Asus U35JC/U45JC

Thanks Kings, been choosing between this and U33.
Odd that the U33 gets better battery life according to this review though..

 

My U45JC I5, 4gb ddr, 640gb disk, is in the mail

 

interesting bit on the battery... 4-6 hours? specs says 11.5 no? it probably wont get to 11.5 unless you idle it the whole time but still... thats a big difference... hopefully we get more reviews soon

 

How could the U35JC get better battery life then the U30JC while having the same battery and a more powerful processor (2.4GHz vs 2.26GHz)? That's nonsense. And please don't say "SuperHybrid Engine". All ASUS netbooks have come equipped with that software for years. It's scarcely a new software innovation.

The U35JC, given its specs, should get about what the U30JC gets battery-wise, perhaps a bit less given the faster processor.

The U30JC with simple web browsing gets about 7 hrs max. More with no WiFi. The Polish review lists 6 hrs 27 min with max battery saving on. They give no details of how they did their tests: wifi or not, brightness, browse any flash sites. etc. Such test results are therefore not usable.

 

Where did you order your Odysseus?

 

In case you folks missed out on this, the U35JC is available for preorder at J&R right now for $800! I talked to a sales rep on the phone and he said that they should be getting them in about a week. I just ordered mine, and with Bing cashback (and ignoring shipping, which was $15) it came out to $760.

And Quatro, the advertised 10-12 hours are certainly achievable...but only if you let the laptop idle for all those hours

Anything more than 6-7 hours of web browsing seems a bit over the top in my book. Considering that the UL30/80VT got 8-9 hours doing the same tasks on a CULV Core 2 Duo and, if the user wanted, integrated graphics for the whole run (as opposed to Nividia "Backseat driver" Optimus), I'm very impressed with the battery life of the U30JC/U35JC.

 

I'm not sure whether to wait for the U35JC's release in NZ since it could be weeks or months, or just order from a US store that has international shipping like provantage.

Provantage doesn't seem to have customising like xoticPC though, I sort of wanted the Intel Ultimate N 6200 wireless card.

 

From a webshop in Scandinavia called komplett.dk

I reside in Denmark fyi It will arrive tomorrow, I am quite excited, as it is replacing my unibody macbook (late 2008) and my desktop pc.
To me it is the perfect compromise between performance and portability.

 

So...when's this thing coming to America? (The U45JC)

 

Best Buy has its version of the U43Jc coming this month.

GenTechPC & XoticPC are already taking pre-orders ($1,095). They list an ETA of middle to late July.

BTW, the latest CPU-Z 1.55 for 32 & 64-bit Windows is now available here. It's an installer so it will pick up whether you're using x32 or x64.

 

Odysseus, you lucky sea dog! Let us know what you think.

I'm sure that I'll miss having an optical drive when using my U35JC, but I'm sure the hard drive will have plenty of room for disc images

 

And a slim USB portable DVD drive is fairly cheap now ($19 w/a laptop at GenTech & $30-45 at Amazon or Newegg.)

Chanda Bear, do let us know what the palm rest is made of (printed plastic or aluminum) on that U35Jc once yours comes in.

 

did you get the Bing cashback instant yet?

 

I pre-ordered too and the cashback ($40) came to me about 5 minutes after the order was placed. It covered the shipping and a little more.

I really hope it does ship next week, I am excited to test this laptop out - it has pretty much every thing I want short of higher resolution.

 

sweet, guess i will return my U30jc and preorder the U35jc.
But the shipping cost a little more, they usually have free shipping.
.. Btw, what is the return policy on J&R?

 

I got the cashback within a matter of minutes. My money will be available in September...right when this baby will get put to the test! Free shipping is available if you order over the phone (they need their commission at J&R!), but then you lose out on the cashback. Some models do have free shipping online though...it really depends on the item.

Quatro: Will do. Right now, I'm not sure what to expect...all the pictures make it look like a UL30VT, which is fine by me. It's just a shame that Europe and Asia get to have all the fancy designs. Function over form, right?

Wait a second...

 

I will have pictures of the unboxing (isnt that what the kids like now a days?) and of the notebook itself!

I am really looking forward to not having to sync two systems anymore (w7 desktop & osx macbook) and just have one powerful and portable system.

I am also considering adding a NAS to the home network as I have alot of media that I stream to my wd tv live in the living room, which my desktop used to do.

 

Unfortunately, I'll still have to sync between them, but I'm sure it'll become a routine fairly quickly. I didn't care about my old HP...I only synced music to it, carrying the documents I needed on a flashdrive. I just didn't want to spend more effort on it than was absolutely necessary!

2 hours on a 2 pound 12 cell battery...that laptop got no love from me.

 

You may want to look into this:

Microsoft Live Essentials Beta (look for sync)
Windows Live Devices and Sync beta Help Center - Overview

or this:

Dropbox - Home - Online backup, file sync and sharing made easy.

