The ASUS N10 Netbook: too good to be real?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Newsentry.153+M5a47a50c6cd.0.html

for pics:
http://www.eeepcnews.de/2008/08/22/asus-n10-edel-netbook-zum-sparpreis/

The netbook looks great. It's not going to break any speed tests anytime soon and the Atom CPU is obviously a bottleneck for the 9300GS, but nevertheless, $600 USD, what a deal.

My only two concerns:

1) The current netbooks with GMA 950 already heats up enough as is - how is the ASUS going to handle the 9300GS? Are they going to clock down down the GPU?

2) 9300GS for a netbook = poor battery life. Not that I'm expecting much, but if it can last no longer than 3 hours on battery, there's really no point in getting a netbook.

LED screen, HDMI, 9300GS, fingerprint reader and a 10-inch screen all for such a low price? Some part of me tells me the news article is somehow inaccurate, but then again, notebookcheck.net have always been on the mark when it comes laptop news info. I really don't know what to think. It all seems too good to be true.

 

Considering how Asus has in the past raised the price at the last moment on their netbooks this will probably end up at $700.

 

Yeah the EEE was no competition to the MSI Wind or the new Acer Aspire so they got burned even tho they were the first to get the new units out.

Now Dell and Lenovo and others are coming to the market too. So maybe just maybe the price is accurate or close because they know they will have to do be competive. If its $600 this is the unit I want unless there is some major flaw with it.

Right now its between the wind & aspire one tho.

The Aspire is availbe now 160gb HDD, 6 cell battery $400 quite a deal. I do not think it has a LED screen tho and it has no bluetooth.

I want two units actually one for me and one for my wife. Im thinking the Aspire for my Wife since she just wants web accsess, maybe some moives/music and all of our family pictures and I want the Wind or maybe something similar for web, music, movie, & games.

When I say games I mean like SNES games via emulator, and thats why I need bluetooth like the Wind has so I can use my wiimote with it. The N10 tho could easily handle some real PC games like WoW, and other stuff so that adds a good appeal to it, but the trade off is battery life I am sure.

So guess I will sit tight for now and see what happens.

 

Update!

http://www.slashgear.com/asus-n10-launches-749-with-160gb-hybrid-graphics-draft-n-0415354.php

2 models, and it even has dual graphics! OMG this thing is awesome and I want it, but more than the $600 I heard before.

Get this for me and the Acer Aspire One for my Wife and we can both be happy.

 

Hmmm, I thought Chaz' news segment yesterday talked about Intel tightly controlling what HDDs could be put in netbooks with the Atom processor to keep the markets separate, and that would be maxed at 160. Interesting that the site claims (with no supporting evidence, beyond saying these are the "official" planned US specs from a "leaked" presentation?) that the other will have 250Gb.

This ain't no netbook , with the listed specs it's totally moved into ultraportable territory and almost directly competes with the U6 series (which is a bit strange as Asus usually keeps their market segments pretty separate); and I doubt the $749 price tag if it launches, with Asus' history (as pretty much every manufacturer) of announcing below actual retail price when it hits the streets. It has the price to sell in the ultraportable category, but it's getting high enough that I struggle to understand how much of a market in the netbook category there is for something that would cost that much compared to other offerings? OTOH, maybe Asus is just trying to define another market category (netbook hybrid integrated/dedicated graphics) with the N10 as they did with the original launch of the Eee, and be the first out of the gate with it.....

 

This baby's goona be the next-gen cooking machine.

 

when is this suppose to be released here in the states? i was going to buy an eee...but, if this comes out soon enough ill purchase this instead. any word on release date?

 

I also think that the distinction between netbook and ultraportable becomes rather blurred in this type of machine, with a dedicated GPU and other high-performance specs (for a notebook that size, I mean).

The danger is that they will try to make it both a netbook and an ultraportable, and obtain neither. But judging from the enthusiasm with which it is received around here, I think it'll sell just fine.

Oh well. For me, a usable notebook starts at 13.3 inches (since it has to be an all-purpose machine).

 

thats seriously cuteeeeeeee


but, really.. watch it... that a M50 next to it... and i must agree with EBE again, asus always try to break the bounds and also.. being soo small it mite just not be THE best functional laptop... unless you just want a laptop to put in your backpack and just wip it out anywhere

 

(I think ClearSkies was the one who said they might be trying to breaking a new bound / innovate with this type of machine)

 

I like it, a lot, but why no dual core Atom?

