The 10.1-inch Asus 1015PN is one of the most powerful netbooks on the market. The netbook features a dual-core Atom N550 processor and an ION 2 GPU, which means this netbook packs a serious punch. The netbook can easily handle HD and full-HD video, but viewing it on a WSVGA screen is practically useless. This is because you wouldn’t really be able to tell the difference.
1015PN comes with a 6-cell (56Whr) battery, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, 250GB hard drive, and 1GB DDR3 RAM. It also has a 0.3 megapixel webcam. The netbook looks similar to other Asus seashell netbooks, but it comes with a matte screen, something not usually found on netbooks these days. Plus, you’ll find an HDMI port on the netbook that lets you send high-definition video, audio, and graphics to an external display.
It features a chiclet keyboard and has a small right shift key that makes room for an additional Fn key and arrow keys. This Asus netbook runs Windows 7 Starter which does not allow you to use Nvidia’s Optimus technology. This means that to switch between Intel graphics and the ION GPU, you will need to restart the netbook.
Asus 1015PN scored 1500 points in 3DMark06 test, which is almost double than single core Atom netbooks. It also managed to get 3.1 and 3.7 on WEI and Graphics respectively. The battery lasted around 5.5 hours with typical web browsing. But, if you plan to use it to watch HD videos, don’t expect it to last more than 4 hours.
Conclusion: If you’re looking for performance in a 10.1-inch netbook form factor, this is the one to get.