I've been researching the N10Jc and this is an absolutely outstanding review with much better info than I've found elsewhere.
The only thing it left me wondering was the N10Jc's performance when connected to an external display such as a large screen plasma or LCD TV via HDMI. Does it do video out at higher resolution than its own screen supports like at an XGA 1280x768?
If I knew that it would look good on my plasma I'd buy it right now based on this review. If I could find some place that the N10Jc is in stock that is!
I don't really care much for the gaming end of things(though if i could run Simcity 4 on it i'd be stoked), being able to decode x.264 is what i've really been waiting for out of a netbook, and it's large enough to actually be usable. Sure i'd love an 11" screen @ 1280x800 but you can't have it all i guess, i can always output to something larger over HDMI. ;P
And it got editors choice @ that, Hey if Anand likes it i'm gonna go ahead and assume it's sweet regardless of the widely differing opinions. And so far i've not seen many people who have one who don't love it, I want one .....
It would be very nice if it could automatically switch from the 9300 to the intergrated graphics when it went on battery power (although I guess you need the 9300 to watch HD movies). The ability to switch between the 9300 and the Intel GMA graphics is pretty cool, though - first time I've heard of a feature like that.
"We just wish we could get a 1280x800 LCD in there instead, as even at 1024x600 there's not a lot of real estate in Windows."
A widescreen resolution may not be the best case scenario for a NETbook: most sites are desingned for 1024x768/800x600, even so i agree that this 1024x600 is deal breaker: what i want is 1024x768 and a better integrated graphicsby ATI or NVIDIA, not a discrete crao graphics for half battery life. Until that desing goes on sale i will not surf the netbook wave.
I love the discrete GPU and that it's switchable. IMO the main limitation of netbooks and subnotebooks is the graphics, and I'm glad that ASUS is trying to fix this. The price point is reasonable, especially considering that ever $2000 subnotebooks don't have this.
Now all we need is a switchable sunlight reflective screen, like LG announced, and it'd be quite the perfect mini laptop.
There's very little difference compare to the HA-1000 model. Except maybe for the graphics card and fingerprint scanner it will be totally identical. For $650+ I would expect at least a Dual Core Atom processor.
Plus the warranty. I figure the warranty alone is at least $50 (probably $100), the GPU is another $50, fingerprint scanner is $25 or whatever. As I mention in the conclusion, the 1000HA is a very reasonable alternative, assuming you're okay with the lack of a dedicated GPU. (That rules out x264 viewing, but in my testing it appears MPEG2 and DivX 720P files play fine.) Also, I think HDMI isn't on the Eee PC -- if that's right, that's another $10~15 just for licensing fees.
great review and i agree with the bottom line. i wanted to add a bit of my own experience.
Random question: do we all thin this is a prequal/preview of the new nvidia chipset for atom?
my experience:
i bought the n10j from a egg for about 680 for my gf, and a scorpio black 7200rpm drive.
the 10j comes with 2 gigs and vista home premium preloaded. if you would upgrade to 2g ram, with vista you might as well just buy this model for 30 more bux
the faster harddrive and additional memory mask the relatively weak cpu REALLY well
i rebuilt os on the 320 scorpio and did not reinstall most software. there is a built in "overclock" software control (also physical button) which takes the machine to 1.73ghz while it is plugged in. this is very handy and does help performance, and doesn't invalidate the warranty. I WISH YOU WOULD RUN A FEW BENCHES WITH THIS SETTING ON AND POST EM :)
with this setting on (1.73)the machine scored 1600 3dmark06 at native res which seems around 20% faster then the benches show here.
with the setting on and geforce on, i was able to play downloaded 720p content just fine with ffdshow installed thru windows media player. 1080 did stutter and i did not try the powerdvd codec.
i used newest nvidia drivers with mobility modder beta to install.
i tried lef4dead which surprisingly auto detected high shaders and medium everything else which resulted in 12fps. by setting the game to low i got 20-40 fps.
add bluetooth, wifi, digital audio out (rare), HDMI for video and audio,and this thing is just so so awesome.
it's like having a p4 3.2 with a geforce 6600gt in your pocket with 4 hour battery life
Not sure about the overclocking utility... I don't see anything pre-installed, so all I seem to get is 1.6GHz max speed. I'll see if I can find anything on the ASUS site, but maybe that's an N10J-A2B only feature?
i checked the download page and the utility is called power4gears hybrid under utilities for n10jc. in the utility you go to performance and in lower left there is a turbo dropdown. change it and save. i used cpuz to verify clocks
supposedly there is a way to wire it to the power profile button but i gave the laptop to my girl before i could get it all done
The text of the article on page makes mention of a Western Digital drive while the specs and picture show a Seagate drive. You might want to change the WD to Seagate.