More slides: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=371966#p371966

 

Aaargh big ugly LCD bezels. Why, oh why, do they make an ugly computer with a 11-inch (or more) diagonal, but with a 10-inch screen and ugly bezels, when they could put an 11-inch screen in there? Blast that silly webcam, too...

 

It is a sweet looking machine, but it will be $850 for the top end model with gpu. Too high for a netbook. I like the netbook craze but I just wish they would start making them thinner.

 

I dislike this as well, but the reason is because keyboards are much cheaper than LCDs. Put a smaller bezel and larger LCD and the price shoots up, some already think the N10 is too costly.

Having a smaller screen with a larger bezel gives them room for a larger case and room for a larger keyboard.

 

Ok, no, to call this a netbook is just wrong. Its gonna retail at around $800 and maybe more, it is closer to ultraportable than netbook in terms of size, and its got dedicated graphics. Uhhh....yeah. God knows what this really is, but it sure as hell isn't a netbook.

The LG A1's successor? Seriously, I think thats closer than anything else at the moment.

 

Yeah, well probably it's just me, but I'd pay a couple of hundred more for a larger LCD as long as there is room for it. I find it unreasonable to limit such an important characteristic as the LCD, purely on reasons of cost. I feel the machine is somehow less than what it could be. I know that it makes sense economically though, they will sell more units like this. So it's just my opinion.

But anyway, as other people noticed, this is not going to be priced like a netbook anyway -- so they could have gone the extra length and put an 11" LCD in there...

 

I like to call it the 1000h uber edition. Honestly its the same thing, but with a gpu and a nicer casing.

I like netbooks, but I think I am waiting for the 12 inch super thin netbooks instead of the chubby 8-10 inch netbooks.

Don't tell me they can't put that hardware into a macbook air thin design. I know it would be costly, but it would be worth it.

 

It's up for $850 at J&R Electronics http://www.jr.com/asus/pe/ASU_N10JA2/ now I just gotta wait for the dual-core Atom and I'm sold.

 

Well, I've used an Atom processor already, it's quite impressive how a CPU that works on 1.8GHz with HT consumes just 2W and does no heat....and I bet the dual-core Atom would be the new hit in laptops soon.

 

This is something I learned with the W7S - the specs may look good, the price may be fine, but the heat and battery life are both killers. That is, it will heat up to an insane degree (my Asus put a scorch mark on my friend's coat, I kid you not) and battery life will lag far behind any competitor.

And at $850, it costs what, twice every other netbook on the market? You'd probably be better off with a $799 Asus F9D.

 

battery life is asus estimated to max out at 6.5 hours, and i dont think it will overheat due to the fact that you can decide whether to use the integrated graphics or the dedicated. it is a great netbook, but a crappy price. I would pay 1200 for it if it came with 13.3in screen and dual core atom.

 

Yeah I don't think heat will be a problem because my assumption is that it has a slightly better cooling system than any other netbook for the 9300gs (hell some netbooks don't even have a single fan) so when its on integrated graphics it would run cooler than any other. Also from what I have read around it seems that the EEE PC has the best battery life of any other netbook so if the trend continues it could last as long using the integrated card and maybe drop to 3.5 hrs with the dedicated card and a 6-cell battery (down from 5-6).

My thoughts on this computer is that I don't want to spend more than $1000 on something like the Air or Sony TZ series just for portability and I also don't want something more than 10" because if it comes down to lack of screen size or lack of power I would just break out my 17" Gateway or 15" Sony. This computer fits a niche with improved battery life, smaller size compared to my other laptops, and will still provide entertainment in a pinch, plus the price is reasonable.

Edit: Link to fudzilla article announcing Dual-Core Atom release date Q4, which means maybe by February of next year and maybe in this comp...
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9295&Itemid=1

 

Uhh, I've got a similar graphics card in an Asus laptop - thats got overheating issues. Shrink everything down to a 10", and you're gonna have even more problems.

 

Perhaps I should point out that the 9300 heats up much less than the older, 8400 version in the W7S. It's a world of difference (10degrees lower under idle and load). Therefore, whereas the W7S is a hot cookie , the W7Sg has good temps.

