Customer Reviews

ASUS U30JC-A1 13.3-Inch Laptop (Silver)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

To set the context: I have a two year old Dell desktop, a 4 year old Dell Latitude D400 (12" screen with INtel Pentium M), and a 1 year old Dell Mini 9" (Intel Atom). Like many, I no longer use my desktop, and the D400 was getting a bit long in the tooth. The Mini I found useful for taking on travel but was agonizingly slow for daily use with a very cramped keyboard. Even the D400 choked on multiple websites on occasion and multitasking was a chore. Of course, neither laptop had discrete graphics.

This new laptop has changed everything. To be fair, I would probably be raving about the better experience on any current laptop compared to the older Latitude. However, I really do think the U30JC, even though it's under $1000, is on the cutting edge. It sports Intel's new Core i3, the successor to the Core 2 Duos (still around at good deals), and Nvidia discrete graphics. Critically, Nvidia's Optimus allows for seamless switching to the integrated graphics when power saving is an issue.

I have not really taxed the computer yet and I will update the review down the road with thoughts on more heavy duty performance and battery life issues. But I imagine a number of folks are considering this model and would find initial thoughts helpful.

1) The build quality is very nice. The brushed metallic exterior and lack of plastic except on the screen bezel minimizes fingerprints. Very solid and looks great.

2) I prefer matte screens but the glossy screen in regular indoor conditions is great. I can see this be annoying in very bright light, however. Definition and video quality are leagues better than what I'm used to or have seen before in sub-$1000 laptops.

3) Performance is awesome on my limited trials. Hulu, youtube, multiple websites, quicken, windows media player. Everything pops up so quickly and the platform has no issue with lots and lots of multitasking. No stuttering, no lagging.

4) I really like the programmability and adjustability of everything. For example, maybe this is a Win 7 feature, but I really like the ability to assign "hibernate" to the power button.

5) This is definitely not a thin and light ultraportable. It's a bit heavier than my D400 and bulkier because of the bigger screen. I am still going to travel on work with the Dell Mini. It would be OK for students but I think it's too big (and performance overkill anyway) for most business travelers. I am viewing this as a desktop replacement and because I'm not going to be using this as my primary movie viewer or gaming platform, I really think 13" is where I want to be at.

6) Battery life seems to be excellent. I have not put a video on endless loop to max out the battery (and you can read technical reviews that are now popping up). HOwever, just having the laptop idling and using it periodically throughout the day, it was lasting a looong time.

7) I am not a huge fan of the chiclet keyboard and prefer the regular keyboards with more travel and contours. However, I can see that this would be easier to clean and it's not a bad typing experience. I don't find the layout strange in any way.

8) I really hate touchpads (one reason why I stuck with Dell and its pointing stick). I found this touchpad hard to use and not uniformly sensitive, especially on the left side. This could be a slightly fiddly unit or could be my lack of experience. In any event, I am going to use a mouse. (Lack of integrated bluetooth on this laptop is a demerit).

9) very quiet, didn't run very hot in my limited testing.

I found the whole Asus package to be stripped down and bare bones, which I actually liked. I didn't think there was a ton of bloatware compared to other companies. The box was very small and spartan and there is no manual (it's on the desktop). Some of the built-in Asus utilities are not fully explained. Most of the Intel/Nvidia and random stickers come off easily to provide a very clean, elegant look.

Overall, I believe now (and will update with additional thoughts) that this is a spectacular value. Yes, there are things that I would like changed, but I am very happy with the machine standing alone and then compared to the price point, it's awesome.

Update: After a few weeks of usage, I definitely affirm my initial positive review. This went on a coast to coast business trip. Battery life was phenomenal (I still haven't fully drained but it was lasting for hours off the cord when just doing basic businessy-web stuff). Traveled very well and was not as heavy to lug around as I expected. (although it is slightly heavier than it appears).

