ASUS UL80Jt: Overclocked i3 ULV
by Vivek Gowri on November 17, 2010 1:15 PM ESTASUS UL80Jt—Conclusion
I wasn’t at AnandTech when Jarred first looked at the UL80 last year, but I was basically of the same opinion in that it was a nice display away from being a Gold Editor’s Choice unit. Seeing a notebook with the ability to combine a dedicated graphics card, 10+ hours of battery life, and decent overall application and gaming performance into a thin and light enclosure was very exciting, in that it was a combination that was rarely seen before, especially at a reasonable price. But in the intervening year, a lot has changed—namely ASUS released the U30Jc.
Here’s the thing with the UL80. After the release of the U30, I think that the UL80 chassis as a whole has basically lost its appeal. It’s a slightly larger and heavier system that duplicates everything that the U30 does, except with a 50% slower processor. You get more choices with the U30, in that you can pick a model sans optical drive or one with a more interesting bamboo aesthetic. It’s similarly priced, it gets similar battery life, it’s even more portable. I actually can’t point to a tangible reason to go for the UL80 over the U30. Even the Turbo33 overclocking feature has lost its appeal, with performance still shy of the full i3 processors and worse battery life.
This isn’t to say that the UL80Jt is a bad notebook by any means. Minus the typically mediocre display and the keyboard flex, it’s actually pretty decent. Evaluated in a vacuum, it’s quite a nice system, with the same basic package that made us love the first UL80 so much. But it’s no longer the best all-arounder on the block, so we can’t really recommend it considering the U30 line does basically everything the UL80 does without any of the performance compromises that the UL80 has.
The other footnote is Intel's ULV processor. CULV was pretty awesome last year: half the power draw of regular Core 2 processors made it a competitor to Atom for pure battery life, with over three times the performance of Atom. The new Arrandale ULV parts are certainly faster than CULV but use more power; unless Intel can revise their ULV parts to drastically cut power requirements relative to the regular Core 2010 CPUs there doesn't seem to be a point to the new models (outside of 11-12" laptops perhaps). Whether that's a testament to the power saving features of Core 2010 or an indictment of the ULV line isn't particularly important; what matters is that you can generally get full Core i3/i5 processors into 13" and larger laptops without a major hit to battery life. Look at Acer's TimelineX line, which only uses ULV exclusively in the 1830T, while the 3820T supports ULV and standard i3 processors and the 4820T/5820T ditch ULV entirely.
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slagar - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
"Unfortunately, the LCD bezel is still glossy plastic, a recurring theme with ASUS notebooks. Dustin went off on this in his last review, but I’d like to touch on it again. It’s stupid, stop doing it."This gave me a laugh; well said. Nice review, thanks!
I think the CULV i3 is well suited to 11-12" notebooks, like the UL20FT, as long as you don't mind the short battery life. But as said in the review, it sort of loses its purpose in such a "large" laptop when there are better options available.
Personally, I've still got an EEEPC 900 and it goes great. I'm looking at upgrading to a 12" UL20, but I'm not completely satisfied with the current revisions; maybe next year ;)
scook9 - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
I have a UL80Vt from work and aside from the horrible build quality and screen and touchpad (I know, right?) it is a great laptop. I like that the battery life is longer than windows 7 can handle (sits at 10h 00m for like 1.5 hours haha)And if you get SetFSB...Well I was able to bench my UL80Vt at 320 FSB without any instability :D - at room temperature with no special measures taken.
G-Man - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Hi, VivekI like how you intentionally come across as frustrated and resigned over both keyboard and the lcd-screen. Actually, you seemed frustrated throughout the entire review. The reviews aren't usually so harsh here on Anandtech, but in my opinion it was a nice change of pace.
VivekGowri - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
It was kind of a frustrating notebook all around, actually. I mean, it was slower and had worse build quality than the U30, but everything else (including price and battery life) was basically the same. So while it's not a bad notebook, I don't really understand why it exists, or why anyone would buy it versus the U30.AstroGuardian - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Why? Because not everybody buys a laptop for some special reason. And most people want to just buy a laptop. Not everybody looks for a hair inside the egg you know.VivekGowri - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 - link
Let's say Honda made an Accord with the 1.5L Fit engine that has roughly 60% of the power as the Accord's standard 2.4L 4-cylinder. Let's say this model with the undersized engine got very marginally better fuel economy and cost the same as the larger engine, but was significantly slower than the normal 2.4L Accord.You would question what the point was. Not every notebook needs to be "special", but come on - Asus sells a very parallel system that costs the same, weighs the same, gets roughly the same battery life, has better build quality, and is significantly faster.
Evil_Sheep - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Asus's product strategy seems to be: unload a dozen clips in the general direction of the target, hope something hits. To continue that analogy, Apple would be the professional hitman who waits hours for the perfect shot and then only fires once. The contrast could not be more extreme.To be fair, Apple's execution isn't flawless and Asus's is hardly terrible. It just would be nice if it weren't so scattershot.
fokka - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
"Asus's product strategy seems to be: unload a dozen clips in the general direction of the target, hope something hits." roflmao :Djabber - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
Remember we are judging this machine (most of us) purely as a written comparison with another machine thats just a few months old.Most of the folks who look at this machine and buy this machine will love it and think its brilliant.
Why? Cos their last PC or laptop was bought 5 years ago.
On its own it still sounds a pretty decent machine...but we nit pick essentially over cup holders.
strikeback03 - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
I'm pretty sure most people buying a laptop on the internet do at least a little research (look at the "What laptop should I buy" thread over at notebookreview) and even a little searching will show that the current UL series seems inferior to the U3x series. So if internet buyers are out, that leaves in-store buyers, and unless the U3x isn't present while the UL is, the better build quality of the U3x will probably be the deciding factor. So sure this is an upgrade to something 5 years old, but when better upgrades are easily available it still doesn't make sense.