Just wondering why the article is stating that the 945GME chipset is used, contrary to Asus' spec page which has it using the 945GSE? Sure it's not all that much of a difference, just 1 watt on the TDP and a smaller package.
Still find it annoying how many manufacturers are unwilling to touch the US15W. I'm guessing the combination of it only supporting 1GB of memory (really don't understand why that design decision was made) along with it costing more is the reason...
Fixed... I'm guessing the 1GB limitation is exactly why companies stay away from the US15W. Like you, I'm a little surprised that Intel didn't support 2GB with the chipset; I mean, how much of a change would that be? Still, the next generation Moorestown platform should hopefully correct the power requirements of the chipset.
Well, the reason for limiting the configuration to 1GB was almost certainly to save a pin. Support for 2GB would require one more addressing pin, which in a low cost product is significant. It also may well have been somewhat a marketing decision - it's a constraint that can keep the platform from growing upwards too far performance wise.
Hopefully Moorestown allows for 2GB of memory, but it may very well stay at 1GB. After all, that's still more than enough for the intended market, and I believe you'll be stuck with whatever Intel provides for the chipset.
Large corporate IT departments have their own "procurement" sub-groups which handle IT equipment purchasing. These groups generally buy in bulk, say 100-200 notebooks at a time from companies they have service contracts with like HP and Dell. They buy for considerably less than what consumers pay in the retail channel. For $700 they can buy a considerably better equipped notebook. These groups generally make purchases with a "one size fits all" attitude, therefor, netbooks are out as a software developer won't want to be doing all his work on a tiny netbook - the same goes for an accountant or an attorney.
Small companies like AnandTech for instance might buy these new netbooks because they don't have sophisticated infrastructures, large numbers of employees, huge service contracts and IT purchasing can be done on a more personal level - many times with the actual employee making the purchase. Equipment, models, brands, etc are not uniform in small companies.
And on top of all that... keep in mind that 99% of large companies operate in a Microsoft Windows domain environment and XP Home is not able to attach to a domain natively.
There's a 800 dollar business version though not perfect because too low res for business and lack of 3G modem option, with VB, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB drive that I would have rather saw reviewed instead of the consumer version.
So not even the N10J-A2 fit the bill as a ultra-portable business notebook. But I would have rather seen it's week spots instead of the consumer version. As said not perfect for business but it at least is better then this and has a chance of being useful.
All of what I had to say about the N10JC-A1 applies to the N10J-A2, but with a change in RAM, HDD, and OS. As for large corporations, I don't think they get as much of a break on hardware as you assume. I worked for Target Corp. and they used Dell hardware, but I'm pretty sure they were spending *more* on the laptops/PCs because they wanted a 4-year onsite, next day service warranty. Of course, you're overlooking the fact that big corporations also just wipe the HDDs and install their volume license copy and standard build of Windows XP Pro -- I did that for three years at Target, at least.
That's mostly directed towards iFX and I do agree that they don't get much rebates on hardware (probably a lot more on software anyway which is a bigger cost then the hardware itself many times even for desktops).
My point however is that you aren't reviewing the business version, not that it differs any more in hardware then I mentioned earlier in another post and you mentioned now but rather the important fact that it contains a VB OEM license as you can't include a XP H license in your volume license agreement. That's an important difference and you don't really test it for that scenario any way.
OEM's aren't much more then retailers themselves, i.e. they can't charge the costumer less then what the ODM or Taiwanese-based contract manufacturers charge them. There really isn't much for system builders to do with laptops more then order them. It's usually as you have experienced some other company that actually put the companies images of the OS/software on them. I guess there's some potential to save there if those who act as the system builders of the OEM-computers can get cheaper OEM licenses for that costumer and orders without licenses from Asus. A OEM license is always needed though. But a XP H OEM licenses is useless for them.
Interesting addition to the netbook lot, but I'd still rather have a Samsung NC10. The discrete GPU is nice for video decoding, but if the display can't show 720p, I'm not sure what the benefit of being able to decode it is. Give me a 10" 1280x800 screen and we'll talk. Otherwise, the NC10 still has better battery life.
