Asus U35JC/U45JC

I just bought a u45 from Infonec yesterday. They didn't have any in stock so i ordered one. It will be ready to pick up on wednesday.

They also have a sale right now. The cash price is $930

 

Lots and lots of places should have it...Infonec, Direct Dial, Amazon.ca, pccanada, a-power.com, anitec.ca - all you have to do is find which places have physical locations in the GTA. NCIX might also have them but they have yet to post. Some places may have the u35 or the u45 but not both so you'll have to do your own homework there.

 

The ULV equivalent of the U45JC is the UL80JT, but it's the same price for a CULV i3 and maybe an hour more of battery life. The Acer TimelineX would be the next best thing, as they have similar specs to the Asus U series, but are available without discrete graphics if you have no need for such a thing (this also shaves a couple hundred dollars off the price).

 

I did look into the UL80JT, but what really turned me down was the constant reviews about WiFi problems. As I my desktop is connected to the internet via WiFi (I know it is stupid, but unfortunately for me there is no internet cable in my room) and I want to sync files between the two computers, WiFi is a big issue for me.
At first I wanted to go with the U35, but just my luck the release date was set to late August. I live in Canada, and school starts around the 5th of September, so it's out of my choices for now. Unless you know of a way I can get the computer from the day it comes out (8/25) to Canada before school starts, I'm sticking with the U45Jc.
I also have a contact who helped me build my current computer (Core i5-750 OCed to 3.15GHz, Radeon HD 5770, 4GB DDR3-1333 RAM, 500GB 7200RPM) and he vouches against Acer's build quality. At the start of June I was in the states and I got the time to check out the Acer 3820T at Fry's, and to be honest the ergonomics were the deal breaker for me.

 

NKash, it's been mentioned several times that the ETA for the U35JC in Canada is August 4th. I'm not saying that it will for sure come out on Aug 4th, but that seems to be the popular opinion. I will say that a poster on page 28 was nice enough to tell us that Business Depot/Staples has the ETA of 8/4/2010 for the U35 and I know that Direct Dial also showed an ETA of 8/4 on their website for the U35. In fact, the U45 and U35 are both supposed to come out this Wednesday so you'll have your answer soon enough.

 

Thanks alot,
I seemed to have forgotten about that post, mainly because I couldn't see the actual webpage. I going to be ordering around the 8th, so by that time I hope more light can be shed upon the U35's and U45's release dates. \\Funny, you can find the U45 available on Amazon.ca now...

 

Hmm interesting that Amazon.ca has the U45 already...then again Amazon confuses me - amazon.com and amazon.ca both show the U30JC-B1 as OOS/not yet available even though retailers in both the US and Canada have them out already so go figure.

 

Well, ill update again. Ive managed to remove the clicking sounds as far as i can tell. This by running a .bat file. I guess it keeps the arm on the HDD open, and not setting back into place all the time, or something.

Now, there is still the fan problem... the PC is very cool, so cant understand why its going on like that. Ill try booting up 3dmark, and check the heat.

Edit: Also, there is a prominent high pitched noise that comes sometimes. I have no idea what it is, but its not something of a HDD sound. Comes from inside the pc somewhere. Its like many very fast beeps. Almost like a morse code on crack. I cant stand it... !

 

For those who love bluetooth connections (count me in), I think that you can add the BT-183 module with the cable provided for each of your specific model. This is news to me as I did not know that there was a connector in each of the previous Asus laptop models for bluetooth. I strongly suspect that you can add this module to the U35Jc/UL30Jt/U45Jc/UL80Jt. Please let me know if I am off-base.

 

This just in: Amazon has the U35F-X1 available for pre-order/purchase. I'm not sure which, since it says that it will ship in 2-4 weeks.

Anyhoo, it is identical to the U35JC except in regards to the color (X1 in the model name seems to denote a black finish, rather than silver) and the lack of dedicated Nvidia graphics.

 

Hmm ... no switchable graphics? Great if you don't need it.

Any idea of the battery size? ASUS at times is sneaky and slips in a smaller battery on their cut-down models.

 

J&R has not received an updated ETA for the U35JC. I'll probably have to change the shipping location in the coming weeks.

@Quatro: considering Asus' naming scheme, doesn't the X1 suffix usually denote a black finish and smaller 8 cell battery? I can't be sure, but this was certainly true for the UL30VT. The UL80VT had the A1 and A2, if I remember correctly, with the A1 being the one with the smaller battery and black paint job.

 

For canadians there is also EXPC.ca...

