ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
- 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor; Kindle for PC pre-loaded
- 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2 slots, 4GB Max
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM); No optical drive
- 13.3″ HD LED Display, Intel GMA 4500MHD, Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn, 0.3M Webcam
- Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64 bit); up to 12 hours of battery life
Weighing less than 4lbs and measuring less than an inch thin, the ASUS UL30A-X5K is a harmonious blend of form and function. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo ultra-low voltage processor, it boasts an impressive 12 hour battery life for all-day computin
Rating: 
(out of 191 reviews)
List Price: $ 729.00
Price: $ 579.99
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Review by Jeff Carroll for ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
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Just received my Asus UL30A-X5 yesterday. After much review, and a try-out with an Acer 1410, I decided that I wanted a full-sized chiclet/island keyboard and the larger screen. I’m already quite pleased with my decision. At the
Review by TJ for ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
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I recently purchased the Asus UL30A-X5 through Amazon and am very pleased with my decision. Let me first begin by briefly explaining what I was looking for in a new laptop, as I believe that will give the reader better information when deciding if this laptop is right for them. I am currently a student on a budget and was looking for the following: 1) Less than $700 in price, 2) Screen size between 13-14″, 3) Windows 7 already installed (I didn’t want an older computer with Vista that I would have to manually upgrade to Win 7 myself), 4) At least 320GB HD, 3 GB DDR3 RAM, and a Pentium Core 2 Duo SU7300 equivalent or greater processor, 5) Thin and light, and 6) 4+ solid hours of battery life. Although a netbook offers a small size and easy portability, I didn’t want to sacrifice power and performance for everyday tasks. On the other hand, I also didn’t want a large “desktop replacement” laptop that would be a hassle to carry around or difficult to take with me anytime I was away from home. In summary, I wanted a laptop that offered a good combination of power, performance, and size for my money. With that being said, here is my impression thus far after 2 days of using this computer:
Pros:
-Performance: Able to smoothly and efficiently handle everything I have wanted to do to this point. It is even faster than my 3 year old 15.6″ Dell Inspiron that I originally paid $1300 for at the time.
-Size and Weight: Couldn’t be happier with the sleek look and light weight. It looks even better in person than in the pictures.
-Quality: Some people may think you are sacrificing quality for a laptop with these specs for under $700. I think this computer is built very well, and would argue it stands up to the much more expensive or name-brand models in the same class.
-Warranty: The accidental protection warranty offers an extra piece of mind, which is also something not often included without an additional cost in other laptops.
-Keyboard: Very easy to use, great design!
-Mousepad: I love the textured touchpad on this model. It is difficult to see in the pictures, but the touchpad is actually not a traditional “pad”, but a bunch of tiny dots that track the movement of your finger. Also, I really like the extra features such as being able to scroll up or down a page by using two fingers anywhere on the pad.
Cons:
-The only thing that I am not too excited about is the small (or “smaller” when compared to my larger laptop) mouse buttons below the touchpad. This might be something that just takes a little getting used to, but it is more difficult to click the buttons than on my older laptop. Again, this is my first 13.3″ laptop so it probably just comes with the nature of a smaller laptop and I will get used to it with time, but it’s just something I wanted to point out if you are transitioning from a large laptop to a smaller one.
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Sure, there are better laptops on the market as some will argue, but only if you are willing to spend $1000+. This computer definitely earns “5 stars” and I think anyone who is looking for an affordable, ultra-portable laptop with powerful performance will be very happy as well.
Review by A. Quan for ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
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I really love this computer despite the facts that it has some issues. I really like the finish, it’s very thin, less than 1 inch, but by no means is thinner than the macbook air. The casing is very sexy, it looks very nice from all angles. The keyboard is amazing, the only problem is that it has a little flex but its not the end of the world I can type pretty well. The most annoying thing might be the touchpad, whenever you type and you have your hands positioned close to it, the touchpad might register some click while you type. A lot of people are talking about the battery life of this computer that it won’t even reach 10 hours, I can confirm I get 11+ hours on this lappie, Windows 7 is much more energy efficient than Vista (note: I tested under wireless off, lowest screen brightness, power saving mode, word 2007). I really enjoy the price point its less than $700, which is the perfect price for the performance.
PROS:
– Stylish, very sexy looking.
– Keyboard feels amazing.
– Multi-touch track pad works well
– Fast compared to a netbook (C2D, 4GB DDR3)
– Battery life 11+ hours
– Smart Logon, very nice cool feature
– Big hard drive 500GB
– LED screen has nice viewing angles
– Very light and portable
– The charger is very small and portable too.
