I've now had my Asus N10J for 4 days so I thought I would give you all a quick first impressions review of the laptop. If you don't know anything about this laptop, please quickly read the post I wrote last week about it, which details it's specs etc.



Before I purchased the N10 I, like always, checked a lot of reviews. One of the things I remembered was that Asus priced it higher and excluded it from the Eee brand because they didn't feel it was a netbook, they wanted people to think of it as just a regular laptop with a smaller screen. Most people didn't agree with them, certainly when they released the laptop with the same chipset and processor as every other laptop out today.

However, I actually agree with them. I had the first major netbook to be released, the Asus Eee 701. That had a plastic cover and felt really cheap. I later upgraded to the HP 2133, which had a really sturdy and solid build.

The Asus 10J feels as sturdy as the 2133 but it's quite a big bigger, more so than the 1.3" increase in screen size would suggest. Because of this it feels more like a normal laptop. Infact, its about the same size as my old Sony VGN TN2 11" laptop.

When I loaded the laptop for the first time I was surprised at how quick it was. It was preinstalled with Vista and everything loaded much much quicker than my previous netbook. I have not upgraded my netbook in a year so I'm not sure how it compares to the latest netbooks eg. the samsung nc10 or asus 1000HE. However, I was really impressed nonetheless.

Though I decided to downgrade to XP so that everything loads a little quicker. Apaprently battery life is better with vista but I can live with that. Downgrading was easy however I found that many of the drivers didn't work from the CD so I had to download them from the asus website, no big deal.

The linux installation which is in the laptop is great and boots up in 6 seconds but to be honest, XP is really quick loading anyway so I've hardly used it.

The laptop didn't come with a bag or mouse, which it did in some countries. However, it did come with a portable USB DVD writer, so I am very happy. Not only does it make downgrading and installing new software a breeze, it also lets me burn CDs and DVDs when out and about.

Unfortunately, it isn't the loudest machine, much quieter than my 2133. It's useable but if you are watching it in bed or on a plane I would recommend using earphones.

Video is really great though. It slows down a little with full HD but that is to be expected. YouTube and standard divx movies are fine, which is all I'm really looking for.

Gaming is ok for a machine of this size and spec. I tried counter strike on it and it works however it's a little jerky, enough to stop me playing it online. I read that by overclocking it to 2Ghz it runs much better but the most I could overclock it to was 1.8Ghz before it started to freeze. Though I think I could get it higher if I replaced the RAM with a faster spec.

The 250gb hard drive is great, i wasn't looking for a lot of storage but it will save me upgrading in the near future. Connectivity is fantastic with 3 USB, HDMI, VGA, 8 in 1 card reader and draft N wireless. It's getting between 4 and 5 hours of battery too.

All in all I am incredibly happy with it. If you are just looking for a basic machine for browsing the web then I would recommend getting a cheaper laptop, perhaps the Asus 1000HE which boasts 9 hours of battery life. If you are looking for something a little better I would really encourage you all to check the Asus N10J out

If you have any questions about the laptop please let me know and I will be happy to answer them.

Kevin