Asus 1015PN Review
Asus Eee PC 1015PN is one of the few 10 inch netbooks that come with both Atom processor and ION GPU. However, all that power comes in for the expense of battery life and that is why you would not able to get 10 hours runtime β something that other 10 inch netbooks achieve with ease.
Build, Design
The Asus 1015PN looks very identical to the other 10-inch netbooks (same as 1015PEM – read Asus 1015PEM review) that the company has churned out in the past year or two. On the left, you will find power port, VGA, USB, and HDMI port. On the right, you will 2 more USB ports, Ethernet, SD card slot, microphone and headphone jacks. The lid and palm rest, both have matte finish.
Display
It comes with a 10.1-inches display packing 1024 x 600 pixel resolution β same as what you see in other netbooks around. Due to this, you would not be able to see the difference between an SD and HD video and you must output the display to an HDTV or external (high res) monitor to see the difference.
The display is matte-type which does not reflect much glare. The bezel around is glossy though which is kind of distracting.
Keyboard
The keyboard has an island style layout also known as chiclet keyboard. While I had no problems when typing, the small right shift key is annoying. Touchpad has a the same finish as the palmrest and lid. There are little chrome strips that makes the touchpad a little easy to βfindβ the edges.
Performance
Asus 1015PN has an Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz processor and ION next-generation graphics. Here is its comparison with the Acer 521 netbook that comes with single core AMD K125 processor.
Here is the WEI:
- Processor: 3.1
- Memory: 4.5
- Graphics: 3.7
- Gaming graphics: 4.9
- Primary hard disk: 5.8
This means that it can play some games but not the latest games that require super powerful GPUs. You will also be able to view HD videos from YouTube. The processor is able to easily cope up with multitasking, basic productivity chores and web browsing.
This Asus netbook comes with Windows 7 Starter OS which does not supports Nvidia Optimus technology an due to that, the the system does not switches between dedicated GPU and integrated graphics on-the-fly. You are forced to reboot the computer if want to make the switch.
Battery Life
With great power comes less than stellar battery life. As said earlier, the 1015PN can easily handle 1080p content with ease, but you would not able to get more than 5 hours of runtime most of the time since the unit cannot switch between integrated and dedicated graphics in real time. This sucks and Asus should have bundled at least Home Basic version of Windows 7 with it.
With ION GPU, I was able to get 4 hours, 15 minutes and without ION, battery runtimes were nearly 6 hours.
Upgradability
On the bottom, you will find a single panel via which you can easily upgrade the RAM to 2GB. For upgrading anything else, you will need to take the netbook apart (for changing hard disk and other components).
Bottom Line β Asus Eee PC 1015PN is the first 10-inch netbook that can easily handle 1080p content (both Flash and local) as-well-as some games out there. However, if you are in the market for a netbook with exceptional battery life, then you should look elsewhere.
Also check out:
related queries: 1015pn hdmi reviewPost a Comment