Asus UL30VT Review
Seeing as these laptops provide both a very affordable price tag along with vastly improved overall performance over the Atom platform it continues to be seen as the natural successor to netbooks. While the netbook will most likely live on for quite a while in 1 type or an additional, it is a fact that some customers are much less than happy with the poor efficiency provided by netbooks and some have started to look towards CULV options.
Overclocking with Turbo33
Asus’ UL series is made up of laptops with screen sizes between 12 and 15 inches, and also the UL30 and UL30VT strikes the “golden ratio” with its 13-inch, 1366×768 sixteen:9 screen. The typical trait for all of the UL (and UX) laptops is that they’re thin and light and offer great battery life, much thanks to the CULV CPUs, which have a TDP (Thermal Style Energy) of only 10W rather than the typical 25-45W.
In contrast towards the competition such as Acer’s Timeline series, Asus’ UL series includes an unique benefit thanks to its proprietary Turbo33 technology. Turbo33 offers a simple and straightforward way of overclocking your system by no less than 33% by way of the included Power4Gear utility. To put it differently, the one.3GHz SU7300 processor is able to work at just more than 1.7GHz with out impacting stability and having a surprisingly little effect on battery life.
Hybrid Graphics
What separates the UL30VT from the regular UL30 is the inclusion of a “Hybrid Graphics” answer; in battery-saving mode it runs on the efficient Intel 4500mhd IGP (integrated graphics), but when much more performance is required you simply switch to the dedicated GPU – on this situation an Nvidia GeForce G210M. The G210M is one of the newer and much more effective 40nm mobile GPUs. While it is obviously not targeted at high-end gaming card it’s more than capable of some casual gaming in addition to hardware video decoding.
Develop High quality, Look and Feel
The UL-series laptops are arguably a few of the greatest looking in Asus’ entire lineup. The UL30VT is available in black (UL30VT-X1) or silvery (UL30VT-A1, this 1) brushed aluminum and both appear fantastic. Even though some flaws in the develop quality were noted for the earlier UL30s, it looks like Asus has improved on any issues for that VT models. It’s completely sturdy and there are no undesirable gaps or inconsistencies to be discovered between any the components.
Like many other Asus laptops it has a larger than typical bezel around the screen, that is noticeable now that so-called edge-to-edge screens would be the peak of style. Nevertheless, the brushed aluminum lid and the slim chassis (which lacks an optical drive) make this quite a beautiful laptop computer around the whole.
The keyboard/trackpad mixture on the UL30VT borrows some functions from Apple; it has both the chiclet keyboard along with a trackpad with multi-touch help. The trackpad is not just flush mounted but really part of the chassis itself, which is unusual but works great and offers just the correct amount of friction.
An additional factor that is probably also due to the low-voltage parts: it runs cool – and I imply cool as in the wrist rests do not even get warm! When you are just browsing the web or performing other simple chores the entire pc stays completely cool and quiet, and only when you shift to playing video games it gets considerably hot, but not uncomfortably so.
One of the (few) issues I’ve with this laptop is the LED-backlit display. It offers sufficient brightness, but the colours are rather washed out and also the viewing angles are less than impressive.
Performance
Now for the fascinating component: normally you wouldn’t expect blistering speeds from CULV-equipped laptops. Sure, they’re several times quicker than netbooks, but because of the reduced clock speeds they are nonetheless nicely behind Intel’s mainstream CPUs. Right here, Asus CULV laptops such as the UL30VT have a distinct advantage in the Turbo33 feature that overclocks the system by 33%, which needless to say includes a main impact on overall performance compared towards the competitors.
Sadly, switching in between stock pace (one.3GHz) and Turbo (one.7GHz) requires a reboot, but the impact of Turbo33 on the power draw isn’t that noticeable when other power-saving measures are in effect, so just leaving it on is good – even when running on battery energy, unless you are desperate to add some additional minutes to its already generous battery existence.
The battery existence is an additional facet in which the CULV CPUs shine, and also the UL30VT has been equipped with an 8-cell battery. Asus claims it may manage for 12 hrs with out recharging, which is an overly optimistic quantity. However, it lasts nearly an whole workday: we managed to keep it running for about seven:30 on Asus’ included “Quiet Office” setting, meaning the 4500mhd is active and the CPU throttled to 70% (but still overclocked).
It might most likely be feasible to squeeze an additional hour or two out of it using the CPU operating at stock pace, but that would most likely entail turning off wireless, dimming the show to a minimal and running an even much more aggressive power-saving scheme (and ruin the enjoyable).
Windows Experience Index
* Processor: 4.9
* RAM 5.4
* Graphics: 5.2
* Gaming Graphics: 6.1
* Main Hard Disk: 5.9
The processor gets a better than typical score right here thanks to the overclocking. That Gaming Graphics had been rated at six.1 was a surprise – certain, it performs a lot much better than most other GPUs for thin-and-light laptops, however it won’t run the latest games with all the details and visual results turned on.
3DMark06 Score (1366×768): 3295
Note: The real score for the G210M is somewhat lower – the default 3DMark resolution is 1280×1024 and the UL30VTs native resolution is 1366×768. 3295 is nonetheless a very great score for a laptop this size and is of course light-years forward with the integrated Intel GPU.
Summary
All in all the Asus UL30VT is an incredibly flexible laptop computer that combines excellent battery life and a pretty potent graphics card inside a highly portable package. When you also consider the overclocked CPU and the appealing cost tag this is one of the best offers correct now if you’re looking for a 13-inch laptop computer.
Teitur Hansson is a laptop rater with Laptoplogic.com. He really likes researching all the new notebooks thoroughly. Read the full Asus UL30VT Review at our site.
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