [...]
# 25 December 2009 at 10:28 pm

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