Asus N10 (Intel Atom N270 Processor 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM)

You'll pay a bit more for the privilege, but the Asus N10 is unique amongst netbooks for its discrete, switchable graphics and extra ports.

Almost every netbook we've seen to date has featured the same basic set-up: the Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and Windows XP. We're even seeing less difference in screen size, as most vendors have settled on a 9- or 10-inch screen. Really, the only differentiation between netbook configurations is that some use a solid-state drive while others come outfitted with a larger capacity spinning drive — usually a 160GB hard drive, and of course the all-important keyboard layout. Adding a new wrinkle to the netbook formula is the Asus N10, a 10-inch system from the company that pretty much single-handedly kicked off the netbook craze with its Eee PC.

This new model doesn't share the Eee PC brand common to other Asus netbooks, but it still features the usual suspects with respect to the CPU, RAM and OS. What makes the N10 different is the addition of an Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics card, which marks the first time we've seen discrete graphics offered on a netbook. Better yet, you can switch between the GeForce graphics and the integrated Intel graphics — similar to the new MacBook Pro — should you want to extend battery life.

Why would you possibly need a netbook with a graphics card? Honestly, most people probably don't need it. Given their tight dimensions and relatively meagre specs, netbooks are usually reserved for nothing more than basic tasks such as web surfing and emailing. But the ability to do some casual gaming makes the Asus N10 an almost irresistible travel companion if you're a PC game addict and can live with the limitations of a very low screen resolution and the low-power CPU. We managed to get marginally playable frame rates from a few current games by dialling down the in-game resolution and detail levels.

It's important to note there are a few configurations available in Australia of the N10 — our review sample (N10JC-HV006) costs AU$1,099 and comes with XP Home, 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a bag and mouse — however, $1,199 gets you the N10J-HV024C with Windows Vista Home Premium, 2GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive and no accessories. There's also the N10J-HV009G, but as far as we can see the only difference between that and the N10J-HV024C is a bag and a mouse, and for some reason costs AU$300 more. Harvey Norman also has an exclusive model for AU$999 if you decide to go the XP path, and don't mind forgoing the extra bag and mouse.

Unlike Asus' other high-end netbook, the Eee PC S101, whose price premium is put toward design and a slim case, the N10 has a more traditional, slightly chunky netbook chassis. The main body is plastic, with a few metal accents, but feels sturdy enough to stand up to regular travel.

For a netbook, the N10 has one of the better keyboards we've seen, with large flat keys that maximise the typing surface area. It's no match for the HP Mini 1000's excellent keyboard, but it's an improvement on the tiny keys found on most netbooks. It also helps that the slightly bigger 10-inch design gives you more room to work with than 9-inch netbooks. This keyboard also corrects a major problem we had with the Asus S101's keyboard: the right shift key, which had been awkwardly moved to the right of the up-arrow key, is now back in its proper place, saving us from endless typos.

The 10.2-inch widescreen LCD display offers a 1,024x600 native resolution, which is standard for netbooks. It's readable, but most documents and web pages will require some scrolling, and it's an awkward resolution for both games and video content.

The inclusion of HDMI and an ExpressCard slot are appreciated additions. You're lucky to get VGA-out on a netbook; the N10 is the first we've seen to offer HDMI. And the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is the only netbook we've seen with an ExpressCard slot. The biggest extra in the N10, however, is its Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS GPU. In normal operation, the GPU is turned on and an included software app lets you switch between different power-saving modes, which largely involve when the display and hard drives will power down. A physical switch on the left side of the system, however, actually turns the GeForce 9300 off; this is useful when you're away from an AC outlet and want to extend battery life. You'll need to reboot in order for the change to take effect, so this is something you can't do on the fly.

Even with the graphics turned on, the N10 performed similarly to other Atom-powered netbooks in our benchmark tests and in casual use. Attempting to watch hefty HD video content files still taxed the Atom CPU and resulted in choppy playback, but standard-definition video files played fine. The screen resolution was too low to properly run our Photoshop test, but in anecdotal use, we were able to work with images in Photoshop without completely slowing down the system.

Gaming performance is best viewed through the prism of realistic expectations. No one should expect much from an Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM, but we were still able to milk some acceptable frame rates out of Unreal Tournament III. To get 29 frames per second, we had to dial the resolution down to 800x600, which is close to the display's native resolution of 1,024x600, and we kept the detail level at medium. The result was a reasonable experience that jumped a few frames occasionally, but was certainly playable.

Asus' netbooks are known for their excellent battery life (and big six-cell batteries). Adding a dedicated GPU to the mix would certainly have an impact on that, and we got three hours 17 minutes from the system in our video playback battery test. That's still better than other netbooks such as the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and the HP Mini 1000. With the GPU turned off, the system impressed, lasting about 90 minutes longer in casual use.

Specifications

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