ASUS UL50Vt comes with an overclockable CPU

Asus puts that extra power in the CULV

 CULV (consumer ultra low voltage) processors are fast becoming popular because systems that run on these processors demonstrate a much longer battery life. But for this one major and important thing you’ll have to forego is the clock speed. So you’ll see the CULV processor will have 1.2-1.4GHz of clocking speed typically, instead of the already sluggish 1.6GHz N270 and the 1.66GHz N280. But don’t think it’ll result in a poorer performance – the performances are better than the Atom family. There are leaked reports which point out that Intel is preparing seven new CULV processors which will belong to the existing SU2×00, SU4×00 and SU7×00 series and will debut in Q4 2009. The seven chips are the SU2500 and SU2600, SU4100, SU4500 and SU4700, and the SU7300 and SU7800. The SUx00 series run at 1.3GHz and 3MB of L2 cache. It was also rumored that Asus will be one of the first users of the SU7300. And here you are – the new 15” UnLimited (UL) member called the ASUS UL50Vt will use the SU7300 CULV platform.

The UL 50 models sport a 15.6" 16:9 HD slim-type LCD (1366 x 768) display screen. The built-in DVD drive makes it much bigger at 386mm x 259mm x 16.4-26.4mm and heavier at 2.1kg. The Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 used here is a 45nm Penryn derivative, and has a 3MB L3 cache and runs at 1.3GHz. I know it’s really low, but Asus finds a way to overcome this. The Turbo33 feature provided alongwith helps overclocking the CPU to up to 1.73GHz – as reported by Anandtech. Wow, that is about 33% increase in performance! Although still it is not heavy enough to handle enough heavy stuff, still is a manageable level. Turbo33 is controlled through Asus’ PowerGear4 utility. By default the systems ships with it on – as found out Anandtech. It has an adverse affect on the battery life though.

While benchmarking, it gave a good score on PCMark and also on the battery front (with Turbo enabled). It gives about 7 hours of battery life. The Aluminum body comes as a breather in the sea of plastic bodies. Also the keyboard looks aesthetic, although folks at Anandtech did not find it too comfortable. One oddity is the textured Trackpad. Maybe it’ll help when you have a wet finger, but otherwise I don’t expect to see many fans.

The 15.6” UL50Vt and the 13.3” UL30Vt will retail for $849 once they start shipping at the end of this month. But if you are interested in knowing where the ATI card stands, check out our comprehensive GPU comparison guide.