*** Asus U45JC Owner's Lounge ***

Alright, so the U45JC was one of the lucky laptops that wasn't delayed in its release-date. I received mine today and I know a few other people currently have this laptop.

Here are a few basic specs on the U45JC. (Based on Amazon)



Product Features

* Powered by a Super Hybrid Engine-boosted standard voltage Intel Core i3 processor
* Super Hybrid Engine extends battery life to 11.5 hours for all-day, on-the-go computing
* Delivers high fidelity sound through Altec Lansing speakers
* Super slim design - comes in at under an inch thick

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard
* Processor: 2.4 hertz [i3-370m]
* Memory Slots: 2

Hard Drive
* Size: 500 GB
* Speed: 5400.0 rpm

Graphics and Display
* Graphics RAM: 1024.0 MB (Gefroce 310m switchable)

Cases and Expandability
* Size (LWH): 13.5 inches, 9.6 inches, 1.1 inches
* Weight: 4.62 pounds

Power
* Rated Charge (normal use): 10.0 hours

Here is a video review for a first-glance at the U45JC. Thank you GentechPC for providing us with this video review.

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Current price is about ~$900 shipped from most places.
Share your experiences/questions here!

Personal Experience:
Its been about three days since I've had my laptop now and have plenty of fun with it. I'm going to list some pro's, con's, and sheer observations that i've encountered thus far.

Pro's:
- Very long battery life. I would estimate I received about ~9 hours average (non-gaming involved). I have not tried it with gaming yet (Too much setup to do still)
- Aestheticaly pleasing. Take a look at the gentech video review and you'll get a pretty accurate view of how the U45JC looks. It is a very stylish machine. The lid is brushed aluminum, very sleek, fingerprint-proof. The palmrest is plastic but is also fingerprint-proof.
- Fairly low temperatures. It's currently idling in a 80'F room at about 50'C. Gaming has pushed temperatures to about 75'C - 80'C.
- Solid build quality. Atleast on mine so far, I've noticed no major and very very few build quality issues.

Con's:
- Speakers sound pretty bad. The last time I had a laptop was about three years ago (An Acer Extensa line) and I wouldn't say it sounds any better. Most laptop speakers are nothing to boast about though, just don't think you're going to be blasting up the room with this machine.

 

picked up my u45 a few days ago from Infonec in Canada...really liking it so far.

 

How do you guys like it thus far? I am between the u45 and the timeline 4820.

 

Thanks for the answers guys. I found the neoprene sleeves you were talking about and I'm going to buy one.

I wish the u33jc's were in... I was basically promised I'd get one on the first shipment from xoticpc, they have great reviews so I hope they can follow through with that promise.

 

So far I'm really enjoying my new laptop. I've been removing the bloatware, transfering files from my PC, and just overall tweaking it up before I goto college. The battery life is amazing, 9++ hours. Very portable, very fast, good for light gaming. To sum it up, it is pretty much the perfect college laptop for me. I cannot comment on the timeline 4820 but have heard it sports a much stronger video card. The cons however are possible underclocking of the card (Thereby decreasing the performance), decreased battery life, and possibly a lower build quality than the asus. I know there have been some disputes on the weight (Gentech weighed it in at 4.4, it was advertised around 4.7?) so i'll plan on weighing it myself later.

 

9+ hours doing what?

 

Cleaning up bloatware, browsing the internet, listening to music, installing new software/drivers. No gaming obviously, that might cut it down a bit :l

 

That is pretty impressive. Asus rates the battery at 8 hours and I assume that is with brightness at the minimum, wifi off, and power saving on just like all manufacturers test their battery life. Did you actually time it?

 

I did not time it, but I worked on it pretty much from 12:00 - 9:00. I turned the display off temporarily while I was downloading updates, about 40% battery, no wi-fi for the first half.

 

Any noise or is it absolute silent?

