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: 1019.7The 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.