* OFFICIAL UL80VT and UL50VT / VS Owner's Lounge *

This section is for the UL80VT and soon to be released UL30VT
I suppose we can let the ul50vt guys hang out also


Here is the basics on the UL80vt and UL30vt- This is the synopsis of this entire owners lounge, and my own personal experience as well. Use this data to decide if you want this laptop.



Pros:

Has great battery life (12+ hours)

Hybrid graphics with mid-tier dedicated video card

Its cheap ( ~820$ )




Cons:

Touchpad is horrible and hard to click

Screen is the worst quality you can possibly get. Its really that bad- Likely the worst screen I have ever had/seen in a laptop.

Processor can overclock but is still Relatively weak even in "turbo" mode. Certainly not enough power for a full size laptop.

No backlit keyboard

No bluetooth

Definitely not a "thin and light" - This laptop is as thick and heavy as my 3 year old presario v2000.

Very poor build quality. The plastic feels like crap and flexes and creaks all over the keyboard and screen. Its miles behind the Acer timelines and macbooks in this department. Truely feels cheap.

'Sharp' edges on front of the laptop.

DVD/CD button is nearly impossible to press

 

My first order of business is attempting to install a U80 backlit keyboard into th UL and of course looking at bluetooth

 

does asus install the backlit keyboard for you??

 

lol, no. You need to do it yourself and its a DIY mod, not supported by them (and likely voids your warranty)

 

That would be cool if it really works ;]

 

I plan on buying on buying the UL80VT-A1 on Monday.

*saves spot for myself*

 

Can someone please explain to me the appeal of a backlit keyboard? It seems like it would drain the battery. Also, if visibility is the reason then I still don't get it, I thought you aren't supposed to look at the keyboard when you type so that you notice when you make a typo.

I've noticed people complaining about the lack of a backlit keyboard whenever this laptop is discussed and I've been confused why anyone would really need or even want it. I'd really like to hear some reasoning for this feature.

 

Unfortunately, not everyone is a touch-typist and a backlit keyboard is particularly useful when using the laptop in the dark.

 

your saying alienware laptop light up keyboard isnt cool?

 

Moving this to the correct forum.


As for the backlit keyboard, while it does drain battery, it does help in low light situations. That and it looks uber cool

Though I don't know if the UL80 has the same keyboard connection ports that the U80 has, if not, might need to mod a power supply for it.

 

Its definitely going to not be a plug and play situation.

There are 2 connections on the keyboard- Power and Data. I expect the data to be the same on both,but I think the UL80 wont have the power hookup at all, which means the keys on the KB to turn on/off the backlighting wont work.

To get around this, I plan on running a wire down to the bluetooth usb +5v and that way the act of turning on the bluetooth will actually turn on the backlighting.

 

Is the UL bluetooth ready but only missing a module?

 

I have an ASUS UL80-Vt-A1 coming for review Monday, can't wait to check it out.

 

I'm certain you need the adapter. Their website says Bluetooth is optional.

 

So like, the antenna is already there, just missing a pci-e card?

 

the antenna isnt there either. Just the button + motherboard is ready to power it on, should you attach it.

 

Awesome. I can't wait for the review.

 

Sounds cool! Can you tell us whether this one comes with the 4400mAh or 5600mAh battery when you get it? Thanks!

 

Awesome. Loved your review on the dv5t back in the day when I purchased that notebook. Will this be an official review posted on the main site?

I ordered one today, and the specs on xoticpc.com stated that it is a 5600 mAh 8-cell battery.

Also, check this out this review that was recently posted in another thread: http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3665&p=6

You should definitely add this link to the first post of this thread for new comers who want a list of quick links.

 

You can see the battery on the AnAndtech review, it's 5600.

 

According to the spec sheet it's the 5600mAh 8-cell as other people have confirmed in this thread.

Yes, this will be an official NBR review. Should be posted within the next week.

I'll post up some initial impressions when it arrives tomorrow.

 

With the way the 49ers are playing, I am gonna take a lot of crap this week so your review is all I have to look forward to, no pressure.

Man, I need a new girlfriend

 

Not much, but here are some teazers to hold you off until a real review comes out.

I did have my initial order through Amazon but i ended up switching to CompuSource for some reason. I'm glad i switched over...for obvious reasons.

+ I havent really paid much attention to battery life over the past few days but i might have to assume ASUS found the fountain of youth for batteries. It just won't die.
+ I love everything on it. The keyboard is awesome, love the chiclet style.
+ I love the color, the black on black is beautiful.
+ The touchpad is great, i have a eee 1005 and it has the exact same touchpad feel so i'm use to the texture and feel. This touchpad seems to be alittle more responsive though. The two finger swipes and three finger are where i notice the most improvement. This could be because of the different driver/software. Elan Smart-Pad.
- If i had to say something negative about the computer there is one thing i can comment on. The screen will blink randomly for a half second every so often when its running on the integrated graphic (4500mhd). It usually happens a couple of times after the first hour or so after switching from dedicated. It goes away after a while. Nothing a simple driver update can't fix im sure. That's the best i can come up with on the negatives, im sorry. This thing is near perfect.

