October 27th, 2010 | 
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- Intel Dual Core Atom D525 (1.8GHz); Nvidia ION 2 graphics with 512mb dedicated video memory
- 12.1″ WXGA (1366×768) LED screen; 2GB DDR3 RAM (2x1GB), 4GB Max
- 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM); No Optical Drive
- Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (32 Bit)
- HDMI out; Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n; 10/100 LAN; 0.3MP Webcam
Product Description
12.1″/1366×768 (WXGA)/Intel Dual Core ATOM D525 CPU/2GB DDR2/NVIDIA ION2/250GB HDD/No ODD/Windows 7 Home Premium/802.11 bgn/10/100 LAN/0.3M Pixel/HDMI out/57W/h battery (up to 6 Hrs)/Included: +500GB Internet Storage/1 Year Global Warranty, (6 months for battery)/BlackAmazon.com Product Description
HD-enhanced Entertainment with NVIDIA Optimus Technology
With more HD content available now than ever before, you need a netbook t… More >>
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1215N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Netbook with 6 Hours of Battery Life – Black
FIX PC ERRORS
PC Integrity Scanner
Know What Happens on YOUR PC
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I have been researching this machine rather extensively. Through manuals and forums, ASUS and other ASIAN OEMs have a terrible track record of support and supplying recovery disks. The entire process is driven through a recovery partition which is fine per-say, but there is no program to make recovery disks. So it makes it difficult to bear all the bloatware the machine comes with.
there is a way to fake it out by restoring to a usb drive, changing the hard disk, and then restoring again from that drive. It is buried in the support forums.
Having returned an ACER laptop for this practice, I refuse to buy this machine for the same reasons. Unfortunately this is becoming an industry trend and I am going to be forced to deal with it, and end up purchasing a full windows license. I continue to search for alternatives.
I believe there are ways to download a copy of windows and take the oem’s xml configuration and turn it into a windows 7 oem disk, but its complex and I’ve never mastered it. I just returned the machine for the aggravation. I am now looking at a system76 machine that runs Linux. At least if I have to buy the windows license I can rest easier knowing I haven’t paid for it twice.
Rating: 2 / 5
After checking around, I found the 1215 comes with no OS disc (as well as no CD/DVD player, per the specs). Therefore, if you need to reload the system at some point (which you probably will), you must purchase an external CD player, and, I was told, “request a recovery disc from the manufacturer”. Whoa!
So, if (when?) your OS needs reloading, your 1215 may be sitting dead in the corner for some time. Not good if you are a student taking classes, a businessperson, a busy parent, etc. Asus’ website and tech support can be a confused mess (from past experience in dealing with them), so it is questionable how easy it will be to get that “recovery disc”, which likely will wipe out all your data with a complete hard drive overwrite (rather than letting you simply ‘refresh’ Windows, like a regular Windows install disc would let you do). As a footnote, unless you are a real techie, you don’t want to attempt to reload only the OS from a typical “restore” disc – it is an involved process. Ultimately, this problem is the fault of Microsoft and their monopolistic software licensing policies.
I was on the verge of buying this nice little computer, until finding out how this “cost cutting measure” of no OS or recovery disc could leave me mired in the swamp of tech support hell, potentially leading to ownership of a $500 paperweight for some indeterminate period. (I don’t know if other netbooks are like this as well, since this is the only one to date that had enough power to consider purchasing.)
Rating: 3 / 5
Arrived DOA. Never would boot to the windows desktop. The screen said it had an error, then tried to fix the error, then failed to fix the error, and asked me to reboot. I did this several times with no success. I RMA’d the netbook to Amazon for an exchange. Hopefully I’ll be able to write a review of the netbook if the replacement works ok. BTW I think Amazon has a good RMA process. Quick, easy, and no hassle.
Rating: 1 / 5
Curiosity killed the cat. This time, almost killed this product.
I wanted to know what was inside the new machine, so I downloaded a couple of system analysers, those that tell you all about your computer components (HWINFO and PC WIZARD). Surprise!! I either received the wrong pc or it is not NVIDIA ION. The chipset is INTEL NM10 and the graphics is INTEL 3150. I thought I could be a computer ignorant, and these names could mean NVIDIA ION. So, I ran the same analizers on my other NVIDIA desktop, the ZOTAC MAG and, this time, the chipset and graphics were: NVIDIA.
