ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-SL 12.1-Inch Silver Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life
Best Prices on ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-SL 12.1-Inch Silver Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life:
$470.00
Reviews for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-SL 12.1-Inch Silver Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life
Good buy
I really like the new 1201N I purchased, it had all the features I was personally looking for (affordable small netbook with an HDMI out) for the right price.
PROs- HDMI out, windows 7 32bit instead of starter, Graphics and Processor.
CONs- I have the black one, so it does get fingerprints, tends to run hot, have had it shut off on my a couple times in mid program.
Bottom line- I'd recommend this as a pretty good purchase, the reported shut down problems by others do make me nervous and I'd also advise to get silver if you can. But all in all, if you're looking for a smaller netbook with HDMI, I don't know of one better out there currently. — slippery
Great device, and easy to upgrade.
I bought this and since I know that I am not the typical user, I immediately doubled the RAM and HDD storage.
With 4GB RAM and 500GB 7200rpm HDD, this is an excellent little computer.
I have been a devoted Mac and Linux user for years... but this device almost allows me to tolerate Windows 7.
If there is anything I could possibly improve, it would be that it comes pre-installed with Ubuntu.
But, this has nothing to do with the hardware itself, which I have no complaints about.
Oh and I have seen some other reviews about not liking the touchpad... I really like it and think it not only works well, it looks really cool.
Feel free to ask me anything you are curious about.
Great product!
I've had this Asus laptop for a few weeks now and am (for the most part) very impressed with it. Yes, it would be nice to have an optical drive, but I know that would make it a larger machine. This little thing packs a lot of punch! Windows 7 works flawlessly on it. I also like the touchpad because you can zoom and page up/down with it.
I just have two complaints: 1) Battery life-Asus claims "up to" 5 hours of battery life. Their manual suggests letting the battery go thru some charge/discharge cycles to extend battery power. I'm lucky to get 4 hours of battery life, and that's on their most extreme "power saving" settings. 2)If you are like me and hate fingerprints and dust on your laptop, DO NOT get the black color! As soon as I took it out of the box, I could see dust particles attaching to the nice shiney black surface...yuck! I'm constantly wiping this thing down. I'm not sure why so many manufacturers make a majority of their laptops in gloss black.
Power supply failed after 2 days
Perfect balance portability price and quality... that said, Amazon customer service stinks. The power supply stopped working, and to save time i was not going to claim guarantee and just quickly buy a new one. Well surprise these laptops come with a model specific power supply that I can not find on the Amazon site. So for the first time in 6 years of being an excellent customer I ask for help with customer service and all the can do is give me automated replies and ignore me...
Anyway, I have a 12 inch brick and am desperately looking how to solve this problem.
Amazon, nice place to shop but forget any customer service.
Eric — Cabarete
A Netbook Worth Getting
I am very pleased with the ASUS Eee 1201N I purchased. It is compact enough to carry in a messenger bag yet, powerful enough to hand just about any application no requiring external media (CD/DVD). The screen resolution and color production is top notch. It has out performed more than I bargained it would.
I have never gotten 5 hours out of the battery life. I assume the battery life would actually last 5 hours if the netbook was sitting, doing nothing, in screensaver mode, etc. It does run hot. I read is the new NVidia ION chipset creating the hot temperatures.
A Brief Review for a Netbook that Gets the Job Done
I debated for about six months on what Netbook to pick up. My wife was using an Acer 8.9" 270n version with the 1024x600 res. and she loves it. I was sick of lugging around my 15.4" HP Laptop that is a powerhouse but a pain to take back and forth to work everyday. With an upcoming trip planned I had my excuse to buy a netbook and I found myself waiting and waiting for the next upgrade.
My Big Concerns were Screen Resolution and Battery Life. I have learned slowly over my last 8 laptops what I tend to prioritize in my use of them. At this stage in the game those are my big ones. I had narrowed my choices down to Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU17-BU 10.1-Inch Intel Atom Netbook Computer and the ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch.
