Customer Reviews

ASUS UL30VT-X1K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I was trying to decide whether I wanted an iPad or a netbook, but neither really fit the bill. I'm a photographer and I need to have a machine that's fast enough for photography, but something light enough to carry. I never use DVDs to install anything anymore and I need a lot of battery life. This machine is the best choice for me.

Pros:
Battery life: On full power, 4 hrs. On normal use, 9 hours. On power saving, about 11+ hrs. UNBELIEVABLE!
Graphics card: I need a video card that can support Photoshop CS4/5 and Lightroom 3. I don't play games, but I figure 512MB of RAM would be good for that.
Keyboard: absolutely love the chicklet keyboard. It has Home/End keys which are important to me and don't exist on HPs similar line.
LED Monitor: unbelievably clear. Still nice to have an HDMI port to output to my 23" monitor, too, but great for on the road.
Weight: This thing is ~4 lbs. No need to carry the cord, since the battery life is awesome.
Quickboot: It has a nice quickboot option that allows you to boot to a lightweight browser and skype experience. Neat, but Win7 boots so fast, I'm not sure I need it.
Turbo mode/overclocking: Very nice option, not entirely sure I'll use it, but still, very nice.
500GB Drive: They partition the drive so drive0 is ~120GB and drive1 is ~340GB. The rest is used for the reinstall partition.

Cons:
Facial recognition login: I like the idea, but the camera resolution is too low for it to work well. They'd have done better by not doing it at all.
Touchpad: It's nice. It does the 2-finger tap to double-click and 3-finger tap to right click, but it's slightly inaccurate and I have to get used to it. I like using a mouse anyways.
Turbo-mode: you have to reboot to switch to turbo mode. Just doesn't seem worth it.
Bloatware: DON'T INSTALL CRAPPY SOFTWARE I WON'T USE ON MY MACHINE!!!

I have several machines, and this one is definitely my new favorite!

I was thrilled when I removed the Asus UL30VT-X1K from its box and set it up. For a third of the price, it seemed as good, if not better, than the top-of-the-line 13.3" Sony Vaio that had died on me after a mere year and a half of use, and no abuse.

Beautiful 13.3" LED screen, good specs -- fast, energy-saving processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, hybrid graphics card, fantastic battery life -- and the chiclet keyboard I'd learned to use and love in my Vaio? It seemed perfect. Except for one slight glitch: the Intel graphics chipset failed after 72 hours. Diagnosing the problem was easy enough; fixing it was not. I returned the laptop to Amazon feeling horribly let down and disappointed. I'd come so close to finding a replacement for my Vaio and it had fallen through in such a big way. (One observation: Amazon refunded me with no delays or arguments.)

Call me an idiotic optimist, but I wasn't about to write ASUS off so easily. In the scant 72 hours I'd fiddled with the UL30VT, I'd really loved it. I also understood that, no matter how rigorous quality control can be (in this case, both ASUS and Intel's), flukes will happen. And given my history -- you don't want to know --, they will usually happen to me... So what did I do? I got myself an identical replacement.

I received it, set it up and began the countdown to failure. To my delight, it didn't happen. Two messed up units would have quenched any optimism and blacklisted ASUS to me 'til hell froze over... As the days passed, I rebuilt my trust in the brand and really began to use this little machine for all it is worth.

The problem with me is, not just any laptop will do. What I look for:
* Low weight -- I travel a lot and can't lug lead bricks around. At 3.8 lbs., it's as good as it gets for a machine with its specs.
* An AC that doesn't look and weigh like another lead brick. This one is a lot smaller and lighter than similar machines', and with a long cord.
* Fast processing, with plenty of RAM -- I edit photos, same as another satisfied reviewer.
* A big enough screen (over 12.1"), great quality-wise.
* Generous storage space.
* Bluetooth and wireless.
* A comfortable, ergonomic, well laid out keyboard, because besides editing photos I also write a lot.
* Off-board graphics card or a hybrid graphics solution, for obvious reasons.
* As many USB ports as can fit on the laptop. This one has three, not bad at all for its size (the Vaio only had two, hah).
* A machine that is pleasing to the eye and nice to touch is a bonus.
The UL30VT has it all. Plus a webcam + mic, which I may end up using some day. And it is beautifully thin, taking up little space in my backpack.

What I don't need:
* A trackpad, because I always use a mouse.
* A DVD / CD drive. I can install or back up to an external hard drive or my network.
* Shiny surfaces. Yes, this machine has them all over. They make it sleeker, but not easier to maintain fingerprint-free. I can live with that.

