by Erik Anderson

The Sony Vaio CW is one of a few notebooks released this year featuring the new Intel Core processor series. It competes with Dell’s Inspiron 14, HP’s Pavilion dv4i, Toshiba’s Satellite E205 (Toshiba only available at Best Buy), and Lenovo’s not-yet-released IdeaPad Y460 in the 14-inch-display and around 5-pounds category. With the optional Blu-ray and dedicated (but unfortunately not switchable) graphics in the form of NVidia’s new 330M graphics card, all for $949.99 (at BestBuy.com), This Sony CW Review will take a closer look at this formidable computer with an excellent graphics card and processor packed into its small 14” chassis.

Sony CW Series Notebook Review (2010 Model)

Model: VPCCW27FX

Intel Core i5-520M Processor (2.40 GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz (3MB L2 Cache)
4 GB DDR3 RAM
500 GB SATA HDD (5400 rpm)
NVidia GeForce GT 330M GPU w/ 512 MB GDDR3 dedicated VRAM
14” Widescreen backlit LED (1600×900)
Double-layer DVD±RW/Blu-ray Disc/CD-RW
Wireless B+G+N
Bluetooth enabled
Synaptics Multi-touch trackpad
Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter
HDMI Output
3 USB 2.0 Ports
IEEE 1394 FireWire (iLink) Port
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Webcam
6-cell Lithium Ion Battery
Height: 1.5”
Width:13.4”
Depth:9.2”
5.3lbs

$949.99 BestBuy.com

Sony CW i5 Review – Build and Design (9/10)

The first thing you will notice when you take this notebook out of the box is that this machine really shines. The lid is made from high-gloss plastic and sports a metallic “VAIO” symbol. The palm rest is also made from glossy plastic. While appealing at first glance, you may resort to carrying around a microfiber cloth to clean off fingerprints. With a quick wipedown however, the Vaio CW will impress in the classroom or a board meeting. Even though it is a 14″ model, it is fairly thick at 1.5″.

Avoid the jet black color to avoid the fingerprint problem. Sony also offers the CW in red, white, pink, aqua blue, royal indigo and “Crystal Rain White”—white with a light grey pattern only reminiscent of rain printed on the front.  Both the Crystal Rain White and the pink options cost $30 extra on Sony’s website. Also be advised that the royal indigo may appear more purple than blue.

The plastic chassis of the Vaio CW feels pretty sturdy. The only problems with flex are over the optical drive and around the screen. Pressing too hard on the display lid to tilt the screen back will cause distortion in that area of the screen. The most disconcerting aspect of its build is that the battery rattles even when locked into place. It’s not bad enough that I would be concerned with it falling out but there is the potential for the battery connections to get bent or damaged over time. Battery aside, the build of the Vaio CW is exceptional.

Sony CW i5 Review – Screen (9/10)

The 14-inch widescreen (1600×900) display on the Sony Vaio CW is impressive. I’ve had a chance to compare both the 1366×768 and 1600×900 screen resolutions. The 1600×900 is a definite improvement. If you will be working with photo editing or graphics software you’ll probably want to consider the higher resolution. A word of caution on the 1600×900 resolution: it will make onscreen text small. That may be an issue if your eyesight is less than 20/20, although most things can be resized.  The 16:9 screen ratio is great for watching movies but rather limiting when editing Word documents on a 14-inch screen. From bottom to top, the screen is only 6 ¾ inches. In full screen mode, a Word document is more margins than document. Nevertheless, the 16:9 ratio is the new industry standard, and we may as well just get used to it.

Horizontal viewing angles are good enough for two people, maybe even three, to comfortably watch a movie together. Vertical viewing angles are very poor, but not atypical of a backlit LED. If you are apt to move around often in your chair the poor vertical viewing angle may be distracting. The screen is just as glossy as the rest of the laptop, which can be annoying in well lit environments.

Sony CW i5 Review – Speakers (4/10)

By far, the greatest weakness of this laptop is its speakers. As can be expected, the sound quality is just okay with almost no bass; however the volume is very poor. You’ll probably have the volume turned all the way up even in a quiet room, and hearing anything in a noisy room could be a challenge. I definitely recommend buying desktop speakers with the Vaio CW.

Sony CW i5 Review – Keyboard and Touchpad (10/10)

On a more positive note, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on. The chiclet style keys (similar to a Mac) have just the right amount of resistance, perfect spacing, and a little texture to prevent your fingers from slipping. You have to press really hard to get any kind of flex anywhere on this keyboard. Space is limited on the Vaio CW so some keys have to host multiple functions. The page up, page down, home and end keys are on the arrow keys, and require you to hold the Fn button to work. The volume keys are on the top function keys row, and also require you to hold the Fn button. For some, not having dedicated media buttons (like volume, play and pause) is an issue, but I have not found it to be a problem.

