In The Zone | ASUS UX50V Notebook: Slim In Design, But Not In Features And Performance

ASUS UX50V Notebook: Slim In Design, But Not In Features And Performance

littlelion | 02 June, 2009 16:56

The two new notebook offerings from ASUS can be simply summed up into one central theme: the enrichment of notebook design through the espousal of elements inspired by the beauty of nature. To be more specific, what we are speaking of are the ASUS Eee PC Seashell netbook, whose design is derived from the image of a marine mollusk, and the ASUS UX50V notebook, which is influenced by the charm of a delicate butterfly. Favorably, for your interest and ours, the latter gracefully landed on us for our perusal and eventually, approval.

More often than not, notebooks with discrete graphics cards are thick and hefty to the point that they contradict with their purpose as mobile computers. Conversely, the ASUS UX50V is slim and relatively light, in spite of being equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics card and a 15.5-inch LED-backlit LCD.

While folded, the notebook’s thinness is reminiscent of a butterfly at rest. It sports a piano-black lid, which when lifted, brings to light its mirror-like display, trackpad and palmrest. Despite of its striking allure, its highly reflective surface could be a turn off for some as it easily attracts fingerprints and smudges.

In addition to its neat appearance, the space above the keyboard holds no other buttons, except for the Express Gate and power on switches, a physical attribute that is quite odd for a multimedia-capable notebook. Nonetheless, the hotkeys are distributed throughout the keyboard’s layout.

To further enhance its clever look, ASUS also trimmed down, if not completely eliminated, the number of connectors on the sides of the notebook. The right side is solely occupied by a slot-in DVD Super-multi drive, while the left side is reserved for the discreet memory card reader and one USB port. The other ports, such as headphone, microphone, two USB, HDMI, VGA and DC In, are all placed at the back. Although advantageous, some users might find this port positioning a bit awkward at some points as well.

The unit sent to us came pre-installed with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, in which the UX50V performed fast and smoothly in general. Within Vista’s environment, we took time exploring and playing around with some of the exclusive ASUS-installed applications that are bundled together under the ASUS Utility folder. First of these is the ASUS FancyStart which allows users to customize the notebook’s boot screen with a picture, background and music, for a personalized feel. Yet, as the booting process is partially under the control of the computer BIOS, one should ensure that the ASUS FancyStart is turned on in the BIOS.

The next important application is the ASUS Data Security Manager which launches a user interface where you could store important files into password-protected vaults that can be created, renamed and deleted easily. Technically, this program encrypts the files and hides them in a special hard disk directory to prevent illegal access.

Another, the ASUS MultiFrame, is a utility that helps you easily allocate the screen when working with a lot of windows and multiple displays. This application is proven to be practical for those who are working with productivity suites.

For the fun and creative, the ASUS LifeFrame 3 launches the laptop’s web camera along with a set of cool and funny features to play with. Would you like to capture yourself in a space helmet but you don’t have the right prop to wear? Or make a personalized holiday card but you don’t have enough artistic talent? Then, the ASUS LifeFrame 3 is a nice and easy-to-use buddy for the job.

Lastly, there is the ASUS Winflash Utility, a software program written to update the laptop’s BIOS. Most importantly, we warn you that this tool should be used only as the last resort in case that there is a problem with your notebook. If you are not sure that the problem is BIOS-related or there are no issues at all, you are better off leaving the ASUS Winflash Utility alone. Otherwise, you would experience more serious problems if the BIOS update failed in the end.

Putting the ASUS utilities aside, another highlight software feature of the UX50V is the Linux-powered Express Gate platform which is based on DeviceVM’s Splashtop. The implementation of this feature on this notebook remains faithful to the previous ones that we had seen before on other ASUS systems, particularly the ASUS Eee Box B202.

As what we had expected, the Internet browser in Express Gate is similar to Firefox in every aspect and seems to already have all the necessary plug-ins for playing a wide variety of streaming content from video hosting sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Analogous to the past versions of Express Gate, the Photo Manager still provides a simplistic view to browse photos that are stored in the hard drive or external storage devices (memory card or USB flash drive). In hindsight, we hoped that the Photo Manager could have had some simple photo editing tools as well, at least akin to that of the Microsoft Paint application.