Totally agree. I picked one up for my better half for Christmas for $499.00. Notebook Review has an excellent write up on it. The display is beautiful (same as the ASUS I believe) and easily get 7-8 hours battery life. I accidentally stumbled on the touch pad gesturing support and it works very well.
I loaded the two simple games she plays and they run fine (simple games.) While a lot of time on this board is dedicated to considering how far we can stretch a system, it would seen that this and most Netbooks would more than satisfy about 90% of the consumer market. I mean really, how many systems out there are used for nothing but Internet access, email and word processing.
Also, I think we have become spoiled with cheap memory prices. 1GB for running basic apps on XP Home should be plenty for anyone. Yes if you beed to run 10 apps or want to overclock then you want as much memory as you can get. But again, 1GB will prove more than adequate for the average user.
A user at Notebook Review forums claims to get quite good gaming performance by overclocking the Atom to 2.1 GHz, so the CPU seems to be the bottleneck.
I have the 1000H, and I love it. However, we really need 1280x800 screens in 12" sizes. Several corporate apps like the Citrix client all but requires 1024x768 minimum resolution to run without problems.
I want the 1000H in a 12" size, NOTHING changed (except maybe and even larger battery than the already ridiculously good battery it has) except for the screen. That is the perfect notebook.
I was not aware that LED backlights contained Mercury, is there a version of the computer that uses a conventional backlight for that sticker to be on there?
ASUS told me that the sticker was only on early hardware and that it's just a mistake. Good eye - I forgot to mention this, but ASUS specifically told me about the sticker when I asked if it was really an LED-lit LCD. :)
I'd like to see the ASUS with the Mac battery. That should bring a whole day of interrupted usage to the table. Besdides that, I think I'd prefer a dual core Atom and no discrete GPU, since the dualcore Atoms CAN decode movies well.
Glaedelige jul til dig ogsaa! I don't think dual-core Atom would do all that well with H.264 1080P, but it might manage. I suppose the real question is whether it would be more power efficient than the 9300M or not. No one seems to be doing Atom dual-core laptops yet (though I'm sure they're out there -- just no one has offered to send one for review). As for the Mac batteries, they're actually *smaller* than the ASUS battery in terms of capacity; OS X just seems to do better at optimizing for power as far as I can tell.
Given the performance in UT3 and CoH, I'd expect pretty reasonable frame rates in the games you mention - maybe not at high detail, but medium shouldn't be a problem. Let me see if I can dig out HL2 and give it a run for old time's sake....
A XP Home laptop is not a business version, why not test the Vista Business version? Would be more interesting to see how the VB N10J-A2 fair.
A VB laptop with XP Pro downgrade rights is the only thing fitting into the corporate world. What your reviewing is still a consumer laptop. With just 1GB of ram to add on top of that. Certainly the 800 dollars N10J-A2 would be more difficult to justify. And only then you can talk corporate.
I thought the XP Home thing was mandated by Microsoft for netbooks. As in Microsoft will only continue selling XP in it's Home form for netbooks which only have 1GB of RAM. ASUS can't put XP Pro in since it's no longer directly available and I would guess using Vista Business by default would increase the price and of course reduce performance.
As of September, our campus computer store was still selling licenses for XP Pro to use with our Volume License media.I haven't needed one since then, but businesses with volume licenses can probably upgrade if needed.
That's kind of different. XP is still available for smaller OEMs, but I'm pretty sure that XP isn't available for big name companies like ASUS anymore unless they stick with the netbook restrictions.
As I said before you wrote your post is that Vista Business includes downgrade rights (without volume license so small businesses can use it too even if they don't want to purchase SA via some license agreement).
So there is a Asus N10 laptop for corporate use that has Vista business on it, the N10J-A2 I mentioned. A business version of the same netbook. So it has nothing to do with restriction but rather that this is a consumer variant / version of the somewhat business-oriented N10-series. It can have XP Pro preinstalled it's just that you need a VB license COA. And that it costs about 100 dollars more then XP Home for low end netbooks. It's cheaper then to get a retail (FPP) copy of XP Pro or Vista though. That would cost more then most netbooks. XP H can't be included in volume licenses.
