computer-reviews.net

ASUS UL80Vt-A1 14-Inch Laptop

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 | Laptop and Notebook Computer Reviews | Comments

The ASUS UL80Vt-A1 is one of a newer bread of laptops with a ultra low voltage processors. The ultra low voltages give the computer extended battery life because of reduced power consumption and at the same time allow much thinner and lighter designs.

The ASUS features a 1.3GHz dual-core processor and comes with Windows 7 as standard. It also comes with a wide 14 inch screen with 720p resolution.

Here are some of the main features

• 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU
• 4GB of DDR3 memory
• 1366 x 768 screen resolution
• HDMI graphics port
• Wifi
• DVD burner
• Media card reader

The SU7300 is an ultra low power processor, which is why the design is so slim, and why the claimed battery life is over 10 hours. In reality that 10 hours might be a bit of an exaggeration, but at least a few solid hours will be possible while using Wifi, surfing the Internet and bashing out some documents.

The included 4GB of memory is a welcome addition to the setup. Only recently, after increasing my online activity did I realize just how much I needed more memory for my computer. With only 1GB on my work computer I sometime run out of memory when running Tweetdeck for using Twitter, Digsby for chat, Firefox for browsing the web (with about 10-15 tabs open) and Microsoft Word for doing some documents. 2GB would probably be enough, but memory is not expensive and the extra will save one trip to the computer guy in the future.

The hard drive is 320GB which is just fine for storing just about anything. I have never needed more than that, and with an every-increasing amount of information, photos and videos being stored online, a large hard drive is not extremely necessary. This one is more than enough anyway.

The system comes with Windows 7, which is the replacement for Windows Vista. Vista was marred with problems and 7 seems to have things together, which should mean less headaches on the whole.

The wide screen is pretty common on most laptop computers and allows windows to be placed side-by-side, although the width is not great enough for two full windows. Perhaps a chat client and a web browser next to each other is possible, but still a little cramped. Video output is handled by a VGA port and the more useful HDMI port. The HDMI is a digital video port, so it will connect to any screen that accepts digital input. The VGA port is a great legacy port though and will connect to pretty much anything.

Networking consists of a Gigabit Ethernet port, great for anyone running a super-fast home network, and high speed Wifi. The Gigabit Ethernet port will run at slower speeds if necessary, but allows the faster connectivity when connected to a network that support 1000Mb/s speeds. Wifi supports b/g/n standards which offer up to 300Mb/s speeds. The seeming lack of Bluetooth is very disappointing for a laptop though.

Three USB ports are available, audio output, line input, microphone input and built-in microphone and webcam are amongst the other extras.

Pros:

• Long battery life
• Lightweight
• Lots of memory

Cons:

• Bluetooth???

Tags: low-voltage, notebook, slim, ultra-low-voltage