ASUS UL30 Owner's Lounge

The UL30As are very capable.....
Read THIS review.

 

waiting delivery of x5 from amazon.

 

Threw this up in the other Asus UL30a thread so apologize for the double posting but I run a pretty popular blog on wireless and my computer needs are dire. I see the post two above on about this being a pretty quick laptop but I want to ensure I'm getting something I can use.

Hopefully going to receive a quick response on this. My decision to purchase a computer has been hampered by indecision and I'm hoping to make a final decision.

I want to love UL30a but I have some concerns about just how much multitasking this thing can handle without a slow down. I'm prone when I'm working on schoolwork to have multiple browsers open, multiple windows of excel, word or both. In some cases itunes running the background for some musical enjoyment and for the most part, my dell xpsm1330 handles this with ease. Can I look forward to similar ease of use on this machine or will the culv processor want to do a little less work?!

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

I wish I could help you out Jediistar however I don't have my UL30 yet as it is still in shipment.
That reviewer in that review I posted a link to above put it like this....>>>

 

So at the end of the day I doubt the UL30 is a desktop replacement for heavier PC users but I bet it would make a fine desktop replacement for most users.

I will post again after I get mine and run it thru a series of tests so if you can wait a week or so I will be able to tell you what the UL30 is capable of doing.

 

do you guys know if there is a keyboard cover that will fit the ul30a?

 

My X5 arrived today. A few quick notes:

1. The all black looks slick. I'm not sure I care a whole lot that it's a finger print maganet, because I still prefer black!

2. Yes, the screen doesn't have great viewing angles, but it does look good.

3. There's some flex to the keyboard but it doesn't bother me at all. It's never been an issue for me.

4. Feels great! It feels durable but also very light.

5. Windows was up and running in less than 10 mins after initial boot up. Working great so far.

6. Wifi is picking up full bars, whereas my other laptop (been using for about 2.5 years) almost always shows 4 bars (out of 5). And I've generally had great connection with my laptop. Now, the router IS in the same room. But I'm mostly just making a comparison to my old laptop, which has been great for me in the wifi department. I'd regularly pick up my neighbors network and stay connected.

7. The hinge definitely feels better than my old laptop (HP). It doesn't have the slop to it.

I'll report more later

 

I pulled the sticker off because it's stuck on the screen cover, but here it is:

 

Wouldn't 10+ hours be the longest battery life out of any laptop in existence today , netbooks not included ?

 

I have the UL30A-A2 connected to a 24" Dell monitor (1920x1200). Full-screen video playback was smooth for 1080i/720p MPEG-2 TS, and 720/1080 WMV & Divx. 1080p mkv played smoothly except in full-screen mode.

Laptop is connected to monitor via HDMI cable and HDMI/DVI adapter.

 

I don't notice any hinge spacing, although the battery does wiggle a little bit. Nothing too bad though.

Hmm ... no squeaks or crazy noises at all. Strange.

 

Well, Mycanid got 13 hours out of the UL30A-A2. Nonetheless, it does seem to be a record holder, currently.

It's funny how I'm getting longer battery life with continuous usage from my laptop than I am from my cellphone (iPhone 3GS 32GB).

 

I was able to squeak even a little more battery life out of the creature by turning the max cpu usage to 5% ... almost able to get 14 hours - not quite though. This is of little use for anything except word processing though.... This and reverting to 16 bit color seem to be the main things that help extend the battery life beyond it's max advertised level.

The Power4Gear software also has a "desktop power saving mode" which basically turns your screen bright white ... it is disgusting to look at imo, but perhaps it could also squeak a little more life out of the creature?

 

Hey , has anyone here replaced their Ul30s HDD with a solid state drive ?

Id like to know which SSDs are best and which ones fit in the UL30. I am assuming there are laptop sized SSDs.

thanks

 

For the record, I had a Sony TX770 (produced in 2007 or so) and with an extended battery I was able to get almost 14 hours of battery life out of it. So 10+ hours is by no means the best out there!

 

thanks i can confirm that mine says 10+ hours too. however, i have been unable to push my x5 passed 10 hours, even on battery saving mode, wifi off, lowest brightness.

 

how many hours does your X5 go?

 

as mentioned, battery saving mode, wifi off, lowest brightness gets me exactly 10 hours. i was really hoping for the advertised 12.5 hrs.

 

So what happens when the 1080p mkv is played in full screen mode on your laptop? Constant stutter? Lag?

 

Use DXVA for GPU acceleration for MKVs

 

How would you rate the screen? some report of very bad viewing angles

 

Typical laptop, in my opinion. Tipping it down gives me the only problems and I never have a need to do that.. Horizontal viewing angles are fine. The screen looks great viewing at good angles though.

 

All LCD screens have a viewing angle problem to some degree.

 

All TN panels, yeah. However, IPS, PVA panels, are rare in notebooks, mainly due to cost. In terms of parts cost, the LCD is second only to the motherboard in production cost.

