ASUS U41JF: Arrandale's Not Dead Yet
by Jarred Walton on March 28, 2011 7:35 PM ESTThe LCD: Still the Weakest Link
Wrapping up the evaluation, we have yet another 1366x768 resolution LCD to add to the mix. As with most such displays, there’s nothing remarkable about the LCD panel. Contrast ratio falls in the middle of the charts, but there’s a huge gap between the budget panels (around 265:1) and good LCDs (500:1 or higher). The maximum white level of 194 nits is also disappointing—we’d much rather see 300+ nits, which is far more useable outdoors. Given the lack of contrast and relatively dim panel, the color accuracy and gamut are hardly worth discussing, but they’re also worse than other midrange laptops.
I’d try to work up more vitriol here, but there’s nothing new to add. It’s particularly irksome that ASUS has their new tablets shipping with IPS panels with a target price of around $400, and yet they can’t put anything better than a bog-standard TN panel in their $800-$1200 midrange laptops and notebooks. At least part of the problem is the LCD manufacturers, but then they wouldn’t keep making crappy LCDs if there weren’t a demand to fill. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a good LCD in a $600 to $900 laptop, and Dell’s XPS 15 so far is the rare offering where you could get a quality panel for under $1000 (and now you’ll need to move up to the $1300 L502x if you want their 1080p panel). Regardless of the cause, though, the current standard for laptop LCDs remains deplorable. Moving on….
Heat and Noise Levels
For noise and temperature results, we ran through our battery of general application benchmarks (including looping 3DMark06 for several hours). Everything checks out at idle, and load temperatures are within spec. The CPU runs almost 15C hotter than the GPU, most likely because of location relative to the exhaust since the two share a heatpipe cooling setup. The above temperatures are also with the 15% overclock active, though, so that certainly doesn’t help. Ultimately, the real question is stability, and in testing we never experienced any crashes or other heat related problems. Will such a laptop work as well during the summer heat? Perhaps not, but if the new MacBook Pro can survive I’m sure the U41JF will be fine.
Noise levels as you might expect are a bit higher than other laptops, at least if you enable the 15% overclock and put a heavy load on the system. At idle, the U41JF registers just 31.5dB, which is only slightly above the ~30dB noise floor of our testing environment/equipment. Crank up the load and noise levels become much more noticeable; our SPL meter showed 41.0dB after a few minutes playing a game without the CPU overclock. Adding in the SHE overclocking option, one more fan speed became audible, and we measured 43.5dB. That’s still lower than the 15.6” Eurocom Racer/Clevo P150HM with an HD 6970M, but then we’re also talking about far less performance.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
24 Comments
View All Comments
veri745 - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Now it's about time that they give the LCDs on these a resolution upgrade. I'd like to see atleast 1600x900jrocks84 - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
I totally agree on higher resolution LCDs being needed! I haven't searched that hard, but the only two 13" laptops that I know of with a decent res are the Macbook Air and the Sony Vaio Z.lexluthermiester - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link
I have a Asus EEE 1201N with 1366x768 res. It beats out my old VIAO which was 1280x800. Now granted, the 1201n is only a dual-core Atom , but at a 12" screen and the fact it will some moderate gaming, it packs punch for it's size. Battery life is far better as well.Of course we are talking about a $400 price point with the 1201n. But I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if you look into what it is you want good things can be found. And honestly, the system in this review would tempt me greatly if the 1201n didn't already meet my needs.... but oh so tempting....
ImSpartacus - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link
I agree. I know many laptops will have to move to 16:9 for cost reasons, but why can't they just use 1600x900 as a baseline resolution?768 vertical pixels are unacceptable on anything but 11.6" displays.
blue_falcon - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
The industry is trending towards industry standard resolutions (HD at the moment for most systems). I doubt you'll see a 1600x900 13.3 screen.Penti - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
Sony still has some, 13.1" 1600x900 laptops that is. Let's see if they get updated to Sandy Bridge too. If you want it you can have it, even though most use standard displays.DLimmer - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
As usual, excellent laptop review. I relied on http://www.anandtech.com/show/2862/dell-studio-14z... a couple years ago when I bought my wife's laptop, and it still does all she asks of it *and* lasts all day on one charge (with intermittent use).I also grabbed a Gateway P-6831 based on http://www.anandtech.com/show/2490.
Minor typos (first page third to last paragraph):
"One the flipside, ASUS’ Super Hybrid Engine (SHE)" -> *On* the flipside
(page 5, second paragraph from the bottom):
"and it doesn’t need 960 Steam" -> *Stream*
Thank you for providing objective and in-depth reviews we can use when selecting items to purchase.
ImSpartacus - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link
I almost bought a 14z instead of my MBP13'09. It was on the thicker side, but had a massive battery and a full voltage processor.Eventually, I had to have that big trackpad and disk drive.
In retrospect the decision was pretty murky.
DLimmer - Tuesday, March 29, 2011 - link
My wife misses the DVD drive occasionally, but we have an external. It's most annoying when you install some software that requires the disc be in the computer to run. Only other time is when she wants to rip a new CD she's bought.All-in-all, giving up the drive for more battery life and less weight was a decent trade-off... however, she wants a drive in her next laptop.
Beenthere - Monday, March 28, 2011 - link
How could you get it more wrong: Asus and Intel. It don't get any worse than that.