The UL30VT truly is a pleasure to work with. It is responsive, quick, clever and didn't come with too much brand bloatware -- very little, in fact, compared to Sony and HP machines. I have Turbo mode on all the time, and taking no energy-saving measures will give me almost 5 hours of battery time with no noticeable lag in performance. If I make an effort to stretch it by doing all the things ASUS recommends, the battery lasts over 10 hours. I have never had a laptop with such an impressive battery life. The Kindle for PC software was also a nice little touch. I can see myself reading on the computer's very clear screen, but more than that, being able to carry my bird field guide in the computer's hard drive and not in my backpack -- this is the only Kindle download I've made so far -- is very, very handy.

The ASUS UL30VT is truly conceived to be portable. It balances heft and resources very well, giving me the best of both worlds for a price that seems more than reasonable. I am very happy that I gave ASUS a second chance.

I've had this laptop for two months now.

Pros:

You've already read about them! There really isn't any need for me to repeat what has been said 20 times already.

Cons:

Build quality- OK. After a few days of using this laptop, the computer started restarting itself into the "abnormal shutdown screen." Once it completely booted into Windows, a window would pop up saying that I had a blue screen error (I think these notifications are new to Windows 7). I never actually saw the blue screen though. It would boot up normally after the shut down. Also, if I moved my laptop, the HD would start clicking. Not clicking once every 30 seconds like in other reviews, but a *click**click**click**click* LOUD, repetitive sound. It would do this until the computer was completely shut off. I called ASUS; they apologized and offered to pay for shipping both ways, but it was going to take them THREE WEEKS to fix. I had the laptop for three weeks and now I had to lose it for three weeks? No way! I'm a student and classes were about to start, so I called up Amazon and told them my sob story. Amazon is AMAZING, so they sent a brand new laptop over night.

So, here I am typing on my second laptop. TWO DAYS into using it, my Alt key fell off. I haven't called ASUS about it yet because it isn't really a big deal. But still...two days??! Also, this HD does the same clicking BS as the other one. It frustrates me and I'm afraid it's going to start doing it during lecture in one of my classes.

I'm torn over how many stars to give this laptop. It has amazing battery life. It doesn't get ridiculously hot like my old piece of junk. It's quiet. It works PERFECTLY, except for those issues mentioned above. I'm just afraid that I'm going to continue to have problems as time goes on since I had them so early on!

4/3/11

Today, I went to go use my laptop and I heard that strange clicking sound again. All of a sudden, the blue screen popped up (the actual blue screen!) and my laptop restarted. Now I can't boot into Windows without getting the blue screen of death. I made the recovery discs, but for some reason it won't boot. Now I can't get to any of my files. I haven't called ASUS yet, but I'm still dropping this review down to one star even though the computer will be repaired since it's still under warranty. That means I've had TWO computers from ASUS that gave me the blue screen of death. TWO. I'm four weeks out from graduation, so losing my laptop for that time is going to hurt. I'm pretty pissed.

Why buy the ASUS UL30VT-X1K, when the ASUS UL30VT-X1 has the same specs for $100 less. The only difference is the Kindle for pc program and that is a free download?

I have very mixed feelings about this laptop.

Pros:

* Battery life really is very long so long as you're not watching HD video.

* Has performed reliably since I bought it

Negatives:

* Minor: Charger is a bit heavy (if you need to carry it around). Turbo33 toggle needs a restart to take effect. The first time I turned it on it wanted to burn recovery discs. This required 5 or 6 discs and the unit doesn't even have a burner. There was no option to save .iso images instead. Why not just put these discs in the box, Asus? Loaded with crapware out of the box. I spent a good hour or two removing it all. No Windows CD (I have an external drive I could use it with) so doing a clean install wasn't possible

* Medium: In my unit the HD clicks frequently. I discovered this was due to the hard drive parking heads every few seconds. The HD is rated for 600K load cycle, and this would easily have been exceeded after 1yr of use if I hadn't found a tool called "QuietHDD", originally written for Asus's Eee that has so far kept this problem at bay.

* Major: Asus has not released updates for the graphics drivers in almost 12 months! Because of the Hybrid graphics system it's not possible to update the drivers on your own. Due to this lack of support from Asus there are some people trying to tweak nVidia's drivers to work properly on this system but so far nobody has done it seamlessly with the latest drivers in a way that works well with Asus's control software.

If you're a gamer you will know how bad it can be to be stuck with 12 months old graphics drivers. I will never buy any system with Hybrid graphics from Asus again. If it was not for this problem I would have given 4.5-5 stars, but I find this lack of support intolerable.