One of my keys popped out (my fault) and so I had my first encounter with Asus support. The support was fine and they are shipping me a new keyboard under warranty. So I am satisfied with my limited interaction with Asus US support. Speaking of the keyboard, I still am not in love with it. The chiclets slightly squeak sometimes and the limited travel does take some getting used to. But I can imagine some folks would prefer this kind of layout (very similar to Macbook).

Having the optical drive definitely came in handy for installing some software.

Finally, the glossy screen has turned out to be less annoying than I anticipated. Almost all of my usage has been indoors and not in bright sunlight. I would not recommend writing a novel in a sunny coffee shop, however.

The balance of this (performance, value, battery) is really perfect for me.

Update 2 (May 28 2010):
One slightly disconcerting development that I post so that others can be aware. In general, I almost always hibernate my laptop. On certain occasions, when awakening, the screen does not power on and the cooling fan starts blowing very hard. I press power for several seconds to shut down. When powered back on, most of the time it actually comes back to the hibernation point (in a few times, it did a hard reset).

I have seen this comment from a couple of other people. It does not appear to affect functionality.

The other slightly annoying thing is that sometimes the screen flickers for a second... especially at the beginning of a computing session.

My only slightly educated guess is both of these issues are related to the growing pains of Optimus and switching between the GPUs. Probably needs to be a driver update in the future.

I just got the ASUS U30JC-A1 a few days ago and have had a few days to play around with it.

The Good:
==========================================================================

1. Design/Aesthetics & Construction/Build-quality

This is a really nice looking/feeling notebook! The brushed aluminum lid is very, dare I say it, 'high-end' appearing, and the matching aluminum palm rest is a nice touch. Very simple, understated, yet elegant design usually not seen outside of Apple's products. Yes, the screen and black bezel is glossy but I rather like it like that, it's not bad at all indoors as long as you don't have bright light shining on it. Also, very solid build-quality. No flex in the keyboard or lid and sturdy hinges as well. The chicklet style keyboard has nice matte keys with well thought out layout (arrow keys, delete key in the corner, function key to adjust volume, etc.).

2. Screen

1366x768 resolution LED backlit screen (16x9 aspect ratio) looks really good. The vertical viewing angles aren't great, but acceptable (a good 15 degrees), and the horizontal viewing angles are wide enough to allow you and your friend to sit side by side and watch a movie on it. And again yes, it is glossy, but really very usable.

3. Performance/Hardware

With the non-ULV Core i3 (350M) processor, the U30JC is a good performer. You can check out the multiple reviews online to see that it stacks up very well against most comparable notebooks. With the 64-bit Windows 7 and 4gb DDR3 RAM, multitasking is a joy. The graphics system (integrated graphics + NVIDIA 310M with 512mb VRAM and Optimus auto-switching technology) is great and allows for seamless transition between integrated and dedicated graphics, depending on the need, and apparently helps with the battery life. I am not much of a gamer but I tested Left 4 Dead (first one) and the graphics seem to perform rather well.

4. Optical Drive

Yes, you read that right, I think it's nice to have an optical drive in a notebook even if it adds to the bulk a bit. That said, many people would prefer not to have one, in which case you can wait for the optical drive-less U33JC (with Core i5) that should be coming to the US eventually...

5. Battery Life/Power Management

I have not done any serious battery life tests, but with casual usage with wifi internet browsing, the U30JC will easily get some six plus hours out of it. I would not count on getting 9.5 hours as advertised unless using really basic settings (no wifi, etc.). There are also multiple power management settings that let you customize exactly how you want battery usage to be managed, which is great. You can even choose integrated vs dedicated graphics for every program you have installed if you want, in addition to the usual backlight, hibernate, etc., settings.

6. Great Warranty

Pretty great warranty, including 2-years coverage (with 3-day turnaround time and free return shipping) and 1-year accidental damage coverage too!

7. Speakers

They actually sound pretty decent for a notebook.

