Asus N43J* Thread

Got my N43JM last weekend and thought I'd post some impressions of it, what I've gathered so far. I haven't seen a lot of these floating about, so I guess we could do a single thread for all JWhatever subtypes. Am I doing this right?

I need to clarify a couple of things before I get on with it. Specifically, this is the N43JM-VX005V, but right off the bat I've performed some upgrades on it, so some impressions in this post may apply only to this modified version, not the stock unit. I'm probably also going to make a couple of references, for comparisons' sake, to my desktop PC (C2D E6420 2.13Ghz 4MB L2 cache 1066Mhz FSB, 3GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM, Xpert Vision nVidia 9800GT 1GB VRAM DDR3, 7200RPM HDDs, with a Dell 2209WA monitor) and my old laptop, Acer Extensa 7620G (C2D T5550 1.83Ghz 2MB L2 cache 667Mhz FSB, 2GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2400XT VRAM 512MB, 160GB 5400RPM HDD).

A lot of this will be general impressions, unfortunately I don't have much time to run detailed benchmarks. Okay, let's get to it.


Specifications:

• 14'' LED Backlit 1366x768 LCD;
• Intel Core i5 460M: 2.53-2.8Ghz, 3MB L3 cache, 2400Mhz FSB;
• 4GB DDR3 1066Mhz RAM;
• nVidia 435M 1GB VRAM DDR3 (with Optimus);
• Patriot Inferno 120GB SSD (upgraded from stock 320GB 5400RPM HDD);
• Sony Optiarc BD-5730S (upgraded from stock DVD SuperMulti DL);
• Interfaces: 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x eSATA/USB 2.0, 1 x Line-in Jack, 1 x Headphones Jack, HDMI out, VGA out, RJ45 Ethernet port, Wifi toggle switch, SD Card slot, 2 Megapixels Webcam with security shutter, Kensington lock;
• 6 cells battery, 4400 mAh 47 Whrs ;
• Bang & Olufsen ICEPower speakers;

Build & Components Access

Well, the unit looks absolutely gorgeous as far as I'm concerned. The lid and palm rest are made of brushed aluminium, and also aluminium in the speakers grille which fits in beautifully when the unit is open, and is still partly visible between the hinges when the lid is closed. I guess there's little point in my discussing aesthetics, you can see it for yourself in pictures and make up your own mind. Here's a few:






Regarding build quality, the laptop feels very sturdy. There's very little flex to the middle of the lid, a lot less than the plastic lid on my Extensa had. I've noticed a very discrete click sometimes when resting my wrist on the right side of the palmrest, and when grasping the top edge of the lid, but it's all barely noticeable. The hinges are perfectly set, there's no wobble of any sort to them. Overall, the entire unit feels very solid and well put together.

There are just two items that I'm not particularly happy with in the build design. First, the ODD tray door. While aesthetically pleasing, the wedge shaped door extends itself to under the unit, the bottom of the laptop, to where you're quite used to grabbing the laptop from when picking it up by the sides. I try to remember to grab it by the one of the corners on the right side, so I don't put pressure on the ODD tray. The other issue is with opening the lid - there's a small tab on the lid itself, but no indentation on the lower part of the laptop. And since the the hinges are quite strong in keeping the lid closed at those angles, you need to pull on the tab with one hand and slip a finger under the partly opened lid and onto the palmrest under it to keep it in place. Having a bit of an indentation there would've made a difference. Both minor issues when it comes to it, but fairly dubious design choices.

If you're obsessive about fingerprints, like me, you'll probably end up wiping the aluminium parts quite often, as well as the screen bezel, the latter being the more visible culprit. If you're not the obsessive type, however, the smudges on the aluminium itself won't be easily noticeable from a distance, as the striations on the brushed parts work quite well to conceal them and the lip of the lid has a sanded finish which hides them even better.

Some comments on the screen. First off, I understand that the N53 and the N73 have a plastic overlay, a screen protector that's flush with the bezel. Unfortunately, the N43 doesn't have this, the LCD is indented from the level of the bezel. As for image quality - the dot pitch is good, the 1366x768 resolution is sharp enough on the 14'' screen, and the colours and contrast are fine enough. The let-down, however, are the viewing angles. Hardly a surprise, I'd seen an N53 "in the flesh" before ordering my N43, so I knew full well what to expect. But coming from staring into a beautiful eIPS panel (2209WA) it can be off-putting to see your image shift with any variation on the vertical viewing angle. With regards to surface reflections, the screen is glossy, but not overly so. I've used it both indoors as well as with natural light, on the train, and I've never gotten any irritating reflections to distract me from what I was doing.

