ASUS U41JF: Arrandale's Not Dead Yet

ASUS U41JF: Not Sandy Bridge but Still Decent

Long-term, the U41JF is a stopgap solution while we await the inevitable Sandy Bridge refresh of ASUS’ U-series. It also happens to have some good design decisions and component choices to help keep costs down. The use of Intel’s Core i3 processors gives ASUS most of the performance offered by more expensive Core i5 CPUs, and with the 15% overclock the i3-380M can actually surpass everything but the dual-core i7 parts—and Sandy Bridge, but that’s another matter.

Just under one year ago, we reviewed the ASUS U30JC and found it offered some very compelling upgrades to the earlier UL80VT. Today, the U41JF continues that trend by improving performance without sacrificing battery life. The CPU hasn’t really changed since last May, other than Intel's clock speed bumps, but the 15% overclock is a new feature that can be useful. More important by far is the upgrade to the discrete GPU, which takes the U-series from barely passable for many modern games to something that will handle everything currently on the market.

Last year (and even in late 2009), we were looking at 16 CUDA cores running at 1500 to 1530MHz with just 12.8GB/s of memory bandwidth. Today, the GT 425M provides 96 CUDA cores at 1120MHz (with DX11 support) and 25.6GB/s of bandwidth. In terms of theoretical performance, that’s double the bandwidth and over four times the computational power. As our gaming results show, even at minimum detail the G 310M barely breaks 30FPS in most games at native resolution. The GT 425M surpasses the UL80JT by an average of 138% in low-detail gaming, and it does it at a lower launch price. How can we not like that?

If you’re willing to give up a bit of the gaming potential, ASUS also has their U31JG laptop priced at a very interesting $700. The GT 415M has the same memory bandwidth as the GT 425M but only 45% of the theoretical computational performance. It does seem like more games are bandwidth constrained on low-end GPUs, so you might end up with 70-80% of the U41JF performance in a smaller and less expensive package, and if you’re more interested in mobility than gaming it’s looking to be a nice update to the previous generation U35JC.

ASUS continues to put out one of the most well-rounded packages with their U-series, and the latest two additions address the one area of performance where previous models fell short. Now, you can at least play every current game at 30+ FPS—yes, even Crysis 2 will run, though you’ll have to drop to minimum detail levels. For all our complaining about the G 310M hanging around far too long, we’re happy to see an upgrade. Unfortunately, the other major complaint continues to fall on deaf ears, and we can only hope that someone will try putting out a competitively priced midrange laptop with a better LCD. It can’t be that difficult: get the LCD from the MacBook Pro 13 and put it in the U31JG, and you’d have exactly what we’re asking for. It might cost $100 more, but if ASUS were to make it a separate model (i.e. the U31x-A2 instead of the U31x-A1) we would at least be able to recommend a laptop where we didn’t end up bemoaning the LCD quality.

Until that happens, the U41JF and U31JG are attractively priced laptops that offer plenty of performance. The U41JF proves that Arrandale isn’t dead yet; unfortunately, it’s not getting better and while it can still go for a walk you’ll want to keep a defibrillator handy. Is a Sandy Bridge upgrade worth the additional $100 to $200 you’re likely to pay right now? Probably not, but if you wait another three to six months ASUS is bound to have some more U-series laptops to scratch that particular itch.