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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erple2 - Friday, November 19, 2010 - link
Nonsense. Those 12" screens are still 720p screens, just like these exceptionally crummy 14-15" screens in the mass market. For that, the 310m is just fine. Crummy dGPU for crummy screens.One of these days, people will figure out that resolution counts, not screen size. Which is why my 32" TV (720p) isn't nearly as nice as my 1080p 15" laptop screen.
mmsmsy - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
If the case is lack of additional performance you should definitely try UL80Jt with Core i5 520UM. Unlike the i3xx UM this one's got the turbo boost up to 1.83GHz, which should boost performance significantly, while, at the same time, powering the notebook almost just as long as the Core i3xx UM. Even if i5 costs a little extra, going for i3 is definitely not a good idea performance wise. Try it and I think you'll probably change your opinion. ;)fokka - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
@ vivek & jarred: a commenter posted a link to asus' upcoming u-series models:http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=qcgJ2RirwkZL...
have you any idea when they will hit the market? probably q1 2011, i think?
JarredWalton - Monday, November 22, 2010 - link
I don' t know the ETA for all of the new 400M models, but I can tell you that all of the newer models need to ship sooner rather than later (i.e. Sandy Bridge is coming). One of the new ASUS models is the 15.6" (I know....) N53JF, which has i5-460M, GT 425M, a 1080p LCD, and Blu-ray for under $1000. I just got my N53JF review sample, and first impressions are that the aesthetics will probably please quite a few relative to the Dell XPS 15. Unfortunately, the 1080p panel isn't a high contrast option and it comes with a 48Wh battery. So, ultimately it's looking good but not stellar.As for the new U-series, like I said, they need to come out soon because of the pending launch of SB. I guess SB is quad-core though, so that means Core 2010 dual-core options can still continue for a bit, but if pricing and battery life is good on SB I don't know why anyone would opt for Arrandale after January 2011. We'll have to wait and see. Since ASUS has the U-series updated on their site, I would expect them before Christmas at least.
freespace303 - Thursday, November 18, 2010 - link
PLEASE REVIEW THE ENVY 17 3D!!!Hrel - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Sub 2GHz CPU, less than 900p screen, non DX 11 GPU? Hmm, guess I don't need to read any further.Seriously, there's no reason at all they can't use a slightly faster Core i3, the GT430M GPU and a half way decent screen. 1600x900 or greater.
I'm really really baffled by the GPU choice, it's damn near 2011 people, DX11 or GTFO.
Hrel - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - link
Also, anything with a sub 900p screen and a Core i3 shouldn't cost any more than 750 at the absolute max; really under 600. The U33Jc at 970 is asinine. 700 sure, ok, as long as they get a 400 series GPU in there. with at least 32 SP or Cuda cores or whatever the fuck they wanna call em.