Features
- 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor
- 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 2 Slots, 4GB Max
- 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM), No Optical Drive
- 12.1" WXGA LED LCD Display, Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn, 0.3M Webcam
- Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64 bit), *7.5 Hours of Battery Life
Customer Reviews
The Almost-Perfect Ultra-Portable
I just upgraded to this laptop from an 8.9" Atom-powered netbook (an Asus EeePC 900HA). Here are my thoughts after using the UL20A for a few days:
Pro's:
1. SMALL FOOTPRINT & LIGHT WEIGHT. The footprint of the laptop is similar to an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper (just slightly narrower and slightly longer), and at 3.3lbs, putting it in your briefcase or backpack is no more burdensome than an extra book or binder.
2. EXCELLENT KEYBOARD. The relatively large "chiclet" keyboard makes for an effortless typing experience.
3. PERFECT SCREEN SIZE. With a 12.1" 1366x768 screen, you're getting the resolution of a 13.3" laptop in a smaller package. At 130 pixels per inch, text on the 12" screen is often pretty small, but still acceptable. I would however advise against smaller screens (e.g. 11.6") at this resolution.
4. EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE. Despite the low clock speed, the UL20A's Core 2 Duo is MUCH faster than any Intel Atom. HD YouTube videos play flawlessly at ~67% CPU utilization, and general performance seems much smoother than on my old netbook. I especially notice the difference when scrolling through PDF's, which was often very slow and jerky on my EeePC.
5. EXCELLENT BATTERY LIFE. After 4.5 hours of mixed light web browsing, email, and PDF viewing, I still had 40% charge left. If the battery continued to be depleted at that rate, you'd end up with--that's right--exactly the quoted 7.5 hours! I used Windows 7's "Balanced" power scheme (not any of Asus's Power4Gear modes). After some testing, I can confirm that the processor will ramp up to max frequency during heavy usage with this mode, so there's no reason not to leave it in "Balanced" all the time.
6. VERY QUIET. Even when using it in a quiet room, it's nearly impossible to hear any fan noise.
7. EXTRA WARRANTY. The UL20A comes with 1 year of "accidental damage" coverage.
8. LITTLE THIRD-PARTY BLOATWARE. The only (non-Asus) bloatware was an anti-virus software trial and some silly games. I uninstalled these in minutes (and replaced the A-V trial with Microsoft's free Security Essentials program).
9. WINDOWS 7 HOME PREMIUM. Unlike most netbooks, which ship with either Microsoft's ancient Windows XP or the crippled Windows 7 Starter Edition, this laptop comes with the full "premium" version of Microsoft's brand-new OS.
Con's:
1. ANNOYING TOUCHPAD. The texture of the touchpad causes way too much friction, which irritates your finger. The pointer also periodically freezes, placing a strange gray circle near the cursor (this is probably some stupid Synaptics feature I haven't figured out how to disable yet).
2. GLOSSY SCREEN. This causes annoying reflections, but in fairness most laptops have these nowadays.
3. ABSURD JUMBLE OF ASUS UTILITIES. Asus includes nearly a dozen separate utilities for various functions. Most have weird names, and it's not apparent what they do until you click on them. They also each seem to have their own distinct (amateurish) user interface. At the very least, Asus needs to cut the number of included programs in half (both through consolidation and elimination of pointless and redundant functions).
4. DISAPPOINTING LCD QUALITY. As was the case with my EeePC's screen, the contrast is too high, and there's a significant blue-ish hue by default. I do NOT recommend this laptop for SERIOUS photo editing (i.e. not for professionals). It should be fine for most users though.
Summary:
This notebook seems to hit a sweet spot between netbooks and full-size laptops: You're getting an almost full-size keyboard, adequate screen resolution, snappy performance, and Windows 7 Home Premium, while retaining much of the portability, low-cost, and battery life of a netbook.
CRAZY GOOD LAPTOP
Current laptop is the Dell XPS M1330, a 13.3 inch laptop which seemed very cool to me in terms of build and weight (about four pounds). But even that started to feel big and heavy so when this one came out-- at this price!!!-- I pre-purchased. I have been tracking discussions here and on the notebook review forums, and have some immediate answers to various concerns:
1. it's 3 pounds six ounces with the battery. Feels like carrying a book.
2. the wireless is intel 1000 bgn and has held steady and been very fast since I first got the computer.
3. there's only one memory stick (2G) so you can easily pop in a second (which I did, before I even booted up the computer, for a grand total of $35.00) to bring the total memory to 4G.
4. The keyboard is full sized, or, if it's smaller, the difference is so minimal I can't tell. It does seem to me that some of the edge keys (delete, tab, function keys) are smaller.
5. It's crazy fast. My Windows Experence Index is:
Processor 4.1
Ram (with 4G) 4.8
Graphics 3.5 (I'm not bothered, but I'm not a gamer)
Gaming Graphics 3.3
HDD 5.8
6. Touchpad does pinch zoom and is very responsive.
Have not installed all my software yet, but three hours of removing bloatware with the computer set on "high performance" and using WiFi leaves me with close to three hours of battery left.
It's incredibly cool, meaning, in this case, temperature.
In sum: I am in awe.