The multi-touch trackpad from Synaptics is another great feature on the Vaio CW. A matrix of slightly raised dots give the trackpad a texture that takes some getting used to but that I have come to like very much. Out of the box, the trackpad is responsive and accurate. Its functionality is multiplied by downloading the new Scrybe drivers from the Synaptics website. The Scrybe drivers allow you to launch applications right from the trackpad and really changes the way you will interface with your laptop. (The Scrybe drivers are still in testing mode and are only offered for a limited time on a trial basis. Go to synaptics.com for more information.)

The dual touchpad buttons offer firm resistance and are slightly noisy. You may become acutely aware of the noisy buttons as you’re scrolling through a PDF document in a quiet library. Alternatively, you can just tap the trackpad to click and use the dedicated scroll areas instead.

The power button is located on the top of the keyboard just above the hinge. Next to it are three hotkeys: an ‘Assist’ button which loads Vaio Care, Sony’s troubleshooting software; a useful ‘Display off’ button which turns off the backlit LEDs, making the screen black; and a ‘Vaio’ button that loads Sony’s media gallery.

Sony CW i5 Review – Ports and Features (9/10)

The Vaio CW comes with 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI video out ports, FireWire (what Sony calls iLink), Memory Stick Duo media slot and SD memory card slot, Ethernet jack, ExpressCard /34 slot, Headphone and microphone jack, and a CD/DVD-RW drive with a Blu-ray option. It also has a Kensington Lock slot. Above the display is a 1.3 megapixel webcam.

Sony CW i5 Review –  Performance (9/10)

The Vaio CW boasts the new Intel processor family and latest NVidia 300 series graphics card. Intel’s TurboBoost technology in the i5 allows the processor to run faster than the base frequency if necessary. Also in the i5, Hyper-Threading technology allows two parallel threads to run in each processor core for improved multi-tasking. The new processor should also run cooler and use less battery power than previous processors.  This configuration came with the Intel i5-520M processor (2.4GHz with TurboBoost up to 2.93GHz) and 4GB DDR3 RAM.

Windows 7 and typical programs like word processors, web browsing and photo management all respond snappily. The NVidia GeForce 330M with 512 MB GDDR3 dedicated VRAM handle Windows’ Aero (which provides previews of minimized windows from the taskbar and other new visual capabilities to Windows) without a hitch. HD videos on YouTube and Hulu all play seamlessly. Most modern videogames should be playable at medium resolution or better.  On the Windows Experience Index, this configuration receives a score of 5.8.

Booting up Windows takes 30 seconds to get to a log in screen and 50 more seconds to bring up a useable webpage. Sony did away with the Splashtop browser on the older CW models in favor of the far less useful (in my opinion) ‘Vaio’ hotkey which takes you to a slideshow of your pictures set to your music. However, Windows 7 loads so fast I don’t know that I would ever actually have used that feature anyway.

Sony CW i5 Review – Heat and Noise (10/10)

In the heat and noise category, this laptop is a cadaver. It just lays there cold and silent, even after hours of working on it. When the fan does start spinning, it is very quiet and doesn’t run for long.

Sony CW i5 Review – Battery (7/10)

On Sony’s recommended ‘balanced’ power settings, the battery will last 2.5-3 hours running standard programs like a web browser and word processor even with 100% screen brightness. Battery life is a little less than 2 hours when watching a movie. For the processing power, the battery is relatively pretty good. The biggest knock against it is that Sony has not yet fixed its infamous battery drain problem. A 100% charge will dwindle to about 80% if you leave the CW unplugged overnight, even when powered down. One nice feature is that there are settings to stop charging the battery at 80% even when its plugged in, which should extend the life of the battery.

Sony CW i5 Review – Conclusion (9/10)

Coming in at just under $1,000, the VAIO CW is a sizeable investment but worth serious consideration. With the newest Intel processor, NVidia graphics card and the improved DDR3 RAM, the CW should be able to handle almost anything you need it to do even three years from now. The Blu-ray player is a definite bonus. Few of its competitors can offer the same value at that price. Even long-time Mac Book users may find the CW’s specs attractive. What little it lacks in design and build quality in comparison to a Mac, it quickly makes back in processing power. If it wasn’t for its terrible speakers, it would have received a higher score.

