~U3S Owners Lounge~

Here's a preview for the U3S-A1

Spec:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz, 800FSB, 4MB Cache)
Memory: 1.5GB (512MB + 1GB)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8400M G 128MB VRAM
Display: 13.3" 1280x800 WXGA Color Shine LCD
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM SATA (Hitachi 5K160)
External Optical Drive: Super Multi DVD Burner with Lightscribe
Wireless: Intel PRO Wireless 4965AGN
Operating System: Windows Vista Business
Ports: 3x USB 2.0, 1x FireWire, Headphone, Microphone in, VGA out, Modem, Ethernet, HDMI, eSATA, GPS
Slots: 1x ExpressCard 54, 8 in 1 card reader
Switches: enable/disable for bluetooth/wireless, speed/power saving for vga.

Reason for buying:

After lugging around my G2S around for a few month, I decided that I needed something much more portable. However, I was not willing to give up functionality for portability. Initially, I looked at the Sony SZ series and Dell M1330, but the combination of price, functionality, and my experiences with the G2S led me to buy the U3S instead. My unit was purchased from ExcaliberPC.com along with the matching external optical drive.

The notebook package included the following:

Notebook bag and sleeve (Asus branded, probably made by Targus)
Bluetooth mouse and batteries
Power adapter with cable tie
6-cell battery
Recover and driver CD
S-video to combosit cable
HDMI to DVI cable
GPS antenna
Telephone cable
Dust cloth
Manuals

Photos:


Notice the reflection of the window off the cover.


6-cell battery. Not quite flush with the rest of the notebook.


Indicator lights and power switch.


Splendid video, Power4Gear switch and build-in mic.


Touchpad with fingerprint reader.


Keyboard.


HDD slot. Notice the 3G/sim icon. The slot doesn't exist on the A1 model.


Internals. Clockwise starting from upper left: ram, heatsink fan, cpu, wireless, gps.


Closeup of leather palm rest and U3 logo.


External ODD.


External ODD connected to U3S.


Left to right: firewire, wireless/bt switch, memory card reader, mic and headphone plug.


Left to right: usb x2, gps, hdmi, esata, power, kingston lock.


Expresscard 54 and integrated/discrete graphics switch.


Battery life:

I've ran test for the following cases:
[1] ~4:30, CPU at 800Mhz, LCD off, Wireless/BT off, Integrated graphics (not usable, only good for marketing purposes)
[2] ~3:00, CPU at 800Mhz, LCD at 40%, Wireless/BT on, Integrated graphics
[3] ~2:30, CPU at 800Mhz, LCD at lowest, Wireless/BT off, Integrated graphics, External ODD connected and playing dvd
[4] ~1:45, CPU at 2.2Ghz, LCD at max, Wireless/BT on, Discrete graphics
[5] ~1:30, CPU at 2.2Ghz, LCD at max, Wireless/BT on, Discrete graphics, External ODD connected but not playing dvd
[6] ~1:20, CPU at 2.2Ghz, LCD at max, Wireless/BT on, Discrete graphics, External ODD connected and playing dvd

The following numbers are captured using TweakVista:

The 6-cell battery has a maximum capacity of 51095 mWh

Power drain:
[1] from above uses about 11000 mW of power
[2] from above uses about 16000 mW of power
[3] from above uses about 20000 mW of power
[4] from above uses about 30000 mW of power
[5] from above uses about 34000 mW of power
[6] from above uses about 39000 mW of power

Turning on Wireless/BT adds about 1500 mW
Going from lowest brightness to max brightness adds about 5000 mW
Going from 40% brightness to max brightness adds about 3000 mW
Going from 40% brightness to lowest brightness saves about 2000 mW (adds about 30 minutes to [2])
Increasing CPU from 800Mhz to 2200Mhz adds about 4500 mW

Based on the power consumption numbers above, you can get up to 4 hours with everything turned off and LCD at lowest brightness.

To calculate the battery life run time, divide 51000 by power drain number to get number of hours.

Recharging the 6-cell battery takes less than 2 hours.

I've also noticed while running the power tests that the U3S is extremely good at turning things off. For example, if you plug in the ODD and don't use it, the system will suspend the USB power draw!

