Dspr_02's Asus UL80VT-A2 Review

Dspr_02's Asus UL80VT-A2 Review​

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Receiving

I ordered my Asus UL80VT-A2 from a private resale company by the name of Supercom, located here in Richmond, BC, Canada. It was available for pickup within the day.



The laptop came in a simple looking box, not trying to desperately grab your attention.

The laptop came with all that was expected. The laptop, the brick, the battery, software DVD's and some papers/manuals.

Inside Box

Inside the laptop's box was the UL80VT-A2, the 8 (eight) Cell battery and the software/manuals. The laptop came inside a thin foam bag with a foam insert between the screen and the keyboard.

The laptop came with more than an adequate amount of protective film covering almost ever square inch of it. A bit of a pain to peel off but...it had a purpose.

Software/Bloatware

I noticed that it booted fast and got past the bios screen quickly. Windows 7 Home Premium was not "fully installed" when I got it. I mean that I got it and spent 1 hr waiting at a screen saying "setting up windows / distributing applications". Not a nice thing to be faced with when you want to just go and get at it.

I spent a good hour uninstalling all the Asus/Microsoft bloat ware. Some of the things included were:

Random Games
Microsoft Office 2007 Student 60Day Trial
Cyberlink Power DVD
A bunch of Asus apps that are not needed/unnecessary to run windows and get 100% out of this laptop

I live the by the idea that "no bloatware is good bloatware" and as such, I hate having it on my computer. The UL80VT-A2 had more bloatware than my old G50VT-X5 (sadly sold ), uninstalling office 2007 took about 50 minutes which did not amuse me.

Specs

Intel Core2Duo U7300 @ 1.3GHz, 1.73GHz with Turbo33 (the OC utility) 1066MHz 3MB L2 Cache
2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz SODIMM
1x320GB Seagate 320GB SATA2 5400.00 RPM HDD
14" WXGA Color-Shine (Glare-type) 720p @ 1366x768
Windows 7Home Premium 64bit + CoA
Dual Layer DVD±RW with LightScribe
NVIDIA GeForce G210M 512MB GDDR3 Dedicated and Intel GMA4500HD Integrated
Atheros AR9285 WiFi N and Atheros AR8131 LAN 10/100/1GB LAN
86 Key "Chiclet" style keyboard
Elan Touchpad
8 Cell Battery


Looks/Weight

I absolutely love this laptop's looks and weigh. It is ~ 1" thick at its thickest point, and at most it is 4.4 lbs. Unlike my G50VT-X5, I can actually pick this laptop up and hold it using three fingers.

The lid has a brushed aluminum finish, the inside screen bezel is black, the keys are black and the inside of the laptop (palm rests and chasis) has a nice, light chain-link pattern that is white on silver, it can only really be seen from close up.

The inner bezel around the LCD screen is nice and thin, much, much thinner than the bezel on the G50VT-X5 (I know, I'm comparing them like crazy...).

Ports

Left - DC In, Vent, VGA, HDMI, 2x USB, Mic, Headphones


Right - Lan, USB, Multi-Card Reader, DVD


Front - Indicator lights - there's only 4 of them : Power, Battery Charging, HDD and WiFi, Speakers - one on left side and one on the right side


Back - Battery



Screen/Brightness/Color/Contrast/Viewing Angles

Screen Front



Screen Right



Screen Left



Screen Bottom



Screen Top



Features

- Asus Overclocking Utility



- Asus GraphixBoost Technology




Keyboard and Touch-pad

The keyboard on this laptop is nice and easy to press on, responsive and well spaced. The keyboard is silent and does not rattle or move around much.

I did NOT notice flex in the keyboard when applying moderate pressure to the keyboard in the corners and the center of the keyboard. The touch-pad has a dimpled texture that is flush with the palm-rests, this is a problem when you first start using this laptop because you will repeatedly drag your finger off of your touch-pad.

The touch-pad is not Synaptics as I would have hoped, nor is it Alps (THANK GOD), it is Elan. Elan's user control panel appears to be a quick-made knock-off of Synaptics' touch-pad control center, but with fewer options.

The touch-pad is also a multi-touch touch-pad and it also has one button that stretches the length of the touch-pad and it clicks on the right (right click) and on the left (left click) side.


Other

The camera is a 0.3MP camera and seems to have relatively low resolution and a grainy image. The flash is just the screen turning white at full brightness when the camera takes the picture.


The fan is this laptop is not really loud, but it is definateley noticeable. In a silent room people will hear your laptop going. The DVD drive is near silent when playing a DVD and could not be heard while benchmarking the battery life with Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers. And this was in a silent room, with the sound going through headphones which were on the table.

Problems

The squeaky chassis of this laptop is a little bit irritating and I am tempted to take it back and trade it for a 13.3" UL30VT-X2

The touch-pad is really hard to use, and has no continuous scrolling.


Initial Impression

Upon receiving the laptop it looked like someone got a 5 year old to put all sorts of stickers on it, stickers for Battery Life, Warranty, Software, Overclocking etc.... The laptop came with 46% battery charge and this lasted me about 4 hours! It runs very well and very fast, even will all the crapware. I am glad qthat I purchased this laptop.

1 Week Use Impressions

Not quite a week yet, but I am still lovin' it!

Gaming Performance

Call Of Duty 4





Counter Strike Source





Steady 48 FPS on all maps with 32/32 and 44/44 players.

Half Life 2







Half Life 2 EP 1





Half Life 2 EP 2





Half Life 2 Lost Coast






Portal






Team Fortress 2





Maxed out with no AA, and 8x AF I get up to 48 fps with an average of 32.5 FPS. low of 30.

Battery and Battery Life

Charging Time

To charge from 1% to 100% on my 8 cell battery while using the notebook for regular web browsing and some gaming it took 1 hour 20 minutes.

Full Out Gaming
2

Full Out Gaming OVERCLOCKED to MAX

Playing TeamFortress 2 on TurboExtreme, with WiFi, full brightness and all power eating options enabled. This 9 cell battery lasted me exactly 1 hour and 9 minutes. - I was also using a Wireless USB mouse.

Normal Browsing - Regular Use


Minimal Use - No WiFi - Screen 3rd Lowest Brightness - Word pad open in Background


Windows 7



DVD Movie off of DVD


Movie off of HDD



Benchmarks

3D Mark06







3D Mark Vantage


wPrime32

Stock -



Turbo -


TurboExtreme -



SuperPI

Normal CPU Setting :

Turbo CPU Setting :

TurboExtreme CPU Setting :



Operating System Performance and W.E.I.

Windows 7 Pro X64


Windows System Information



Windows Experience Index



Final Thoughts

I am glad that I purchased this notebook over any other, though I honestly do not see this laptop lasting me more than 6 months. I foresee myself selling this laptop soon and getting the Alienware M11X.

I do however recommend this laptop to any student who spends hours on campus since this baby will handle all your work, some medium-high gaming and still last you between 4 - 12 hrs on a single charge, depending on what you do.