Asus UL series takes on Acer's Timeline machines

Darius Chang | Sep 16, 2009

Imitation is the best form of flattery, so Acer should be feeling a little big-headed right about now. Asus, another Taiwan maker, is targeting the Acer Timeline series with a range of sleek and affordable thin-and-lights based on Intel's CULV (consumer ultra-low-voltage) processors with battery life of up to 12 hours.

The Asus UL80V and UL30A sport 14-inch and 13.3-inch HD-ready, LED-backlit displays, respectively. Using the Intel CULV Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz chips, these laptops will run circles round any Atom Netbooks, though they are still a little slow compared with their full-powered Core 2 Duo counterparts. Like the Acer Timeline series, these new laptops come with a solid metal chassis. However, unlike Acer's 14-inch CULV machine which comes with an ATI Mobility Radeon video card, the Asus UL80V goes with a discrete Nvidia GeForce 210M graphics processor and adds an integrated optical drive to the mix.

UL80V specifications:

Intel CULV Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz processor

4GB RAM

500GB HDD

14-inch, 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display

512MB Nvidia GeForce 210M

DVD writer

Windows Vista Home Premium (free upgrade to Windows 7)

Price: S$1,598 (US$1,150.63)

UL30A specifications:

Intel CULV Core 2 Duo 1.3GHz processor

4GB RAM

500GB HDD

13.3-inch, 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display

Integrated graphics

Windows Vista Home Premium (free upgrade to Windows 7)

Price: S$1,398 (US$1,006.62)

The Asus UL80V and UL30A are already available in Singapore. The 12.1-inch UL20 and 15.6-inch UL50 machines, which also sport Intel CULV chips, will be sold only in certain Asian markets, so check with your local distributor regarding availability.

Filed under: Notebooks
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