Initially I was PRO 1005HA because i felt the physical size of 10.1" and under 3 Lbs and still getting the 10.5 hr battery life seem like a phenomenal mix, But it only had a 1024x600 resolution and 1 GB of RAM. If there is one thing I have learned it is to pay attention to resolution because you can change it... RAM is an easy upgrade, just factor it into your cost analysis. I liked the N280 Chip in the 1005HA and of course drooled over the 10.5 hrs of purported battery life.
When I found the 1201N I fell in love with the 1366x768 res. I like to multitask and the ability to have multiple windows open side by side or easily manipulated means a lot to me. I also work with spreadsheets and its nice to be able to see most of a spreadsheet when working on it... This option started looking better when I saw that it already came with 2GB of RAM and a large hard drive. Incorporating the modern 802.11N and Bluetooth seem like a no brainer must these days. The 5hr battery life was a bit of a turn off when comparing it to 1005HA. Then I weighed in the Dual Core Processor and thought that for the type of multitasking I like to do this seems far more advantageous. I was coming from a 2hr battery life on my big laptop which made the power cord a must to have around all of the time. So 5 hrs still seemed pretty good to me.
I Bought the 1201N
The plane trips were broken into 4-8 hr segments with 3-5 hour layovers (I flew to Malaysia) totaling 16-18hrs of travel and I found this was great I could watch a movie (using my bluetooth head set) and do some work, then sleep a little; Plug in on my layover and charge up for the next leg with no trouble. While at my conference I was one of few who didn't have to plug in their laptops which made it easier for me to show up and leave without any hassles. The netbook had no trouble running Adobe Acrobat Pro with about 10 windows open, several power points up and logged into facebook... I ran some simple photoshop work and excel work with no significant delays. Currently at work I can bring my netbook and don't have to lug anything around besides the netbook itself (I do leave the power adapter in the car just in case). I average 4.5hrs of battery on and off for a 10.5 hr day before suspending and keep it at full brightness all the time.
My Conclusion now that I have had it for a couple of months and took my big business trip with it: I Love It - a Must Buy.
Summary
Keyboard - My big hands love it!
Screen - Resolution and quality are superb
WiFi & Bluetooth - Work like they should :)
Video Playback - Came with some enhancement software but didn't work with many of my files- VLC Rules and Video is awesome
HDD - 250GB - game me plenty of room to rip some movies and have tons of space left :) 5 stars
RAM - 2GB work great and in this day and age i wouldn't use any less.
Touchpad - I was a little apprehensive at first but I found that I love it and miss it when I use my other laptop.
Processor/Computer Speed - I love it - I am Able to over task it but it performs better than I expect any Netbook to do.
Webcam - I don't really know, I skyped once but its not my thing and cant really judge- but it worked perfect for me.
Speakers - ONLY CON- this is the only thing I wish was better - They just don't get quite loud enough
Battery Life - 4.5hrs regularly - I use it on and off all day long with no trouble it does get a little short when doing straight video playback for several hours I don't plan on watching two 2hr movies but maybe two 1.5hr movies.
Multitasking - No problems for Business Class multitasking
Gaming - Put on some games I got for the wife like the Tycoon Sims and they played fine, didn't get to try anything serious yet.
Overall- 4.9 Stars with the only thing lacking in this Netbook being the speaker quality.
So far, so good
I just received my new laptop yesterday. So far, so good. The screen imagery is crystal clear, the keyboard is a perfect size, and the laptop itself is relatively light. My only complaint is that the screen is a little too small for taste. I find myself squinting a lot. I've tried adjusting the font settings, but now everything looks awkward (although I can read it). I'm 30 and have had lasik surgery, so I don't think it's my eyesight, but you never know. lol Either way, I'm still pretty satisfied with the laptop, especially with the price!
Near perfect netbook
I love this netbook. It is a tad bigger than most netbooks but in exchange you get a bigger screen. It has no problem multi-tasking at all. Play all video smoothly. I was worried that the glossy screen will bother me, but it was ok. Just simply tilt the screen a certain way and it will be less reflective. I wish there are more variety in the casing it comes with, perhaps blue or red, but black works fine with me. I heard many bad things about the cheap netbooks that come with the 1 gig ram, they constantly freeze up. The Asus 1201N is more pricey than the mini netbooks out there, but it's worth every penny. I highly recommend this netbook.
