Asus UL20FT – new 12 inch notebook brings extra power

Asus announced they were working on a new 12 inch notebook for a while, and finally it is here: the Asus UL20FT. In fact, this comes to replace the popular Asus UL20A, one of the best 12 inch mini laptops right now.

It doesn’t bring many changes in terms of looks and features, but hardware was updated to the latest generation Intel Arrandale ULV, so expect more power from it.

First take a look at the specs for the Asus UL20FT:

• Core i3-330UM processor, clocked at 1.2 GHZ, dual-core
• 12.1 inch display, 1366 x 768 px, glossy
• aluminum covered body
• 2 GB of DDR3 memory
• 320 GB hard-drive
• Intel HD graphics
• Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• 6 Cell 4400 mAh 47Wh battery – up to 6 hours of life
• Weighs 3.3 lbs and measures 11.8 x 8.4 x 1 inches

As you might know, the UL20A brought the SU7300 processor, DDR2 memory, smaller storage space and poorer graphics (Intel GMA 4500HD). So this one does come with extras.

Asus UL20FT - same sleek looks, better hardware and performance

Also, the UL20FT is available in the States, for $630 (with a small discount and Shipping included) . Asus also plan to keep the UL20A in their offer for a while, and that one goes for $540 right now (also discounted). So there are 90 bucks extra for the new version. But are they worth paying?

Luckily for us, the guys at Notebookreview.com got their hands on one of these and put together one of their thorough tests.

Here’s what they liked:

• solid construction, with aluminum encased lid cover, available in silver and black
• easy to access RAM and HDD via the bay on the back
• average display
• good full-size chiclet keyboard and accurate trackpad, but with single click button
• you do get HDMI on this one (UL20A lacked it)
• tested version showed very good performances, a significant increase from the UL20A (for instance, PCMark Vantage score for this one was 3700, while the UL20A scored around 2500; and in 3Dmark 2006, scored 1257, while UL20A only managed around 800). Reviewers were surprised of the results too and based them on the fact that there is a lot of inconsistency with the new iX processors from Intel. As in, you might get super fast i3s, like this one, but poorer i5 or i7s. Still, based on the scores, the UL20FT is nearly 50% faster than its predecessor in tests, and that’s a lot.
• temperature and noise levels are not bothering (that’s a surprise, the i5 equipped UL30JT I tested a while ago had problems with them)
• battery life is around 4-5 hours in real life tests, which is only average, but given the performance, should be OK

Slim and light, a true ultra portable

And what they didn’t:

• speakers are faced downwards, thus sound quality suffers, although you get Altec Lansing in this mini machine
• trackpad’s button is horrible

More info is available in the actual review, available here.

All in all, the UL20FT is only an improved version of the UL20A. It is faster, way faster actually, so if you need speed, you should go for one. However, all the other things are pretty much the same: keyboard, connectivity, chassis. Plus, the UL20A did offer an extra hour of life every single charge.

So, I can’t really draw a conclusion on which one of these is better for you. I for one would go for the UL20FT, more power is something I always crave for, as I can’t stand the tiniest bit of lag or sluggish OS. But if autonomy is your thing and care to save 100 bucks, the older UL20A will still do the job. So no wonder Asus will not pull it off in the next couple of months, I’m pretty sure many of you will still go for it over then new version.

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Tags: 12.1" netbooks, Intel Arrandale platform, mini laptop, ultra portable

Last updated: October 3, 2011 | Published: August 17th, 2010 | See the comments or add yours!