RSS Feed
Twitter
- 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-430M Processor
- 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz SDRAM, 2 slots, 8GB Max
- 500GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM); Super Multi Optical Disk Drive; Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn
- 16-Inch HD LED LCD Display; 2.0MP Webcam; HDMI Port; NVidia GT325M Graphics Engine with 1GB DDR3 Dedicated VRAM
- Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) Operating System
Product Description
Enjoy true entertainment and real sound with the ASUS N61JV. Equipped with Intel’s new Core i5-430M processor and an NVidia GT325M graphics engine with 1GB DDR3 VRAM, the N61JV brings users true-to-life images for games, movies and videos. NVIDIA CUDA GPU computing technology provides faster transcoding times for music, photos, videos, DVD playback, as well as faster video enhancement and editing. The exclusive ASUS SonicMaster improves sound quality via 20mm-wide… More >>
ASUS N61JV-X2 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop
Posted in 
Tags: 
PROS:
On the initial setup, the laptop played a pretty cool Asus video that showed many “on” buttons forming various images. It made the purchase seem even more personal. Nice touch Asus. Here’s a link: paste “ASUS Laptop Startup Video (2009 ASUS)(HD)” on Youtube. Watch in HD fullscreen to get the same feel. Yes simple things amaze me x_o.
My first impression of this laptop is its big size. I’m used to running a netbook, in terms of mobile pc. Examining the layout closely, the screen isn’t the perpetrator here- the speaker adds roughly 2 inches to the width. Although this is easily forgiven once I heard the sound quality, which is similar to an HDTV’s. This may make the laptop slightly bigger than regular 16in notebooks, but for an “entertainment”-advertised laptop, it was necessary.
I’m happy it has an eSATA port because this allowed me to couple my internal hard drives with a hard drive docking station (Thermaltake BlacX). Really helpful for storage and backups. The USB3.0 is a great addition as well. Makes it a bit more future-proof. As for the touchpad, my netbook had the same exact touchpad and I always turned it off because I was not a fan of it. Nothing beats a mouse!
Battery life depends on 4 settings through a power-managing software called Power4Gear. At “High Performance” setting, no power saving option is on and the battery life drains within 2 hours. The more balanced “Entertainment” setting, lasts 3 hours. With the power option set to “Quiet Office”, the battery life lasts 4 hours. Lastly, the”Battery Saving” mode increases the battery life even longer. What it does is it disables your wallpaper, gadgets, autohides the taskbar, lowers brightness to 20% and sets every setting to maximum power savings. Of course the realtime battery life will be ultimately affected by what task you are doing.
In terms of performance, this thing packs a wallop! It will not beat a same-priced desktop, but what’s important is portability. It’s a great purchase for the performance. Although keep reading to learn about the current GPU driver as a caveat emptor. Another warning: I believe this was first advertised as having bluetooth. I can confirm that it does not. While this is not a deal breaker, I feel it should have been included being an entertainment laptop. Some of the pre-installed softwares are helpful, like the Power4Gear battery managing software and the Splendid Utility which enhances the screen’s color/contrast/brightness settings with preset modes. The Cyberlink TrueTheater HD software is amazing. I popped in my “LotR: Fellowship of the Ring” DVD and with the smoothest playback settings (60FPS) and sharpest modes, it seemed like a whole new movie. I do not own a bluray player so I’m not used to this type of quality, but yes, it is better than any YouTube 1080p HD trailers or any HD channels I’ve seen.
Graphic Card Tests (Gaming):
All games were tested on the Geforce GT325m (Optimus driver version 189.07), running at 1366×768 native resolution, full screen, and with FRAPS frame counter benchmark. I wanted to keep it at native resolution to show the highest resolution capability of this GPU. Lowering resolution and some graphical settings will unquestionably increase the frame rates, but playing graphically-lush games is always a delight.
Batman Arkham Asylum: (Fight sequence VS 5 inmates at start of game)
Settings: VSync Off, Hardware PhysX Off, Detail level: Very High, 2xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS: 25, Avg FPS: 33 Max FPS : 50
Verdict: Smooth gameplay, lag-free.
–
Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare 2 : (Single Player: Heavy gun fight on “Act II: Hornet’s Nest” level)
Settings: VSync On, All Graphic Settings On, All Textures set to Extra, 4xAnti-aliasing
Min FPS 30, Avg FPS 35, Max FPS 60 (Remember VSync caps this at screen’s refresh rate, which is 60 in this case)
Verdict: Very playable considering it’s at max in-game settings. Will experience some tiny lag spikes, which I also experienced on my desktop PC which has better specs than this laptop, so it must be the game.