 

There is a deal going around to get the newest Macbook for $850. It is quite tempting, but I will stick with the U35JC.

Does the U35JC have the 3 finger swipe to the left/right like the Macbook to go back/forward in web pages?

 

If I'm correct, there is a software you can download (or that comes pre-installed) which lets you customize your finger gestures. The U35Jc recognizes 3-finger swipes for sure but there is a 99% chance that it can't support 4-finger ones.

 

I don't even think there are any 4 finger gestures. If I could make some kind of gesture to go back/forward in web sites that would be GREAT!

 

Well, there are 4-finger gestures for the Macbooks and the Magic Trackpad: Four Finger Up (Exposé) and Four Finger Down (Show Desktop). If the software for the trackpad is anything like Logitech Setpoint then you can go back/forward on websites...

 

As you say, this was true of the UL30Vt-X1/-A1, but whether it will be true for the U35/45 remains to be seen. Only the ASUS execs probably know.

In the US, I only seem to find the -A1 for preorder of the U35/45Jc, and it's a kind of gray-silver top. And the U35F-X1 is black in the pictures so the rule still holds (on the color). I'm not sure the "smaller battery" rule will apply. Perhaps.

 

You can usually set what a two-finger & three-finger tap does. I've set my three-finger to "go back" in my internet browsing.

My ASUS netbook could be set to forward & back with three-finger slides to the left or right, as well as pinch & zoom.

But I can't do that with these Elan drivers in my U30Jc. No idea what type of touchpad & drivers will come with the U35/45Jc. The ASUS download site for the U35 shows they will come with an Elan touchpad, so perhaps the same driver.

UPDATE: Since my ASUS 1000HA netbook also has an Elan Touchpad, I installed the x64 drivers (downloaded from the 1000HA ASUS driver page.) On reboot, the drivers work ... but while my netbook shows pinch, zoom & 2 & 3-finger swipe gestures, my U30Jc does not, so this must be a hardware touchpad chip issue. The U30 can do limited gestures like 2-finger & 3-finger taps and left & right scrolling and up & down of course, and drag & drop, but that's about it.

I'm not so sure. My U30jc (the U35's older cousin) cannot do 3-finger swipes; only 2 or 3-finger taps. It can scroll all 4 ways, but only sees 2-finger swipes as left, right, up or down or auto-scroll. There are no other swipe options given. It think this is hardware chip-based (see above) so no matter what software you get, it still won't do it.

 

How many people total here have the U35JC? It seems like one guy is very unhappy with his and possibly returning it to get the UL30VT which has me a bit uneasy.

How do the others who have the U35JC like it?

 

What were his reasons? or you could just direct me to his post.

I preordered the U35JC so i would like to be aware of any issues as well

Not many people have it yet, in the US anyways since it isn't released.

 

I have it pre-ordered as well.

He posted on page 39 post # 385.

His main issues were the laptop's fans were really loud and he had a constant beeping noise. He also had a lot of HDD clicking noises. Although another user chimed in said they had none of these problems so he could have gotten a bad unit.

I just hope this laptop proves to be a good one and I am not making a mistake by getting this over the proven UL30VT-A1. Hopefully the guy just got a bad unit.

 

Let us hope so.

The HDD clicking isn't that common or you'd see more complaining of it. His humming sound while using his touchpad I've NEVER heard of!

His claim of getting 10 hrs on the battery reading with the full i5-450M 2.4 GHz processor is UNHEARD OF. I don't know of any one on these ASUS threads who've gotten that with their i-series full-speed processors (not ULV). It could be a temporary reading he was getting, but no way he'd get that in real tested use.

 

Guys and why not yoy go for the U45JC?

 

It is $70 more (J&R has U35JC for $800 and the lowest I have seen the U45JC for was at xoticpc.com for $870) and the extra features over the U35JC are features I don't really care to have. The main difference between the U35JC and U45JC is the 13.3" screen vs the 14" screen and no optical drive vs optical drive. I don't really want the added bulk/weight of having an optical drive with the laptop. I plan on carrying it around on a daily basis and why carry an extra pound of something I don't really plan on using? It also adds to the thickness of the laptop.

Asus build quality tends to get iffy in the 14" models as well. The UL80VT had build quality issues which was a 14" and the 13.3" UL30VT had next to no build quality issues. This could just be a coincidence though.

 

Ok, and you know if the U45JC will be sell in black color? or only in silver.

 

Apparently we only get the silver in North America..

