ASUS launches a sneak attack

ASUS was verybusy at the CES show last week, but it held back at least one little (or not so little) supriseon us…

The ASUS B23E. This 12.5-inch business laptop packs a Core i5 or i7, up to 8GB of RAM and a maximum of a750GB hard drive in a magnesium-aluminum alloy case. Other expected Pro-series niceties include, a fingerprint reader, spill-proof keyboard and an anti-shock mounted hard disk. Looking at the spec sheet though, it’s not all gravy for this 3.4-pound PC. For one ASUS doesn’t state how long it will last on a charge, but I can’t imagine the three-cell 4,400mAh battery is going to impress with its longevity.

Dell Inspiron Mini 1010 review

So I’ve done it… I went and brought a Dell note book thanks to me breaking my samsung one (it fell out my car roof)

So also thanks to it being a pay day I hunted round Swindon’s 2nd hand shops (seeing the average life of a notebook with me is less than six months I don’t see the point of paying more than £300 for one) So after hunting around I settled for Dell Mini 10 which was fully loaded for £89 from cash converts.

Here are the quick specs.

Dell Inspiron 1010
Inspiron 1010, Intel Atom Processor Z530, 1.6GHz, 533MHzFSB, 512K L2 Cache
1GB RAM
10.1 Inch High Definition Widescreen Display (1366×768)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500
160GB, 2.5inch, 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition SP3
Dell Wireless 1510 802.11n Half Mini Card
Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
56WHr Lithium-Ion (larger batter)

What is a Netbook?

A Netbook is simply a really small and low cost computer. Now if you are telling yourself that sounds really good, there is a catch. Its really slow by design. They should only be considered a good idea if all you do is browse the web and check your email. Even installing office on a Netbook may be too much for it to handle.

So how slow is it?

Well it seemed very sluggish but Dell had loaded a lot of junk software on it. It definitely could be used for the home research terminal. You know, looking up stuff on Google, keeping some recipes (I do like to try and cook), that kind of thing.

Why the Dell Mini?

It was Dell because of the deal I got, however the smaller the better for me. The only reason I didn’t pick another Samsung was that it doesn’t have the function key row and the keys are too tiny for my fingers. The second reason was because it has an HDMI port.

What did I want it for?

My plan was to use it for watching TV when I’m on shift (breaks of course) and also for writing blogs and of course twitter.

Bad points?

Yeah the touch pad sucks, the buttons are built into it and because of that you keep moving the mouse by accident.

The Video card really sucks, and the other downside is it’s the only Netbook in the world with non-removable memory. With most you can take out the 1GB stick and upgrade to 2GB.