r31ncarnat3d

[NOTE]: Unfortunately, I put this review off for too long, as the model is now discontinued, but since I already started I might as well finish!


Hey there, OCN, this is my first in what I hope to be many reviews by me, r31ncarnat3d!

Today, I'll be looking at the Asus U81a laptop. Unlike most reviews, this will be based on my experience with the laptop; this means real-world numbers instead of synthetic benchmarks.

Backstory: I came across this laptop on accident, to be honest. I walked into Best Buy looking for the Acer Timeline, and it turns out they didn't stock it at the time. However, this caught my eye as I was walking out.

Being a computer enthusiast, I was no stranger to the Asus name. After testing this out in the store, I knew it was love. Without any reviews or knowledge of this product, I purchased it for $650+tax, and I've never regretted it since.

Overview: This laptop is, in my opinion, the cheaper alternative to a Macbook. This machine comes with a Core 2 Duo T6500 @ 2.1 GHz and 4GB of RAM like most laptops. What sets this machine apart, however, is its claimed 7 hours of battery life and 4.6 lbs weight, which will be tested later on in the review. It sports a thin and elegant design, which Asus claims was based on the butterfly's wings. As for the technical specifications:

Now for the nitty-gritty!

Performance
For a laptop advertised as a light and mobile machine, I was extremely surprised by its horsepower. Its Core 2 Duo performed just like it should; unlike my past laptop (Compaq C-500), this miniscule beast took all the abuse I threw at it and more. At any given time, I had the usual Firefox, Trillian, iTunes sync, Pandora Radio music, and various PowerPoint/PDF notes on all at once with no stutter or lag. In fact, I’ve been able to encode on Adobe After Effects CS4 while picture editing on Adobe Photoshop CS4 and still encountered no problems. Simply amazing for a on-the-go machine.

Body
As the pictures show, this laptop looks as well as it performs. Very defined, elegant contours on this laptop gives it look as well as mobility. Something I do have to criticize, however, is its resemblance to Sony’s styings. This laptop looks amazing, but I’d wish Asus could be a bit more creative here. Although I love the glossy look of this, I find it rather annoying how quickly it picks up handprints and oil. I’ve given up cleaning it, as it picks up fingerprints almost immediately after a good wiping. I’d definitely prefer a matte finish here.

As for the keyboard, I prefer the chiclet-keyboard design over the old fashioned key design. Unfortunately and obviously, this isn’t a mechanical keyboard, but it’s still a good keyboard to type on. I have to admit, typing on this is much more comfortable than typing on my G15. A flaw I see in the laptop, however, is that the matte finish of the keys wear out overtime to review a glossy covering underneath. After four months of abuse, the left side of my keyboard is starting to shine while the right side still remains under the dull matte finish. Additionally, the left shift key popped out after three months of use. It took less than two minutes to repair, and hasn’t had a problem left, but keys should still never pop out at this young an age.

The mousepad itself is nothing extraordinary. It is a decent-sized pad with enough room to maneuver and a single bar that acts as both left and right click. Press it on the left side to left click, and press it on the right side to right click. However, something that is incredibly convenient and time-saving is the multi-touch feature of this pad. Although not an exclusively hardware feature, the feature is nevertheless productivity-friendly. I definitely love being able to scroll quickly without a scrollwheel.

With the weight of this laptop, I was amazed. At 4.6 lbs, this was easily the lightest thing I had to carry between classes. I could literally throw this laptop in my backpack and carry it around on a single strap; it is that light. This is extremely convenient for the college student with lots of books to carry around.

Connectivity
To make things simple, this laptop sports 3 USB ports for peripherals, an SD slot for memory, a DVD-RW drive, standard 3.5mm headphone/mic jacks, and VGA and HDMI ports for display.

Personally, I think the layout of the USB ports could be better designed. The spread between the two USB ports on the left side made it a bit hard for me to connect a few externals that needed the second port for power. Additionally, it was impossible for me to use the HDMI port when my external was connected. Another flaw was the location of the eject button for the DVD drive; I’ve accidentally hit it while walking and had the drive open up on me.

This laptop does not come with a FireWire port, which may be a con to some, but I never found it hampering. I personally would have liked an E-SATA port on this myself, but alas there seems to be no real estate for it.

Video
The Intel GMA4500 may be underpowered for some users, but for a mobile laptop it was more than enough power for me. I was able to watch movies comfortably on this laptop, as well as some light gaming. The laptop was also able to run Sims 3 at native resolution with no lag.

The VGA and HDMI ports were also incredibly convenient; I’m actually glad they chose HDMI as it makes for less hassle when connecting my monitor to my laptop. The video also scales amazingly well, and it makes for a great DVD player on my 24” when I do not want to waste power with my main gaming rig.

A flaw that many people would notice is the low-resolution screen. After getting used to 1080p on my main monitor, the difference was noticeable to me, but not a deal breaker. After all, this is a mobile workhorse and not an entertainment machine.

