Day to Day Use
Back in January, most of the AnandTech editors had a unique opportunity to get up close and personal with the predecessor of the ASUS U2E, the U1E. To help us out with the coverage of CES 2008, ASUS loaned us four U1E laptops. The idea was that we would be able to run around the show floor, take pictures, and then using a mobile broadband service we would upload images and text from the show floor. It all sounded great on paper, but unfortunately we ran into a major difficulty. Thankfully, the problem had nothing to do with the laptops; rather, it was the mobile broadband service. Try as we might, we simply could not get the five Verizon mobile broadband cards to function properly.
That didn't mean that we scrapped the idea of using the U1E laptops, of course. For CES week, plus some time before and after CES, we had a chance to put the U1E through its paces. Opinions varied somewhat, but at least for purposes of running around Las Vegas, visiting with our industry contacts, and wandering the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center our appreciation for the ultraportable market - and the U1E in particular - was very good. We were able to leave the hotel room in the morning with a full battery charge, work throughout the day (with periods where the laptop was in hibernation mode), and return to our rooms, frequently with more than a third of the battery capacity remaining.
A couple of our major complaints about the U1E have been addressed with the U2E. The first complaint was the lack of an optical drive, which the U2E corrects. The second major issue we had with the U1E was the performance in certain tasks. Specifically, installing applications - especially larger application suites - was at times painfully slow. The additional 1GB of memory helps (the U1E had 1.5GB of memory), and a solid-state drive on the A2B model greatly improves application load times and general hard drive performance. Whether that's enough to counterbalance the reduced hard drive capacity and increased cost is a different matter.
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While the U1E and U2E might look very similar at first glance, several of the modifications do make a difference. First, the inclusion of an optical drive ends up making the U2E slightly thicker and heavier than the U1E. The other difference that we noticed almost immediately was in the battery sizes, although here we have to put in a disclaimer that we received the 6-cell 4800 mAh battery with the U1E whereas we received the 3-cell and 9-cell batteries with the U2E. We also didn't have both laptops simultaneously, but our recollection is that the 6-cell battery didn't protrude from the back of the laptop nearly as much as the 9-cell battery does. Since the laptops use the same battery style, however, that shouldn't make too much of a difference.
The default 3-cell battery is all about reducing size and weight. With the battery, the laptop weighs 3 pounds, but battery life is rather poor (just under two hours during light use) despite the ultra mobile components. The flip side is that the 9-cell battery offers terrific battery life but at the cost of the heavier laptop (around 3.5 pounds) and a potentially inconvenient protrusion on the rear of the laptop. If you want a very light and easily transportable laptop, the U2E with the default 3-cell battery will suffice. On the other hand, if you want a laptop that you can unplug and use for an entire day, grab the large 9-cell battery.
I tend to fall into the category of user that appreciates long battery life on an ultraportable, so I'm more inclined to recommend the 9-cell battery. That being the case, I'd almost prefer a slightly larger chassis that would better accommodate the added battery length… say, something like a 13.3" MacBook Air chassis might sound nice. However, I'm not specifically saying I would prefer the MacBook Air as there are other concerns there - like the lack of an integrated optical drive and the non-removable battery.
The other major sticking point is the hard drive, and it's difficult to decide which is more important: performance or capacity. The cost of the 32GB SSD is prohibitively expensive, but the performance of most 1.8" conventional HDDs leaves much to be desired. The core set of applications I use on a computer is relatively small: besides the operating system, all I really need is Microsoft Office and Photoshop. Images fill up hard drive space quickly, as do games, movies, and audio files, but I don't actually need to have all of those on a laptop I'm using for work. If I were to archive data onto a separate system - or an external hard drive - I could easily live with the 32GB solid-state drive. That's likely similar to how most business PC users function, and provided you're willing to pack along a USB hard drive on longer trips and you don't need to work with large data files (i.e. movie editing), the extra money for the SSD might be worthwhile. Still, it's amazing how quickly you can fill up 32GB; regular monitoring of your hard drive usage will definitely be required.
Overall, I enjoyed using the U2E laptop as a secondary computer. It would never be my first computer to use around the house or office, but the U2E is a great laptop to take on business trips or to meetings. You can definitely tell it's substantially slower than a modern desktop system - especially the quad-core overclocked monster I use on a daily basis - but when you focus on typical office tasks the reality is that few people need anything faster than a system that was state-of-the-art four or five years ago. A 1GHz Core 2 Duo is one third as fast in the CPU department as today's midrange desktops - perhaps not even that - but given sufficient memory it can still run Microsoft Office, surf the Internet, send email, and even handle moderate multimedia tasks without difficulty. Just don't even think about firing up the latest 3D games on this type of system.
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lewchenko74 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
Hmmm..
This review is somewhat flawed. First of all... I echo the comments made by someone else. The MacBook Air is NOT an ultra portable. Its small form factor.. sure, but its still a 13.3" laptop... along with the Dell 1330 XPS and a host of other small factor laptops.
So I dont see why you have to keep banging on about the MacBook Air.
Also ... no mention of the EEE, which has just seen the new model released with a larger 9" screen capable of running 1024x600.
And lets not forget the Lenovo X300 - currently the DADDY of small form factor / ultra portable models. A recent comparison review of the X300 vs Mac Book Air found the Lenovo model stomped all over Apple's baby. (Source : PC PRO magazine)
With regards to this model in the review... its damn ugly. That faux leather look is so 1980's and it looks cheap and nasty. The processor is lacking in all honesty .. although not as bad as the EEE's.
And what's with Vista Ultimate ???? on a device like this what on earth is the point of shipping such a heavy OS? Vista Home or even XP home maybe.. but not ultimate.
World gone mad!
