Centrino 2 Laptop Roundup

ASUS U6V - Specifications and Summary

Given the smaller chassis, the component choices on the U6V are a step down in most areas relative to the other two notebooks. However, the step really isn't that large, and many of the parts are significantly more powerful - and more power-hungry - than what we found in the ASUS U2E. For example, rather than using an ultra low voltage Core 2 Duo chip running a paltry 1.33 GHz (or less), ASUS uses a standard 25W TDP P8400 running at 2.26 GHz. They also put in a 320 GB 5400 RPM hard drive instead of an SSD, and they max out the memory with 2x2GB of RAM. Unfortunately, ASUS chose to include Windows Vista Business 32-bit rather than a 64-bit OS, so you don't get full access to all of the memory. One compromise that might not be immediately apparent from looking at the specifications is that the LCD is clearly inferior to the LCD that was in the ASUS U2E. The native resolution is similar, and both provide LED backlighting. However, the contrast ratio on the U6V is very low at only 200:1.

Despite the smaller chassis, we had no difficulty using the keyboard on the ASUS U6V. Maybe it's just that we've encountered this same sort of keyboard layout on the other laptops, but we would actually prefer this keyboard layout to that of the G50V. It may not matter to some people, and most users will eventually adapt to whatever keyboard to use the most, but if you do a lot of typing such things do make a difference.

All of the features look good on paper, but sometimes the sum of the parts doesn't quite add up. We praised the build quality and stability of the G50V, but while the build quality of the U6V appears to be just as good, we did encounter a few glitches in the stability department. It was nothing we could specifically track down, but our test system locked up while sitting idle on the Windows desktop a couple times. If it happened only once, we would just chalk it up to one of "those things" that just happen on occasion; three times in as many weeks still isn't a huge issue, but it's now a blip on the radar. On the other hand, we also experienced periods of several days where the laptop didn't lock/crash, so the root cause is impossible to state with any certainty. All we know is that we had three occasions (so far) where we had to force reboot the system. It could be drivers, BIOS code, hardware related, or something else; it doesn't seem to be caused by heat, however, as we never experienced any crashes during stress tests.

We already mentioned that the LCD contrast ratio is much worse than we expected - we assumed that any LCD that bothered to use LED backlighting would be a higher quality panel, but in this case it appears we were wrong. Another area where performance has definitely dropped relative to the ASUS U2E is battery life; however, this isn't much of a surprise. More memory, a faster processor, and a standard hard drive all add up to a few more watts of power. With relatively small notebooks, every watt counts. It looks like the U6V ends up requiring about 25% more power than the U2E, so the small battery is only good for just over an hour of battery life in normal office tasks. The benefit of course is that the U6V is nearly twice as fast as the U2E, so that's probably compromise a lot of users are willing to make. If you really need battery life, you can always grab the 9-cell battery option that will still get you well over four hours of mobility, but that's an awfully big battery for a small laptop.

In the end, the U6V seems like it should be a really good laptop. It packs quite a bit of performance into a very small package, it looks nice, and while the price of $1500 certainly isn't cheap it's pretty good compared to some of the other ultraportable options. The stability issues we encountered are a minor concern (a few random locks on one sample isn't enough to draw any real conclusions), but the bigger concern for us has to be battery life. This isn't an issue specific to ASUS either, as we've seen the same problem with the other Windows Vista notebooks we've tested. Put simply: this is an ultraportable laptop in size and specifications, but battery life is only slightly better than the much larger G50V. We know that laptops exist that get over four hours with a ~55 Whr battery (hello, Apple MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air), and the U6V falls about 50% short of that mark. Why that's the case is difficult to say, but we simply can't recommend a $1500 12.1" laptop that can't run typical office tasks for at least four hours before the battery is dead. Apple has shown it's possible to provide all of that in a notebook that weighs less than 5 pounds and costs less than $1500, so their competitors need to match that level of performance - or at the very least come close.