If you’re interested in buying it, I recommend going to BestBuy.com where you can select from a few different configurations at an unbeatable price. Newegg.com offers the same configuration as in this review for $1,119 and customizing it yourself at Sony.com costs about $1,049—and that’s for a much less powerful graphics card and lower screen resolution. There are no guarantees on how long that BestBuy.com price will last, however. The other competitors also constantly raise and lower their prices so keep your eyes open for good deals.

HP ENVY 15 customizable Notebook PC

• • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• • Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-520M processor (2.40GHz, 3MB L2 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.93 GHz
• • 4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• • 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• • 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics – For i5 Processors
• • 15.6″ diagonal Full High Definition LED HP Anti-glare Widescreen Display (1920×1080)
• • Webcam Only
• • Intel Wireless-N Card with Bluetooth
• • Envy Instant On Solution, Corel VideoStudio Pro X2, Corel Paintshop Pro X2, Stardock My Colors
• • HP Color Matching Keyboard
• • One 6 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery + One 9 Cell HP Envy Slim Fit Extended-Life Notebook Battery
• • No Productivity Software
• • HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

I purchased it for $1199.99 + 99.00 tax = 1298.99. I was able to use a $350 off coupon. It may still be available if you search the web for it. My understanding is that it is good for the first 1700 people who use it. [UPDATE: It appears the coupon is now disabled/used up. 1/21/09]

Let’s hope HP allows everyone to utilize the integrated graphics card built into the processor. I’ve heard reports from HP tech support that the integrated graphics card will allow switchable graphics, and I’ve heard reports from others in the same department who didn’t even know that it could be possible. There’s nothing on the Envy 15’s sales page about switchable graphics, but it wouldn’t surprise me since they still list the Radeon 4830 as the current GPU they are putting in their Envy 15’s on the info sheet (it’s only when you go to purchase one that it says Radeon 5830). HP amazes me at how incredibly disorganized a company it is. Here’s to disorganization and to hoping that they will allow switchable graphics.

I will review the HP Envy 15 when I get it in the mail. It’s going to take a while to get here (at least two more weeks). I’ll post updates to this page as new information comes in regarding the HP Envy 15 and switchable graphics (as well as benchmarks for the new 5830 graphics card). Stay tuned!

Preliminary 3DMark06 scores for the i5 Model with the Radeon 5830 got 8621; however, it is not clear what resolution this was ran at. It would be a fairly significant improvement if it was ran at 1280×1024, since the 4830 with the i7 score close to 7500 on the same settings. With an i7, Envy 15 should score somewhere north of 9000 points.

Here’s a link for more info: http://zedomax.com/blog/2010/01/08/asus-ul30jt-hands-on-review-ces-2010/

Here’s a hands-on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYk9kfogYr0&feature=player_embedded

By following the tips in this article, I’ve increased my Macbook Pro 15″ battery life from 2.5 hours to 4.25 hours in Windows 7. By following these simple tips, you too can increase your laptop’s overall battery.  

1. Dim your laptop’s screen brightness. This sounds simple (and it is!) but it is a surefire way to increase the length of your battery by 15 minutes if total battery time is around 2 hours or up to an hour and a half if your total battery time is closer to 6+ hours. The great part about diming the screen is that with little effort on your part (except maybe for some extra eye strain!), you can significantly increase the length of your battery.
   
   
   To dim the brightness of your screen, there is usually a keyboard shortcut that activate by pressing the FN button + one of the F1-12 buttons located at the top of your keyboard.  Most of you probably already knew this, but in case you didn’t, it’s certainly the first place to start when trying to increase the length of your battery.
2. Switch to the Power Saver mode. In the lower right hand area of your system tray, you can find your battery icon. Click on it to select which power mode you want. If you’re just working on your paper or emails, switch to power saver mode. In Windows 7, Power Saver mode disables Windows Aero, limits your processors maximum usage, and switches your wireless to maximum power saving (it will be harder to get signal from wireless routers). Switching to power saver mode with my Macbook Pro takes my 3 hours battery life and increases it to 3.5 hours. You can also set your power plan to dim the brightness of your screen automatically if you want. Depending on the make and model of your laptop, you may have other power saver modes (such as on the UL80VT).
3. Turn Bluetooth Off. This can increase your battery anywhere from 15 minutes (if total battery time is close to 1.5 hours) to 45 minutes (if total battery time is 6+ hours). Some computers (such as HP computers) have separate software where you can disable/enable the Bluetooth and wireless quickly and easily. Also, some computers have keyboard shortcuts or Bluetooth/Wireless On/Off buttons. Look for these on your laptop. It can save you a lot of trouble. If your computer doesn’t seem to have a dedicated bluetooth on/off button, you can still disable your Bluetooth by going to your Control Panel (in Vista/Windows 7 with the Control Panel in Categories mode, the default mode). Click on “Network and Internet.” Click on “Network and Sharing Center.” Click on “Change Adapter Settings.” Right click on the Bluetooth adapter and click “Disable.” To enable your Bluetooth when you want to connect a device just right click on the Bluetooth adapter and click “Enable.”