–
Mass Effect 2: (Gun fights on mission to recruit Prof. Mordin)
Settings: VSync On, All graphic settings on except for Film Grain, 4xAnti-aliasing, 8xAnisotropic Filtering
Min FPS 24, Avg FPS 38, Max FPS 49
Verdict : Smooth gameplay. Some random lags but does not ruin the experience.
–
Crysis: (From game start all the way to “First Light” gun fights)
Test 1: VSync Off, Everything to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 19, Avg FPS 26, Max FPS 34
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, lag free even if the FPS results seem low. Graphic texture pop-ins on some of the vegetation, especially when using “maximum speed” boost.
Test 2: VSync Off, All graphic settings to medium, except for Texture and Shader at High. 2xAnti-Aliasing .
Min FPS 13, Avg FPS 16, Max FPS 20
Verdict : Clunky gameplay. With these settings, the texture looked sharper and much easier on the eyes, and while there are no dramatic lag spikes that will get you killed easily (it’s a steady 15-16 frames on gun fights), the slow gameplay is quite noticeable.
Test 3: VSync Off, Everything to High except Shader to Medium, No AA
Min FPS 14, Avg FPS 22, Max FPS 29
Verdict : Smooth gameplay, but sometimes has that laggy feel to it. No jittering lag. Pretty impressive for the High setting- I guess Shader is what really stresses the framerates.
–
World of Warcraft: VSync off, Effects at Medium-High, Window Mode + Maximized option to properly scale the resolution
Test 1: Riding mount around Dalaran’s North Bank steps with ~30 toons around me.
Min FPS 22, Avg FPS 33, Max FPS 39
Verdict: No lag
Test 2: Outside Dalaran, flying epic flight
Min 50, Avg 85, Max 150
Verdict: No lag
In instances, the gameplay is very smooth. Depending on the instance, some will be over 100FPS whereas the newer ones + raids, will be in the low 50s.
–
6008 pts in 3DMark06
–
10594 pts in 3DMark05
–
CONS:
Note: This part of the review will only be valid until Nvidia releases the proper Forceware drivers for the laptop’s GPU. The GT 325m series is relatively new; NVidia has one official release for it on their website: Optimus Driver 189.07. This driver is not bad. As shown by the benchmarks, 3D gaming works well. But here’s where things tend to get annoying: the Nvidia GPU, with its current drivers, rely on the Intel integrated graphics to handle screen scaling. Meaning if you connect this to a larger monitor, in my case an Acer 21.5″ 1080P native res widescreen LCD, scaling works well when the GPU running is the Intel IGP, but when you switch to games, you are forced to use the 1080p resolution through the in-game settings, which will be taxing on the framerates. I know the native resolution of the laptop does not match the monitor’s, but with the “normal” geforce drivers, scaling to fit the screen works well and allows the laptop’s native res to stretch the image onto the monitor. My ASUS 1201n netbook does this easily through it’s Nvidia Control Panel, with the same native res as this laptop. I hope NVidia releases this capability with the next driver update.
Update: there is a fix that works. Make sure your HDMI is in digital mode and not analog. This allows your monitor to do the scaling. Although, if you only have analog mode for HDMI, you can try using a DVI to HDMI cable. Or just wait for Nvidia to update the driver and you won’t have to go through all this.
I still do not trust the current Nvidia driver for this GPU just yet. Once it is properly optimized and up to date, the fps will increase. I’ll update this entry if the graphic drivers are updated through NVidia or some modding website.
NVidia Optimus: This technology sounds great but I’m having a little problem with it. See, when my laptop is plugged in, the Optimus technology works just fine: the intel switches to the nvidia GPU when loading a 3D game. But when I load a 3D game while this laptop is unplugged (regardless whether battery is full or low charge), the GPU does NOT switch. It stays on the Intel GPU and I get low framerates. This problem occurs even if I use “High Performance” mode on the power settings, even if my preferred GPU is NVidia, even if I assign the game profile to load with Nvidia GPU, even if I right click and “run with graphics processor: High performance Nvidia processor”. I do notice that if I suddenly plug the laptop to the outlet, the frames will go up fast again (as if the Nvidia GPU was suddenly turned on). There needs to be a better software-based of forcing the GPU on since the NV Control Panel is faulty at this point. Isn’t the whole point of Optimus to provide performance when necessary and lengthen battery life, when available? Here is NVidia’s claim: “Watch a HD movie, surf the web or play top 3D games knowing that you’ll get the long battery life you need and the performance you expect from NVIDIA.” This technology should work even on battery, as stated there. I would like to know if this is just my laptop doing this- comment if you can help.