Edit: I think Amazon.com has the black version http://www.amazon.com/U35F-X1-Light...6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1280813006&sr=8-6
It is cheaper also maybe because it has less hard drive capacity.
I wish Amazon can upgrade to i5 cores..

I hope Amazon.ca will have this black version as well.

 

Yeah, pretty sure just the silver. I prefer silver anyways as it won't show fingerprints nearly as much.

 

That one also lacks dedicated graphics.

 

oh I see, definitely not for me then...

 

I was going to get a ul30vt, but the u35jc just makes the vt not worth it to get. I think the price differential between the two justifies getting the u35jc.

Anyone know if you'll be able to overclock the u35jc with setfsb?

 

Whats the max external resolution on this laptop? Does the dockstation have display port?

 

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought that was dependent on the external monitor you use, not just the GPU.

 

My external 27" got 2560 x 1440 ( Dell UltraSharp U2711)

 

310M Supports up to 2560 x 1600 digital resolution and 2048 x 1536 VGA resolution. Source: The NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M GPUs delivers great performance and amazing multimedia capabilities.

 

I just picked up today my new U45JC and in General I am very happy with what I could see until now. However, I have a huge problem and that is the fact that the Wireless Card is not shown under Device Manager and therefore I can obviously not use Wireless. When I use the Fn and F2 Key to turn on "Wireless" I am only able to turn on Bluetooth. Can anybody help and advice me how to solve this issue?
Thanks a lot in advance!

 

Have you installed your wireless driver? (Though Windows usually does that automatically when it sets up the devices it sees.)

Another thing to look for: in my U30Jc (not sure if the U45 has this), I also have a physical switch for the wireless on the front left side of my notebook. Sometimes that gets slide to the left and physically switches off the wireless card. I can toggle Fn+F2 and nothing will happen until I move that switch to the right.

 

yes, but hdmi doesn't support that resolution I think...

 

it should really be some driver issue, otherwise maybe it is broken?

btw. germandude: where did you buy it?

poma

 

From what I'm reading, HDMI Rev. 1.3 (released June22, 2006) handles up to 2560 x 1600. HDMI Rev. 1.4 (released May 28, 2009) handles up to 4096 x 2160.

The monitor or TV's HDMI port type (rev. 1.3 or 1.4) will also affect what can be transferred as well as the HDTV or monitor's screen resolution limits.

The GPU card also has it's limits. As was said, the 310M's max is 2560 x 1600 which is equal to HDMI Rev 1.3. So the next question is the age and limit of your HDTV's HDMI & screen resolution.

That sound about right?

GERMANDUDE, does your U45Jc have a wifi switch in the front left side (as well as the Fn+F2 hotkey)? ... never mind. I just look at enlargements of the U45Jc front. No such switch.

 

My wireless card was just seen by Windows and a basic driver installed when I installed Windows. So your problem is NOT RIGHT!

I looked in BIOS but there is no way to turn off the wireless card. You have no physical wireless switch (worthless idea) to accidentally turn off.

Windows should insist on installing some driver for it. It will see it if it's in properly.

That means your card is either defective or not plugged in properly, or some other very wrong problem.

If you just picked it up, either I'd take it straight back to where I got it and request a fix or I'd phone ASUS and get assistence or an RMA.

 

For Canadians:

Just spoke to a rep at Grey-Tech in Markham, he confirmed they will have a U35JC for anyone who ordered it. Everyone else will have to place an order and it will come in in 3 - 6 weeks. Kind of wish I placed an order

He also said vendors will not stock the computer and it will only be available by special order. He claimed this was an Asus policy (I figure vendors would determine what to stock...?) He then went on to say the i3 is obsoleted by the core 2 duo...So maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Edit: The guy I talked to at Grey Tech was a jerk. So any Canadians who want to get a U35JC, consider ordering from Cendirect instead. They are cheaper anyways

 

^^Holy that website has some great prices! Ty!

 

Ditto! Seriously, thank heavens for that link!

 

It is so tempting to order from Canada and have it shipped here if I can get it next week. Hmmm...

 

please do and tell me what you think of it

 

I don't know yet. Its an extra $70

 

This whole Canada thing got me thinking...if those Canucks up north who pre-ordered are getting them soon-ish, wouldn't that also be true stateside? I wouldn't expect J&R, Xotic, and Gentech to stock the laptop until late August, but I sure would like them to fulfill the preorders ASAP.

 

I would be absolutely ecstatic if J&R started shipping the U35JC pre-orders soon. One can only hope, but I doubt it.

 

To the Canadians out there, if you order your U35Jc from J&R you won't have to pay tax (GST, PST, HST)!