4. Turn off wireless. Like Bluetooth, this can increase your battery time anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes or more. To disable, follow the same instructions as listed for Bluetooth. Most laptops have a dedicated wireless adapter on/off switch. For those that don’t, go to your adapter settings as described above and disable it manually.
5. Only plug in USBs peripherals if necessary. If I plug in my Logitech G35 USB headset (amazing sound!), it causes my Macbook Pro to last about 25-30 minutes less. In the UL80VT, it would cause me to drop at least 1 hour off my battery life.  Plugging in a USB mouse will drop your battery life only a little (I’d estimate 5 minutes off of a two hour charge), but if you’re trying to get the maximum your battery life, you better opt to use your track pad.
6. Dim or turn off your back-lit keyboard. If your computer has a back-lit keyboard, keep it on the lowest possible setting or completely off. It takes a surprising amount of battery life. Usually there is a button dedicated to dimming your back-lit keyboard.
7. Close any programs that utilize your graphics card for animations (or disable the animations). I normal use Zune to play my music. I really like the software and the cool animations it has. The problem is that when the animations are turned up, it causes my graphics card to go nearly full blast. This causes my laptop to not only heat up significantly but also to lose about half of my battery life. In  my Macbook Pro 15”, my battery life goes from 4 hours to 2 hours instantly when the Zune animations are on. The simple answer is to either find a different program (that doesn’t have animations) or to  disable them. I was able to disable the Zune’s animations and ever since doing so, playing music on my Macbook Pro only takes 15 minutes or so off my 4 hour battery life.

Asus UL30VT/UL80VT Overclocking Overview

The stock clocks were:

Core clock: 606
Memory clock: 790
Shader clock: 1468

The final stable clocks I got were:

Core clock: 750
Memory clock: 935
Shader clock: 1655

Stock Clocks 3DMark06 Score: 3461 points
Overclocked Final 3DMark06 Score: 3949 points
Overclocked Improvement: 488 points or 14%

There was a significant performance gain by overclocking the UL80VT as was demostrated by an increase of 488 points, but how did the overclocked card fare when compared in real life gaming tests?

I fired up three games to test it out. First I tested out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. From the moment I loaded up MW2, I could tell that there was a noticeable improvement. Things just seemed more fluid.To verify this, I positioned my player at the same scene and took a screenshot measuring the FPS using FRAPS. Here are the comparisons. This was while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on native resolution (1366×768) with the textures on high and all the extra features turned off.

Stock Clocks on Afgan: Scene #1 – Fluctuated 29-33 FPS
Overclocked on Afgan: Scene #1 – Fluctuated 32-38 FPS

Stock Clocks on Afgan: Scene #2 – 37-38 FPS
Overclocked on Afgan: Scene #2 – 42-43 FPS

Please note that I picked these spots on the map because they were the lowest FPS spots on the map that I could find. Typically on Afgan it gets around 45-60 FPS. On Skidrow, it was getting about 60-75 FPS while overclocked. I did not test Skidrow on stock clocks.

I also tested Batman: Arkham Asylum using the benchmark test. I got 41 FPS Average with the stock clocks, and 46 FPS Average while overclocked. This was also a noticeable improvement and would most likely allow for a higher graphics setting for minimal extra eye candy or more fluid game play. The big thing I noticed was that the Minimum FPS increased from 14 FPS on stock clocks to 22 FPS while overclocked, which could make a substantial difference in ensuring a smooth gaming experience.

Finally, I also tested CS:S on the video stress test. I originally got 149 FPS with stock clocks. I got 161 FPS with the 210M overclocked. This was less of an improvement, but still an improvement.

This overclocking really makes me happy since I now play COD:MW2 almost exclusively and now experience much smoother gameplay. I had been dropping the resolution down to 1024×768 to make sure I was getting completely smooth gameplay in MW2. I don’t have to do that anymore.