Performance:

Super Pi to 2M: 57 seconds

Vista Assessment:
-CPU 5.1
-Compression and encryptions 4.9
-Video encoding 5.3
-Memory speed and size 4.5
-Desktop graphics 3.2
-Gaming graphics 3.9
-Hard disk 4.9

GPS:

I will not be doing any testing of the GPS until November (when I have a car again). However, you can download the manual here.

Initial impressions:

I've had the U3S for a little over a week now. It is definitely a joy to use and I cannot tell the difference in performance from my G2S for day to day stuff.

The screen is more than bright enough for indoor use. View angles are average. The speakers are actually not too bad. At maximum volumn, it's loud enough to hear across a 20' room. I would still recommend using headphones if you really want to listen to music or watch a dvd. The touchpad is flush with the palm rest and do take some getting use to. I'm having the hardest time scrolling with the touchpad, since there's no edge to limit where you place your finger.

One of the nicer touches I've noticed, is that the included software and TPM chip allows for multifactor authentication and also hardware based encryption of the HDD. As a business notebook, I think these are fantastic feature.

I'll update this post with more information as I spend more time using the U3S. Feel free to ask questions or leave suggestions on what you want me to test.


Cheers,

-Eugene

 

Nice pics.

How is the build of the laptop. Is the lcd cover metallic or plastic.

Is aero enabled with that battery life.

Have you tried to install a dual boot with windows xp, from some reports it might be able to gain you an hour of battery life.

Another Asus on this forum gained a huge amount of battery life from this.

 

The build quality is quite good, but not quite at the level of Sony. I can still find minor imperfections here and there.

The LCD cover is metal (at least it feels like it to me), but coated with the piano black/white substance. There is some flex if you push the center of the cover, but it doesn't affect the actual screen.

Aero was enabled when I wrote my post above. I'm not sure if it's possible to automatically disable it using the asus power management software. If you disable Aero, wifi/bluetooth, and lower the LCD brightness to below 40%, I'm sure you can squeeze more battery life out of this notebook. My personal perference is to bring a 2nd battery and have more comfortable settings.

I'm probably not going to try installing XP on this notebook. Too much hassle to create a boot cd and find all the drivers.

 

Just a note about TPM-based HDD encryption: I do not know the details of the implementation, but it is possible that the harddrive will become unreadable in case the motherboard becomes faulty and it has to be changed.

Just a word of caution if you're planning to use it. I repeat, this may not be true so do your own research, but be sure of what you're doing before enabling TPM HDD encryption.

 

Actually, I believe you can store the decryption key on flash media, so the case of a faulty motherboard is covered =) I don't have TPM HDD encryption enabled, simply because I don't need that much security.

 

Ok. But that seems to be a sort of a security gap... but I suppose you have to have it in order to cover for faulty motherboards and other situations where you might lose the key. Well, I don't really understand the principles of TPM anyway.

 

Wow eugenes thanks for the pics. The white palm reset easy to get dirty i reckon, just need to take care of it. Anyone know how much does it cost to buy an extra 6 cells battery?

 

What a beautiful notebook...one of the few truly desirable notebooks out there that is so different from the others it screams look at me! In comparison, the Dell XPS M1330 looks as dull as, well, a Dell. To find such a well designed notebook at this price point is frankly astonishing...I did not believe the quoted price was anything more than internet rumours until I actually saw this in retailers for $1600.

Unfortunately the 2.5-3hr battery life is highly disappointing for a notebook of this caliber. The NV8400 isn't exactly a gaming fiend yet it still seems to suck the life out of the batteries. What I'm curious about is a comparison of battery life with the graphics card activated vs deactivated. I'm really hoping the next iteration of this notebook is offered with integrated graphics and, really, 95% of the target market for this notebook will never take advantage of the weak graphics card anyway. It's just dead weight sucking up precious battery juice. And while making my v.2 wishlist maybe adding an LED-backlit display? Im not in the market at the moment so I can afford to wait, however, this is already 90% the perfect notebook for me.

 

I hope it is relatively scratch resistant. The body I mean, but usually shiny things scratch easily.

 

this quick? hmm GPS function please does it work well? i'd like to see some screen shot of the software running.

 

uoh ... no DVD DRIVE??!??!?!?

 

I'll run some additional battery life "tests" and take some more photos tonight. The LCD cover is quite scratch resistant, but I'm am worried about the palm rest getting dirty (rumor has it that Mr. Clean magic eraser does wonders).

