• Technology

When the awesome Macbook Air first came on the scene, I wondered how long it would be before the rest of the pack would bring anything worthwhile to counter it. Not too long, apparently.

Enter the Asus UX30, one of the first of the thin and light laptops based on Intel’s Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors. These processors are intended to offer the energy efficiency of Atom-based machines, but trump them with better performance.

The pre-launch model we got to play with had the works: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 4 GB RAM, and a mind-boggling 500 GB hard disk. All of the above is packed into a unit just 23 mm at its thickest and weighing a little over 1.5 kg—ideal for the mobile businessman’s everyday grind. As for the exterior, have no doubts, this baby is a looker. It remains one of the thinnest machines I have seen to date. Finished in brushed aluminum, the UX30’s flushed exterior superbly conceals all the ports so as to not mess around with its super slick vibe.

The UX30 also has a very capable 13.3″, HD Ready (1366×768 pixel resolution), LED-lit display. Although it delivers crisp images, it is too glossy to be easy to use in brightly illuminated areas. Using it in the dark is much easier. The keyboard does look a little tauter than others, but it is still offers decently responsive and spaced out keys. The touchpad on the piece is also large and very responsive.

Although the UX30 does not have an optical drive, it does incorporate three USB ports, a HDMI port, a mini VGA port and the sometimes useful card reader. For wireless connectivity, it has the now standard Wi-fi and Bluetooth.

The processor is what differentiates the UX30 from others in the pack. It features the brand new Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 chip that, at 1.4GHz, is specifically designed to be used in thin ultraportables. Helped by the 4 GB RAM, the processor is more than able to multi-task efficiently, even though the unit we tested came with Windows Vista Home Basic (eyes rolling!). News is that the launch model will come with Windows 7, or at least an upgrade option. That would be groovy, because the performance with Vista was much short of great. Though surfing and working on office docs were easy as pie, some of the more intensive applications were a chore on the UX30. I guess Windows 7 could fix that, mostly.

Now I used the UX30 over a month, spanning over three cities and two states. I used it on the road extensively and carried it with me almost all the time. It performed admirably in those travels as a compact and light notebook, barring the battery, which topped out at around 3 hours. Okay, so I did watch a lot of movies on the very neat LED screen, but many netbooks today come with 9-hour battery lives. This is definitely something Asus should look into. One thing the UX30 definitely did, though: grab a lot of eyeballs everywhere I went. The verbal admiration was the same everywhere, too: “so slim”, “slick” and “very chic”.

But which type of businessman is the UX30 really for? Here’s the deal. The UX30 is apt for you if you feel that a netbook would mean you might not be taken seriously, and a laptop would mean you’re from an era when the BJP was in power! This ultraportable represents a smart step up. Get it if you are stepping up your game, too… and have about 50K on you.

©Entrepreneur December 2009

Tags:
Asus, laptop, UX30