Can't add much more than the other reviews, but I've had to RMA the UL30JT twice in the last 4 months due to build quality issues that would make the screen flicker uncontrollably (same issue both times).

I've owned ASUS motherboards and video cards and their build quality is great, but I can't say the same for their laptops.

UPDATE: Had to send in the laptop for the third time now, so I really can't recommend this product at all. It's been sitting at an ASUS repair center in Indiana for a week now without having been looked at. Buyer beware.

After changing some configuration around like screen brightness, turning turbo off and adjusting back light. I'm able to surf the net, you tube, facebook, use Microsoft office for school and etc for about 9 hours without a charge. I installed Ubuntu 10.10 as dual boot and you can get 5 hours of battery life with the linux distro. When on high graphics mode the battery lasts about 4.5 hours. I'm very surprised with the weight, I had a 8" acer aspire one netbook and to tell you the truth I don't feel the difference on my back pack. The only thing I dont like its the fact that there is no button do disable the bluetooth or wireless on the outside of the pc to use with other operating systems. but everything else works great.

First impression:
Started great right of the box, has a really glossy screen which looks really great when its off, sometimes the screen creates some problems thought due to reflection. After doing its own setup, works great.

After 3 months of use, here are some pros and cons

Pros:
Lightweight
Does not heat up due to charging
Has nifty little button on left top corner that turns limited applications on (some linux thing) in as little as 5 seconds. So when you are really crunched on time, its a great handy tool. It lets u surf web, chat, etc. The most useful functionality of laptop in my view
Keyboard absolutely great for the size. (full size)

Cons:
Once my fan started creating loud noise and would not go off till I turned it off. Dont know what caused it but it just happened once. So am ok with it.
Will be sluggish at time (of course its a dual core not a quad).
The webcam is uselessly low resolution.
The startup webcam login is equally annoying as it takes longer to login that way than just typing in the password.

So all in all, its a good laptop to carry around and use basic applications but if you need performance, look for something else (maybe Dell alienware; hear that they are great performance wise)

With hybrid graphics, possible 10+ hours of battery life, this laptop fits nearly everyones needs. Can also be overclocked to get a bit more power out of it for your gaming needs...and still get well above your average battery life!!

I've been in the market for a portable computer I could get work done on. I'm a web developer, and I need a device that supports OpenCL, which somewhat limited my selection to computers with discrete graphics. I thought about stepping up to a computer with a 2010 Core processor (Core i3, or i5), but the were always out of my price range when paired with a decent graphics card, or had sub standard battery performance.

Pros:
So I ended up with this computer. So far after a week, I love it. It works, the keyboard is comfortable, the touch pad required some getting used to but I adapted to it quickly. The battery life has been incredible even on turbo with the graphics card on it will make it though most of a day of work without charging. With the card off, and with turbo disabled it lasts for the bus ride into work, a full day of work, and the ride home, which is what I wanted and needed since I consider that time on the bus as potentially useful, and so far it has been. If nothing else I get to go over scripts and read books while I ride, sometimes I put in actual work too.

Cons:
There is a screen flicker. This is generally when the graphics card is switching. You can control this by setting the Control Panel up correctly. If you don't know what's going on, when you unplug it the screen will dim, and after a few minutes the screen will go black then come back on. This is the computer switching off the Nvidia 210 to the intel chipset's 4500HD which is far less powerful, but relatively power efficient, which happens after 15 minutes as configured out of the box in the OS. It also tends to happen when waking up from sleep.

My only other real complaint has to do with the turbo mode which requires you to restart the computer. On days where I know that I won't be in front of a plug for awhile I turn it off before I head out the door. Otherwise I just leave it on. I've managed to get 7 hours with turbo on, and the battery wasn't out of joice, so it's not much of a problem...

Other than that it's the nicest laptop in the house by quite a large margin. Most of our other devices are at least 5 years old, heavy, don't do what I need, and last maybe an hour off the plug, so this computer has been a breath of fresh air.

The speakers are surprisingly loud for the size, they positively beat up my wife's HP laptop, even if they don't have impressive bass.

The screen is glossy, but I can still read it even in direct sunlight if I crank up the brightness. Color is pretty darn good, and the verticle viewing angles are good considering it has a TN panel and all.

My other real complaint is that the inside of the computer (the deck, and bezel around the screen) show dust like no one's business. I'm almost wishing I'd shelled out the extra 20 bucks for the silver version of the laptop. As it is, I've learned to keep a microfibre cloth in my computer bag, but it does sometimes bug me.

Otherwise this has been one of the best purchasing decisions I've made in a while. The computer has the right mix of performance, portability, and battery life to meet all my needs.