Evil Sheep, you can actually switch between integrated graphics and the 8400M, similar to the Sony SZ (reboot required). The battery life numbers I quoted above is while using the integrated graphics. I'll try getting some "marketing" type battery life numbers tonight, just remember you'll never achieve those numbers while using the notebook.

I haven't been able to find the battery for sale online yet, hopefully it won't be too long before Asus makes those available.

I'll give the GPS a spin this weekend. It's a bit difficult since I don't have a car in NYC and GPS in general just don't work well around here.

The DVD drive is external. I'll take photos of that as well.

 

Here's a flash/shockwave demo that came with the U3S

http://cyclone.he.net/~eugene1/U3Demo.exe

 

Wow, nice lappy you've got there . . .

 

Thank you for the pictures! I'm switching from V1j, and U3 will be a prime candidate as soon as monetary situation will allow...

Btw, here's a link to a comparison in a Finnish PC magazine. Clearly not an Asus fan, but he does have a reason for the low points. (try some translator if you feel like it, below I've translated the U3 parts...)
("pistettä" translates to "points", as you probably guessed)
http://mikropc.net/nettilehti/extra/2007-10-kevytkannettavat.html

Pros: Powerful graphics card, good amount of connectors
Cons: Battery duration, big and heavy (in comparison, apparently)


I'm an Asus fan myself but it was good to see the competition lined up!

Edit: I guess the reviewer emphasizes portability and battery duration a LOT on this one... Take the 'review' with a grain of salt. Personally I've set my mind on U3 already, since it seems as good as V1J, but is a bit lighter. Plus GPS...

 

Eugene,

Thank you so much for starting this thread and posting your first impressions and also for posting that demo! From what I see all this is encouraging, the U3 seems very nice looking and has decent battery life. I know that one popular test for battery life is to play a DVD with the battery full, record the DVD running time and the remaining time given by Windows after the DVD has played. DVD playback is very demanding on the system's resources, and I expect the numbers for battery life to fall below 2 hours on this machine. Probably even worse since the DVD drive is external for the U3, and that USB connexion takes its toll the system's performance.

Now I have more specific questions, among which you can choose which ones you want/can reply:

-- What about Super PI ? It is a small program to download and indicates overall system performance (CPU)

-- If you are a gamer of some sort, please report the average FPS

-- What about build quality? It seems very good from the US demo you posted, but I would like a more personal opinion on what you like and what you don't like. Especially I think that the U3 shows very good perceived build quality from the pictures, and I was wondering if that was still true when you have it in hand.

-- Is the screen wobbling or does it stay perfectly in place? Is there a latch?

-- EDIT: some temperature feedback would be nice too, since nowadays a lot of people use their laptops on their actual laps, or on their stomach in bed...

-- Some indication of bloatware also, since it affects performance and battery life so much.

-- Also for battery life I have a another suggestion. Apparently some people in the UK with HSDPA version of the U3 have tested a battery to run 300 minutes. That is obviously an overstatement but at the same time that is a very big gap with the numbers you report (180 min, right?). My assumption, and I would really like you test that, is that the GPS is taking its share of battery life. We know that bluetooth and wireless decrease battery life by a substantial amount, so I wouldn't be surprised to see that the GPS feature does the same. So three questions: 1- is it possible to disable to GPS feature? 2- If so does the battery life improve? 3-of what use is the GPS feature in a laptop anyway??? I'd rather have turbo memory.

-- Can you take some screen shots, for us to see the extent of screen reflection and this viewing angle issue you mentioned?

-- does the notebook feel lightweight and can you hold it, and open it, with only one hand?

-- how are you getting along with the touchpad? Still tricky hard buttons and problems with scroll feature?

Oh well that's a lot of questions but I believe this is important information to all of us who consider buying of those. And $1700 is a good price, but it's still $1700

All the best!

 

The build quality is good. The only issue I've found is with the silver edge trim. It's in six pieces and the spots where the pieces meet up is not completely even.

The screen stays put, and will move with a slight push. I can walk around holding the notebook by the palm rest w/o any problems. The screen does not latch and will require two hands to open.

Overall, the notebook runs cool. I'll try running guildwars for an extended amount of time to see if things heat up. There's not a lot of bloatware installed, besides the typical Asus programs (splendid video, power4gear, etc...). I've only uninstalled symantec and nero7.