 

I wouldn't say it's "absolutely" silent, but it's pretty darn close. The only audible noise while it's idle is the very, very low hum of the fan. It becomes slightly louder though if you decide to game or push the processor to its max in anyway (Something that most non-gamers or non-graphic guru's will never encounter). Overall, it is a very silent machine.

 

Is the lid brushed aluminum or plastic?

 

Brushed aluminum. Very sleek, finger-print resistant.

 

You sure its real brushed aluminum or just plastic made to look like brushed aluminum? Ken from gentech said that the lid feels like plastic with a brush aluminum design because it is not as ice cold to the touch as the aluminum lid on other notebooks

 

How about heat? Does it get uncomfortably hot anywhere? The U30Jc didn't, but the U33Jc does, and because this is very similar but larger I'm worried about it.

 

How would you rate the build quality?

 

Regular browising, the heat is barely noticable. Palmrests are cool, vent expels some light heat. I will test it gaming on Starcraft 2 in a minute and let you know how it feels.

The build quality I'd rate between about an 9/10. There are nothing wrong at a first glance, and upon closer inspection I still have difficulty finding anything to nack about. I have been delicate with it (Since it's still my new toy) and it still feels slightly fragile. Perhaps it's the light weight or the thin design but something tells me I should always treat it with a bit of caution (Then again, who shouldn't treat their laptop like their baby?)

 

I couldn't get Starcraft II to work unfortunately (Spent an hour hassling with driver updates, had to revert to the original eventually).
I did test COD 4 however, and during cinematics it got very hot (85'C). The palm rest became very warm, a few degrees from being uncomfortable (I did not mind).
During gameplay however, the palmrest was simply luke warm. Although NBProbe read CPU temp to be 80'C (Only 5 less than before), it felt dramatically cooler during gameplay.
The game recommended me to play at an above average setting with AA x4, I decided to lower it to about medium settings w/o AA. Gameplay is smooth for the most part.
The test was ran for only about 15 minutes, haven't gotten around to going through a sitting game yet.

 

I am also a lucky owner of this great laptop, I have had mine for almost a month now.

After a LOOOOONG LAN session of L4D2 and MW2 mine never exceeded 80 degress on the gpu and this is with turboboost enabled.

And I was able to push the settings in these two games to mid-high and everything ran smoothly, which I am very satisfied with.

 

@FlamingTortilla and Odysseus

What were your ambient temperatures? I assume the difference between your maxs of 85 and 80 respectively were due to external factors. I hope the U35JC I preordered doesn't go over 85 since i believe the i3 throttles at this temp.

 

Ambient temperatures were about 75'C. Room temperature with light A/C on, unfortunately. Where I live (texas), it is quite a deal hotter outside than inside and temperatures would probably be worse outdoors.

 

WOW, 89 degress celcius!!! Seriously? Are you sure you do not mean fahrenheit?

 

Okay reading through the rest of the posts I'm sure you mean fahrenheit because there is no way your ambient temperature is 75 degrees celcius, you would be dead.

 

Im sure you mean 75 F, although thats not too bad for texas this time of the year, really cool actually. Its hot in texas but not 75C hot i would hope, that is 167F

He did mean 85 Celsius. That is actually not too bad. Thermal threshold for the i3 processor is 90C i believe.

 

I'm really close to pulling the trigger on this laptop; it really sounds perfect for what I need.

My only two concerns at this point are:

> heat - mostly on the bottom because I use my laptops in my lap more than anywhere else. I'm also not much of a gamer so I won't be pushing the system very hard.
> speakers on the bottom (much less of a concern) - for the same reason as heat... are these constantly going to be muffled?

Any insight into either of those ?

 

When you arent pushing the laptop it remains pretty cool, I have used it on my lap for hours without discomfort! No problem.

The speakers arent great to begin with, but they will do fine enough

Btw someone asked if the lid really was aluminum, and it most certainly is!

 

Oh my haha, I apologize for the mistake. I was reading the CPU temperatures in centigrade and just got stuck in the mindset. I did mean 75'F (And this is indoors with A/C, outdoors is just death ).

