Intel Core 2 CULV Roundup: Who Needs Atom?
by Jarred Walton on February 4, 2010 4:00 AM ESTCULV: Great for Mobility
If we just limit ourselves to a discussion of long(er) battery life laptops and netbooks, the rundown simplifies a lot. Your choices are between Atom and CULV, with better battery life and lower performance on the Atom side. NVIDIA's ION platform offers better graphics and video support, but you're still saddled with a slow Atom CPU. Pricing is closer to $500 on most ION netbooks, and opinions on the size are split between those who feel 10.1" is fine and those that feel it's too small - I'm in the latter camp. Battery life, incidentally, is slightly worse with ION than CULV laptops. As an alternative, the ASUS 1201N goes for dual-core Atom 330 and ION, further reducing battery life but improving the form factor if you're not a fan of 10.1" keyboards. CULV is still faster in non-gaming tasks, but gaming and video playback work quite well on the 1201N. CULV is a great way to balance performance, battery life, and cost while keeping a small size. Given the choice, we'd either go with one of the CULV models or we'd move up to CULV with switchable graphics; Atom remains more of a secondary (or tertiary) computer. Sure they cost more, but we feel the cost is justified.
Which is the "best" of the above options we just listed? Honestly, that's a question you need to answer for yourself, and hopefully we've given you enough data to determine where you stand. Right now, I'm going to recommend CULV for most users looking at a decent laptop, simply because it fits my mobile lifestyle. If I were in need of a new laptop and only had $300, I'd skip Atom and save my pennies until I could afford a CULV laptop instead. They may be almost twice the cost, but in my book they're more than twice as good. With CULV I feel I can do everything I need without serious compromises; Atom is just too slow to be my only PC. We're very curious to see if the new Arrandale CULV offerings can improve on current CULV or if they'll be a case of two steps forward, two steps back. We should know some time in the next month or two.
We looked at three CULV laptops today, and unfortunately we had some fundamental complaints with both of the 11.6" units. We didn't like the Acer AS1810T keyboard much, and the Dell 11z touchpad was, in a word, horrible. There's another option that we can recommend for those that want to stay close to netbook sizes: the ASUS UL20a. The chassis is essentially the same as the 1201N, which we liked quite a lot, with battery life listed at 7.5 hours. It includes an SU7300 CPU, but memory is cut to just 2GB compared to 4GB on competing offerings. Still, 12.1" is close enough to 11.6" that few would complain. The only remaining drawback is that you lose HDMI output, which the Dell 11z, Acer Timeline, and Gateway EC5409u all provide. Overall, we feel the best current CULV designs priced at $600 or less all come from Acer and Gateway.
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The Gateway EC5409u is an excellent choice if you like the larger keyboard and LCD, and subjectively it's my favorite of the bunch. The Acer Timeline 3810TZ and 4810TZ are close behind, with keyboards that are fine for typing (but unfortunately no aluminum cover unless you buy one of the more expensive models). We've tested the EC5409u, and we've looked at the Timeline 3810, 4810, and 5810 at local stores. Frankly, we're impressed with what Acer and Gateway have put together, and we're happy to award all four models our Bronze Editors' Choice award. The 11.6" Acer and Gateway models have quirks (specifically, the keyboard), but the 13.3", 14.0", and 15.6" offerings are all very good and worth a serious look. The only caveat is that we only recommend the versions with dual-core CPUs, so make sure you order the right model - the Pentium SU4100 or Core 2 Duo SU7300 are both much better than the Pentium SU2700 or Core 2 Solo SU3500.
Why only a bronze? Because there's still room for improvement; think of this as an "A-" award rather than an "A+" - and if you're keeping score, that means the ASUS UL80Vt is still our preferred solution. Give us a better LCD panel and more of the aluminum shell on the EC5409u and we're looking at a Gold award. Now we just need to wait and see what companies can do with Arrandale CULV. It took a couple years for Core 2 CULV to hit its stride, but hopefully the Arrandale laptops will build on the good (low price and great battery life) rather than returning to the CULV of old (underpowered and overpriced).
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JarredWalton - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
The problem comes in getting anyone - and I do mean anyone - to send us AMD laptops for review. The manufacturers seem to view them as bastard step children that should be kept out of view as much as possible. The Gateway NV52 shows what sort of performance you can expect, give or take, as it has a 2.1GHz QL-64 CPU, but battery life on the newer 45nm parts should be better and performance can be a bit higher as well.Even going to AMD doesn't really help, since they don't want to step on any toes by sending out review units. They would love to do that, but if they did they could easily end up with HP (as an example) saying, "We don't like you sending out our product... so we're going to discontinue that SKU."
