Asustek Computer is still best known for its cheap netbooks, and the occasional high-end achieved, as the Republic of Gamers desktop replacements, but the company buses a fair number of middle-of-the-road systems. The Asus U41JF is a solidly built 14-inch notebook that will work fine for almost any regular task, yet it is no bargain at $ 850. Worse still, it is easily outclassed in the design department by the 13-inch cousin, the Asus U36JC, which costs about the same but is thinner, lighter and more attractive, and has similar discrete graphics and a better processor.
Neither model has new second generation of Intel’s Core i-series processors (previously codenamed Sandy Bridge), but for mainstream systems like this, that an upgrade can take a while to store hit shelves, especially given the recent challenges Intel with the new platform.
At prices approaching Apple’s MacBook (and topping 13-inch Toshiba R705), unless you stick to the idea of Nvidia’s GeForce 425 graphics system, there are better priced or better-looking laptops out there. That said, the U41JF really has a good battery life, and never really let us down, which may sound like faint praise, but praise nonetheless.
The biggest immediate problem we had with the Asus U41JF was the overall look. The brushed metal lid and palm rest are standard enough, and not offensive, but that’s coupled with a glossy black keyboard tray (matte black keyboard) and screen edge to extend to the four edges of the chassis. This gives the entire facility a gaudy two-tone look that we have previously criticized other systems. If you can not go monochrome, or at least keep the colors in the same family.
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The body itself is square and boxy, but not too thick for a 14-inch system. We are not aesthetic elitists by any means, but with laptops especially is the same core set of components, the visual flair is often what sells one model over another.
The keyboard has the same flattened, widely spaced keys as most laptops today, which is a style we sometimes ask for island or Chiclet keys. The keys are a good size, with large left Shift and Enter keys, but the right shift key gets unjustly curtailed. We are not a fan of the extra row of buttons some laptop manufacturers are adding to the right, which usually Page Up, Page Down keys and other movements. They can throw you touch typing fairly easy, making it difficult to hit the Enter and Shift keys when you’re used to pointing to the right of the keyboard. Moreover, the keyboard bent under our fingers in the middle, while we type, who never gives a good long-term experience.
A generous touchpad is centered below the keyboard, but the basic sound multitouch gestures are hit or miss (but the same can be said of most Windows laptops now). A nice touch is that you can scroll vertically by either wiping with a finger along the right side of the touchpad or by using the Mac as a two-finger method. Below the touchpad, a rocker bar takes the place of the separate left and right mouse buttons. We strongly prefer separate buttons, but Asus seems married to the rocker bar concept in most of its products.
The 14.1-inch screen has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, which is typical for a midsize laptop. Off-axis viewing was good horizontally, but the image faded quickly when viewed from above or below. The built-in Altec Lansing speakers are decent for a laptop, and at least good enough for a personal video.
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There is nothing remarkable, or missing from the collection of U41JF of ports and connections. But for almost $ 900, it is possible to extras such as a mobile broadband antenna or even a Blu-ray player if you shop around.
With a 2.53 GHz Intel Core processor i3, this is a good example of a mainstream laptop that is sufficient for everyday use, surfing the Web for Photoshop to play HD video online. While those i3 Core CPU is usually found in systems that cost a little less, in our benchmark testing U41JF matched well against the step-up systems with Intel Core processor i5. Our takeaway is that you should not reject this model, even if you had an i5 on your must-have list of laptop specs.
There are also some very positive results found in the Nvidia GeForce 425 GPU. It was reviewed by Nvidia’s Optimus switching system, which means that the discrete GPU shuts down and if necessary, and will not degrade your battery when you do not, for example, playing a video game. Sandy Bridge new Intel CPUs, with improved integrated graphics, mainstream graphics cards may be useless for many casual gamers, but these systems are still some ways off from widely available.
As an example, we walked Street Fighter IV in standard mode, which automatically turn on the Nvidia graphics. To the native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, the game ran at an excellent 68.4 frames per second. If we manually turned off the GPU, running instead on the integrated Intel HD graphics, the same test ran just 14.9fps.
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Our video playback battery drain test, the Asus U41JF ran for an impressive 3 hours and 52 minutes. For a 14-inch laptop on the edge of the size we would consider including in the area on a regular basis, battery life may be less important than in a 12 – or 13-inch laptop, but we are happy to see this good result anyway. It scored 30 minutes better than the HP Envy 14 and about 30 minutes behind HP’s Pavilion DM4.
Asus does it better than the standard one year warranty laptop, offers us a guarantee of two years and one year Accidental Damage Protection. From other PC makers, they are often expensive extras. That said, Asus is not the easiest to use set of online support tools, and the overlapping sites can be confusing.