 

Something that I've been wondering about is: how much performance improvement do you think we're looking at by overclocking the gpu? I'm assuming the laptop runs very cool already, so it would probably be pretty friendly to overclocking. I wonder if you could get the 3Dmark06 score over 4500? That would be really impressive.

 

Was that at 1280x1024? I just don'y get why the G210M is as powerfull as the DDR2 8600M GT.

CPU can OCed to 2.13? That's pretty neat

 

The 3dmark06 scores I believe for all of them were at 1280x768/800. It's as powerful because the 8600 GT DDR2 128MB just wasn't that great of a card and it only had 128 MB of memory (depending on the model...), and it's an older card, while the 210M is a newer card and is based on the new 40 nm technology. But keep in mind, that the 8600 GT is also better than the 210M with just stock clocks. I was just imagining what might be possible.

 

After going back and forth between the ul30a and the ul80vt, I settled on the ul80vt. Just ordered it on Amazon...hopefully they get a shipment in tomorrow

 

It' 512MB DDR2, not 128.

The G210 still only has half the shaders

It's just that I was expecting the G210 to perform similarly to the 8400M GT

 

iirc, the maximum overclock for this proc is 2.13ghz- Thats taking advantage of the bios overclocking + the turbo33

 

The 3DMark06 score of 3900 I was quoting was for a 128MB 8600 GT on the old Macbook Pro series line. I owned one.

 

Looks like the UL30VT is going to happen as well according to a amazon thread. Im still glad I got the 80vt though- Only .8 bigger, and we get a dvd drive

 

Do we have any idea of when that would be released?

 

How is the sound quality and volume of the UL80VT?
Also, what about the screen? Is it also up to the expectations?

 

The girl sitting behind me in the library as a U50. This thing is so ing sexy with the backlit keyboard (the laptop)

 

Thanks for clarifying. I thought you meant that the girl had a backlit keyboard.

 

He's speaking metaphor... What He's trying to say is that the girl's face is sexy like a back-lit keyboard. Get it right, man. Geezz...

jk lol

 

I just received the UL80Vt-A1.

Looks nice and it's thin. The aluminum lid is very nice.

The keyboard is exhibiting *some* rattling on the left side. All of the ASUS notebooks I have seen with chicklet keyboards - G51, K60, U50 - have a rattle issue. Very disappointing.

Screen seems to be about average; the brightness is fine, the contrast could use a boost.

 

I started a thread about putting a backlit keyboard in the UL

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428960

 

Rattling keyboard? You mean just as you are typing it's rattling? Or if you tap on the left palm rest it rattles?

Also, do you know when you guys will be posting a review of the dm3z/t on the main site?

 

While typing . . . do you know if anyone else has experienced this?

 

Hi All,

I'm about to pull the trigger on the UL80Vt-A1 but the only thing that's holding me back is the verification if Intel VT-d is enabled in the BIOS/machine or not. Can anyone confirm for me? Thanks!

Cheers,
Kermee

 

What do you need VT-d for? Xen? As for XP mode, I think all you need is VT-x.

 

I haven't heard of anyone else complaining. How bad is the rattling? Can you feel it through your fingers as well as hear it?

 

LOL! That's what I meant... VT-x...

Been playing too much with Xen and TV/DVB cards lately

Cheers,
Kermee

 

About the G210M, is it possible to deactivate it from BIOS? Or is it possible only by software?
If you want to use another OS (linux-based for ex.) AFAIK there is no software to power it off. That's I would want to know if you can enable/disable it from the BIOS. That would not bother me to switch from BIOS to G210M if I want to play some games and reboot to go back to IGP when needed.

That would be nice if the new owners of the UL80VT could check that in the laptop BIOS ...

 

At first I didn't put backlit keyboard so it was to clarify. Forgot to remove the parenthesis lol.

 

Ahh... I see... lol

 

I'll get into the BIOS soon (installing Crysis from a DVD now, takes forever).

So far I like this notebook a lot. My keyboard exhibits a slight rattling noise from the left side as I noted; I think it could be easily fixed by putting a piece of tape under it. Other than that the keyboard is nice.

I don't like the touchpad; it is hard to press the buttons and the surface is very slippery, which means if you have even slightly damp fingers it is difficult to track on.

The unit is very quiet. I have Nvidia graphics enabled and the CPU overclocked to 2.something GHz, and there's basically no heat.

The design is awesome . . . this is a very pretty notebook to look at. I especially like the hinge area and the lid. A part of me wishes they used more aluminum though that would probably increase the weight. A backlit keyboard would increase the looks factor but given what is already included for the price, it is hard to complain.

I wish it had Bluetooth.

More coming. The full review will be up on the weekend or Monday.

 

UL80VT , now with added backlit goodness:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=428960

 

Does it get hot / warm while you guys do intensive tasks/games for a long period?