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I don't usually employ my time putting in reviews because it doesn't encourage me great (I know, kind of selfish) but this product was unbiased too ample to not leave a review, especially since there's no review here yet.
I've been looking at laptops for years now, always looking for the one that hits all the sweet set. I didn't NEED it so I was able to objective maintain waiting for the just one. Here were all the things I was looking for.
Fast run - For gaming like World of Warcraaft, etc.
Long battery life - It's not mobile if you're chained to power cord.
Decent notice - Nobody should be paying more than a enormous for a laptop.
Temperature - This is something many people don't reflect worthy about until too slack. Laptops pick up HOT, and then they're no longer LAPtop, but a DESKtop.
DVD drive - Because I like to sustain my options originate.
Every laptops I've seen through deal sites, etc NEVER met all of these criteria. Until now. This computer really is THE laptop to obtain lawful now.
Pros-------------
Great hurry - I objective ran World of Warcraft and it runs Composed with mid-high setting. I also saw from another review that this can bustle Farcry2 or Crysis2 at 40fps which is fair damn ample.
LED conceal - This takes some getting extinct to since I'm not ragged to seeing such rich gloomy on monitor but it looks shiny, crisp, and colorful. (latter might be direct if you live with many light fixtures)
Video - YES it has Nvidia video card on top of Intel integrated. This allows for awesome gaming which many other laptops unprejudiced can't do.
Temperature - It doesn't burn! 
It serene gets warm, especially on left side arrive vent but it's not so hot that I have to keep something underneath to shield my lap like previous laptops I had.
Weight - I'm kinda scrawny guy and I can engage this with one hand with no train. This will be handy as you fade around the house or carry in yer bag.
Battery life - AWESOME. honest check any other review on this because they'll all vow you this thing last a loong time. It was tough to pick up laptops that can last long WHILE also having large performance AND be under a large. Now there is.
ExpressGate - It allows you to turn on a laptop from off or hibernation mode, into special operating system that has skype, photo, and web browser among others. So if you need to google something expeditiously, now you can! There's downside to that in cons portion.
Cons----------------------
Keyboard - This is very minor annoyance but I want to be thorough. When you type, sometimes, you hear this light metal ringing-ish sound that's coming from metal underneath the keyboard. It's not the quietest keyboard you'll exercise but it won't drive you crazy either.
Touchpad - I had to figure out the assure with this because it was bugging the hell out of me. It has two and three finger gestures like scroll and right/middle click. Relate was it wasn't moral and working sporadically. Scroll especially was driving me nuts because it'll scroll at its enjoy speed/time. I tried pressing my fingers lightly/heavily but inequity. Then I figured it out. You have to have you movement straight up and down or left/right. When people exercise the touchpad, we usually have our hand in an angle so we raze up scrolling in almost like \ instead of |. Well, touchpad doesn't like that. Same goes for right/middle click that requires 2-3 fingers. It works best if you have your fingers in same x axis. Some people won't be affected since they'll consume mouse but if you'll be using touchpad a lot, be prepared for bit of adjustment. Oh, and if you acquire to click the button instead of tapping the touchpad for mouse clicks, employ your finger because button's bit harder to press than other touchpad buttons I've dilapidated.
ExpressGate - Notion is immense. Execution, not quite. I was expecting instant on like when you arrive out of sleep mode but unfortunately, there's unexcited some wait eager. 10-ish seconds I bear. Also, Asus installed regular monitor version of expressgate onto this widescreen laptop so everything's stretched to fit widescreen. So far, I haven't figured out how to change resolution in this mode. It's obliging for swiftly browsing but not for long session.
Power cable - OMG, where do ASUS mediate people live in? Castles!? Power cord is the longest I've ever seen. About 10-11 ft total (immense power block good in the mid point) . And although it comes with velcro strip to manage the cable, I found there's too grand cable to roll the cable neatly. Unprejudiced prepare for some mess when packing cable. Top-notch thing this has 10 hour battery life so you won't have to deal with cable too grand.
All in all, Pros are all critical crucial items and Cons are minor annoyance at best. This is really the best laptop you could earn at this tag with this distinguished features and performance. I remember coming across Sony and HP that had similarity (splendid hurry, light weight, dvd) and those were going for 1800ish.. and it didn't even have 10hr battery life. If you don't possess me, when you go out for laptop shopping, honest have this computer's feature written down and compare. You ain't gonna pick up one that beats it easily.
