ASUS Eee Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK Netbook

I bought this Asus Seashell Netbook on-line at the beginning of June for $454.00. It was a replacement for my Lenovo Thinkpad T60 laptop which is a few years old and has a few irritating issues including that the system is starting to get messed up and it is also slow.

I was looking for something that is easy to travel with, is not too expensive and is not too slow. I thought the Asus Eee Seashell 1201N might be a good choice since it is small, has a fairly large hard drive and a dual core Atom processor. It allegedly is a super fast Netbook. I should say that I don't think it is very fast but it is sufficiently fast. I am not using it to play games and I am not running demanding applications.

I should add that I do not expect a Netbook computer to be blazing fast, at least not at this price range. Desktops are in general considerably faster than laptops (in the same price range) and laptops are faster than Netbooks. So a Netbook for $450.00 cannot be expected to be very fast. In fact many Netbooks can't even run Windows 7 Home Premium smoothly; they often run the starter edition instead (or XP). This Asus runs Windows 7 Home Premium smoothly and applications like Microsoft Office 2010 start up quickly.

I installed Microsoft Office 2010 on it using an external CD/DVD writer/reader and I down loaded Trend Micro Internet Security. However, the Netbook came preinstalled with Windows Home Premium and also with the following pre-installed software; a trial version of Trend Micro Internet Security, and a 60 day trial of Microsoft Office 2010.

In addition to the trial software I also got Skype, Microsoft Works 9 as well as Asus Fun Vibe Center and ArcSoft Total Media Theatre 3. The Netbook also comes with a suite of Eee applications, "Eee Amuse", "Eee Sharing", "Eee Xperience", "Eee Tools", and "Dr.Eee". Trial versions are mostly advertisement but I think it was neat that you actually got some free software with this Netbook.


Overview of the Asus Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK Netbook

This Asus is great to travel with. It is much smaller and thinner and lighter than a laptop and the battery lasts for five hours (normal operation) and can last up to eleven hours. Or so they claim in the brochure. I have not succeeded to make it run out of battery so all I can do is to claim that it lasts at least as long as 2/3 of a work day. It means that you could travel with this Netbook and use it at the airport, on the plane, through a delay, without running out of battery. You can also very easily place it under the seat. You can do that with most laptops but this one will take very little room away from your feet. Unlike many laptops I've owned it will not keep running for long if you close it which prevents overheating. The Netbook case is hard and scratch resistant so there does not seem to be any risk of damaging the Netbook when you step on it. It is also pretty nice looking and the screen and the keyboard uses the real estate efficiently (screen and keyboard each covers nearly 100% of the Netbook area).

I have a laptop bag for it but it is too big. It is small enough that a woman could put this Netbook in her purse and the power supply is also quite small. What I need now is one of those tiny cute mice. That's not my wording. It was the waitresses at the restaurant where I eat who told me I've got such a cute little mouse. Unfortunately I lost that tiny mouse and I can't find another one. It is sort of a bummer when the mouse takes up 1/3 of the space in the bag. To be precise I should say that this Netbook weighs 3.2 pounds, is 1.3 inch thick, 11.6 inch wide, and 8.2 inch long (that is pretty thin).

The "Asus Eee PC Seashell 1201N" Netbook has 250GB of hard disk space (5400 RPM), a dual core Atom 330 processor (1.6GHz), 2MB of RAM (expandable to 8GB), a 12.1 inch screen with resolution 1366X768, an nVIDIA ION graphics card, standard size keyboard, speakers, and a webcam and a microphone. I should add that it also comes with 500GB of offline storage (Asus Web Storage).

The "Asus Eee PC Seashell 1201N" has three USB ports (better than some laptops), SDHC and SD Memory card slots, MMC Card slot, an HDMI port, RJ-45 (Ethernet) port, and port for Microphone. It is wireless network enabled (IEEE 802.11b & IEEE 802.11g) and supports Bluetooth. One USB port, the power supply input, the VGA port, and the HDMI port are located on the left side of the Asus. All other ports/inputs are on the right hand side. The fan outlet is on the left hand side and there is nothing in the back. Personally I like this design. You can place your Netbook all the way against an item or a chair in front of you and since you most likely work with your right arm the fan will not bother you. I can add that the Asus also has 24/7 technical support which I have not tried. The 24/7 tech support number is located in big letters at the bottom of the Netbook.

