The Asus UL30VT netbook maybe the perfect all around package for any type of user. Whether you are a business user or a multimedia-phile, all the bases are covered with the UL30VT which offers advanced graphics power in a thin and light package that is easy to haul around.
Weighing in at less than 4 lbs, the energy-efficient and slim ASUS UL30Vt notebook redefines ultraportable notebooks with new power boosting features.
First of all, it comes with an 8 cell Lithium battery pack with up to an amazing 11 hours of battery life. The idea of creating an overclocked low voltage system is a genius concept that ASUS has executed very well here. The end result gives the user performance equivalent to a regular full voltage Core 2 Duo while still providing great battery life.
It is powered by the ultra-low-voltage Intel Core2 Duo processor SU7300, for plenty of processing power, and comes with 4GB of DDR3 DRAM and a 500 GB drive. Asus has also incorporated their exclusive Turbo33 technology for 33% system performance boost during process-intensive multi-tasking.
It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed which matches well with the 4GB of DRAM memory for zippy performance. Its networking options include WiFi – WLAN 802.11b/g/n (draft 2.4GHz n) as well as traditional wired -10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet ports.
The ASUS UL30Vt‘s ultra-slim profile makes it a contender in both the laptop and netbook space. It has a 13.3-inch HD LED-backlit display which offers brightness and energy efficiency. The display is a crisp and bright and has 1366 x 768 resolution. Graphics are switchable between Intel GMA 4500MHD and ASUS DGE powered by NVidia GeForce G210M with 512MB VRAM. The laptop has auto detect mode where the computer detects whether you are on battery power or AC Power, and adjusts the video output accordingly. Battery power gets the Integrated Intel GMA-4500 graphics while AC Power gets nVidia Graphics.
For an enhanced display, go to nVidia Control Panel (right click, on the desktop), Adjust Video Color Settings, check “Dynamic Contrast Enhancement”, and “Color Enhancement”, then hit ‘Apply’. Your LCD will become very, very nice, with deep blacks, browns and blues, while the bright colors themselves will ‘Jump Out At You’–you’ll think you are looking at a much more expensive computer’s display.
The native HD display is capable of rendering virtually any type of content with either of the video settings, as the GMA-4500 Intel Graphics (integrated video, that uses up to 4095MB of system RAM if the computer has 8GB RAM…with 4GB of RAM the video uses up to 1795MB RAM) are capable with HD content. It’s just the nVidia card, however, that you want to use (whenever possible, ie not on battery) that fetches up 30-40FPS+ with Call of Duty: World at War for example! Yes, this notebook is a gamer’s delight, to a point…don’t expect 70+FPS in deep battle scenes with heavy, hard detail settings, but it is adequate for playing virtually any of the current crop of 1st-person shooter games…Crysis, literally any game available right now.
This notebook will also not disappoint Hulu fans! You can watch full HD video at 1366 x 768, and the UL30Vt-X1 will come through stutter-free, without any problems at all. The CULV CPU, the 1066mhz DDR3 RAM, and either of the graphics engines will do the job. You can count on this computer 100% with any type of video content, either online, HD movies from DVD’s, or even BluRay discs can be played (with a player, of course) at full screen resolution.
It also comes with a good multi-touch trackpad and comfortable chiclet keyboard. This is a fantastic chiclet-style keyboard with about a 1.5mm reach per keystroke, the keyboard does not flex, as it’s structured over a metal frame. The chiclet keys, spacious layout, and overall comfort with the large and not-too-hot palm rest make it an absolute hit.
The ASUS UL30Vt-X1 netbook features Altec Lansing speakers, plus SRS Premium Sound, for a decent home theater experience. The laptop has a 0.3M webcam and digital array microphones, 3 USB 2.0 ports, and an HDMI output. Hooking the laptop HDMI to a 1080p 50″ LCD is impressive. The Fn functions work flawlessly on this laptop as well making it a great
Home Theater option for those people without a dedicated pc/nettop with their setup.
Its dimensions are 12.68 (L) x 9.17 (W) x 0.59 ~ 0.97 (H) inches and it weighs approximately 3.7 lbs with the 8-cell battery.
Customer Reviews
The UL30VT in my opinion is the perfect all around package for any type of user. Whether you may be a business user or a multimedia-phile, all the bases are covered with the UL30VT while offering advanced graphics power in a thin and light package that is easy to haul around.
I’ve had this computer for about a month and the machine itself works well and seems to be as advertised. Battery life is impressive, computer is plenty fast, light and good-looking and the screen is brilliant. Only downsides seem to be the product support.
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.
