Laptop Thoughts

[The_Lillard_King]

Thought this would be a good place to see what posters think of a laptop I am plan on buying (tonight?): ASUS UL30Vt-X1

http://www.amazon.com/UL30Vt-X1-Light-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Battery/dp/B002XZLURC

I was originally looking for a netbook to bring with me when I travel and to use around the house (Only have a desktop at home). I went to best buy and checked out the netbooks. They were a little small for my taste but I did like how easy they would be to travel with. Almost decided to go with the asus 12 inch netbook but then saw this very lightweight laptop and read good reviews about it.

My #1 priority is it be easy to haul around when I travel. I"m mainly going to use it to surf the web and download and play with the video from the point and shoot camcorder I just got (playsport, thanks for the tip eric).

Good choice?

 

[Denny Crane]

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...5&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=laptop-studio-1555

For about the same price. I'd go with the 1080p screen for an extra $100. 4G is enough, but 6G (RAM) is a lot better.

The laptop you link to is small screen, low resolution, slow hard disk, slow CPU, but really configured for long battery life (11 hours).

That dell is probably 4x faster, the screen will look awesome, the disk drive is a lot faster, etc.

 

[Denny Crane]

They're roughly the same size, FWIW. The Dell is 1 inch wider and weighs about a pound more. The Dell gets 1/2 the battery life (about 5.5 hours)

 

[The_Lillard_King]

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...5&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=laptop-studio-1555

For about the same price. I'd go with the 1080p screen for an extra $100. 4G is enough, but 6G (RAM) is a lot better.

The laptop you link to is small screen, low resolution, slow hard disk, slow CPU, but really configured for long battery life (11 hours).

That dell is probably 4x faster, the screen will look awesome, the disk drive is a lot faster, etc.

Thanks for the thoughts. It looks like a better computer, but I couldn't find the weight.

My problem is I keep getting bigger and bigger. I went from a 2.4 lb netbook to a 3.2 pouind netbook to now a 3.7 pound laptop. I'm guessing this laptop is heavier because it is bigger. Do you have one . . . easy to carry around (pack up and go or travel with?)

 

[Denny Crane]

ASUS:
Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 9.3 x 1 inches ; 3.7 pounds

Dell:
Dimensions & Weight
Width: 14.6" (371.6mm)
Height: 1.0" (25.3mm) front / 1.5" (38.9mm) back
Depth: 10.0" (252.9mm)
Weight: Starting weight of 5.54 lbs. (2.515 kg) with 15.6” HD TL LED, 6-cell battery, integrated graphics and a DVD+RW5 drive

I'm considering a Dell for my wife, saw your price, and figured you might like the Dell's configuration.

 

[Denny Crane]

If you want something really tiny, you can get a netbook from AT&T for $140 or so, and use the money you save to pay for a wireless 3G data plan.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

ASUS:
Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 9.3 x 1 inches ; 3.7 pounds

Dell:
Dimensions & Weight
Width: 14.6" (371.6mm)
Height: 1.0" (25.3mm) front / 1.5" (38.9mm) back
Depth: 10.0" (252.9mm)
Weight: Starting weight of 5.54 lbs. (2.515 kg) with 15.6” HD TL LED, 6-cell battery, integrated graphics and a DVD+RW5 drive

I'm considering a Dell for my wife, saw your price, and figured you might like the Dell's configuration.

I very much appreciate the thoughts.

If you don't mind here is my whole situation (liked to hear what you think):

I bought the playsport (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Kodak+-...40&skuId=9770688&st=playsport kodak&cp=1&lp=1) for my upcoming trip (going to Spain ) Then I figured it would be fun to bring a netbook and download the video and play with it. The video is HD (with some expensive card I had to buy, SDHC, that cost $90). I'm not sure if I need a HD netbook for it to read the card but figured HD would be fun anyways. The HD feature actually limited my choices and I found my way to the ultraportable laptop category with asus getting the good reviews.

But with all this my question is will any netbook read my card and allow me to play with the video. Because I'm back to the idea of getting a netbook for around $300 in case I trash on it on my roadtrip . . . also all this started because I bought a $150 camcorder.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Oh no, DC's gone.

Anyone know if I record in HD on playsport point and shoot camcorder, will a non-HD netbook be able to read the Ultra SDHC card?

Eric . . . . . . . . .. Eric . . . . . . .

 

[Denny Crane]

My thoughts...