 

I can personally vouch for dropbox! I use it on all my devices, it is amazing!

And I just received my u45jc half an hour ago!
I must say that it needs a fresh install asap, damn it has a LOT of bloatware! Otherwise it feels pretty nice, very slim and light when you consider the performance it packs.

Quality wise it isnt on par with my previous macbook unibody, but in a weeks time I probably wont notice anymore

 

I am just installing windows 7 ultimate and installing all the drivers and I am weeding through all of the bloatware! Tough job!

 

Hey, can you post some pictures and tell me where you bought it?
Is the cpu-fan accessible from the bottom to be cleaned? How loud does it get?

Thanks!
poma

 

I'm surprised you expected the build quality to match that of a $1k+ Macbook! As much as I like to knock Apple products, they at least know how to get the aesthetics and construction right...most of the time

As for syncing, I'll look into that Windows service. I'm not sure how much DropBox lets you store, since there is possibly 100GB+ that I need to be synced between my desktop and laptop. Right now I use my trusty external HDD and SyncBack. It only takes a few minutes to plug in the drive and run the program, but time is money after all!

 

I'm thinking about a U35/U33 JC. What type of hit in battery life should I expect if I upgraded i3 370 --> i5 430?

 

Notebookcheck.net did a review of the U30JC about a month ago, and their model had that same i5 processor that you're looking at, which makes it nearly identical to your prospective U35JC configuration. They were able to get 7 hours and change out of the battery with wifi on and the display set to medium brightness (I'm assuming this was on battery saving). With max brightness and under load, the laptop got 2 hours.

 

You misunderstand me, I did not expect the same quality, but whenever you downgrade (only in terms of build quality and feel in this instance), and even if you are aware of the downgrade, I am sure that it will still surprise you

So far I am loving the notebook, tried some wprime yesterday and I struggled to get turboboost working with the I5, as it would only clock up to 1200mhz whichever setting I chose, and I though it was rather sluggish, but I found the culprit! SHE - SuperHybridEngine or as I know call it SlouchHybridEnabler.
I disabled SHE and it simply flew and it clock as far as 2.7ghz and it was super fast, but it does cut down on battery time!

Pictures to come

Btw the fan is not accessible from any of the bottom slots as far as I can see, but I am in no hurry to dissasemble my new laptop, and it is a quiet machine, I can easily take this to class

 

hmm I wonder if this machine runs FFXIV.... or do I need Vidock2

 

No clue, but a little note on the graphics performance!

When I did a clean install (bloatware-be-gone) I used the driver and applications cd that came with the laptop, but when I tried L4D2, the performance was very very poor at native resolution, and I was certain that nvidia optimus wasnt switching properly, so I downloaded the newest drivers from nvidia and installed those instead. Suffice to say, it runs like a champ now

 

I was wondering, what does the 310m compare to in terms of desktop graphic cards? Is there a similar comparison?

Also, how much does the U45JC weigh?

For everyone's info, it seems the U35JC configurations here in Hong Kong only come with 2gbs of RAM. It's selling at around 6000HKD to 6800HKD here in Hong Kong (price range depending on how well you bargain/find a good deal).

 

Hey, everyone. Did you notice that the U43JC is up for sale over here at Amazon. .... though it lists as being presently out of stock.

 

Notebookcheck has a method of measuring the performance of mobile graphics cards. For each card, they compare the performance to a current mid range card. For example, 2 Mobility 5870s in Crossfire gets a 100%, since it performs as well as a single desktop 5870. The 310M gets a 29%, as one of the top "low-midrange" mobile graphics cards.

The 2GB of RAM might leave you hurting with Windows 7, as that is the bare minimum needed to run Win7 well (I think).

 

what is the different between U43Jc-X1 and A1 ?

 

Amazon lists the X1 and GenTechPC lists the A1.

Differences?
A1- 640GB HDD
A1- 2-yr warranty & 1-yr accidental Damage Warranty (ADW)

X1- 500GB HDD
X1- appears to only have 1-yr warranty and 1-yr ADW

Their weights are slightly different as well (5.07/5.15 lbs), but that could be an entry mistake.

Can anyone else spot any other differences?

 

Hmm, every where else I am reading is pointing towards mid August for their ETA. Is J&R the only place saying next week?

 

For which model? U33JC? U43JC? U35JC? All of them?

 

Xotic PC seems to be saying mid to late July too.

 

Hey everyone. I have a small admission and retraction to make. Earlier, I had said that the new NVIDIA Optimus Beta drivers 258.96 had caused me to lose 400 points.

I was wrong. I DID lose 400 points, but I finally discovered why. It was because a few days earlier, I had messed with my boot up settings (I'm sure none of you ever mess with any of your settings :wink: ) and forgotten about it.

I had reverted back to the original NVIDIA drivers, but the missing points .... remained missing. Then under CPU-Z, I realized it was only reporting 1 core & 2 threads (should be 2 cores & 4 threads.)

