Asus UL30A-A1 review (Core 2 Duo Su7300 1.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Vista Home Premium)

Juice box

Asus UL30A-A1
Off (watts)	0.4
Sleep (watts)	0.84
Idle (watts)	6.72
Load (watts)	22.44
Raw (annual kWh)	27.38
Annual operating cost (@$0.1135/kWh)	$3.11

The Asus UL30A-A1 ran for 6 hours and 41 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included eight-cell battery. That's an impressive number that, although not near Asus' claim of 12 hours, is still well above expectations for a thin-and-light. That's closing in on a whole workday. Also remember that our battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use.

Asus includes a two-year global, one-year accidental warranty with the UL30A-A1. E-mail and Web support are also available, and Asus' Web site has become easier to use in recent years. There's also a toll-free number for tech support.

Find out more about how we test laptops.

System configurations:

Asus UL30A-A1
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 800MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Seagate 5,400rpm

Lenovo Ideapad U350
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1; 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 320GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

Acer Aspire 3810T Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9400; 4096MB DDR2 SDRAM 1066MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 500GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

Dell Adamo
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U9300; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 779MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD; 128GB Samsung SSD