Asus UL20A Owners Lounge

i'm quite surprised there's no official owners lounge for this notebook yet, so i guess i'll start one and share any tweaks or experiences i have with it so far. first of all, let's get the basics out of the way. here are a few pics and specs:



specs:

• processor: Intel Core2 Duo SU7300 (1.3ghz)
• Display: 12.1" HD LED-backlit Widescreen (1366 x 768)
• Graphics: Intel GMA X4500MHD
• Memory: 1x2gb DDR2 800mhz
• Storage: Hitachi 250gb 5,400rpm
• Wireless: Intel Wi-Fi Link 1000 802.11 b/g/n
• LAN: Atheros AR8132 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
• Camera/Mic: 0.3 Megapixel, Digital Array Microphones
• Speakers: Altec Lansing Hi-Definition SRS Premium Stereo
• Card Reader: 8-in-1 card reader: MMC, SD/SDHC, Mini-SD, MS, MS-Pro, MS-Duo, MS Pro-Duo, XD
• Input/Output: 1 x Mic-in, 1 x audio-out (S/PDIF), 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x RJ45 LAN, VGA
• Keyboard: 18.33mm with MS Windows function keys
• Battery: 6-cell 4400mAh lithium-ion
• Power Adapter: 100~240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
• Dimensions: 11.8" x 8.4" x 1.0"
• Weight: 3.3lbs (with battery)
• OS: Windows7 Home Premium 64bit

Key Features

• All-day computing with up to 7.5 hours of battery life
• Exceptionally compact and light, just over 1-inch thin, and less than 3.3lbs
• Chiclet style keyboard and multi-touch trackpad for comfortable and intuitive use
• Integrated webcam for connecting with your friends and family
• Altec Lansing speakers enhanced with SRS Premium Sound for home theater quality acoustics
• ASUS IceCool Technology provides a cool-to-the-touch palm rest
• Express Gate, enables ultra-fast booting so you can connect to the web in just 10 seconds
• ASUS SmartLogon—facial recognition system detects your face and logs on automatically
• ASUS 360: 1 year global warranty and ASUS ADW: 1 year accidental damage warranty*

looking past the basic specs, now here are my personal experiences and little tid-bits that are good to know:

1) there are probably 2 versions of this, and i've had both of them at one point. one of them have a smoother brushed aluminum lid with a slightly loose keyboard cover, and the other has a more defined brushed aluminum lid and loose keyboard cover was fixed.

2) the sticker on the battery says it's 4400mAh, but HWmonitor says it has 4730mAh (which is a good thing)

3) i get a little more than 6 hours of battery on normal use: screen half bright, wifi and sound enabled, surfing the web the whole time with very little youtube usage, installed SSD.

4) overclocks option in the bios, changed 200mhz fsb to 210fsb results in CPU clock at 1365mhz

5) specs list as LED backlit, but on the bottom, there is a sticker that says " Hg: The lamp in this display contains Mercury. Recycle or dispose to local, state and federal law". not sure what to make of this

6) the clock generator is ICS9LR3362CGLF, and the display part number is HSD121PHW1.​

overall, this is a very well built notebook. it feels more solid and aesthetically looks nicer than its competition, mainly the Acer 1410/1810t. i'm still in the process of trying to undervolt and overclock, but this will take some work and a lot of help. i'll post pictures of the insides soon.

 

People have been posting in this thread.

 

just bought one of these today as a secondary laptop for uni. Let me know what your undervolt levels are (+rep). I just hope mine gets to my house in time before i have to go back!

 

just got my baby today, the last day possible before i wouldve had to wait a month before getting it. It seems to be pretty good so far, pretty high quality build and i havent noticed any physical flaws.

A couple things ive had problems with so far is that RMclock does not seem to work (i think this is a windows 7 problem though) and also the laptop stops charging at 98% and says plugged in, not charging. not sure why this is.

THe battery life seems to be good, with wifi on and in power saver mode it said estimated 7 hours 47 min with 97% battery life.

 

mrbee33, i wouldn't use the default windows battery estimator. my experience is that it always estimates more than what you'll actually get. i'm using BatteryBar, which shows you more detailed info and a more accurate reading.

