The good: Very thin; solid design; good battery life.

The bad: Slower than a typical Core 2 Duo laptop; no Bluetooth.

The bottom line: The design and portability of the Asus UL50 make it one of the slickest 15.6-inch DVD-drive-equipped laptops we've seen, but an ultra-low-voltage processor compromises its computing power.

Read full review of the Asus UL50 »

By Scott Stein
Nov 24, 2009

This year has undoubtedly been defined if not by Netbooks, then by the growth of affordable thin laptops that shed the size--and even optical drive--in an effort to provide a more portable, larger-screen computer. Whereas this used to be the domain of highly expensive "executive" machines, such as the MacBook Air and the Dell Adamo, companies like Asus, MSI, and others have been providing cheaper alternatives that run at slower speeds but are more energy-efficient, thanks to ultra-low-voltage processors.

We've seen portables such as the Asus UL30, Toshiba T130 and Acer Aspire Timeline series enter this territory, but new to the landscape are thin laptops that are even larger but share the same ultra-low-voltage processors as their smaller counterparts.

The Asus UL50 is one such a machine: With a 15.6-inch screen, it's in the upper range of mainstream laptop screen sizes, yet weighs a relatively light 2.36kg and is just 25.4mm thick. While it has an optical drive--something its smaller sibling, the UL30, lacks--the internal components still add up to a computing experience that's substandard for a fully fledged Core 2 Duo processor. Nevertheless, a long battery life, a lower price than the smaller Asus UL30, and an elegant design may convince you to give this big-screen version a try.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

When we reviewed the Asus UL30, we remarked on its comfortable and slim-looking design, showing off clean lines and a utilitarian style. The UL50, while bigger, carries over many of the same aesthetics. An extremely thin, brushed black-metal lid opens up on a wide keyboard area draped in a rubberized matte black. A raised keyboard--including a number pad--lies above a smooth matte-black touchpad and a chrome, plastic button bar. The screen is framed simply in glossy plastic. Everything's black, but the effect is more like a ThinkPad than a gleaming, fingerprint-collecting laptop, and we greatly appreciate the subtlety. The UL50 also manages to fit a DVD optical drive into its thin frame, although at first glance it doesn't look capable of doing so.

We'd be really excited to call the UL50 our favorite thin laptop in this price range were it not for the processor inside. The Core 2 Duo ultra-low-voltage processor, the same as the one in the UL30, is a better-than-average Intel low-voltage chip that, by nature of consuming less power, still runs at a slower speed than most Core 2 Duos. This makes it underpowered, which may be an unacceptable compromise for those looking for a more capable 15-inch multimedia machine.

Confusingly, the UL50 seems to have two power buttons, both chrome, on the above left and right of the keyboard. In fact, one boots Windows 7, while the other launches an Express Gate Splashtop OS environment, a quicker-booting mini OS with a pared-down Web browser, email, and other essential programs. The idea of Express Gate is to offer a faster start up for quick tasks without booting Windows 7, but we usually keep our laptop in sleep/hibernate mode, and it doesn't take too long to resume what we were doing, so we don't use this feature too often around the office. Many casual users with quick-launch OS options on their laptops don't even know they have them.

Features

The big 15.6-inch screen feels even larger on a laptop this thin, and icons and text look crisp and bright. The glossy 16:9 LED screen has a 1,366 x 768 resolution, which is standard for a 15-inch panel (although we occasionally have seen higher resolutions in this range). Videos played back nicely, and the stereo speakers, seated below the keyboard, had above-average volume and decent clarity. A built-in Webcam had passable resolution and video quality, and included some odd Asus photo, games and video modes.

By tossing in an optical drive, the UL50 has a complete set of laptop ports and features that one would expect from a 15-incher. While there's no Bluetooth, the complement of HDMI and 802.11n Wi-Fi are solid inclusions.

Performance And Battery Life

Now, let us address where we were disappointed: While the UL50 does have a generous 500GB hard drive, the 4GB of RAM are DDR2, not DDR3. The Intel UL7300 processor is a Core 2 ultra-low-voltage CPU, which sacrifices faster speeds for better battery life, while still being capable of multitasking decently, thanks to the inclusion of two processor cores. Performance is slower than on a regular Core 2 Duo, but far better than a Netbook's Intel Atom CPU. This is great news for users of 13-inch thin-and-lights, but this 15.6-inch laptop is playing with bigger boys with faster CPUs, and up in the 15-inch range, expectations change.

With exactly the same processor plus no discrete graphics and a larger screen to manage, the benchmark tests on the UL50 showed some dropoff in both multitasking and iTunes performance. The UL30 was better than the average thin-and-light, but the UL50 was worse than the average 15-inch Core 2 Duo laptop; being so thin and light has a small price. We couldn't feel the sluggishness on basic laptop tasks while using Windows 7, but running this machine for any serious multimedia purposes will lead to disappointment.

The Asus UL50's eight-cell battery ran for 5 hours 8 minutes using our video playback battery drain test, which is a really good number--but the UL30 performed even better. For its size, that's a good performance.

Toshiba Satellite T135
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100; 3,072MB DDR3 SDRAM 1,066MHz; 128MB (Shared Video) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Toshiba Satellite A505
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 128MB (Shared Video) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

HP Pavilion dv4-2045dx
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.2GHz AMD Turion II Dual-Core M500; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 320MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Dell Inspiron 15
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.1GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T4300; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 32MB (Dedicated Video) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Sony Vaio VGN-NW25
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600; 4,096MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 128MB (Shared Video) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm

Service And Support

Asus includes a two-year global, one-year accidental warranty with the UL30. Email and Web support are also available, and Asus' Web site has become easier to use in recent years. There's also a phone line for tech support.

Tags: Toshiba Satellite, Intel Core 2 Duo, Microsoft Windows 7, Laptop Computer, Asus UL50

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