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After the sad demise of my laptop several months ago, I tried to get by without one. I discovered that I am weak. Some people glory in their high tech cell phones, others in their large televisions, some in their nice vehicles, others in clothes or manicures or expensive hair treatments. Apparently, my weakness is little computers.
Kate and I both liked our presents
After exhaustive research (as in Pdad, Amelia, Duncan and Kate were all exhausted by my obsessive and unending inquiries), I ordered the ASUS UL20a-a1 notebook. It is a great little machine–although only 12 inches it has a Core 2 Duo processor (as opposed to an Atom like its underpowered netbook cousins). It weighs only 3.4 lbs and was a bargain at about $500. After using it for almost a month, I am happy with it and would recommend it, although I have discovered a couple of significant flaws.
My review of it follows (probably only of interest to those considering a computer purchase):
What is great about this computer: I love the size. I can easily put it out of reach of my children on a window sill or shelf or on the mantel above the fireplace. I can carry it from room to room in the house with one hand without any strain. This wasn’t true of the 15 and 17 inch laptops I’ve had. I was a little worried that at 12 inches I might be getting the worst of both worlds–a computer that was too small to be useful yet not as handy and portable as the little 10 inch netbooks. Fortunately, it’s just the opposite. This computer is just big enough to have a nice screen size with the better resolution–web browsing and photo viewing are comfortable. Yet it is still small enough to be very convenient.
Another thing I like is the one year accidental damage warranty offer by Asus (rhymes with juice!). Squaretrade says that accidental damage is a common cause of computer demise. That is very true at my house. My children ruined both of my last two laptops through “accidental” damage. I was committed to ponying up the money for an accidental damage warranty this time. But check out the cost of those policies–at Best Buy it can be about half the cost of a computer like this one. So Asus’s one year damage policy is probably worth an extra $200 to me. The Acer Timeline 1810 (which is the UL20A’s principal competitor) doesn’t offer that. On top of that, Asus rated at the top in Squaretrade’s study of laptop reliability.
Why I chose the Asus UL20A over the Acer Timeline*: I strongly dislike these shiny piano black laptops that pick up every fingerprint. They only look good when you open the box. Who wants to spend all day polishing a computer? Who wants to look at fingerprints all day? By contrast, the silver finish on my UL20a doesn’t show fingerprints. I think it is very attractive as well, without being flashy. Three more adjectives–understated, professional and sophisticated.
I also need to praise the keyboard. It is impressive that you can have a typing experience this excellent in a machine this small. The chiclet style keyboard is similar to a Sony Vaio. I had never had a chiclet keyboard before (and I was a bit concerned about it) but I may never go back. I think my typing accuracy may have improved! I am able to type at top speed. It just feels good. I have read other reviews that mention a problem with keyboard flex. I’m not sure what keyboard flex is–but either my machine doesn’t have it or it doesn’t bother me at all, because I have nothing but praise for this keyboard. It is outstanding.
This machine is speedy and responsive for my needs. Of course, I just do e-mail, internet and word processing. I haven’t upgraded the RAM yet, but I have found that I can have many, many, many windows open at once with no noticeable downgrade in performance.
I also like the screen–it’s just big enough and really bright. It may be a tad glossier than would be ideal– I was worried because I have a lot of large windows in my house, but I haven’t found this to be much of an issue so far. I haven’t had the chance to try it outside yet.
***What is not so great about this computer***
The worst problem with this computer is hands down the trackpad. This will be no big deal for you if you always use an external mouse anyway. But I don’t want to use an external mouse! I have done everything everyone recommends. I downloaded and applied the Synaptics generic driver. I tweaked the settings. Honestly, I’m still not happy. The button is far too stiff. The touchpad isn’t responsive enough, even at maximum sensitivity. I’ve given myself a month to get used to it, and I’m still super disappointed. The tweaking did help: I now have pinch zoom and two finger scrolling. It helps that with a tap you can simulate a left mouse click. Also, surprisingly even though I turned the sensitivity to maximum, I haven’t had any trouble with accidentally brushing the pad and having the cursor jump across the page as I’ve had with other machines. To sum up: you can make the trackpad work if you need to, but it still isn’t pleasant to use. I’m going to purchase an external mouse. What a bummer.
