Asus U41JF-A1 Review

The key to any successful mainstream laptop is to compliment blazingly fast parts with a battery large enough to handle them. There are a few that can strike this tough balance, including the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch ($1,199 direct, 4 stars) and Samsung QX410-J01 ($829.99 street, 4 stars). The Asus U45Jc-A1 ($867 street, 4.5 stars) mainstream laptop knocks it out of the ballpark in terms of performance and battery life, with over 10 hours of battery, and a good CPU and GPU combo. Now meet its successor, the Asus U41JF-A1 ($857 street). The U41JF-A1 has the biggest battery in the mainstream category, only this time it's paired with the highest-clocked Core i3 processor available and an Nvidia's GeForce 425M graphics chip. While its 8 hours of battery life wasn't as impressive as the U45Jc-A1, it still beats the socks off of any of its rivals. Thus, the U41Jc-A1 takes over as the new Editors' Choice and has made it on our list of best laptops.

Design
Design is something that can't be taken lightly in the mainstream category, as the competition is fierce. Like its predecessor, the Asus U41JF-A1 uses nothing but the best materials, fitting the lid and palm rest area with aluminum. The U41JF-A1 looks boxier than the Asus U45Jc-A1, thickened, no doubt, to accommodate the more powerful and space-consuming components. At 4.7 pounds, it's still lighter than the Samsung QX410 (5 lbs), HP Envy 14-1110NR ($1,050 list, 4 stars) (5.5 lbs), and Gateway ID49C13u ($849.99 street, 4 stars) (4.9 lbs).

The 14-inch widescreen is spacious and easy on the eyes, yet small enough for an airline tray-table. It is one size bigger than that of the MacBook Pro 13-inch, and roomy enough to tile two app windows side by side. Its 1,366-by-768 resolution is common in a 14-inch consumer laptop, with the Envy 14 ($1,286 direct, 4 stars) being the only exception (it has the option for a 1,600-by-900 resolution screen). My only quibble about the U41JF-A1 is that the keyboard flexes, although it isn't severe enough to make me hate the typing experience. It's a full size keyboard, laid out in a chiclet format that many other 14-inch laptop seems to be using now. I was pleased with the navigating experience: The mouse buttons weren't overly resistant, and the touchpad was responsive and roomy. More importantly, Asus didn't complicate the experience by trying to emulate Apple's clickpad, which is more than I can say about the HP Envy 14-1110NR, Gateway ID49C13u, and Samsung QX410-J01.
Features
The tray-ejecting DVD drive is a more generic design than the slot-loading one found in the MacBook Pro 13-inch and Samsung QX410-J01. The laptop has all the essential ports, including three USB ports, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface)-Out, Ethernet, VGA (Video Graphics Array)-Out, and audio jacks. A 4-in-1 media card reader accepts multiple card formats and resides in the front bezel. The Asus U41JF-A1's hard drive capacity, meanwhile, has been upped to 500GB (the U45Jc-A1 had a 320GB drive); bigger still are the 640GB drives found in the QX410-J01 and the Envy 14-1110NR.

Specifications

Type

Gaming, General Purpose, Media

Processor Name

Intel Core i3-380M

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Processor Speed

2.53 GHz

RAM

4 GB

Weight

4.7 lb

Screen Size

14.1 inches

Screen Size Type

widescreen

Graphics Card

Intel GMA HD

2nd Graphics Card

nVidia GeForce GT 425M

Storage Capacity (as Tested)

500 GB

Networking Options

802.11n

Primary Optical Drive

DVD+R DL

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Performance
Asus drew the line at the Intel Core i3 processor, when others, like the Samsung QX410, HP Envy 14-1110NR, and Gateway ID49C13u, used higher-grade Core i5 CPUs. It's a well-played hand because Asus took the highest-clocked version of this series, the 2.53 Core i3-380M knowing the laptop also had an excellent graphics chip. It also didn't incur the cost premiums, or the additional heat that comes with a Core i5 processor. This paid off in performance tests like Handbrake (2:38), Cinebench R11.5 (2.39), and Adobe Photoshop CS5 scripts (4:52), where the Asus U41JF-A1 tallied the highest scores. Simply put: The U41JF-A1 can produce a video, run a multithreaded application, and finish a high-quality image render faster than the HP Envy 14, Samsung QX410-J01, and Gateway ID49C13u. It's a fast laptop, even if it didn't have the fastest processor on paper.
The Nvidia GeForce 425M graphics chip is a major step up from the GeForce 310M found in its predecessor. It's a legitimate gaming laptop now, as it can handle Crysis (46.6 fps) and Lost Planet 2 (33.6 fps) at more than 30 frames per second (medium settings). Its 3DMark 06 score (8,189) doubled that of the U45Jc-A1 (3,799) and the QX410-J01 (4,200). Compared to other graphics chips, the 425M chip falls somewhere between the GeForce GT 330M chip found in the ID49C13u, and ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 found in the Envy 14-1110NR. When the GeForce 425M is not being used, say, when you're web surfing or on battery power, the system reverts to an Intel integrated graphics chip, a graphics switching mechanism Nvidia calls Optimus.
Battery life is always determined by how big the battery is, because component placement will only get you so far. It's the reason why the Asus U45Jc-A1, with its monstrous 84WH battery, lasted a whopping 9 hours 27 minutes. The U41JF-A1 was given a similar size battery (83WH), and though it didn't last as long as its predecessor, a score of 8 hours 19 minutes is far greater than what the MacBook Pro (5:05) and QX410-J01 (6:27) could come up with.
Mainstream laptops that can muscle their way through any task aren't hard to find, but find me one with a battery that can last an entire day. It doesn't happen very often. The Asus U41JF-A1 picks up where the Asus U45Jc-A1 left off, combining some of the fastest parts—the highest-clocked Core i3 processor and Nvidia GeForce 425M GT graphics chip—with the biggest battery available. No other mainstream laptop on the market strikes such a strong balance between performance and battery life.  pcmag.com