Asus N10 Mini Laptop Review
Today, most netbooks are the same in their basic configuration, including 1 GB of RAM and Windows XP. The only notable differences between the netbook configurations are the drives: the solid-state drive and the high-capacity rotary drive, and the keyboard layout. Screen sizes are becoming more and more standardized at 9-10 inches. It seems that the only one that is breaking the technological mold these days is the Asus N10. You might pay a bit more, but the Asus N10 is unique among netbooks, particularly for its various switchable graphics and additional ports.
It’s a 10.2-inch system from the company that started the netbook craze with its Eee PC. The Asus N10 features the mentioned CPU, RAM and operating system. The biggest difference in the Asus N10 is the added Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics card. This is the first graphics to be offered in a netbook and it is possible to switch between GeForce graphics and integrated Intel graphics.
Netbooks are mainly used for basic tasks, browsing the web and sending emails; however, the Asus N10 is a great rugged travel accessory if you enjoy casual gaming or are a PC game junkie who can live with limited screen resolution and underpowered CPU.
There are a few different configurations available in Australia of the N10. The N10JC-HV006 costs around AU$1099 complete with an XP Home, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, a bag, and a mouse. The N10J-HV024C costs around $1,199 with Windows Vista Home Premium, a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM without any accessories. The N10J-HV009G costs around AU$300 more, but the only difference between it and the N10J-HV024C model is a bag and mouse. If you don’t need the extra bag and mouse, Harvey Norman has an exclusive model that retails for AU$999.
The N10 has a keyboard with large, flat keys for maximum typing area. It’s not as good as the HP Mini 1000 keyboard, which is excellent, but much better than those netbooks with tiny keys. The Asus N10 keyboard has also fixed the right shift key, which was a problem with the Asus S101 model. The screen is also slightly larger than ten inches (10.2) and has a widescreen LCD that allows for more workspace and a native resolution of 1024×600. Although this is readable, most documents and pages web pages require the reader to scroll to view the document. This is also a somewhat awkward resolution for gaming and video content.
There’s HDMI and an ExpressCard slot included and these seem to be appreciated by users and the N10 is one of the few netbooks we’ve seen that offers this.
The big extra of the N10 is the Nvidia GeForce – 9300M GS GPU. When the GPU is on, a software application, which is included, allows it to switch to different power-saving modes. This mainly has to do with when the screen and hard drives will turn off. When you’re away from an AC outlet or want to extend battery life, there’s a switch on the left side that turns off the GeForce 9300. (You’ll have to reboot to make this change.)
The N10 performed similarly to other Atom-powered netbooks in benchmark tests. Viewing HD video content files was taxing on the Atom CPU and had jerky playback even with graphics turned on; however, there was no problem with standard definition video files. It was possible to work with images in Photoshop without slowing down the system; however, the screen resolution was too low to successfully run a Photoshop test.
Game performance should look realistic. You can’t expect much from an Atom CPU and 1 GB of RAM, however with the Asus N10 Unreal Tournament III was a pretty good experience and certainly playable after we lowered the resolution to 800×600 for 29 frames per second and we kept the detail. middle level.
Asus netbooks are known for their excellent battery life. (Big six cell batteries are needed.) In a video playback test, it lasted 3 hours and 17 minutes, better than other netbooks.
Review Summary: Overall rating – 8.
positives
o Graphics chips are switchable, dedicated and integrated
or good keyboard
o Extended battery life
o Useful additions, including HDMI port and ExpressCard slot
negatives
o Real gamers need a higher screen resolution
o Not ideal for graphics intensive applications/games due to lack of Intel Atom CPU power