ASUS is the one stating it's a "corporate" netbook, and outside of XP Home instead of Pro I think it succeeds well enough. It's not a corporate *laptop* by any means, but it can do what many traveling people would do. I went on a trip a week ago and used this laptop on the road; it was great to work in the airport for two hours (delayed flight) and then catch a two hour plane ride and still end up with nearly 50% battery remaining.
I use my Eee 701 for "business" all the time, and I use Ubuntu + Open Office. Basically, I need it for viewing excel spreadsheets and hitting the internet in a pinch. It works well enough, and any critical documents stay on a thumb drive for easy moving about. I find there's no substitute for a full PC-interface when it comes to some things, and this Eee has served me well. In fact, I just read this entire article and posted this comment on my 701. Thanks, Anandtech, for a low-res-friendly website!
I think the point to be made here is that XP Home can't connect to a domain and therefore isn't an option in a corporate environment or small business environments. As was noted Vista business includes downgrade rights to XP Pro and therefore would fit the bill.
Well it's still a consumer netbook and not a "corporate netbook" if it hasn't VB (the only way to run XP Pro at home today apart from in the business). It's still the same hardware as their corporate version though, just that it has 1GB and 160GB instead of 2GB of ram and 320GB drive. You can't connect to a corporate network without at least XP Pro. Of course it lacks security features such as TPM/Bitlocker too. But truecrypt is always an alternative. Of course lacking built in 3G modem is also a downside on business stuff. I wouldn't buy one without, using it as a terminal would be what it's used for and useful for. You don't need more performance to run RDP / Citrix.
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htwingnut - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
N10Jc supports 2GB. I don't think the reviewer even tried it. It works just fine.netbookem - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 - link
I've been researching the N10Jc and this is an absolutely outstanding review with much better info than I've found elsewhere.The only thing it left me wondering was the N10Jc's performance when connected to an external display such as a large screen plasma or LCD TV via HDMI. Does it do video out at higher resolution than its own screen supports like at an XGA 1280x768?
If I knew that it would look good on my plasma I'd buy it right now based on this review. If I could find some place that the N10Jc is in stock that is!
Takemaru - Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - link
I don't really care much for the gaming end of things(though if i could run Simcity 4 on it i'd be stoked), being able to decode x.264 is what i've really been waiting for out of a netbook, and it's large enough to actually be usable. Sure i'd love an 11" screen @ 1280x800 but you can't have it all i guess, i can always output to something larger over HDMI. ;PAnd it got editors choice @ that, Hey if Anand likes it i'm gonna go ahead and assume it's sweet regardless of the widely differing opinions. And so far i've not seen many people who have one who don't love it, I want one .....
kmmatney - Saturday, December 27, 2008 - link
It would be very nice if it could automatically switch from the 9300 to the intergrated graphics when it went on battery power (although I guess you need the 9300 to watch HD movies). The ability to switch between the 9300 and the Intel GMA graphics is pretty cool, though - first time I've heard of a feature like that.geok1ng - Friday, December 26, 2008 - link
"We just wish we could get a 1280x800 LCD in there instead, as even at 1024x600 there's not a lot of real estate in Windows."A widescreen resolution may not be the best case scenario for a NETbook: most sites are desingned for 1024x768/800x600, even so i agree that this 1024x600 is deal breaker: what i want is 1024x768 and a better integrated graphicsby ATI or NVIDIA, not a discrete crao graphics for half battery life. Until that desing goes on sale i will not surf the netbook wave.
ET - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
I love the discrete GPU and that it's switchable. IMO the main limitation of netbooks and subnotebooks is the graphics, and I'm glad that ASUS is trying to fix this. The price point is reasonable, especially considering that ever $2000 subnotebooks don't have this.Now all we need is a switchable sunlight reflective screen, like LG announced, and it'd be quite the perfect mini laptop.
Jiggz - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
There's very little difference compare to the HA-1000 model. Except maybe for the graphics card and fingerprint scanner it will be totally identical. For $650+ I would expect at least a Dual Core Atom processor.JarredWalton - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
Plus the warranty. I figure the warranty alone is at least $50 (probably $100), the GPU is another $50, fingerprint scanner is $25 or whatever. As I mention in the conclusion, the 1000HA is a very reasonable alternative, assuming you're okay with the lack of a dedicated GPU. (That rules out x264 viewing, but in my testing it appears MPEG2 and DivX 720P files play fine.) Also, I think HDMI isn't on the Eee PC -- if that's right, that's another $10~15 just for licensing fees.DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
great review and i agree with the bottom line. i wanted to add a bit of my own experience.Random question: do we all thin this is a prequal/preview of the new nvidia chipset for atom?
