Asus N10 review

Asus's N10 has two graphics cards: an Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS and an Intel GMA 950.

A switch lets you choose between the two, although you have to reboot for the change to take effect. The 9300M managed only 5.5fps in Call of Duty 4 with anti-aliasing disabled, so it's not powerful enough for playing the latest 3D games, although older, less demanding titles may run. It's the only netbook here with Windows Vista Ultimate instead of XP Home, but the Aero interface felt sluggish.

Using the Nvidia graphics card, the battery lasted an impressive four hours and 24 minutes. This improved by an hour with the Intel chip enabled. The N10 is heavier than the other netbooks here at 1.6kg, but it's still light enough to carry around all day. It's also the only one with a HDMI output.

The 10.2in display has a low resolution of 1,024x600. It's bright and evenly lit with fairly wide viewing angles, but it's a shame Asus didn't fit a larger, higher-resolution display.

The 250GB hard disk is the largest of any netbook here, and there's twice as much RAM. The keyboard is also noticeably larger than the others with no undersized keys. It's not as comfortable to type on as the NC10's keyboard due to overly springy keys. We liked the touch pad's buttons, though, which give just the right amount of feedback. The pad is large and accurate, although it doesn't support multi-touch gestures like the Eee PC S101's.

Although the N10 doesn't look quite as sleek as the S101, it's still attractive thanks to its ivory-coloured appearance. A more practical aspect of its design is the ExpressCard/34 slot, which is useful for adding a 3G modem or more USB ports.

There's little point in buying Asus's N10 in the hope of playing the latest games, but it's great if you want long battery life and a large hard disk. Unless you must have the extra storage space and ExpressCard slot, Samsung's NC10 is cheaper and has a longer battery life.