I was in search of an upgrade from the Samsung netbook I was using, since the latter was frustratingly slow and had a very basic Windows operating system.Not wanting a full size laptop with a 15 inch screen (I like to carry such things in a rucksack when on the hoof) I looked at a range of 12 inch netbooks. My choice of Asus was primarily dictated by the fact that my desktop PC has an Asus motherboard and I have been very impressed by this, so assumed the netbook version was the thing to go for. Moreover, I had neither the time nor inclination to test other makers' products in shops and suchlike. Further, the Windows OS in this machine is 64 bit which, I am informed, addresses the full amount of memory available.
I read that the 1215N had a "clackerty keyboard" but this is not apparent, or, if so, something which does not trouble me in the least. I like the machine, which is much faster than my previous Samsung,and have no real critisisms to make. The only thing I would stress - and this possibly applies to many such machines - is that it is imperative that you make a backup of the disk on an external drive as soon as possible. The Windows updates which come pouring in on start-up took an excessive time to install and due to an error I made, I had to to this twice, which involved invoking the recovery system which resides on another partition on the drive. This increased the angst of getting up and running to my satisfaction. This ensures that, if a recovery is necessary for some reason in the future, you can avoid putting all the unneeded bells and whistles back - which come pre-loaded in the machine - and having to go through the process of uninstalling these twice. I refer to things such as unwanted anti-virus programmes, numerous games and the like. The 1215N is, of course like many laptops I suppose,slower than my powerful desktop equuipment but this is to be expected so I have no complaints. As to battery life, this is better than previously experienced (I have not done a timed test of this) but it is still advisable to run with the power cable attached if you are doing intensive processing other than simply browsing and emails.