8. Miscellaneous

The HDMI port is nice to have (and pretty standard), as well as three USB 2.0 inputs and the SD/MS/XD card reader.


The Not So Good (Or Could Have Been Better):
==========================================================================

1. Bulk/Weight

Yes, it is a bit thick and a bit heavy, but at the price point it is selling for you can't really expect it to be MacBook Air thin with a SSD, etc. That said though, the notebook is very 'carry-able' and I have no problem putting it in my backpack for a night on the town.

2. No Firewire/USB 3.0

I wish they could have put one in, but alas, no firewire or USB 3.0 ports.

3. 0.3MP Webcam

It would have been nice to have a bit better, higher resolution webcam, but the one they include does work fine.

4. No Blu-ray drive

If they're going to put in a bulky optical drive, it would have been nice to have a blu-ray drive (since there is an HDMI port) and be able to use the U30JC as a HTPC. But at this price point, again, it's wishful thinking.


Overall:
==========================================================================

I think this is a fantastic notebook that really exudes quality and has a good balance between performance, portability, and battery life. It is not perfect, but I am quite satisfied with it thus far and would definitely get this one again!

I received my laptop last week. Since getting it I have uninstalled bloatware and added internet security, Office 2007, visual studio and warhammer online.
While I was installing Office 2007, I was updating Warhammer, browsing the internet with both IE and chrome and the antivirus was doing a scan. This laptop handled all of that simultaneously without a problem.

I was looking for a laptop for:
> work trips
> trips for fun (motorcycle/camping etc.)
> college classes (I use it in place of pen/paper for notes)

I bought a netbook last year before school started and found it to be very helpful for class but I hated waiting for it to load programs, start up etc. Also in some classes I would need a a web browser, power point, word and visual open...which was more than it was designed to handle.

Before a two week long trip this past summer, I bought a bargain gaming laptop. Awesome fast but crappy battery life.

Asus N10j (one of last years high speed netbooks) for school and lite trips.
+ Excellent portability
- Slow start up
- Atom processor sucks for multi tasking

Asus G51vx for gaming on the go (15.6" format, good video card).
+ Plays the same games my desktop will
- Not so portable
- 1.4 hour battery life really sucks

So last month when my wife's laptop died I started looking for a compromise laptop so that I could hand down one of the others to my wife:)


I was looking real hard at the Alienware M11x but was not enamored with the looks of it.
I was also looking at some Sony laptops but was reading horrible stories of their warranty coverage with screens breaking
(too much flex in their design)
I liked the Asus UL30 series but was unhappy with some of the reports of screen quality.

Then the Asus U30jc came out...and the reviews were very glowing...and they are dead on.

Asus U30jc:
+ Plays many of the games I do on my desktop
+ Battery: ~7 hours of web surfing or 3 hours of gaming
+ Nice looking, very professional, best looking laptop I've owned
+ Screen is decent and large enough to actually use
- No Express card slot for my data card...
_____________________________________________________________________
= I ordered this and a new USB data card


The fit and finish are great, it feels solid, the screen looks good, it plays the games I play most, it fits on my desk at school
and in the tailbag of my motorcycle, I can use it all day without having to plug in.

If this were a motorcycle it would be a do everything VFR from the 90's.

It is the best compromise of portability, usefulness and price that I could find.


Maybe I'll give both of the others to the wife...mmmm...nah.

---Update: 7 July 2010
Still loving this laptop. It's been on multiple road trips now and did great.
Two weeks ago: I installed Supreme Commander 2, playing online the graphics look decent, with no lag.
Last night I hooked it up to our 42" Vizio: watched some shows on Hulu, did some browsing with it after, no problems.

I've been using a Dell XPS M1330 since January 2008. It was my favorite computer, ever. Unfortunately I was a victim of the nVidia GPU overheat problem and had my motherboard and GPU replaced five times. I got a lot of work done on the road with that computer with my Verizon Data Card.

