Mini netbooks are made to address the essential needs of netizens out there. The hardware specifications are made just right for browsing websites, checking e-mails, editing documents, listening to music, and other light stuff that you can do with a netbook. But then we also have the tablets which do pretty much the same job as a minilaptop. Tablets are much more portable and they are also of the same price bracket as a netbook. So why settle for a laptop then?
If I was to be offered with a minilaptop, I’d like mine to be fast and pretty much capable of handling my demanding tasks. But that sounds like a laptop does it? Why don’t you consider a minilaptop that has the performance of a laptop computer? This is where thee AMD-powered ASUS Eee PC 1215B comes in. Let’s find out if the 1215B is cut out to fit my needs.
Design
The 1215B netbook’s overall aesthetics comes from the Eee PC Seashell Series that features a smooth and glossy surface which i find to be quite a finger print lover. The one we have for review has a matte metallic color on the outer lid and the palm rest that has a nice feel to it. Other colours of the 1215B could be black and red wherein you can choose either a matte or glossy surface.
The netbook itself has a 12.1″WXGA display screen which is larger than the usual 10″of mini netbooks and it’s thicker too at 1.5 in .. Albeit the size, it can be still light with a manageable weight of about 3lbs.
The 1215B’s rear is raised substantially for better typing comfort. At the left side is where you’ll find the ports for the adapter, Television, Hdmi and Usb port along with the netbook’s exhaust and Sdcard slot. At the right side is where you will discover the lock, LAN and 2 Usb (one is 3.0) ports as well as the mic and headphone jacks.
The key board feels nice with the keys having just the right amount of distance from each other. Kind of looked like a Macbook’s key board minus the backlit keys. The touchpad has a nice feel to it although I find the click button to be pretty stiff which is certainly a bit of a downer for me. Plug in an external mouse though and that will solve the problem.
The music controls are neatly assigned on the directional buttons that is certainly convenient for me when playing music or watching movies. You’ll also have dedicated keys for the Page Up, Page Dn, Home and End buttons. Nothing much on the left portion of the palm rest except for the standard LED indicators.
At the top of the Lcd we have the 0.3 Mp camera with a sliding cover for turning it on or off. Pretty handy if you wish to turn off the cam quickly instead of covering with your hands.
Performance
Now, the performance is what matters here since the 1215B minilaptop comes with an AMD dual core 1GHz APU, ATI Radeon High-definition graphics and 2Gb DDR3 Ram. APU stands for Accelerated Processing Unit which combines the power of a cpu and graphics processing unit in one nifty chip. The fusion of the Processor and GPU in one chip will improve data transfer rates between the two components all the while reducing the strain on consumption.
The AMD C50 processor score was a downer but check out the impressive score on the gaming graphics and memory. For comparison, you might also want to take a look at the Sony VAIO Y which was the first AMD E-350 netbook we reviewed.
I was tempted to install my favorite 3 dimensional games like Gears of War, Crysis, Call of Duty and the likes but it seems I forgot this was a netbook computer. Not because the hardware can’t take it but in the first place, there’s no Digital video disc reader on a netbook computer! BitTorrent anyone? I have seen some videos on Youtube where games like Crysis 2 were being played on the 1215B and they run smoothly with graphics settings set to minimum so this might be compelling for some gamers. (Ed. I think those are E-350 models)
For those looking for a full High definition experience, the 1215B can play full Hd 1080p movies for your entertainment needs. The speakers were loud enough with just the right amount of good sound quality.
Laptop Battery
I only had a bit of a time testing out the 1215B so I are not able to give an exact figure for the battery life. What I did during the test was play some flash games, browse the net, streamed some music, watched some clips and I could say that it ran for around 4 hours. Other reviews are pegging the battery life to be around the 5 and a half hr. It is not as good as most netbooks ASUS is known for but it’s decent for an AMD APU-powered laptop due to the powerful hardware running inside.
Verdict
I was pretty much impressed with the performance of this mini netbook. With a powerful hardware, the 1215B can take out relatively any heavy apps you can throw at it. As well as it’s portable so you doesn’t have to be burdened by the weight nor the size of it.
The only drawback is the glossy finish that just absorbs any smudges and finger prints which is often a daunting task to clean up. I had a hard time wiping out the glossy bezel on the Lcd prior to taking the pics so it may be a nuisance whenever you have the 1215B. The stiff clicker on the touchpad may be tolerable since it may take some time getting used to and I prefer using an external mouse rather than a touchpad anyway.
All in all, the Asus Eee PC 1215B is a feat to use and can pretty much handle heavy tasks without breaking a sweat. If you are seeking some good entertainment on a powerful Asus a42-u46 Battery and portable body albeit the smudgy aesthetics then I would definitely recommend the 1215B to you.
Asus Eee PC 1215B Specifications:
Dual-core 1.0GHz AMD Fusion C50 (1.66gigahertz E-350 coming soon)
Windows 7 Starter Operating system
12.1-inches glossy Lcd display (1366 x 768)
Integrated AMD Radeon Hi-def 6250
2Gigabyte DDRAM (upgradeable to 4Gb)
500Gb 5400revolutions per minute SATA Hard drive
Wifi 802.11 a/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0
0.3 mega pixel webcam
Ethernet; Hdmi; Headset; Kensington Lock; Microphone; 2x Usb 2.0, 1x Universal serial bus 3.0; VGA
2-in-1 card reader
3.4 pounds