I'm currently running down the battery with everything turned off and the GPS module removed. Alternatively, you can turn off the GPS using the service manager. I'm on track hit 4.5-5 hours, but like I mentioned earlier, it's unusable in this state...purely for marketing fluff. 2.5-4 hours is what you should expect with integrated graphics (the rest depends on wireless/bt, LCD brightness). The LCD will drain about 2000 mAh at the lowest brightness level and the 6 cell battery has about 50000 mAh. I'll post more battery numbers in another post.

I'm starting to get used to the touchpad and buttons. The buttons have to be pushed near the lower right/lefthand corners.

On a side note, can someone tell me why they would need 5 hours of battery life on a 13" notebook?

ruoste: I looked at the review link you posted and I find it mind boggling that there could be a 20 points difference between the Lenovo x61 and the Asus U3S. Based on their numbers, it looks like they award a large amount of points just for battery life. Personally, I perfer the styling of the U3 and the HDMI and eSATA connectors. Battery life is good enough for my needs. I guess it really depends on what you're looking for in the notebook.

 

Not bad battery life those. Still not fantastic but for the most part usable. Its sounds like you can get 200 minutes out of it.

Could you get 200 minutes out of it, if you had the screen at 40 percent brightness and with wifi on surfing the net.

Man me and kennyy are singing we don't got our u3s blues. Shipping is pretty attrocious from USPS. At earliest I expect to see it on tuesday and shipping would have taken 10 days to get here since they travel on saturday( i got a status update on that day) and not sunday. 10 day shipping is too long on a product that supposed to take 3-5 according to usps. I had stuff ship from hong kong and take 3 days to get here(and shipping was free). But with USPS I pay for usps second most expensive shipping and its not here yet.

 

Eugenes, you're doing a fantastic job!
I agree with you: there is no need for 5 hours in a 13" notebook. If you need that much battery life you'd be better off with another battery if you don't mind the weight and hassle, or with a 12" LV or ULV notebook.
What I like precisely in the U3 is that it is not too small to be underpowered or too large to be bogged down carrying it.

What does Spendid video do exactly? I thought it was just Asus's name for glossy screen. I guess it makes the colors pop up, but I don't know if pushing this button actually makes a big difference or not.

Does the U3 come with a copy of Windows? I hope so since I want to upgrade to a 7200rpm HDD.

Also I noticed that Eugenes's U3 has 1.5GB of RAM and I was wondering if that was sufficient not only for typical business apps, but also for light gaming in Vista.

Finally, is everybody happy with ExCaliberPC service? How log did it take you from ordering to actually receiving the stuff?

Eugene, if you're getting 4.5 hours with everything disabled and the GPS module taken out (on top of vista is battery saving mode I suspect), that probably means 4 hours with the wireless and BT on. That would be fantastic!

Also here is a page with a few programs to download to monitor/test your laptop http://asusreviews.com/Download.html

With those good news, I think I'll get my U3 this coming week

 

I had ExcaliberPC ship using UPS Ground and it took about a week. Not quite sure why they didn't ship using UPS of FedEx to you and kennyy.

I managed around 180 minutes with 40% brightness and wifi/bluetooth. If I disable bluetooth I can probably squeeze another 20 minutes out of the battery. My plan is to buy another 6-cell or 9-cell if that becomes available.

Compared to carrying my G2S around for the last 3+ months, the U3S is nice and light.

 

Splendid video basically adjusts the color output onscreen. See http://event.asus.com/vga_newfeatures/index.htm

U3 comes with a copy of Vista Business and works fine with 1.5GB of RAM.

I've been pretty happy with ExcaliberPC's service. They shipped my order out on the same day and even called to tell me the external OD is backordered.

Average battery life is going to be 3 hours for comfortable settings. You can extend that by turning off wireless/bt and turn down the LCD below 40%.

 

Thanks for the information.

 

i'll stick with W7S instead lack on built in DVD kinda bog me down in buying this sexy machine.

 

2.5-3 hour on the 6-cell... That sucks.

MY Z33 did 2.5 hours on my 3-cell before I killed it (the battery that is)

 

Keep in mind the Z33Ae performed at a much lower level as well. Super Pi to 2M took 1:50s based on this review. So we're looking at greater than 2x the performance for 2x the power draw for the U3S.