Pretty Good
After having this for 3 months, I have to say that I really like it. The display looks great, I've had no problems and it runs fast. I would have given this 5 stars if the battery lived up to my expectations.
The battery life is billed as 5 hours, but I've never got more than 4. Also, I can charge it to 100% and when I go to use it a day or two later the charge is down to say 86%.
What I found out is that if the battery is plugged into the netbook, even if you are not turning it on, the battery will slowly drain. I've charged it up and disconnected the battery, when I do this the netbook has 100% charge when I turn it on.
Great little laptop...or big netbook
I purchased this for my wife to use at home to check e-mail, connect to her office and watch Craig's List.
It's all as advertised. The very nearly full-size keyboard was the selling point. With the small ASUS netbook I own, typing is a two finger exercise due to the small keyboard. That's OK for the uses I had such as a repository for service manuals and instructions.
For my wife's purposes, the full-size keyboard has been quite suitable for her light typing. The battery life is at least as advertised, if not a bit more. The screen is very clear and bright.
I can't comment on heavy duty applications since we simply don't have need for them on this machine.
Carefully determine your needs and if they agree with this combination of price, size and features, you'll be as happy as we are with the purchase. — Pacific sailor
ION Over-hyped
As a netbook goes, this thing rocks and should be 5 stars. Lightening fast when plugged into a power outlet, and very versatile with both built-in wifi and an ethernet jack. You can't beat the 12.1" screen with its ability to keep the 1201N still very compact and lightweight. I'm also a technologist who runs Eclipse IDE as well as mobile emulators and can work almost anywhere.
Why 3 stars? There are many Atom 330/ION NetTop boxes being touted as capable HTPC's. Do NOT think that the Atom/ION chip combination, no matter how highly touted for HD playback, allows this netbook to double as an HTPC. During the Olympics, I streamed their online feeds on my professional workstation at work and was quite impressed with the quality of the video. Knowing I had the ION at home, I tried streaming their online feeds into my living room. While the 1201N's HDMI port did render pretty good video on my Pioneer Elite PRO-940HD, as soon as the stream bumped to 720P, all the 1201N did was stutter. At first I thought it was due to my wifi connection, so I turned off wifi and used my home's gigabit network - same result. And yes, I was plugged into the power outlet and had my performance settings turned up to max performance.
Also, battery life is more like 4 hours, and I can't find a second battery (to have a backup when travelling) for sale anywhere.
All-in-all a great capable netbook with a beautiful built-in display. I'll bump up the stars if someone who loves and worships the 1201N can help me tweak the performance for HTPC double-duty.
A bit disappointed
This is my first netbook. I researched my purchase for at least 50 hours before buying it. I finally settled on the 1201n after various Web sites rated it one of the best netbooks. More importantly, laptopmag rated it as one of the coolest netbooks (temperature-wise, not style-wise). The netbook IS pretty awesome, but I have quite a few negatives.
1) It gets HOT. Really hot. The main reason I got a netbook was to use it on my lap since my laptop was way too hot. The 1201n gets just as hot as my laptop.
2) The keyboard is very different than any keyboard I've ever used. I'm getting used to it, but I'm constantly mistyping.
3) The button is way too difficult to use. You really have to press hard to get the left/right button to engage, and after awhile you get pretty bad fatigue using the computer.
Overall, I like the netbook a lot, but it's certainly far less than I was hoping for. :(
Thanks Wavey Davey, and Asus 1201N !! OUTSTANDING !!
First off hats off to Wavey Davey for being so kind and giving me the information to make this great little 12" Freakin Rock!!! I'm proud to say this is the first time I have ever gone under the skin of any computer I have ever owned. 7200rpm HD / 4Gb corsair ram / Windows7 Ultimate Clean Boot OMG. hahahahahahahah. WooHoo. This dude's playing a Itunes Movie, Running 3 Kaspersky virus scans while defraging the C drive with no hesitations. hahahahahah!!!!! U-tube Take apart video very good and informative. Just install the desired drivers off the factory installation disk and by the by clean booting windows ultimate will leave you needing a coprocessor driver only available in the win vista software. check blogs and get it.
