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

Do these 48 programs include all of the standard Windows and ASUS utilities? Unless you're talking about having 48 bloatware programs?

I got my UL80VT from a local Canadian retailer; it came with no software other than what was advertised on the box, that is:

• demo of Trend Micro Internet Security
• Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0
• Cyberlink Blu-ray Disc Suite

...That was it.

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?
3. How fast is the ul50vt at opening docs and files?

Thanks

 

Oh yeah it is just because i clean the screen along with my laptop so I use the alcohol

 

Hi there. I just picked up a UL80vt. I enjoyed reading everyone's reviews and comments about it. I'm very pleased with it so far, but I do have a question and am hoping for some help:

I have Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student pre-installed on the laptop, but when I launched Word, it asked for a serial key which I can't seem to locate. There isn't any indication of this being an Office trial. I purchased the laptop from Amazon and there's nothing listed about Office on the item page. Please advise if there should be a serial number somewhere included or if I should contact ASUS about it, or if this is in fact the trial version?

Thanks!

 

These are two completely different class of machines. If you are actually considering the mac air, then look at the UL30 instead.

 

Hey guys, I am about to buy the ul50vt and just have 3 questions.
1. Which is thinner, the ul50vt or the macbook air.
2. Will the ul50vt run ubuntu 9.10?

 

um sorry about that. Can someone tell me how to delete my posts?
I think eidolon had the same problem.. The site froze for a couple of minutes..

 

I'm just wondering if the ul50vt comes close in thickness to the mac air.
I have a g51vx, which I'm selling next week. Is the ul50vt thinner by a lot than the g51? The g51 weighs around 8pounds.

 

The Office is a Trial version.

 

1. The MB Air. Which has no optical drive and costs 2x.
2. Yes, a member on the forum has already installed ubuntu. Everything including multi-touch but not including graphics switching is working. I will follow up when I put 9.10 on my UL50Vt as soon as it arrives.
3. It should not be much if any different than any other laptop.. loading docs and files is almost entirely hard disk. The UL50Vt-A1 comes with a 5400rpm 500gb hard drive standard. You can make things load faster by getting a faster hard drive or SSD.

You cannot delete your posts, perhaps a moderator can do that for you.

 

Hey thanks. How much thicker would you estimate the ul50vt is than the mac air or the g51vx? I need a clear impression before I purchase anything. My g51 is about 1.1 inches thick and gets 1 hour of battery life, not good.

 

Mine had a bunch of casual games and other crap installed. I wish I had a list or screenshot, but I started uninstalling as soon as I booted it. My count was just everything in the add/remove programs list.

 

Apologies for the multi-posts. How embarrassing . Note to self: will only hit "send" button once!

 

y dont u just go into a store and find out...instead of posting a million times...

 

With the issues of the UL80vt's build quality, do you guys reckon it is still capable of being carried around? I just want to know if it's capable of being stuck in a backpack bag with textbooks as such and sandwiched in between the textbooks and my back...

 

You should have no problems with it getting damaged inside a backpack with books. all the build issues people have been talking about are manufacturing defects, not damage from abuse or use. when it is closed the metal lid does a good job of protecting the keyboard and screen from damage

On the gaming front I have finally gotten around to testing some things and can reiterate what other people have said. Games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead run great. I have also tested The Sims 3, Civilization 4, D&D Online, Demigod and Sins of a Solar Empire. All run great with no problems at Medium-High settings.

I do have one more complaint though. The lack of a full size shift on the right is really a pain. My old vostro 1000 laptop had a larger than normal shift and the one on the ul80vt is half that size.

 

I went into a store and noticed the screen lid is quite bendable, and there seems to be void space in between the screen and the keyboard when closed up. So is it safe to say that when the lid experiences a load from the top, the lid will sag? And will this sag/bend damage the screen?

 

It was my mistake for posting many times (system froze and I clicked submit a lot), and I hope the mods clear that up.

But no store here sells the ul50vt, which is why I am asking.

 

Normally, I would do all of the work for you, but I am tired and it's simple.

