Asus 13.3" UL30A CULV Notebook Review

Name: Asus 13.3" UL30A CULV Notebook Review - Page 7
Brand: Asus

by Shawn Oliver — Friday, September 18, 2009, 11:30 AM EDT

Futuremark PCMark Vantage (cont'd)

Futuremark PCMark Vantage

Productivity, Music, TV and Movies, and Overall

Futuremark PCMark Vantage 'Productivity' Test Description:
Productivity Test 1 - Two simultaneous tasks. 1. Text editing 2. HDD – application loading
Productivity Test 2 - Two simultaneous tasks. 1. Windows Contacts – searching - search 2. HDD – Windows Defender
Productivity Test 3 - HDD – Windows Vista start up
Productivity Test 4 - 1. Windows Contacts – searching - Searches contacts. 2. Windows Mail – copying - Runs Message Rules. 3. Web page rendering – favorites group parallel - Opens various news pages from IE 7 Favorites in separate tabs and closes them one by one.

In the Productivity Test, we see the UL30 nearly match the Toshiba A305. It's not even close to the Studio XPS 13, but again, it's not nearly as expensive (nor as warm to the touch) as the Dell.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage 'Music' Test Description:
Music 1 - Three simultaneous tasks: Web page rendering – music shop - Opens music shop kind of content; Audio transcoding – WAV to WMA lossless; HDD – adding music to Windows Media Player
Music 2 - Audio transcoding – WAV to WMA lossless
Music 3 - Audio transcoding – MP3 to WMA
Music 4 - Two simultaneous tasks. Audio transcoding – WMA to WMA. HDD – adding music to Windows Media Player

The Music test relies heavily on HDD, Memory, and CPU resources as used in encoding and decoding. The 5400RPM likely hurt the UL30 here, but it still managed to hang tough. For those in the market for a $799 machine, the score here likely means that it'll handle multimedia just fine to satisfy those expectations.

Futuremark PCMark Vantage 'TV and Movies' Test Description:
TV and Movies Test 1 - Two simultaneous tasks. 1. Video transcoding – VC-1 to VC-1 - Transcoding from HD DVD (HD VC-1 1920x1080p 28 Mbps) to the media server archive (HD VC-1 1280x720p 11 Mbps). Uses two cores if available. 2. Video playback – VC-1 HD DVD with HD content - Playing HD DVD (VC-1 1920x1080p 28 Mbps) with HD (VC-1 1280x720p 7 Mbps) content.
TV and Movies Test 2 - Two simultaneous tasks. 1. Video transcoding – VC-1 to VC-1 - Transcoding from HD DVD (HD VC-1 1920x1080p 28 Mbps) to the media server archive (HD VC-1 1280x720p 11 Mbps). Uses two cores if available. 2. Video playback – MPEG-2 HDTV - Playing terrestrial HDTV (HD MPEG-2 1920x1080i 19.39 Mbps).
TV and Movies Test 3 - HDD – Windows Media Center
TV and Movies Test 4 - Two simultaneous tasks. 1. Video transcoding – VC-1 to WMV9 - Transcoding from the media server archive (HD VC-1 1280x720p 11 Mbps) to a portable player (SD WMV9 320x240p 1.0 Mbps). Uses two cores if available. 2. Video playback – MPEG-2 Blu-ray - Playing Blu-ray (HD MPEG-2 1920x1080p 48 Mbps).

Here, the UL30 ran neck-and-neck with the competition, and this is definitely an area where you'd like your machine to score well. This benchmark does a great job of showing how machines stack up in multimedia-intensive situations, and as you can see, the UL30 holds it own (again, given the price).

Futuremark PCMark Vantage Overall Score Test Description:
The PCMark Suite is a collection of various single- and multi-threaded CPU, Graphics and HDD tests with the focus on Windows Vista application tests. Tests have been selected to represent a subset of the individual Windows Consumer Scenarios. The PCMark Suite includes a subset of Consumer Suite tests.

In the overall PCMark Vantage test, Asus' UL30 stacks up pretty well when you consider who this machine is tailored for. The Studio XPS 13 that beat it by around a third is clearly geared towards users who are willing to pay a stiff premium. The UL30 holds it own once again, yet it only costs $799, stays cool under pressure and has a battery life that's unmatched. All in all, we'd say the UL30 did a great job here of completing the tests and staying close to those other, more potent notebooks.