Asus N10 review

Asus’s N10 has two graphics cards: an Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS and an Intel GMA 950.

A switch lets you choose between the two, although you have to reboot for the change to take effect. The Nvidia graphics are supposed to be better for games, but we managed a score of only 5.5fps in Call of Duty 4 with anti-aliasing disabled. However, you can play HD video with this graphics card, although the small display and lack of a Blu-ray drive limit the usefulness of this capability. Unfortunately, 9300M was no use with Vista Ultimate’s Aero interface, and this netbook felt sluggish to use.

Using the Nvidia graphics card, the N10’s battery lasted for an impressive four hours and 24 minutes. This improved by an hour with the Intel chip enabled.

The 10in display has a resolution of 1,024×600. It’s bright and evenly lit with fairly wide viewing angles, but it’s a shame Asus didn’t fit a larger, higher-resolution display.

The 250GB hard disk is the largest of any netbook here, and there’s 2GB of RAM. The keyboard is also noticeably larger than the others, with no undersized keys. It’s not as comfortable to type on as the S101’s keyboard due to its overly springy keys. We liked the touchpad’s buttons, though, which give just the right amount of feedback. The pad is large and accurate, but doesn’t support multi-touch gestures like the Eee PC S101’s.

Although the N10 doesn’t look quite as sleek as the S101, it’s still attractive thanks to its ivory-coloured case. A more practical aspect of its design is the ExpressCard/34 slot, which is useful for adding a 3G modem or more USB ports.

There’s little point in buying Asus’s N10 in the hope of playing the latest games, but it’s great if you want long battery life and a large hard disk. However, unless you must have the extra storage space and ExpressCard slot, Samsung’s N120 is cheaper, lighter, has a more responsive keyboard and longer battery life. It’s the better netbook.