Near perfect thin and light laptop

I had been excited about the ULxxVT series from Asus since they were first announced a couple months ago. I originally purchased the UL80VT back when it was released in October but ultimately returned it due to a very noticeable dead pixel right in the middle of the screen. This was probably for the best as a week with the UL80VT made me realize it was bigger then I needed and I didn't really have much use for the optical drive.



Due to my brief ownership of the UL80VT I knew certain things to expect with the UL30VT but I have to say the UL30VT has exceeded my expectations. While I never felt the build quality was bad on the UL80VT it's much better on the smaller UL30VT. Clearly due to the smaller frame everything is quite a bit more solid as there is almost no chasis flex at all. The keyboard is okay. Everything is well spaced although the small right shift key is a bit annoying. Honestly the only thing about the keyboard that isn't great is that it's a bit on the noisy side as its very clackity when you type. I know a lot of people don't like the dimpled ASUS touchpads but honestly I don't think it's that bad and it has tons of multi-functions that really make it a joy to use. The single button touchpad button isn't as firm as on the UL80VT so its a bit easier to press for those who don't just use tapping. The screen is also in my opinion much better then the UL80VT in regards to contrast which I felt was subpar on the the larger model. Viewing angles still aren't great but they aren't on most laptops these days. The hard drive is a bit noisy but it's not really that noticeable.



I know a lot will be made of battery life on these UL models and it should be pointed out that this comes with the 10 hour battery not the 12 hour one Amazon lists. Even still its a 63whr 4400mah 8 cell battery that I have easily been able to get 7 hours of wifi web surfing and there still being life left (sorry I haven't had it long enough to do a full battery test yet). So while it would have been nice to get the larger 84whr battery I don't think I will have had too many instances where I will even need it. Also just to correct another incorrect part of the Amazon listing the UL30VT weighs 3.92lbs according to my precision scale with the battery installed. Still plenty light for me but I don't know how they got 3.7lbs that is listed here. The UL80VT also has the wrong weight listed in it's listing as it weighed 4.8lbs when I weighed that back in October.



Overall I am very happy I waited for the UL30VT 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. There is truly nothing else on the market like the VT series laptops and for $799 you get a lot. Sure the larger battery or longer warranty of the A series UL models (this is an X model) would be nice but it would then cost more and lets be honest it still has better battery life then most systems on the market and almost all consumer laptops only come with a one year warranty to begin with! Given the price I can't recommend this system enough sure there are a few things that could be improved but for me it's exactly what I needed in a laptop at hundreds less then I was originally expecting to pay.More detail ...

Fantastic

This laptop worked perfectly right out of the box! I had absolutely no problems setting this machine up or in getting it to connect to my network. It does everything that it was advertised as being able to do. Even the built in webcam works great. If there is even a single negative it's that it comes with a lot of superfluous HP software. Other than that I am incredibly pleased with this laptop.More detail ...

Actually 5470-6378

Picked up nearly the same model at Costco for $599 after discount. Only difference is a 320GB drive instead of the 500GB drive. Seems like fairly solid construction. Keyboard is quiet. Track pad is a tad sensitive but I've adjusted how I use the pad with my fingers. There is a button to shut the pad off should you decide to use a mouse. Processor is fast and as advertised fires up to 2.5GHz+ when doing processor intensive things. Did run a few low graphics intensive games and it did a fairly admirable job though definitely not on high settings. Wireless-n has been solid. No mute button on the console which is something I like but not a big deal. Screen is bright - brighter than expected - though does have a low viewing angle from the top - and the screen doesn't tilt as far back as my old Dell laptop did. So you really have to be pretty square in front of it. I'm not a huge fan of the outer blue plastic but hey I don't look at the back of the screen when I'm using it. The matte finish on the touchpad and handrest is smart (not like the HP's which show fingerprints VERY easily). Overall great value. Time will tell on durability (I'm hoping for 1.5-2yrs).More detail ...

Excellent Computer for an Excellent Price

I've owned my computer for almost a week now and I'm absolutely loving it. For the money I almost bought an Hp with a T6600 processor and 320GB hard drive etc etc. I bought this for the same price as the other hp and got MORE memory and a better processor. Why wouldn't you want an upgrade of 180 GB hard drive for free? If your a student and like to have lots of music videos and play light gaming and still have tons of room for your homework and projects this is a great computer.



I also love how its 14" monitor so I can take it anywhere and fit it into any bag. It has a very sleek and glossy exterior. A little bit of work to keep clean but that's no reason not to buy a computer. The speakers are great for a laptop. I was actually surprised how clear sounds and music was. As with most HP laptops you get the lightscribe burner which is great but it also comes with a disc replacement thing so if you don't care to use a disc drive you can remove it and save some weight. But really it doesn't weigh that much.



The only downfall I have with this computer is the slightly low battery life. I think a little bit of that might be my fault cause I just plugged in and played rather than letting the battery charge fully first before I started playing with it.



Great laptop for the price.More detail ...

