You can tap the pad to click, works fine.
The click button is nicer than the reviews made it out to be, as an aside. Boy does it pick up fingerprints quickly, though.
Wish the elan software shipped with zoom as one of the options. (Like my 1000HA) May not be necessary with the bigger screen though.
-
Still deliberating on an Intel X-25 G2 80Gb....$$ -
Any word on Linux compatibility? The internal Atheros wifi card on my 1+ year old Acer Aspire 4720Z laptop still isn't fully working so it's important to find out before buying.
-
i just got the Ul30A-A1, it's silver and i think silver does not look as bad as i thought. my package does not come with house and case. does any of yours come with it?
-
Hmm, one thing that is an issue. The wireless adapter is getting about 2 less bars than it 'should' (compared to my eee pc 1000HA in the same locations.)
-
Following up on the wireless issue, I am trying the Atheros AR9285 8.0.0.196b drivers from driversdown.com, but they don't seem to make any difference.
Edit: this driver package from driversdown is stale, I used the win 7 driver update process which ended up moving me from the initial 8.0.0.144 to 8.0.0.171. Sadly, no improvement in signal strength.
On another note, battery life so far is very solid, at 5:45 atm with an ETA somewhere between 2-4 hours left. Ran about two hours in high performance mode this morning, then rest in battery saving mode. The machine is still plenty snappy in battery saving mode. -
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/14833-atheros-v800196-for-windows-vista-x86-x64/
Has some decent driver packages. The 8.0.0.196's here are legit...but they don't help my signal strength, I'm getting 3 bars here at home sitting 3 feet from my router.
Going to try to roll back to the 7.7's in hope that they help.
Anyone else having signal strength issues?
Edit: I submitted a support ticket for the wireless and for the missing case/mouse (which amazon.com told me to do.)
Just as a qualification for my wireless issues: I have had the following connected to the router without these type of range issues: eee pc 1000ha, lenovo r61(think that's the model), two desktop pcs with wireless nics (which are on a different floor from the router, in fact), and a blackberry. All get more than adequate coverage throughout the entire house. The ul30a drops connection if I leave the room the router is in.
I really hope for quick resolution on the wireless. The extra screen real estate for the ul30a over the 1000ha is amazing, I'm going to be spoiled if I have to ship this off and go back to my 1000ha as a backup ;\ -
-
Appreciate the confirmation of the relatively similar wireless strength.
I see the hd access hatch and the memory access hatch. I'll pop everything out when I get home tonight to see if I can see the wireless card, hoping for an obvious antenna not plugged in issue or something.
I'll also swap the original hard drive back in, finish the the vista setup, and double-check the signal strength/range with vista to confirm hardware vs win 7 and driver issues tonight as well. (I believe my 1000HA has the same brand if not model of wireless card, and is also running win 7. I've hit no issues with it, but will confirm just to cover all the bases.) -
i have an issue about switching to the power4gear battery saving mode. my background and theme changed, as well as the taskbar is hiding. Is there a way to fix it or adjust it? I went through Power4Gear, and can't find anything help. thanks
-
-
Finished the setup for the original hard drive, same signal strength issues under default 32 bit vista. I didn't spot the wireless card after popping out the HD and the memory, but I didn't want to poke around too much without Asus authorization.
-
Im trying to decide between this model and timeline 3810TG, one thing i noticed....abit late lol is that UL30 does NOT have a led screen , am i correct ? .... when compared to the timeline how is it...
-
-
Just got my UL30a this day from HOH.de (ordered 2 days ago)
I am really impressed about the look and quality.
But the best of all is:
The lastest Kubuntu Karmic 9.10 Linux (Alpha 6) works like a charm! Everything is running out of the box, incl sound, lan, wlan, suspend, keys. (hdmi to be tested...)
THAT ROCKS!!! -
-
So....
I might of just put in an order of the Silver one...
While I would really prefer the black one, I don't know if I can wait...
Or I might just sell it when the black one comes -
Any info on the UL80VT...whats the differences between the 2?
-
-
vicdeng, launch Power4Gear Hybrid, select the Battery Saving icon, then it's at the lower right corner of the screen. The option is called 'Battery Saving Desktop'.
-
Just got my UL30A-A1 yesterday, wiped it and installed Windows 7 RC. So far I loves this laptop,so quiet,great build quality, and enough power for what I need. I ran prime 95 for a few hours, it's amazing how little heat it put out, and how quiet it was.
