Asus N10
Review by Julian Prokaza on Wed 01 October 2008
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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.

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Asus N10J-HV011E specification
- Processor
- Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)
- Memory
- 2Gb DDRII (667MHz)
- Graphics
- Intel GMA 945 / nVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS (256Mb)
- Hard disk
- 250GB (5400rpm)
- Optical drive
- Optional external USB-powered DVD-writer
- Floppy drive
- NA
- Screen
- 10.2in LED-backlit (1024 x 600)
- Connectivity
- 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, Ethernet, VGA, ExpressCard/34, USB 2.0 x 3, HDMI, 3.55mm mic, headphone, SD Card
- Other
- Webcam, fingerprint scanner
- Operating system
- Windows Vista Business (downgradeable to Windows XP Professional)
- Size
- 276 x 195 x 37.1mm
- Weight
- 1.4kg with 3-cell battery (6-cell battery supplied)
- Battery life
- TBC
- Warranty
- 2 year global
Comments
Not a netbook, not a notebook... yet it seems strangely appealing to a person like me, who wanted a netbook, but was irked by the fact that recent games could NOT run on the with their dx7/dx8 intel chipsets.Thanks for trying Crysis out on it! I want to get one and see if it runs Spore!
I've coined the term Not(e)book for this product! It sits on the fence I think... however it does fill a nice market niche in terms of an ultra-portable with decent gaming prowess. Will be very interested to see how it goes with battery life in general use. Nice review, and I linked to your earlier preview [url=http://www.electricvagabond.com/2008/09/asus-n10-notebook-has-respectable.html]on my site[/url]. The fingerprint scanner, large HDD and HDMI make for a nicely featured machine. However, the bevel around the screen is truly heinous and the keyboard sounds like it could be suffering a little bit from cheap-itis. I am sort of undecided about this one, on one hand I want to sell my Wind and get this, but on the other I don't want to slowly migrate to a full-sized notebook only to discover I'm about to go travelling with a brick in my bag. Anyway great review and thanks for helping with consumer decision making progress!
Greetings: If Asus thinks they will sell the N10 at 500 pounds about $1050 Canadian, they are totaly missing the boat. Netbooks have to be priced well below $400US, or they will not sell. Regards Robert
Maybe if asus held back launch and used the dual core atom...
If they actually bothered to test 3dmarks like some koreans didhttp://www.notegear.com/Content/Content_View.asp?TNum=809&kind=2&gotopage=1use your own translatorbut they showed why there was a bezel, its for the wifi antennaand battery life with 3 cell around 2 hrs with normal usethey had the review out around 1 month ago
Did I miss them or there is not a single reference to heat and noise in the whole review??I base my purchases mostly in those 2 parameters.
I don't get it, you might want to use the nvidia 9300m all the time, and possibly have better battery life optimization and 3d capabilities. 3DMark06 Scores9200M GS:1742: [HP DV5] P7350,4GB2067: [Samsung Q310] P8400,4GB2574: [Samsung Q310] P8400,4GB, 9200M GS overclocked to Core 750MHz & Memory 750MHz9300M GS:2242: [Lenovo Thinkpad SL500] P8600,2GB1695: [Lenovo Thinkpad SL300] P8600,2GB Note: This 9300M GS is a 128MB version - explains the low score?2211: [Lenovo Thinkpad SL400] P8400,2GBamazon US had those n10j-a2 with xp downgrade as an extra CD. using vista forcing the card to run dx10, however with dx9 on xp the card will be more capable at higher fps
yes i agree, however those 6 hour battery life on 6 cell will become 4 or 3.5. still pretty good !! some 1 will overclock this baby anyway
do you think its possible to play starcraft 2 on this or any other netbook?
Minimum System Requirements for Starcraft 2
Processor: 1.4 Ghz Processor
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics card: 128 MB RAM video card capable of Hardware TnL. DX10 is not required, but will be supported by SC2 and Blizzard are considering adding DX10 specific effects.
Pixel Shader 2.0 (Officially Confirmed)
Just similar to warcraft3's this is not CPU intensive, u may able to get to highish settings
it can barely runs it. the onboard graphic on 1000h will run at probably the lowest setting. check this page http://www.starcraftwire.net/forums
/showthread.php?t=675
#
gma 900 - 950 will probably wont run any 3d games at full speed trust me
Hi there! nice review!
one thing that isn't commented though is that the geforce9300 chip should allow much higher screen resolution for external displays (like TFT). if N10 allows watching HD-video in 1920x1080, by turning screenres to 1920x1200 its a very good selling point. even if it dont have a optical reader, videos can be transfered to the hdd.
also photoshop and especially office applications can be worked with in high resolution.
i hope a driverpatch will be released to eee901 so that it will allow more than 1024x768 for ext screens.
yes 9300m could do 1080p, the desktop version of 9300 has 16 unified shader, but this has 8, in theory 9300m is likely to be weaker than 8500gt desktop. with new drivers from laptopvideo2go.com 9300m should be able to decode 1080p on the fly. with nv panel u can set custom resolution anyway! (is maxed at 2048x1536)
the gma900 on the eee901, in theory gma900 supports up to 2048x1536, but wiki said 1600×1280. Does normal intel gma driver works with eee901 anyway?