After Dell wouldn't fix my XPS M1330 anymore and they gave me my money back, I started shopping for a 13" performance system. I waited a few weeks for the U30JC to get released. So far I've been happy with the system, here are some of my observations:

Negatives:

1. No mini PCI-E slot or extra antenna for my Verizon wireless card. I'm using the Verizon MIFI 2200 device and I'm not happy with it. The speed is only 25% of what I was getting. I'm going to get a USB Adapter instead.

2. No dual headphone jacks. Was great for sharing a movie.

3. Speakers and headphone jacks are not as loud as the M1330. I like to use my laptop speakers in the morning to listen to podcasts in the morning and the speakers are noticeably quieter than the M1330.

4. Touchpad is overly complicated. It doesn't have a right click button. I "get" the triple finger-tap right click. However I think they could have split the long click button and allowed the user to select if they wanted it to function traditionally or this new way. It's so big that my thumbs occasionally hit it and my cursor goes flying. I'm sure I'll get over this.

Positives:

1. The battery life is incredible. I got almost 6 hours of continuous use with Wi-Fi running with heavy browsing, office documents, iTunes (even downloaded some music), and outlook email.

2. Asus bloatware is better than Dell's. I immediately installed Windows 7 Ultimate and used the Asus driver CD to get their required apps on the system. The various utilities load quick, are intuitive, and don't seem to affect performance.

3. Build quality/design is better. The aluminum palm rest gets the job done (no fingerprints). Although I don't love the shiny black bezel around the LCD (it attracts lint), it has perfectly placed standoffs to prevent the keyboard from tattooing itself in the screen (one of my biggest complaints about the M1330).

4. Extremely quiet, not hot. Again, two big gripes for the M1330.

For the price I think this system is a great value. However no mini-PCI is a major bummer. There isn't any competition today in this price range in my opinion.

I purchased this computer after seeing great reviews on the CNET and PC Magazine websites. I would agree with both reviews that you get a lot for your money with this package:

Windows 7 64-bit
4 GB RAM
the energy miser i3-350m processor
Great display
Sturdy aluminum accents
DVD optical drive - for those of us still clinging to an increasingly obsolete format
320 GB hard drive
802.11n wireless capability

All of this adds up to a quick, highly capable machine that should satisfy all but hardcore gamers and high-throughput multimedia types.

Other features deserving mention:
- The chiclet keyboard is a real treat to type on, with a great tactile response. Despite the smaller computer (I used a 15.4 inch HP before), I don't find my hands significantly cramped.
- The multitouch pad has won me over. I find it difficult to use my older computer's touchpad because I have already gotten used to these time-saving fingerstrokes.
- DVD drive is much quieter than others I have used before.
- Battery life, battery life, battery life. Having used a Core Duo HP before (getting a meager sub 2 hours of battery life), I was relieved to see that I might actually be able to watch two movies on a single charge or perform basic work duties for somewhere between 6 to 8 hours.
- Weight - at between 4 and 5 pounds, it's no featherweight, but certainly is easily totable without causing scoliosis.
- Ships in an appropriately sized cardboard container
- Only a little bloatware as opposed to what I've had to tediously delete of my HPs in the past

Negatives worth mention:
- Despite the nice touches offered by the aluminum, let's face it - Apple still does a better job with overall appearance; that being said, this is one of the more visually pleasant PCs I've used
- Integrated speakers are acceptable in terms of range and volume (given what they are), but being located under the front of the computer, it's easy for your wrists to muffle the sound while you work
- The thumb button on the touch pad requires far more pressure to activate the "left click" than the "right click". As a result, I've left the touch-click feature active on the touchpad, just because my thumb gets too sore. I've already noticed that the resistance is decreasing with use, but I shouldn't really have to deal with that - it should be good to go from first use.
- Would have been nice to have a blu-ray drive instead of DVD, which may actually become obsolete before the rest of the computer

In summary, I'm very happy. I've only dropped a star because of the aesthetic issues I've mentioned above, but if those are not a concern for you, feel confident you are buying a great machine at a very nice price.

