ASUS U80V-A1 Review

looks like the Asus U80V is starting to become unavailable at other resellers too. NCIX has it on backorder and Infonec states that its temporarily unavailable. A couple of other sellers list it as out of stock.

Strange but maybe Asus didnt produce enough units to meet demand?.....I was getting ready to order this laptop next week, and now this happens.....

 

Man, this whole thing just really sucks. I hope Asus can do something about this by the end of this month.. This seemed like the perfect laptop for me, and I can't really find anything like it except for the Sony SR one which is stupidly overpriced.

 

Wow, that sucks. I already put my deposit in with a reseller. I was hoping to get it in a week and half.

Is it possible to call ASUS to see what's going on?

 

oh man don't you disappear on me now.. i've been waiting too long for you.

 

Well, there is the Toshiba U500/M500 also with a 4570 but it's a bit on the thick side.

 

Toshiba (at least U500) is not only on the thick side, but also heavy and lower batterylife side

 

Its really a kick to the groin. I do not know what Asus expected from this notebook but it seems like not a whole lot.

U20 are highly available I am not seeing anything about the U80V being refreshed but I do not know what they would be refreshing on it. Maybe something simple like an eSata port? Bluetooth and fingerprint reader? Weird.

 

if any of you guys are in asia, consider the m900.
13 inch, ati 4570, 4gb ram, up to t9600

EDIT: i mean the toshiba portege m900

 

For Asia, the Benq S42 seems better. A freaking 9600M GT in a 14 inch.

Damn it, why can't we get something like that here.

 

You can get Asus N81 with HD4650 which is a lot stronger.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220510

 

Not a really appealing design, along with a weak battery life.

 

True but those are natural side effects of putting a HD4650 in a 14" notebook.

 

oh man. there is STATIC when i put my headphones on. and it picks up all sorts of interferance like the touchpad, HDD, processor, i mean everything. What the George Bush is going on here? and the headphones are pluged in the u80v

 

Maybe the weak battery but I am sure we could get an attractive 14" notebook that uses a 4650 GFX card.

My journey to the U80V started with the Lenovo Y450 to the N81. But the N81 was too darn ugly for me. The U80V has a better gpu than the Y450 so I was sold on the U80. Little did I know I would be back at square one.

 

Seems good (looks kinda suck though), but I think you can turn the GPU off on the Benq, meaning better battery life.

 

Maybe it's an audio latency problem. Check the DPC latency with that one.

 

Wow, the store I order the U80V says that the item is "discontinued" on their web page. I guess I gotta call them for my deposit.

 

What store did your order it from? ASUS seems to not be taking the U80V seriously...

 

Premier Choice Canada. I bought a desktop from them a fews years back.

 

you mean premier computers canada?

 

Hey, I am thinking of buying this laptop. But I am not sure about the warranty. Where should I buy it from to get the 1year accidental coverage + 1 year regular warranty? (whenever it gets available) I mean Best Buy is listed as Asus' official distributor, but if you are buying from them you are getting just 1 year of regular warranty. (That's with u81) So, I am kinda lost in here.

 

Resellers such as GenTechPC will offer the U80 with the standard (better) warranty - 2 year global, 1 year accidental, and 30 day zero bright dot screen protection. At the moment, resellers do not have the U80 in stock.

 

And as far as I know, BestBuy laptops carry only BestBuy warranty. For ex. guy who bought Asus there, could not register it in Asus Club to get Global Warranty.

 

Hi everyone
I just bought a U80V the other day and have been trying it out for a bit now. Im in Australia, so im not sure if the specs are the same.
But the U80V i have has the P8700 2.53GHz processor, 4Gb of ram, and a 500gb hard drive.

Im using it mainly for uni but its also replaced my desktop pc which was getting pretty old. And for those wondering, I have been given the free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out, but I have to pay for the shipping costs for the dvd.

Looking at the battery life, I am pretty impressed with it I have to say. With the screen turned down, wifi off and the keyboard backlights off, I can easily get over 5 hours of battery life, but for normal use its about 3.5 hours.
I've only tried it one one game so far, which is Team Fortress 2. I've played a few hours on it and im averaging about 40fps on the highest settings and about 50-60fps on medium, so I feel its adequate enough for some light gaming.

As i'm in Australia im not sure if this is relevant, but my laptop has a 2 year warranty which is covered by Asus.
And the backlit keyboard is pretty awesome

 

Yup, that's what I meant.

