Asus U6Sg Review

I wrote this review over the past couple of months that I have owned my U6Sg. It is somewhat incomplete and is lacking benchmarks, but I don't think I will have time to really finish it, so I thought I would atleast share what I do have.

Introduction

Asus introduced to U6 series late in 2007 as a portable without compromise. Sporting a full-size Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, and a dedicated GeForce graphics card, it outperformed many of the other notebooks in its class, and at a reasonable price point. The U6Sg is the refresh of the same chassis, but with updated specs. Let's see what it has to offer:

Specifications:

Intel T8100 2.1Ghz 800FSB 3M Cache Peryn CPU
3GB DDR2 667 Mhz RAM
250GB 5400RPM SATA 8M Cache Hard Disk
nVidia GeForce 9300M G with 256MB Dedicated Memory
12.1” WXGA 1280x800 Backlit LED Display
8x Super-Multi DVDRW Optical
Windows Vista Business (32-bit)

Reasons for buying

I purchased my Asus U6Sg in May of 2008, looking for a computer to take to college that would replace my dated Acer Aspire 5672. Since I currently live in three places, I was looking for a notebook that would be small, light, and portable, but I didn't want to sacrifice any performance for size. After being thoroughly disappointed with the build quality of my Acer, I wasn't going to allow myself to buy a cheap notebook that would fall apart. After having numerous friends tell me they were very satisfied with the quality of the Asus notebooks, I looked into it and eventually discovered the U6Sg, which fit my set of requirements perfectly. In my opinion the U6Sg has one of the best size to performance ratios out of all the notebooks on the market.
When I was looking to buy my laptop, there were two other notebooks that I came across that were similar. The first was the Dell XPS M1330 and the Sony Vaio SZ. Both the Dell and the Sony had the older nVidia GeForce 8400M with only 128MB of graphics memory instead of the Asus' GeForce 9300M with 256MB of graphics memory. The Dell lacked USB ports, the Sony lacked HDMI out, and overall they simply were inferior, despite being more expensive when comparably equipped.
The final reason that I went with Asus is because of their great service and warranty. After owning multiple laptops that fell apart just outside of the warranty period, I wanted to purchase an extended warranty on my next laptop. I purchased the 3rd year warranty extension from Asus, which extended the 2 year standard warranty an extra year. Asus also offers 1 year of accidental damage coverage standard, a zero dead pixel policy, and free overnight shipping both ways if you do have a problem with your notebook.

Where and how purchased

I purchased my notebook from BTO Tech ( www.geared2play.com) because the notebook was priced at $1500, which was nearly $100 cheaper than it was anywhere else on the internet at the time, and of course their great customer service. I placed my order on a Wednesday when the notebook was out of stock and was told that it would be just a few days before they had more in stock. They received more notebooks just a couple of hours after I placed my order and shipped it out the same day, arriving on Friday just before the weekend. I was very pleased with the personal service at BTO Tech and I would recommend them to anyone.

What was in the box

Asus, in my opinion, was extremely generous with regards to what they included in the box. In addition to the laptop, they included many accessories, discs, cases, and peripherals that generally wouldn't come with a laptop. Here's what was included in the box:

Asus U6Sg-A1 Notebook
AC Adapter
Two batteries (3-cell and 6-cell)
Bluetooth Wireless Logitech Mouse
Micro-suede laptop sleeve
Targus notebook bag
Software/Driver/Recovery Discs
Screen cleaning cloth

The inclusion of the 3-cell battery in addition to the 6-cell is great, despite some performance issues (which I will talk about later). The Bluetooth mouse was adequate, nothing fancy, but it was a nice alternative to using the touchpad. Included also were two notebook cases, a micro-suede sleeve, and a small Targus notebook bag, which was big enough to fit the notebook inside of the sleeve. Various driver, software, and recovery discs were included, however no actual Vista installation disc unfortunately. The screen cleaning cloth is nice and works well on the screen, however doesn't work too well on the ultra-glossy notebook lid which I think could use it more.

Build and Design

When I unboxed my notebook, the first thing that I noticed immediately was how substantial the notebook felt while holding it. The chassis is constructed of very high quality materials and is very rigid without any flexing. The notebook lid is painted dark brown using a multi-layered process, which results in an unbelievable finish with blue flecks that shine through in the light (sure to leave fingerprints, however). The bottom of the notebook is black and constructed out of some type of metal.
Opening the latchless lid to the notebook reveals a dark brown, leather covered palm rest area. The touchpad is also a dark brown color and constructed of brushed metal with a fingerprint reader between the two mouse buttons. The keyboard is silver, which matches the silver bezel around the screen. Overall, I think that the leather is a fantastic idea. In addition to looking great (and not out of place to my surprise) it makes typing much more comfortable, especially if you are typing for an extended period of time. The brown is a great choice of color and won't show darkening very much after a couple of years of use.
The bottom of the laptop is very clean with vents everywhere to keep the notebook cool. The exhaust is on the left side of the notebook next to the power cord. The 3-cell battery has even more leather on it and sits flush with the back of the laptop. The 6-cell battery protrudes slightly, but only by a couple centimeters. The laptop is not awkward to use on one's lap with the 6-cell, though I have been told the 9-cell protrudes a significant amount more and is slightly awkward. Overall, the design is very sturdy and extremely attractive, meeting my high standards for build quality.