5.5 lbs or so is still quite portable. You might find a bag that will hold both the laptop and the camera (maybe a backpack or something like a man purse).

If you're scared of damaging it, you can surely get insurance. Probably a good idea in case it gets stolen, too.

The camera you're getting is 5 megapixel (5 million pixels) resolution. That's 1080 x 5000 or 2500 x 2000 pixels. With either laptop, you're not going to be able to see all those pixels - if you could, the picture would be quite stunning. The ASUS has resolution of 1366x768 pixels, or 1 megapixel. You are effectively able to see about 1/5th the quality of the movies you record. The Dell has 1920x1080 pixels, or 2 megapixels. It's also 1080p HD (ASUS is 720p). If you want to record the highest quality video you can and see it with the best picture, the higher resolution screen is better.

Movie files tend to be big. Copying it around and editing it will be a lot faster with the faster CPU and hard disk. On the other hand, it's an extra $40 for the Dell to get the same 500GB of disk you get with the ASUS. An uncompressed video 2 hours long at 1080p takes about 60G of disk. So you get an idea of how many movies that length (and uncompressed) you can fit on the disk. I figure to make a copy of a few minute 2GB movie would take 20-30 seconds on the Dell and 1/3 longer on the ASUS.

In general, ASUS makes laptops with a lot of features, but at the expense of lower quality parts everywhere.

I bet you'll use that Dell a LOT after you get back from your trip, to do your everyday type computing (browsing, email, chat, games, whatever).

 

[Denny Crane]

Dell:

8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card
Multi Media Card (MMC)
xD Picture Card (xD)
Hi-Density Secure Digital (SDHD)
Hi-Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC)
Memory Stick (MS)
Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO)
Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO)

ASUS:
Card Reader: 1 x 4-in-1 card reader: MMC, MS, MS-Pro, SD

(Both will read the SDHC cards)

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Dell:

8-in-1 Media Card Reader
Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card
Multi Media Card (MMC)
xD Picture Card (xD)
Hi-Density Secure Digital (SDHD)
Hi-Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC)
Memory Stick (MS)
Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO)
Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO)

ASUS:
Card Reader: 1 x 4-in-1 card reader: MMC, MS, MS-Pro, SD

(Both will read the SDHC cards)

Thanks. Will a regular netbook read the card?

BTW-when I try to rep, the rep line is under the top of the next post not allowing me to rep . .. does that make sense.

 

[Denny Crane]

Thanks. Will a regular netbook read the card?

BTW-when I try to rep, the rep line is under the top of the next post not allowing me to rep . .. does that make sense.

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-details/?q_sku=sku4160282#tabModule

$99 with a 2 year contract @ $35/mo. 24 x $35 = $840 + $99 = $939 total over 2 years worth of payments. But you get 3G internet for it for 2 years...

low resolution screen 1024x600, 160GB disk drive, atom 1.6GHz processor.

Yes, it reads SDHC cards.

Reading more about the camera, it saves .mov files, so they ARE compressed. It can also plug into the USB port on the netbook/notebook and upload the files that way. Since the camera only does 30Hz at 1080p, you may as well record at 720p, so the ASUS screen is just right. At 30hz vs. the 720p @ 60Hz, things moving fast on the video, or panning, will be smoother @ 60hz.

I see the rep line under the top of the next post, but only if I shrink my browser really narrow.

 

[Denny Crane]

One more thing, then bed time for me.

A lot of netbooks willl have SSD drives that are really small capacity. A 160GB drive will hold about 19 of those SDHC cards worth of movies.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

I recently bought an ASUS pc from Best Buy and I love it. Works great... really fast.

 

[MikeDC]

I've said it before, but I'm a big believer in Lenovo Thinkpads (and the more expensive Dells) because nipples (the little mouse things in the middle of the computer) are pretty much a must have for me. I feel really inaccurate and awkward having to move my hands to use a standard touchpad.

But part of that is because I spend a lot of time typing stuff, and I'm a pretty good typist.

Quality-wise, I've had good luck with them too. I made it 5 years with my first Thinkpad, and I beat the hell out of it.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Appreciate all the advise Denny. Thought I would follow up and let you know I got the Asus UL30VT . . . but I do appreciate all your input. Around the house, the dell sounds much better. But on the road, I lug around enough stuff and needed to go ultalight . . . plus chicks think it's cute.

Shipped today, arrives Friday . . . can't wait to play with it.