One of main differences is presence of discreet graphics card in form of nVIDIA 9300M GS. This unique combination of hardware components put this product somewhere on halfway between netbooks and subnotebooks.

Thickness of ASUS N10J was first clue than this netbook is something special. Discreet graphics demands good cooling solution so enlarged thickness is logical consequence. 10.2 inch display with wide frame around it resulted in overall larger dimensions of this netbook.

Cover of this little guy is made from material that isn’t matte but again, it’s not too reflexive. It makes perfect balance between glamour and practicality, when it comes to collecting fingerprints and dust. Although construction of entire netbook is firm, the same cannot be stated for cover itself. Even under smaller pressure, picture distortion is visible on display. Display and frame around it are highly reflexive but displayed picture is very good: light and with good viewing angles and colors.

Keyboard quality is good but since we got model with one of far-east keyboard layout one problem was noticed: space key was shortened because of presence of three, to us, unknown keys. All keys also had, to us, unfamiliar markings but that wasn’t that big problem. Touchpad has smooth surface so it is more precise and it functions well even if smaller pressure is applied. If you apply to much pressure your finger can get “stuck” to the surface. Touchpad keys have chromed finish, although they are made from plastics, with fingerprint reader in between.

When we powered up ASUS N10J for the first time, we were puzzled. Sticker that claimed that nVIDIA discreet graphics card was present in netbook was clearly visible, Device Manager and all hardware analysis applications stated that we had only integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics card in the system. Search for options in BIOS and other installed applications also left us empty handed. Switch did exist and it could be found on left side of ASUS N10J and it is identical to one used for control of wireless adapter. When we enabled discreet graphics card with this switch we got notice that we need to restart system to activate nVIDIA 9300M GS. This is not elegant solution but it works. Transition from discreet graphics to integrated graphics card was painless but reverse process wasn’t. After first restart, upon activation of discreet graphics card, nVIDIA 9300M GS graphics adapter wasn’t recognized by operating system. Another restart solved that problem but this is a problem that ASUS and nVIDIA engineers need to iron out. One of many advantages of nVIDIA 9300M GS that ASUS N10J profited on is smooth HD video reproduction with smaller CPU load. In our case there was no difference between HD reproduction on integrated and discreet graphics card so this is another problem that point out to nVIDIA drivers. We believe that all these problems will be polished in final version of ASUS N10J that will be delivered to the market. All multimedia lovers will appreciate presence of HDMI port that can be used to connect ASUS N10J to LCD TV. Presence of discreet nVIDIA 9300M GS graphics card has its downsides: ASUS N10J is heavier than all other netbooks that we so till now. Dual graphics system allows you to choose between prolonged autonomy and faster graphics card. If integrated graphics card is used, autonomy is much longer and difference can be easily noticed if you take a look at results.

Since this model has the same 6-cell battery (4800mAh) as found in EEE PC, its autonomy isn’t on same level. Rest of the configuration is similar to the rest of netbooks: Intel Atom N270 CPU on 136 GHz, 1GB RAM memory and 160 GB hard disk. Web camera has decent picture quality but slightly lower framerate then we would like to see. ASUS N10J can be noisy when is fully loaded but warming up is minimal. If we take into account what ASUS N10J will be used for, situations when you will hear noise generated by this netbook will be rare.

In most cases speakers on any netbook so far got comments like: “Good for this class of product”. ASUS made an extra effort and pushed limits further even in this category. Altec Lansing speakers that are build in ASUS N10J don’t have power that can satisfy all tastes, but they can produce sounds in very wide frequency spectrum, so listening to music or watching movies while using these speakers can be characterized as: pleasant experience.