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Asus Ul50Vf Review

The new ASUS sony vgp-bps8 UL50Vf is an update to the popular 15-inch UL50Vt and offers the all-new Nvidia Optimus switchable graphics. Why are we reviewing this modest update? Because Optimus is honestly the first switchable graphics solution that works like it should.

Our ASUS UL50Vf has the following specifications:

15-inch 720p (1366×768) display with LED backlighting
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 Ultra Low Voltage processor (1.3GHz/3MB L2/800MHz FSB) overclocked to 1.73GHz/1066MHz FSB
Switchable graphics: Nvidia GeForce G210M w/ 512MB GDDR3 dedicated and Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated with Nvidia Optimus
4GB DDR3-1066 RAM
320GB 5400RPM hard drive
802.11n wireless
DVD Super Multi drive
Two-year warranty w/ one year accidental damage coverage
8-cell Li-ion battery 84Wh (5800mAh)
Weight: 5.3 lbs
Dimensions: 15.4” x 10.4” x 1.1”
MSRP: $849.99

Build and Design
The ASUS UL50Vf features a design that is identical UL50Vt and similar to the 14-inch UL80Vt. This is a classic clamshell design with smooth lines and rounded edges. The drop point hinges give the notebook an almost aerodynamic look and the plastic construction keeps this 15-inch notebook reasonably light weight. A height of only 1.1 inches it is certainly a thin machine, and the inward chiseled sides make it look even thinner. The UL50Vf, like the rest of the UL series, has an all-plastic construction with the exception of the aluminum-backed lid. All visible plastic surfaces are glossy which means dust and fingerprints show up easily. If you like to keep your notebook looking new you’ll need to keep a microfiber cloth handy for constant cleaning.

The brushed aluminum lid is the most classy design element on this notebook and gives this otherwise all-plastic notebook a touch of durability. Once open, the island-style (Chiclet-style) keyboard helps to make this visually boring notebook a little more appealing. The palmrests are large enough to give you a comfortable resting place while typing and the flush-mount touchpad is likewise nice and large.

Unfortunately, those glossy plastics that give the UL50Vf a modern look and keep weight low also make the notebook chassis too weak and flexible. We were able to visibly twist the notebook (both open and closed) with modest pressure, meaning this notebook might be vulnerable to damage inside a backpack with heavy books. This high amount of flex indicates that the notebook’s internal frame is not strong enough to overcome the weakness in the external plastics.

In addition, the plastic screen bezel below the screen is flimsy enough that we can pull it away from the screen with little effort. In short, while the plastics themselves offer reasonable build quality, the lack of a strong internal frame and poor fit of some plastics make the UL50Vf feel less durable than most 15-inch notebooks.

The bottom of the UL50Vf offers users the ability to quickly access the RAM and hard drive bay for easy upgrades at home. We like the fact that ASUS uses a single access panel so owners don’t have to remove multiple covers from the bottom of the notebook if they want to upgrade the RAM and hard drive at the same time. However, the use of four screws seems like overkill and makes upgrades a little more time consuming than needed.

Screen and Speakers
The UL50Vf has a 15-inch display with LED backlighting, a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a 1366×768 resolution. Its glossy coating makes images look clearer at the expense of glare/reflections under bright sunlight or indoor lights. The display has plenty of brightness but the contrast is low, making pictures look slightly washed out if you set the brightness to maximum. Horizontal viewing angles are adequate enough for sharing movies with a friend on a plane, but vertical viewing angles are limited and you’ll need to be tilt the screen just right to get an accurate picture. The biggest problem we have with this display is the unacceptably low resolution of 1366×768. A 15-inch notebook with a 16:9 screen ratio should have a minimum screen resolution of 1600×900 pixels. Most 11-inch notebooks now offer 1366×768 resolution so it’s just plain sad to see such a low resolution on a 15-inch screen.

The stereo speakers on the UL50Vf offer little in terms of range or bass. Volume levels are not loud enough at the maximum setting and the sound is very tinny. The downward-firing speakers also mean that audio will sound muffled when using this notebook as a “laptop” since the sound is directed at your lap or crotch. The headphone jack is fortunately static-free and the best way to get audio out of the notebook.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The UL50Vf has a Chiclet/island style keyboard with a dedicated number pad for those who still use number pads for quick data entry. While the island-style keys have more space between them than a traditional keyboard layout this particular keyboard suffers from flex.The keyboard flexs under firm typing pressure on the right side above the optical drive. This is unfortunate because the area of flex is right where the dedicated number pad is located and you’re likely to notice the flex while typing numbers. The keys are also noisier than we prefer … producing a “click clack” sound while typing.