Storage
Coming from a 80Gb harddrive, the change to a 320Gb was definitely welcome by me. Of course, this is OCN, and we all know about storage capacities, so let’s move onto performance.

The speed of this drive absolutely amazed me. Back when I was running Vista Ultimate x64, this loaded up in about 45 seconds (my old laptop loaded up XP in that time). Now that I have Windows 7 Professional x64, it takes less than 30 seconds from boot to log-in screen. Also unlike my old Compaq, I’m able to load up all my shows and movies without any lag or stutter.

Battery Life

This is where the laptop truly excels. Asus advertises this laptop as capable of 7 hours of battery life. Within 4 months of usage, I’ve actually met that goal. With Wi-Fi on and screen brightness at 10% (which I was definitely comfortable with for daily use) and on/off use, I managed to go from 8am to 3:30pm before needing to plug this in.

On a normal day, with regular usage (Wi-Fi on and internet surfing/school work, music playing through earphones, MS OneNote for class note-taking), sleep mode after 5 minutes of idle use, I can last around 6 hours with this laptop. I almost regularly find myself showing up to class at 7:30am, and continue to use the battery until 1:30 before recharging. Even after 4 months of use, the battery capacity is still strong.

As for intensive use, just two days ago (Remember, remember, the 5th of November), I was able to play through the entirety of V for Vendetta with sound through the 3.5mm jack on just the battery. Afterwards, I managed to squeeze out an additional 2 hours of regular use (see above) before the machine demanded a wall plug.

What truly amazes me is that the battery is only a 6-cell. As the pictures show, it’s a relatively small battery. It fits into the contours of the laptop well, weighs little, and doesn’t jut out like most batteries do.

There are definitely no flaws with the battery. As a college student at school from 8am to 8pm two out of five days of the week, I’ve found the battery to be absolutely indispensable. I’ve even ordered a second battery to use when this one fails (of which there are no signs of yet).

Sound
This might be the weakest part of the laptop. The 3.5mm jacks work just fine, but the speakers by itself are horrendous. The sound is tinny and lacks depth (then again, I might be spoiled by my Z-2300s), and it is definitely too quiet for my taste.

However, Asus meant for the user to download a utility off of their driver CD called “SRS Premium Sound”. With this bit of software, all the problems I had to complain about disappear (except for its comparison to my Z-2300s). The sound has depth and even 3D-positioning, and is loud enough to blast in a dorm room or my apartment.

I definitely do not agree with Asus’ decision to put the majority of the sound quality on a piece of software that needed to be installed optionally. If you’re like me, you’re more than likely to toss the CD aside without checking it, only left scratching your head about how Asus could let such horrid sound be marketed.

Overall
Ratings (Out of 5):
Performance: ****
Body: *** ½
Connectivity: ****
Video: ****
Storage: *****
Battery Life: *****
Sound: **

Overall: ****

Final Thoughts: This is an absolute gem for Asus. For $650, I felt as if I was getting a Macbook for half the price. It has a full-fledged Core 2 Duo under its hood with 4GB of DDR2 RAM, all the while weighing only 4.6lbs with 6 hours real-world battery life.

This is definitely made more for mobility than power. This would not appeal to the gamer or the enthusiast, but to the college student or on-the-go workaholic, this laptop is a must-have. Light, mobile, long battery life, and more than enough power for any work task, Asus has truly made a great product.



Pictures to be posted tomorrow morning

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r31ncarnat3d

This is my first review, let me know what you guys think! I would definitely appreciate honest feedback, critical or otherwise

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UndertheGun

I like the review. Has a good scope of info. You seem to know this notebooks niche and inform accordingly. Giving info important to that market.

mcca555

First & foremost, i have a question for the reviewer about windows 7. Does windows 7 continue to excel in batter life and do you use the Power4gear settings? I use it and was wondering if those setting continue to apply on windows 7. Also, i just received windows 7 and popped in the disc but my CD drive started to spin horrendously quick....my entire laptop began to vibrate. That's when i picked up the instructions manual and realized that i have to download some ODD firmware. I cant seem to find it, can you link me too it?



Secondly, id like to share my experience with the asus u81a. I got in on sale for $599.99 @ bestbuy (9/5/09). I recommended the product to countless classmates. Some days i would go to campus without even bringing the charger. Sadly the laptop disappeared from bestbuy.com.

On my first boot i pushed the wrong power on button (express gate) and was furious. I yelled "what is this s**t ! no wonder you get 7 hr battery life, it's not even windows". haha for a second i thought i purchased a laptop with linux OS. But no, its 64 bit Vista (which i encountered no problems) and you do get 5-7 battery life on avg easily. I have this puppy set on battery save mode most of time, yet do not get a slow performance. My last laptop with dual Pentium had to be set on medium or high.

tubers

thanks i like the review. Nothing to really complain about.

Fyi?

Woah, thanks for the review.

Now I definitely will be getting this laptop. Before I was planning to get the Acer Timeline too, but after learning that this laptop can last 5 hours (which is enough for me) I might just get this.