Hope this review helped those who may be thinking of buying this notebook!
Rating: 5 / 5
First off, the Nvidia Optimus technology is GENIOUS. Asus is the only brand I know currently utilizing it, but I am sure others will quickly change to it. I changed the default video card to the nvidia 325, and I noticed with only using the nvidia 325 video card, and playing games, battery life is around 2 hours. This is of course with the core i5 doing it’s thing and turbo-booosting to 2.53ghz. I know you’re probably wondering about game performance. Alright, so after installing the update for the nvidia drivers, I ran tf2 COMPLETELY maxed out on highest resolution, and it ran at about 100fps. And remember that TF2 doesn’t utilize multi-core processors as well as some of the even higher end games that have come out after it. I am anxious to see how this machine will handle BF:Bad Company 2. Anyways, the great thing is that I don’t have to change anything with the cards. Optimus defaults to the integrated and then switches to nvidia 325 when needed. This, partnered with the smart i5 that adapts based on system needs, allows for a respectable battery life of about 3 hours with only a 6-cell lithium battery! Not too shabby. Next is the mousepad. Oh wow. I love it! It’s quite intuitive, and once you get the hang of it, you will be DISAPPOINTED when you go to your friends’ laptops without the multi-touch pad. It has almost 10 actions that are possible through the multi-touch pad! I know I caught myself trying to 3-finger swipe to go back a webpage. Needless to say it didn’t work on theirs. Ha. Finally, for now, the Asus Software and Windows 7. Asus REALLY set the bar INCREDIBLY high with the production of this laptop. The Asus software that comes with it has some really cool features such as facial recognition. If you want, you can set the laptop to lock out whenever your face is not in front of the webcam for however long you want. Kinda a cool trick to play on your friends when they are facebook. Just give them time to login and them BAM, locked out. Ha. Funny stuff. Windows 7 really just tops the cake with the laptop though. I have loved everything about windows 7, and I learn new things almost daily as to what it can do. oh yea. the ONLY complaint I have with this laptop is that the 500gb hard drive came partitioned. The (C:Drive), or OS drive, comes at 100gb, and the (D:Drive), or Data drive, comes at 330gb. This can be useful for some, but I didn’t care for it. However, with Windows 7, I am EASILY able to just stretch the size of the (C:Drive) as long as nothing is on the (D:Drive), without losing ANY data from the (C:Drive). Love it! And lastly, this thing comes with USB3.0! So this laptop is the PERFECT compromise of performance/battery life and all for less than $1k. Stop reading and buy already!
Rating: 5 / 5
What can I say? For the money this pc offers the best of the best. The casing is sleek and the power under the hood is exactly what most will be looking for.
I’ve been using the pc for a day now and can’t think of a complaint. The specs are above so there is no need to restate them. If there is one thing I can say is that ASUS offers some great utilities for this pc…from quick boot, to face recognition log in, to quick power settings – it’s just cool! You can even replace the windows logo upon boot to your own image. If you have questions let me know…
It’s 5 stars for me!
Rating: 5 / 5
Ok. So I’m sitting here looking at the screen of this laptop which says “Recovery in progress. Please wait.” After a glitch-free first evening, today has been a total nightmare. This system has locked up multiple times. I think it’s having trouble with Windows updates but not sure. So I finally called customer service, who instructed me to do a system recovery and call him back when it is completed. He then plans to guide me through disabling Windows updates. Really? He says he has had many calls with people with this same issue and disabling updates has worked. He tried to explain that the system doesn’t need the updates because its new. Really? What about next month or the month after? So now I’m about to call back and try to make sense of this. Is this a Windows issue or an ASUS issue? Anybody know?? I am this close (index finger almost touching thumb) to boxing this thing back up.
Rating: 4 / 5
I just ordered this laptop last week and I love it! The keyboard is the best I’ve ever used. The Core i5 is the best of both world’s for a CPU because it is much faster than the i3, but doesn’t suck up power like the i7′s. I don’t really game on the computer, but I’m sure it can run whatever. I run numerous programs simultaneously and it doesn’t ever even hiccup.
The Optimus GPU is amazing! I can guaranty that virtually every laptop will have this technology in the next year. Don’t buy a laptop without this feature! The speakers don’t sound great to me, but I’m used to my Bose Companion 3′s, so I’m a bit spoiled I guess.
One issue though…. yesterday when I turned it on, there where lines across the screen. I had to restart it twice, but now it has been working fine ever since. I’m not too worried about it though- when you send in the registration it bumps up your warranty to TWO YEARS GLOBAL! Wow!!!
Rating: 5 / 5