ASUS U45JC-A1 Review Discussion

ASUS claims its thin-and-light U45JC can get up to ten hours of battery life on a single charge. Does this 14" multimedia notebook packed with and Intel Core i3 processor and Nvidia graphics stand up to its marketing claims? We find out in this review.

Read the full content of this Article: ASUS U45JC-A1 Review

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It's pricey for a plastic Asus - although it's nice that the screen lid is metal and not bamboo.

Right now, plastic MacBooks are available for the same price, with the discount taking the form of a store gift card. I've frequently referred to the dated hardware of the smaller MacBooks, but even so, I can't imagine very many people dropping this much coin on an Asus when you could have a MacBook, with a very bright screen, for the same money.

The real problem here is the price. I'd suggest that Asus should slash the asking price by $300-400. This would be worth a look at $599 but not at $899.

But at least there's no bamboo. On behalf of all of the Panda bears, thanks for refraining from using bamboo on this model.

 

I tend to agree everything the reviewer mentions, great battery, good performance, the LCD is so so but for me the build quality is what killed it.

I actually exchanged mine out for the U43 Bamboo and the couple of hundred dollar difference shows, better screen, build etc and better hardware.

The U45 makes a nice notebook and would make a real good value at 799.99 but the screen and build quality at 849 to 879 have it fall short IMHO.

 

It's a good thing this notebook has Nvidia Optimus technology otherwise the battery life would have been compromised by the low-end Nvidia card. I don't get the point of including low-end GPUs like the G310M, which are simply too weak to play modern games. "Nvidia GeForce" and "Optimus" certainly look good on a product specifications page, though.

The U45JC is a nice machine and I like it a lot better than the UL80Vt I reviewed towards the end of last year; the build quality is better and so is the keyboard.

Dio -- regarding the screen quality; the screen on the U45JC is definitely poor, I agree -- at least at default settings. If it weren't for those built-in color profiles I would have taken off more points. The screens on just about every notebook I have tested over the last several months have had a bluish cast to them. I don't know whether that is due to the LED backlighting or not.

It is tough to find good screen quality in a notebook these days unless you spend a lot of money.

 

Nice battery life but yah performance is really dismal with G310M.. IMo , something like an acer timeline X 3820TG or 4820TG is better although you won't get that much battery life but hey 6 hrs is a lot...only if ATI.. sorry AMD can come up with something like optimus..

 

I disagree about the Asus U45JC being sold at $599. You can't even buy a used UL80VT for $599 unless you got really lucky and the UL80VT is an old model from 2009. It's even tough to find a $599 laptop that does not only come with integrated graphics.

$799 seems more reasonable because the specs are very similar to the Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG and other Asus laptops which can be found for around $800.

 

I love how Asus is thinking:

Step 1: Release tons of laptops with crappy graphics, some with horrible specs like a ULV i3 on a 14 incher, with the worst product naming system ever and sell them at prices similar to 5650m equipped 3820/4280TGs (Heck, switchable 5650s are way better than Optimus IMO). Putting Asus on everything makes it sell...yeah!

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Profit! Oops, not.

This is not even worth a look at $700 let alone $800.

 

Why not, for the same price, get an m11x with a stronger gpu?

 

Just to play Devil's advocate, I can see someone buying the U45JC-A1 instead of the Alienware M11x because they want the DVD drive, the better battery life, and the physically larger screen (even though both screens have the same resolution).

Granted, I'm a happy M11x owner myself, but I can understand the potential appeal of the U45JC-A1 over the M11x for some consumers.

I would personally never buy a 17-inch notebook with integrated graphics and a resolution lower than 1920x1080, but based on sales figures from Dell and HP it looks like there are a lot of consumers (at least here in the US) who buy low-cost 17-inch notebooks with low-resolution screens and integrated graphics as desktop replacements.

As I like to say, "There's a laptop for every buyer and a buyer for every laptop."

 

If you can wait 3 months, then even the most basic Sandy Bridge 14" will outperform this laptop at a lower price point.

The Sandy Bridge integrated graphics will be superior to the dedicated low end G310m. So you'll get better than optimus without paying a price preimium. Not to mention that features like USB 3.0 will become standard on even the most basic laptops next year.

I know, you can always criticize the "better thing down the road" way of thinking. And if you need a laptop now then this one is fine. But I think people should at least be aware of what is coming out later this winter.

 

This is impossible. 11.1V means that you need to connect 3 cells in series (3 x 3.7V). Therefore the total number of cells should be a multiple of 3.