Great Machine and lots of tweaker info. Love It!
The best choice
This product is th best in the category (netbook 12'). There's a HDMI connector anda a Wireless 802.11b/g/n and 5 Hours of Battery Life (real). I recommend.
Almost Perfect Little Netbook
I bought this little guy after eying the netbooks for a while. We were going on a trip to Vegas and needed something small and light to travel with us.
This computer is really great. It has a very small form factor. In fact it was small enough to fit in the safe in the closet of our hotel! I bought the silver clamshell finish over the black gloss finish for fingerprint reasons (and the fact that the black was sold out!) It is really an attractive little unit and doesn't smudge! It boots up from off to usable desktop in about 30 or 45 seconds. And that takes into account going through the user log-in screen. I appreciate Win 7 being on it, and a full fledged version of it. This is very important, and IMO explains why the netbook costs more than some others out there.I don't have any problems with the finger pad like other reviews have noted. It is textured with small holes so you can `feel' if you're on the pad or not. I have big hands and the keyboard doesn't work too badly. No worse than any other netbook/laptop out there. The wireless connection always seems strong. The screen is bright and clear. However I haven't used the HDMI output yet, but it seems like a nice feature. Heat generation isn't too bad, considering how small the case is.
I really don't have much bad to say about it. If I had to pick, it'd be the battery life. I can get about the 5 hours ASUS bills it as, but I have a feeling other computers do better. This works for me, because most of my hard-core computering is in a hotel room or someplace with an AC jack. And the battery life is more than sufficient for the waits between flights. I wouldn't want to be trapped on a deserted island with only this battery but . . . The ASUS software that comes with it is a little funky. Most of it was easy to remove, except for the annoying ASUS bar at the top of the desktop.
All and all, I'd buy this computer again and again. One of the few things I've purchased that lived up to everything I'd heard/read about it.
Wait for 1201PN or Buy 1201N now?
Should I buy Asus EEE PC 1201N (Atom 330 + ION) instead of waiting for Asus EEE PC 1201PN (D510 + NM10 + ION2)?
The answer is YES! Don't wait! BUY EEE PC 1201N now!
nVidia anounces ION 2 for Intel D510 processor, so Asus also have next generated EEE PC 1201PN with this combincation.
I were planed to wait for it, but I recently changed my mind and purchased EEE PC 1201N due to below reasons.
Atom 330 + MPC790 (ION = Chipset + nVidia 9400m)
Atom D510 + NM10 + ION 2
So, you can see the different part that ION is chipset plus graphic card, but ION 2 is graphic. So, ION 2 has to combine with original chipset.
1. From power consumption.
Atom 330 (8W) + ION (Around 26W) = 34W
Atom D510 (13W) + NM10 (15W) + ION 2 = 28W + ION 2 (Possible less than 6W???)
2. From CPU performance (PassMark testing result)
Atom 330 = 632
Atom D510 = 656 (Good, but it's just A LITTLE!)
3. From memory controller
ION MPC790 = DDR3 1066 or DDR2 800 (Well, Asus picks up DDR2 800)
NM10 = DDR2 800
So, there is no difference.
4. From Graphic performance (PassMark + web info search)
ION 2 = 1.35 x ION, so 35% increasing. It doesn't have that much meaning for gaming because the orignal ION based on 107. ION 2 only jumps from 107 to 144.
ATI 5730 index is 666 (620% of ION performance)
I don't want the big monster such as Asus N61 series even it has powerful graphic. D510 plus ION doesn't provide that much exciting improvement for me. Asus 1201N is ok to play Dragon Age Origins as wild screen (1366x768) and Mass Effect 2 under (800x600) even mass fight with laggy due to processing power (D510 should be the same).
End out, I paid for $484 + $46 x 2 (2 x 2GB DDR2 800) for Amazon to get this netbook.
