ASUS N10JC: the Netbook Goes Corporate
by Jarred Walton on December 24, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Day-to-Day Use
As you might expect given the specs, the N10JC isn't going to be an ultra fast laptop. Instead, it competes in the realm of "fast enough" devices where other features take precedence. We grew quite fond of the laptop during our time with it; it doesn't weigh a lot or take up much space, making for a great portable PC. In addition, battery life is extremely good, helped in no small part by the Atom CPU. Loading web pages did take noticeably longer than on faster systems, but it wasn't so bad that we couldn't live with the small compromise. Besides, the N10JC still felt about as fast as the U7500 laptops we've tested and with a much more palatable price tag. We've liked the portability of other options from ASUS, Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. but always felt like we were spending a lot of money just for the privilege of owning a small laptop -- one that still ended up feeling sluggish in certain tasks.
All day computing is definitely a viable option with the N10JC, as we'll see in the battery tests. You might not be able to use the laptop for eight hours straight, but with periodic breaks and use of the sleep mode, getting over eight hours is possible -- just remember to leave the 9300M disabled or you'll get significantly less use without plugging in. Another interesting item is that cranking up the LCD brightness didn't dramatically affect battery life; we normally test with the LCD set to 100 nits to equalize things, but cranking the brightness up to the maximum ~280 nits still provided nearly five hours of continuous use.
The LCD is one of the really great parts about the N10JC. Too often we end up with inexpensive laptops that have clearly inferior displays. This may not be the best laptop LCD we've ever tested, but it does provide a great range of brightness while still providing good contrast and color accuracy. Even viewing angles are a bit better than many of the other TN panels we've used. The LCD is manufactured by Chuanghwa Picture Tubes (CPT), though we couldn't confirm the actual model; the display uses LED backlighting so it appears to be the CLAA102NA0ACW. Whatever the panel, the LCD can get very bright and still not use a whole lot of power. The glossy surface is about the only area we might complain about, but we found that cranking up the brightness did help to eliminate most reflections. We just wish we could get a 1280x800 LCD in there instead, as even at 1024x600 there's not a lot of real estate in Windows.
One major complaint we had with the original Eee PC was the small keyboard. Users with dainty hands and fingers probably don't mind the size, but for many people the keys were simply too cramped. The N10JC (and the Eee PC 1000) have addressed that issue by moving to a larger chassis. This still isn't a full size keyboard, but the alphanumeric keys are the proper size -- or at least close enough that we couldn't tell the difference. I ran through some online typing tests on the N10JC and my regular desktop with a Microsoft Natural keyboard just to see how much of a difference -- if any -- there would be. My first few tests on the N10JC were noticeably slower, coming in at just over 50 WPM compared to my normal 65-70 WPM. By the time I had used the N10JC for 15-20 minutes, however, the gap had shrunk to only a 5% difference. I still felt more fatigue from typing compared to the MS Natural, since 10" keyboards certainly don't qualify as ergonomic, but unless you're doing a whole lot of typing it shouldn't be a problem.
Our overall subjective impression of the N10JC is that this is what we really wanted from the first Eee PC. Oh, there are certainly users out there that prefer the smaller 7" to 9" netbooks, but we like to have just a bit more size for the display and keyboard. All of the other features we might want are also present, including a decent webcam, a great LCD, and a sufficient number of expansion ports. The inclusion of a discrete GPU that can boost graphics performance up to the level where low to medium detail settings in most titles are viable is merely an added bonus... and it also allowed us to play back some HD content that proved too much for the Atom CPU alone. The only minor complaints we can come up are the glossy LCD (we'd prefer a matte finish) with its low native resolution, and we wish it would have come with 2GB of RAM, though Windows XP with 1GB certainly isn't the end of the world.
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DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Thanks for listening :)i checked the download page and the utility is called power4gears hybrid under utilities for n10jc. in the utility you go to performance and in lower left there is a turbo dropdown. change it and save. i used cpuz to verify clocks
supposedly there is a way to wire it to the power profile button but i gave the laptop to my girl before i could get it all done
DILLIGAFF - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
looks like vista only...my bad...ouchpattycake0147 - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
The text of the article on page makes mention of a Western Digital drive while the specs and picture show a Seagate drive. You might want to change the WD to Seagate.Khato - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Just wondering why the article is stating that the 945GME chipset is used, contrary to Asus' spec page which has it using the 945GSE? Sure it's not all that much of a difference, just 1 watt on the TDP and a smaller package.Still find it annoying how many manufacturers are unwilling to touch the US15W. I'm guessing the combination of it only supporting 1GB of memory (really don't understand why that design decision was made) along with it costing more is the reason...
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Fixed... I'm guessing the 1GB limitation is exactly why companies stay away from the US15W. Like you, I'm a little surprised that Intel didn't support 2GB with the chipset; I mean, how much of a change would that be? Still, the next generation Moorestown platform should hopefully correct the power requirements of the chipset.Khato - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
Well, the reason for limiting the configuration to 1GB was almost certainly to save a pin. Support for 2GB would require one more addressing pin, which in a low cost product is significant. It also may well have been somewhat a marketing decision - it's a constraint that can keep the platform from growing upwards too far performance wise.Hopefully Moorestown allows for 2GB of memory, but it may very well stay at 1GB. After all, that's still more than enough for the intended market, and I believe you'll be stuck with whatever Intel provides for the chipset.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
... but smaller companies might.Large corporate IT departments have their own "procurement" sub-groups which handle IT equipment purchasing. These groups generally buy in bulk, say 100-200 notebooks at a time from companies they have service contracts with like HP and Dell. They buy for considerably less than what consumers pay in the retail channel. For $700 they can buy a considerably better equipped notebook. These groups generally make purchases with a "one size fits all" attitude, therefor, netbooks are out as a software developer won't want to be doing all his work on a tiny netbook - the same goes for an accountant or an attorney.
Small companies like AnandTech for instance might buy these new netbooks because they don't have sophisticated infrastructures, large numbers of employees, huge service contracts and IT purchasing can be done on a more personal level - many times with the actual employee making the purchase. Equipment, models, brands, etc are not uniform in small companies.
iFX - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
And on top of all that... keep in mind that 99% of large companies operate in a Microsoft Windows domain environment and XP Home is not able to attach to a domain natively.Penti - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
Ergo my first comment on this article.There's a 800 dollar business version though not perfect because too low res for business and lack of 3G modem option, with VB, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB drive that I would have rather saw reviewed instead of the consumer version.
So not even the N10J-A2 fit the bill as a ultra-portable business notebook. But I would have rather seen it's week spots instead of the consumer version. As said not perfect for business but it at least is better then this and has a chance of being useful.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, December 24, 2008 - link
All of what I had to say about the N10JC-A1 applies to the N10J-A2, but with a change in RAM, HDD, and OS. As for large corporations, I don't think they get as much of a break on hardware as you assume. I worked for Target Corp. and they used Dell hardware, but I'm pretty sure they were spending *more* on the laptops/PCs because they wanted a 4-year onsite, next day service warranty. Of course, you're overlooking the fact that big corporations also just wipe the HDDs and install their volume license copy and standard build of Windows XP Pro -- I did that for three years at Target, at least.