For those looking to access the components for upgrades, here's what's what (thanks essense!): there are two panels on the back of the laptop, neither of which have any screws visible. The small panel in the middle is secured by a screw accessible inside the battery bay, easy to spot, and will allow you to access the RAM modules and the screw securing the ODD. On the bright side, the wedge shaped tray door makes the optical drive very easy to take out once unsecured, but it's also fiddly to swap over to the new drive too, so arm yourselves with patience. The larger panel is opened by removing the screws under the two rubber feet, and gives access to the hard drive. Thumbs up on replacing the keyboard, though, with four plastic clips holding it in place it's a piece of cake to replace.

Here's two pics of the back of the unit, panels closed and open:



Performance & Usability

As a quick ballpark, here are the Windows Experience scores on this spec:

• Processor 6.9
• RAM 5.9
• Graphics (Windows Aero) 4.6 (running on the Core i5's integrated GPU)
• Gaming Graphics 6.6 (running on nVidia 435M discrete GPU)
• Hard Disk 7.9 (with SSD upgrade, not on stock HDD)

I've installed Metro 2033 for a quick test drive of the graphics hardware, it's quite alright. It's a fairly intensive game, with graphical options fixed to four presets: Low, Normal, High and Very High. I played the game on my desktop at 1680x1050, DX10, on Normal, sometimes switching to High with slightly choppy framerates. I don't recall the actual FPS count, I'm afraid. On the laptop it looks like the way to go is, at native 1366 x 768 resolution, Low settings on DX10. Switching to DX9 looks worse with no improvement to framerate, DX11 gives me some weird graphical artifacts and a far worse framerate. FPS count goes from 20ish in busy outdoors action, to pushing 50 in cramped interiors. I believe the game may well be playable enough on Normal settings as well, if I get to testing it some more I'll update with my results. So - not phenomenal, but in good standing. I've also tried Portal - native resolution, details on max, 8X MSAA and 8X Anisotropic Filtering, about 60-70 FPS as a general thing, drops down to around 40-50 when you're got portals opened up around, viewport-in-viewport and all.

As a minor nitpick, I foresee having to work with special, dedicated Optimus drivers may well be a pain in the backside. Already had a little run in with them, Metro wanted PhysX, and it kinda made me hurr durr a bit as it turns out that there's a special version of it for Optimus, and for some reason the general Optimus driver I tried to install off nVidia's site wouldn't recognise my hardware, seemed to list only 300M series as compatible. We'll see, I'll cross that updates bridge once I get to it.

Heat-wise, it stays cool during Windows work (CPU at 39°C in SiSoft Sandra), especially with the SSD the palmrest doesn't heat up at all. You start Max or a videogame, and the exhaust on the left side will start pumping out hot air, but the rest of the laptop stays just as cool, barely any warmth on the bottom of the unit.

Okay, audio side... I like it, the B&O speakers are measuring up quite nicely. I'm sure there are other laptops out there to match it, but it's better than what I've heard so far from laptops, and certainly ahead of my old Extensa. One thing I've noticed is that if you turn all the volume sliders all the way up, and then also toggle the Adaptive Volume in Asus SonicMaster to High, you will get some distort. Though I think you're fine with Adaptive Volume on Low, no distort and the the sound comes across loud and clear. It's hard for me to offer a very accurate opinion here, since my usual audio is provided by a Sony STR-DE197 amplifier, but good audio was a point of interest for me, since I'd be relying on the laptop's for when I go visiting my folks on holiday, and I think the N43's will hit the spot.

Keyboard. Nothing to write home about. A little flex to it, alright to type on, but hardly exceptional. Mine came with a Portuguese keyboard, I swapped it out for a US layout one (something like $15 including shipping from China to the UK), and on the bright side that's a really simple process.

Touchpad. I love the feel to it, wonderfully smooth texture. Decent size, multi-touch, driver options are quite customisable. Two-fingers scrolling and two-fingers tap for middle-mouse button functionality, three-fingers tap for right-click. There are now some updated drivers from Elan for this device which I do recommend, they add a bit more in the way of config potential. Overall very happy in this department.

So let's have also a quick look at the other buttons and LEDs. Power button obviously, the Wifi toggle I mentioned under specs, and a second power button, which will toggle between Power4Gear Hybrid's four different power options while in Windows. If the computer's off, however, that second power button will launch the Express Gate utility. Though considering that with the SSD installed it takes just under 23 seconds to boot to Windows' login screen I don't see much inclination to use it. LEDs for Power, Battery Charging, Hard Drive In Use and Wireless On just under the touchpad, another Power On, Express Gate / Power Plan LEDs (and buttons), Caps Lock and GPU (blue for Intel, white for nVidia) LEDs below the speaker grille. Also, thanks to veon1 for pointing this out, there is no dedicated volume rocker unfortunately, unlike on the larger N53 and N73 iterations which have it in the transparent lining with the power buttons and LEDs, you only get Function key combos for those media controls.

Oh yeah, almost forgot - no Bluetooth. Like, seriously Asus? I mean, yeah, an adapter is six quid, no big deal, but still. I'd kind of expect it for the asking price. Maybe I'm missing some technical reasoning behind its lack. Also, no expansion card slot. Of no concern to me, I've had one on the Extensa for two years and never had use for it, but thought some of you may be interested. Anyway...