Wireless issues: I noticed that when using the machine wirelessly (as most people do with a laptop), Youtube, CNN, and Cook’s Illustrated videos would not play smoothly. When I used a wired connection to our network, the hiccups and stalls went away. I did a speedtest and my download speed seemed to max out at about 3.5 – far less than what we pay for with our high speed cable. Wired I was able to download at 23. I thought it was a problem with the wireless card. But then I visited my in-laws and tried the wireless there (they also have high speed cable) my internet connection was blazing fast! So, we ordered a new router. Now my wireless works great (16 or more) and I have no trouble watching the short video clips that were such a problem before. So, if you have troubles with your wireless, be sure to try it at a friend’s house with a different router and see how it does then. The Linksys WRT350N router that didn’t work with this machine was only a year or two old. The router that works great is a Netgear Rangemax WNDR 3700 Dual Band Wireless N. I don’t know if it was some sort of compatibility problem with the Linksys or if the much, much, much larger antenna on the Netgear made the difference. One other note: so far, I’ve only been able to use the 2.4 band, not the 5.0 band on the Netgear router. I wonder if it is a limitation of the UL20a because our other computer connects to the 5.0 band. I don’t care, because I have the speed I need now.
*Updated to add: I just noticed that Acer will soon release a silver Timeline 1810tz. If I hadn’t already purchased the Asus, I would be tempted to consider this Acer model. The silver finish might fix the fingerprint problem. If the Acer’s trackpad is superior to the Asus’s (which wouldn’t be hard) then it might be the machine to buy. It has 3 Ram instead of 2, and a 320 gb HD as opposed to the Asus’s 250. It also has an HDMI output, if you need that. The footprint is about 3/4″ smaller–(of course, is an 11.6″ screen as nice to view as a 12″? I don’t know.) Of course, Acer ranks much lower in reliability than Asus and they don’t offer the Accidental Damage Warranty. There are always tradeoffs!
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2 Responses to “Asus UL20a-a1”
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Did I tell you I got a MacBook Pro last month? I am loving it so far… it is my first laptop and the first ever only-for-me computer. What is a chiclet keyboard? I like this one, and LOVE the two-finger scrolling. Of course I have no reference other than the 8 year-old PC on the desk over there. I recommend it highly, although you could buy and replace your laptop for what I paid.
Yes, you did tell me that. You told me that you had gotten one and then I rattled on and on about the research I had done on mine, missteps along the way, how I ultimately chose it, what other machines I had considered instead, blah, blah, blah, and why the Asus was the best choice for me–and on and on and on. After I hung up, I realized that I had been quite rude and was regretful. Of course, you hadn’t yet opened your computer at that point, so you had excitement, but no experience to discuss. It sounds like it didn’t disappoint you, I am glad to hear that!
I hate sharing a computer (I know this is not a character trait to be proud of). Amelia often ties up our desktop for several hours at a time because she has to type all of her schoolwork. Worse, Pdad wants to load every machine with Linux, which for those of us who aren’t hobbyists, is a major headache. I am so thankful to have exclusive use of this one. There are many, many, many things I would sacrifice before access to a good computer.
I am lucky that my machine cost half what yours did, because if the past is a guide to the future, I will probably be replacing it a couple of times before you replace yours. My children have an abominable track record. ASUS does offer that one year accidental damage warranty, but it only covers a single incident during that year. Recall that in the short six months I had my computer last year, I had two incidents– although it seemed to recover from the water-dousing one.
A chiclet keyboard is one on which the keys are flat and separate. That’s a lousy description. I’ll try to take a picture. Anyway, the bottom line is, it works for me, and a good keyboard was a top criterion in my purchase.