Asus UL30VT/UL80VT Overclocking Guide:

WARNING: Expert Laptop Review is not responsible in any way for any damage done to your computer because you followed this guide. By continuing to read and apply this guide, you take full responsibility for any damage done to your computer due to overclocking/heat/etc (Hopefully that doesn’t happen! And it almost certainly won’t as long as you’re careful).


Here are the necessary steps if you want to overclock your UL80VT/UL30VT Laptop:

1. Download and Install Nvidia System Tools by going HERE.
2. Open Nvidia Control Panel by right clicking on your desktop and selecting the “Nvidia Control Panel.”
3. Go to the Performance area of the control panel (You may have to change your viewing mode to “Advanced” in the view options).
4. After accepting the statement that Nvidia isn’t responsible for your fried computer, you’ll see the area where you can adjust the clocks. Here is where you will want to gradually increase your clocks and run 3DMark06 each time after increasing them. If the computer fails to start 3DMark06 or it crashes mid-run, you know that you’ve got your clocks to high. If there are any artifacts and/or glitches on the screen, you can know that you’ve got your clocks up too high. If your video card temperatures get above 80+ degress, know that you are starting to enter dangerous temperatures. My tempts got up to 88 degrees and nothing bad happened (except 3DMark06 crashed). I just kept reducing and then increasing my clocks until I found the optimum level.
5. The best thing to do is to gradually increase each clock until the video card becomes unstable. Once the video card becomes unstable, you’ll want to taper back the clocks a little from there to where the clocks are completely stable. This is where you’ll want to keep them at from then on (unless you need to reduce them again for some reason). If after gaming for a couple hours, your computer begins to crash even though it never used to–you can know that you most likely need to turn you clocks down a notch once more.
6. Keep in mind that the clocks I posted were for a UL80VT, which is slightly thicker so it may have better air flow than the UL30VT and thus may be a little more overclocking friendly.

That’s basically it as far as it goes for overclocking. It is really quite simple. Good luck overclocking everyone! Post your highest 3DMark06 score in the comments section below. I’d love to see someone break the 4000+ barrier. I have to imagine that someone’s computer ought to be able to (i.e. because each laptop has a different overclocking potential due to varying construction quality /surrounding heat issues, though all the UL80VT/UL30VT’s should be very close).

For the full gaming round up (including screenshots), head on over to Asus UL30VT/UL80VT Gaming Benchmarks. There is also a article comparing the UL80VT to the Macbook Pro 13″. Also, if you’re interested in the UL30VT, be sure to also check out my first impressions of the UL30VT.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review – First Impressions 10/10

My First impression of the UL30VT was that it was extremely well built. It exhibited minimal/no flex when I tried to make it bend in any direction (more on the build quality later). It was thinner and lighter than the UL80VT and yet had all the same features (except no optical drive + smaller battery). I was very impressed with it. Another thing I noticed right off the bat was that the keyboard exhibited almost no flex, while the UL80VT had exhibited a little more.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Gaming Performance – Rating 9/10 (for an ultraportable)

Okay, so you have to consider the fact that the UL30VT is not specifically designed to be a gaming laptop. It is designed to be extremely portable and light with a long battery life—and yet because of its hybrid graphics card, it can play nearly all of the latest games on decent settings. It most definitely isn’t a portable powerhouse that can make any game cry for mercy—rather it is a ultraportable that can still play games, and play them fairly well.

I have tested the UL30VT out in a number of games, but there’s no point rewriting an entire gaming section when I can just copy the gaming section specifically from the UL80VT (since the hardware is identical on the inside). Yes, you can expect the exact same performance with the UL30VT as you can with the UL80VT. Here’s the section from the UL80VT article:

Over the last view days, I took the UL80VT-A1 out for spin in a series of gaming tests. For in game screenshots, see the Asus UL80VT Gaming Benchmark article.

First, it should be noted that I got a 3461 when I ran 3DMark06. Note: These tests were done in high performance mode withthe SU7300 1.73 Ghz overclocked in Turbo33 mode.

The first game I tested was the ever popular Counter-Strike: Source. I was surprised by the computer’s ability to put out 150 FPS average in the stress stress at native resolution. I had been expecting to get closer to 80-100 FPS. I then tested it with 4x AA on, and it resulted in 99 FPS. In game FPS on de_dust2 varied. It averaged about 60-70 FPS with no AA with occasional dips down to 40 FPS. The game was certainly playable on high and native resolution.

In the Crysis gaming test, the Asus UL80VT-A1 managed an average of 32 FPS at native resolution with everything on low. The game still looked great and was enjoyable to play despite it being on low settings. Of course for the full effect, you really need a high class desktop to run this game at maximum settings.