-
the loudest part on my laptop is probably the hard drive. how about everyone else? And when i have the battery full at 99%, and battery saving mode, 35% LCD brightness, 60% of CPU, i am only getting around 7 to 8 hours, nothing more. is this everybody getting? thanks
-
-
-
-
-
On my wireless strength issue, just got email back on my support request. Almost 72 hours, not horrible. It was basic level one stuff, but at least it's getting the ball rolling. -
-
-
Got a few questions if you owners wouldn't mind answering
1) How's the open and close action? Can you actually open it with one hand or does it definitely always require two hands? I'm not a Mac fan, but I do enjoy that feature of their newest product line. It's a very smooth operation and really gives it a sturdy feel. Not a deal breaker, but curious.
2) Along the lines of my previous question, how well does it stay closed? I'm kind of irritated with how my HP flaps around when closed. It can't be too difficult to throw some magnets in there, right? I guess it's kind of an OCD thing with me. I like that solid feel.
3) I know you guys have the silver version (since black isn't available here yet), but how glossy do you think the black might be? I mean, would we be seeing fingerprints and smudges all over with little effort? That's certainly a benefit of the silver finish. Otherwise, I'd also be very interested in black.
Thanks guys! -
The lid stays closed and it's a nice tight fit, feels very solid when closed.
The back of screen on is brushed metal silver in color, so no fingers prints at all, if the black unit is brushed metal I would expect the same. The base is glossy silver plastic,I can't see any finger prints. If the black unit is glossy black then I would expect it to be a finger print magnet, I had a glossy black HP DV2 and it was always covered in finger prints. -
It's weird that Apple is still all alone with the easy open lid and also with a secure close with the magnets. I guess I just have to pay $500 for that. haha. But seriously, I hope other manufacturers get their act together regarding some of these minor, yet simple issues.
I was talking to a sales guy at Best Buy and he's excited about this new product line as well. He's researching one for himself. He said they're gonna be getting some new Asus' in within a few weeks but I don't want to wait (just so I can test them out) because I'd like to list my DV6500 on ebay and get the most I can out of it. It's in immaculate condition. -
I just got the new laptop today and I am on the verge of sending it back.
1. Display has BAD angles. Like the crappiest desktop TN I've ever seen. The slightest head movement will send the colors on the screen into a changing frenzy. Blue becomes black, purple becomes green and black becomes withe(ish).
Worse, even if I keep my head perfectly still, the colors on the screen edges are strange: the top is whiter, bottom darker and the far sides are inverted.
Maybe I'm picky, using HP LP2465 and Dell 2407 on desktops and with a FS P7010 as the laptop being replaced.
2. Battery is freely moving in its slot. It doesn't seem to be attached to the laptop at all. I wonder how the electricity goes through. Seriously, it makes sounds when shaking the laptop.
3. Even though I ordered the silver UL30a, I got a BLACK one. Well, this one has a glossy palm rest. It's all fingerprints now there...
4. The black version doesn't come with lighted keyboard and touchpad. I was counting on this feature, actually...
I am seriously considering sending it back and ordering instead an HP EliteBook 2530p at almost twice the price.
OK, I can live with the rest but the screen issue is killing me. This is the ONE issue I can't solve. I will sleep on it tonight and try again tomorrow and decide what to do by Monday.
What does everybody else think of their display? -
and exactly where did you read that ANY of UL models have backlighted keyboard and touchpad?
-
It was listed in specs on the site I orderd from. OK, they also listed the color as silver so... my bad, I should not trust them.
Anyway, it's not a deal-breaker though, the display is the real problem. -
The hinges feel good and solid, but like you I always get worried about them. I had an Asus A8JM and it had notoriously poor hinges. So I'm a little paranoid about laptop hinges. From what I can tell these hinges are of a different design, no play in them at all. -
You right about the screen angles, although mine does not sound as bad as yours, I can move it quite a bit before I notice any color change. Again I have seen this on my other 2 previous notebooks, and desktop LCD's too, though some are better/worse then others. No problems with the colors near the edges of the screen.
Maybe yours has a particularly poor screen. You might want to see if it change exchanged.
A note about ASUS laptops, this is my second, before this I had and A8JM. I can tell you that ASUS service and warranty repair is very good, it's one of the reasons I bought an ASUS again.
If you do have problems or they get worse in the future I'm sure ASUS will repair them and not give you a run around. -
Over all, how would you describe the construction of this product compared to similar laptops? Am I getting a better deal because it's not built as solid? I'm really not familiar with Asus laptops so these kind of questions are mostly what's on my mind right now. But I'd really like to give Asus a go. -
Don't get the wrong idea about the battery, there is zero chance of it falling out or anything like that, there are 2 locks holding it in. This is only my second experience with a laptop where the battery slides into the back (the other was the DV2) they both had some play in them. My A8JM and the MacBook have a style of battery that you sits inside an opening in the base, hard to explain, but I think you know what i'm talking about. So to me it's "normal", but there is some movement,and I don't think that's it's just my machine.
Overall the notebook feels very solid, I don't notice the keyboard flex that has been mentioned. I would put UL30A on par with the DV2 I had. Hinges are nice and snug, no flex in the body anywhere, no funny creaks and things like that.