Battery life, nothing overly impressive, reviews were fairly accurate. With Battery Saving options enabled, you can probably expect around 3-4 hours of doc editing and light browsing, may well be towards 4-5 hours with screen dimmed all the way down and Wifi off. Asus only have a 6 cell option, stupidly enough, so I've gone ahead and ordered a 9 cell knock off as a backup (will take a while to deliver, I'll update after). Keeping my fingers crossed it actually turn out to be an acceptably reliable 7200mAh 9 cell, we'll see. Edit: In the meantime, coladuna has received his 9 cell battery, and here are some of his impressions of it along with a picture of how it fits in the laptop.


Summary Comments

On the plus side, superb, elegant design, great build quality, good CPU and graphics, USB 3, great sound on the move. Downside, mediocre screen angles, fairly average keyboard, bluetooth available only on some models, no expansion card (for those in need of one), battery life not particularly impressive and no official 9cell available. Also, note that no N43 models currently have BD burner options, if you want one you're gonna have to install it yourself like I did.

So, hope this info's useful to any interested. Your mileage may vary depending on what you want from it. For my needs, I absolutely love it, great overall package.

For those interested, let me put up some details on the retailer I got it from, too. N43JM-VX005V from WSI Bytes & Gadgets in Portugal, and they also offer an upgraded version with 8GB RAM. Was very satisfied with their service, e-mail replies were quite prompt and their sales rep was very helpful. Do note that if you want to get something from them and ship to outside of Portugal you'll need to place the order via e-mail, you can't do it through their site. Shipping to the UK cost me €36 and took 5 days (slight delays on account of bad weather), via Nacex Europe in Portugal, TNT on the road from Portugal to the UK, and APC Overnight in the UK. Other resellers that memebers here at NBR have found are in Poland, offering a variety of configurations of N43JQ and N43JF, and also an N43JQ-VX020V on offer from a retailer in Germany. For those in the UK, it looks like (thanks NZwaveraider for the info!) Asus have no plans to release the model locally, so importing may well be your only option.


P.S. It's a pain to find a sleeve to fit it. I've tried a 12-15'' neoprene sleeve, kinda fits but laptop's just slightly too thick and long and keeps the flaps opened wide apart from it, then tried a 15-16'' from Staples and that's a tad too loose on it.

 

Good write up Felix, I was looking hard at this notebook for a few months waiting for its release.
When it finally was released I was disappointed in a couple of things the original design had a chiclet keyboard which for some unknown reason was replaced for the current one and also the battery life.
Curious as to why the latter considering Asus have 8 cell batteries in almost all their designs of late, maybe a weight issue?
If you don't care about battery life then I think this is a real contender in the sub 1k notebooks with the current included hardware.

I ultimately ended up with the U43, design and battery won me over.

 

Yeah, the battery issue's irritating indeed, an 8 or 9 cell option would've been aces. Could be some obnoxious move to provide an artificial limitation to further distinguish the N*3 series from other models and prevent possible cannibalisation. I seriously doubt it's a weight issue, it hangs on the scales at 2.4Kg with the 6 cell, and this isn't meant to be an ultraportable. We'll see if that 9 cell knockoff I ordered turns out to be anything reasonably passable.

Added some pictures to the opening post. I'm not too good with the camera but they should help round up its appearance in addition those on the official site.

 

the cannibalization is possible due to the new gpu in the n41, it uses the gt425. I was actually aiming for the N43 but seeing that the n41 is way more portable and has better battery life (as it appears) I will go for that one.

The loss of the B&O audio is a major bummer.

The manufactures have to make more concise lines, there is too much, this only leads to confusion, in the consumer side, and loss of profit on their side.

They have learned nothin with ASrocks

 

good review.
I ordered one from B&H on Sunday.
Hmm.. interesting point about the lack of bluetooth. B&H website clearly states that it has Bluetooth. I did buy under the assumption that it has.
I too have a 9-cell battery on order from eBay. It claims to be a genuine ASUS battery but I guess it's a false claim. I just hope it lasts more than a few month as the last laptop battery I bought on ebay didn't last more than that before it started losing charge.
I'm not expecting any surprises as I already had a N53JQ but returned it due to faulty Bluray drive and bought this instead for the portability.
B&O speaker was a big deciding factor for me. I'm sick of tinny sounding laptops and not being able to hear anything unless I have an earphone plugged in.

 

Good review.
How's the noise when it under load?
Other owner told me it's quiet

 

If the seller specifically said it has it, I'd imagine it does. The official Asus page states that it is available on selected models, unfortunately the JM-VX005V is not one of them. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Yeah, they could do with tightening the ranks a notch. I think their idea is to cover as many price ranges as possible with different options, but it does lead to a rather byzantine lineup of products.