 

Couple other pluses I should mention about the UL30A-A2:

It DOES have the overclocking feature in the BIOS, although I have not actually tried it, and have no intention of doing so.

Also - it has the Express Gate feature which does in fact load in 7-8 seconds. Very handy for certain situations!

Also, it is warrantied for 2 years.

 

There is a very slight lag in some scenes in full screen mode.

I am really enjoying the 2-finger scrolling on this laptop.

 

Thanks ^^ Mycanid and dcc. I am sure looking forward to trying mu UL30A-A2 out , it will be here Friday.

 

got my X5 today. repartitioned now fresh installing win7. what drivers/apps are essential to load?

 

well im officially bummed out. anyone know what i should do? request amazon send me a 3rd replacement? i kind've feel bad.
amazon sent me a replacement notebook and i received it today. so right now i have 2 X5's side by side. i opened up the second one and on boot up there was no crazy noise like the first one...but there's a dead pixel right in the center.

for some reason my first x5 suffered from some crazy noises when lifted up but the crackling noise is gone now. (dont know how it dissapeared) . when i shut the lid sometimes and go into hibernate i get a blue screen ocassionally. turning it over or turning it at any angle makes weird noises at the bottom.

comparing 2 X5's side by side, the hard drive does make indeed make constant noises on both of them though very little and bearable.
my first notebook was suffering from crackling noises in addition to the hard drive noise that are nonexistant on the second X5.

the second one would be a keeper except there is a red stuck pixel smack in the middle. i've tried pixel fixing problems but it's still not working.

 

3rd replacement already? Wow, I just hope my 1st replacement will work out. Otherwise, I'm going to look somewhere else for a laptop.

 

Anyone know where I can get a decent external cd/dvd drive for the UL30? And does BIOS detect the drive as a cd drive even though it's hooked up via usb?

 

The BIOS does detect the drive, you can boot from it and all that.

I bought this one:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=41503&vpn=SE-S084C/RSBN&manufacture=Samsung

 

Thanks for the suggestion Now I'm just wondering if it needs 2 usb ports to power up the drive... hehe

 

Had my UL30a (with Vista) for a couple of weeks now, and was wondering how do I switch off the wifi as there is no phyisical switch like my other laptop.

I'll be flying shortly on a long haul trip and will need the wifi off. I tried to disable the driver, and, well, that works, but is the wifi fully off? Naturally I also wish to save the battery power during the flight.

Any other tips for saving battery? It's a long flight and I wish to watch quite a few movies/TV shows to kill time. I can lower the brightness of cause. Is the PowerGate setting for long battery life the best option?

Thanks in advance

 

Hi all, do you guys have any information about adding a bluetooth and 3G module in this laptop ?

 

Try pressing the function key(FN) and F2 at the same time.

You can always go to your network settings and right click the wireless device, and click on disable.

 

To shut off wireless... Windows + X, Turn Wireless Off.

 

Nope I use just one.

 

weak(er) wifi signal?

I think i found the reason why ul30 wifi is weaker. open up the hdd bay door, you can see the wifi card. there are two antenna connectors but only 1 being used. asus cheaped out on using them both. so I dont' think using newer drivers will be a fix.

 

Seems like ive heard something about UL30s not having enough voltage on the USBs to run some external CD/DVD players/writers. Is this true? Anyone?

 

Yes indeed - I know I mentioned it at least.

So if the Samsung mentioned above works then definitely add it to the list of those that work!

The full model number the above posted claimed to work is: Samsung SE-S084C/RSBN 8X External Slimline DVD Writer USB2.0

 

So it does work on just one USB right? Please confirm if you have used it a number of times and have had no problems with it. Thanks

 

Newegg has a bunch of Samsungs, I know some are different colors but there must be some other difference between them. Id like to find a tech support number at Samsung and ask what the differences are.

SE-S084C/RSRN
SE-S084C/RSWN
SE-S084B/RSWN
SE-T084M/RSB
SE-S084C/RSLN
SE-S084C/RSBN
SE-T084M/RSWD

 

if the wifi is that easily accessible, can it be switched out with a different wifi card?

btw, is it me or is the black ul30a-x5 available on amazon for $699.99 shipped?

 

How weak is it ? I mean u bad signals if there is 10 meter length and 1 concrete wall in the middle ?

 

it was 679 2 days ago

 

The manual indicates the 3G sim slot sits above the card slot. It doesn't seem like it will be as easy to add a 3G card compared to the Acer 3810.

Sim slot is indicated by the number 2:

 

Anyone try putting a newer Intel wifi card in there?

 

How weak is it ? I mean u bad signals if there is 10 meter length and 1 concrete wall in the middle ?

Also, the touchpad, does it work like a normal touchpad where you can "tap" on it with your finger to click ? instead of using the mousebutton beneath the touchpad

 

I would like to know this too... ebay shows these at around 30ish.. seems like a worthy upgrade?