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
The ASUS Eee PC - even the 8.9" model - is in a completely different category. Sure, it's an ultraportable in size, but the single core CPU, limited memory, and other features make it a rather different setup. Also, it's not yet shipping.The Lenovo X300 you mention is in the exact same category as the MacBook Air and XPS M1330, in that it is also a 13.3" laptop. Sorry for not explicitly mentioning it, but we should have a review forthcoming.
Finally, while you may not like the leather design of the U2E, it's not "faux" at all. This is real leather. I much prefer it to the glossy coatings found on many laptops. Obviously, tastes will differ. Vista Ultimate? Well, that's what ASUS installed on the review sample; Vista Business apparently ships on the retail versions. I have no problem with Vista these days, as long as you have 2GB or more RAM.
Alphafox78 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
They are almost in different categories, but It seems logical to me that the eee 701 should have been listed here as a comparison. I also dont understand why they give review samples of ultra portables to reviewers who have a bias towards 23" LCDs and quad core cpus. they always seem to get negative reviews and why wouldnt they in that light.In terms of 3d performance, obviously its not its forte, but it would have been nice to see some 3dmark01 results. if it doesnt work with 3dmark06, why were the results even listed. seems really dumb to me to list a result of zero when its just the benchmark app that doesnt work with the x3100.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
The 3DMark results are *NOT* zero... they're just so low relative to the other laptops that the numbers get pushed into the text. For reference, the scores are:3DMark03: 1075
3DMark05: 592
3DMark06: 351
If you want detailed 3DMark06 results:
3DMarks: 351.000000000
SM2.0 Score: 104.000000000
SM3.0 Score: 141.000000000
CPU Score: 889.000000000
Alphafox78 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
thanks for the #s, didnt see em.those really arent that bad, the eee gets around 700 3dmark03 when you overclock it, and thats at 800x480!
Lonyo - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
A MBA isn't even an ultraportable.It's not light, and the footprint is too big.
I'm not saying it's a bad machine, but compared to 10~11" laptops, it's not really in the same class.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
But there really aren't many 10-11" laptops out there that do compete with the U2E. 12" tablets? Sure. Otherwise, the only currently shipping product I see is the Sony VAIO TZ line... which almost looks like it's manufactured in the same plant as the ASUS U2E. The question is whether people would prefer thinner with a slightly larger keyboard and LCD but without an internal DVD, or thicker with a smaller LCD and a DVD. Weight is about the same. Personally, I'd go for a Dell XPS M1330, because 13.3" is more comfortable for long-term use. (Lenovo X300 is another option in the 13.3" size, with a 1440x900 LCD I think and a 64GB SSD.)Johnmcl7 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
I've seen a few comparisons putting an M1330 alongside an ultralight but to me this is very false, although the M1330 doesn't look that much bigger on paper I think in reality it is.I've had a Sony TX for a couple of years now and I think it's an incredible ultralight machine, more recently I've picked up a 1330 but I've been disappointed with it, in my mind I was expecting something a little larger than the TX with a lot more power. However the 1330 just feels nowhere near as portable, more like a compact 'big' machine if that makes any sense. The M1330 packs a lot of power but at the serious cost of batterylife, on its extended battery it can manage 5 hours or so but the TX on its extended battery can last over twice as long.
Aside from the performance I find the little TX surprisingly good, it remains just big enough to have a usable keyboard, onboard optical drive, vga port, lan port etc. which previously ultralights did without.
I do agree the 1330 is a bit more usable in that it has a great keyboard although I find the screen resolution lets it down a bit, one notch higher resolution would have made it more useful to me.
I'm interested in this review as I'm considering changing my machines, the TX's main weakness to me at least is its sluggish 1.8 inch hard drive. However with SSD that's not a problem, I have a Sony UX1XN with similar specs and a 32GB SSD and I'm perfectly happy with the performance which is far better than the TX. So I have my eye on the Sony TZ as it has the dual core processor, SSD and onboard 3G which would be a decent upgrade. However the price is the main issue so I'll need to see how the Asus compares pricewise in the UK.
I'm always in two minds about the M1330 though, sometimes I feel it's a waste of money and I should sell it along with the TX to fund a TZ. However other times it's beefier processor and dedicated graphics make it a handy travel companion when I just can't take the bulk of the M1710.
I'm just saying I don't think the M1330 and TZ can be compared as rivals, despite being close in size I think they are actually quite different machines.
John
JarredWalton - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
They're definitely different machines and compete in different spaces. The real question is which type of machine users really want? If you really want an ultraportable - compromise performance for improved portability - the VAIO TZ and ASUS U2E are great options. The difficulty comes in figuring out if that's what you really want.For me, my laptop wish list looks something like the following:
Roughly a 13" to 15" laptop chassis (I'm flexible here)
Definitely a 1440x900 or 1680x1050 LCD (or even 1920x1200)
LED backlighting, a higher color gamut (at least 70%), and preferably something other than a TN panel
A good keyboard layout - for a 15" chassis, it needs a number keypad
For now, Core 2 Duo T8300 or T9300 processor
4GB RAM (but I'll still hold off Vista 64-bit for now)
A large 7200RPM HDD, or at least a 64GB SSD without spending more than $500 on the drive
Something better than integrated graphics - GeForce 8700M or 9500M would probably work - but before this really becomes a good idea I want NVIDIA's HybridPower technology so that the discrete GPU can shut off when it's not needed
Get it under 5 pounds and with 5 (or more) hours of battery life
Some of the above items simply aren't available yet, of course, but that's why it's a wish list. :)
Wurger - Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - link
I would like to get an idea of how comparable this notebook is to a Sony VGN-TZ. It looks like both are being marketed the same way.