Review Asus VivoBook U38DT Subnotebook

The excellent case is one of the great strengths of the VivoBook U38DT. Asus almost exclusively uses brushed aluminum that gives the 13-inch device a great quality impression. The silver-gray colored surfaces are exceptionally sophisticated. Except for the manufacturer labels (cover & display frame) the 13-inch device is matte finished throughout. Very few notebooks are that dirt resistant. Compared to other devices the surfaces are pretty durable.

The praise continues with the good stability: Despite the thin case the surfaces hardly dent even under high pressure. Smaller weaknesses can be found with the touchpad and in the center of the keyboard. The subnotebook also offers a great performance when it comes to the looks. University, office or desk at home: The 13-inch device looks good in every environment.

Because of the low height (just under two centimeters [~0.79 inches] at the thickest point) and the lightweight construction (1.55 kg/~3.42 pounds) the mobility of the device is very good. Standard notebooks appear enormous and bulky next to the U38DT. Even the light (236 grams/~0.52 pounds) 65 Watt power supply unit is directly connected to the socket and at 75 x 75 x 28 millimeters (~2.95 x 2.95 x 1.10 inches) also surprisingly small. If you are often on the road you do not want to be without it. Thanks to the small dimensions the subnotebooks becomes the ideal companion.

In the category of build quality the manufacturer does not disappoint as well. The material transitions of our review sample were very clean. The hinges are also well designed. The base unit does not swing: the device can be opened with one hand. Great: Vibrations have almost no impact on the cover.

The amount of preinstalled software is small: 25 applications are an indication of a reasonably cleaned up hard drive. In the windows control panel (right picture) the buyer discovers primarily drivers and manufacturer tools. Numerous elements are already known from other Asus notebooks. The “Splendid technology”, for example, tunes the color reproduction. “Power4Gear Hybrid” handles the energy settings. The “USB Charger Plus” supports the charging of external USB devices.

Accessories

The scope of delivery is pretty standard. Additional to the port adapters are; a warranty card, a manual and zip ties. Absolute highlight is the brown colored and pretty tight notebook bag. The leather cover is attached to the textured main body via Velcro. The black inside provides a good basic protection. Driver and Windows DVDs are not included. For the system recovery you can use the Windows function Restore (PC settings, general).

Warranty

Asus offers a two-year warranty for the product (12 months international).

The 1.6 to 2.4 GHz clocked A8-4555M belongs to the family of power efficient ULV processors and is produced, like its Trinity siblings, in the outdated 32 nm process (Intel is long producing in the 22 nm process). With 19 Watts the Thermal Design Power is significantly reduced compared to the standard models. The similar clocked quad-core A8-3500M (1.5-2.4 GHz), for example, has almost twice the TPD with 35 Watts.

The A8-3555M can only process one thread per core simultaneously because of the lack of Hyperthreading or similar parallelization technology.  Four MB L2 cache seem pretty much compared to Intel products, however the Core-i generation also has a 3 to 8 MB large L3 cache. The immediate Intel competitors Core i5-2537M (1.4-2.3 GHz) and Core i5-2467M (1.6-2.3 GHz) cannot compete with 1.3 billion transistors. Both Sandy-Bridge representatives "only" have 624 million transistors.

The DDR3 memory controller of the A8-4555M supports up to 1333 MHz.

The VivoBook U38DT has two DirectX 11 graphics accelerators. The Radeon HD 7600G (Terascale-3 architecture) is integrated into the CPU and has a different clock than the bigger Radeon HD 7660G with only 320-424 instead of 497-686 MHz. Because of the missing graphics memory the Radeon HD 7600G uses the system memory (according to the Catalyst Control Center 512 MB clocked at 667 MHz).

384 unified shaders correspond with the dedicated graphics. With the Radeon HD 8550M AMD finally introduces its new GCN architecture (Graphics Core Next) to the highly competitive low and mainstream market. Thanks to the modern 28 nm process the latest generation is especially energy efficient. Suboptimal: The video memory has 1024 MB DDR3 memory and a clock of 900 MHz but is just connected with a 64-bit interface. According to the tool GPU-Z the core clock is 700 MHz.

Luckily Asus decided not to use the Dual-Graphics technology (some sort of CrossFire for different GPUs). The manufacturer only uses a dynamic graphics switching. Although Enduro still cannot compete with Nvidia's Optimus-counterpart (worse detection rate, less visual aids etc.), the technology made a noticeable improvement over the last months.

In the appropriate driver menu (right screenshot) the user can easily assign the desired graphics to individual applications. “Maximum Power” represents the HD 8550M, “Energy Saving” stands for the HD 7600G. You can also change the global settings. When you choose the setting “Maximize Performance”, all the 3D applications start with the dedicated graphics card. That way an incorrect allocation of the GPU can be avoided.

Asus integrates a 500 GB hard drive into the subnotebook. The ST500LT012-9WS142 is provided by Seagate and runs at 5,400 rpm. HD Tune shows a decent performance. The average transfer rate of 74 MB/sec and an access time of 19 ms are neither below nor above average. The CrystalDiskMark results are slightly higher. Not every 5,400 rpm model reaches 91 MB/sec for sequential reading and 85 MB/sec for sequential writing.

As far as our experience goes the everyday Windows use is a bit disappointing. Especially during multi-tasking the hard drive is the limiting factor. For example; copying data, downloading updates and installing applications at the same time, result in a very slow response time. Compared to a 7,200 rpm model or a fast SSD the hard drive does not stand a chance. In other words: The VivoBook U38DT is not ideal for a power user. The performance for the average user however is acceptable.

Gamers should avoid the VivoBook U38DT. The low clock of the A8-4555M pulls the performance down to a level that only modest and/or older games can be played with more than 25 fps. From the 25 tested titles only 10 were fairly playable. Most of the time the user has to live with minimum details and a slightly reduced resolution.

And even if the frame rate suggests a smooth experience on paper, during gaming there are constantly annoying frame drops due to reloading - whatever settings you select. Even the integrated Intel HD 4000 processor graphics performs better sometimes. Without the CPU throttling the performance should be much better.

The temperature development was good without exceptions. During idle the whole chassis remained pleasantly cool: Just under 27 °C (80.6 °F) provides convenient long-term use. At higher loads the rear area of the notebook gets noticeably warmer. A maximum of 43 °C (109.4 °F at the top) or 38 °C (100.4 °F at the bottom) are non-problematic. The palm rest reaches a maximum value of 31 °C (87.8 °F) - a moderate result. 

Overheating of the hardware is no problem. After one hour maximum load (FurMark + Prime95) the graphics and the processor remain at around 80 °C (176 °F).

If you overlook the limited port equipment and the annoying throttling (multi-tasking reduces the CPU clock to 900 MHz), Asus made almost everything right with the U38DT-R3001H.

The main attraction is the very stylish and very lightweight metal case (only 1.55 kg/~3.42 pounds). Such a high build quality usually cannot be found in devices less than 1000 Euros (~$1365). Apart from some small details the input devices are also very good. The manufacturer shows no weakness with the display either. The matte HD panel offers decent to good values.

Considering the low notebook height (less than two centimeters/~0.79 inches) we find the performance reasonable. Further positive aspects are the moderate temperature and noise levels. Even under heavy load the 13-inch device does not get excessively loud or warm. The included notebook bag helps to overlook the missing driver and recovery DVDs. The battery runtime could have been better for our taste. Runtimes over 4 hours are only possible with little load and reduced brightness.

All in all we can still give a clear buy recommendation for the U38DT-R3001H. Price conscious users who want a small device with high mobility are at the right place.