Even the AC adapter are different. Z33 19v/2.64A (~50W) vs U3S 19V/4.74A (~90W).

 

Well, I'm not so sure about the validity of this argument. Even though the performance has probably increased more than twofold, the power draw of each particular component (at least when properly managed) shouldn't have. The semiconductor technology has evolved (smaller nm in the fabrication process), new power-saving features have been added etc.

 

Wow that's a lot of work and that looks like an almost completed review!

So for the battery life and the numbers you provided, for a typical usage with LCD at 40% and Wireless/BT, one one can expect:

--3 hours with downclocked CPU at 800Mhz and integrated graphics
--2:30 without downclocking and with integrated graphics
--2:00 with downclocked and dedicated graphics
--1:45 with normal CPU and dedicated graphics.

So expect 3 hours with integrated graphics and 2 hours with dedicated with normal usage.
--I guess what those numbers mean is the following: don't use dedicated graphics unless you're plugged in: it cuts your battery life by one third. Then again I suspect most people use dedicated graphics for games, so those people should be at home when getting plugged in is no problem. Also, 2 hours battery recharge time is good!
--Those battery time are not great for sure, but that's not terrible either. The M1330 gets an hour more with comparable usage and tweaks but then again it is $700 more expensive these days (I just configured one). For that price you can buy an extra battery for the U3 so battery life comes even and you save lots of money on top of that.
--The advantage of the U3 over the M1330 is that it has switchable graphics, and when you are on the move and not playing games, it turns out that you can use the U3 on integrated graphics and the M1330 on the dedicated graphics (there is no choice). Well in that case the battery life difference falls to 30 minutes so this is not that bad.

Just to be sure how to understand those battery life numbers:
--how many processes did you have running when doing those benchmarks?
--were you using the laptop or was it idle?
--was the GPS on or off? Does it drain the battery?
--what were the vista and Power4gear settings?
--Were you plugged in or not?
This is just to check if your estimates are rather on the conservative side or not.

Thanks for including the link to the Splendid video page... So it is just image correction. I thought it would be an actual chip, like in modern TVs, but it seems it's only a software trick. But it might also be drivers for a chip inside. I guess having this Splendid program active is probably battery-draining, but I'm not sure to what extent.

Last important questions to me:
1-- Could you please put up pictures of the adapter and the mouse so we know how big they are and what the total "travel volume" is?
2-- How's the keyboard? It looks really nice on the pics and I hope it is as comfortable as that suggests. Maybe you can compare to Lenovo's keyboards, since apparently you are used to those as well as to Asus.
3- How is performance when the CPU is downclocked to 800Mhz?

I'm still gonna get one this week!

 

Thanks again eugenes for the effort.

Couldn't find the info around, so do you know if the HDMI includes sound? Do you have a way to test it?

On the V1, HDMI is picture-only (and called mini-DVI). A separate cable is required for sound (optical S/PDIF). My guess is it's the same on U3, but it's not a certainty, so...

 

Well, I'm also taking Jumper's numbers at face value. I'd like to know how the 2.5 hours number was achieved (CPU settings, tweaks, etc...). From what I can tell from his signature, his CPU is drawing power at the P-M ULV levels. The review I linked only managed 1.5 hours of use off a 3-cell battery.

The Pentium M 7xx has 27W TDP (ULV max out at 5W TDP) and Core 2 Duo T7500 has 35W TDP. That's a 25% increase in power drain (or 700% if you compare to P-M ULV). Until Intel gives us the ability to shutoff unused cores, I don't think we'll see any serious improvements in battery life when using different class of processors. You can always put in a L7500 chip and drop to 17W TDP. That should increase battery life well beyond 5 hours.

 

Sorry about the incorrect information earlier. The HDMI port on the U3 does include sound. You have to change the sound output in the control panel from speakers to Realtek HDMI Digital Output.

 

Wooooo, my asus is in town and all I got to do is pick it up. WOOT

The post man tried to deliver it and I wasn't home so I have to pick it up tommorow.

 

yours is faster then me,
i just hand in the custom clearance form today..two more days to go...
i hate Australia Custom!!

 

Did you figure how much taxes you had to pay?