Um, yeah, seemed perfectly quiet to me. Granted, when I ran games it was just about a meter away from my desktop's PSU fan, but I think that if there were a noticeable increase in noise I'd have caught it. The only way I could tell it was running under load was the GPU LED turning white and by putting my hand over the left side exhaust. Edit: Yup, checked again. Turned the desktop off, tried Max and Metro, the only way to hear the fan is to put your ear down next to the unit, from normal distance I just can't hear it one bit.

P.S.

Wait a minute, when did that happen? Like, i5-460M with an nVidia 425M and up to 10 hours ideal battery life? That's a pretty awesome package. Did this refresh happen in the last week or two, 'cause when I was looking I got the impression that all of Asus' long battery life options came with a 310M at best?

 

here it is: ASUS U41JF-A1 14" Notebook - Silver. ASUS U41JF-A1

good price, also.

This will compete finally with the acer 3820tg and the 4820tg. I wish that the U36 would use the gt415m instead of the gt310m, like his brother the U31.


Now the problem is that I cant believe that in order to reach all parts of the market you have to have such a long product line. You can and you need to save by mass production, better orders, lower prices, and so forth, scale gains are what they use, but it appears to me that they could push the price lower if they shortened the product line the need to produce less and order the same hardware would be... more profitable.

 

Yeah, that does look pretty good. $100 less than the N43 on the same site, but that's with an i3. And then Asus start with the hit & miss features again, why doesn't it have USB 3? I mean, this line just got refreshed, right? Eh.

 

I thought it was supposed to have USB3?? But for me this is a no issue... Im not going to get this lappy until its refreshed with the SB chips.

The i3 is easily swappable as far as I know, but I might be wrong.

I would like for them to remove the ODD and put another fan and a higher powered GPU, NV or AMD it doesnt matter, just make it more powerful

 

I just want to report to those interested in the 9-cell battery option.
I received the battery today from Hong Kong after a 2 week wait and it is simply awesome. I did have suspicion that it's a knock-off despite the claim that it's a genuine ASUS battery on the ebay listing, but it does indeed look like a genuine ASUS battery looking at the label on it. (Maybe a good knock-off???)
Anyway, this is how the N43JF should be from factory. In Quiet Office mode, it is showing around 6 hours 30 minutes. I think it will last roughly 4 hours watching movie/divx files compared to around 2.5 hours on the standard 6-cell. It does stick out a bit at the back and adds weight, but I'm very happy with the purchase. I highly recommend it. It cost me about 70 bucks.
Oh, this is with OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD by the way.

 

It can be hard to tell. There seem to be a few different varieties of knockoff parts. Some of them are true knockoffs that are replicas, others are factory excess OEM parts that don't carry the normal logo but are otherwise identical. Sometimes you can even get parts where the ASUS logo has been scratched out or covered with tape or a sticker. The easiest way to tell with batteries is with the finish of the plastic, if it's identical to the stock battery and everything else checks out, it's probably not the kind of knockoff you have to worry about, and could just be OEM. The only difference then will be the warranty, retail asus batteries come with a 1-year warranty (at least in the US) that has a small information packet inside the bubble wrap.

 

Externally it pretty much looks identical to the stock battery.
Maybe it is a knock-off because the listing said 3 year warranty.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info! If you've got a camera handy could you also post up a pic of what the laptop looks like with it, to see how much it sticks out and all?

 

No problem. It's too late to do it tonight (2:18AM local time) but I will definitely take a photo of it for you tomorrow. It basically sits flush at the bottom just like the 6-cell battery, but it extend 2-3cm out to the back. It's obviously a decent amount heavier than the 6-cell battery.
I'd say go for it. 14" notebooks are supposed to be portable and N43 series with 6-cell battery compromises that. With the 9-cell battery, you get a minimum of 4 hours (not sure about games), which is acceptable.
I can see that you have SSD installed also. I have 120GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD installed in mine.
Oh, and mine definitely has bluetooth. thank goodness.

 

Thanks, but wow... 2-3 cm jutting out of the back is quite a massive difference, doesn't that make it awkward to carry around? When I have to move to another table or just take it with me for a quick jaunt without a backpack I usually grab it by the back edge where the battery goes. And it certainly wouldn't fit in the sleeve I got for it anymore. Definitely hope to see a picture when you have the time, I might want to consider getting a second 6 cell instead of it if it turns out to be too large.

 

Hi FelixC, I'm considering the N43JM-8GB from wsi (with an SSD, that slow 320GB HDD has got to go) but I'm a little concerned about the battery life, can you elaborate a bit more? My other option, the Envy 14, has an 8-cell battery which sounds much more reasonable to me. Also, how much does it weigh? Do you consider it a proper portable laptop?

