ASUS U6V - Overview
The ASUS U6V is pretty much on the opposite end of the mobile spectrum compared to the G50V. The U6V is similar to the U2E we reviewed a while back, but with a slightly larger 12.1" chassis and many other component upgrades. Still, they are both part of ASUS' "Superior Mobility" range of laptops, so we were hopeful that we would finally have an ultraportable that could compete with the Apple MacBook in terms of battery life.
The overall design of the U6V is a lot more subdued than the G50V, as you would expect. This is a laptop that would be right at home in a board meeting, and the leather palm rest is a nice alternative to the typical shiny plastic we find on many notebooks. Unlike the U2E, the leather surfacing does not extend to the exterior, but that's okay. ASUS also does a nice job with the packaging on the U6V, contributing to the feeling that this is a laptop designed for company executives.
Besides the notebook itself, ASUS once again includes some nice accessories. They give you two carrying cases, a traditional case with a strap and a second that can be used for carrying just notebook. You also get a Bluetooth wireless mouse and two batteries. The small battery is a 3-cell unit that provides a paltry 26.5 Whr of power; the second battery is twice as big with a capacity that matches the battery included with the G50V. ASUS does make a compatible 9-cell battery as well that offer 62% more power than the 6-cell. The warranty options are the same as the G50V: a two-year global warranty, one-year accident protection, and 30-day zero bright dot guarantee. Despite the reduced performance, the smaller size results in the price that's roughly equal to the G50V.
There are two panels on the bottom of the laptop. The smaller one grants access to the hard drive, and the larger panel covers the memory, CPU, and cooling system. Unlike larger notebooks, the 9300M is soldered onto the motherboard instead of using an MXM module - MXM simply requires too much extra space to make it worthwhile. Of course, whether or not the 9300M is even necessary is debatable; graphics performance as we will see later is quite poor, making gaming something of a stretch. If you're not going to play any "complex 3D" games on a laptop, you can almost certainly get by with Intel's X4500. Still, the 9300M is probably at least twice as fast as the X4500, and it may not require any more power for normal use.
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JarredWalton - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
See http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3435&a...">Anand's article on the subject. The MacBook battery life dropped in half with Vista... but then that could just be that Apple didn't optimize for Vista properly. What we would rather see is a Vista PC that can compete with MacBook; I can't think of a good reason why it can't be done, unless Vista just has some junk that refuses to allow power saving features to fully activate.BushLin - Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - link
I think it is only fair to the other laptop manufacturers that you at least show the battery life of a Mac running Vista alongside their favourable results, I doubt anyone is still allowed to supply review samples with XP... it's not their fault Vista is crap!phreax9802 - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
The VAIO SR series claim 6 hours of battery life running Vista. This is a 13.3" notebook with a 6-cell battery. Can you guys verify this claim, ask for a demo unit maybe?JarredWalton - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
I'll see what I can do; Anand has had Sony hardware in the past, so maybe he can get me a laptop from them.GoodRevrnd - Friday, October 24, 2008 - link
Supposedly the SR also has "battery leakage" issues as well where it will drain over time even when it's off. I have a Z series and can hit 4-5 hours myself. That's at about 50-60% screen brightness, wifi on, pretty much everything else disabled, in stamina mode, with the processor pretty much sitting at Super LFM the whole time.danwat1234 - Sunday, May 6, 2018 - link
Still rocking this laptop today, with an X9100 Core 2 Duo Penryn at 3.45GHZ via multiplyer overclocking. Installed the 17 fin Forcecon fan while I was at it, the same that's comes with the Asus G51VX and G51J for more airflow. 8GB of RAM.Still my main machine today. Refuses to die even with a few years of nearly 24/7 GPU & CPU thrashing at 90C +.. The chassis is beat up though, starting to crack on the main chassis around the hinges. But, can get a used 1 on Ebay for cheap.. Batteries no longer made for it so i have a few genuine 9-cell batteries in my fridge.
About time to upgrade to a Coffee Lake laptop maybe, but I like my Windows 7 setup.
falconmarley - Thursday, July 26, 2018 - link
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