The main vent is on the upper left side of the machine. I have honestly not noticed any significant amounts of heat being released from the bottom vents. The sound is a bit muffled. Sound quality in general is not that great

 

I asked that. Thanks for confirming the aluminum lid. I was just wondering since Ken said in a youtube video and NBR post that it felt like plastic.

 

I've been thinking of getting this laptop, I was just wondering what your general impressions were of it thus far and any issues you might have with it.

Also, what was included in the box?

 

I have been looking for a laptop for well over a year and am now seriously considering this one. It will be my first laptop and I have a few questions before I decide, so hopefully some of you can help me out. First, I was hoping for an i5 core, but will the i3-370 this model come with be enough for general multitasking (internet+downloading music+ms office,etc)? Also, I haven't used an antivirus in ages, so does anyone have any suggestions for one? For those of you with this computer, which antivirus are you using and do you find it has slowed down your system/startup? Thanks for any help.

 

Will be awesome if Anyone owner of U45jc do a review or an unboxing video or photo secuencie.

Please.

 

Very satisfied with the laptop so far. I had done about as much research as I could on the machine (Not much given the fairly recent release date) and am very satisfied with it serving as my main machine as I move off to college. The box it comes in includes very little in terms of accessories.
Off the top of my head (Which pretty much includes everything)
- Laptop + 8 cell battery
- Asus Utility Drivers
- Screen-cleaning cloth
- One cable tie (For charger?)
- Charger
- Some instruction manuals.

 

The i3-370 will be MORE than enough for all of those things. To be perfectly honest, the raw computing power offered by most chips these days can run those applications, side-by-side, with ease. Also, remember that the i3-370 is the "top" i3 chip and I recall seeing benchmarks where it outperforms lower i5 cores in certain areas.

Just to give you a headsup, the i3-370 rates on Windows Experience as having a higher processing score than my PC's AMD Kuma 7750 overclocked to 3.0 ghz (And I use this for a gaming machine, everyday-tasks should be a breeze).

As for antivirus, I currently use panda cloud antivirus. It runs in the background very quietly. I've found the interface EXTREMELY simple and very light on the hardware (Unlike many of those multi-feature antiviruses that feel like bloatware and eventually end up doing more harm than good). I've been using Panda cloud antivirus (Free version) for more than a year and just installed it on my laptop as well. I suggest you sweep with Anti-malwarebytes regularly too as an extra precaution.

 

im a proud user of u35jc, n for those who r having difficulty updating the latest driver from nvidia site, u can install the one released by microsoft, 257.41... tht one stable so far on my u35jc

 

Can you please post your impressions of the U35JC here?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/490903-asus-u35jc-u45jc-72.html

I am getting the U35JC as soon as it hits here in the states and I would love your input!

 

Okay, this question is for someone who owns the U45Jc at the moment. More specifically, one with an i5 processor. I was wondering if it is possible to disable TurboBoost. Also where can I get one with an i5, I saw it on some sites a while back, but not i cannot find it.

 

I do not have the i5 processor, I'm sure you can find information regarding Turboboost with a google search. Regarding where to find one with an i5, perhaps you saw it on gentech or xoticPC? (I know they do custom upgrades but at a fairly expensive cost)

 

i dun think u can disable the turboboost...

i dun even care bout the function lol..

btw, at my place (malaysia) they sell u35jc/u45jc with i5-450m proc...

 

Actually I found a local store that has the i5 model. And I obviously googled it before I asked. Apparently it is possible on some motherboards, but I could not ind anything about the U45Jc specifically. The reason I want to turn it off is to conserve battery, I'm worried the battery life will go down significantly with an i5 compared to an i3. And the battery life is why I really want this.

 

The lid looks like aluminum, but it is plastic. The keyboard on my unit is not seated properly on the left side so I am attempting to fix that now. I believe it is because I ordered some upgrades and they may not have placed the keyboard back in properly.