my experience:
i bought the n10j from a egg for about 680 for my gf, and a scorpio black 7200rpm drive.
the 10j comes with 2 gigs and vista home premium preloaded. if you would upgrade to 2g ram, with vista you might as well just buy this model for 30 more bux
the faster harddrive and additional memory mask the relatively weak cpu REALLY well
i rebuilt os on the 320 scorpio and did not reinstall most software. there is a built in "overclock" software control (also physical button) which takes the machine to 1.73ghz while it is plugged in. this is very handy and does help performance, and doesn't invalidate the warranty. I WISH YOU WOULD RUN A FEW BENCHES WITH THIS SETTING ON AND POST EM :)
with this setting on (1.73)the machine scored 1600 3dmark06 at native res which seems around 20% faster then the benches show here.
with the setting on and geforce on, i was able to play downloaded 720p content just fine with ffdshow installed thru windows media player. 1080 did stutter and i did not try the powerdvd codec.
i used newest nvidia drivers with mobility modder beta to install.
i tried lef4dead which surprisingly auto detected high shaders and medium everything else which resulted in 12fps. by setting the game to low i got 20-40 fps.
add bluetooth, wifi, digital audio out (rare), HDMI for video and audio,and this thing is just so so awesome.
it's like having a p4 3.2 with a geforce 6600gt in your pocket with 4 hour battery life
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Not sure about the overclocking utility... I don't see anything pre-installed, so all I seem to get is 1.6GHz max speed. I'll see if I can find anything on the ASUS site, but maybe that's an N10J-A2B only feature?DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Thanks for listening :)i checked the download page and the utility is called power4gears hybrid under utilities for n10jc. in the utility you go to performance and in lower left there is a turbo dropdown. change it and save. i used cpuz to verify clocks
supposedly there is a way to wire it to the power profile button but i gave the laptop to my girl before i could get it all done
DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
looks like vista only...my bad...ouchpattycake0147 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
The text of the article on page makes mention of a Western Digital drive while the specs and picture show a Seagate drive. You might want to change the WD to Seagate.Khato - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Just wondering why the article is stating that the 945GME chipset is used, contrary to Asus' spec page which has it using the 945GSE? Sure it's not all that much of a difference, just 1 watt on the TDP and a smaller package.Still find it annoying how many manufacturers are unwilling to touch the US15W. I'm guessing the combination of it only supporting 1GB of memory (really don't understand why that design decision was made) along with it costing more is the reason...
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Fixed... I'm guessing the 1GB limitation is exactly why companies stay away from the US15W. Like you, I'm a little surprised that Intel didn't support 2GB with the chipset; I mean, how much of a change would that be? Still, the next generation Moorestown platform should hopefully correct the power requirements of the chipset.Khato - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
Well, the reason for limiting the configuration to 1GB was almost certainly to save a pin. Support for 2GB would require one more addressing pin, which in a low cost product is significant. It also may well have been somewhat a marketing decision - it's a constraint that can keep the platform from growing upwards too far performance wise.Hopefully Moorestown allows for 2GB of memory, but it may very well stay at 1GB. After all, that's still more than enough for the intended market, and I believe you'll be stuck with whatever Intel provides for the chipset.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
... but smaller companies might.Large corporate IT departments have their own "procurement" sub-groups which handle IT equipment purchasing. These groups generally buy in bulk, say 100-200 notebooks at a time from companies they have service contracts with like HP and Dell. They buy for considerably less than what consumers pay in the retail channel. For $700 they can buy a considerably better equipped notebook. These groups generally make purchases with a "one size fits all" attitude, therefor, netbooks are out as a software developer won't want to be doing all his work on a tiny netbook - the same goes for an accountant or an attorney.
Small companies like AnandTech for instance might buy these new netbooks because they don't have sophisticated infrastructures, large numbers of employees, huge service contracts and IT purchasing can be done on a more personal level - many times with the actual employee making the purchase. Equipment, models, brands, etc are not uniform in small companies.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
And on top of all that... keep in mind that 99% of large companies operate in a Microsoft Windows domain environment and XP Home is not able to attach to a domain natively.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Ergo my first comment on this article.There's a 800 dollar business version though not perfect because too low res for business and lack of 3G modem option, with VB, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB drive that I would have rather saw reviewed instead of the consumer version.