 

Envy 14 is running like a helicopter,super noisy and annoying.
Well, if you don't care about noise, you should go for envy 14

 

I'm afraid I can't give you too much info on battery life as I haven't really had a good opportunity to test it in the field until it ran out. I have taken it on my commute and to courses, and with that experience I do believe that my initial estimates would be about right - 3-4 hours on a full charge with the Battery Saving plan, as long as you stick to light browsing, Word, Powerpoint, and so on. You start throwing in Youtube videos, music and other such here and there, it will go down more towards three hours. I should note that Power4Gear's Battery Saving plan will throttle the CPU, but for general office work, what you'd expect to do on a Battery Saving plan mostly - browsing, docs, common video playback - I haven't noticed any impact to performance. Another minor point is that by default Optimus will use the dGPU for Youtube videos, and disabling Hardware Acceleration in Flash settings will switch to using the iGPU which seems to give you another half hour at no cost to playback (tried a 720p Youtube video, same thing on iGPU and dGPU). So if battery life is really a major point for you, I don't think the N43 will make too much of an impression. It's acceptable, but I wouldn't call it a selling point for it.

I'm really curious to see coladuna's pictures with the 9 cell battery. If it proves to be reliable I imagine it should give you all the autonomy you could reasonably want from an entertainment notebook but I am worried about the form factor.

And since we've gotten to form factor, yeah, I think the N43 is perfectly portable. With the 6 cell it weighs in at just under two and a half kilos (2.4 according to the official page), which is quite swell in my book. Size wise it's easy to pick up and carry around in one hand, easy to take out and use on the train, no complaints aside from having a hard time finding an appropriate sleeve. It's just a little two wide and a couple of millimetres too thick around the hinges so that the sleeve flaps hang awkwardly over it, more of an aesthetic complaint there. But maybe you'll have more luck with finding an appropriate sleeve if you need one.

 

the important thing about batteries is the Wh (meaning wattage per hour).

The envy 14 has a 64Wh battery or something like that, the Asus N43 has a 56Wh... in the end its clear that a more energy wise AMD chip is going to have way more battery than the ever power hungry Nvidia offerings.

Dont even start me on the optimus debacle.

Now the 2 notebooks dont really compare due to the sheer different size that both present, the difference in weight. The envy 14 is way more portable, being way more thinner.

 

Actually a bit worse, the standard 6 cell battery on the N43 is 48Wh.

 

Well, I just checked the version of the Envy 14 that's for sale over here and it's the one without switchable graphics - so the battery advantage is gone - and with a weaker screen. So I think I will go with the N43JM, the €400 I save will go towards a good SSD. 3h+ battery life is good enough for me, if not terribly exciting. Thanks for the info FelixC!

The Envy 14 is just .5cm thinner and is the same weight. Thinness in laptops is overrated anyway, its not like you're going to fit them in your pocket like a phone...

 

No problem, hope it works out for you! If you want to do an international delivery from Portugal, though, I'd say expect it to take a bit with it shipping by road on this weather. Or I suppose you could see if you can purchase any other form of speedier shipping.

One thing of note, however, if you are willing to wait and want to squeeze the absolute latest tech into it, Intel's Sandy Bridge launch is just around the corner. Rumours of SB-equipped N73s have already surfaced, so I imagine the N43s should also get refreshed by February or March at the latest. But it's anybody's guess how long until they trickle down the distribution network to a conveniently located retailer. Could ask them maybe. In my case I decided that the current JM was powerful enough for what I needed it and that I didn't really want to wait, but your mileage may vary.

 

Shipping is not a problem, I'm actually in Portugal right now so I'll be bringing it back to London the best way possible, on my lap in the plane. And unfortunately I really need to buy a laptop before the end of the year, so no SB or Nvidia 500 series for me...

Since you now have experience in modding the laptop, do you know if it is possible to remove the ODD and stick the SSD there? I have an external burner so I don't really need the one on the laptop, and I'm a bit scared that the lack of storage in a SSD might become an annoyance later on.

 

Sorry, about that I really don't know, never done something like that before. But off the top of my head, what I could see as a problem is can you mount the optical drive tray's external panel to the outside of the hard drive caddy? 'Cause this model laptop uses a custom wedge-shaped external panel to fit the overall design of the chassis, and it extends about 2 cm into the bottom side of the laptop. If you look back to my opening post you can see it on the right side of the first pictures I posted of the back of the unit. If you can't mount the tray door back onto the HDD caddy I guess that entire part's gonna have to stay exposed.

 

But the port for the optical drive is SATA II? Presumably any HDD caddy meant for replacing DVD drives of the same size should work, or is that shape really so strange?

 

I guess so, are there any different shapes of laptop hard drive caddies, I've never used one. I'm assuming that they all should be following the same standard form factor for laptop optical drives, right? I've swapped my original DVD drive with a BD burner, the tray door was the only non-standard part to deal with, the drive itself is standard shape. The connector on the optical drive looked regular SATA as usual. I'm not sure, does this help or have I misread your question?

 

Yes, that's pretty much what I wanted to know, from what I've been reading it's possible to use one of these to replace the optical drive with an HDD. I'll talk with the people at the store about it, see what they think.