The Penryn also helps, of course.

But the W7 is a 13" computer, there's no telling what will happen in a 10" when that card is on.

 

One good thing about it is that the right shift key is in the correct place now. Why can't they do that to the 1000H?

 

Hmm, ok then. I didn't realize the 9300 was that much cooler than the 8400, but its somewhat concerning when the W7S gpu idles at around 75C.

But still, a 10" notebook has maybe half the volume of the W7 casing...so you've got that much less space for heat to dissipate. Unless they've crammed the whole **** thing with fans, which I doubt.

 

W7Sg GPU: 64 idle, just checked.

 

Hmmm, what happened to the cheap and happy Netbook? As nice as this looks, the line is being blurred. Each model, slowly but surely the price increases. We've come along way since the 701. For me, a Netbook is a cheap internet machine that I can use on my lap whilst watching TV, and throw in the bag for basic internet surfing out and about.

For $300 - 400 this is perfect, but $800? Starting to get up there, and who really needs a graphics card in one of these? Would you want to play games on these things?

 

Yeah, some of us had similar opinions a couple of pages ago. I guess we'll have to wait and see if this machine picks up.

 

If the price is right why not get more? but of course if its too good to be true it probably is and this will be expensive, and if thats the case I will stick with the MSI Wind or Acer Aspire One I think.

I do not know if anybody remembers the Asus thing a while back where they found some family photos in one of the images for the recovery disk or something like that.

But just went to msiwind.net to see if they had any new details on the N10 and look what was on the front page:

So I hope that doesn't hurt them and make there sales cost higher or anything, why cant programmers be smarter than this lol...

Keep work stuff on the work computers and home stuff on the home computers.

 

Update: Looks like you may not have to guess about specs or prices any longer. Gentech has pre-order up just found the link from msiwind.nets forums.

Looks like they have a $600 integrated only model. $700 gets you the GS and bluetooth, $800 gets you Vista and a bigger HDD.

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SRCH&Store_Code=GPS&search=N10

 

Jeeze I'm always late to the party finding out about these new subnotebooks!!

Almost pulled the trigger on the Wind.. but now I'm thinking I'll wait till the N10 comes out in stock and see if there's a price war...

Anyone hear of any new news on the N10??

 

No, nothing new. The price did drop on it some but the EEE 1000H is where its at it had a huge price drop and I have one now and love it.

 

This is hardly a netbook. More of a small mainstream laptop IMHO.

 

I cant wait to get one. I can put all my HD movies on it and take it with me anywhere. i can still play a few games on it. I like this thing.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/27/video-asus-n10-netbook-gets-hands-on-treatment-plays-cod4/

Video were the N10 is put to the test with COD4. Although a little impractical this is still interesting to me

Below is the link to the actual article but the web page took forever for me to load.
http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/20080926939/hands-on-with-the-asus-n10-gaming-netbook.html

Edit: Looks to me its running anywhere from 10-20 fps but its pure speculation considering he didn't have fraps on and the view was off-center. My guess is that if shadows were turned off and if he cut off 2x AA the game would run pretty smooth at native res (not sure if COD4 has physics settings like most games but I bet that would kill the Atom and should be disabled). Looks like it would hit the spot for some away from home WOW pvp for me if battery life is anywhere near what Asus quotes.

 

The line between netbooks and laptops is quickly vanishing

 

I think I'm more excited for the N20 which has a built in optical drive. 12" is a sweet spot for an ultraportable screen size and a optical drive makes it actually useful

 

oh wow... the n20 does look nice. I also read that it could have a Blu-ray combo optical

I've already pre-ordered an N10--but how soon is the N20 shipping? I wonder if it will be possible to downgrade to XP? Does it have an Nvidia card also?

 

Yeah, but the reviewer did not go into the advanced settings. At low/med it should be pretty smooth. I reviewed the Asus VX3 on another site and with its T9300 and 9300m G the performance in CoD4 was poor. The similar performance of the N10 is forgivable considering you can get five N10s for the price of one VX3.

Once again, NVIDIA proves that a good GPU more than makes up for a weak CPU.

If this were $500 it would be a no brainer.

 

Here is an updated video looks like this time he ran COD4 at all low settings, no AA, at 1024x640.

http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/20081001949/asus-n10/page-3.html