The new Asus UL20A – small pack comes with big punches

The smallest member of the UL series doesnot disappoint

It is not exactly a netbook – well if you go by Intel’s rule. It sports a 12.1" LED Backlight WXGA Glare-type (1366 x 768), offers option of an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor SU7300 (1.3GHz), Intel® Core™2 Solo Processor SU3500 (1.4GHz), and an Intel® Celeron Processor SU2300/743 (1.2GHz) – supported by the Mobile Intel® GS45 Chipset. There is up to 4GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM and up to 320GB of storage space. Optical drive is optional though, as well as the 3.5G WWAN, but not the 0.3MP Webcam.

Liliputing published a review of the UL20A, and they found it quite a value for money. First, it’s small, light and cheap at under $600, but at the same time offers faster performance, better graphics, and a larger and higher resolution display than most of its peers. It is the entry model of the UnLimited series. Maybe it lacks some of the features like HDMI output or Bluetooth, but at this price it is pretty handful.

A 12.1” screen means it is larger than a netbooks, which enables it to have larger spare space, and thus larger keyboards. The built is quite solid, with mostly plastic finish. The chiclet style keyboard has good spaced-out keys and stretched to the end on both left and right, which is always a good thing to do. It obviously doesnot have the extra number keys but the ones here are almost exactly like in a full-scale computer. The trackpad is situated below the keyboard with a single mouse button below it. Its textured finish lets you know where the trackpad starts and ends when you’re at times operating it without looking at the same. It also supports multitouch gestures.

Performance wise the UL20A does pretty good, especially in handling 720p and 1080p contents. Although it doesnot handle 1080p from web too well, but the latest Flash Player 10.1 will solve the problem. It supports GPU acceleration, and the GMA4500MHD found in the UL20A is supported if you take a look at the release note.

Liliputing run some benchmarks where Asus UL20A gives decent results if not best. The battery is found to be up to about 7hrs in battery saving mode. Even on a high performance mode, the computer was able to run for 4-5 hrs which is quite decent. The UL20A comes bundled with a number of utilities from Asus such as WebStorage, Power4Gear Hybrid, ControlDeck, Backup utility etc.

Overall, the UL20A is not going to revolutionize the market, but it packs enough things in the price-range you get it for. In fact it fairs better than many of the notebooks of same category.