Go to Apple.com and navigate to the Macbook Air product page. You'll find the dimensions there somewhere laid out plainly. Next goto Asus' website and do the same. Alakazaam, you have your answer. I would suspect that the Macbook air is at least 1/4" thinner than the UL50Vt, although it should be noted that the UL50Vt is probably one of the thinnest 15" pc's out there with an optical drive. In fact it's very close to the MBP AFAIK.

 

I've been using the UL80VT for work and carrying it around for the last few weeks. As long as you use a proper case or slip cover with this notebook, you should not have any issues.

My Thinkpad T61p has the same sag between the screen and keyboard and it's survived for 2 years so far.

 

UL50VT - 38.6 x 25.9 x 1.64~2.64 cm
Macbook Air - 32.5 x 22.7 x 0.4~1.94 cm

In case you don't know how to convert to inches, divide the above values by 2.54.

Rather than worrying about the dimensions, maybe you should figure out what you plan on doing with this new notebook first. All three notebooks you listed are made for different purposes.

 

Hello guys..I've a question about watching HD videos (720p mkv vlc media player/media player classic) through hdmi. I'm getting audio lag with my UL80VT where the audio will pause for a second (Video will keep playing smoothly) and then will come back where it's supposed to be. This is very annoying and I notice the cpu never peaks so that's not the problem (video would pause as well, if cpu was having trouble keeping up). Any suggestions would be delightful.

edit: never mind i unplugged the cable plugged it back up and it worked fine..

edit 2: okay i tried watching another movie tonight...the audio is dropping out about every 15 seconds lasting only about 1-1.5 seconds. This is very annoying and making shows unwatchable..can anyone else let me know if they've experienced something similar? Thanks.

 

So a report on the games for the ul50vt is ahead:

I played Team Fortress 2 on Highest resolution (1366 x 12xx) with all high settings and widescreen (16:9). I was able to maintain a completely flowing gameplay experience that had absolutely no lag or skipping in a firefight including 18+ people in a server (30+ fps, no dips). I am absolutely amazed by the power of this video card that I once took for granted for being a crappy card.

I also played Borderlands. I was able to run it on two settings with smooth gameplay of 30+ fps. I either ran it on highest resolution widescreen and everything on high but the dynamic shadows and motion blur were off. Or I ran it on 1024x800 normal with everything on.

So if that doesn't silence your doubts about the ability of the ul50vt to run current and next gen games, I have no idea what would.

 

Thank you very much for this review, zehpanda!

 

Is it true that when playing games it is best to use a power chord because playing games using battery life greatly reduces the battery life from several hours to only a couple? I wonder how many hours the UL50VT can play games on battery life alone?

 

I always play my games plugged in. Thats just simply the reasonable thing to do because I cannot think of a time that you would sit down for an hour+ session of gaming without a plug near you. That being said, I had played the movie "Up" on my computer with it unplugged. The movie duraction was close to 180 minutes I believe after after the movie, I still had 7 hours of battery life left on entertainment mode.

I'm sure that if you play tf2, or l4d for an hour, you will still get a good 5-6 hours on this thing if you switch it back to intel card and battery saver mode.

 

Can anyone tell me if their is a difference between the UL50ag and UL50vt besides the graphics cards? Is battery life the same, and performance the same?(assuming both have the same 1.3ghz processor & 4gb ram). The asus website seems a bit confusing/misleading because under the 50vt it says, "ASUS Turbo33 Technology for 33%* faster performance" and "All-day Computing with 12-hours* Battery Life ". But under the ul50ag it says "Powered by an Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, it boasts an impressive battery life for all-day computing, ". So they say 12 hours for the vt, but don't list a time for the ag, so it makes it sound like the vt will have a longer battery life otherwise why didn't they put 12 hours under the ul50ag too? The best buy near me sells the ul50ag and I was thinking of just walking in and buying it but I do not want to regret not getting the vt version. I don't play computer games much so I'm not really concerned if the ul50ag doesn't handle games, but I do want to make sure I can stream hi def video full screen or in a window while multi-tasking, and I definitely want the best battery life possible . Thanks for any info.