So not even the N10J-A2 fit the bill as a ultra-portable business notebook. But I would have rather seen it's week spots instead of the consumer version. As said not perfect for business but it at least is better then this and has a chance of being useful.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
All of what I had to say about the N10JC-A1 applies to the N10J-A2, but with a change in RAM, HDD, and OS. As for large corporations, I don't think they get as much of a break on hardware as you assume. I worked for Target Corp. and they used Dell hardware, but I'm pretty sure they were spending *more* on the laptops/PCs because they wanted a 4-year onsite, next day service warranty. Of course, you're overlooking the fact that big corporations also just wipe the HDDs and install their volume license copy and standard build of Windows XP Pro -- I did that for three years at Target, at least.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
That's mostly directed towards iFX and I do agree that they don't get much rebates on hardware (probably a lot more on software anyway which is a bigger cost then the hardware itself many times even for desktops).My point however is that you aren't reviewing the business version, not that it differs any more in hardware then I mentioned earlier in another post and you mentioned now but rather the important fact that it contains a VB OEM license as you can't include a XP H license in your volume license agreement. That's an important difference and you don't really test it for that scenario any way.
OEM's aren't much more then retailers themselves, i.e. they can't charge the costumer less then what the ODM or Taiwanese-based contract manufacturers charge them. There really isn't much for system builders to do with laptops more then order them. It's usually as you have experienced some other company that actually put the companies images of the OS/software on them. I guess there's some potential to save there if those who act as the system builders of the OEM-computers can get cheaper OEM licenses for that costumer and orders without licenses from Asus. A OEM license is always needed though. But a XP H OEM licenses is useless for them.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Yes, they do. I have worked in IT procurement for large, Fortune 500 companies, I speak from experience.icrf - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Interesting addition to the netbook lot, but I'd still rather have a Samsung NC10. The discrete GPU is nice for video decoding, but if the display can't show 720p, I'm not sure what the benefit of being able to decode it is. Give me a 10" 1280x800 screen and we'll talk. Otherwise, the NC10 still has better battery life.skaaman - Sunday, December 28, 2008 - link
Totally agree. I picked one up for my better half for Christmas for $499.00. Notebook Review has an excellent write up on it. The display is beautiful (same as the ASUS I believe) and easily get 7-8 hours battery life. I accidentally stumbled on the touch pad gesturing support and it works very well.I loaded the two simple games she plays and they run fine (simple games.) While a lot of time on this board is dedicated to considering how far we can stretch a system, it would seen that this and most Netbooks would more than satisfy about 90% of the consumer market. I mean really, how many systems out there are used for nothing but Internet access, email and word processing.
Also, I think we have become spoiled with cheap memory prices. 1GB for running basic apps on XP Home should be plenty for anyone. Yes if you beed to run 10 apps or want to overclock then you want as much memory as you can get. But again, 1GB will prove more than adequate for the average user.
l00tz - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Ahhh but you have hdmi out for 1080p goodness. The n10 works with and external bluray drive and powerdvd8 as welldrfelip - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
A user at Notebook Review forums claims to get quite good gaming performance by overclocking the Atom to 2.1 GHz, so the CPU seems to be the bottleneck.gipper - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I have the 1000H, and I love it. However, we really need 1280x800 screens in 12" sizes. Several corporate apps like the Citrix client all but requires 1024x768 minimum resolution to run without problems.I want the 1000H in a 12" size, NOTHING changed (except maybe and even larger battery than the already ridiculously good battery it has) except for the screen. That is the perfect notebook.
strikeback03 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
The table says 2x2048MB, but the test says 1GB.I was not aware that LED backlights contained Mercury, is there a version of the computer that uses a conventional backlight for that sticker to be on there?