 

Hey FelixC,

Sorry I didn't post the picture up yesterday. I had trouble transferring the file from my iPhone. stupid iTunes!!!
I just measured it with a ruler and it sticks out exactly 2cm. I don't mind it actually, but it does make it quite a bit heavier for those sensitive to weight.
I am at work so I'll give it another go tonight when I get home.

As promised.
Please excuse the quality, but I think it should be sufficient for your need.

 

Thanks coladuna, that's great help! Yeah, I think that looks manageable. Might even fit in the sleeve still. Just one more question, from the picture it looks like the part that's sticking out is smooth, rounded plastic, and that the battery was designed to actually fit into this particular laptop that way, not like it's a battery designed to fit into a larger laptop that also happens to work for this one too - is that the case, is it well finished and does it feel like it was designed that way for the N*3 series?

I think that looks about right. You'd swap the mounting bracket off the original optical drive onto it, just like you would if installing a different optical drive, and it should slot right into place. But probably a good idea to ask at the shop to be sure, and definitely see about whether you can mount the external tray panel onto it, or if you're willing to do without if you can't.

 

The part that sticks out is pretty much a smooth semi-circle. I must admit that when I received the battery I was certain I got the wrong battery because it didn't seem like it would fit, but it does feel like it was designed for the N series. The plastic material feels exactly the same as the rest of the bottom panel and the way it extends out the back seems to be well thought out. I think it will stick out in the exact same way if you used it on N53 series too.
I have no regret over buying the battery. Extending the battery life has made this a much better laptop in my opinion. I just pray that the battery isn't poor quality and holds its charge for a decent amount of time. I guess only time will tell.

 

Perfect, that's great to hear! Thanks again, I've updated the opening post to link to your comments for others interested in the 9 cell, and I'll post some of my own impressions when I get mine, but that will still be a couple of weeks.

 

10charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

@gr8st121 The major difference between the two is the graphics card as you have probably gathered. The 435M should be a bit better than the 425M in the JF model, but that only really matters to gamers. I recommend that you take a look at notebookcheck.net website, they have great comparisons of all the processors and graphics cards available in the market.

 

10charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

Well, for some more accurate advice I think you really need to mention what you want to use the computer for. What sort of course are you studying, will you have often, regular use of some very CPU-intensive applications? Will you be doing video editing, or compiling massive chunks of code, or anything else like that? Do you play videogames, and if so, what sort of games and how lenient are you with graphical settings? And for how long would you like to keep this machine for the purpose of playing games?

Now, regarding my importing the JM. I wanted the JM indeed, as a gamer I did want to get the 435M GPU in it. But in the end is just so happened that it was the JM that was conveniently available in Portugal. The N43 is not for sale here in the UK, frustratingly enough, so my only option was to import. I didn't want a JQ because of the quad-core CPU, so my choice was between the JM in Portugal and the JF in Poland. Luckily enough the more interesting configuration for me was available closer.

Whether you should go to the trouble of importing the JM is an entirely different matter. Importing from Portugal to the UK only cost me the €36 (about $50) for shipping, no other customs taxes and so on. But importing from Portugal to the US would be a lot more expensive, shipping on the one hand, then you gotta figure out how customs duty and VAT works out for you, I really don't know. The 435M is just a slightly higher clocked 425M, the difference in performance is there but not something to bowl you over in my opinion. Personally, I wouldn't bother, I'd get the JF locally instead of a JM from overseas.

Moving on, portability - I don't see that the class size would change anything. It fits nicely on even a small, lecture theatre desk in front of you. I find it easy to carry around in one hand (under-arm, so to say) if you just want to stick in a sleeve and go, or even forget about the sleeve and just take it like that. It's small enough, in my opinion, and at two and a half kilos I don't think the weight's a problem. It's obviously not going to be as light and portable as a Macbook Air or an iPad, if that's what you're asking, not even close really, but otherwise I don't think it's anything to complain about. Though, as a general thing, I would rather suggest you slip it in a shoulder bag or backpack, better to be safe than sorry.

What I can't comment on is whether the expanded 9 cell battery would make it fiddlier to pick up and hold in one hand, that's if you're planning to get the expanded battery. It may or it may not. I'm only get mine in about two weeks or so, so until then can only guess based on the pictures. Maybe coladuna, who's posted about it, can give you some more info on that.

And now upgrades. 300 cocos is a lot of money in this case, an extra 30% over the base laptop is nothing to sneeze at. Obviously, the more money you throw at it, the faster the configuration, but whether it's worthwhile or not once again goes back to my question on what you want to do with it. If you want to do heavy video editing maybe a CPU upgrade would be worth it, if you rely on Photoshop a lot, more RAM could make a difference, or maybe you have a lot files and would benefit from an upgraded HDD, or even a second one at the expense of the optical drive. Or, hey, if for some reason you believe you may have need of XP Mode in Windows 7, you'd need to get the upgrade to Professional. You've got loads of options there, which is actually great for you, unfortunately the only thing WSI could offer me was putting in 8GB RAM but I decided it would be better to put the money in a different upgrade in the end.

