Silvery Bezel Black
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Asus UL30VT
Seeing as these laptops offer both a very reasonable price tag as well as vastly improved performance over the Atom platform it has been viewed as the natural successor to netbooks. While the netbook will probably live on for quite some time in one form or another, it's a fact that some consumers are less than satisfied with the poor performance offered by netbooks and some have started to look towards CULV alternatives.
Overclocking with Turbo33
Asus' UL series is made up of laptops with screen sizes between 12 and 15 inches, and the UL30 and UL30VT strikes the "golden ratio" with its 13-inch, 1366x768 16:9 screen. The common trait for all of the UL (and UX) laptops is that they are thin and light and offer great battery life, much thanks to the CULV CPUs, which have a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of only 10W instead of the usual 25-45W.
Compared to the competition such as Acer's Timeline series, Asus' UL series has a distinct advantage thanks to its proprietary Turbo33 technology. Turbo33 offers a simple and straightforward way of overclocking your system by no less than 33% via the included Power4Gear utility. In other words, the 1.3GHz SU7300 processor is able to work at just over 1.7GHz without impacting stability and with a surprisingly small effect on battery life.
Hybrid Graphics
What separates the UL30VT from the regular UL30 is the inclusion of a "Hybrid Graphics" solution; in battery-saving mode it runs on the efficient Intel 4500mhd IGP (integrated graphics), but when more performance is needed you simply switch to the dedicated GPU – in this case an Nvidia GeForce G210M. The G210M is one of the newer and more efficient 40nm mobile GPUs. While it's clearly not targeted at high-end gaming card it is more than capable of some casual gaming in addition to hardware video decoding.
Build Quality, Look and Feel
The UL-series laptops are arguably some of the best looking in Asus' entire lineup. The UL30VT is available in black (UL30VT-X1) or silvery (UL30VT-A1, this one) brushed aluminum and both look great. Although some flaws in the build quality were reported for the earlier UL30s, it looks like Asus has improved on any problems for the VT models. It is perfectly sturdy and there are no unwanted gaps or inconsistencies to be found between any the components.
Like many other Asus laptops it has a larger than average bezel around the screen, which is noticeable now that so-called edge-to-edge screens are the height of fashion. However, the brushed aluminum lid and the slim chassis (which lacks an optical drive) make this quite a stunning laptop on the whole.
The keyboard/trackpad combination on the UL30VT borrows some features from Apple; it has both the chiclet keyboard and a trackpad with multi-touch support. The trackpad is not just flush mounted but actually part of the chassis itself, which is unusual but works great and offers just the right amount of friction.
Another factor that is probably also due to the low-voltage parts: it runs cool – and I mean cool as in the wrist rests don't even get warm! When you're just browsing the web or doing other simple chores the entire computer stays perfectly cool and quiet, and only when you shift to playing games it gets somewhat hot, but not uncomfortably so.
One of the (few) issues I have with this laptop is the LED-backlit screen. It provides ample brightness, but the colors are rather washed out and the viewing angles are less than impressive.
Performance
Now for the interesting part: normally you wouldn't expect blistering speeds from CULV-equipped laptops. Sure, they are several times faster than netbooks, but because of the low clock speeds they are still well behind Intel's mainstream CPUs. Here, Asus CULV laptops including the UL30VT have a distinct advantage in the Turbo33 feature that overclocks the system by 33%, which of course has a major effect on overall performance compared to the competition.
Unfortunately, switching between stock speed (1.3GHz) and Turbo (1.7GHz) requires a reboot, but the effect of Turbo33 on the power draw is not that noticeable when other power-saving measures are in effect, so just leaving it on is fine – even when running on battery power, unless you are desperate to add some extra minutes to its already generous battery life.
The battery life is another aspect in which the CULV CPUs shine,and the UL30VT has been equipped with an 8-cell battery. Asus claims it can manage for 12 hours without recharging, which is an overly optimistic number. However, it lasts almost an entire workday: we managed to keep it running for about 7:30 on Asus' included "Quiet Office" setting, meaning the 4500mhd is active and the CPU throttled to 70% (but still overclocked).
It would probably be possible to squeeze an extra hour or two out of it with the CPU running at stock speed, but that would likely involve turning off wireless, dimming the display to a minimum and running an even more aggressive power-saving scheme (and ruin the fun).
Windows Experience Index
- Processor: 4.9
- RAM 5.4
- Graphics: 5.2
- Gaming Graphics: 6.1
- Primary Hard Disk: 5.9
The processor gets a better than average score here thanks to the overclocking. That Gaming Graphics were rated at 6.1 was a surprise – sure, it performs a lot better than most other GPUs for thin-and-light laptops, but it won't run the latest games with all the details and visual effects turned on.
3DMark06 Score (1366x768): 3295
Note: The actual score for the G210M is slightly lower – the default 3DMark resolution is 1280x1024 and the UL30VTs native resolution is 1366x768. 3295 is still a very good score for a laptop this size and is of course light-years ahead of the integrated Intel GPU.
Summary
All in all the Asus UL30VT is an incredibly versatile laptop that combines excellent battery life and a fairly powerful graphics card in a highly portable package. When you also consider the overclocked CPU and the attractive price tag this is one of the best deals right now if you're looking for a 13-inch laptop.
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