Left4Dead 2 ran very well (40-60 FPS) at native resolution with textures on high and shaders on medium and no AA. If you bumped up the shaders and effects to very high and high and turned on 2x AA, the game played at about 26-35 FPS, which was still fairly playable though not as smooth with the settings in the medium range.

I was eager to test out the UL80VT’s performance in some of the latest games. I had recently purchased Batman: Arkham Asylum. I loaded it up with the default settings, which were set on Very High at native 1366×768 resolution. Game play was fairly playable, but it was also noticably choppy at times (26 FPS average in the video stress test).  I dropped the settings down to medium. This time it got 40 FPS average in the video stress test and game play was perfectly playable and smooth. In game frame rates on medium varied from 25-35 and had rare dips below 20 FPS, but the gameplay was smooth with no noticable hiccups in combat.

I then downloaded Team Fortress 2. It has been known to give ultraportable gaming machines a tough time due to its high shader requirements. When playing, I averaged about 50-60 FPS at native resolution with everything on High with no AA. I noticed drops down to just under 30 FPS when in heavy combat action, but it was not too disruptive to game play. I don’t think it went below 25 FPS during the time I played. [See screenshots below]

After hearing claims that Asus UL80VT could not run Need For Speed: Shift well. I decided to download the demo to see if these claims were true. I was able to achieve playable frame rates, though it was a little choopy with the default settings, which had the screen at 1024×768 resolution and everything else up in detail. I tried changing the settings, but after changing the settings to lower the resolution to 800×600, the game repeatedly gave me an error and crashed right as the race was about to start.

Unfortunately, I was not able to do a formal test because it kept crashing, but it was clear that the game was getting at least 30 FPS at 800×600 resolution with texture settings on High. I would expect the game to be very playable as long as you are content with 800×600 or possibly slightly higher resolution.

I also managed to squeeze in a little play time in Protoype, another recent game that was released earlier this year. It played very smoothly at the default 1280×720 (which was the max res for some reason) and on the default medium settings. Frame rates were in the 30-40 range with dips down to 25.

Another game I was able to try was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. People will be glad to know that I was able to achieve 30-60 FPS at native resolution 1366×768 with texture settings on “High.” I also turned off all of the extra graphical features, which I didn’t think made much of a difference in visuals anyway.

I fired up Shattered Horizon, but unfortunately it only got around 15-17 FPS on average at 1024×768. If one was desperate enough, you might be able to play it, but for most people it would not be an enjoyable experience.

In conclusion regarding the gaming performance of the Asus UL30VT/UL80VT ultraportable laptop, it has excellent performance for its size and handles most modern games fluently at native resolution with settings varying from high to low depending the game.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Battery Life – Rating 9/10

Sadly, the UL30VT does not include the larger watt hour battery that is included with the UL80VT (both batteries are 8-cell batteries, but the UL80VT has a 5600 mAh battery and the UL30VT has a 4400 mAh battery). This means that you are going to get 2 hours less battery life out of it than you would if you were to get the UL80VT. I tested out the battery and they fit right within the predictions indictated. You can get right around 5.5-6 hours out of it if you have wifi on and are surfing on 80% brightness. If you turn the brightness all the way down and do minimal surfing with wifi on, you might be able to pull 7 hours. If you turn wifi off and the brightness all the way down, you can get close 10 hours of idling time in a word document/etc.

Of course, this is excellent battery life, but it was disappointing that Asus didn’t include the larger battery since it can make a significant difference. For this reason, I only gave it a 9/10 for battery life.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review -Build Quality – Rating 9/10

The build quality on the UL30VT is excellent with minimal to no flex on the chassis. The keyboard only flexes a tad if you press on it fairly hard. It does not flex as much as the UL80VT. The keyboard did not make any rattling noise, although the keyboard was a little louder than the UL80VT. One thing I did notice that lacked rigidity was the bottom plastic between where the speakers are located and where the hard drive enclosure is. I noticed this area of the plastic bend in when I picked up the laptop by the front. It isn’t a big deal because I doubt it would ever be an issue for anyone because I doubt it would break, but I was a little disappointed to find this weak spot in the chassis.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Heat Management – Rating 10/10

The UL30VT handles heat just as well as its bigger brother. Under normal use with the integrated graphics card enabled, you will not be able to feel the heat on the bottom of the laptop, except near the vent on the right side.