RMclock somewhat worked for me. it can't do half multipliers, so you 6.5 x 200mhz will be lowered to 6.0 x 200mhz. also, the lowest you'll be able to go is 0.90v undervolt in RMclock. without RM clock, you should be 0.875v at idle and 1.013v at load. since you'll spend most of your time in idle, i'd just stick with the default speedstep option. you'll also get that extra half multiplier using default speedstep.

so you have no problem with a loose keyboard cover near the top middle keys?

 

thanks for the info. I guess its not worth the undervolt. No i didnt have the keyboard issue, it is rock solid actually. Thats the first thing i did when i got it and it is very sturdy. Hows your battery life with the power4gear saver or w/e (the best battery saver setting)?

 

Have been using the UL20A along with a Kingston 128GB SSD for around two weeks now, including a week on the road/in the air. It has already demonstrated its worth to me, cramped up on an economy-class fold out tray. Performance is adequate for what I need it for, mostly productivity work, and even stretches its legs a bit with some Photoshop dabbling. Battery life also seems good, with normal discharge rates around 7-8W when browsing the internet.

Largest complaint would be that the spacebar squeaks. Frustrating, but can't whine too much for a $599CAD notebook.

 

So happy with my UL20A. I'm a nerdy college student who spends lots of time on on his computer and I needed a new laptop. I wanted something portable but not as weak as my eeepc 900 was. This laptop does wonderfully.

I've done some light gaming on it, age of empires 3, audiosurf etc. nothing too heavy and its done great.

I keep lots of programs open, Chrome, Steam, Pidgin, Itunes and it never bats an eye.

I like it.

 

Thanks for starting the owners' lounge!
I have added it to the Info Booth and to the Reviews and Owners' Lounges Index.

E.B.E.

 

Where did you find it for 599? I've only see 630 online...
I really want one, but apparently I can't seem to afford one

 

i got mine for $579 during boxing week!

 

if you're willing to hunt a little, i got mine for $435 shipped bran new

 

don't come here to brag unless you share

 

hey don't get all grouchy, didn't mean to come off that way.

$545 with a $109 (20%) instant Bing CashBack, no tax and free shipping comes out to $436 out the door. not too sure why i didn't have to wait 60 days to get the bing cashback, but it was just instant.





if you buy it right now from that same guy, it's $570 with 8% cashback, still comes out to $524 shipped, which is still a decent price

 

i saved you guys the curiosity of opening up your notebooks. internal pics were just added. took me a while to get in there. can anyone help identify the voltage regs?

 

That's alright, didn't mean to make it sound that mean... text doesn't really have any emotion in it. You got a really good deal! Too bad Canada doesn't have the bing cashback stuff =(

 

They're in this picture http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...A/internals/?action=view&current=P1010457.jpg

Bottom left is the main power supply, then there's more power stuff nearer to the CPU. One of those ICs will be the power controller.

 

delete delete delete

 

Anyone know if there is a new model coming with say i3 or even i7 ultra-mobile chips?

 

This link http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=pS8jNzTab4WZZGjY

to the manufacturer's website indicates built-in bluetooth is optional. From the comments on amazon.com, it seems like it's not shipped with bluetooth in the US. From googling, it seems the japanese and new zealand versions have bluetooth. I'm in the us. Any idea on how to get the built-in bluetooth option in the US?

 

i doubt seeing those in this model as it is an ultra low voltage/high battery life model and either of those products would significantly reduce the battery life.

 

no it won't. the new i7 chips may consume even less power than the SU7300 and 4500MHD, as the graphics is now on the same chip.

 

I would expect the UL20 to get Arrandale pretty soon. Intel has begun production on the ulv Arrandale's this month, and since the 13" UL's are getting it, the 20 should be getting it soon too.

 

really? do you have any links on this i can read more on? i'm hoping price point would be around the same.

has anyone wiped out the stock HD and did a clean install? i can't seem to get the express gate to work. any ideas on how to install drivers and/or software for the express gate booting into linux?

 

Can the UL20 use DDR3 memory like the UL30 does?