EDIT:
Couple things I came across after prolonged spend.
1. It does win hot, especially arrive vent but only when I'm using it intensely like 3d games. but it doesn't rep hot on the surface noteworthy. Unbiased underneath reach vent.
2. Changing performance mode requires you to stop any apps that exhaust video card, such as Photoshop, games, etc. So change before you load them. Otherwise, when you press the button to change the power mode, nothing happens.
3. OMG FINGERPRINT MAGNET. EVERYWHERE. >.<
Still loving it though.
I recently went on a laptop buying rampage and have ended up with the Dell Studio 14z, HP dm3z (L625 + Radeon 4330), and the Asus UL80VT-A1 in possession all at once. The first portion of this review will focus solely on the Asus UL80VT-A1 and the second share of this review will compare it with my experience with the Dell Studio 14z and the HP dm3z.
ASUS UL80VT-A1 DETAILED REVIEW
First and foremost, let me say that I ordered the UL80VT-A1 because I concept it was simply an awesome understanding to have switchable graphics in a laptop because you catch noble battery life + obedient performance when needed. There were no reviews of the UL80VT out when I purchased it, so I purchased the UL80VT-A1 from [...], which has a 100 percent refund on purchases fair in case things didn't work out with me and the original lady.
While I was waiting to recieve the laptop in the mail, I read Charles Jefferies official review over at [...]. Oh boy, was I disappointed considering all the dreadful things Charles had to say about it (i.e. abominable keyboard, dreadful track pad, unfavorable create quality, terrible gaming performance) . Needless to say, I had second thoughts about even opening up the Asus UL80VT-A1 because I didn't assume it was worth my time considering the all the problems Charles had with his review model.
So that morning I got my HP dm3z in the mail and was really wrathful about how incredibly graceful the laptop was. It is definitely sexier (in my belief) than every other ultraportable out there, including the Macbook Pro 13" and HP Envy 13. I'll accept to the dm3z a limited later... either plan, my first impression led me to contain that I'd probably be keeping the dm3z and objective returning the Asus. When the Asus came in the mail, I wasn't even watching for it like I had been the dm3z. But I did steal it upstairs and opened it up. (Unboxing video coming soon...)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first impression was astoundingly contradictory to Charles review. I picked it up, squeezed it, pushed on the keyboard, which had minimal flex that wasn't noticeable to me when typing. My other first impressions were objective how well the trackpad worked. The two finger scroll worked flawlessly (though it isn't as peaceful of a scroll as Apple's, it functions equally responsively and is unbiased as useful) .
GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE - Rating 9/10
Over the last notion days, I've been taking the UL80VT-A1 out for fling in a series of gaming tests. The first game I tested was the ever common Counter-Strike: Source. I was astounded by the computer's ability to establish out 150 FPS in the stress test at native resolution of 1366x768. I had been expecting to salvage closer to 80-100 FPS. I then tested it with 4x AA on, and it resulted in 99 FPS, which is phenomenal considering that AA usually cripple weaker graphics cards like the Nvidia 210M.
I was enthusiastic to test out the UL80VT's performance in some of the latest games because of the previous review I had read that had denounced its ability to play novel games. I had recently purchased Batman: Arkham Asylum. I loaded it up with the default settings, which were state on Very High at native 1366x768 resolution. Game play was moderately unexcited and playable, but it was also noticably choppy at times with those settings (26 FPS average in the video stress test), so I dropped the settings down to medium. This time the Asus got 40 FPS average in the video stress test, and the game play was perfectly playable and collected.
I then downloaded Team Fortress 2. It has been known to give ultraportable gaming machines a tough time due to its high shader requirements. When playing, I averaged about 50-60 FPS at native resolution with everything on High with no AA. I noticed drops down to 30 FPS when in heavy action, but it was not too disruptive to game play. I don't reflect it went below 30 FPS during the time I played.