UDPATE: I have been using the laptop continually since my purchase. It continues to impress me with build quality and performance. I have been upgrading all our home computers to Windows 7, and I notice that the Intel card on this laptop finds the network more quickly than the gigabit ethernet card on my quad core desktop, and transfer speeds are as good as or better than the other wireless N cards in the house. So I think the people who have had trouble with the card may have gotten a bad card. (Small comfort, I know...)
I had some minor issues with the touchpad, which felt sticky and slow to me. I finally spent some time in the synaptics settings panel, changing the sensitivity and speed of the pointer, and now find it works very well for me. So if the touchpad is bothering you, give that a try.
I really like the keyboard-- my Dell xps m1330 often inserts an extra letter if I hit a key too hard, or, at the other end of the spectrum, misses a key. Never happens with this one.
More than one person, on seeing the computer, has thought I finally upgraded to Mac.
Note: Did a clean install of windows 7 from a usb drive, no problems, to get rid of bloatware. All updated drivers available for download on the Asus website. There's a very nice summary of all Asus installed software at NotebookReview dot com forums-- search "bloatware" in the Asus section.
A THIN AND LIGHT THAT CONTINUES TO BE JUST RIGHT.
REVIEW UPDATED ON 2-28-10
I've had this laptop for 3 months now and my 5-STAR initial impression continues to remain the same. My comments below have been updated but essentially haven't changed. Several weeks after I received the laptop though, I noticed a rather large dead pixel or small group of them right in the middle of the display. I contacted ASUS directly and YEP they replaced the screen free of charge including shipping and the whole process was completed in one week. The display is now perfect and kudos to ASUS for handling the issue so quickly.
1. LOOK & SIZE - The light-colored silver brushed aluminum lid is a fine complement to its ultra thin profile. It weighs only 3.3 lbs and doesn't feel as back heavy as some other netbooks/ultraportables that have 6-cell batteries. Quality in design, fit and finish are quite evident throughout.
2. SIGHT & SOUND - When I powered the ASUS UL20A up for the first time I was impressed with the display's noticeable increase in brightness and vivid contrasting colors compared to the notebooks I've owned in the past (HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Apple & Gateway covers the gamut). The High Definition LED-backlit screen really will make a pleasurable improvement in your viewing.
The front bottom positioned Altec Lansing speakers have a lot of volume at least for my ears and the Realtek HD Audio control panel offers 13 equalizer settings to satisfy your personal tone preferences. I keep the volume at about the 75% mark because that's usually plenty loud for me.
Much has been said about glossy screens giving off glare from the sun through indoor windows and overhead lights. Frankly I thought this would bother me more than it does but the bother is hardly anything at all with this laptop. Of course everyone's lifestyle is different and what may be good for one person may not be good for another. My lifestyle doesn't require me to use my laptop outdoors and using it indoors imposes little inconvenience for me to turn the laptop or lid slightly away from the offending overhead light or sunlight.
3. TOUCH & NAVIGATION - The chiclet-style keyboard is a breeze to type on. The gaps between the keys provide both room and better viewing of the separate keys, particularly with the keys being a charcoal black color and the deck being a contrasting silver color. I can now navigate easily and comfortably using the touchpad but had to initially adjust to the rather small touchpad that caused my husky fingers to sometimes go out-of-bounds. I use 2-finger scrolling which I personally prefer. Note: If you want to do 2-finger scrolling, you will have to install the generic, but more advanced Synaptics software directly from their website. Be sure to download the 64-bit Windows version. Installing it was easy but you will need an external mouse since the touchpad will have to be disabled during the install.
Lastly, I found my laptop to be amazingly COOL to my touch much unlike some other laptops that feel uncomfortably warm especially on the bottom-side. Also, I never heard the fan come on even once to keep this laptop so pleasantly cool.
4. SPEED & STAYING POWER - This laptop is FAST. I will admit I installed another 2 gigs of memory that probably helped improve its speed. I may open and close my laptop about 6 times a day and most of the time I just put it in hibernation mode which backs up your open applications to the hard drive and then shuts down completely causing no further battery drain as sleep mode does. Startup from hibernation for me takes around 20 second - VERY FAST. Also, opening and closing programs in day-to-day use is quicker as well. I didn't do timings here but intuitively I know they open and close faster.
I use the Balanced Power Setting option offered by Windows 7 instead of using one of the 4 discreet power levels offered by ASUS. The Balanced power Plan gives you added horsepower when you need it and less horsepower when you're just cruising on the highway. With this setting, I get 6 hours of battery life that I'm happy with. Your mileage will depend on your own usage & brightness settings.
5. SUGGESTION - Preloaded on your laptop will be Trend Micro Virus Protection that after a free trial period concludes, will cost you. Some folks suggested removing Trend Micro off your laptop right away and replace it with Microsoft Security Essentials that can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website. This anti-virus and anti-spyware software is FREE. That's right - FREE from Microsoft and it's surprisingly unobtrusive and very easy to use. You should consider this choice.
6. CONCLUSION - I can now navigate easily and comfortably after some initial practice but I think a larger touchpad would provide a more pleasurable navigating experience. Clearly there is a lot to like with this compact, thin & light. I think the laptop's 12.1 inch size is perfect and I appreciate its light weight, sleekness and the fact it's always quiet and cool to my touch. The display is beautiful and bright, the keyboard is a pleasure to type on, battery life is quite generous and the performance it offers is worthy of laptops costing more, perhaps much more.