My son has had this laptop for a couple of weeks and there have been no problems. It performs well and is exactly what he was looking for. Others have summarized the pros and cons. The cost from Amazon directly was about $872 I think, so the current price is pretty high from a reseller.

There is one bad review that should be ignored by others and withdrawn by the author. This laptop ships with a full Windows operating system installed as advertised. It is there when you pull it out of the box and turn it on. No disks to install the operating system or anything like that. Read the comments to the bad review and I think you will agree that it should be ignored.

Love the laptop. Keep in mind its Atheros 802.11n WIFI card runs at 2.4GHz only, and is single stream. Depending on your home networking, the lack of 5GHz may be a deal breaker for you. As for me, I run a dual-band router, so it isn't a issue. Lack of MIMO constrains WIFI throughput, though. With the Asus in the same room as my Linksys WIFI router, I managed a maximum of 65Mbps, while my DELL XPSm1330 does 270 Mbps under the same circumstances using its Intel WIFI card. The Atheros documentation claims that the maximum throughput should be more like 130 Mbps, although I've never seen anything close to that number when using the ASUS with my Linksys configured the way it is. Of course, I run my router in mixed g/n, multi-channel, dual-band and WPA2 mode; which probably eats some throughput. I'm not ready to rule out a WIFI driver issue just yet. Again, none of this is particularly bothersome for me, as I'm more concerned with connection stability (excellent!) than with raw throughput. On the plus side, I'm sure that the conservative nature of the WIFI on this model contributes to its excellent battery life. All in all, I think that the compromises made by ASUS make sense.

Nothing wrong at all with this laptop. It's perfect in every way. I was able to get approximately 10hr of battery life out of this just browsing the internet. You will, however, need to cap your top processor speed and drop your display brightness down. I have my display brightness at 20% most of the time. Since it's an LED backlight you'll notice that some of the screen seems washed out, but if you lower the backlight intensity this will be alleviated somewhat.

I wanted a 13" notebook for good portability, but something with an integrated DVD drive and graphics muscle for light to moderate gaming while on the road. After extensive product comparisons, the U30JC stood alone in this class. It's also great for all the reasons other reviewers have mentioned, so I won't repeat them here. Also, the 2 year global warranty PLUS the 1 year accidental damage warranty makes this a winner. I ordered it on Amazon and waited about a full month for because ASUS had them backordered, but it was totally worth the wait.

Forget about 1000 dollar laptops! With this laptop you can get more things than a 1000 dollar laptop. I just recently got this amazing laptop less than a week ago and I have to say it looks and feels alot better on your hands! I was looking for a laptop that can combine all of the features I need in a laptop. The main core features I wanted was a laptop that had a good battery life (more than 6 hours of daily usage), strong performance like an PC, decent graphics card that can handle modern video games today and something thin and small AND also has a optical drive. I was looking for a laptop that tries to meet those standards for a good couple of months and found a few ASUS UL series. Some of them had what I wanted but the downside was that they had those low ultra voltage processors that were clocked down to very low speeds. So that kind of blew me away. The Battery life was amazing and the laptop was nice and thin, but the build quality was weak as what I heard and read some reviews about it. So ASUS was the main laptop manufacture I wanted to peek in. They had variety of laptops for all audiences. Still further searching, I also found out that Intel just released new processors this beginning year. That pushed my standards even further. (I'm a pretty picky guy that wants the top of the line gadgets#. So instead of looking for intel core 2 duo laptops I was looking for i3 and i5 laptops with long battery life and good performance, but as soon as I thought with the new processors that recently came out I, was thinking achieving atleast 6+ hours was going to be impossible because of their powerful processors. The alienware mx11 also caught my atttention because of it's great performance. Yet it also had that weak processor. I looked deeper and deeper into Asus laptops and found THIS laptop! the ASUS u30JC. It had the specs I wanted... no wait. EVERYTHING I WANTED! Full clocked processor, long battery life, good graphics card, nice screen, great built quality and a DVD drive. Big hard drive too. I was thinking this was going to be my favorite little machine on the upcoming months ahead.

