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151 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best under $700 notebooks, October 24, 2009
This review is from: ASUS UL30A-X5 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Black Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) (Personal Computers)
Just received my Asus UL30A-X5 yesterday. After much review, and a try-out with an Acer 1410, I decided that I wanted a full-sized chiclet/island keyboard and the larger screen. I'm already quite pleased with my decision. At the <$700 price point, this is an excellent notebook.
Pros
- Keyboard. A pleasure to type on.
- Touchpad. It drags at first, but once you get some finger oil on it, and change the pointer speed, it's one of the best that I've used. Very smooth two finger scroller. Support for customized two and three finger click.
- Screen. Bright and easy to read at 30 degree angles.
- Battery life. Yes, it will do over 10 hours.
- Weight/size. 1 inch thin and very light.
- Body. Love the brushed black metal look on the case.
- Asus facial recognition login. Didn't think that I would care, but it's nice to have the computer log in, without touch, when I'm sitting in front of it.
- Asus FastBoot (not the BIOS fast boot). This lets you configure which programs load during startup and which load after. Speeds up the boot quite a bit.
- Decent speakers. Not ear-destroying, but suitable for the size. Much better than most netbooks.
Cons
- Placement of touchpad. It still registers my palm as I'm typing even at the extreme setting. Downloaded the new touchpad driver, but that didn't fix. Still looking for a solution. This is by far the most frustrating problem. UPDATE: The TouchFreeze utility seems to almost fix the issue.
- Case still shows fingerprints.
- Web cam is low res and has difficulty in low light (haven't tried different drivers yet).
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117 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Ultra-Portable Laptop at a Great Price!, October 27, 2009
This review is from: ASUS UL30A-X5 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Black Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) (Personal Computers)
I recently purchased the Asus UL30A-X5 through Amazon and am very pleased with my decision. Let me first begin by briefly explaining what I was looking for in a new laptop, as I believe that will give the reader better information when deciding if this laptop is right for them. I am currently a student on a budget and was looking for the following: 1) Less than $700 in price, 2) Screen size between 13-14", 3) Windows 7 already installed (I didn't want an older computer with Vista that I would have to manually upgrade to Win 7 myself), 4) At least 320GB HD, 3 GB DDR3 RAM, and a Pentium Core 2 Duo SU7300 equivalent or greater processor, 5) Thin and light, and 6) 4+ solid hours of battery life. Although a netbook offers a small size and easy portability, I didn't want to sacrifice power and performance for everyday tasks. On the other hand, I also didn't want a large "desktop replacement" laptop that would be a hassle to carry around or difficult to take with me anytime I was away from home. In summary, I wanted a laptop that offered a good combination of power, performance, and size for my money. With that being said, here is my impression thus far after 2 days of using this computer:
Pros:
-Performance: Able to smoothly and efficiently handle everything I have wanted to do to this point. It is even faster than my 3 year old 15.6" Dell Inspiron that I originally paid $1300 for at the time.
-Size and Weight: Couldn't be happier with the sleek look and light weight. It looks even better in person than in the pictures.
-Quality: Some people may think you are sacrificing quality for a laptop with these specs for under $700. I think this computer is built very well, and would argue it stands up to the much more expensive or name-brand models in the same class.
-Warranty: The accidental protection warranty offers an extra piece of mind, which is also something not often included without an additional cost in other laptops.
-Keyboard: Very easy to use, great design!
-Mousepad: I love the textured touchpad on this model. It is difficult to see in the pictures, but the touchpad is actually not a traditional "pad", but a bunch of tiny dots that track the movement of your finger. Also, I really like the extra features such as being able to scroll up or down a page by using two fingers anywhere on the pad.
Cons:
-The only thing that I am not too excited about is the small (or "smaller" when compared to my larger laptop) mouse buttons below the touchpad. This might be something that just takes a little getting used to, but it is more difficult to click the buttons than on my older laptop. Again, this is my first 13.3" laptop so it probably just comes with the nature of a smaller laptop and I will get used to it with time, but it's just something I wanted to point out if you are transitioning from a large laptop to a smaller one.
Overall, I couldn't be happier with my purchase. Sure, there are better laptops on the market as some will argue, but only if you are willing to spend $1000+. This computer definitely earns "5 stars" and I think anyone who is looking for an affordable, ultra-portable laptop with powerful performance will be very happy as well.
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68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cheap and good, October 25, 2009
This review is from: ASUS UL30A-X5 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Black Laptop (12 Hours of Battery Life) (Personal Computers)
I really love this computer despite the facts that it has some issues. I really like the finish, it's very thin, less than 1 inch, but by no means is thinner than the macbook air. The casing is very sexy, it looks very nice from all angles. The keyboard is amazing, the only problem is that it has a little flex but its not the end of the world I can type pretty well. The most annoying thing might be the touchpad, whenever you type and you have your hands positioned close to it, the touchpad might register some click while you type. A lot of people are talking about the battery life of this computer that it won't even reach 10 hours, I can confirm I get 11+ hours on this lappie, Windows 7 is much more energy efficient than Vista (note: I tested under wireless off, lowest screen brightness, power saving mode, word 2007). I really enjoy the price point its less than $700, which is the perfect price for the performance.
PROS:
- Stylish, very sexy looking.
- Keyboard feels amazing.
- Multi-touch track pad works well
- Fast compared to a netbook (C2D, 4GB DDR3)
- Battery life 11+ hours
- Smart Logon, very nice cool feature
- Big hard drive 500GB
- LED screen has nice viewing angles
- Very light and portable
- The charger is very small and portable too.
- Loud quality speakers from small size
- Warranty, 1 Year of accidental Damage
- Price its a deal!
CONS:
- Fingerprint magnet (inside and outside)
- Loud Hard drive (a little annoying)
- Little flex on the keyboard
- ASUS bloatware
- Intel GMA4500MHD, where's the UL30A-VT? can't do gaming
- It doesn't cook, do laundry, or cleans my room.
This computer is perfect for students, and travelers. Recommended
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