Screen

The 12.1” backlit LED is extremely bright and crisp and offers good horizontal viewing angles, but bad vertical viewing angles. The colors seem very good and accurate, though some might say that they are a little bit less saturated. While I agree, I don't necessarily think that this is a bad thing. The hinges of the lid feel very sturdy and do not wobble at all, however the screen does have a fair amount of flex and twist to it (though this is expected for a screen as thin as this). I was not, however, able to produce any ripples pressing on the back of the lid. The screen does not open up to a full 180 degrees, but instead closer to 135 degrees or so. Above the screen is a 1.3 mega pixel webcam with a mirror built-in. There is a pretty big bezel around the outside of the screen, which would lead one to think Asus could have fit a 13.3” screen in this notebook, but after a little while I did not notice the bezel as much. There is very minimal uneven backlighting and will never be noticed unless you are looking for it. All things considered, the screen is very good, despite a couple of minor flaws.

Speakers

To sum up the speakers in this notebook, I just need one word: awful. I shouldn't even say speakers, because there's only one speaker and it is located on the front of the notebook, slightly off center to the right. You can't blame Asus too much as this is a very small notebook, but I would have atleast enjoyed stereo speakers. The bass is non-existent and the audio is extremely tinny. On the bright side, it did go somewhat loud and there was no distortion, but if you listen to music a lot, you will definitely be investing in a good pair of earbuds or headphones if you have not already done so.

Processor and performance

As is expected for an Asus notebook, the performance is just great. The Core 2 Duo T8100 Peryn CPU is far faster than anything I will ever need and the 3GB of RAM is a must for running Windows Vista. That said, I've booted Vista maybe four or five times ever on this notebook since I dual-booted with Ubuntu Linux.

Heat and noise

For the size of this notebook, I was very impressed with how well the heat and noise were handled. The palm rests are barely warm after many hours of use and the keyboard and touchpad remain fairly cool. The fan is almost always on the lowest speed and I have to put my hand next to the exhaust to know that it is actually blowing air. The air coming out of the exhaust is generally not even very hot. In my home, which is very quiet to begin with, the laptop is near silent and can barely hear it even when sitting directly next to it.

Keyboard and touchpad

I would say that the keyboard and touchpad on this notebook are about average. The keyboard has some minor sag in some areas, more notably the top left portion of the notebook. The touchpad is made of brushed metal and is comfortable to use, however the touchpad buttons are very stiff and hard to press. Over time they will soften up a bit. On the other side of things, you have to hand it to Asus for offering a near full-size keyboard on such a small notebook, with only keys around the edge downsized slightly. I also like the fact that the Control, Function, Windows, and Alt keys are in the proper order. The biometric reader between the touchpad buttons is nice, though I don't have very much use for it.

Input and output ports

Asus did a great job of utilizing every single inch of space on this notebook. Here is a list of all the ports included on the notebook:

4x USB 2.0
1x RJ45 LAN
1x RJ11 Modem
1x Full-size Expresscard 5
1x Headphone
1x Microphone
1x VGA D-Sub
1x HDMI
1x Kensington lock
1x Card reader

Left side:

A/C Power, 3x USB 2.0, HDMI, Expresscard, and LAN switch.

Right side:

Card reader, DVDRW, Headphones, Microphone, 1x USB, Kensington lock.

Front:

Speaker.

Back:

RJ45 LAN, RJ11 Modem, and VGA D-Sub.

Overall, a very good selection of ports. One thing that I was disappointed to find was the lack of Firewire. This could be fixed with the purchase of an Firewire Expresscard, but I am still baffled by why notebook manufacturers today still include a modem port, but not Firewire. I also found it strange the Asus included an S-video cable in the box, but there are no s-video ports on the notebook!

Wireless

Asus included Intel's next-gen 4965 A/G/N wireless card with Bluetooth. I connected to a variety of home networks, including my home's Wireless-N network with no problems. Signal remained very high and I was able to transfer data over my home network quickly and easily. I haven't used the Bluetooth with anything except for the included mouse, but it seemed to work well. No complaints here.

