new Asus UL20A notebook

i'm having a hard time deciding between the acer 1840 vs the asus UL20A. here's a comparison between the new asus UL20A vs acer 1810TZ for about the same price:

Asus UL20A:
- SU7300 1.3ghz
- 12.1" screen
- 250gb HD
- 2gb memory
- no HDMI/bluetooth

Acer 1810TZ:
- SU4100 1.3ghz
- 11.6" screen
- 320gb HD
- 3gb memory
- HDMI/Bluetooth

in your opinion, does the better SU7300 in the Asus make up for lower HD/memory and no HDMI/bluetooth seen in the Acer? it does have the express gate, which is sexy as hell. any other comments or inputs on these two before i buy?

 

Pick the UL:
Ram & HD can always be upgraded if you need it down the road.
Bigger screen = your eyes will thank you for it.

Pick the Acer for HDMI = sweetness!

 

This may be a little vain, but I think that UL20 just plain looks better than the 1810, so I'd probably go with that. However, as PopRox points out, if you plan on hooking up your notebook to different TV's then you should go with the 1810.

Just my 0.02.

 

i thought the UL20 looks and feels better too. but what is bluetooth actually good for in a notebook? the only thing i can think of that it can connect to is a wireless keyboard and mouse, which i don't use for notebooks. anything else the bluetooth is useful for?

 

Wireless headset--

You could also get a BT dongle for the UL20.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tiny-USB-2-0-Wi...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a4b59389

 

holy crap that is cheap. first thing i think of when seeing a BT dongle that small and cheap is that it's screaming bad quality.

wireless headsets are only good for cell phones or gaming right? since this is obviously not a cell phone and i won't be gaming on a 12" screen, looks like this usage is also useless. i think i've concluded that i don't need any feature of BT, but if i ever do, i'll just get that cheap dongle. thanks for the link!

 

bluetooth enabled printers, dam handy connecting that way, but then again micro bt dongles are like 10 LOL

 

i can't find the battery specs anywhere. does anyone know the capacity? i'm assuming it's only around 4000mAh. i was looking at the acer 1410/1810 timeline thread, and the lower model had 4400mAh battery, while the higher model had 5600mAh capacity, even though both batteries had the same exact dimensions

more like $1.50 including shipping!

 

No HDMI kills it for me. Although seeing you like quality (the 1810 quality is good enough for me), the Asus will probably suit you better.

 

My P-7805u has HDMI and it is tied to a 1080p 25" right now. Personally I have no use for my Ultra Portable having HDMI as well right now. I like the 11.6" on my previous LT-3013u and would consider this but what is the screen quality?

I am also thinking of a 1820PT when released or UL30-vt. Right now I am using a U81a from BB but it is a bit bigger than I want. The 11.6" was a great size just the L110 was not quite enough CPU, I think the SU7300 shouldn't have that issue. Especially a model supporting Turbo33, the GMA4500 though is fine for my needs.

 

I just bought a UL20A-A1 off Amazon to finally replace my heavily aged and dieing Dell Inspiron 700m. For $495 after GC, I felt like it was a perfect fit.

The SU7300 beat anything I could put in a Dell 11z plus I heard the trackpad on that one is a nightmare.

The squaretrade reliability ratings pushed me away from Acer, even though the AS1810T-8638 has quite a bit more in it with the same processor. Plus as mentioned the UL20A just looked nicer and seemed to have a better build quality.

Really the only thing that saddens me a bit from the UL20A is the lack of an HDMI port, but ever since I built my HTPC I don't really need a laptop with that ability anymore.

I will try not putting another 2G RAM stick in for a bit, but 250Gigs on this hard drive seems fine seeing as I have about 6TB between my desktop and media center PC and if I ever need more HDD space in my laptop I can buy a 500 Gig drive for<80 bucks and use the old 250 in a 2.5in enclosure.

 

awesome first post krotchy! what is GCI, and how did you get it all the way down to $495??

the one thing that turns me off from this is the lower capacity battery. wish it came with one with just a bit higher, or give the option to pick one for a tiny bit higher price.

 

I finally got mine yesterday. A couple of things:

1. I got it from amazon.com, and I live in the US.
2. EDIT: wireless card is Intel BGN 1000, Ethernet Card is Atheros. Still don't seem to get a good signal. GOnna mess around with the settings
3. The panel holding the keyboard keys is a little loose...not sure if that's the way it's built or mine is defective. Someone else complained about the same thing in the other UL20a thread.

The laptop is otherwise very nice and performs as expected.

 

great! if anyone has guts or time to do some advance tweaking to this thing, the please post. i'm looking for overclocking and undervolting results, both software and hardware.

jackbravo and krotchy, do you mind using rmclock to undervolt it, and SetFSB to overclock and see if they locked anything?

 

GCI = Gift Card, I (it was a typo, lol)