The ELAN touchpad is also below average with limited driver functionality and few setting options to improve cursor movement. Its glossy surface is difficult to track on and the single-piece button is somewhat noisy and difficult to press with shallow feedback. You will have to apply pressure at the far left and right edges of the touchpad button to get clicks to register.

Ports and Features
The UL50Vf has a reasonable number of ports just like the UL50Vt.You get three USB ports and HDMI out for connecting your laptop to your HDTV and a VGA port for connecting to a projector or external monitor. The notebook also has a Kensington Lock slot and built-in Bluetooth. All picture descriptions are left to right.

Performance and Benchmarks
The UL50Vf continues the trend in ASUS notebooks to overclock the Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) Core 2 Duo processor from 1.3GHz to 1.73GHz, giving it a nice performance boost over the stock speed CULV processors. Combined with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a nice 320GB hard drive, the UL50Vf is perfectly capable of handling everyday tasks like Microsoft Office or Photoshop and can even handle more intensive video editing applications and games thanks to the Nvidia graphics card.

The Nvidia GeForce G210M is a mainstream graphics card and, as such, it can’t play games like Crysis very well. We did test the system with Left 4 Dead and World In Conflict and the G210M handled both those games at native screen resolution and medium detail settings with perfectly playable frame rates (25+ frames per second). Although the ASUS UL50Vf clearly isn’t intended to be a gaming notebook, the 16 shader units and 64-bit memory interface of the Nvidia G210M should be enough for casual gaming.

The big headline with the UL50Vf is that it is the first notebook on the market to offer Nvidia Optimus … Nvidia’s newest switchable graphics solution. For average consumers, all you need to know is that Optimus is the first switchable graphics solution that works the way switchable graphics should. In short, you don’t do anything. Optimus automatically detects when a piece of software needs to run on the dedicated GPU and turns on the Nvidia dedicated graphics. When you aren’t running software that needs dedicated graphics the Nvidia GPU automatically shuts off and the Intel integrated graphics do all the work.

Bottom line, you get better performance when you need it and better battery life when you’re just browsing the web or running Microsoft Office. Older switchable graphics solutions from Nvidia and ATI rely on manual switching: You either have to reboot your notebook or you have to manually tell the notebook to switch between integrated graphics and dedicated graphics. As a result, most people with switchable graphics either leave their notebooks in IGP or GPU mode all the time and don’t bother to switch back and forth. Optimus is the first switchable graphics solution that does all the work for you so you don’t have to think about it.

If you are a “power user” and like to control when your system is using the graphics card you can right click any application and manually tell the notebook to use the Intel IGP or the Nvidia GPU. There is a minor delay of a second or two when launching an application while Optimus determines the correct graphics solution and either continues using the Intel IGP or switches to the Nvidia GPU, but it won’t be noticed by most users and may be corrected in an Nvidia driver update. Honestly, we’re so thrilled with Nvidia’s Optimus that we hope all notebooks with switchable graphics work like this before the end of the year.Sony VGP-BPS9/S

With all that said, here are the synthetic performance benchmarks for those who want to see how the UL50Vf compares to other notebooks. All benchmarks were run with the processor overclocked to 1.73GHz.

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Netbooks : Taking the market share away from laptops

ASUS generated a lot of buzz with its Eee-branded line of products, starting with the Eee PC netbook

and is responsible for introducing the netbook to the PC market as an affordable and simple laptop

solution for students.

A netbook (a portmanteau of the words Internet and notebook) is a small portable laptop computer

designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet.

By late 2008, netbooks had begun to take market share away from laptops. It is estimated that almost

thirty times more netbooks were sold in 2008 (11.4 mn) than in 2007 (400,000).

After the release of the ASUS’s Eee PC, almost every major PC vendor HP, Sony, MSI, Toshiba, Acer,

Dell have released competing models. Some companies design them in different directions away from

the original Eee PC and they got bigger, more powerful, more expensive, and have even become luxury

items. Furthermore, Windows XP has dominated over Linux as the installed operating system.

ASUS range
1.    ASUS Eee PC 701 4G: with Xandros version of Linux, had a 4GB solid state drive, a small 7in

screen, 512MB of RAM and an Intel Celeron M CPU, also available in a variety of color at a cost of $349.
2.    ASUS Eee PC 900: With slightly bigger 8.9in screen, but it has more storage and RAM and is

available with either or operating system versions.
3.    ASUS Eee PC 901: based on the Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) CPU, Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11n

wireless networking with 6-cell battery, sleeker but heavier model has an 8.9in screen, 1GB of RAM and

was available with either Linux (20GB storage) or Windows XP (12GB storage)  operating systems

installed. It cost $472.
4.    ASUS Eee PC 1000H: with its spinning hard drive it gives little more speed than those solid state

drive-based models. Features are same as Eee PC 901 with 10in screen and little closer to a

conventional notebook but it only cost $509.
5.    ASUS Eee PC 1000HE: with new “Chiclet keyboard” that provides wider gaps between the keys to

improve key travel, it includes a 10in screen, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM and an Intel Atom N270

1.6GHz CPU, cost $654.