Cheer! — HolyPaladin
Big netbook or small laptop? You decide.
I have nothing but good things to say about this great machine... ok, mostly good things. It straddles the line between Netbook and Laptop, falling in at a 12" screen it is larger than most other netbooks and I have been getting between four and five hours of batterylife which is more than most laptops I have used. Yet the screen is smaller than laptops and the battery is only a little more than half the length of a good netbook.
So why should you choose or not choose the Asus 1201n? While it may not be "infinite cosmic power, itty bitty living space" it is amazingly powerful for such a portable device. The combination of dual core atom and the ION graphics mean this laptop can go anywhere and perform respectably. I have no issues with putting this in my backpack with my books and taking it to class to do any projects and presentations with it. I can run full HD video (downloaded since there is no DVD drive) during a business presentation. It doesn't stumble when multi-tasking between MS Word, Firefox and MS PowerPoint. Best of all, when I'm stuck in the airport waiting for my next flight, I can run World of Warcraft at native resolution at around 35 frames per second and knock out a few dailies or game with the kids while they are on the desktops.
Is it the best gaming notebook out there? Heck no. It sacrifices a lot to be this little.
Is it the best multimedia machine? No. The screen is too small and there is no CD/DVD drive.
Is it the most portable with the longest battery life? No. A pure netbook will serve that function better.
Is it the best balance between the three? For me, the answer is an unabashed YES! Small form factor, very good battery life, excellent performance, and a very reasonable price. — Jester
Fast and Awesome!!
I bought this to have a small computer on my desk at work to use for testing our products. This is perfect size and looks great! Everything in the discription of what it can do is true! I loaded a high end game that requires lots of processing,(EQ2),and it runs flawlessly! I was so suprised how good it ran! I love the multi touch pad that allows me to zoom in and out of web pages since my old eyes are starting to go. I cant praise this machine enough! — Dan W
great laptop
great laptop better with 4g of memory! the installed windows 7 is 32bit no option at start up for 64bit — mdq
Nice Gadget
Works very well and is extremely light to carry. Keyboard is pretty comfortable and screen resolution is excellent. I am using it for Internet and Microsoft Office. It's an excellent computer for traveling.
Works as advertised
All of the advertised features for this netbook worked as well or better than I was expecting. The HDMI out is simple and works well with my prefered media player VLC, it was simple as plug it in turn it on and presto the desktop is now on your television. Bluetooth worked fine, the screen although small is quality, and you will be surprised how light the machine feels when you carry it around. I haven't personally done any gaming on this machine but the person who recommended this item for me uses this machine to program games in Unity 3d and averages anywhere from 20-40 frames per second on most games depending on settings. I read a lot of reviews before deciding on this product and a lot of people who rated this machine low generally seemed dissatisfied with the touch pad,clicker, and poor battery life. Having never owned a laptop or netbook before in my experience the touch pad was just fine the bumps were barely noticeable at all. The touchpad can also take the place of the clicker, simply tap rather than drag your finger across the pad and double tap to open windows and applications. The battery life is the only thing I would rate low for this computer; indeed it does not average 5hours as advertised, the 5hour mark is the maximum amount granted you have the performance set on super low and the screen as unlit as possible. The performance of this netbook satisfied my needs Im not a high end pc gamer but for everything else this model works great. Overall the pro's far outweigh the con's and the Asus 1201n netbook is a machine I would recommend for the average Joe who wants to get some work done, watch movies, listen to music, and play most games at a decent frame-rate(crysis, burnout, WOW etc.).
Best laptop Asus has made yet!
Pros:
-FINALLY!! NO CD DRIVE IN MY LAPTOP!! - I don't know why people have this desire to have a CD drive INSIDE of their laptop.. all it does is increase the size and make the laptop less sturdy. Buy an external USB CD drive, having a CD drive in a laptop sucks.
-Great balance of power, price and size.
-Same screen resolution as it's bigger, bulkier siblings, but in a smaller package.
-Screen is crystal clear!
-Dual core Intel Atom!