I searched for this laptop on amazon.com and they didn't had any at the moment. I waited a week later and they had it for nearly 1000 bucks! I've seen other website sold this laptop for less than 900. Instead, I bought this laptop from [...] and got it within the next day #It was shipped quick because it was only 3 hours away where I live#. After finally opening the package up and took a look inside, tt was my dream machine that will do my needs digitally for the years ahead.

So far after playing with this Laptop, I fell in love with it. I will go over what this laptop has to offer:

THE PROS
-battery life is amazing, lasted 7 hours with low settings #internet use, watch online videos and downloading music# I also switched the power management to be on the energy efficent side so I can squeeze a bit more juice on it.
-built quality is really good. The alluminum built on the latop is excellent. The palm rest always feels cool and comfortable. I do like the chicklet keyboard. I can type on it with ease since I am a pretty short guy with small hands. #5'5) People with large hands will complain, but people short like me will have no problem typing on it. Once in a while when your typing fast, it can be not responsive and get very annoying. Sometimes when I'm typing, somehow it will move my typing place to a different spot on the web. I don't know if it's my palm touching the trackpad or not but that does also get annoying to me.
-the trackpad is okay. It's my first time using it since this is my first ever owned laptop. It's responsive but don't expect it to be responsive like the iphone's screen. The hand gesture thingy is nice, but i rarely use it since I just use my USB mouse to move the cruiser instead.
-fan is quite decent. Not too loud, but it doesn't blow out hot air when your surfing on the web. The palm rest doesn't get hot either. Maybe the left side will increase in warmth but you wouldn't feel any difference.
-optical drive is good because it's always optional if you want to install extra content into the laptop if you can't find the download digital copy.
-Hard drive fairly good. It seems like I would never fill it up but some will want bigger. It's big enough for me. Since my knowledge about hard drive is little. I think it does a good job writing and copying files.
-yes there is HDMI port but I haven't tried it on my 40 inch 1080P samsung TV yet.
-Not that heavy, It's quite decent to carry around actually. Small and mobile definitely.
-The speakers is decent but I think Asus could've done better. but I don't really care.

THE CONS:
-the frame around the 13.3 inch screen feels cheap. I was carrying it out to my car to take it to best buy so they can remove some bloatware and I heard a snap noise. I opened the screen up and the frame somewhat detached on the lower right side of the screen. You can't see it or notice it but if you fingernail the inside of the frame, you can definitely feel the small detachment.
-the button below the trackpad is really annoying. I hate it and why couldn't they just split the button in 2 seperate ones? It takes time to get use to pushing the button on each side.
-horrible viewing angles. Having the screen facing you is perfect, but facing it back another 20 degree angle, the screen darkens.
-seems like they can make the battery a bit larger to a 10 cell battery.
-webcam could've been better to atleast 2 mp. 0.3 should not be this day's standard on laptops. although webcamming on the video is fairly good, better than my microsoft live webcam.
-can't upgrade DDR3 memory. 4GB is max but it's plenty for your needs on this laptop.


Overall not too much cons with this laptop. Operating system seems to be performing perfect so far. Installed programs, no viruses. I haven't able to test any video games yet but I hope it's strong enough to handle decent games made a 1 year or 2 ago. I'm still downloading Left for Dead 2. So I'll give you guys an update on the performance. Multi-tasking is top knotch and it has a great balence of battery life, performance and portability. If I had enough money, I would buy each of my family member this laptop. Definitely get this laptop if your a college student or an office worker. I don't have any knowledge on updating drivers but I will take a look on those info soon when I get done playing left for dead 2!