The heat on this bad-boy is noticeable but only just barely. I think more heat is generated because it is restricting the airflow over your lap more than anything. Whenever my lap started to feel a little warm, I would feel the bottom of the laptop but the bottom of the laptop rarely seems to get hot while web surfing and word processing. It was always just the fact that my legs weren’t getting as much air to cool them down.

I was also able to do my entire series of gaming benchmarks while on my lap. Though it became mildly uncomfortable, gaming on the lap is definitely doable since the laptop even while under heavy stress only gets about as warm as most other laptops do while idling.

This laptop along with the UL80VT is by far the coolest running laptop I have ever owned (I’ve owned about 15 different laptops…). I give it a 10/10 in heat management.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Sound Quality – Rating 6/10

The speakers on the UL30VT are slightly worse than on the UL80VT. They do not put below average volume and have no bass and only minimal mid-range sound. In an quiet room, they will sound okay and be clearly heard, but if there is any other loud noises, don’t expect to be able to hear them well. Part of the problem is that the speakers are located near the front so that when the laptop is on your lap the speakers are muffled. I’d say you only get about 75 percent volume when on your lap compared to when it is on a table. The speakers were about the same as on the UL80VT, but the front of the UL30VT has more of a slant so that the speakers are more muffled when the notebook is on your lap (compared to the UL80VT).

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Screen Quality 8/10

The screen on the UL80VT is virtually identical to the one on the UL80VT. It’s just a little smaller. I thought that the screen had better overall quality than the last several laptops I’ve purchased, and it was better than the Dell Studio 14z’s screen by a bit, and it was a little better than the dm3z’s screen because it had deeper colors. The main issue with the UL30VT’s screen is a very narrow vertical viewing angle. The screen is certainly very bright, and I am certainly not as picky as some people in this area. Although, some would have preferred to have a better quality screen with better contrast and better viewing angles, I personally give it a 8/10 because I am very satisfied with it and I think most people will be too.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Keyboard – Rating 9/10

I find the keyboard to be excellent with minimal to no keyboard flex. The keys are well spaced apart. It will take some getting used to with the island style keyboard, but once you are used to it, it is a nice typing experience. There has been no issues with keyboard rattling. The other good news is that the keyboard includes a dedicated Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys. Some laptops sacrifice those keys in order to fit everything onto a 13″ chassis (i.e. HP Dm3t/z, Macbook/Macbook Pro). Have the keys be dedicated really helps writers who are accustomed to having dedicated keys for those functions.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Track Pad – Rating 9/10

I find the track pad to be the best track pad I have ever used on a PC laptop. It does have a glossy surface, but I did not find that the surface was not nearly as sticky as the surface on many HPs (including the dm3z, dv4t, dv5t). I also found the trackpad to be responsive and that the multitouch gestures such as two-finger scrolling to work perfectly nearly every time.

The ELAN touch pad has configurable options to enable you to change the sensitivity of the two-finger scroll as well as enable you to use two and three finger taps to do customizable actions. I have my two-finger tap to do a right click and my three-finger tap to show my desktop.

My only complaint regarding the touch pad is that the uni-button. Although the sides are easier to press down than on the UL80VT, it is still not ideal. The uni-button looks like only one button, but has a left side and right side that makes up two buttons. When the uni-button was pressed towards the middle, it was very difficult to click, but if you pressed it near the ends the button became more usable. This was also the case with the Acer Timeline 4810t that I had owned for some time. I have found that the tap to click function is very usable, especially since I can just use two fingers if I need to right click. Therefore, I hardly use the button anymore anyway. My system works just fine.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Ports – Rating 8.5/10

The ports on the UL30VT include 3x USBs, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA, 1x Headphone, 1x Mic, 1x SDHC card slot, and 1x Networking port. This port selection is great, but is missing an eSata port that is now being included on most laptops today. This was why it only got a 8.5/10 in the ports category.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Other Thoughts

While reviewing the UL30VT, I ran into couple other issues with the user interface that will hopefully be addressed with driver updates. Currently, when I switch to integrated graphics, about 1 min after the switch occurs, the screen goes black on me for about 5 seconds. It has always successfully came back on. I would imagine that the video driver just needs updating and the issue will go away. Also, when switching between dedicated and integrated graphics, you have to sometimes exit out of programs that were using video memory (such as video games, Steam client, internet browser if watching online videos).

TIP: If the graphic cards aren’t switching, right click on the little green icon in the system tray (bottom right hand corner next to the clock) and then click on “Increase/Decrease Performance.” A dialog box will pop up and tell you what program you need to close to get the graphics cards to switch. This is kind of an annoying step, but necessary in order to successfully switch between the graphics cards on the fly.