One not so surprising drawback of the Asus Eee SeaShell 1201N is that it does not have a CD/DVD drive. Whenever I need to use or burn a CD or DVD I attach an external CD/DVD driver to the Asus. I should say that I don't expect a CD/DVD drive in a Netbook since it would make it larger, more prone to breaking, and heavier. But it is worth noting that there is none.


Setup

There is not much to say about the setup. You just had to install the battery and charge it a little bit and then press the start button and then fill out a computer name, user name, and password. It came with a small short brochure that told you these things. Everything else was already pre installed and configured. Naturally I also needed to connect to my wireless network and since it is an encrypted network I needed to type in my pass key.


Screen & Audio

As mentioned the screen is a 12.1 inch screen and the Netbook is 11.6 x 8.2 inch. The screen is a LED-backlit widescreen which supports HD quality. In my opinion the screen is quite nice, clear, sharp text, video looks nice, etc. The sound is also pretty good for a laptop/Netbook. They clearly designed this Netbook to give the user a good multi media experience.


Keyboard

This is a so called full keyboard which means that you are not missing any keys and all alpha-numeric keys have their own key (no second keys needed). However, it is not a full keyboard with respect to what I thought full keyboard meant. It does not have a separate number keypad which you can use in conjunction the alt key to type extended ascii characters, as some laptops do. For example, you can do that with my daughter's laptop you cannot do that with this Netbook. So if you need to type foreign characters it gets more cumbersome (you need to use system tools).

Even though the Netbook size is small and you have all the keys, the keys are not small. The key board feels more like that of a 15 inch laptop keyboard and typing is not more cumbersome than typing on a laptop. The reason for this is that the real estate is well used and the keys are also slightly concave which makes typing more convenient.


WiFi

As mentioned it supports IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g and I have an IEEE 802.11b network in my house. The internet speed depends primarily on things like your wireless signal, the router, the signal in to the router (DSL my case), the WiFi signal strength (distance from router), but also on things like the receiver and the network card. When I place three lap tops plus this Netbook side by side (equal distance from router) at the same time, this Netbook performs better than two of my laptops but not the third (my daughter's HP laptop is pretty darn good).


Speed & Bench Mark Testing

One reason I bought this Netbook was that it allegedly was blazingly super fast. With its dual core Atom processors it beat out all other Netbook computers hands down. That is what everybody seems to be saying. However, that does not mean that it is fast and even though it may be above average for Netbooks the speed is far from spectacular. For example, it is obviously slower than the newer laptops I've bought and much slower than the newer desktops I've bought. I am not unhappy about this. It is a Netbook after all and I bought it for $358. Remember this Netbook is primarily intended for home use, and business and travel, not gaming.

As I often do I did a Passmark benchmarking test of this Netbook. According to the passmark test it is indeed significantly slower than all the newer laptops I've bought. The benchmark came out to be about equal to the $700 - $1,000 laptops that I have that are 3-5 years old. In summary, the CPU benchmark was less good, the memory benchmark decent, the 3D graphics score poor, the 2D graphics score extremely poor, and the disk access score was quite good (even in comparison to the new laptops I have). I should add that the passmark 2D score will come out bad on all Windows 7 systems due to the way passmark measures and a redesign of the OS architecture in Windows 7 related to graphics. In practice this means that except for when running some old 2D graphics applications a bad passmark 2D graphics score on a Windows 7 system does not pan out in reality.

In summary this means that this Netbook will not be awesome for games. However, the good disk access speed, in combination with the decent CPU performance, which is good for Netbooks (but bad compared to laptops), will make system startup and the loading of applications a relatively quick affair. This is something I have verified by comparing with my older laptops. Despite a similar passmark score, system start and loading applications is considerably faster on this Netbook compared to my older laptops (it is somewhat behind my newer $700+ laptops though).


Conclusion

Thin, light, energy efficient, Netbooks with a good battery life (like this one) are ideal for traveling and good for home use. However, don't be too taken in by the talk about this Netbook being blazingly fast. You could end up being disappointed. As for using it for creating documents (Microsoft Office 2010, Word Perfect Office X5, Microsoft Works 9, etc), browsing the internet, playing media files, travel, etc, this Netbook is quite perfect. Therefore I can recommend it with only slight reservation.


In addition I would like to recommend reading these computer and monitor reviews

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Toshiba Satellite X205-SLi5 gaming laptop



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