The instant messaging feature is similar to an in-browser IM client like Meebo, supporting multiple, popular IM services such as Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger.

Meanwhile, the online game console, which leads you to a website (games.splashtop.com), enables you to play simple games that are based on Adobe Flash or Adobe Shockwave.

Within its sleek confines, the ASUS UX50V runs on the Intel SU3500, a single-core, ultra low voltage (ULV) chip with a 5.5V thermal design power (TDP), which is actually the coolest in Intel’s Core 2 family of processors at the moment. Hence, because it requires minimal cooling, the UX50V, like some of its contemporaries that are powered by the SU3500 processor, does not need bulky and power-hungry CPU coolers, resulting in a very slim profile and lengthy battery life respectively.

The energy efficiency of the UX50V is further enhanced with the help of its hybrid graphics feature, which allows a user to switch from the built-in Intel GMA X4500HD graphics to the NVIDIA GeForce G105M and vice versa, depending on an application’s graphics requirements. This can be done on the fly by pressing Fn + Spacebar, which turns on the ASUS Power 4 Gear utility, providing the user with four power modes: Battery Saving, Quiet Office, Entertainment and High Performance.

After all is said and done, appraising its slim, rock-solid profile, performance and abundance of features, the ASUS UX50V is a remarkable offering for different types of notebook users. Regardless of your purpose of owning a laptop – productivity, entertainment or average gaming – the UX50V would certainly meet your criteria. Find out more about the ASUS UX50V in the July issue of HWM Philippines.

comments

ULV

harry pata | 02/06/2009, 21:32

The ULV processors brought to us slim marvels such as the MSI X-slim, the Acer Timeline and the ASUS UX Series.

Performance

Nelly Yuki | 03/06/2009, 07:00

How do these ULV processors perform though?

I bet they are somwehre halfway in between the Atom and C2D.

Any info HWZ?

shootout

amari | 03/06/2009, 10:41

The best way to answer that is a Shootout of ULV-based notebooks. Put the MSI X-slim, the Acer Timeline and the ASUS UX Series into the fray.

Shootout

Nelly Yuki | 03/06/2009, 11:29

So, is one in the pipeline for the HWZ guys?

G105m

Avid Gamer | 03/06/2009, 15:53

How does this GPU perform with games? Is it able to run Sims 3 or Fallout 3?

Shootout

noname | 03/06/2009, 22:49

I think, more ULV-powered notebooks are yet to come. Right now, a shootout would be quite too early.

g105m

eeewing | 11/06/2009, 13:28

Given that Sims 3 only requires a 128MB graphics card, the G105m, which has 512MB of VRAM, is more than enough. This goes the same with Fallout 3 in theory.

cool

battery | 12/06/2009, 09:48

I think, more ULV-powered notebooks are yet to come.SONY VGN laptop battery

mac air?

zemeckis | 29/06/2009, 19:17

Is this ASUS' Mac Air wannabee?

Beautiful

GTRagnarok | 30/06/2009, 12:05

eeewing | 11/06/2009, 13:28

Given that Sims 3 only requires a 128MB graphics card, the G105m, which has 512MB of VRAM, is more than enough. This goes the same with Fallout 3 in theory.

LMAO, don't comment on what you know nothing of. Video memory has almost nothing to do with a GPU's performance. Crysis requires a 256MB GPU; you think this will run Crysis?

g105m

calibrator | 30/06/2009, 15:56

GTRagnarok has a point. But VRAM aside, take a look at these specs.

G105M = Core: 640 Shader: 1600 Memory: 1000/1400

9800GT = Core: 600 Shader: 1500 Memory: 1800

9800GT can run Crysis. G105's specs are not far from that of the 9800GT. Hence, the G105 can run Crysis.

stutter

crappy lappy | 10/07/2009, 18:58

This notebook sucks a bit. The graphics stutters a lot when playing an HD video. How much more if you would game with this lappy?

Adapter

Adapter | 24/09/2009, 10:21

Acer adapter is really very good. such as PA-1650-02

ASUS UX50V Notebook: Slim In Design, But Not In Features And Performance

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