-5 Hours of Battery Life (True to it's word)
-Looks as sleek as a sports car.
-My favorite touch-pad ever! Not a big fan of the one big button instead of two buttons though.. But it's not bad.
-Keyboard is perfect size. Great keyboard, no complaints.
-Dedicated button to turn off touch pad. YAY!! :D
-Gaming graphics are O-K, plays a bunch of my old time favorite games like FarCry (On high settings, just fine), Red Faction, AOE2, TMNations, Portal, etc..
Cons:
-Glossy Screen.. Sometimes I see myself better than what's on the screen. :/ I don't know why they didn't put anti-reflective coating on it.
-BIOS upgrades are IMPOSSIBLE!! >:(
-Only 32 Bit Windows... Seriously ASUS??
-Only 10/100 Lan (Wireless is faster than wired internet on this computer!!) Kind of dumb...
-BIOS is a little short on features. :/
-Hard Drive makes annoying click sound once in a while.. A normal person wouldn't notice though. I notice it because I'm special. :)
OK nothing special
I was convinced, based on tons of other reviews, that this was the hottest netbook out there. Maybe it's because I'm comparing it to my MacBook Pro, but little things like:
-) it takes 2 full minutes on wake-up to access the internet. maybe that's because if the trend micro antivirus software; maybe it's a sub-standard NIC.
-) I configured the software to sleep when I close the lid, but it doesn't. it gets halfway through a shutdown sequence so when you open it you see the " do you want to quit?" dialog. annoying.
-) I uninstalled most of the bloatware, but for some reason the boingo hotspot software will NOT allow itself to be uninstalled. it begins the un-install, then goes right into setup for that program. this is my computer, and I will decide what's on there! very annoying.
-) accessing websites like craigs list seems to take forever
I got this to run specific windows apps and it does that OK, and I'm glad I got the silver one and not the black one because it doesn't show fingerprints.
if anyone else has experienced these issues, I'd welcome comments.
Effecient everyday use computer.
I've had a solid 5+ months using this netbook, and I'm not disappointed. Lets get straight to the cons first.
Cons:
1. Everything is glossy except the bottom.
2. USB ports are annoying to plug in when not looking. Even when plugging it in the correct side it gets caught up on the upper lip, so you have to look at the port to plug in. Just annoying, no major problem.
3. Touch pad takes a bit to get use to. Sweaty fingers don't scroll well on it.
4. Battery life could be better. It states 5 hours of juice, but it's really 2 1/2 hours and under in standard use.
5. Not a true gaming pc.
Pros:
1. 12 inch monitor, bright and clear.
2. Larger keyboard from previous eee pcs.
3. HDMI port is great when you want to watch movies with your HDMI supported TV in the living room.
4. Light weight
5. beautiful design.
Overall this computer is everything you need for everyday use, such as Internet, Music, and Video. This is my secondary computer to my main gaming PC. So when I don't need the power this 1201n does the job.
Amazing for a netbook
I often forget that the ASUS 1201N is a netbook, and not a full-blown laptop. I can run quite a few resource-heavy applications at the same time, and the computer is still quite responsive. I currently have Firefox with 26 tabs open, 4 Excel files, 3 Word files that include graphics (about ~1.5mb each), Windows Media Player playing MP3s, SPSS statistical analysis software, VPN software connected over wifi, anti-virus software, and temperature monitoring software all running simultaneously, and the 1201N doesn't miss a beat. I have also played HD video on it with no problems. I would definitely recommend this as a portable, on-the-go computer for those who need to take their computer with them, although I would probably not replace my main computer at home with the 1201N, just because of the small size.
As far as netbooks go, this is the best I have seen (I also own 2 other netbooks of different brands). The 5 hours of battery life that is stated in the product description is accurate under moderate use (standard web browsing over wifi), but even under heavier use, I still get about 4 hours.
The short of it is that this is a wonderful product, and I have not been able to thrown anything at it that it couldn't handle.