 

as of now, no. maybe the will refresh the model with ddr3 and i5/i3 ULV

i still can't get the express gate to work after a fresh install

 

Any news of when the new ul20 model will show up? And what it may have in it?

 

Anybody know if you can use DDR3 RAM 1066 MHz; like they use on the all the other UL series (UL30, UL80) with the same processors. It would be faster and use less power.

 

No, Asus chose DDR2 for this, so you are stuck with it.

 

Any sign of a new iCore UL20? I see were Dell has most all their laptop now with iCores, what's taking so long for Asus? I can't decide if I should buy or wait or will a new UL20 be coming out soon.

 

Found out my answer here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=465353
Looks like no iCore for the UL20 and only a very minor upgrade on the ram from DDR2 to DDR3, maybe a black version for the U.S.. Was hoping for a little more like HDMI and Bluetooth, not that I really need them but a lot of people seem to want those options.

 

Speaking of RAM, I have a 2gb DDR2 200 pin 5300 i ordered for another laptop not being used. Would adding slower RAM DDR2-5300 be advantageous even though it's a little slower than the stock DDR2-6400 ram? I know it's only $40 to buy a new 2gb stick but hey, $40 bucks is $40 bucks.. thanks for any opinions.

 

Does anybody know if the UL20 can play iTunes movies? I had bought a ASUS 1005PE to use until I could decide what I wanted but it could not play any of my iTunes movies so I'm returning it. Also I see the UL20AT popping up on sites does that means it's ready to release? I may just get that if it's coming out real real soon if it plays my movies. Anybody heard of a release date?

 

What kind of SSD should I get to put inside it? I'm looking for Intel X-25 80Gb G2, the question is - they are in 7 mm and 9.5 mm thick versions.

 

Do you have picture of the internal Bluetooth connector. I would like to add Bluetooth. thanks.

 

Yes, itunes can be played on the UL20 series laptops. Not sure about the release date for the UL20AT though.

The UL series uses 9.5mm SATA hard drives.

 

for these kinds of notebooks, memory speed is negligible to overall performance, even when going from ddr2 to ddr3. 800mhz ddr2 down to 666mhz ddr2 has no difference.

 

Where's the best/cheapest place to get one of these in the UK?
Any voucher codes available?
Is anywhere selling them in black?

 

Hi, does anyone know tips for slowing down cooler or undervolting mods for subj?

 

Using SetFSB could downclock your CPU and help reduce heat.

 

So I received my UL20 yesterday, here my toughts

Love the metal casing
very light


I upgraded from 2 to 4 gig of ram and I had a 7200.4 seagate momentum taking dust that I plugged in.

Had bit of problem for installing win7 from usb, but made it trought.


Performance wise,
I found firefox was a bit sluggish(compared to my normal laptop),
However google chrome is as fast as my normal pc.
Installing apps seemed normal.
Deleting Asus crappy software from the uninstall list was slow and it was sometimes hanging there



I will test photoshop tonight with some big files, see where it stand

 

Further confirmation that this video is true to its word :

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And congrats on your new laptop

 

Thank you! Started to investigate how to do this on linux http://forum.notebookreview.com/linux-compatibility-software/430230-softfsb-ocing-4-linux-dev-4.html#post6305684

 

has anyone did a clean win7 install and tried to get the express gate to work? i can't seem to install the express gate drivers after doing a fresh install.

 

Is it enabled in your BIOS?

 

Haha I like that!

 

sorry to bring up a dead post but i just got a new ul20a and noticed an abnormally large creaking noise. i found that the keyboard was really flimsy near the top likenear the F keys. It especially makes a loud clicky noise as i press the F6 button as if the top part of the keyboard hasnt been properly attached to the base of the laptop. Keys like F1 and F12 on either side of the centre are fine though. Is this typical of this laptop or is a exchange warranted?
Heres what i'm talking about
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf-MaXqtS2U

 

anyone able to recommend a sleeve case for this laptop?

I also have a UL30a and I use a 12" sleeve for that one... so for the UL20A I should be looking at 11" sleeves perhaps?

 

I've just checked your video. Mine doesn't make clicky noise like that.

I think you should ask for an exchange.