It should either be:
" 6-cell battery (11.1V, 5600mAh)"
or
" 9-cell battery (11.1V, 5600mAh)"
or
"8-cell battery ( 14.8V, 5600mAh)"


--

 

I hate to break the news, but USB 3.0 in all laptops is going to take a while. I can't give specifics since I'm bound under NDA, but let's say that the rollout of USB 3.0 on laptops is slower than expected because of the fact that Intel and AMD still aren't natively supporting USB 3.0 and it requires manufacturers to buy controller chips to support USB 3.0 ports.

Since manufacturers have to pay for that extra part to add USB 3.0 to each laptop we aren't going to see USB 3.0 in most budget laptops (at least for the first part of 2010).

 

At this point, it looks as if USB 3.0 is going mainstream in 2012, with limited but increasing availability in 2011.

Given the higher costs of manufacturing USB 3.0 and very little interest coming from consumers, at least so far, it looks as if the demand just isn't there. Intel and AMD will eventually offer native support, although in the current economic climate, there's very little motivation for pushing forward with a roll-out.

I'm starting to feel sorry for the various manufacturers of peripherals who jumped on the USB 3.0 bandwagon too soon. Blame the economy, blame the higher costs, blame the CPU manufacturers who want to clear out current inventories. Blame consumer disinterest. Personally, I'm not excited about USB 3.0, since unlike USB 2.0, it isn't a game changer.

 

It's as much or more of a game changer as the change from USB 1.0/1.1 to USB 2.0 was years ago.

USB 1.0/1.1 gave us data transfer rates of 12Mbps while USB 2.0 gave us 480Mbps. USB 3.0 gives us 4.8Gbps (or 5.0Gbps depending on who you ask).

Granted, USB 2.0 was 40x faster than the speed of USB 1.1 and USB 3.0 is "only" 10x faster ... but USB 2.0 only gave us an additional 468Mbps transfer speed while USB 3.0 is giving us an additional 4320Mbps!!!

The only reason that USB 3.0 doesn't feel like a major game changer is because USB 3.0 accessories have been slower to arrive (with the exception of storage solutions like external hard drives and SSDs). However, the only reason the switch to USB 3.0 is taking longer is the lack of native support from Intel and AMD and the cost of adding that separate controller.

When USB 3.0 becomes "standard" then we'll see a lot more USB 3.0 accessories. I'm waiting for super-fast memory card readers for transferring photos from digital cameras and USB 3.0 docking stations (since USB 3.0 has enough transfer speed to make USB docking stations actually work like we want them to).

 

Looking back, the quantum leap between USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 was very significant. It actually made USB useful for data storage peripherals. It was a big deal. Right now, I'm really not all that hyped about USB 3.0, since the improvement over USB 2.0 isn't a big game changer. Personally, I don't even care about USB 3.0, since eSATA ports have become so widespread. Personally, I don't think that USB 3.0 will be very useful with still images, although it might be useful with HD video. Of course, if that was a major consideration for most consumers, why did Firewire fade away so quickly?

Of course, the big news today is the revelation that Apple's high end MacBook Pros will premier Light Peak. Intel's even giving Apple initial exclusivity. Is it any wonder that Intel isn't in a great hurry to rollout USB 3.0 support?

USB 3.0 is coming, but it just isn't coming as quickly as some would have hoped. As I said, 2012 will be the big year for USB 3.0, although we'll start seeing it next year. Of course with Apple and Intel pushing Light Peak, it might be even less important news. Intel's giving Apple initial exclusivity for the MacBook Pro line, so it's now clear why Apple isn't eager to jump onto the USB 3.0 bandwagon.

 

yeah, I shopuld have left that bit out. I do remember reading that intel might be dragging its heals a bit with USB 3.0 on its motherboards because they want to jump right to Light Peak (and I assume capture more profits.) Although I thought Light Peak was not so much a standard as a vehicle for multiple standards...

But my initial point is the key one. Paying a premium for entry level switchable graphics (g310m/HD) is going to seem weak once Sandy Bridge comes out with its superior integrated graphics. Sort of reminds me of when I was looking at the previous generation Sony Z (w/ weak 9300m graphics.) The switchable graphics were only about as strong as the current generation of integrated graphics- yet people paid a big premium for it even a month or 2 before Arrendale hit the market.

 

hmm.. any source to prove the fact that new sandy bridge integrated graphics are fabulous? no offence k? im novice here. wanna do some reading.

anyway, any estimated price n spec of a sandy bridge laptop?