Asus EeePC 1215B: Netbook or Ultraportable?

At a Carom

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Ultraportable in size of it and screen actual estate
• Goodness ergonomics and video playback

Cons

• Not for gaming
• Slow benchmark public presentation

Our Verdict

If you privation the ultraportable form factor and can live without progressive performance, this laptop computer is a dicker.

IT's an ultraportable, it's a netbook, it's an ultraportable, IT's a netbook… Judging past its size, screen real estate, and features, Asus's 3.3-pound Eee PC 1215B is an ultraportable. Notwithstandin, it's priced at only $450 and sold as region of Asus's netbook line. Unluckily, the performance of its AMD Nuclear fusion reaction E-350 CPU just muddies the waters further; while significantly above average for a netbook, IT falls well below the norm for ultraportable laptops.

Whether considered as an underpowered ultraportable or a supersized netbook, the Eee PC 1215B is a well-designed, comfortable-to-enjoyment laptop computer. A preoccupied compounding of matte and slick magazine blacks gives the unit a sedate but swish overall appearance. The status lights are out of the way on the front of the unit of measurement, and the power button, while directly underneath the display, is dim enough that it won't intrude along your viewing experience. The keyboard is a tad along the soft and calm down side but silence quite easy to type on. The touchpad offers excellent reception as well, and its restrained silver trim makes it easy to locate happening the keyboard adorn, though the rocking chair button is a tad stiff.

The 1215B's 1366 by 768 exhibit delivers a sharp image with a decent if not overly impressive sum of money of usable brightness. However, the backlight happening our quiz unit bled badly on the superior left quoin, to the point of distraction. Whether this is a one-off defect or a design flaw, we don't acknowledge, but check yours out ahead you leave the store.

The 1215B's larboard array is considerably to a higher place average: It includes, besides two USB 2.0 ports, an always-on USB 3.0 port, VGA and HDMI ports, an SC card time slot, audio in and out, and a Kensington lock port. Connectivity is comprehensive, if non quite state of the art. Bluetooth is on board to accompany the WI-Fi and ethernet; however, the Wi-Fi is one-person-band 2.4GHz only, and the ethernet is 10/100, not gigabit. The specs on Asus's site claim a/b/g/n wireless, just the computer hardware IDs in Device Manager showed that its Broadcom poker chip is the 4313, which supports only b/g/n. Asus has addicted that U.S. versions of the 1215B are b/g/n lonesome.

As to the tweener performance: The 1215B's WorldBench score of 52 is well above the Atom-powered netbook norm, but far slower than that delivered by the Intel Kernel processors found in umpteen ultraportables, and even slightly slower than the other Fusion E-350-powered units we've reliable.

Being slower than other E-350s is more likely attributable the number of background applications and services, rather than to the healthy 2GB of memory or the big 320GB, 5400-rpm Seagate ST932032 granitic drive. Note: if you'atomic number 75 thought of installing a solid-submit drive, the 1215B is old-school in burying the hard drive within the body of the unit. The undertaking of removing it is clearly daunting enough that I dropped the idea.

The 1215B's gambling framework rates are a large tease. With midtwenties frames per second at cooked detail on fewer-nerve-racking games, it gives only enough performance to appeal wistful thoughts of what might have been. As it is, most modern games are unplayable. But then, the Eee PC 1215B played all video stutter-free, even high-def 1080p, at high bit rates. By comparison, the Webcam is picture element-challenged, providing only 320 by 240 answer.

Software detritus sitting atop the 1215B's Windows 7 Home Premium operating system includes the Bing toolbar and quite few Asus utilities, although most are actually passably usable and not sucking up a great deal or space or CPU cycles. Microsoft Office 2020 Starter is happening panel as cured as Trend Little's Titanium antimalware software.

Battery life connected the Eee PC 1215B is just record-breaking, but decent enough given the chipset and performance: 5.5 hours is approximately plenty to get down you from slide to coast if you don't tax the unit unduly.

If you're looking for the ultraportable form factor and ergonomics without the ultraportable cost, then the Asus Eee PC 1215B is a product you should consider. The performance is middling at superior, but for ordinary chores and telecasting, it's more than adequate to.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/491965/asus_eee_pc_1215b.html

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