Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 Execllent and versatile February 25, 2010
Brian Straight
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
With an impressive and solid build, this little netbook might just be the perfect balance between utility and cost. The N450 processor gives some decent "umph" to this machine and the intel graphics are suitable for most tasks, assuming you're not going to try to play 3D games. Battery life for the 6-cell battery is impressive; in use and on auto-high, it has delivered more than 9 hours of usage, and almost 11 on economy mode.
The keyboard is solid and has a pleasant feel. It's not quite full-size, but it is easy to adjust to. The wireless b/g/n adapter works perfectly and matches the range of my large laptop. 3 usb ports, a vga out, an ethernet connection, and a built-in card reader add to the versatility of this unit. Windows 7 is peppy in this platform and Firefox performs very well. Even with 1 gig of memory, I use only between 45% and 75% with most applications, much better than Vista. I've opened 30 windows on this box without windows complaining, so I have not yet found the 2G upgrade necessary. 250G of disk storage rounds out the package nicely.
The display is beautiful and high-contrast; colors really stand out. As with all laptops, the angle of the LCD is important to getting the best image. My one complaint about this netbook is that I wished the display would tilt back a little more (45 degrees is the limit). My low desk demands a little more tilt, but other users will not have this problem--certainly not if the computer is sitting on your lap.
As to video, I have found that it streams netflix very well, with no jerkiness on high and super settings. High movement flash is a little more of a problem and I have found framerates of 20 FPS to be normal for Hulu. The next flash upgrade should directly support the graphics card in this computer, so the problem will eventually be solved. There are a number of reviewers on other sites who have said this machine will not support HD video. If you follow some of the codec tweaks posted online, you can indeed play HD on this unit. After a few such (very small and easy) tweaks, I was able to get both 720p and 1080p mkv and h264 video playing very smoothly.
In conclusion, if you're looking for a good balance of performance, versatility, battery life, and price, you could do a lot worse than this fine little netbook.
Red Asus Netbook March 28, 2010
Amit N. Sanghvi (Indiana USA)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have used the netbook during the last month. I bought this for a few reasons:
1. My laptop/desktop contain personal information. I plan to use this with limited personal information.
2. If I lose this or damage it during travel, I will be out less than $350.
3. This is the perfect travel machine. It fits in the accessory pouch of my laptop travel bag. I was able to use the space where my laptop used to fit for books, and the rest of my travel stuff.
Other BIG pluses are:
Long battery life. The battery seems to charge quickly. The power input works 110-240 Volt.
The atom 450 processor seems quicker than a celeron processor.
It is doing fine with the 1GB memory.
The SD card slot did fine downloading thousands of pictures during a recent safari trip.
The touchpad is a little getting used to, but if you learn it well the zoom and pan features are nice.
Overall, I am very satisfied for a product <$350.
 A Terrific Travel Computer With a Battery Drain Problem February 18, 2010
Bob R. (Northern Virginia)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I am most impressed at the power and quality construction for the price. And, it works perfectly, as advertised - out of the box. At least I thought so, see appended note.
It comes with I.E. Explorer vers 8 browser (thanks to Windows 7). IE8 is top heavy, slow, and awkward to use. But, just when I chose to buy my Asus, Google came out with their Chrome browser which is perfect for a little portable like this one. Note: Chrome is still beta and lacks features like an ad-blocker but it is far faster than I.E. explorer. And you can't use it to update your system files - use I.E. for those.
The only silly thing that ASUS did was to put the power button on the upper right and then put something called an "express gate" power button on the upper left of the keyboard. "Express Gate" boots the computer up quickly in "stupid" mode (fuzzy wuzzy graphics etc.) It then presents some "kid stuff" type software for games and so forth, together with a limited net browser called "splash top" all of which is nonsense. The saving feature is that when you turn the computer on using the regular power switch, then the express gate switch can be used to toggle operational power saving modes. Almost almost all computers come pre-loaded with "kid" software for the teeny-bopper set which can easily be deleted - but they shouldn't put that stuff on a hardware switch, especially where the power switch is normally found.
Back to the plus side: The keyboard is better than the competition with slightly elevated key buttons. And this machine uses the N450 processor for better speed and power conservation. In the latter dept., the computer seems to live up to its claims of much longer battery operation (they claim 8-10 hours). It uses a small completely enclosed six cell battery. It also comes with asus software (on the progs. menu) which lets you update the ROM BIOS software kind of like you would update the firmware in routers. The manual says it is important do this update. So I did - nothing went up in smoke. I have never seen this feature on a computer of any kind. Maybe it did something - I don't know.
If you travel, almost all of the laptop chargers (including the asus) will run on 100-240 volts - something they don't advertise but it's in real fine print on the power module. This probably explains the humongous power cords they use (for the 240 volt crowd).
Lastly, get yourself a mouse - the "touch pads" on portable computers are good for emergencies - but thats about all in my opinion.
UPDATE NOTE: After using this machine for awhile, I noticed that the battery loses about 20% of its power per week with the computer turned off. A google search shows that ASUS netbooks are notorious for this problem, and to date I have not found any real, viable solution - apparently ASUS is next to impossible to communicate with. Buy this computer at your risk if battery shelf life is important. P.S. I pulled the battery and checked it - works fine - the problem is a huge parasitic drain in the computer
 Would love it if the charger worked so I had power August 2, 2010
K. McDermott
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love the netbook, but two months into it, the charger broke. Not the computer, the stupid charger. Now the only way to fix it, is to pay to return both the computer and the charger. ASUS customer service is terrible. It's a 20$ charger which clearly has a bad reputation based on my online research. It will cost me more to ship back than to buy a new charger. It's just lame.
It is what it claims, how long? Beats me. March 6, 2010
SLP (Elk Grove, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This little machine is everything it's claimed to be. It has an excellent keyboard, great touch pad and is fast. I upgraded the memory (it's a swap, not an add-on: only one slot, not two as the guy who sold it to me claimed). It appears well-built and solid. Windows7 runs great on it, now using about 30% of memory (with antivirus running) and allows it to do everything I expected it to do and very well: actually, better than expected. It boots fast and that's with the anti-virus (Avira) added. Will it last? I don't know and won't until it breaks. I've had it only a few days. I called customer service to check on a memory issue. My call was answered quickly by a person who was polite, helpful, and most importantly, correct. As of this writing, I can find no fault with it. Having exceeded my expectations, five stars -- until, and if it breaks, at which time I will update this and mercilessly condemn it.
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