VPN: UL20A-A1
Product ReviewsASUS UL20 Series UL20A-A1 12.1" Windows 7 Home Premium NoteBook
|
60%
0%
0%
0%
0%
|
With 5 User Reviews
|
 Rating: Review Date: 05/03/10 |
|
|
Rating: Review Date: 02/02/10  |
Cons: -Only 2GB ram (still performs great)-The pre-installed touch pad driver doesn't work great-Track pad feels like it has too much friction (but changing advanced settings really improve this)-Lots of bloatware-Speakers aren't very loud (but didn't expect much anyways)-LCD viewing angle isn't great
Pros: -Beautiful design overall-Very good battery life-Good durability and finish-Light weight and portable-Small form factor AC adapter-Nice LCD colour reproduction-Great wireless adapter-Windows 7 64bit-Good price for performance-Multi-touch touchpad-Free Asus accidental warranty Comment:
After many weeks of researching which laptop to buy that would suit my needs, I ended up purchasing this and I'm extremely satisfied. It is an esthetically beautiful laptop that is very light and portable with very good battery life (about 6 hours average). I found all the bloatware to really slow down the computer. The factory software and settings took about 1GB of RAM in Windows 7 (idle--no open programs) and took about 55 to 65 seconds for the computer to boot (I checked this using Window's event viewer). After removing all unwanted programs and defragmenting, Windows 7 took about 35 to 45 seconds to load. Many people will probably not likely the high friction trackpad. However, installing the synaptics driver from the manufacturer website (not from Asus) and changing the sensitivity and momentum settings really make a big difference. Overall, I highly recommend the UL20A for those looking for a lightweight and portable laptop with good performance and battery life within the $650 price range. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 01/26/10 |
Cons: Some keyboard flex, too much bloatware installed at purchase. Fastboot adds no functionality (it only takes about 25 seconds to boot to Windows 7)
Pros: Great battery life, very attractive design. Great keyboard for its size, nice screen, great processor. Comment:
This is a great laptop for the price - nice battery life, a nearly full keyboard, light weight and a great design. However, it does have some keyboard flex (though I haven't found this to be serious enough to be considered a problem). Like most laptops nowadays expect to spend an hour or so when you first get it removing all the bloatware crap that comes preinstalled. |
|
Rating: Review Date: 01/01/10 |
Cons: The X and C keys on the keyboard make a little noise when you type, but its hardly worth complaining about, let alone doing an RMA for. My G15 makes 3x the noise when I type on it.There is a fair amount of keyboard flex, but it really doesn't bother me that much.Trackpad is so-so. Has a strange feeling to it, but works well enough if you don't have a mouse to go with it. (I had to uninstall the default trackpad drivers and install them from the synaptics website (synaptics.com) to get 2 finger scrolling etc)Only 2GB of ram (Windows sits at around 1.0-1.4GB used when booted up)Weak graphical performance, but really, that's not why you buy this computer. It's not for gaming.Comes with a bunch of Asus programs but I uninstalled about 3/4 of them. Asus' power saving modes are confusing, I stuck with default Windows 7 "Balanced" and it gives me the ~7h battery life. The asus power saving mode cuts the color depth and makes the background pure white...yuck!Glossy screen (rare to find a notebook without one)
Pros: LightweightVery good build qualityMinimal bloatware (has Trend Micro AV and a few silly games included)Lightning fast compared to the Atom CPULCD size feels bigger than what it really is, I think that is because the resolution is much higher than my netbook (1000he ASUS) which is 1024x600. This is 1366x768 and everything looks much much better on it.Can play HD YouTube smoothlyIntel Wifi is amazing. I read reports of the Atheros card on the UL30A-A2 model having many problems but this is the best wifi card I have seen in a long time. Picks up signals that my 1000HE can't. Very pleased with the wifi quality on this machine.Windows 7 64 premium (not some gimped version)Battery life is very close to the advertised, i get around ~6.5-7.5 depending on what I'm doing.Comes with cable ties/Recovery discs/utility disc (although there is no DVD drive)Speakers are better than expected, get much louder and more clear than my 1000HE netbook.Has a "smart logon" meaning the webcam looks at your face and logs you into Windows, it actually works quite well!Express gate is nice, but needs a bit of work (IE making the resolution 1366x768 rather than some 800x600 awkward resolution)Lid is much nicer than the glossy type on my old netbook, doesn't leave fingerprints everywhereSolid "on" button, I know this sounds stupid but I hated the ON button on my netbook. Comment:
Overall I am very happy with this machine, a worth upgrade form my N280 Atom 1000he. I was worried a bit that I wouldn't see a significant upgrade in speed but let me tell you, this thing absolutely kills the Atom CPU in every aspect. I am honestly blown away by these CULV processors. This particular model (SU7300) is dual core, and not hyper threading like some of the atom CPU's. I did notice that adding another 2GB of ram really did help out. For the record it has 2 DIMM slots, and only 1 is filled with a Hynix 2GB stick DDR2-800. I threw in another Buffalo 2GB DDR2-800 and had no issues whatsoever. There is a single hatch which allows access to HDD/RAM. It boots up very quickly especially with the Asus Fastboot....Basically when you push the power button, its less than 3 seconds until windows starts to load, I wish my desktop PC could do that!This is only a "preliminary" review as I have only had the machine less than a week. I will update this in a week or two as I think of more things to add. Overall, this PC gets a big thumbs up from me. This review was modfied by poster @ 01-02-10 11:23 AM |
|
Rating: Review Date: 12/31/09 |
Comment:
Very, very well-built laptop. Surprisingly powerful, close to but not as fast as my previous Core2Duo P9500. You can tell the difference when doing heavy multitasking. Still, it works nicely. I can run several virtual machines at a time. although that's not ideal on this hardware. 4 stars for features because it lacks true N wireless and dedicated graphics. 4 stars for performance but that's not the fault of the hardware. |
Overall I am very pleased with the UL20A. Everyone who sees it is impressed and think that it is only some sort of netbook (Its very small). They are amazed to find that this is my only PC. I had the memory and hard drive upgraded a bit and performance is excellent. Living without a DVD drive isn't that difficult. A cheap USB DVD external drive works well and plays movies flawlessly. I gave it lower marks for quality because of a few parts of the construction I don't care for. Overall it feels well-built, especially with the metallic top lid, but the mouse button has a plastic stick to it and the keyboard has a bit too much give. Further, there is a slight crack in the plastic around the screen (doesn't appear to be a problem at all, but probably shouldn't have happened). Anyway,I would buy this laptop again. I've had it for 5 months and it works grea