ASUS UL20FT Review Discussion

The ASUS UL20FT is an all-new update to the popular UL20A. Featuring a high-performance Intel Core i3 processor and impressive battery life, this thin and light laptop has a great deal to offer. The team at Notebook Review has an exclusive first look at this new 12-inch notebook, and we're excited to show you how this lightweight laptop performs. Read on to find out if the UL20FT deserves a place on your notebook shopping list.

Read the full content of this Article: ASUS UL20FT Review

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$50 more gets an Acer 1830T with 4GB ram, 500GB HDD, Core i5-430UM, larger 6-cell, and Bluetooth 3.0 if you can stand a .5" smaller screen. Or go to Asia and get the UL20 with the i3-330M.

 

Hmm ... for my tastes it runs just a little too hot and does not quite have enough battery life.

Weird about the cpu speeds though....

 

How is the battery life on the 330m model?
Asus need to add an nvidia optimus on it, even if it's paired to a base end 320m like the 13in MBP.

 

Looks like a pretty stylish machine......the weak graphics and overload of bloatware really kill it though. Hopefully the next iteration sees these issues addressed.

 

No idea .

 

Soooo... one second anything below 5 hours of battery life is average, and in the pros it's listed as having excellent battery life. Can we have a logical connection here, please?

 

Last year's CULV machines provided an interesting trade-off where you could get smaller laptops with fantastic battery life. They were compelling alternatives to netbooks. But the current generation is an ugly stepchild. Giving no real world benefits over a regular core (i3) machine while having much worse processor and graphics performance.

Not impressed with the current generation of CULV (um) processors. When compared to a normal i3/i5 mobile CPU, you give up a ton of performance without getting much of a bump in battery life.

Look at the Toshiba R705. Same weight but bigger screen and includes an optical drive. More importantly, it has a full powered i3 CPU/GPU that gives you double the performance and graphics without sacrificing much if any battery life. The price is $170, but that is not because the CPU is pricier (you paying for the mg alloy frame, WIDI, optical etc.) Its only problem is extra heat.

To be fair, the i3-330um is still much more powerful than an Atom netbook. And in the US there are few full powered i3 notebooks available under 3.8 lbs.

 

^^ True but between a 10.1" netbook and a 13.3" laptop, there is not much other than the X201 that has a full processsor so CULV still has it's place. And CULV's have their advantages like how my 3810t and 1830t don't get hot, they only get warm. But I do agree the golden age of the CULV is almost to an end as full power processors continue to drop in power hungriness. This is why my next laptop won't be CULV powered. As long as I stay away from dedicated graphics, I'm good (my brother's P8400/ATI 3470 powered Vaio SR gets HOT on the bottom). Future version of the X201 here I come!

 

Seems contradictory with the review.

 

Regular battery life would be better.
But anyway it's a stylish machine.

 

I wouldt call it weak integrated graphics...

The Intel HD is on par with the HD3200 in 3D performance, and its much better in video decoding...

I own an MSI U230, and a desktop pc with a Core I3-530, and the core I3 wipes the floor with the U230 in gaming performance, ok, the 530 is a much faster processor.

If i overclock the U230 HD3200 to 700mhz, it only gives 1178 points in 3dmark06, the UL20FT in stock beats that.

I bet the real 3d performance of the UL20FT is on par with the current AMD ultraportable platform (K325,K625 and HD4225).

BTW, what about running the UL20FT in Turbo33 mode??? ill like to have more details on that. i.e: processor speed, memory speed, intel hd core speed, and 3dmark06 score.

Addicionaly, the 1215N 3D performance is quite bad for now... i bet it has something to do with the ION2 be conected to a x1 PCI-E 1.1 in the intel Pinetrail platform.

If Asus decides too add ION2 to the UL20FT we have a winner here...

 

With a better CPU (SP9300), a smaller battery (41wh) and a bigger screen (13.3), the 5310m had a better battery life... not very impressive.