What I don't get is that the postman didn't try to deliver it to my house. They just delivered it to my metal mailbox on the boulevard near our house which has a lock on it. Since it doesn't fit inside, they put this notice of delivery and that you have to pick it up tommorow.

Its was literally 100 feet from my house but since the the laptop cannot go in the mailbox because it is too large and since they are too lazy to walk to my house I cannot get it today

How much did you have to pay for shipping kennyy

 

Congrats you guys. The long wait is almost over!

 

US$102 inc. shipping...

I need to pay 10% of whatever I paid to Excaliberpc for the taxes.

tajoh, the postman help you to pay the taxes? or you are very lucky to escape the custom?
lol

 

I actually picked it up tonight . I had to track down the postman. Basically he left it at the post office tonight and I picked it up because it was open till 9 pm.

Unfortunately I didn't escape the tax man those. I had to pay about 162 cdn in taxes. I knew I had to pay one tax which is gst(federal) but I got banged up by pst too(provincial).

Your taxes look so low those. The scary thing is that 10 percent you have to pay later. That going to shoot up your costs. Its probaly cheaper than what you would pay in australia those, you guys have to pay more for everything imported.

I knew I wouldn't have to pay duty because of the laws between canada and united states. Luckily my handling fee was only 8 dollars for customs. For taking three days I hope it would be small.

But what killed me the most I think were the wiring fees, I was shocked at how large they were and it was like paying another tax.

If i bought in canada, i would only have to pay the pst and thats it. In the end I saved 50 dollars but waited a long time for that trouble in savings.

Atleast I got my laptop which I am happy about. Hopfully I can get a review up by the end of the week. I am charging it now so I can't talk about battery life yet.

Initial impressions. Its a very nice laptops physically. The white doesn't show much fingerprints and it is very light. The led indicator lights are very nice and really show this isn't a budget laptop. The keyboard is nice to type on and the only gripe I have is the narrowness of the directional keys. The biometric is very easy to use those and setup is just a bit troublesome scanning everything in. The screen is very nice so far, and it almost feels like a matte and and glare screen combined without natural light around. Perfomance is ok so far. I haven't had to wait for a program to load really. I am installing Civilization 4 in a hour or two and will give impressions on how that runs later.

A couple of complaints those, Eugene was right about the touchbad, its a bit tricky to use. I wouldn't call it unresponsive rather I would call it a really stiff touchpad. It takes alot to get the thing to click and your clicking fingers get quite the workout. I would also like the touchpad to be more recessed than it is because if you rest your hands on the rest pad, it will sometimes cause the touchpad to move unintentionally.

The U3s is also loud when plugged in, the fan never shuts off. I guess those core 2 duos do produce alot of heat. However if your switch to intel graphics mode, it get alot more quiet even when it is plugged in.
Hope you become a physical owner of the u3s soon(damn australian customs). This lounge is pretty empty. We need more people in it soon.
Hope you don't get too stung on the duty.

 

tajoh111,

Do you notice a slight backlight leakage on the right side of the screen? Also, I've gotten a lot better at using the touchpad. Not sure if it's just something you get better at with time or the stiffness goes away with use.

 

Just received the call from Custom and i have to pay about AUD$253 for the GST. But it's ok at least i can have it tomorrow morning...can't wait!!

tajoh, you are very lucky lol...

 

Congratulations guys for finally getting your U3s I knew I was gonna be the last person here to get one, but then again I was waiting for the maximum information possible. That's just how I am. On another note apparently the U3 sells very well and ExCaliberPC can upgrade you to a 7200rpm HDD. Hence I am really interested in the heat and noise factor for this laptop. And I know that the U3 runs cool in both graphics modes but the fan is loud in dedicated mode. Tajoh, is it really really loud?

 

frencholivier,

you can hear a slight hum from the fan when running with discrete graphics and CPU at 1.2Ghz - 2.2Ghz. Going into power save mode and dropping CPU to 800Mhz will also lower the fan speed to almost an inaudible level. This is with the CPU mostly idle.

If you're stressing the CPU at 2.2Ghz (e.g. run super pi), the fan speed will pick up and is a bit annoying in a quiet environment. If you're playing games, the in game music should cover up the fan noise.

