The ASUS UL20FT-A1 is a completely new update to the popular UL20A. Equipped with a high performance processor Intel Core i3 and impressive battery life, this thin and light notebook has a lot to offer.
Construction and Design
The UL Series ASUS would use some of the first laptops on the market to Intel Consumer Ultra Low Voltage (CULV) processors. This CPU consumes only a fraction of the power that other processors needed, which means any laptop running a CULV processor could take longer on a single battery charge and the laptop itself could be made thinner and lighter, because these processors were required the massive cooling systems that other laptops is necessary.
The ASUS UL20A was the first 12-inch laptop in the UL series and quickly became popular with the students and professionals who need a light laptop. The unfortunate side-down on the UL20A was that it used a relatively low-performance version of the CULV processors. Now, the ASUS UL20 as UL20FT-A1 again with a new low-i3 Core processor and a bigger hard drive. The notebook chassis itself remains unchanged except for a minor change to a new 16:9 widescreen display housed.
The quality of the building UL20FT-A1 is very good with a solid chassis that does not squeak, creak or flex, even under considerable pressure. The screen hinges are nice and dense, making it a little difficult to open the laptop with one hand, but also help to the screen where you want to keep it. The metal lid covered the screen feels very nice and offers a fair amount of structural rigidity, but prevents the center of the screen is still under heavy pressure. The screen itself shows obvious signs of distortion when you press on the back of the screen cover, so that offer attractive metal cover could not be much protection.
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The underside of the notebook includes a single access panel for the RAM and hard drive. The two RAM slots are located side-by-side instead of stacked. This internal division helps the chassis design that is as thin as possible. The 2 GB Memory Module takes only a single slot, so it is easy to upgrade to 4GB simply by purchasing an additional 2GB memory stick. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult, the wireless card because of the thin design access, so do not expect to have Wi-Fi card for another model, without dismantling completely replace the laptop. That is, the target audience for this notebook is probably not capable of making changes to outsource about a possible hard drive memory upgrades.
Screen and speakers
The 12.1-inch screen on the UL20FT-A1 Features LED-backlit display and a 16:9 aspect ratio with 1366 x 768 resolution. We give this monitor a “good” rating within the narrow vertical viewing angle would be sweet spot. The backlight in this review unit is even and bright, but the upper-left corner of the screen suffers a little backlight bleed. The contrast is sharp and the colors are good defaults. Vertical viewing angles are as narrow as we see in general with most laptops, while the horizontal viewing angle (side view) is almost flawless. If you use this notebook for color-accurate editing, you must be sure you see the screen straight on.
The ASUS UL20FT-A1 features Altec Lansing stereo speakers directly below the palm rests on the floor leading edge of the notebook. The speakers sound terrific, if the laptop is resting on a hard surface like a table like the sound bounces off the desk and in the direction of the user. Unfortunately, the sound is not so good if you have this laptop as a “laptop”. In the test laboratory they call downward facing speaker “crotch speakers” because they direct sound in your lap, instead of the ears. If you are UL20FT-A1 on your lap, you can expect the sound, muffled and distorted sound against your legs. On the other side of the headphone jack provides a large, static-free connection for external speakers or headphones.
Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard on the chiclet UL20FT-A1 is an adequate design with a good frame underneath. Unique keys are a bit muddy, but still a decent feedback when you press. There are no special multimedia keys, but do use the arrow keys serve double duty as media controls, when used with the function key (Fn) key. Each button is flat with a nice matte texture and a little more distance to avoid typos. The keyboard frame (the silver to the black keys) on our test unit is suffering a bit of bounce or flex when you press with your fingers, but this is not a problem in the input.
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The touchpad is a Synaptics touchpad quality interface with a slightly textured surface and excellent responsiveness. The touchpad itself is a little small, but that is expected on a 12-inch notebook. The touchpad driver delivers superior accuracy and minimum delay with a range of options. The touchpad buttons are hidden under a single “rocker-bar” and have a flat press with an audible “click” when pressed. I hate single-button touch pad … Especially if there is no clear separation between the left and right. I often pressed down to close to the center of the only key, and either failed to activate the touch pad or button being accidentally pressed the wrong side of the touchpad. ASUS designers must either completely separate the touchpad buttons, or at least a small indented area in the middle so that you can fell, where the left touchpad button stops and starts with the right key.
Connections and functions
The ASUS UL20FT-A1 offers a fairly average number of ports for a 12-inch notebook. ASUS offers three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, two video-out ports, a card reader and two audio ports. This is pretty much par for the course when it comes to thin and light notebooks and netbooks. However, we would like to at least one high-speed data port, USB 3.0 as suach, eSATA or even an Express Card slot, to see on this laptop. The UL20FT-A1 also lacks an optical drive to the chassis as thin as possible, but this will probably only bother people to see the DVDs during a flight, how to make.
Performance
Despite the use of a low-voltage Intel Core i3, which provides ASUS UL20FT-A1 some pretty impressive performance. The Intel Core i3 330UM is clocked at 1.20 GHz leads yet in our lab tests it on a par (if not faster than) the Intel Core i7 640UM. This brings us back: have noticed overlapping performance variables to a question that our editors published since the first time Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors. In short, there are so many different i3 Core, Core i5 and i7 core processors on the market now it is possible, a core i3 machine that is faster than many buy Core i7 machines.
The 2GB of system memory seems a little thin in comparison to all the same price class notebooks that come with 3GB or 4GB RAM. To make matters worse, the integrated Intel graphics share the system memory so that only part of that 2GB is available for Windows applications. On a happier note, uses the new 320 GB hard drive driveis one step from the smaller hard disk on the UL20A, so this notebook offers plenty of space for your media library. Unfortunately, this hard drive a little slow, even for a 5400 model, so you launch applications and load files may take an extra second or two.
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Battery Life
ASUS claims that the UL20FT-A1 capable “is up to six hours” of battery life, and we were eager to put that assertion to the test in our laboratory. In the “balanced” power mode with 75% brightness of the screen, the UL20FT-A1 for four hours and 32 minutes non-stop operation lasted for surfing the Internet and a word processing program. This work is for a notebook with a stock battery is OK, but not near the six-hour run time, we hoped to see. Modern laptops are on a regular basis 5 + hours non-stop life of the battery in the balanced mode, so just under five hours just “okay”. Of course, the battery can last longer if you lower the screen brightness and sometimes you can go to sleep the system. On the other hand, if you have applications that the processor, hard drive, Intel Integrated Graphics or stress, that’s when you can expect that to drop the battery life is even lower.
Verdict
The ASUS UL20FT-A1 is a long-awaited update to the popular UL20A. For a few dollars more than the original price of UL20A, which offers a powerful new UL20FT-A1 i3 Core processor, a new 16:9 widescreen display and a larger hard drive. That is, this is an “evolutionary” update and not a “revolutionary” Upgrade to last year’s 12-inch thin and light notebook.
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The UL20FT-A1 uses integrated graphics are still weak and lacks any high-speed data ports such as USB 3.0, eSATA or an Express Card slot. Most people can now live without an optical drive, but if you take care of watching DVDs on a flight then it might bother you that this notebook lacks a DVD drive.
Still, for less than $ 650 The ASUS UL20FT-A1 makes perfect sense for students or adults who want a compact, lightweight notebook that will not break the bank.