What I did, and I do think most people would get use out of this, was I replaced my standard 320GB 5400rpm HDD with a 120 GB SSD. I don't really care about the reduction in storage space as this is only meant to be my portable machine, I have a desktop as well (though if you don't you may want to get an external hard drive as well to keep home for extra storage), plus I put in a BluRay burner which would allow me to archive large amounts of data easily.

Finally, if you do have need (or just want) a more powerful machine, do bear in mind that Intel's launching the new Sandy Bridge processor line in January, and it's been suggested that a refresh for the N43 line will be hot on its heels. Though, like I said before, it's anyone's guess on what the new ones will costs and how soon they'll be available at your local retailers.

 

Hey Felixc,

I've been out of it for the last few weeks, was in China for a week before christmas, but as it was work, I didn't have spare time to go and look, the only time I spare, was on my return trip in Beijing airport, and couldn't find even 1 electronic store...gutted!

Great to hear you managed to get one! I take it you didn't get charged importing taxes because it was within the EU?

About the Bluetooth, if certain N43 models do have it, at least it will be allowed for (by having a socket on the motherboard) you could install it yourself, my wife's F3J, was the same, you could buy the bluetooth module from the asus estore and install it yourself, you might just have to give it some time until the parts become available.

I'm definitely holding out for the SB release of the N43..... lets see what gets released at CES.......

PS: those who brought the 9 cell battery, can you please post back again in 3 months time? I would love to see how the batteries are holding up, as I would be keen, but have already been stung by fake batteries, don't be surprised, I saw a program on the BBC about counterfeit goods from China, it was amazing, fake ipods, mp3 players even fake raw egs!!!! i mean who the hell makes fake raw eggs!!! my friend also purchased a pair of fake Sennhieser earphones on ebay from Hong Kong, was amazing all packaged perfectly, everything was identical to the original, a very good rip off, yet the sound was awful !!!!!

Like DVD burners, the optical-HDD conversion kits for DVD bays should allow you to take the existing DVD door off and place it on the HDD replacement, so that once installed, it looks like factory.

I woud be very surprised if this was not the case.

This is a relatively new chassis, so may take time for something to come available, but if we all email and hound these guys, maybe we can get them to supply one 2nd Drive Caddy, ASUS N61, N71, N81, N82 (add 2nd HDD or SSD) [OBHD-SATA12-SATA-BU] - $44.75 : NewmodeUS, Hard Drive Caddys for Notebooks

Also this VID shows how the DVD is replaced with HDD YouTube - Replace a laptop's CD/DVD optical drive with a Hard Drive

and how easy it is to remove the original door façade YouTube - Optical device frontpanel replacement (Laptop) 7051

 

Cheers! Yeah, the twenty quid for shipping was the only thing I had to worry about. Didn't even have to deal with an overseas transfer, apparently WSI aren't unfamiliar with UK orders, they supplied me with a local bank account to pay into.

Oh, cool, I had no idea! I'd bought a dongle from Belkin instead. If I wanted to install an internal would I just have to slot it into a socket under one of the panels, or would I have to take the chassis apart and break out the soldering iron? And would I be able to switch it on and off from the desktop, or would it always be drawing power and reducing battery life?

Regarding the 9 cell battery and Sandy Bridge, I've seen rumours that the new CPU line should result in a notable increase in battery life. Maybe the new ones will get good enough autonomy on the standard 6 cell, who knows.

I am so picturing a chicken with an eyepatch.

I'm a little confused here, seeing as the ODDs have a standardised form factor for both mounting brackets and tray faceplates, wouldn't any HDD caddy work the same? Would you need one custom built for the chassis?

 

Hey Felixc, Glad to hear the purchase went smoothly.

Bluetooth should be a matter of just finding where the bluetooth module plugs into the motherboard, because I would assume that the model with and without built in bluetooth would have the exact same motherboard, its just that your one doesn't have the BT module plugged in.

That's the way the F3J worked, so all you needed to do was plug the BT module into the motherboard, install the drivers from the Asus website (which should also activate any hot keys used for turning BT off and on).

Now in terms of finding where it plugs in, that's the tricky one, I would assume you would need to crack the chassis open to get at it, you may be better off asking one of the resellers like XoticPC, where it is.

In regard to the HDD trays, I would assume there would be generic types depending on form factor, i.e ultra slim or standard, so no I don't think you would need one custom made for your chassis, it may be a case of instead of one size sits all, 3 sizes fit all, if that makes sense, it probably also depends on height of the drive and type of connector the laptop uses for connecting the DVD to the mtherboard (If I remember correctly, in the first link he doe's mention that laptop can have different DVD connectors).