 

ok i did the DPC latency check and it was fine for the most part, there were several times when it when up to 1000us but that was it. then, i did a clean install of W7 64bit but the problem continues. And the wierd thing is that it only happens when i have headphones on. please help. i might have to call ASUS tommorow.

 

How much did you buy it for with this config? Can you also post Windows Vista experience for the Graphics.

 

At whoever was asking, EMJ doesn't provide the G50Vt-B1 to Staples. Also, I double checked and indeed, the U80V isn't available for special order anymore >.>

Seems lots of online resellers are getting stocks liquidated as well

 

So what on earth went wrong with the Asus U80V? Did another country get first shipment and loved it so much that they bought em up lol

I wonder if this has ever happened before. the only thing that would have caused something like this was a problem with one of the components. Availability, defect, something.

Lots of U20 notebooks but no U80 ones

 

ya there are defects!!!!

 

Other than your headphone jack interference? Id' be nice to get user input as to design flaws or defects of the machine. Sorrix didn't mention many so it'd be cool

 

Ya. other than the headphone jack interference, its a bad mother!

 

Well I am wondering if it is a shortage of the ATi GPU that is the problem. Since it is the same GPU used in other notebooks like Sony, Dell, and other Asus notebooks maybe they did not have enough to go around?

Just throwing wild speculation out there as to why a nice notebook would have such low availability.

 

this may be very.. very wishful thinking. but perhaps asus has decided to do a preliminary refresh since the u80v is a little bit behind competition in terms of preconfigured hardware? the t6500 processor, ddr2 ram, and 4570 are hardly eye-openers anymore, and though the price of about 1000 USD is fairly cheap, it's not too much of a bargain for those specs. maybe asus feels that the u80v needs to be a little bit more competitive and they're about to start distributing a refreshed configuration..

 

I bought it for $1700 AUD. But i could have bought it for $1500 if i bought online, but I wanted to check out the laptop from a store. Im not sure if thats expensive relative to other currencies but all laptops over here seem to be heaps more expensive.

As for the Windows Vista experience, ill post it when I get home and have my power pack.

 

Shouldn't be the headphone problem Since U81 should have same audio hardware and is widely available. If there really is a defect, I would guess it is smth with the Video Card.

 

tcee I don't agree with you on this one. Technically, Asus did not limit the notebook to a T6500 cpu by design. It seems to be US & Canada that are getting these spec'd machines. Every review I have seen on AU and UK websites have a T9 CPU config. And no matter what config you did get the notebook was well priced.

It is extremely deflating. I really need a notebook and thought my search was over. Now it is back to the drawing board.

 

Yea I know what you mean man. After so much searching, I was so damn close to getting this laptop, and now as you said, it's back to the drawing board.

 

I'm in the USA, and I can at least get it from Amazon. But I realllly want it to come out on TigerDirect and such for the cashback.

This is pretty frustrating.

 

Yeap me too, or at Ebay. But I really want the 2.53GHZ proc.

 

Just did the Windows Vista experience

Processor (P8700 2.53GHz): 5.4
Memory (4Gb) : 5.9
Graphics - Aero (4570HD): 4.1
Graphics - Gaming: 4.8
Primary hard disk: 5.7

Hope that helps

 

Interesting. A better WEI score for gaming versus Aero?

I wonder when GenTech will start carrying these.

 

Just did the WEI again, and got a gaming graphics score of 4.9 this time

 

Tigerdirect has a few. Just call their customer support and they will look it up. I know Tigerdirect has at least 4 that not many know about.

 

and what are the specs?

 

Well I just called PC Canada and they told me that my U80V-A1 was on its way from B.C. I'm more than relieved.

 

glad to hear that. i actually had contacted them last month regarding preorder. the sales associate was very quick to answer questions concisely and to the point, and all things considered, i would be very surprised if you couldn't get your deposit back if your order couldn't be fulfilled.

 

I just ordered the laptop from a distributor in Sweden, they said that they hade a confirmed arrival date, for sweden that is. (I work for a reseller).

To bad it is the T6500 and 320 GB disk in the Swedish one. I would have loved the faster CPU.

The date for the arrival is the 24 of August plus 1 day before it reaches me.

I hope this meets my demands in that case I might buy yett another one since this is primary for my wife.

My self I am looking at the G50VT, though it is kind of heavy.

 

Yeah, I bought a desktop from them roughly 6 years ago, good service.

The funny thing is, they called me around noon telling me that it had arrived! I'm only my way back from their store with the laptop in my hands.

 

So how much are one of these babies costing and which processor does it come with?