To make it more confusing, there the 1215N has an NVIDIA control center (with very limited options, by the way) and windows show 2 adpaters: 3150 and NVIDIA ION. The performance? 1080p movies does not run smoothly on Boxee.
Well, other then that, I liked it. Light, fast for the energy consumption, long bat life, decent keyboard, excelent touchpad with gestures that work (once you get used to), nice display, hdmi (not tested yet). Bluetooth would be welcome.
I will really appreciate if anybody could throw some light on the ION mistery.
Rating: 3 / 5
First, I want say, this is my first Amazon review.
Before you go any further, DO NOT read this review if you don’t play games.
There are other GREAT reviews on Amazon that cover all aspects of this netbook.
I will ONLY be mentioning the GAMING part of this netbook.
There’s a certain shortage of reviews for this netbook, especially concerning gaming.
First,
1) Being a huge fan of Asus, I’ve been waiting for this netbook day to day ever since it was announced.
2) Ever since announcement, this netbook with a little gem called ION2, (Nvidia G210m) was touted to be a light gaming capable machine.
3) After using it for a while, this turned out to be the BIGGEST disappointment.
4) I wanted to share my review from a GAMER’s perspective. (I mean, like I said before, if you’re considering this, you must be into gaming)
I’ll skip to the conclusion first and say this:
***** 1215n IS NOT BUILT FOR GAMING. PEROID. *****
Other reviews do a great job of describing this netbook. So I’ll skip all of that and concentrate on one thing: GAMING.
Just to be clear, I’ve been playing games for a long time, and knew EXACTLY what to expect when buying this netbook.
I have also been building and modding my own system for many many years now.
To be fair, I expected LIGHT gaming, with LOW details for 2 of the games that I play. (Starcraft 2 and Modern Warfare 2)
My test results:
After doing
- A fresh install of Windows 7 64bit
- Overclocking the Atom to 2.2Ghz
- Overclocking the GPU to 610/850/1475 (Core clock/ Memory Clock / Shader Clock)
- EDIT: I also tried beta 260.63 drivers from Nvidia. It did help with increase in FPS, but Starcraft 2 is still unplayable.
Results:
- Starcraft 2 will stutter every few seconds, (15-20FPS) on Medium details.
On Low details, it will be smooth enough to play. BUT as soon as you start to build 100+ units, It will slow down to a crawl.
- Modern Warfare 2 on Lowest detail at native resolution will do 10-20FPS. Another reviewer mentioned 30FPS, but that’s only if you’re indoors in a small room.
At these frames per second, the GAMES ARE JUST NOT PLAYABLE. You can see YouTube clips and read many reviews that are in line with my reports.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. It’s not the GPU problem.
The ION2 graphics processor is actually nVidia’s GeForce 210m. This GPU is a beautiful little gem.
I’ve extensively tested Asus UL30vt-x1 which has the same GeForce 210m, and I fell in love with it.
This is why:
I was able to play & ENJOY Modern Warfare 2 on low details @ native resolution (Above 30fps at all times)
I was also able to play & ENJOY Starcraft 2 on Medium details @ native resolution (Above 30fps at all times)
Indeed, ION2 (GeForce 210m) is truly a wonderful little performer.
BUT the problem was, Asus EeePC 1215n’s hardware architecture cannot support this GPU chipset.
The biggest problem is how the GPU communicates with the CPU. Instead of the GPU communicating through a fast Northbridge, all the data is crawling through a SLOW PCI 1x bridge. This creates a HUGE bottleneck for the system.
I’ve done countless hours of reading trying to figure out why they made such a horrible engineering mistake. Turns out, due to licencing issues, Intel does not allow Nvidia to allow direct communication with the Northbridge. Thus, to circumvent the problem, they just decided to use a slow PCI 1x to connect the GPU to the CPU.
This is a HARDWARE issue, and cannot be fixed by a BIOS update nor a Driver update. It’s a serious flaw and it shows in gaming performance (Or lack there of)
So far, I’ve only mentioned one problem, GAMING. And I’ll stop at that.
I hope I was able to help the fellow gamers who were in my same boat.
If you must game on a portable netbook/notebook, I suggest UL30VT or Alienware M11x. I tried them both, and they are wonderful road gaming machines.
If you don’t need gaming, but want full 1080p viewing, buy the UL20a. It’ll blow the Atom based netbooks out of the water, and do 1080p no problem. Plus it has better battery to boot.
Rating: 2 / 5