Asus N10

Since it’s small, light and has an Intel Atom N270 processor, we're sticking with calling the N10 a netbook, but Asus has different ideas about this entry-level model in its new N-Series range of portable PCs.

Like the three Centrino 2 models in the range, the N10 is actually the product of Asus’s laptop division rather than the one that developed the Eee PC, and so Asus is classing it as a laptop rather than a netbook.

But while there are some obvious similarities between the N10 and other netbooks, there are also some rather striking differences. If you saw our earlier hands-on video, you’ll know that perhaps the biggest is that the N10 is first ever Intel Atom-powered portable with a discrete 3D graphics chipset – the nVidia GeForce 9300M GS .

The N10 is bigger and bulkier than most netbooks, though it’s still both small and light enough to carry around all day without wondering if someone’s slipped a house brick into your hand luggage. Build quality is also a significant step up from the Eee PC range too, which isn’t to knock those netbooks, but rather to say that the N10 just look and feels much more like a traditional ultraportable.

Well, at least from the outside. The glossy finish paint job, smoothly sculpted lines and sparing use of shiny silver plastic parts make the N10 very easy on the eye, but lift the lid and there’s an odd design decision that spoils its otherwise flawless ultraportable good looks.

Despite having a diagonal measurement of just under 13 inches, the lid is home to a screen with a 10.2in diagonal, which results in a wide black bezel around all four sides. The visual effect isn’t quite as peculiar as that on the Eee PC 4G with its 7in screen, but it’s an obvious budget component on a laptop that’s otherwise devoid of cost-cutting measures.

The shrunken screen is also a little unfortunate because this could have been a great opportunity for Asus to slip in something other than a netbook-standard 1024 x 600 display. At the moment, the only netbook with any thing bigger than this is the HP Mini-Note 2133 and a similar 1280 x 768 screen would fit in very nicely with the N10. That’s not to knock the bright, vibrant LED-backlit screen Asus has opted for instead, although its glossy coating will not appeal to everyone.

Its screen may not capitalise on the increased dimensions, but the N10’s keyboard certainly does. The keyboard is around 90% of full size and together with the wide key tops, makes spells of prolonged typing a pleasure, which isn’t something you can say for many netbooks. The keys bottom-out a little too early for our taste, but that’s a minor quibble and something we suspect you’ll soon get used to. The keys are a whisker larger than those on the Asus Eee PC 1000 and are in a slightly different layout, but there are no keys in unusual places.

A Synaptics touchpad sits in the usual place, but this has two standard plastic mouse buttons rather than the unusual one-piece aluminium design found on Asus’ more recent Eee PCs. There’s a fingerprint scanner between the two buttons, too.

In addition to the usual netbook selection of ports, the N10 also has a couple of interesting extras in the shape of  ExpressCard/34 slot and an HDMI. Less interesting, but just as useful is an SD Card slot, and there’s also a physical switch to disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – though there’s still a keyboard shortcut for this.

As with every other Intel Atom-powered netbook, the N10’s graphics come courtesy of the Intel GMA 945 chipset. This is perfectly adequate for the kind of applications a netbook like this will be put to, but remember – this isn’t a netbook. So, that should make the presence of an nVidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics chipset particularly surprising – lots of laptops have discrete 3D graphics chips, after all…

A switch on the left the N10 flips between the two graphics modes, but you’ll need to reboot for the change to take effect. Of course the reason for having two graphics chipsets rather than just one 3D chipset is power-saving – the Intel chipset works best on battery power, leaving you to switch to the nVidia chipset when you’re back on mains power.

You might not expect much from the nVidia GeForce 9300M GS chipset, particularly when coupled with the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, but the N10 performs surprisingly well with 3D games. Call of Duty 4 runs pretty well at the screen’s native 1024 x 600 resolution, though you’ll need to disable most of the visual effects to keep the frame rate going below 15fps – as this video shows.

Despite its punishing system requirements for the full visual experience, Crysis Warhead runs surprisingly well, too. Frame rates aren’t anywhere near as high as those in CoD4, but the small screen and comparatively low resolution do a good job of masking the fact that the visual detail settings all need to be set to ‘minimum’ to keep the game playable – as you can see this video.

We admit that it’s perhaps a little misleading to refer to the N10 as a ‘gaming netbook’, but make no mistake – the poky graphics chip and 250Gb hard disk mean that this little laptop is certainly up to the task, as long as you don’t mind sacrificing some image quality.

The N10’s overall performance isn’t much different to that of other Atom-powered netbooks, though. The 2Gb of RAM might be more than enough to cope with just about any task, but that 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor is not, and the N10 is no quicker than any other netbook we’ve reviewed. We were a bit surprised to discover that the N10 can’t quite play 720p QuickTime video smoothly enough for it to be watchable, in either Intel GMA 945 and nVidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics modes.

As far as battery life goes, well, we’re still in the dark. Our N10 was supplied without the six-cell battery that will ship in the UK and a spot of inclement weather in Taiwan meant that Asus wasn’t able to get  one to us in time for this review (hence the big hole where the battery should be in the photographs). We expect battery life to be around the four-hour mark, but we’ll update this review with battery life figures as soon as we can.

Now we were going to end this review with a grumble about how manufacturers are starting to lose sight of the original netbook idea by cramming in ever higher specifications – but we’ll resist. Asus isn’t calling the N10 a netbook and it isn’t made by its netbook division, so we’ll be nice and pretend that it’s simply a small, cheap, ultraportable.

But that’s a bit of a problem. Yes, the N10 is small, but it isn’t really that cheap. With an expected street price of £499, the N10 costs more than many much more capable Core 2 Duo laptops. They’re not ultraportables, of course, but then technically, nor is the N10 – the Intel Atom processor is far too limited for that.

Of course, a netbook (or Atom-powered laptop…) is more than sufficient for the narrow range of tasks most people need a computer for and if you’re looking for a very portable PC with enough storage for all your stuff, a handy ExpressCard slot and the ability to satisfy your (limited) 3D gaming needs, then the N10 will suffice. If not, an MSI Wind U100 or one of its clones clone with a DIY hard drive upgrade is a cheaper option.