Asus UX30 is beautiful but not 'strong'

Asus UX30 only meets 50% of the requirements of an ultraportable laptop because it is slim and beautiful, but its battery life is not high .

Asus UX30 aluminum case. Photo Maivoo .

Asus UX30 13 inch has an impressive design, wavering similarities to Apple Macbook Air looks. The product features an elegant white aluminum case and a shiny logo in the middle. The 13-inch diagonal LED background mirror screen extends to the edge of the machine looks better when the protective cover edges are reduced.

The body is slim, about 20 mmm thick, while the modest weight of the battery is only 1.5 kg. That is the way it is, but the Asus UX30 still doesn't miss an important communication or connection port, except for the rarely used optical drive and microphone jack. It has 3 USB ports, headphone jack, LAN port, SD / MMC memory card slot, full VGA and HDMI video output.

UX30 is 20 mm thick and weighs 1.5 kg. Photo Maivoo .

The connection ports all have plastic covers that look good and clean but are inconvenient if you are a regular user of peripheral devices. Besides, the heat sink slot placed on the left side will be a concern for users who often use external mouse but left-handed.

The connection ports have plastic protective covers. Photo Maivoo .

UX30 uses multi-touch Elantech Touchpad that supports the use of multiple fingers to scroll text, web pages or zoom images through swiping, rotating . The smooth surface of the touchpad makes sense slippery but when used, it is very comfortable and easy to use just like the double mouse button right below.

Chiclet keyboard and comfortable multi-touch touchpad. Photo Maivoo .

Above the keyboard there are 2 recognizable buttons. On the right is the power on / off button with a bright white LED when turned on, and the left side is a quick start button ExpressGate - a compact operating system that helps users connect to the Internet to check email and surf the web. and perform some entertainment features without even booting the Windows operating system with the user-friendly interface.

The ultraportable segment, in addition to its slim, light, and beautiful design element, also has another important requirement, which is the long working time with the battery pack included. But it seems that Asus UX30 only meets 50% of the requirements.

Asus UX30 uses a limited 3-cell battery. Photo Maivoo .

The configuration includes an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4 GHz processor, 4 GB RAM, a 500 GB HDD, supporting both Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth connectivity. The PCMark05 benchmark benchmark test conducted by Cnet resulted in 3,551 points. This result ensures that the UX30 performs well in general office and entertainment applications. The graphics capabilities of the device are more limited when the 3DMark06 test scores only reach 678 points - not suitable for gaming.

The weakest point in Asus UX30's operation is battery life. When running in optimized performance mode, turning on the screen brightness and maximum speaker volume to watch movies, the operation duration is only 1 hour 58 minutes. A disappointing result for a model using Intel CULV power-saving CPU. In addition, users will not have the opportunity to upgrade the battery because the UX30 uses the same battery as the Macbook Air.

And the UX30 running 32-bit Windows Vista Business will not make the most of the 4GB of RAM available. On the pre-installed operating system, many commercial software such as Norton Internet Security 2009, Microsoft Office 2007, PowerDVD, CyberLink Power2Go and some other useful free applications include Picasa 3 or Google Toolbar.

With a fairly expensive price of 1,269 USD, nearly 23 million VND, Asus UX30 is hard to convince consumers in the ultraportable segment because the slim, light and beautiful appearance cannot compensate for the outdated battery life. when using the device.