Prime Notebook Computer Review

The ASUS K42J is the latest in the K series of affordable laptops. This 14-inch notebook features a high-performance Intel Core i5 processor, discrete graphics with Nvidia Optimus technology, and a starting price below $900. This great notebook turns in solid performance numbers and has some strong features, but competitors offer more bang for your buck and look better doing it, too. The K42J has a traditional notebook design and shape similar to the previous generation ASUS K40IN. In other words, it looks like a fairly boring coffee brown notebook without much flare. At 13.7 x 9.4 x 1.4 inches and 4.8 pounds, the ASUS K42J won’t be mistaken for an ultraportable. The glossy black lid has a very subtle dark weave pattern that’s only visible if you stare at it intently. While you’re staring, you’re sure to notice some of the finger prints it easily picks up. The interior of the notebook is even more blah looking, with a mocha brown plastic deck and weave pattern that reminded us of 1970s wallpaper. The dark brown color clashes with the black keyboard and glossy black bezel.

The keyboard provided decent tactile feedback and more-than-adequate key placement. On the Ten Thumbs Typing Test we got our usual 80 words per minute, with a slightly higher than average 2-percent error rate. The 3.3 x 1.9-inch touchpad, which has the same textured brown surface as the wallpaper, was a little bit rough, and our fingers kept slipping off of it while we tried to navigate around the desktop. Worse still, it does not support multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom. Its single mouse button is also a little stiff.

The K42JC-A1 has a 14-inch diagonal display with LED backlighting and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The overall quality of the display is “very good” within the narrow viewing angle sweet spot. Brightness, contrast and color are all quite good. If there is a single obvious issue it has to be the narrow vertical viewing angles. While the horizontal viewing angles (side view) are nearly flawless, the colors become over exposed when viewed from above and significantly inverted and distorted when viewed from below.

The K42J’s speakers are nothing to write home about. When we tried listening to both a rock tune, “My Delirium” by Ladyhawke, and a jazz standard, “Morning Dance” by Spyro Gyra, the sound wasn’t tinny, but it fell completely flat; all the instruments and vocals seemed to blend together, sounding very much like a mono clock radio. Even at maximum volume, the output wasn’t loud enough.

The K42JC-A1 adds the much needed HDMI port, though we’d still like to see the addition of an ExpressCard slot to make this laptop a little more future proof. A simple ExpressCard slot would have made it possible to upgrade the K42J with USB 3.0 a potentially important feature since USB 3.0 is starting to show up in more and more notebooks. The 0.3-megapixel webcam produced grainy, noisy images with washed out colors, both when streaming video on Skype or capturing images with ASUS’s bundled LifeFrame software.

The K42JC-A1 offers good overall performance thanks to the combination of its Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and speedy 500GB hard drive. The Nvidia GeForce 310M discrete graphics also help in applications that support CUDA by taking advantage of the GPU to speed up performance. The bottom line is that this laptop is more than capable of handling everyday tasks and even more intensive applications like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere.

The Intel Core i5 430Mprocessor is one of the lower-level Core i5 processors and only provides a modest boost over Core i3 models like the 330M used in the Dell Inspiron 14 (1464). That said, overall performance is quite good for a 14-inch notebook in this price range.

Graphics performance from the Nvidia GeForce 310M is perfectly fine for playing typical online puzzle games or older first person shooters, but don’t expect to play newer games like Mass Effect 2 or Modern Warfare 2. That said, the graphics are strong enough for light gaming and the CUDA-capable graphics do help speed up some applications. Thanks to Nvidia Optimus technology, this notebook automatically switches between the Intel integrated graphics (for extended battery life) and the Nvidia dedicated graphics (for better video and gaming performance). You don’t have to worry about pressing any extra buttons to get the best out of this laptop.

In balance mode with 75% screen brightness, the K42JC-A1 lasted for four hours and three minutes while surfing the Internet and using a word processor. This is pretty good for a notebook with a stock battery, but we’re seeing more and more notebooks with this level of performance deliver five hours or more continuous run time, so we’d have to call this “average.” Of course, if you’re running applications that stress the processor, hard drive, or Nvidia graphics then you can expect the battery life to drop even lower.

The LifeFrame software provides a ton of webcam photo and video recording options, including color filters, special effects, and face tracking. ASUS Smart Logon allows you to use facial recognition for logins. Power4Gear provides different power profiles for different tasks, such as High Performance, Entertainment, and Battery Saving modes. Speedboot allows you to set any of your programs to load after Windows boots rather than during the boot process.

The ASUS K42J has several things going for it, such as Nvidia Optimus technology, a speedy hard drive, and a fast Core i5 CPU. However, it has too many trade-offs for a notebook with a price tag just under $900.