 

Good to know about the bluetooth, thanks!

As for the ODD connectors, I assume it's just SATA or IDE. Size-wise the only characteristic I had to deal with when picking out my BD replacement was "laptop size".

 

hi, i have this laptop and i just bought the SSD Vertex 2 SATA II 2,5" - 120 GB, the problem is when i put the windows 7 cd it doesn't recognize my ssd (it says i need drivers) did that happen to anyone?? what should i do?


by the way i didn't change nothing in bios... should i change anything there? and how can i access bios?

update: i can see the ssd in bios, the problem is when i try to boot from the disk it says: Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

what can i do?

 

You may have run into a similar problem to the one I encountered when installing my SSD. Did you by any chance attempt to restore the OS off your service disks onto the new drive? At any rate, you could try doing what I did and create a new partition table for the drive. I took some advice and did this with the GParted utility from running an Ubuntu Live CD, though apparently you can also get a GParted Live CD on its own if you prefer.

 

yes i tried to restore the OS from the 5 service disks... but can i do that with only one drive? or do i need to have a primary drive and attach ssd as a secondary drive?

btw i'm kind of a noob here, and what exactly should i do? i have a ubuntu 9.10 cd

edit: so i see a ubuntu live cd is a cd where you can boot from, and i guess a gparted live cd allows you to create partitions without booting, but when i create a new partition should i erase everything on the ssd?

edit 2: nevermind, just did it now, THANK U SO MUCH, YOU ARE GOD

 

No problem, glad it's worked out.

 

I'm ordering N43SN (or SL, not sure which one will be available) next week. I also ordered Seagate Momentus XT for hdd swap.

I've read, that in order to access hdd bay, you need to peel out rubber feet from bottom side of asus.

Should I be worried that after this operation they can become loose and fall off ?

Next thing: Can I put something under keyboard to prevent it's flex (some tape maybe) ?

 

I was concerned about the same thing at first, but so far they're hanging in there like new as far as I can tell. I've removed and put them back twice now. If you're really worried about it I suppose you could add a droplet of superglue but I don't think it will be necessary if you do it just a couple of times.

I don't mind the flex much, to be honest. What does irk me is that the very limited space between individual keys gives poor tactile feedback, which coupled with the fact that in 15 years of using computers this is the very first time I have to put up with a keyboard without a numpad throws my touchtyping off badly. I'd be very curious to know if there's a compatible chiclet keyboard out there.

Um, I imagine it may cause me to grit my teeth a little, but when you get the new Sandy Bridge version could you give some impressions on the battery life?

 

Sure I will.

And about keyboard. I typed on N43 and to be honest I was a bit annoyed by flex on left side. Previously I had M1530 and there was no flex at all so....

 

Hey interestingly enough, I was in Gdansk tuesday/wednesday this week and the hotel we were staying at was next to this mall which sold Asus Laptops. MADISON Centrum Handlowe Gda?sk

They had N73 and N53 but the guy said they wouldn't have the N43 for another few days, or weeks? (his English was basic and my Polish is rubbish )

Would be interested to see what you think of the updated version, please keep us posted, I saw a review for the new N53 release and it was very good, so fingers crossed!!!

Review Asus N53SV Notebook - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

PS if you remove the rubber feet and they sit flush, you should Glue your feet back on, I would suggest Ados F2 or similar contact adhesive, because it sticks very well, but can be removed if needed, if you use double sided tape it may come off when the laptop gets hot.

 

AFAIK, N43 series in Poland are exclusive for X-Kom.pl, at least it was that way with N43JF and JQ. (and I don't see their shop on mall's list you linked)

Now, at X-Kom you can order N53SV, ETA is Jan 19th. I talked with salesman, and he told me they had ordered N43* already, and at beginning of next week they will start collect pre-orders. ETA is end of this month, so I will keep updating.

 

OK, so I have now spent some time with my N43JM with a OCZ Vertex 2 SSD installed (amazing the difference it makes, its my first time using an SSD and wow). I'm a quite happy with the laptop, performance is great, been playing SCII on high flawlessly, UT3 also runs great, no complaints so far on the graphics front. BTW, FelixC, nvidia now has some new beta drivers that do recognize the 435M on the N43, though I'm not sure how much they add to performance (wasn't paying attention before installing them ).

Anyway, I think FelixC's review is spot on, not much to add, agree on both the plus and minuses he mentioned, only thing I noticed he didn't write about explicitly is that there is no separate volume rocker - you have to use Fn+F10/11 to control volume, ie, both hands, which I find pretty annoying. In fact, there are no separate buttons for anything other than power, wifi and expressgate. Everything else must be controlled through Fn keys. There's plenty of room, would it really have been so hard to add some dedicated keys Asus? *sigh*

All in all, a great laptop, excellent value, carries on the W3J legacy proudly. Definitely recommend the N43 SB models to anyone looking for great graphics performance, good looks and solid build in a sub-15in laptop.