Ever since Apple released its
MacBook Air, the competition has been desperately trying to come up with an equally desirable ultraportable. It's no easy task, however, and with the likes of MSI's svelte
X-Slim X340 trying and failing, you might wonder if any notebook manufacturer will ever get it right.
Undeterred, Asus is readying its U and UX-series of notebooks for battle. Dubbed "thin and light", the entire range prides itself on alluring curves and impossibly slim physiques, and the UX30 we laid our hands on is certainly no exception.
Slip the UX30 from its packaging and the first pleasant surprise is the absence of a black, glossy lid. More and more manufacturers are adopting the glossy design cliche, but while it looks good box-fresh, it soon loses its lustre thanks to grubby fingers. Instead, the UX30's brushed aluminium lid proves much more resistant to picking up sticky fingerprints, and the matte-black plastic keyboard and surround remain smart and unsullied after the longest of typing sessions.
Weighing in at 1.52kg, the UX30 finds itself looking a tad portly next to the 1.38kg of the MacBook Air or the 1.3kg of the X-Slim X340. It's still plenty light enough to carry around day after day without unduly burdening your laptop bag, though, and thanks to the lightweight power brick, both the laptop and PSU weigh in at just 1.79kg.
As our pre-production model testified, however, building a sturdy ultraportable presents a unique engineering problem: how do you make something so light feel strong? It's at this point that Apple fanatics would suggest machining the chassis from a lump of aluminium but, while effective, it's an expensive solution to the problem.
Nevertheless, pick up the UX30 by the corner and you can feel the entire chassis flex under the weight, lightly creaking as it goes. The aluminium lid feels far more stiff and substantial, though, and with our contacts at Asus assuring us that retail models - as opposed to our hand-built sample - will feel much more solid, we can't wait to get our hands on a final production unit.
Glance at the UX30's underside and you'll notice yet another compromise. Just as with Asus's gorgeous
Eee PC 1008HA, the UX30 opts for a non-removable battery. That might spell disaster for some laptops, but with one of Intel's CULV (Consumer Ultra Low Voltage) processors inside, the UX30's frugal power demands should manage gargantuan stretches away from the mains. Unfortunately, though, the pre-production nature of our sample reared its head once again. Even with wireless networking disabled and the screen at half brightness, the UX30 managed just 3hrs 55mins before it expired.
Efficiency is the name of the game with Intel's CULV processors, but the Core 2 Solo U3500 inside the UX30 gives a reasonable turn of speed despite its single-core and 1.4GHz clockspeed. Vista Home Premium isn't perhaps the best of bedfellows for the low-power CPU, but the UX30 battled to an understandably sluggish 0.48 in our benchmarks. That puts it ahead of your average netbook, but we can imagine the CULV processor finding a much better ally in Windows XP, or perhaps even the forthcoming Windows 7.
It might not be vastly quicker than a netbook, but the UX30 is a damn sight more comfortable to use. The bright and glossy 13.3in display, with a 1,366 x 768 resolution, provides enough desktop space for popping a couple of applications side by side and enough quality to enjoy the odd movie, too. Colours are a touch bland and muted, but unless photo editing is high up on your list, it will be more than adequate.
The UX30's keyboard and trackpad are a breath of fresh air, too. The Scrabble-tile keyboard is even rather reminiscent of the MacBook Air. The keys don't have much in the way of travel, but there's a positive action at the end of each stroke. In fact, our only quibble is Asus' decision to put the Home, PgUp, PgDn and End keys to the right of the Enter key: we found ourselves wondering why the Enter key wasn't working, only to find that we'd actually been hitting the PgDn key in error.
The huge, dimpled, multitouch trackpad is less divisive, with none of the lag or annoyances that we experienced on the U80V. The multitouch gestures work rather well, even if they're limited to scrolling and zooming and not much else.
The UX30's battery life and build quality issues raise some inevitable concerns, but with Asus promising that they'll be distant memories by the time of release, we're eager to lay hands on the final product. Our contacts at Asus suggest that a UX30 equipped with the fastest Core 2 Duo processor available will hit the shops at about £999 inc VAT, so we'd imagine that CULV-equipped models such as this would be substantially cheaper. The question, however, is how cheap? MSI's X-Slim X340 costs just £760 inc VAT when we reviewed it, but this Asus has the potential to trounce that if the price is right. Only time will tell.
System Specifications
1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Solo U3500, 4GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM, 500GB hard disk, Intel GMA X4500MHD graphics, 13.3in 1,366 x 768 TFT, HDMI, 3 x USB, 802.11bgn WLAN, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, 1.3mp webcam, SD/MMC card reader, Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit, 328 x 223 x 25mm, 1.52kg (1.79kg)
Verdict
Looks to be a genuine value challenger to the MacBook Air, but it all depends on the final price.
Author: Sasha Muller
Asus UX30