– Loud quality speakers from small size
– Warranty, 1 Year of accidental Damage
– Price its a deal!
CONS:
– Fingerprint magnet (inside and outside)
– Loud Hard drive (a little annoying)
– Little flex on the keyboard
– ASUS bloatware
– Intel GMA4500MHD, where’s the UL30A-VT? can’t do gaming
– It doesn’t cook, do laundry, or cleans my room.
This computer is perfect for students, and travelers. Recommended
Review by M. Floyd for ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
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Update 11/14: I’ve decided that I’m going to return this laptop. The glossy display is too reflective. It’s not really that noticeable if you are looking at a web page with a white background with the brightness turned all the way up, but in almost every case it’s just too glossy for my tastes. Also, as mentioned blow, this display fails horribly for sharing the screen for something such as watching a movie. If they swapped out the display and trackpad, this would be the perfect budget laptop.
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I was torn between this product and the Acer Aspire Timeline. I ultimately decided to go with this product because of the battery life claim. Obviously the battery life claim on ANY laptop is quoted using settings that will not be reflective of the typical user.
One of my biggest concerns with this laptop was the processor. I was not sure if it would be able to handle my daily computing activities. This machine is by no means a powerhouse, but it is more than capable. As long as you do not need to do anything such as gaming or multimedia editing, you should be fine with this laptop. This machine is capable of playing HD videos with a little extra left over for background tasks.
Notes:
– While you do receive recovery DVDs, if you need to take advantage of them you will need to get an external DVD drive. I have heard some reports that some external DVD drives do not receive enough power through one USB port and require either a powered USB hub or plugging the drive into two USB ports. (This is why USB cables for portable HDD and portable disc drives have two heads.) I am pleased to say that the Samsung USB 2.0 8x DVD Writer External Optical Drive for Mac and PC SE-S084C/RSBN (Gloss Black) works perfectly with just one USB plug.
– The power brick can get hot. One review claimed it got as hot as 130 F. I have not personally experienced temperatures this extreme.
Usage: Microsoft Office, Web Browsing, Media Player
Pros:
– Great balance between speed and battery life.
– The keyboard is fantastic.
– Very lightweight and portable.
– The laptop does not get so warm that it is uncomfortable in your lap.
– The laptop has a very sleek look.
– Excellent value for the price. Even on top of the specs, they throw in one year of accidental damage protection. That’s an incredible value.
– The fans are very quiet even when they are on.
– Comes with little bloatware.
– Ability to play HD movies with no tweaking whatsoever (using VLC). Keep in mind that Adobe Flash will soon be releasing an update that will push HD decoding off to the GPU. If the new 1080p at YouTube is choppy for you now, just wait for the new version to come out.
Cons:
– The screen is very glossy and reflective.
– I’ve really discovered that the viewing angles aren’t all that great if you want more than one person to look at your screen at one time for something such as watching a movie together.
– The track-pad is less than ideal. The track-pad tends to move the cursor position while you are typing. The gestures are nice, but I found that the scrolling doesn’t register. The trackpad utility is greatly lacking in features.
– The hard disk squeaks. It’s not terribly loud, but you will notice if you have no other background noise.
– The chassis is indeed a fingerprint magnet. Again, this seems to be an issue with every make and every model laptop these days.
– No back-lit keyboard. This is not necessarily a bad thing since a back-lit keyboard would drain on the battery.
Review by Dave the Love Enforcer for ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black)
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This little laptop is a wonder. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware, runs very quick, multitasks great, is dead silent, and I’m getting 10-12 hours of battery life on stock configuration.
I’ve never seen anything like this; you just keep using it and using it and using it. Even when I’ve got every MS Office program running at once + a bunch of Firefox tabs + iTunes playing music, I still get 6-7 hours.
I was pleasantly surprised how little bloatware came with it. The only annoying piece of software I really needed to uninstall was some antivirus program. MS Office Home/Student came preinstalled on a free trial, but I was going to use that anyway so they saved me the installation.
Windows 7 runs great on this laptop. Power management and networking features work beautifully. The great sleep/wake functionality in Windows 7 makes startup time largely irrelevant, but even when you do have to start up from scratch it’s nice and speedy. There are lots of nice little touches to this machine that let you know Asus is a really class act. Things like attractive on-screen displays for volume and brightness adjustment for example.
My only nitpick is that the trackpad is a little jumpy. It’s a little hard to land the cursor onto some of the smaller buttons, like scrollbar arrows. This is probably a driver issue, so it likely will be fixed soon enough. The keyboard is very spacious and pleasant to type on.
Overall I’m extremely satisfied with my UL30A-X5.