 

Thanks for your help FT. I went ahead and ordered the laptop even though I wanted an i5 and would have liked to have a black one, but I've been without my own pc for a while since my desktop broke so I'm willing to overlook those things. I'm just hoping it will be a good machine that will last me many years (had my desktop since around '01).

@Darkfox, I'd be willing to post some pics (or a video if I can figure out how to upload it on the laptop) of my unboxing once it arrives, however it will be a few weeks.

 

Regarding the lid, although it does not feel like pure metal it is much cooler to touch than plastic. I truly do believe the description "Aluminum brushed lid" is accurate. No matter how you decide to describe it, it is definitely one of the most aesthetically appealing lids I have ever seen and it feels amazing.

 

@Comp321

Thanks! An other question, will be avalaible in black color soon in the US?

 

I used to have no qualms about keeping a cell phone, small book, or TV remote control on the outside of my T43 lid. With the amount of flex on my unit, I wouldn't rest anything more than some loose papers!

To each his own though, so enjoy!

I ordered mine with a 320GB hybrid Seagate drive and the thing is fast. I uninstalled all the Asus software and I'm while I'm still getting used to Windows 7, I'm liking it very much. The keyboard has a little bit of flex, which I've never experienced, so it's hard for me to compare and describe properly (I'm coming from the tank of a laptop T43).

The screen is bright and vivid. The hinges, so far, are strong and do not rebound when the screen is placed at any angle.

I read a few complaints about the mousepad but I haven't had any problems with it. I am used to using a Macbook which has a gigantic touch-area, so it feels small, but no smaller than is average for this size Windows PC I've ever seen. The mouse button is plastic and cheap and I anticipate this button will fail or crack sooner than any other part on the laptop.

I also upgraded the network card to the Intel 6000 series card to take advantage of the dual-frequency wireless-N network I have. The adapter connects at 300mbps with throughput obviously lower.

This is my first time using a non-Mac chicklet keyboard and it's decent. It's not as comfortable as the Mac keyboard but it will do. The vertical column of home/pgup/pgdn keys on the right side slide the keyboard over a notch so the keyboard isn't as center as I would have preferred.

The sound from the speakers is tinny, adequate for web and flash audio. Most of my music is in higher-bitrate AAC and MP3 so assume the speakers are my weakest link in that department.

I can't really comment on battery life as I charge it over night and just use it in the morning before work and a little bit when I come home. I usually just close the lid and set that to drop the machine in standby. I've been using the computer a little more than average and I think I'm around 5 hours of usage with an hour left (according to Windows), but who knows how accurate that is. It probably does a rolling average that gets skewed when the network transfers drop down.

Other than that, I'll mention this machine was my second choice behind a Macbook 13 but I really didn't want to pay so much for an older Core 2 Duo. This i3-370 is the fastest machine I've ever used and it's very convenient. 1080p videos play fine, network transfers are on par with what I should see, Photoshop filters are quick to run, etc.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. I appreciate all the other posts in this thread with informative posts.

 

Hi to all... Ordered mine yesterday, have to wait 10days before it gets here. Can anyone comment on the heat and mic on this laptop? I got the U30JC before and this laptop does not get hot in the palm rest and keyboard, but the mic is horrible. I hope the mic of U45 is better. And I like the fact that i can manually switch video card when i want to, unlike in the U30JC that it automatically switch it for you.

 

Hate to be nitpicky, but does the U45JC only come in black? I've been in Taiwan for two weeks and I've wanted to find a silver one, but have only come across black ones in the NOVA and local stores.

 

Oh the irony. I can only find silver ones wherever I look, but I want a black one. I think most of the online stores (GenTech, XoticPC) have it in silver.

 

I want the black one too but I can only find silver on all online store

 

How is the trackpad? Does the textured design for the palmrests/trackpad create too much friction? If the mouse button ends up being crappy (which it probably will), hopefully the multitouch on the trackpad will make up for it!

 

Please tell me where do you find a black u45jc! I see in all sites only silver color.