 

Got my UL50Vt-A1 from GentechPC!!!

I am really busy this week so we will see if I have time to put up a review.

So far it is great and I have been using the ExpressGate almost exclusively because its so much faster and more convenient for basic tasks. I will be dual booting with Ubuntu and Windows 7 (tri-booting if you count expressgate.) more to come later! Oh and my keyboard sits flush with no gap and no creaking whatsoever.

 

@triplethreatlaptop: I think the main difference between the ul50ag and vt is the video card. Since you don't play games, the video card is not a big priority. However, since the VG is around 50 dollars more, I would recommend getting the vt because it gives you more options if you decide to change your mind about gaming in the future.

You stated that you want to be able to watch hd definition videos. The onboard video card on the ag can more than handle any type of video watching. You may need the nvidia 210m if you do handle video editting.

From what I know based on logic, the ag since it does not have a discrete graphics card should run longer since it is the same battery and the laptop has less components to drain energy from. If battery is your number 1 priority and you do not care for gaming, I would recommend the ul50ag. On the other hand, if you feel that you can perhaps take a miniscule loss in battery life(<30-60 minutes) and you may want to try some gaming in the future, I would always try to keep my options open with the vt.

You should make your decision based on the two statements above, and definitely not the pricepoint as they are both very similar. If the 50 dollars makes a huge difference for you, I dont think you would have asked which you would get.


@Hoy: tell me how you like the ul50vt. I have been loving it for the last week but i still think that it is too big for me as I am a college student that needs to bring hte laptop to class. I'm thinking about possibly returning it for a ul80vt. You wanna give me your opinion?

__________________________________________________________

I just tried running Modern Warfare 2 on the ul50vt. I was able to run it on the highest resolution with high detail for everything and the only things turned off are the dynamic shadows and bullet decals. I was able to run it at around 30 fps with dips in heavy firefights. That being said, I was able to turn down the 3 major details (texture, and a few others) to medium and have a completely smooth gameplay at 30+ fps with no dips.

This amazes me because I honestly thought I would not be able to run this game at all due to its extremely high detail. I definitely love it

 

So the build quality of the UL50VT is much better compared to the UL80VT? I know some people (including a reviewer on youtube) have complained about the latter's defects (flex, creakiness, etc.)

Does the UL50VT come with an illuminated keyboard? A few members of this forum were able to illuminate the keyboard of the UL80VT on their own, but I imagine this would void the warranty?

 

@triplethreatlaptop,

There's more to the video card than just gaming!!

I've said it before in other threads, and I'll say it again here, because the video card == gaming paradigm has got to end.

Sure gaming is a compelling use for the video card, but more and more applications are taking advantage of the GPUs processing power to enhance the performance of their apps.

In addition, the web is about to become 3D in a BIG way. Not only is FLASH using the GPU, modern browsers will too (ie9 -- more to follow), and with technologies like O3D/WebGL, we'll see 3D for visualizations, games, interfaces, etc.

I consider it rather foolish to purchase a computer without a capable graphics sub-system even if you're not a gamer.


}:^)~

 

Rgr that. Plus operating systems are more and more using interfaces that are 3d accelerated.

I am not (currently) a student, however I do think that the UL50Vt is too big to be considered "ultra-portable" any more despite the fact that for a 15" it's pretty thin and light.

I am used to lugging around 6-7+ pound laptops, so this thing is great compared to those. It's definitely IMO the best alternative to a MBP 15", at half the price.

I will benefit much more personally from the extra hd space/bigger screen for movies, and number pad for calculations and data input than I would be sacrificing for a slightly smaller UL80Vt. Remember the comments from early on, the size difference between the ul80vt and the ul50vt is not as large as the size difference between the optical drive-less ul30 and the ul80...

All that being said, I would not mind having a nice Samsung Mondi wimax or Nokia N810 Wimax handheld to compliment this laptop on days I don't feel like lugging it around, such as sightseeing, backpacking, etc.

For holiday traveling etc, I think this 15 incher is small enough to bring with me home and back.

