Asus VivoBook U38N review – the multimedia ultra-portable

13 Comments

  1. Gaugamela

    November 26, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    Great review! Very complete and thorough. You really did a great job reviewing this notebook.
    And an interesting tidbit: this is one of the first reviews on the Internet of a notebook with the A10-4655M APU.

  2. Mike

    December 5, 2012 at 8:57 am

    I'm wondering if you installed the Radeon ramdisk software if the performance would improve. This allows for a ramdisk to be created on the SSD drive. I would also like to know if a Wacom pen would be useful when using Photoshop or other illustration programs or even CAD programs. I live in the United States and was very interested in getting this computer when it does eventually become available…Hopefully.

    • Mike

      December 8, 2012 at 10:15 am

      unfortunately i didn’t have the time to play with Ramdisk on this one.

      The wacom worksbest with a screen that has a digitizer, like what you have on the Sony Vaio Duo S11. On this one, it’s not going to be great

  3. Mike

    December 5, 2012 at 8:59 am

    It should also be able to run Android apps.

  4. cactus

    December 10, 2012 at 11:28 am

    Is there any intel version off this laptop?

    • Mike

      December 10, 2012 at 4:05 pm

      Yes, the Zenbook UX32A

      • Nick

        January 8, 2013 at 2:26 am

        Can you get the UX32A with a touchscreen? It seems what I am looking for, but I don’t see a touchscreen variant.

    • mostafa

      December 6, 2013 at 3:15 pm

      there is the other addition of asus vivo book has called S series. like: s200-s300-s400 or s550.they have intel processor.

  5. Jakob

    December 12, 2012 at 11:52 am

    Hi Mike,

    Which of these two subnotebooks would you recommend I buy:

    Asus Vivobook U38N with 4 gb ram, amd quad core 1.6 ghz, and hybrid harddrive

    Asus Zenbook UX32A with 4 gb ram, i3 core, and hybrid harddrive.

    Both machines costs the same, and they pretty much looks the same to me. I will primarily be using the notebook for surfing the web, doing some light photoshopping, a bit of gaming, and other daily tasks.

    I am kind of drawn to the IPS FullHD screen and faster processor of the Vivobook, but I dont know if these are bad trade offs, considering the Vivobook has a noisy fan, hollow speakers, and bad battery life.

    Are there any real big differences between these two when it comes to the fan noise, speakers and battery life?

    Kind regards,

    Jakob

  6. Dmitry

    December 22, 2012 at 11:31 am

    Hi, Mike! I have a Samsung NP530U4C, but I don’t like it because the screen is not have bright colors and bad viewing angles (but matte screen is plus). Also it makes a noise. I think to buy new ultrabook for work, surfing the internet, video, photos, and sometimes for games. I want to display (13-14) will be a bright and have good colors, to long kept charging. Perhaps with a touch screen (becouse it is good for Windows 8), but not necessarily. The main thing for me that ultrabook have good screen, will be not noise at work. I thought to take Asus s400, but many people say that the screen is not very bright, and it is very bad to work if the sun shinning. Is that so? Maybe I should wait to sell U38N (Full HD and bright display, but AMD)? Or to take another one? Or maybe will be relize new model ultrabook? What models of ultrabooks with touchscreen do you advise me? What models of ultrabooks without touchscren do you advise me? Budget of up to $ 1,000. Sorry for my bad English.

  7. Dee

    February 2, 2013 at 10:58 am

    Finally, reviews and commentaries I can understand! Thank you, Mike! Understand, I consider myself a novice in understanding computers, and need all the help I can get from an unbiased source. My dilemma: My PC just broke, and I was already gearing up to buy a laptop for work, which requires me to be mobile.
    Home PC requirements: Photo / video editing, using average to advanced software (music videos with dubbing & text, slideshows, etc). Streaming videos, basic YouTube and Hulu type stuff, and of course basic MS Office.

    Work requirements: Fast downloads of basic office docs, light video upload/downloads, portability, light enough to easily pack and tote (I’m a realtor, so I’ll either be doing work in office or showing videos at open house presentations, traveling between offices and clients homes, etc…)

    I thought I would have to buy both a laptop and a new PC, until a friend had suggested an Ultrabook I could use for both. I can sacrifice the DVD drive and settle for an external portable, as I would most likely need that only for my home projects.

    Please help! My research is only making me more confused, as I can’t find anything definitive on the subject of video editing.
    What I think I need: 6GB min RAM (pref w/capability of expansion); I5 or I7 CPU; Nvdia GE graphics card; SSD or Hybrid (dunno which is better); 1080p matte screen (but not a deal breaker, I think); pref under 4 lbs total with battery; 13-14″ screen.
    What is a quad core processor? Do I need that? can u give me 2-3 top choices? I’m on a tight budget, but was thinking if I had to buy both a desktop and laptop, I’d be spending at least $1500-$2000 right?

    I’m exasperated. Been researching for a week and I really need a computer!
    Please help!
    Thanks in advance!

  8. earl cameron

    February 19, 2013 at 11:08 pm

    fraps zaps alot of cpu power, you should use a camera for those graphics tests.

    • Mike

      February 20, 2013 at 4:57 pm

      I’m not recording with Fraps, I only use it to display fps and record Average fps in the back. I use a camera for actually shooting the video

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