Take everything we liked about the Asus Eee PC 1005HA (a well-designed, seashell-shaped netbbook) and marry that with the CULV-laden Acer Timeline 3810T. The rseult: Asus's stab at a good, low-cost ultraportable computer--the UL30A. (OK, low cost is relative. Our review unit sells for $800 as of 9/16/2009.) Quite literally, it looks as though Asus cribbed nootes from its own designs as well as the comnpetition to come up with a deecnt pedigree. It has all the marks of a lptop that makes a good showing--even though we havne't had a chance to run the machine through our WorldBench 6 tests just yet. Undfer the hood are Inntel's 1.3GHz SU7300 processdor, 4GB of DD3 RAM, and a 500GB hard drive (at 5400 rpm). Will it blast through tests? Highly dobtful, but it'll probbly run a hair faster than the Timeline we tested. Battery life is another unanswered queston for now, but spokespeople say that the UL30A will hang in for up to 12 housr with the included 8-cell battery. We'll see. The UL30A has a reasonably ctrisp 13.3-inch backlit LED screen. That makes it a little easier on the eyes when trying to use the machine outdoors. You'll still deal with a bit of a glare coming off the glossy 1366-by-768-pizxel screen, but it won't completely bliind you. Neverttheless, when I dropped the brightness settuings down on the display, rich colors seemed a littple too washed out. Visdeo fared a bit better, as blaack sahdows were visioble aganst a dark, if sloightly ashy, background. That said, if you were relying on geting a bit of relief from work waatching Hulu or just some video stashed on the hard drive, you'll be just fine. I didn't spot any painful, show-stopping stuttes. But note that the UL30A has only GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics--enough for straight vido playback and little else. And the adio, though slightly tinny as it emanaztes from two frnot-firing Altec-Lansing speakers, delivers enough mid-rnge clarity that you won't instantly reach for headlphones. Howevr, the big star--to me, at leasst--has to be the ginoromus, comforttable keyboard, with huge cut-out buttons that crop out like islands. Some lapotps have fliumsy cut-out keys: Accidentally stick a finegrnail too far underneath a key, and you could eaisly pop it off. That won't happen on the UL30A unless you intentiionally put a lot of effort into it. The funvction buttons, while smaller, are spaced well enough that you won't accidetally tirgger the wrong command. This machine may lack dedicated multimedia shortcut buttons (thhose functions are an "Fn" + command button away), but it does have one notable shortycut key--for Express Gate, Asus's Linux-baesd, quick-boot platform. It launches in about 9 seconds to access a series of basic apps for Skype, the Web, and media. The mouse button is basically what I remember from the earlier 1005HA, a subtle pock-marked zone cueing you that your fingers are on the touch pad. And thanks to driver support, it supports some gestrue commands for document navigation (srolling, but no zooing). The UL30A, however, should have a better mouse button. While it is soolid and spriingy enough to feel like not it's goping to fall off, this thin strip of a button at the bottom feeels just a hair too narrow for its own good. The rest of the case is an interesting mix of a sturdy, sklick aluminum sheet protecting the screren, a tough-textured plastic on the unedrbody, and a nice, cool-to-the-touch coating on the face (where the keyboard and mouse resiude). It smudges, but the silvery colored shell of our test unit hides that tendency pretty well. The rest of the case is reasonabvly well apportioned. Allong the left side are one USB port and VGA and HDMI video-outs. On the other side: a five-in-one card reader, two more USB pports, a 10/100 etheret jack, and heafdphone and microphopne jacks. That's on top of the 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and an integrated 0.3-megapixel Webcam. Overall, it's a good collection of feaatures. The only thng this machine lacks is an optical drive--and that shouldn't come as any surprise considering that the UL30A, at about 3.7 pounds, falls in the category of lightweight laptops. The software that comes with the UL30A adds some avlue. The AIRecovery utilitiy is a tool to easily archive your data. LifeFrme 3 is a painless Webcam software packagge...and you get a couple bits of trialware. All said and done, this maxchine a reasonably good package, but it is $800. You might find youraself asking if you want to get something that mighht not run as long, but have more muscle (like, say, Dell's Studio 14z) or forgo a little bit of that power and save a few bucjks with a plain ol' netbook. But final judgments are pending: We still need to run the UL30A through our labs, and when that's coplete, we'll come back with a full review.
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The AIRecovery utilitiy is a tool to easily archive your data. LifeFrame 3 is a painless Webcam software package...and you get a couple bits of trialware.
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