Battery

This notebook takes a minor hit here. If you are buying this notebook expecting great battery life in line with other ultra portables, you will no doubt be disappointed. The 3-cell battery will yield about an hour or so and the 6-cell will yield about 2.5 hours or so.

3-Cell Battery Performance Issues

Over the past few weeks, a couple of reports have shown up on the forum here at NotebookReview regarding serious performance issues with the 3-cell battery. I can confirm these issues. When plugged in, the laptop performs perfectly regardless of whether the 3-cell or 6-cell battery is in use, however when the laptop is running on the 3-cell battery unplugged, the performance decreases as much as 85%. This is simply unacceptable performance, and has been confirmed in both Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Linux. I am disappointed the Asus let this notebook leave the factory with this issue, however I believe that the issue may be related to bad power management by the system BIOS/ACPI. Asus denies that there is a problem, and who knows if we will see a fix in the future for this issue, but in the meantime the 6-cell performance is perfect.

Operating system and software

This notebook came with Windows Vista Business pre-installed. The system came fairly bloated, but after an hour or so of tweaking and following some guides here on NotebookReview, I got Vista to run pretty quickly and responsively. I hadn't used Vista prior to getting this notebook, so this was largely a learning experience for me. Anyone familiar with Vista could probably be up and running much faster. Included were various Asus utilities, many of which were somewhat useless and I removed, but they also included Nero for burning discs. To be honest, I almost never use Vista as I use Ubuntu Linux as my primary operating system.
I've been using Ubuntu for a couple of years now, and I am extremely impressed by how far it has come as an operating system. I now use Ubuntu as my primary operating system and I dual booted the 64-bit version with Vista almost immediately after getting the notebook. It booted up out of the box perfectly without me having to hunt for any drivers. This is good to know for anyone who is looking to use Ubuntu with this notebook or is interested in trying it out. You won't run into any problems.

Customer support

I haven't had any encounters with customer support yet, thankfully, but from what I have been told Asus has very good customer support. If you live in the United States, notebook servicing is generally very quick and turn around times can be as little as under a week, but Asus has been known to have somewhat bad customer support outside of North America, notably in Europe. I did call Asus at one point to ask a question about my warranty and I got through to a representative immediately and he seemed fairly knowledgeable.

Conclusion

I researched this laptop very heavily before making my purchase, so there were no surprises when I got it. I am very satisfied with my purchase and I would recommend this notebook to anyone looking for a smaller, more portable notebook that does not sacrifice performance for size.

Pros:

Great specs, fast
Small and lightweight
Great build-quality
Bright, clear screen
Stays cool and quiet
Lots of ports
Good warranty

Cons:

Poor battery life
Bad speakers
3-cell performance issue
Stiff touchpad buttons
No Firewire

I hope people find this review helpful and I will try to answer any other questions people have.

 

Out of curiosity, have you got any benchmark scores? What's the video card equivalent to, also?

 

Hi, thanks for the great review. I am also cross shopping with the XPS and the SZ and may even consider the new Voodoo (but am not sure about the performance of the low voltage processor). Why did you decide against the Dell and the Sony. Don't get me wrong, I think Asus might be selling the highest quality (chasis/materials-wise) notebooks right now but my concerns are primarily a 12" vs. 13" screen and the ability to use a second hard drive in the DVD drive bay. Please share your experience with what led you to go with the U6 over the other two.

Thx.

 

I don't have any benchmarks yet, but I will look into running some soon. I decided against the Dell primarily because of the huge markup on simple little things. It was going to cost me a fortune if I wanted the backlit LED screen, dedicated video card (which only had 128MB of dedicated memory vs. 256MB on the Asus) plus a faster CPU, more memory, etc. When comparably equipped to the U6Sg I think it ran a couple hundred more. Plus, I have owned Dells in the past and have been somewhat disappointed with build quality, which may or may not be true about the XPS M1330. The SZ looked like a really good option, however a couple of issues with it made me decide against it. Primarily, it only had 2 USB ports, no HDMI, and the smaller expresscard, which was a major disadvantage for me because I plan on getting a sound card for this eventually. It was also expensive in general. I think that you will find the difference between the 12" and 13" screen is minimal and you will get used to the screen size very quickly. It is extremely sharp and easy to read.

 

Thanks for the quick review. Unless there is a review up in the main directory, this will go to the Info Booth as soon as I have time to edit it

 

Cool, thanks, glad it was helpful!

 

Have you noticed any screen flicker when you hook up an external monitor? I want to see if my case is an exception. I sent mine back today because of huge flicker issues and nasty sounds when the DVD Unit would close. Oh, after 6 days of usage .

 

Added to info booth, thanks.