To put in perspective, I consider myself anal when it comes to my toys. The DV2 had a slight creak in the body and I returned it for another, my iPod touch has some flex in a corner and drives me nuts. I'm happy with construction and quality. Yes I wish the battery had zero movement, but like I said before I think it's just something that comes with this battery design.
Can any else comment on the battery style, and fit ? -
Couldn't you just shove a thin piece of foam / double sided mounting tape / something similar into the battery receiver to apply some pressure and keep it from wiggling?
-
I'm curious why there are these issues with the screen. Do some people have higher standards than should be expected with such a computer? Obviously the colors will skew some when the angle changes. I'm just wondering if it's worse than the usual. Too bad there isn't just ONE demo I could experience for just 10 seconds here in my town. haha.
But I'm also on the fence about the lack of Bluetooth. Really, Asus? It's fine for now, but I'm wondering how much of an inconvenience it might be down the road. A computer decision can never be easy, can it? haha.
Oh, btw.. how's the multi-touch? -
i had the sony fw series laptop , and the battery had a worse wiggle on that laptop than this one,
the wiggle isn't to bad i can't even notice it often unless i physically do the wiggle myself -
I have no idea what you are talking about regarding the screen. Its the best screen I've used, so maybe you had a bad screen sent to you. I see no color distortion and the viewing angles aren't half bad. -
Convoluted, thanks for the tip: one of my locks was also not set (even though I remember hearing 2 clicks when placing the battery). Locking improved the wiggling a little.
For the screen - I am indeed picky. I didn't give up my CRT until I could purchase a 20" S-IPS panel and I could never work on a TN. I only use PVA or IPS, 24" or higher.
To check I'm not paranoid I devised a little experiment. In a dark room, with the notbebook in my lap, I changed the laptop's wallpaper to the color BLACK. Changing the vertical angle I only obtained an uniform screen ONLY if the agle was HIGH (and thus everything was darkened out) or LOW (and everything was whitewashed).
In the sweetspot (looking on the display at a 90 degrees angle) I see a dark band though the middle on the screen surrounded by two whitened bands on top and bottom. So the sweetspot is compromised: the top, middle and bottom of the screen have different intensities.
Moving even with a few degrees up or down will expand one of the two bands all over the screen. So the vertical angle is about... 5 degrees? But it doesn't matter when you don't have a sweetspot.
Now selecting the mountain lake background (and still in the vertical "sweetspot"), I moved my head to the left until it was exactly aligned to the display's left edge. At this moment, the tree on the RIGHT edge of the screen had the darkest colors inverted (they looked like a weird metallic gray).
Now, I may have high standards, but I would think that a MINIMAL display standard would be to show the same un-distorted colors at least with the head in an area of the size of the screen.
With my previous laptop, a Fujitsu Siemens P7010, 2 people could watch comfortably pictures and movies together with NONE of these problems. Of course, that was a $2000 notebook , and this one is a much cheaper one, which I believe is the source of the problem: my black UL30a has a really really cheap and crappy display. -
I took a serious look on the battery wiggle issue on my UL30A. And i took out my caliper and do some measurement. I finally found out the issue of the wiggle, it's the channel fits tolerance issue where the battery slides in. I have measured the "stick out" part on the laptop is 1.86mm. And the channels on my battery is measure 2.37mm. they are 0.51mm gap in between. In manufacturing stand point, that is going to be consider a "loose fit". For those of you who has the UL30A, if you wanna experience the wiggle, slide one side of the battery and you can carefully move up and down on the slot....and i am pretty sure it causes by the 0.51mm tolerance.
Update: As i have found out cause of the wiggle, i was bored just now, and figure out if i can fix the wiggle. I have cut out a strip of plastic, sand it down to the thickness i want and glue it the slot to reduce the tolerance gap. And now, my battery is solid as hell, it won't wiggle no matter how i shake it, and it won't wiggle even if i force to move the battery to wiggle. Anyway, just let u guys know. -
The Asus screen is definitely not the best but it's by no means the worst either. I can live with its minor limitations for the price I got it for. -
-
-
Discovered a nice thing in my black (and European) edition: the wireless card is Intel Wifi Link 5100 supporting 5GHz and up to 300 Mbps bandwidth.
The hardware is pretty sweet. Except the crappy display. -
Anybody applied for the Asus Win7 upgrade yet? I noticed it's limited to 32-bit edition, like the Vista that comes preinstalled.
If I get a x64 Win7 install DVD, can I use the key that comes with the update and install fresh? I think the EULA allows this.
ASUS UL30 Owner's Lounge
Discussion in 'ASUS Reviews and Owners' Lounges' started by tessina, Sep 16, 2009.