Asus N10 pushes the limits of netbookdom

I’m thinking I might have to stop covering the upcoming Asus N10 laptop. While it has a 10.2 inch display like the Asus Eee PC 1000H and several other netbooks, there are a few other defining characteristics that indicate this machine ain’t targeted at the same customers as the $550 Eee PC 1000H. First up? The price. J&R is showing a $849 price tag for the N10 which makes it more expensive than most full sized Windows laptops you might want to pick up.

The extra $300 you’d pay for an N10 doesn’t go to waste. The computer packs a 250GB hard drive, 2G of RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS video card as well as a fingerprint scanner. It also runs Windows Vista Business although I wouldn’t be surprised to see Asus offer a Windows XP downgrade option.

But I have a hard time putting an $850 computer in the same class of device as a $299 Eee PC 701. If the definining characteristics of netbooks are low price, portability, and the ability to connect to the internet, the N10 meets two of those categories but fails miserably on the third. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just thing it means that Asus has graduated from making notebooks that are solely netbooks to producing laptops that are high performance ultraportables. Of course, take “high performance” with a grain of salt. The N10 sports the same single core Intel Atom CPU that you can find in the lower end Eee PC 900/1000 series computers.

via Engadget

Posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008, 11:34 am by Brad Linder

Vince

Hmmm., an extra $300 (over the 1000H) for a dedicated graphics card, larger HDD, fingerprint reader, and 1 GB more RAM.? Not for the same N270 Atom CPU. (I would imagine the addition of a discrete graphics card would translate into decreased battery as well – assuming the same 6 cell battery).

Not a good price vs. performance point.
DougC3

At that price I would have chosen a different array of specs, including 1280 x 768 resolution, to complement the Nvidia card.

As for covering it, I would like to humbly vote that you continue, unless it's too big and heavy (can't find the size and weight anywhere, and it looks big).

I'd also like to see more information on the amazingly specced Kohjinsha Sx3, but I guess you've omitted it because of its price. It would be nice if you could have a place on your Lilliputer chart for near misses and interesting oddball stuff… but that's easy for me to say, since you (or your sweatshop are the one who has to scrabble around for all the data.

By the way, thank you for the Lilliputer database–it has saved me hours of searching for netbook info and is a terrific service for the community
http://netbookupdates.com/ shcboomer

Look here…http://www.boygeniusreport.com/gallery/computers/asus-n10-notebook/?page=1

Prices are based on the amount of upgrades. With the MSRP of $649, it isn't that bad
DougC3

Thanks for the tip–lots of nice pictures and specs, etc. At 10.8″ x 7.6″ and 3.5 lb. it's getting a little big and heavy, but that's with the six cell battery. It could be worse.

I'm very puzzled as to why they didn't make the jump to 1280 x 768 resolution, which is available on the HP mini, the Gigabyte M912, and the Kohjinsha Sx3. Maybe it's significantly more costly when you step up to the 10″ screen.
DougC3

Thanks for the tip–lots of nice pictures and specs, etc. At 10.8″ x 7.6″ and 3.5 lb. it's getting a little big and heavy, but that's with the six cell battery. It could be worse.

I'm very puzzled as to why they didn't make the jump to 1280 x 768 resolution, which is available on the HP mini, the Gigabyte M912, and the Kohjinsha Sx3. Maybe it's significantly more costly when you step up to the 10″ screen.
DougC3

Thanks for the tip–lots of nice pictures and specs, etc. At 10.8″ x 7.6″ and 3.5 lb. it's getting a little big and heavy, but that's with the six cell battery. It could be worse.

I'm very puzzled as to why they didn't make the jump to 1280 x 768 resolution, which is available on the HP mini, the Gigabyte M912, and the Kohjinsha Sx3. Maybe it's significantly more costly when you step up to the 10″ screen.

Asus N10 pushes the limits of netbookdom

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