The other issue is that the track pad sometimes becomes unresponsive. I believe the problem is being caused by dust/oil from fingers/piece of food/etc being on the track pad and registering a touch. To fix this, I usually just wipe my fingers across the pad, and the problem usually goes away instantly.

I’ve also heard that some people have had issues with their Bluetooth signalbeing interrupted when they place their hand on the track pad. This caused their Bluetooth mouse signal to be temporarily interrupted.

Asus UL30VT-X1 Review - Conclusion and Overall Verdict – Rating 9.5/10

The UL30VT-X1 currently is the one of the best buys out there in the ultraportable category. It excels at performance with minimal to no slowdowns. Its video card out performs all other competition in its size category (13” and less than 1” thin). It continues to impress with excellent build quality, a great keyboard, and excellent track pad. Its flaws are minimal (poor speakers, poor vertical viewing angles on the screen). I can’t help but whole heartedly recommend the UL30VT to anyone looking for a sleek, mid-range performance ultraportable at a great price.

Some things to look for in upcoming UL30VT models would be an increased size in battery capacity and the possibility of a silver edition arriving some time in 2010. If you’re looking something very similar to the UL30VT, but you want to have a optical disc drive included. You should definitely check out the UL80VT. Be sure to check out our review of the UL80VT for a comparison.

UPDATE (1/12/2010): The UL30JT with the ULV i7 Quad core processor will be released in the coming months. If you can wait, the UL30JT just might be worth it. Check out the UL30JT article here.

First Impressions 10/10

Gaming Performance – Rating 9/10 (for an ultraportable)

Battery Life – Rating 9/10

Build Quality – Rating 9/10

Heat Management – Rating 10/10

Sound Quality – Rating 6/10

Screen Quality 8/10

Keyboard – Rating 9/10

Track Pad – Rating 9/10

Conclusion and Overall Verdict – Rating 9.5/10

Gaming Performance Article

Asus UL80VT Comparison to Macbook Pro Article

Hello Everyone!

I recently purchased a UL30VT from Amazon. I’m just going to give you my first impressions of the unit so far compared to the UL80VT right now, but I will be publishing a full fledged review of the UL30VT shortly. I would also be publishing a comparison article between the UL80VT and the UL30VT, which will include hands on pictures with the two laptops side by side and stacked up on each other.

My first impression of the UL30VT is that the chassis is very solid with no creaking noises coming from the palm rests, which was expected as the UL30VT has been placed in an entirely different chassis without the optical disc drive. The only complains that I have about build quality is that when I pick up the laptop I can feel the plastic on the bottom of the laptop bend in noticeably. If you squeeze, you will noticed the bottom plastic flex. I don’t think this would ever become an issue that would cause the laptop to break down so I wouldn’t worry about this. The keyboard has only extremely minimal flex and is certainly better than the UL80VT in this department. The screen is also very similar to the UL80VT in that it is bright but doesn’t have the best contrast ratios and suffers from a narrow viewing angle.

As far as the compenents inside, they are nearly identical to the UL80VT, but differ in that it included a 500 GB hard drive (compared to a 320 GB in the UL80VT), bluetooth (not inluded in UL80VT), and smaller battery compared to the UL80VT (you’ll get about 2 hours less with the UL30VT’s battery). I have also noticed that the UL30VT gets only slightly warm (the same way the UL80VT did). I have played games with it on my lap and it never got uncomfortably hot.

In terms of size, there is a noticeable difference in size between the UL30VT and the UL80VT, but it is minimal in my opinion. They are both very thin and light systems. If you need an optical drive and don’t mind risking getting  a creaky palm rest (that is fixable), I definitely recommend the UL80VT to you. If you don’t need a optical drive, I would most certainly recommend the UL30VT to you since it will provide you with the same performance in a noticeably smaller package with a give and take in features.

Oddly enough, so far I’ve had a number of driver issues with the UL30VT that have caused a number of games to crash and/or become non-responsive. I did not run into these issues with the UL80VT. I also was not able to update the drivers from Nvidia’s website because the Nvidia driver installation said that it could not detect any compatiable hardware. I ended up installing the drivers from the Asus support website but these also had some problems. The main game the drivers have had issues with is Left4Dead 2, which crashes the moment actually get into gameplay. This is just a bump in the road, however, and is certainly a fixable issue. You can expect identical gaming performance from the UL80VT and the UL30VT since it has the same hardware under the hood.

You can currently purchase the UL30VT on Amazon. I am not aware of any place else. Here is a link:

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