Asus N10 notebook-not-netbook

Best of both worlds - or the worst?

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

10th November 2008 13:02 GMT

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Asus has anticipated the folk who don't want Vista anyway - there's a second recovery DVD in the box that includes a copy of Windows XP. The installer tucks Vista away into a hidden partition, so it's available for re-installation at a future date.

There's even Linux on this thing, courtesy of SlashTop's ExpressGate, into which you can quickly boot from a powered-off state to surf the web, play online games, Skype, IM, play music and look at your photos - all after an 11s start-up time. It's not as quick as Asus makes out, but it takes a fraction of the time load and use that Vista does.

Speaking of bundles, the N10 also comes with a slimline, metal-clad multi-format DVD burner in the box. It's a little clunky, but since it's free, we can't complain. Asus has shipped it with a dual power and data cable that terminates in two USB connectors.

PCMark 05 Results
Notebook

Longer bars are better

PCMark05's graphics test won't run on a 1024 x 768 screen, so we focused on the CPU, Memory and HDD tests. As you can see, up against a Core 2 Duo based machine like Dell's Latitude E6400, the N10 is completely outclassed.

PCMark 05 Results
Netbook