Netbooks Laptop

I would tread very carefully on this one, even if it does have 256MB video card. An Atom is still an Atom. And you really need at least 4GB of RAM to make Vista half-decent. My brother has a full-size, 2.2 GHz Dual-Core laptop with 4GB of RAM and a 512MB card, and Vista Premium still lags way behind Windows XP in speed. I know because I did a side by side comparison with my 3 year old Toshiba 1.4GHz Centrino (one core) with 1.25GB RAM and 32MB card running XP Pro, which ran circles around Vista no matter how many tweaks we tried to put on the Vista. Nuts!

Just a heads up for prospective buyers excited by the 2GB of memory and video card, both unheard of in the netbook market previously.

I suppose the bright side is that you can now get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out in a few months. Windows 7 is said to be faster than Vista (which isn't saying much, lol) but not any big improvement over XP. Just another way for Microsoft to squeeze more money out of the consumer, after making them guinea pigs in beta-testing Vista, exactly as it did with Windows Millenium which was garbage until XP replaced it.

Purchased ASUS N10J (model A1) yet it did not include the External Optical Drive referenced within the User Manual (and also in various reviews I have read).

In the User Manual Section titled: "Using the Notebook PC", Subsection: Optical Drive (External), it explains connecting the external optical drive--> "... for use with the provided optical drive." Also, in
Section A-2 of the User Manual it lists Optional Accessories, yet the External Optical Drive is not listed.

I'm awaiting a final decision from ASUS but their initial claim is that the inclusion of the External Optical Drive is dependent upon the distributor as to whether or not it is included.

Obviously, this isn't very helpful now.

This is a great netbook, basically the most powerfull one they make.

I am very happy with the purchase since this little netbook will do everything it is suppose to do. I have played games on it, along with hooking it up to my big screen tv for improved view. Additionally I can play games locally with a very nice easily viewing smaller 10.2 inch screen.

My only grip is that it comes with vista instead of xp. It loads fairly fast and seems to be able to do any notebook tasks like emails, word, basic office tasks. Very light weight and comes with a soft pad case.

Hope this helps it is worth the extra 200.00 above the other ones if you want more graphics power and battery performance.

Thanks,