Hands on with the Eee 1215n
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The Asus Eee 1215n is known as the fastest netbook in the world – with a dual core Intel Atom clocked at 1.8Ghz, a 1366×768 screen, and Nvidia ION2 with Optimus technology. I’ve had my Eee 1215n for quite a while now, and it’s brilliant stuff. Today, we’ll go hands on with the device’s exterior.
The first thing you’ll probably notice about the 1215n is the massive trackpad. Compared to my old Eee 1005HA, the trackpad on the 1215n is simply huge. It spans 3.4″ by 1.9″ (not counting the buttons). The trackpad is larger than those found on Dell Studio laptops, and it’s almost as big as a trackpad you would find on a MacBook. The trackpad itself has a matte finish – and isn’t the fingerprint magnet that the Eee 1005HA had. Granted, it’ll get oily after an extended period of use, but it’s definitely a lot better than the trackpad on the Eee 1005HA.
Not only is it large, it supports multitouch very well. With the Synaptics Touchpad Driver installed, pinch to zoom and two finger scrolling both work extremely well, almost as well as multitouch on a MacBook trackpad. It’s a super convenient feature that works really well with its size.
And to the left of the trackpad lies a few stickers. I keep the stickers on there because I think it looks nice (showing off the ION and Optimus is fun), but you can always scratch them off.
Right above the trackpad is a nice chiclet keyboard. I don’t remember the exact size, but it’s just a tiny bit smaller than a 100% size keyboard. Honestly, I can’t tell that it’s a netbook keyboard. The keys do seem to cave in if you push down really hard, but I don’t think it’s that big of an issue. The keys may have a matte finish, but the keyboard’s border has a shiny finish. It leaves fingerprints, but it’s rather hard to tell.
There happen to be two power buttons on the device, as weird as it may be. The one on the left launches into something called Asus ExpressGate – which I’ve never really tried using because it would never work – and the one on the right boots into Windows.
The 0.3 megapixel webcam has a privacy cover with a switch – basically the hardware equivalent of turning on and off the webcam. It really doesn’t serve all that much purpose, because you would know if the webcam was on (there’s a blue light right next to it) but I guess it doesn’t hurt to have such a feature.
The screen border has a glossy finish, and is quite the fingerprint magnet. I really wish the whole device had a matte finish.
On the left side of the netbook has a VGA port, a HDMI port, a USB port, and a SD card reader. This version of the 1215n unfortunately doesn’t have USB3.0. The Nvidia ION chip handled HD video clips on my 1080p TV no sweat. The cooling vent, which is pretty large for laptop standards, does a brilliant job keeping the netbook cool. I rarely have to use my Belkin Laptop Cooling Pad now.
The right side of the netbook has two 3.5mm audio jacks for output and microphone input. Next to those are two USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a place to put in a Kensington lock. Granted, a CD/DVD drive would be nice, but it’s a netbook, so I can’t really ask for one.
The bottom of the 1215n has a place to put in RAM, your Windows 7 License Key, and the netbook battery.
Well, that covers the outside of the Eee 1215n – in terms of performance, I’ll have some benchmarks done – but that will be next time.
