I needed a new laptop and decided to go with quantity over what some would call "quality".  I am super happy with this Asus laptop.  This high quality laptop brought me more for my money and has outperformed anything I've had before.  I do not regret my choice at all.  I have windows 7 and this has been amazing.  I got more memory and hard drive space for my money than other brands.  You pay for just that - the brand name.  I choice an alternate route and would totally recommend it!  This is just as good as any other regular laptop. I like the large screen and large keyboard with full number pad.  It has a nice graded touch pad with mulit touch technology - so you can scroll with 2 fingers etc.  I like the look of it all and was looking for something that didn't put the USB ports in the front - so your cords stick right out into your lap.  I am still amazed that many laptops do this.  I realize people use them for flash drives but when you have a printer, mouse fob, flash drive, other usb items you need tons of ports!  This has 4 and I'm happy!

snapplecap

Raleigh, NC

The Asus UL80vt, when it came out, was supposed to be my dream laptop. It was only when I finally purchased it, I realized about the saying, "All that glitters isn't gold" was very much true. Well, for the most part, the performance that they had promised is all true though, it was only smaller things that people usually overlook that made me regret getting this notebook. So far, I have had this notebook for half a year so far and there are absolutely no hardware failures yet. Great job ASUS for a quality product that will last several more years to come. At first, I was a bit shaky on the build quality. It was a thin and light laptop, meaning thinner materials and so worse build quality. The screen is very thin, approx. 2-3 mm. This is what I was worried about, since I have experienced a broken laptop screen in the past on a netbook. Well, after 6 months of use, the laptop has taken quite a beating, but I am proud to say that the screen is still beautifully intact! So I wouldn't worry too much about the screen. The keyboard feels nice to me; I have experienced no problems of flex like others. It was probably because they were typing way too hard, so of course the keyboard will flex! The speakers were average. No bass at all, and they are pointed downwards, so I cannot hear them as well. Well the included software of the srs app solves the problem! It really makes the sound much better and fuller! What people say about the screen is all true. There are truly bad viewing angles on this laptop. Unacceptable, especially for this price! My brother's dirt cheap emachines laptop even has better viewing angles than this! So on 75% brightness, if you look right at the screen, it looks fine. Turn it 20 degrees, you start to notice the other side start to wash out a little grey. Turn it 45 degrees and half the screen is almost washed out! That was a deal breaker for me, but you see, I already bought it, and too lazy to return it, so I'm just going to have to live with it. Another thing that really annoys me is the touchpad. At first it looks all nice and slick, but after using it for the first time you will notice that it isn't very usable. It uses a glossy finish, the same glossy material used for the wrist rests, and so there is much static friction to stop your finger from gliding around. It is also highly sensitive, so sensitive that I had to disable the tap to click function because it kept clicking around while I was typing. The one piece mouse button isn't so bad, except that it is a bit harder to click than other laptops, and so having the tap to click disabled and having to use an extra hard to click mouse button is quite annoying, you get used to it after a while. Well because of this, I have an external mouse that I use, which makes the laptop less portable, when it was really supposed to be a bit more portable than other laptops! The dvd drive on this laptop is a nice addition, but it really adds weight to the laptop! Looking at the laptop, it looks light, when it is actually about 5 pounds! I was expecting about 3.5 pounds like a normal 13" laptop, but this was quite heavier, and I can feel it too when I carry it in my backpack. Me being a college student, I have to carry a couple of heavy textbooks from class to class, and the added weight really adds up! Back in my netbook days, I never had many complaints about the weight, until I upgraded to this! The whole laptop is a fingerprint magnet from the lid to the wrist pads to the mouse pad. They all attract fingerprints! At first, I used to clean it very often, but it began to become a daily chore, and so I stopped doing it for months at a time, and so now it is very dirty. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that is critically important to do is to have a cover for the keyboard/mousepad to protect the screen. Not that a little bit of finger oils bother me, but the design of the keyboard literally scratched up my screen! The keyboard has this design that has the keyboard sink into the laptop, and so the edge of the indention made a terrible scratch across the glossy screen that cannot be wiped off. Well, it is only noticeable when the screen is off and unnoticeable when the screen is on, so no worries there. There aren't any dedicated volume buttons, so it's a bit annoying to have to find the volume keys using the fn function on the keyboard. The webcam, .3 megapixels, not a deal breaker, and is still of decent quality, just not HD quality. Well on to the performance of the laptop! This is what sold me! The performance is solid! I am an average user, a normal college student who uses his laptop to type a couple papers, catch up on facebook, watch a couple youtube stuff, and I am happy to say that the low voltage 1.3 ghz processor is plenty powerful for me to do all the multitasking I want. No need for those fancy core i3, i5, i7 processors! This is all I need! But then again, the laptop is defaulted to be clocked at 1.8 ghz every time, and the only way to slow it down is to put the laptop at 1066 mhz, which still feels very speedy and plenty of power to multitask. So it isn't really clocked at 1.3 ghz, just actually a bit higher! And I wouldn't be afraid of leaving the laptop overclocked! People say that it can damage the processor, but this isn't just any normal processor! This is a low voltage processor, which is why this laptop always runs very cool to the touch! I have never had over heating problems with this laptop, even when over clocked! So with it being low voltage, it will not overheat and damage the processor when overclocked, which is probably why it was overclocked on default in the first place! Now for the graphics part, I cannot say for certain, since I am not a gamer. The nvidia geforce g210 graphics can pack a punch when I turn it on. I have put a couple games against it to put it to the test all on normal graphics, and I have not experienced any slowdown. I played recent titles such as call of duty modern warfare 2 and prince of persia, the warrior within, and they all ran very smoothly. I can't quite remember about the fps, but it was enough to have the game run very smoothly without any lag. When I connect my laptop to a full 1080p hd tv, I do not experience any lag when watching videos. You have to turn on the graphics to use the hdmi, so it gives it a quite a boost. On my Lenovo ThinkPad that had a Core 2 Duo t6600, the hdmi lagged so much whenever I tried to watch to stream hd movies on hulu or youtube, but with the graphics boost on the asus ul80, I have no slowdowns at all. I haven't tried to game on the hd tv, but I am going to guess that it will lag terribly. Now on to Battery life! I think that this was the selling point of the laptop, and I have to tell you, it delivers! I am very happy to say that I have indeed gotten quite a bit of run time on this laptop. Well of course, it is not really at 10+ hrs, but more like 6-8 hrs on normal use. I have my settings to be put on at 75% screen brightness, graphics off, wireless on, webcam off, cd drive off, hard drive to turn off after 1 min of no use, processor clocked at 1066 mhz, and I get around 6-7 hours of use! Well I suppose if I turn down my screen to the lowest one possible, I may get 10+ hrs, but then it would be too dark for me to use. If I have the graphics on to play a game, the battery life goes way down to about 3-4 hours of gameplay, which isn't bad at all! On full settings with everything turned up, and overclocked and everything, I would get around 5-6 hours of use. The performance and battery life are terrific, just as advertised, which is what sold me into buying this laptop. Do not make the same mistake as me to forget about the little things such as the touchpad or the screen, because this can be a deal breaker for others.  

PeterTran

Dallas, TX

this laptop may be compact, but it is full of power and life. lightweight enough to carry arround all the time. the keyboard is very comfortable and the extra features of sensor touch zoom is brilliant. Very competitive pricing. I highly recommend this product! If I could I'd give it 10 stars.

tachamot

Effort, PA

This laptop combines long battery life with good performance and decent graphics. This a perfect laptop for anyone looking to have a highly portable computer but is willing to sacrifice some performance and graphics. The computer will not be able to handle high-end computer games, but will be perfect for watching movies, writing papers, surfing the web, and playing some older games.   Overall this laptop is an excellent choice for a college student or one who travels a lot.

nysona

Whittier, CA