HP range
HP was the 2nd vendor after ASUS to introduce a netbook to the market.
1.    HP 2133 Mini-Note PC aims at business users, not students. It had an 8.9in screen, a VIA C7-M

CPU (1.6GHz), 2GB of RAM, a huge 160GB hard drive, and it was the first netbook to run Windows Vista

Business edition. It also had an ExpressCard/54 slot, making it a desirable choice for users wanting to

use a 3G data card. It cost $499 at release.
2.    HP Mini 1001TU: with $399 price tag, smaller and cooler than the 2133 Mini-Note, it is based on an

Intel Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz), 1GB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive and 802.11g wireless networking but a

bigger 10.2in screen.
3.    HP Mini 2140: features are similar to the 2133 Mini-Note but an Intel Atom CPU instead of a VIA

C7-M CPU and the option to use Windows Vista Business or Windows XP.

MSI Wind U100
MSI was the 3rd vendor to enter the netbook market. With its white color, a 10in screen, an 80GB hard

drive, 1GB RAM, ran Windows XP, and Intel’s Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz) it provides excellent battery life

through its 6-cell battery. Its price was $509 at launch.

Acer Range
The next vendor was Acer with its Linpus-based Aspire One netbooks.
Acer Aspire One: It has an 8.9in screen, weighed only 900 grams, 512MB of RAM available at a cost of

$436. It has an 8GB solid state drive installed, but also included two SD memory card slots but there is

also a Windows XP version available with 1.5GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive for $509.
Acer Aspire One AOD 150: It is a 10.2in version with 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard

drive, Windows XP, but it does have the best screen quality for a netbook.

Dell range
1.    Dell Inspiron Mini 9: It has an 8.9in screen, a solid state drive (16GB), an Intel Atom N270 CPU

(1.6GHz), and 1GB of RAM. Despite its poor design, the Mini 9 was the unit of choice for mobile phone

vendors.
2.    Dell Inspiron Mini 12: It has a 10.2in screen, uses an Intel Atom Z530 (1.6GHz) CPU rather than an

N270 model, runs Windows XP, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. Due to the 3-cell battery, the Mini

12 has poor battery life, and at $618 it is an expensive unit considering you does not even get 802.11n

wireless networking.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10
Lenovo’s IdeaPad S10 netbook is more in the news because the Department of Education and

Training’s choose it for teachers and students. It’s a deal set to be worth $109 million and will roll out

267,000 units.
The Lenovo netbook was chosen over other has nice styling, runs Windows XP, has a 160GB hard

drive, a 10in screen, and 1GB of RAM. Those specifications are standard, but the notebook has an

ExpressCard/34 expansion slot. The IdeaPad S10 does offer increased drive capacity which may be of

benefit when running memory intensive applications.

Toshiba NB100
It is an 8.9in, Windows XP-based netbook with an Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) CPU, 1GB of RAM and a

120GB hard drive. Added advantage “the sleep-and-charge USB port” for $520 it is a little overpriced, but

it is a convenient laptop to use while travelling.

Fujitsu M1010
The M1010 is small 8.9in screen, but feature-rich, as it includes an ExpressCard/34 slot. It is based on

an Intel Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz), 1GB RAM, and has a 60GB hard drive. It costs $509.

Sony P-series
The Sony Vaio P comes preinstalled with Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Business, it

has an 8″ LED-backlit display with resolution of 1600×768, weighs 1.4-1.7 pounds, with either a 1.33

GHz Intel Atom Z520 or a 1.6 GHz Atom Z530 processor, and 2GB DDR2 memory with 533 MHz FSB,

64GB or 128GB solid state drive storage. An integrated webcam is located on the upper right corner. It

also features built-in GPS, Bluetooth, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, mobile broadband, and an Intel Graphics

Media Accelerator 500 video card. It is available in four color options; Black, Red, Green, and White.

Samsung Range
1.    Samsung NC10: It uses a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 10.2″ screen with 1024×600 pixels

and includes 1 GB of memory 93% keyboard size, 160 GB hard drive and 6-celled battery. It also

includes an SD card slot, supporting MMC, SD and SDHC cards for additional storage.
2.    The Samsung NC20: With LED-backlit 12.1″ screen it uses a VIA Nano ULV Processor U2250

(1.3+GHz, 800MHz), and includes 1 GB RAM, a full-size keyboard, SATA 160 GB storage.
The company claims both netbooks kill bacteria with its anti-bacterial Silver Nano ions coating on the

keyboard.

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