Nice computer
I have had this computer a few weeks now and it is a very nice computer. This is my second Asus laptop/netbook. Was so happy with the first I bought another. I was worried that 2G of ram was not going to be enough to operate Windows 7 home edition but it works satisfactory for me. I only use this machine for internet use and I don't have any programs installed as yet. Would definitely buy another one in the future. — 737mech
ASUS Eee PC 1201-N Silver 12.1 inch Eee PC Seashell
I'm not an expert but I know what I like and I like the Asus 1201N-PU17-SL 12.1-Inch Silver Netbook. I took my time and read through the opinions and reviews posted for the other netbooks and I finally decided on the ASUS 1201N PU17-SL 12.1 inch silver netbook. I liked the fact it comes equipped with an Intel Atom 64-Bit N-330 Dual Core CPU, Windows 7 and the NVIDIA ION. I stayed with the 32-bit but it does come with the ability to use the 64-bit operating system. I chose silver because of the finger print issues brought up by other reviewers it pretty much stays finger print free and looks great. After reading Wavey Davey's "Asus 1201N Is A MultiMedia Powerhouse! How to Make It ROCK! January 24, 2010" review here at Amazon I decided to upgrade the hard drive myself. I followed a search to "Asus 1201 Take Apart" and found the videos. After watching the video twice I took my time (it helps not to be in a hurry)a deep breath and proceeded to swap the hard drive with a 7200RPM 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200RPM SATA II Ultra ATA/133-3GB?sec 16MB Cache with free fall sensor. I went out and purchased a HDD duplicator for $49.95 and after removing the factory installed hard drive I cloned the factory hard drive over to the new hard drive. Installed the new hard drive and carefully reassembled the netbook turned to on and it worked with no problems. I had the company who maintains my office server and work stations set up my remote log in for my office communications and I did purchase Paragon's Partition Manager Personal latest edition to merge the partitions. I'm a risk taker and I enjoy taking things apart I find it relaxing and helps take my mind off of my day job (might be something left over from childhood also) it just so happens this time it worked. Taking apart your Netbook does void your warranty so I was prepared to, if the worst happened and I had damaged it beyond repair, to purchase another Asus. Gladly that didn't happen! I also purchased a Microsoft upgrade license and upgraded the operating system to Windows 7 Pro. I needed Windows 7 Professional as part of my office network. I didn't upgrade the RAM and I didn't do all the changes I read about in Davey's review either but the items I did do made an improvement. I'm a General Contractor that uses the netbook to communicate with my office server and Microsoft Office while out in the field I wanted something small, light and with enough power to take care of my needs and I can honestly say the Asus 1201N was the right choice. The other advise was took was to purchase a cooling pad this little baby generates some heat and I want keep it around for a while the cooling pad seem to do a good job. I purchased the Logitech N-100 Cooling Pad to use with the Asus in the field and the Logitech N700 Speaker Lapdesk cooling pad at home. I don't worry to much about the batteries because I have a mobile office desk I plug into my truck that I can plug the Asus into most of the time. So I can't really comment on the battery life. I use a USB 598 Sprint Sierra Wireless 3G device to communicate with my office server. I would recommend the Asus 1201N for work or leisure. — Ryan
Exactly what I wanted
I am extremely happy with the purchase of this laptop. I have had it a few weeks and have really enjoyed using it.
I was looking for something small like a netbook, but with enough power to play like a notebook. This one definitely fits the bill. I bought it to lounge around the house, surfing the web while watching TV, playing on-line poker, or logging into work to get a few things done. It's ultra portable, so I don't taking it outside on the back porch, or down to the pool.
Windows 7 Home Premium looks great and is very responsive. I haven't had an app that couldn't run on this thing. Mind you, I am not trying to run games as is not what I bought it for. That said, I ran an hdmi cable across the room and hooked this up to my big screen. I was able to watch a movie in full 1080p with Dolby DTS, that I streamed from another PC in the house. This little guy never skipped a beat.
If I had any gripe about this netbook, it would be the battery life. Having read the reviews before making the purchase, I knew what to expect; and it seems like I will get about 3 hours. So if you can get past that and you are looking for probably the most powerful netbook on the market, this is it.