One of the best under $700 notebooks

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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A fantastic mid-range laptop. Great for college students.

Not too long ago I needed to buy a new laptop computer since my old Dell computer nearly died. (There was some sort of hard drive problem that would only allow me to start up in 'safe mode.') After scouring Amazon for several days I decided upon this Toshiba Satellite computer. It seemed like the best value for the money I was willing to spend.



Pros:

Big screen -- This is great for watching movies in true 16:9 ratio. The screen is also really bright so you won't miss any details.

It has a number pad -- I really like being able to use 10-key typing to enter numbers in documents and web sites. Having a number pad is surprisingly necessary.

Fast start-up / Fast wake-up -- This computer has enough resources to start up quickly from an off state. The start-up feels like it could be a little bit faster but again it is still significantly faster than my old Dell. I usually don't put my computers in hibernation mode when I walk away for any extended period of time so I can't critique that feature of this computer.

Stylish -- This computer looks sleek and sophisticated. It is a real joy to look at.

Generous system resources -- This computer has 4GB of RAM and 500GB of hard disk capacity. It also has those new Intel processors that feature "hyper-threading" technology. Since Windows 7 is a system hog a new laptop should at least have 6GB of RAM but 4GB seems to be just fine for this machine. I can switch quickly between programs start programs quickly and end them quickly too. A 500GB hard disk is just an astoundingly huge amount of storage space. There is more than enough space for photos and movies.

The mouse-pad -- I don't know how Toshiba did it but the mouse-pad is the coolest feature of the laptop. The mouse-pad looks like it was spray-painted on top of the plastic shell. It also works really well AND it offers multi-touch functionality. If you need to increase the size of the font on a web page all you do is spread two fingers on the mouse-pad. It is actually pretty damn cool.



Cons:

Atrocious speakers -- OK the worst feature in this computer are the absolutely horrible speakers. The sound that comes from them is tinny and without depth. I find it interesting to say the least that Toshiba would have a mid-range computer with decent hardware specs but include insufficient speakers. Whoduthunk?

Not enough ports / Bad port locations -- Again for the amount of hardware specs this computer has Toshiba only included 2 USB ports. The laptop shell is spacious enough to include 4 USB ports without any problems. My old Dell laptop had 4 USB ports. Also the USB ports and power DC-in locations are really inconvenient: They are located on the right side of the machine. Most people are right-handed BUT protruding cords interferes with desk space which in turn limits the space that most people might have because of the locations of the ports. The USB ports and DC-in power port should be re-located to the back of the machine.



Other details:

The computer is finished with a matte black plastic shell. Just so you know matte (any color) shows off every single speck of dust and finger print! After I type this review I'm going to wipe down the whole machine with a clean cotton cloth. Also the keys are matte black too so they really show off finger prints! Don't laptop manufacturers know that laptops are dirty machines?! This laptop also weighs 6lbs. For me it isn't heavy but for others it might be too heavy.



Final thoughts:

Overall I really like this laptop. It has plenty of resources for a multitude of applications. I can play some graphically intense games without too many problems. It has plenty of processing speed RAM and hard disk space for just about anything you can throw at it. This is a great all-around mid-range laptop. The only reason I didn't give this laptop a 5-star rating is because there simply are not enough USB ports and the locations of the ports should be on the back of the machine instead of the right side. The speakers are also sub-par for what could have been included.More detail ...

Relieved and Extremely Pleased

I bought this HP for my wife to replace her 3 year old Toshiba. It's 100% her computer but she places everything technical in our lives on me and then holds me accountable for its performance. My wife is brutal on electronics and her laptop is no exception. The Toshiba had a VERY hard life and ticked along perfectly until the past few months. After wasting $200 on a failed repair (hard drive) I decided it was cheaper to replace it than to nurse it along. I initially went shopping for another Toshiba and frankly I feel like I would be writing a 5 star review for a Toshiba if it hadn't come down to a $150 price difference. I was able to use the competing Toshiba at a retailer but when I went to Amazon I found this HP. Nearly identical in performance and appearance; aside from a couple of keyboard control features they were the same.



I bought the HP Amazon shipped it FedEX and it arrived to Fairbanks Alaska in less than 48 hours (used standard shipping nothing special). She loves it charged it up and it performs flawlessly and much better than my 8 month old Dell XPS (Argh never again...long story). I have not attempted to load Office 2007 yet but suspect from my research on 64 bit systems it will work fine. Neither one of us cares for the bubble scheme and thinks it detracts from the professional look of the rest of the finish (petty I know).



The mouse pad works perfectly and I particularly like the keyboard layout and feel of the keys. I REALLY like the number pad without having to buy a 17+ inch system which is of course standard now.



4 USB ports 1 HDMI output a great LCD screen and Graphics card...zero to complain about. Oh and Windows 7 works very well.



I'll report back if it doesn't hold up to the flagrant neglect my wife typically inflicts on her electronics but as of for now she is rightfully treating like a shiny new sports car!

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