I ordered my ASUS UL30A-A2 last week with one day shipping so I could get it ASAP with Windows 7. It arrived on Oct. 22, the Windows 7 release date, and I am very happy with it. I did a lot of research on thin and lights with large amounts of battery power, and from all the reviews I could find, the ASUS UL30A was the clear winner, with the Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T just behind it. I've had my computer for less than 24 hours, but keeping that in mind, here's my current assessment:
Pros:
- It is very thin and very light. It's about half the wight of my old Dell Inspiron, and the size is small enough to be really portable and large enough to watch movies.
- I haven't fully tested the battery life yet, but so far it's been pretty impressive.
- The screen quality is amazing, and it comes with some of the most beautiful desktop images I've seen. I am truly impressed.
- It doesn't get hot. It has been on my lap for hours at a time while working hard to transfer over files from my other laptop, and it hasn't been even uncomfortably warm.
- The keyboard and touchpad design are great. I like the mac-style keyboard that will help keep crud from accumulating under the keys, and is easy to type on. The touchpad is flush with the wrist-rest areas, which means it also will stay cleaner with years of use. Some computer reviewers did not like the touchpad, but for me it's plenty big, and it only feels "sticky" when you press down too hard. You have to use a light touch, but it doesn't take long to adjust to.
- It's fast enough and big enough for everything I need. I'm in the midst of transferring all of my music and videos, from both my old laptop and my external hard drive, only my Asus so that I can have everything with me at once, and only use my external as a backup. The system operates fast enough for my needs, though from what I've read it won't suffice if you're a gamer.
- It doesn't come with Norton Anti-Virus pre-installed. This means you don't have to go through hours of trying to uninstall it so that your computer can run the way it's supposed to. It simply comes with a basic internet security program.
- Most of the computer is somewhat fingerprint-proof. The only exceptions are the big glossy screen (which you shouldn't be touching anyway), the black border around the screen (which you will sometimes need to touch), and the touchpad button (which is small, but you will probably be touching it a lot). However it is still better than most laptops, as the rest of the computer will not show fingerprints.
- Windows 7 is great! Again, I haven't fully tested the ins and outs, but so far it's been an easy transition for someone who has been using XP since it came out eight years ago. I avoided getting a computer with Vista, but have used it on friends' computers on occasion, and Windows 7 seems like an improvement.
- I read that the power adapter would get hot, but so far mine has stayed cool. And it has been plugged in for 18 hours straight.
- If you press Fn and the space bar, you can easily shift through 4 different power options: Entertainment Mode, High Performance, Quiet Office, and Battery Saving. This is an awesome feature because if you're watching a movie, it will let you change settings to stop the screen from dimming or turning off without even exiting the movie.
Cons:
- The Amazon order did not come with the mouse or computer case it promised!
- I don't like the reflections you can see in the glossy screen. This isn't unique to this computer, I just don't like glossy screens in general.
- It came with a sticker on it saying it had 12 hours of battery life, so I'm not sure if the 16 hour claim is true... and like I said I haven't tested it. Either way, though, I don't think I'll ever need it to last more than 12 hours without being plugged in.
- The way that the hard drive is partitioned is confusing. It has an OS C drive and a data D drive. However it automatically puts all of the users documents and music folders in the OS drive rather than the data drive. This is easy to change, but I still haven't figured out how to change the start menu links to my documents so that it takes me to the D drive instead of the C drive.
- The touchpad doesn't support rotate and zoom motions that are common on Macs and coming out in newer PCs. Certainly not a huge problem, but they would be nice, since the touchpad does support scrolling and right click motions.
I think that's all for now. I'll try to update this when I find more pros and cons worth mentioning, and have measured the true battery life of the machine.
No comments:
Post a Comment