After hearing claims that Asus UL80VT could not rush Need For Speed: Shift well. I downloaded the demo to eye if these claims were upright. Fortunately, they were not. I was able to conclude playable frame rates, though it was a limited choopy with the default settings, which had the camouflage at 1024x768 resolution and everything else up in detail. I tried changing the settings, but after changing the settings to lower the resolution to 800x600, the game repeatedly gave me an error and crashed lawful as the speed was about to initiate. Unfortunately, I was not able to do a formal test, but it was obvious that the game was getting at least 30 FPS at 800x600 resolution with texture settings on High. I would demand the game to be very playable as long as you are deny with 800x600 (or maybe slightly better res) and medium settings.
I also managed to squeeze in a limited play time in Protoype, another unusual game that was released earlier this year. It played very smoothly at the default 1280x720 (which was the max res for some reason) and on the default medium settings.
Another game I was able to try was Call of Duty: World at War, which has identical specs to the latest Call of Duty: Original Warfare 2. People will be contented to know that I was able to attain 35-40 FPS constant at native resolution 1366x768 with texture settings on "normal" (except for "shader settings" which I state to "outrageous") . I also turned off all of the extra graphical features, which didn't effect powerful of a dissimilarity in visuals anyway.
In conclusion regarding the gaming peformance of this ultraportable laptop, it has salubrious performance and handles most recent games fluidly at native resolution.
BATTERY LIFE - Rating 10/10
Yesterday, I mature the laptop for 3 hours early in the morning with wifi on and brightness up. Later that day, I ragged it for about 15 minutes running Batman: AA. I then feeble it about 7 hours more with brightness at about 20% (2.5 hours with wifi on and 4.5 with it off) . In total the laptop lasted me 10.25 hours between a mixture of wifi, gaming, and heed taking/paper writing. I was extremely contented to salvage this expedient of performance out of it. This was precisely what I was looking for in terms of battery life.
BUILD QUALITY - Rating 6/10
My initial impression was that the gain quality was impartial average--not broad, but nothing abominable about it either, but now after having it for a couple days, I now agree with Charles' review about some of the issues with beget quality. Yesterday morning when I was typing, I noticed that when I pressed down on the front edge of the left palm rest it squeaked annoyingly (it hadn't pressed down on this section of the laptop when it was on a hard surface yet because it had always been on my laptop up until this point) .
I began squeezing the front edge and noticed that top allotment of the chassis isn't cemented to the bottom piece of the chassis very well so that when you set aside pressure on it (such as when you rest your palm on it) it made a noise. I tried placing about an rush long fragment of scotch tape across the fragment that was sqeaking, and the squeaking went away completely. It was disappointing to get this because it was the first lisp with the do quality. Also, I now understand what Charles meant when he said that when he pressed in the center of the laptop it causes the bottom of the laptop to touch the surface it is resting on...
It's not if you press in the middle of the keyboard like I had view Charles had said (my abominable!!) ... it's if you press on the trackpad buttons (like Charles had really said), he was suitable that you can feel the laptop touch the surface it is resting on, but the thing Charles was tainted about is that it isn't the bottom of the laptop touching the surface below it... it's a small "aid peg/foot" that protrudes from the bottom of the laptop about 1/10" of an lunge.
The overall chassis does flex a tad, but it is fair the peg touching, and the peg is maybe though-provoking 1/16" of an go tops (probably less) . So yes, the chassis does flex honest a hair, but not as poor as the review makes it sound (I believe the review should be updated with this information personally) .
I am thinking about putting a tumble of well-kept glue on the edge of the left palm rest to withhold it from squeaking. I'm elegant clear it would work without a hitch unless you save too mighty glue and then tried to engage the casing apart and wasn't able to. I figure it wouldn't void the 1 year accidental warranty but maybe the 2 year standard warranty if they figured out what I did. I'm not certain though... I figure you can always "chop through" the glue so that the chassis can be opened if you needed to send it in for repairs.
I also noticed that the entire surface (including the aluminum top) acquires fingerprints. I was disappointed that the aluminum top also was prone to oils from my fingers.
HEAT MANAGEMENT - Rating 10/10
The heat on this bad-boy is hardly noticeable. I judge more heat is generated because it is restricting the airflow over your lap more than anything. Whenever my lap started to feel a minute warm, I would feel the bottom of the laptop but the bottom of the laptop never got hot. It was always fair the fact that my legs weren't getting as distinguished air to wintry them down.