Embarrassed, I suddenly remembered my changes under boot of msconfig.

I changed it back to what it was originally, and voila! My missing 400 points magically returned.

So, just to say that the new NVIDIA Optimus Beta drivers 258.96 work really well for me on my U30Jc.

 

A good recommendation of the U30JC/U35JC/U33JC on the latest Anandtech article.

 

I have decided to wait for the Asus U35JC. Is there any word on when this is going to release?

 

This review makes me worry:

Techtree.com India > Reviews > Mobile Computing > Notebooks > Asus U45J Optimus Notebook

Furthermore I am just getting mad about asus info policy. Either keep the info about new models to yourself or release them in timely manner.

 

I agree with the feel of the notebook, but I do think they exaggerate a bit, I just flexed the screen on mine quite a bit, and there was no discoloration, not even temporarily. They must have had it in a vice grip or something hehe

 

Yeah sounds like it a bit. And I guess every notebook can break when dropped, thats just a nonsense accusation. My fear was about travelling with it.

So Odysseus, where are the promised pictures?

 

I was intrigued with two things in the Indian review:
1) They describe the surface of the keyboard & palm rest as "different types of plastic". AnandTech describes the U35JC (which has the identical chassis except for the addition of an ODD) as "all aluminum-encased" on the upper surface. I wonder who's right?
2) How did their i5 450M running at 2.4GHz (w/turbo boost available, no less) only score 3400 on 3DMark06 when the U30JC with the i3-350M 2.26GHz typically scored 3700 on the same test? The UL30Vt w/ the SU7300 C2D running o'ced at 1.7GHz scored 3400 on 3DMark06 (and had the 210M and 512MB VRAM)! Is this another Optimus glitch? For sure the 310M was working on their U45, or they'd have never scored even 3400.

(Of course, I also was getting 3400 on my U30Jc when I unintentionally shut down one of my processor cores under Windows! )

Lastly, yes, my aluminum lid is very flexible; too flexible for my tastes ... but to crack the actual LCD screen, they must have put a ridiculous amount of gorilla-style force with two hand on the lid!

Odysseus, what is the palm rest & surface of your U45 made of? Plastic or printed-on aluminum? The printed pattern makes it hard for me to tell in the pictures.

 

I will make sure to take pictures tonight! Sorry for the delay, but I have been busy enjoying the notebook mind you

The Palm-rest is made out of an incredibly smooth plastic, which feels very nice to the touch. It definitely is not the same material as the lid, which is made of aluminium.

 

My UL80J was getting a 3D Mark score of around 3400 (I forgot to write the exact number down). I've read that the amount of VRAM at these resolutions does nothing to improve performance. But it's curious to see that the U45JC was getting the same score. The CPU score would have been higher, but the rest of the GPU-related figures must've taken a hit somewhere.

I emailed J&R about the ETA, and all I've received so far is an automated email saying that they are still awaiting the initial shipment. I might call later tonight if I don't get a more detailed response.

 

The UL30VT & the UL80VT should indeed score the same on the 3DMark06 tests.

Yes, strange.

UL30VT: 1.7 oc / 3DMk06: 3400
UL30JT: 1.6 oc / 3DMk06: 3354 ( Romanian review)
U30JC: 2.26GHz/ 3DMk06: 3750
U45JC: 2.4 GHz/ 3DMk06: 3422
U35JC: 2.4 GHz / 3DMk06: ???? (I wonder now)

And as for the U45's palm rest & top ... so it IS plastic as I suspected. Then that likely means that the U35JC will also be plastic. SO much for aluminum top.

All the more reason I'd get the U33JC. Some people may not like that wood top, but the keyboard surface is entirely aluminum. Very nice.

 

I just scored 3422 with the newest nvidia drivers.

 

Peculiar. This score is confirmed by an earlier Taiwanese review here. His U35Jc has the Intel i5-430M (2.26GHz). He has the U35Jc (13" ver of the U45Jc) and his overall 3dMark06 score:
Overall score: 3399
SM 2.0 score: 1285
HDR/SM 3.0 score: 1225
CPU score: 2578

Odysseus, was that about the breakdown of your score? Could you post the breakdown for us? Thanks.

My 3DMark06 score breakdown on my i3-350M (2.26GHz):
Overall score: 3772 (other times, this is just 3730)
SM 2.0 score: 1419
SM 3.0 score: 1420
CPU score: 2344

Now, just for the fun of it, here's my score after overclocking my GPU to 764 / 924 / 1721:
Overall score: 4329
SM 2.0 score: 1652
HDR/SM 3.0 score: 1659
CPU score: 2373

Why is his U45Jc at 2.4 GHz 300 points lower than the U30Jc's 2.26 GHz?

 

I contacted J&R on my order and they have stated mid-August - maybe a rep out of the loop?

 

J&R responded to my email about the ship date, saying that they have not received an updated ETA. Mid August would really ruin this for me