Tech in Style towers just took delivery of the new special edition N Series N45J laptop, the second collaboration between ASUS and best-selling singer-songwriter Jay Chou. The previous outing was a limited edition N43 lappy, while this time we get the upgraded N45J Mystic Edition. Why Mystic, you inquire? Because it’s a tie-in with Jay’s new Exclamation Point album, a concept album featuring maritime adventure themes and ideas. In the story, Jay goes sailing on the high seas of artistic exploration, encountering everything from gorgeous mermaids to a potentially friendly version of good old Kraken.
Exclusive artwork from Jay's new album with signature
The album itself comes with very unique artwork, much of it recreated for the Mystic laptop. The cover has art from the album, plus Jay’s signature. The keyboard and speaker mess have been redesigned to give the laptop a more marine feel, while a blue-streak side panel was added to lend it a touch of azure goodness. It comes in a special collectible box, with pre-loaded Jay screensavers and other content ready for fans to enjoy upon first boot up. There are even Jay post cards in the box for an added personal touch.
From a technical standpoint, this is your typical N Series multimedia powerhouse. The N Series has been all about sight and sound since inception, and the N45J continues that, of course with a special focus on Jay Chou and his followers – hence the J after the 45, in case you haven’t noticed!
Blue-accented keyboard
We played the Exclamation Point album on the sample we got, and it sounded very nice thank you via SonicMaster-endowed speakers. There’s also a bundled external subwoofer in the box, but I’m personally not a huge fan of deep notes, so the standard SonicMaster-pumped audio was more than enough.
Overall look from the top, as you can see the blue siding still shows clearly
We got a a machine with an Intel Core i5-2410M, but the CPUs go up to i7-2670QM. The GPU is a powerful GeForce part that enables smoother multimedia on the 14″ screen (1366 x 768), and comes with 2GB of video memory. No settling for integrated graphics for those Jay devotees! ASUS is even including its Video Magic visuals-enhancing technology, so colours look better and overall image quality comes across as much improved compared to lower end laptops. For added pep, the N45J ships with 2-second instant on resume, a technology first deployed with the equally fashionable ZENBOOK a couple of months ago.
For Jay Chou fans, this is a no brainer – get this laptop! Actually, anyone with a keen eye for something special might want to obtain one, but be advised, this is a very limited edition and distribution for now is limited to mainland China and Southeast Asia. However, I’m sure some units will invariably make their way to Europe and elsewhere…
Suds McSoapdish
Thirty years ago, toddler Suds got his first taste of just how enjoyable technology can be when his parents gave him an Atari 2600. He soon picked up on the wonders of the Commodore 64, and the rest is history in the form of a long list of consoles, 80’s home computers and PCs built and assembled with great fervor. Writing and technology gradually moved up from hobbies to professions as Suds became the man he is today, and although he’s worked and traveled the world and experienced many things, technology, especially computing and gaming, has remained a solid constant.