I was also able to play Batman:AA while on my lap unbiased glorious, though it was starting to be mildly sad by the time 30 mins rolled around. Quiet, as far as gaming on the lap goes, I mediate it would be doable, and far more doable than on any other laptop I have ever tried.
This laptop is by far the coolest running laptop I have ever owned (I've owned about 14 different laptops...) . For this reason, I give it a 10/10 in heat management.
KEYBOARD - Rating 8/10
Overall, I earn the keyboard to be a small above average. I do not like the fact that there are no keys dedicated to playing and pausing music. To access media controls, you must have the FN button down and tap the arrow keys (down arrow = play/pause) . I do not perceive any flex when typing. The principal exertion that I had was from the squeaky palm rest edge when typing. After I fixed that allege, the keyboard became quite great to employ.
TRACK PAD - Rating 9/10
I regain the track pad to be the best track pad I have ever broken-down on a PC. It does have a glossy surface, but I did not score that the surface was not nearly as sticky as the surface on many HPs (including the dm3z) . I also found the trackpad to be responsive and that the multitouch gestures such as two-finger scrolling to work perfectly nearly every time.
The ELAN touch pad has configurable options to enable you to change the sensitivity of the two-finger scroll as well as enable you to consume two and three finger taps to do customizable actions. I have my two-finger tap to do a true click and my three-finger tap to prove my desktop.
My only complaint regarding the touch pad is that the uni-button. The uni-button looks like only one button, but has a left side and fair side that makes up two buttons. When the uni-button was pressed towards the middle, it was very difficult to click, but if you pressed it reach the ends the button became more usable. This was also the case with the Acer Timeline 4810t that I had owned for some time. I have found that the tap to click function is very usable, especially since I can unprejudiced exhaust two fingers if I need to factual click. Therefore, I hardly exercise the button anymore anyway. My system works objective glowing.
OVERALL VERDICT - Rating 9/10
Despite its (fixable) flaws in beget quality and unpleasant touch pad button (again unprejudiced expend "tap to click" instead), I'm level-headed impressed with laptop and can definitely recommend it to friends who aren't particularly picky about compose quality. The UL80VT-A1 will provide the performance most casual gamers want in a portable package that has a very long battery life and is inexpensive compared to similar models. [Oh, wait, scratch that... There has never been anything like the UL80VT-A1 to ever reach out before... except maybe the Acer Timeline 3810TG that had switchable graphics, but that computer was only available in the UK. ]
COMPARED TO THE COMPETITION (DELL STUDIO 14Z and HP DM3Z)
I have now owned a Dell Studio 14z for about two months. I also purchased a HP dm3z, which I had originally planned on writing a review of but I don't know if I'll win the time. Maybe I'll objective do a video review...
Anyway, the HP dm3z initially impressed me tremendously with its unbelievable metal looks and thin profile. However, two issues became immediately apparent that prevented me from considering the laptop further: the HP dm3z produced a mammoth amount of heat even while impartial idling (the bottom got roasting hot while playing games... though the palm rests stayed delicate icy) and I speedy became frustrated by track pad stride and malfunctioning two-finger scrolling. The dilemma with the two finger scroll is due to the fact that it does not always register that you are actually using two fingers, therefore, it thinks you only have one finger down and shoots your mouse all the arrangement across the cover where you didn't want it to go.
Beside the two-finger scroll I noticed minimal track pad bolt (though there was spin) . The track pad was definitely usable and should not prevent someone entirely from purchasing it for that sole reason, but after trying out the UL80VT's track pad and comparing the two. It was night and day. The UL80VT's was immediately responsive and the two-finger scrolling worked perfectly fair powerful all the time. I have sorely missed two-finger scrolling since getting rid of my Macbook Pro a year ago. I am very gay that PCs are starting to fabricate it standard on the majority of notebooks today. Unfortunately, the HP dm3z did not have edifying enough drivers to execute the two-finger scrolling worthwhile.
One thing that I really liked about the dm3z is that it had an pleasurable keyboard with zero flex and it included media control buttons for the function keys (like Dell Studio 14z) . I would definitely recommend the dm3z to people as long as you understand that it is going to gain a lot of heat (especially while watching video/playing games), the track pad is honest going to be so-so, and you aren't going to attain the same battery life you would if you went with the UL80VT (unless you went with the intel version with integrated graphics) .
