Asus B43J

PC World - The Asus B43J is an example of this company's push to expand its credibility among business users--on the bottom of this laptop, Asus even adds a clear plastic business card slot. The B43J is attractive, fairly powerful, and supports up to three external monitors. I hear that the more monitors you have, the more productive you are (or something like that), so Asus is clearly trying to show its dedication to productivity in the workplace.

Our review unit, which costs around $700 (as of 6/28/2011), sports a 2.67GHz Intel Core i5-560M processor, 4GB of RAM (upgradable to 8GB), and a partitioned 320GB hard drive. The unit also has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics card with 512MB of video memory and runs the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional. As for connectivity, the Asus B43J has it all: 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a gigabit ethernet port, and even a modem hookup (just in case you want to kick it old-school with a dial-up connection). Also included is a built-in webcam with a privacy slide, and a built-in microphone.

In our WorldBench 6 benchmark tests, the Asus B43J scored 114. In both the All-Purpose notebooks category and the Business notebooks category, this is excellent. A score of 95, as achieved by the Sony VAIO VPCEA22FX, which is currently in the middle of our Top 10 list of All-Purpose Laptops, is considered reasonable.

However, graphics quality was barely acceptable. On our Unreal Tournament 3 tests, the B43J managed a frame rate of 35.8 frames per second (with high-quality settings, at a resolution of 1024 by 768). By contrast, the Gateway ID49C13u spat out 71.69 fps under the same settings. Still, the B43J's frame rate is okay for a business machine. Though our top business laptop (the Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds) is a champion with 114 fps at the same settings, other business notebooks are less than impressive. The second-ranking business laptop, the HP EliteBook 8440w, managed 42.55 fps at the same settings, while the third-place Lenovo ThinkPad X100e eked out an unplayable 12.12 fps.

Design and Features

The Asus B43J is housed in a solid, attractive black chassis. The notebook's cover is simple black aluminum that's cool to the touch and, unfortunately, a major fingerprint magnet. Inside, the wristpad and the area surrounding the keyboard are made of the same smooth, fingerprint-attracting black aluminum. The rest of the chassis is made of matte black plastic, including the bezel around the matte screen.

If you're looking for something to tote around with you on business trips, you'll find the Asus B43J a bit bulky (5.6 pounds). The machine measures 13.8 inches long by 9.6 inches wide, and is about an inch and a half thick. The screen is 14.1 inches on the diagonal.