Of course, the new Intel HD Graphics actually beat the HD 3200/4200 in quite a few tests as far as I understand things. (I'm still trying to get i3/i5 laptops for review as well.) Even then, HD 3200 at least really struggles in quite a few games to get playable performance - the GeForce 9400M for example looks to be about 60% faster.
MonkeyPaw - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
Actually, I made a mock-CULV out of my $400 Toshiba notebook, equipped with AMD 3100 graphics and an Athlon X2 QL-65. I use a program called K10stat, which allows you to alter the P-states of K8+ AMD CPUs. By default, the QL-65 is a 35W CPU with a max-clock of 2.1ghz, but after I changed the 2 power states to .9v @ 900mhz and 1.0v @ 1.3ghz, I end up with a CPU that consumes 9-17W, depending on the P-state (it stays mostly in the 9W area). That tweak added about 30 minutes to my battery life (6-cell), matching my company-issued 3-cell HP netbook. Even with the reduced clocks, performance is still massively better on the Toshiba. My wife hasn't noticed or complained about performance yet, though we don't demand much beyond internet, iTunes (sigh), and office/budget stuff.OMG Snarf - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
That's a darned shame - the manufacturers don't even respond to requests for hardware? I wonder if that's the manufacturers or some super secret Intel clause (conspiracies ahoy!). I guess I'd have to look through the NV52 reviews again, but its nice to know that a 1.5GHz part should equate roughly to a 2.1GHz part.My issue with the new Intel HD is that right now the Core iX UM systems aren't out that I've seen, and as was detailed in another article, there's still the issue of the L2 cache not being power gated and the later inclusion of SRAM to fix this to provide more power savings, so who's to say where those fit in the ultraportable world at this time? I think that will take time to flesh out, and by that point, there will be another 'Tock' and maybe another minor 'Tick' to fill it out. That's already the end of the year, given Intel's performance for last year. And by that point, there might be another AMD mobile chipset, so it all could be moot.
Finally in reference to the 9400M, the issue is cost. The 3200 can push a few more polys than the 4500 can, so if you want the option is there. The 9400 can, too, if you want to spend double the cost, but the point I got out of this review was low-voltage that was around the Atom/Netbook price point that offered overwhelming performance advantage while still retaining the other features (battery life/portability).
But I digress. Thanks for the response, and while I'm sad to hear that AMD gets treated that way by the manufacturers, its good to know that its not because of any bias on the editorial staff that others like to claim.
So long as the illegal overclocking stops for the i3/i5/i7 and X3150 benchmarks ;) I kid, I kid. Heh. Those were the days.
Drag0nFire - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
Well, I'd love to see a review of the AMD-based Lenovo x100e if you can get your hands on it. It may provide competitive performance at the $400-500 price point.Cuhulainn - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
When I saw the article I figured one of those reviewed must have been from the Asus UL line. They get mentioned several times, and seem to be the only options with decent gaming ability + battery life. If nothing else one of them should have made the review list for battery life alone. Isn't that a big part of the reason for using a CULV processor?cblais19 - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
If you look at other reviews on this site, they've done an overview of the UL80vt mentioned in this article, as well as an in depth review.mschira - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
I especially like the Asus approach overclocking the sauce!I want a 10" overclocked CULV!
Forget iPAD and Atom.
M.
feelingshorter - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
Do you mean the 1810TZ in the conclusion? Which is the SU7300 11 inch laptop. The 4810TZ is a 14 inch laptop. Also did you mean 1410 instead of the 3810?JarredWalton - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
No... I've looked at the 3810TZ, 4810TZ, and 5810TZ at stores, played around with them a bit, etc. They're all better, in my opinion, than the 1410/1810. It's not just a case of being larger, either; the keyboards just don't feel quite so mushy as the 1810 chassis.The 1410/1810 are good, but more of a "B+" as opposed to "A-". I have no hesitation recommending any of the Acer TZ models that have SU4100, though, which is why I awarded the group (along with the Gateway EC54) a bronze.
Honestly, though, there's plenty of personal preference in what makes a good keyboard. Some people like the soft touch ("mushy" in my view) keyboards, and others like more of a "clicky" keyboard. If you can try any of the Timeline series out - or really any CULV, including the Lenovo U series and a few others I haven't mentioned - and you're happy, the performance is going to be very similar to what I've shown here.
Hope that clears things up. :-)
Roland00 - Thursday, February 4, 2010 - link
Did the 1410 have the battery in them? Due to the design of the chassis (to hide the battery and not have it stick out), the battery provides a lot of support. With the battery inside there is a lot less give on the 1410.I know for I bought one for 350 with the su2300, 2gb memory, and 160gb hard drive.