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
ASUS told me that the sticker was only on early hardware and that it's just a mistake. Good eye - I forgot to mention this, but ASUS specifically told me about the sticker when I asked if it was really an LED-lit LCD. :)JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Oh, and the 2x2048MB was a missed copy/paste (or reuse of a table). It's fixed now.ATWindsor - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Please continue to test the displays of laptops. This is very good information, and often not tested by other sites.Clauzii - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I'd like to see the ASUS with the Mac battery. That should bring a whole day of interrupted usage to the table. Besdides that, I think I'd prefer a dual core Atom and no discrete GPU, since the dualcore Atoms CAN decode movies well.Oh, and a Merry Christmas from Denmark :)
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Glaedelige jul til dig ogsaa! I don't think dual-core Atom would do all that well with H.264 1080P, but it might manage. I suppose the real question is whether it would be more power efficient than the 9300M or not. No one seems to be doing Atom dual-core laptops yet (though I'm sure they're out there -- just no one has offered to send one for review). As for the Mac batteries, they're actually *smaller* than the ASUS battery in terms of capacity; OS X just seems to do better at optimizing for power as far as I can tell.therealnickdanger - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
But would you be kind enough to maybe test a couple old games like Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike Source, Halo, WoW, UT2004? Merry Christmas, AT!JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Given the performance in UT3 and CoH, I'd expect pretty reasonable frame rates in the games you mention - maybe not at high detail, but medium shouldn't be a problem. Let me see if I can dig out HL2 and give it a run for old time's sake....therealnickdanger - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Fair enough. Thanks for considering it! ;-)Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
A XP Home laptop is not a business version, why not test the Vista Business version? Would be more interesting to see how the VB N10J-A2 fair.A VB laptop with XP Pro downgrade rights is the only thing fitting into the corporate world. What your reviewing is still a consumer laptop. With just 1GB of ram to add on top of that. Certainly the 800 dollars N10J-A2 would be more difficult to justify. And only then you can talk corporate.
ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I thought the XP Home thing was mandated by Microsoft for netbooks. As in Microsoft will only continue selling XP in it's Home form for netbooks which only have 1GB of RAM. ASUS can't put XP Pro in since it's no longer directly available and I would guess using Vista Business by default would increase the price and of course reduce performance.strikeback03 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
As of September, our campus computer store was still selling licenses for XP Pro to use with our Volume License media.I haven't needed one since then, but businesses with volume licenses can probably upgrade if needed.ltcommanderdata - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
That's kind of different. XP is still available for smaller OEMs, but I'm pretty sure that XP isn't available for big name companies like ASUS anymore unless they stick with the netbook restrictions.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
As I said before you wrote your post is that Vista Business includes downgrade rights (without volume license so small businesses can use it too even if they don't want to purchase SA via some license agreement).So there is a Asus N10 laptop for corporate use that has Vista business on it, the N10J-A2 I mentioned. A business version of the same netbook. So it has nothing to do with restriction but rather that this is a consumer variant / version of the somewhat business-oriented N10-series. It can have XP Pro preinstalled it's just that you need a VB license COA. And that it costs about 100 dollars more then XP Home for low end netbooks. It's cheaper then to get a retail (FPP) copy of XP Pro or Vista though. That would cost more then most netbooks. XP H can't be included in volume licenses.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
ASUS is the one stating it's a "corporate" netbook, and outside of XP Home instead of Pro I think it succeeds well enough. It's not a corporate *laptop* by any means, but it can do what many traveling people would do. I went on a trip a week ago and used this laptop on the road; it was great to work in the airport for two hours (delayed flight) and then catch a two hour plane ride and still end up with nearly 50% battery remaining.MonkeyPaw - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
I use my Eee 701 for "business" all the time, and I use Ubuntu + Open Office. Basically, I need it for viewing excel spreadsheets and hitting the internet in a pinch. It works well enough, and any critical documents stay on a thumb drive for easy moving about. I find there's no substitute for a full PC-interface when it comes to some things, and this Eee has served me well. In fact, I just read this entire article and posted this comment on my 701. Thanks, Anandtech, for a low-res-friendly website!skaaman - Sunday, December 28, 2008 - link
I think the point to be made here is that XP Home can't connect to a domain and therefore isn't an option in a corporate environment or small business environments. As was noted Vista business includes downgrade rights to XP Pro and therefore would fit the bill.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Well it's still a consumer netbook and not a "corporate netbook" if it hasn't VB (the only way to run XP Pro at home today apart from in the business). It's still the same hardware as their corporate version though, just that it has 1GB and 160GB instead of 2GB of ram and 320GB drive. You can't connect to a corporate network without at least XP Pro. Of course it lacks security features such as TPM/Bitlocker too. But truecrypt is always an alternative. Of course lacking built in 3G modem is also a downside on business stuff. I wouldn't buy one without, using it as a terminal would be what it's used for and useful for. You don't need more performance to run RDP / Citrix.