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Asus K42J Review

Asus’ new line of laptops brings a number of the latest Core i3 and Core i5 processors. The Asus K42J is among them — a typical 14-inch laptop, running a Core i5 430M @ 2.26GHz.

The laptop feels a bit heavy and thick on the side — not something you’d prefer lugging around with. The unit has a black glossy finish (with a slight dark printed accent) from the lid right up to the palm rest (expect this to be messy with finger-prints).

The usual ports are found on both sides — 3 USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, VGA and LAN. The SD/MMC card reader is slightly hidden smack in the bottom front, right below the trackpad.

The full-sized keyboard comes with chiclet-type keys, spaced generously for comfortable touch-typing. Keyboard orientation seems normal with no odd placement of keys or additional special keys although would have been nice to have a bigger Enter key in here.

The trackpad is a little flushed to the left and inherits the same design and polished surface as the palm rest but is a bit recessed. The trackpad area is a bit small considering the size of the laptop and the clickers are not separated between the left and right buttons.

The 14-inch display is bright and clear, with a basic resolution of 133×768 pixels (which is usually the standard resolution of most laptops nowadays).

For a summary of the laptop’s specifications, here’s a screenshot from Speccy:

Asus K42JR A1 specs:
14.1″ display @ 1366×768 pixel
Intel Core i5 430M @ 2.26GHz (2 Cores, 4 Threads)
3GB DDR3 RAM
500GB HDD
EG Park (ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB DDR3)
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.0
DVD+RW
Weight: 2.2kg
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

The processor is a dual-core 2.26GHz Core i5 with 4 threads and can go up to 2.53GHz on Turbo Boost.

On a related note, this is the second time I’ve encountered that “EG Park” in the specs but if my additional digging is correct, it looks like an ATI Radeon HD5450 with 1GB DDR3 RAM.

The Radeon HD5450 is an entry-level graphics card for laptops that supports DirectX 11. It should be able to perform just barely enough (low to medium detail settings) at its maximum resolution of 1366×768.

Windows Experience Index gives the Core i5 430M a sub-score of 6.7 and a base score of 4.9 due to the graphics performance.

PassMark Ratings:
CPU Mark: 2630.4
2D Graphics Mark: 281.9
3D Graphics Mark: 338.0
Memory Mark: 559.2
Disk Mark: 826.8
Passmark Rating: 1019.7

The laptop comes with only a 4400mAh Li-Ion battery, which is not really that much so it’s not a surprise that the unit can only do around 2 hours of battery life on a full single charge.

The unit also comes with a pre-installed facial recognition software that works using the built-in webcam so you can login to Windows by merely posing at the camera when prompted.

We’re not sure with the actual price of this specific model (there are like over a dozen different configurations) but if my guess is right, it’s between Php39k to Php42k.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

101 Responses

  1. Avatar for cheAP! cheAP! says:

    still cheap for me…asus is so cheap…yuck…buy something else but not ASUS….

  2. Avatar for audioatoms audioatoms says:

    bought a newer descendant of K series. even just with i3, equipping it with 4gig ram does all the work. speed’s like an i5 and NVidia CUDA working well with games.
    asus rocks.

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  4. Avatar for lanz lanz says:

    NVIDIA PROBLEM!

    can u help me about the problem of NVIDIA
    k42j ASUS / i5 / windows 7 / 32bit / NVIDIA 310 cuda 1GB /

    i know im not the only one who encountered this problem. pls help me. i havn’t tried to install 64bit if this is s=the answer. in fact im at Philippines more on 32bits programs!

    tnx! :(

  5. Avatar for rexon rexon says:

    post niyo naman ang windows experience ,index. geh na.

  6. Avatar for Jay Quing Jay Quing says:

    yeah, nagawa ko na syang 212… epektib, no freezes na laptop ko… nvidia verde (ver 275.33) na nga ung akin e. maraming salamat sa mga payo… :)

  7. Avatar for rexon rexon says:

    BIOS VERSION 212 dapat ang iinstall mo..

    wag 214 and 202..

    PROBLEM SOLVED!!

    Please post your WEI here..
    Mine is 4.1 :(

  8. Avatar for ferdinan lopes ferdinan lopes says:

    sir help naman po paano po bang install ang invidia graphics dalawa po ang video graphics po nya pareho na de detect sa device manager paano po ang gagawin!?????????? gusto ko po sanang install ang invidia! paano po ba i activate ang invidia!

    • Avatar for digiknowzone digiknowzone says:

      Here:
      Update your ASUS bios to the 212-update. Download latest nvidia driver. Remember to use the ASUS EZFlash software at the BIOS boot.

      And voila! Nvidia will work.

    • Avatar for Jay Quing Jay Quing says:

      digiknowzone,

      i updated my asus bios to 214 (latest, downloaded from asus website, under support) ok naman ung update. pero etong nvidia ko eh talagang freeze-screen or hangtime ako, i downloaded two Nvidia graphics updates (one from the asus website, and one from the Nvidia website) at parehas silang hindi gumagana. ano kaya problema nung akin? sinunod ko naman ung instructions. 64bit pala ung laptop ko.

    • Avatar for rein rein says:

      just used the bundle software and drivers para hindi ka magkaproblema…. ganon lang ginawa ko…. di sya compatible sa mga latest driver na nvidia…. this laptop is bundled with its own CDs….

    • Avatar for rein rein says:

      saka di pede hindi iinstall yun inteld hd graphix kasi yan ang una nya hahanapin kung imamanual mong iupdate yun nvdia mo….

    • Avatar for rein rein says:

      katakot kasi mag update ng bios nya…. risky masyado saka di rin sasagutin ng company pag ngkaproblema sa pagupdate ng bios….

    • Avatar for Jay Quing Jay Quing says:

      so far mr.rein, nung ngupdate me bios e walang problema. kasi kung may problema eh hindi na ako makakagamit ng laptop ko. ung lang talaga sa nvidia graphics, gusto ko mautilize ang function nya gawa ng mrami me games na talagang mamaw sa system requirements. at tska hindi ganung ka-“intelligent” ang switching ng Optimus ng Nvidia, update lang daw ang kailangan. thanks na rin sa info.

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