ASUS Eee PC 1215N - Atom D525 / 1.8 GHz - RAM 2 GB - HDD 250 GB - NVIDIA Next Generation ION - WLAN : 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 HS - Windows 7 Home Premium - 12.1" Widescreen LED backlight TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ) - camera - silver with 500 GB ASUS WebStorage

I've recently bought one of these through Amazon and is IMPRESSED!

I got it to replace an Eee 901, and it DEFINITELY does that. The D525 processor means that the machine has the power to handle everything you'd normally throw at it, and the graphics chip makes it able to handle most non-fps games (and probably a lot of fps games at low graphics detail).

I've installed StarCraft II on it (which is completely new) and it is perfectly playable. Even EVE Online runs at 4-5 fps.

It runs PhotoShop Elements with no problem. OpenOffice runs fine... NOTHING I've tried throwing at it runs worse than you'd expect, and most runs much, MUCH better!

The only things I didn't like were peripheral. Asus has in their infinite wisdom seen fit to load a lot of crapware on the machine which doesn't do any good, and which is a hassle to remove. They've also decided to mar the good looks of the machine by no less than 5 stickers on the hand rest (some of them which couldn't be removed without solvent).
There is also a tiny bit more flex in the keyboard than there should be, but it is not something you notice while typing.

So now Amazon had the 1215n in stock (albe it the Silver one) I finnaly was able to get my hands on one, and so a short review to help anyone with questions:

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Look and Feel:
Upon opening the box for the 1215n, I was greeted with a very nice looking silver metal lid with the kind of finish that could mask a stratch or two with ease. The lid on top does have a little flex to it, but unless you plan on using one to prob up a table its not a problem.

Going inside you immediatly notice that its all a very glossy black finish which works well unless you work inside the sun, then not so. You get a some shine back from bright lights or the sun from the black screen surround, but nothing that needs sun glasses. The bottom of the netbook is a textured black finish that is supported by 4 little feet that help keep it 1/4 of an inch off tables. The fan is on the side, which is nice to see, so it wont burn a hole in your leg through prolonged useage.

Keyboard and Mouse:
Seen as this is the most used part of any computor, I felt compelled to make a comment or two about it.

The mouse trackpad is in the same finish as the top of the netbook which allows your fingers to glide across with little effort. The clicker however is a different story. Unfortunatly, ASUS saw fit to work in a single bar clicker that was quite stiff to use, not ever so. If you were to use the netbook for any length of time over an hour I would have to recomend a seperate mouse to use.

Keyboard wise, its very well equiped with a full size chiclet styled board. Its very fast to type on and makes allot less noise than conventional keyboards. The only problem, and thankfully only cosmetic, is that there is the give in the right hand side of the board. This doesnt effect typing what so ever and isn't noticable unless you look out for it. Each key has plenty of spacing and its a boon to see that there are full size backspace and arrow keys.

Sreen:
Now, at 720 HD ready resolution, this screen is a beauty. Colours are sharp and look very nice when watching a video or playing a game (more on that below). Viewing angles are not 180 being the type of screen it is, but if you do plan to have 20 people around you to watch something just connect it to a bigger TV via the HDMI.

Now the screen is glossy, as stated above, so don't be expecting to use this in mexico, outdoors, at midday and get away with it. Sit in the shade, have a beer, and use it there.

Performance:
Lets be honest, the main reason you want/have splashed out an extra £100 over other netbooks is for the duel Core D252 and its friend the ION 2 video card.

And I am pleased to report that the extra money is well, well worth it. Have played Starcraft 2 on my 1215n and it was good to go on a 1vs1 Multiplayer on Medium GFX hitting definatly playable FPS. Have not tried a 2vs2, but I can assume that it would be able to eat that too, although late game it might take a hit.

Any game from 2008 backwards will almost always be able to be played High Gfx and I will add to this review when I play some more games on it.

Boot time to get into windows is very fast for a netbook, and I can get onto google within a minute easily. There is also a ASUS fastboot mode, that seems to go into a Linux form which takes around 20 seconds. Not used it myself, but might be usful in a pickle if you need a quick google search.

I also have installed Flash Cs5 animation and this works brilliantly with the ION 2.

In Short:
A brilliant netbook that can handle all notebook related tasks, a few minor niggles, but well worth the buy.

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Now, here is just a few Recomended items of which to get with your netbook-

Bag or Case

- Belkin Messenger Bag 12.1 Inch
[...]
Comes in 2 nice colours, Black and red for me or Brown and light blue for the ladies. Plenty of room, but not heavy or bulky. Enough room for 1215n, adaptor (if needed!), an A5 Jotter and a few pens.

Mouse

- Roccat Pyra
[...]
Now... Very expensive for a netbook mouse, however if you are looking for a decent desktop mouse to use, get this! Has no lag, allot of customisable clicks and looks the bollocks. Would look very nice next to a 1215n Black. Also, can be used for longer than the battery and it doesnt ache at all.

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Anyway, hope this helped anyone with questions about the netbook at all.

Grady

I've owned the asus 1215n for about 3months now and love it.
I generally play older games (HL2, Oblivion, etc) and they work fine. The battery life is about 5hours when using the internet, watching movies etc.

However, if you use linux, then you only get about 2/3hours battery life, due to the optimus technology not being supported. This means that the gpu unit it constantly on (making the unit quite hot) reducing the battery life. Also, the gpu is not recognised in linux, so although it is on, it does nothing! Fortunately the built in intel graphics are able to most task perfectly fine, I've been able to watch movies (.mkv and .avi) fine, though haven't tried a hd quality movie in linux.

Everything else about the netbook is great, the 12.1" screen is bigger than most netbooks and is a real advantage. The unit is still light and small enough to be carries easily. Don't buy the belkin 12.1" neoprene laptop case as it is far too big and useless (I checked the laptop size specs and the cases spec and it should have been right, but is still massive). The wireless and bluetooth work great, with a decent range and strengh. The speakers aren't too great, but headphones remove that problem. The multi-touch touchpad is great as well, never used one before, but love it now!
As noted on other reviews, the keypad is quite spongey and would be a nuisance if writing a lot, but a netbook is not for writing thousand word essays!

So in conclusion a great netbook that I would recommend.