I wish I could give you more input as a student, but I am on hiatus/sabbatical from school indefinitely.

 

Hey Hoy,
I have been waiting for you to get your ul50vt for a while...When you write the review, I will most definitely read it. I'm downgrading from a g51 -> ul50vt, so I would appreciate anything you could say.

 

@agnusdei: I am not quite sure about the build quality difference between the two laptops. For all I know, the quality is the same. The UL50VT does not come with an illuminated keyboard. This was something I thought I would not really worry about. But since I have used it, I feel that my experience with the laptop would have been better if I had an illuminated keyboard.

@Capt'n Corrupt: I think you have a great point about the implementation of web3D and other uses of the discrete video card but I feel that the onboard video card can get you by for the next 3-4 years. Understand that unless you are gaming, or video editting, the onboard should be more than enough. I think people truly underestimate the power of hte onboard cards nowadays. Coming from someone that has been using a pentium 4 w/ geforce 7600 GS, the onboard card runs a little worse than the 7600 GS. By mistake, I ran the integrated card while trying to test out borderlands and I could still run the game on low with no lag. I cannot see how future web programs and browsers can toll the video card much more than low on a next gen game.

@Hoy: Thanks for your comments Hoy. I think that my main problem wit hthe 15.6 inch ul50vt is that it does not fit in my backpack. My backpack would immediately take the shape of the laptop if I fit it in. Not to mention, It feels more convenient getting a laptop sleeve and putting it in my backpack than getting a separate laptop bag for it. The main drawback is that I like the nice big 15.6 inch for entertainment and gaming. Oh the decisions.

 

Just curious. I've been looking around forever, and saw the UL80vt, and saw this thread too:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=388625

Was wondering if it was possible to do this with a Ul80vt or Ul50vt, to get a dual SSD/HDD combo going? Or if someone already had? I would be very interested in taking out the ODD for a SSD or something. Think about how fast this thing would be then? All in a super slim chassis....

I'd be interested in getting a UL80vt and doing this to it if it was possible. I dont see why it wouldn't be possible, but I just wanted to ask to be sure.

Thanks

 

I have been having a hard time finding the proper sleeve for the ul50vt. I either find a sleeve thats too small or a sleeve thats too thick. I want one that fits snug with no movement within the sleeve. Anyone have any recommendations? thanks

 

I just purchased a 128 GB Patriot Torx SSD to put in my UL80VT. I am currently waiting for my UL80VT to come back from Asus. They are supposed to be fixing my creaky palm rest. So far it's been 4 days...

Okay, so I just got off the phone. I had thought that Asus does overnight shipping for repairs. The guy told me on the phone that they did overnight shipping the day I filed my RMA. It turns out that they don't ship overnight, they do "Fedex Saver", which takes 3-5 business days usually. That explains why they still haven't received it after 5 days (three business days). Kind of frustrating, but what can you do?

I guess I shouldn't expect to get my UL80VT back until probably 1 and 1/2 weeks from now.

 

@ Quadron, are you just swapping out your existing hard drive to replace with the SSD, or are you going to try dual HDD/SDD mod by taking out your ODD for the SDD?

Just wondering

 

Hey phrizek, have you made any progress with Ubuntu 9.10? I am running dual booted 9.10 64bit and Windows 7. I have mostly been playing with Ubuntu and getting everything setup how I like it. I want to install the Nvidia driver that it is telling me I should install, but last time I did that it made the bootup funny.. But no guts no glory so I am going to do it now. Worst case scenario I am stuck with Windows 7 until I reinstall ubuntu. Here goes nothing, I'll report back.

 

New review of the UL80VT just posted ~

http://techreport.com/articles.x/17939

Also if anyone has any suggestions for a bag/sleeve for the UL80VT I'd like to know what you are using. Thanks

~Chris

 

I was wondering: is there a way to install a different touchpad driver such that I would be able to get multi-touch zooming like on the Eee PC's? I'm satisfied with the multi-touch scrolling, but I wonder why ASUS decided not to include all the features of their Eee PC touchpads with the UL80.