 

Eugene -- thanks again for the info. I really like quiet computers though. Then again you have to cool down today's small but mighty laptops like the U3. I guess I'll survive the fan noise. If not, I know there are utilities to control your fan speed. I just want to avoid them for now.
How's responsive is the U3 on power saver mode / underclocking at 800Mhz ? Would you suggest upgrading to a 7200rpm HDD or 2.5 gigs ?

 

The battery modes switches instantly. If you're using notebook hardware control, max performance = 2.2Ghz, dynamic = defaults to 1.2Ghz, and battery save = 800Mhz.

Personally, I would not upgrade to a 7200rpm. I only plan on using my U3S for light business duties, so don't need that kind of performance. 2.5gb of ram might be something I would consider in the future.

The main upgrade (or downgrade) I'm looking into is getting a L7500 chip to replace the T7500 and a 9-cell battery (if it exists).

 

Let me check with Asus on the 6 and 9 cell batteries (if it exists like Eugene said).

 

Does Intel actually sell the L7500 in a retail-boxed, PGA format? I thought LV and ULV chips were only available as soldered into the motherboard....

 

Just a quick question, somewhat off topic. If I live in Ontario and I buy a laptop from an Ontario reseller, I still have to pay both Federal (GST) and Provincial taxes, correct?

 

Vivek,

You're right. The LV/ULV chips are only in FCBGA6 instead of Socket P =(

 

Just used my google-fu,

there is def a 3 cell, 6 cell and a 9 cell in Germany available for the U3S (or at least for the black version that is):

90-NQF1B1000T Akku für U3 Serie (3-cell Battery Module (black-1A))
90-NQF1B2000T Akku für U3 Serie (6-cell Battery Module (black-1A))
90-NQF1B3000T Akku für U3 Serie (9-cell Battery Module (black-1A))

@excaliberpc I would be really interested in ordering the 9cell along with the U3S

 

Yes you would. I would suggest buying almost from bc or something and do a pricematch for the lowest price possible. Of course if you go to pacific mall and pay in cash you probaly don't have to pay any taxes at all. Seriously I am not joking. If there is another computer store there, just get them to get into a bid war for your buisness and your bound to get a low price. But becareful with that much cash around there.

If you don't want that hassel just buy from directcanada. No Customer service but the shipping is free and you don't have to pay PST which is pretty big in ONtario. The price is pretty low(1670) compared to other places and you will save some money for sure.

 

I didn't tweak it yet. But when it is plugged in and in performance mode(which i assume means 2.2 ghz all the time). The fan doesn't shut off until I stop typing.

What a bit annoying is to switch between discrete and integrated graphics is tha the machine has to reboot each time which is unnessary I think.

If you go into a more balance mode it will probaly won't need its fan as much. But when it turns on, its pretty loud. So make sure you got your headphone if your are putting your machine through the paces.

So if you are in a public place and plug your laptop in with perfomance mode, it will probaly be a distraction for other people.

When it is not plugged in and is in battery saver mode, it is alot alot quieter. You can still hear it but its very soft and the people around you can't hear it.

It also looks like 3 hours is what you get for battery life with wifi off. Basicaly you will get three hours out of it using it as a typing machine.

I still need to undervolt it. What I did however was install nod32 which is very cpu unintensive(and uninstall norton) and shut down the sidebar which eats like 25 minutes of battery life.

The keys on the keyboard are also nice because it is a really quiet keyboard so it is good to get notes. One thing that bother me is that asus bell everytime the machine reboots or turn on or get out of sleep mode. Because this bell even when your volume is turned off will still go off and this can be embarrassing.

Eugene I didn't notice the light leakage those. I personally think the display on this is better than the z70va I had before.

Screen brightness doesn't alter as much battery life as one would think either.

I would recommend against the 7200rpm as it would eat up more battery life and drain more heat. Loading is rarely a problem so I would just get more ram like eugene suggested. I might even get a ssd over a 7200rpm.

And to those gamers. Civilization 4 runs really well

It also runs cool too. In fact some parts on the bottom of the laptop are cold which is hard to believe.

sorry about the double post and the bad grammer. I got no sleep because I was playing with my u3s all night

 

I definitely don't keep the system on performance mode unless I absolutely need it. It's typically in battery save mode.

As far as I can tell, there are 5 levels of fan speed and I've only been able to max out the fan once. Running in performance mode seems to sets the fan at level 3.

You can turn off the Asus bell sound through the BIOS. Press F2 when you seen the logo =)