I began searching for a novel laptop shortly after I found paint chipping on my Dell Studio 14z. It was frustrating since I try to retract grand care of my laptops and chipped paint tends to bring the resale value of laptops down tremendously. All in all, I found my experience with the 14z to be a first-rate one and would recommend the laptop to someone who has a strict budget and can't afford a UL80VT.
With the dell, I was typically able to regain about 3.5-4.5 hours of battery life (8-cell in windows 7) while surfing the internet-writing documents. The HP dm3z seems to gather about 4.5 hrs of web surfing time. The Asus literally doubles the length of my time I am going to be away from the wall (with both the HP and the Dell...) .
My principal complaints with the Dell Studio 14z were related to the perform quality (paint chipping and noticeable keyboard flex that was causing me discomfort) . I loved the back-lit keyboard and will miss that feature on the UL80VT, though I am a touch typist so it will compose tiny disagreement in terms of genuine functionality.
I fancy the fact that my UL80VT has a DVD-RW because I like to sight DVDs at Starbucks that I rent from Redbox. I couldn't do that with the 14z because it lacked an optical drive, but I can do that with the Asus.
It should also be notorious that the UL80VT has a better shroud than both the Dell and the HP (in my idea) .
IN CONCLUSION
After I discovered the flex, I began contemplating switching over to a Macbook Pro 13". So I went to my local Best Rob to compare sizes, keyboard, touchpad, etc... I got to the store and there was a bestbuy sales guy there that I got to know stunning well when I bought my Dell Studio 14z. I began explaining to him how the 14z hadn't met my needs due to a sucky touch pad and paint chipping off for no reason, etc. I pulled my UL80VT out of my bag and elaborate to him the features of the laptop (i.e. switchable graphics, 10 hour battery life) . I loaded up Batman Arkham Asylum and he was amazed that it played smoothly at native resolution. I showed him squeaky palm rest and explained to him I was considering getting a 13" Macbook Pro. He responded radiant snappily that he didn't assume that apple would have anything that would be an upgrade from this so impartial recommended that I honest stick with the Asus... (lol and he's a sales guy that is supposed to sell laptops for best take, not recommend for me not to purchase them... lol)
I agree with the guy at Best Engage. Apple's got nothing on the Asus UL80VT... except maybe better fabricate quality, poorer performance, and a $500 dollar increase in trace. Hint: glean the Asus, unless get quality is of utmost importance to you.
I'm sorry that this review was so scatter-brained. I like to sustain things more organized, but I also honest wanted to fetch this review posted!!
VIDEO REVIEW and UNBOXING VIDEO COMING SOON!!
This is also my first review of a product. I was really looking forward to this laptop and when I received it and turned it on I was glorious disappointed. The explain on this laptop is very abominable. The difference ratio is grievous, so everything looks a minute washed out. Its not poor and would be tolerable but the horizontal viewing angle is detestable! You have to salvage the angle perfect to earn the explain see acceptable. If you recede it slightly towards or away from you, it looks discolored and is glorious great unusable. I have owned several laptops over the last couple years from a 13 dell xps to 18.4 lumber hp hdx and I have never had a plight with or complained about a point to before. I've never even considered examining a explain because I'm not that picky, but that was the first thing (and only thing really) that stood out through all of my time using the laptop. The only reason I'm writing this review is to caution people about the note. If it is not that famous to you than this is a huge laptop. It's snappily, fairly well made, tremendous battery life, relatively thin and light, and windows 7 rocks. If the point to was better it would win 5 stars. If I had the choice to return this laptop for a elephantine refund I would, only because of the exhibit.
NOTE: I also have asus eee pc 105ha and it has a worthy better show than this laptop for difference and viewing angles.
**UPDATE** I feel the need to define this because I have received a few comments with tips or information about this note. I have owned and broken-down many laptops of all brands, stamp ranges, manufacturers etc... This is a Terrible expose, it's not objective my subjective belief. Here is a link with real data on the subject= [...]
I'm not saying this laptop is dreadful, I gave it three stars, but Asus absolutely skimped on the exhibit!
