My laptop: Asus Eee PC 1215B (Late 2010)

A sleek and powerful laptop in a slim body


The specs
First, let’s take a quick look at the specs to see what we can expect from this Asus 1215B 12 incher:

• 12.1 inch LED backlit display, 1366 x 768 px resolution, glossy 
• AMD Brazos APU with AMD E-350 dual core processor and integrated AMD graphics 
• 4 GB DDR3 memory 
• 450 GB hard-drive (Do take note that some countries come with different HDD storage size, please remember to check with your local authorized dealers) 
• C: Drive - 100 GB 
• D: Drive - 350 GB 
• Wireless N, Bluetooth 3.0, Gigabit LAN 
• Two USB 2.0 slot and one USB 3.0 slots, VGA, HDMI, headphone/mic, card-reader, webcam with a pushable cover. (Do take note that some countries come with one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0, please remember to check with your local authorized dealers) 
• Windows 7 Home Premium OS 64-bits (Do take note that some countries come with other OS versions, please remember to check with your local authorized dealers) 
• 6 Cell 5200 mAh 56 Wh battery (Do take note that some countries come with different battery cells, please remember to check with your local authorized dealers) 
• measures 11.6 x 8 x 1.5 inches 
• weighs 3.2 pounds or 1.45 kg 
• Colours: Red, Silver, Matte Black, Glossy Black 

Design and exterior


The 1215B is actually the successor to the impressive 1215N (Which I previously wanted to buy but it wasn't available in Singapore), so on a lot of grounds, both these devices are identical. I went with the Matte Black treatment because it is in a smooth rubbery matte plastic while the bottom comes with a textured finish. The matte plastic especially feels really nice and looks good, although smudges and fingerprints are visible and believe me, even though it s a matte black but this machine is a FINGERPRINT MAGNET >.<

Matte plastic exterior

Overall, the 1215B is a quite a head-turner and is fairly portable too, weighing just above 3 pounds or 1.4KG with the included battery, which is fairly OK for a 12 incher.


Opening the lid, you’ll notice that palm rest and trackpad are covered with the same matte plastic used for the exterior. However, area around keyboard and display are made from glossy black plastic and while they look very nice on a new laptop, will scratch and catch smudges like crazy in time.


On the back, there’s the battery and a special bay for easy accessing RAM, where you get two memory slots.

Bottom part with textured plastic finish and easy access to memory

More about the exterior can be found in this clip below. (Courtesy of www.netbooklive.net)

As for port layout, the images below should answer any of your questions.

Front: Nothing

Left: (From left to Right of the Image) Power input, VGA port, Full HDMI port, USG 2.0 port (Allows stand-by charging), Air Vent, Card Reader

Right: (From Left to Right of the Image) Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Gigabit Lan port, Kensington Lock

Back: Battery

Keyboard and Trackpad


Pretty good keyboard and trackpad on this one, but nothing actually changed from the 1215N.

Keyboard and trackpad are good

So, there’s the same chiclet style keyboard with Full-size keys and enough space between them. This time I got to review an unit with the US layout and there’s nothing to say bad about it: proper sized enter, shift, ctrl and other often used keys so overall the keyboard will be comfortable to use by pretty much all of you, even the ones with bigger hands/fingers.


Still, I don’t like the flex you get especially in the middle of the keyboard around "G" and "H" but you would feel the flex in the long run. The reason being that there is a space right below these two letters, which explains the flex. Still, the rubbery keyboard finish Asus uses on their top EEE PCs (like the 1015PX for instance) would have been a nice addition on the 1215B.


Trackpad is proper sized, separated from palm rest by two silver-plastic bars, it is both accurate and fairly smooth during everyday use. Comes of course with multi-touch and gestures supported and there’s a single click button, but fairly comfortable and easy to press.


*CAUTION: Do take note here that it is commonly known that 1215B has a default trackpad issue. There are several youtube videos guiding users how to "rectify" this issue. You may wish to give it a go, IF you know what you are doing.


But of course, if you do not wish to "cut up" your precious laptop, your local Asus service centers have acknowledged this issue and they have the new trackpad firmware and hardware to rectify it. All done within just 15 minutes. So it is only a simple trip to your nearest Asus Service Center. I personally chose this path =)

Proper sized trackpad

Display


The standard 12.1 inch resolution and glossy finish, thus using it outside under direct sunlight will be a bummer. The glossy bezel around won’t help either.

Glossy display

Brightness and colors are fairly good on this screen, but viewing angles, especially vertical ones, could definitely be improved. And there’s the same design problem I hate on laptops: screen only leans back to around 120-130 degrees, so using the laptop while in bed or on your couch can be uncomfortable. Which is a little bit awkward for Asus to have such a limited angle for their Eee PC series, because most of their Eee PCs are able to swing almost 180 degrees. I know my Eee PC 900HA can ^.^

Only leans back this much

Hardware and performances

AMD Fusion Inside

In the beginning, I mentioned that 1215B is a direct successor to 1215N, while the 1215N and the 1215B are identical on the outside, they are completely different inside. 

The EEE PC 1215B comes with this new generation AMD Brazos hardware, boosting a Zacate APU with a dual-core E-350 processor clocked at 1.66 GHz (There are reports that you can OC it to 2.0GHz) and some powerful integrated graphics from AMD. Top it up with 4 GB of memory (only around 3.6 actually usable by the OS, as the shared graphic chip will need the rest ) and you get a nice configuration. The storage drive is a standard 5400 rpm HDD, but you can replace that one with a fast 7200rpm one or an SSD if you want to make the 1215B even faster. (There are several youtube videos guiding people how to get to the HDD, I will leave that till another day)

This new hardware from AMD manages to give enough punch to the 1215B. Windows 7 runs fine and your daily apps should be snappy as well. However, the real benefit over the 1215N is visible in graphic applications, like playing HD content and games. (You will see that in a few videos and technical comparisons below) The 1215N with Nvidia ION had great graphic potential but there was one big problem: the bottleneck created by using PCI-E to connect the graphic chip with the rest of the computer. The 1215B no longer has such problems, thus it managed to outperform the 1215N.

In the clips below you can see a couple of types of HD content on this one and all played flawlessly, with enough resources to spare. There is also a high bitrate 1080p mkv file, a raw AVCHD clip straight from the camera and a 1080p Blu-ray RIP and none were a problem for this little laptop. Nor was the 1080p clip streamed from Youtube and of course you can always output this content on a bigger display via HDMI. (Videos courtesy of www.netbooklive.net)

And the second part of the clip.

Also ran a couple of games, like Fifa 11, COD modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, Battlefield and others, and while not all of them were able to run decently. Besides these, DOTA, L4D2, Dragon Age II, Dungeon Siege 3, Duke Nukem Forever and even Crysis 2 were able to run decently on this machine.


Software


This laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled and a bunch of bloatware on top.You know what you have to do though: get rid of all the unwanted apps and keep the processes running in background to a bare minimum, thus you experience with this low power laptop will get better. I will be talking about the type of programs to uninstall in future posts.




Connectivity and ports


Not much to say in terms of connectivity, as this one comes with the standard features offered on small laptops these days. You get Wireless N, Bluetooth and Gigabit LAN, but no option for 3G.

As for ports, we do have to mention the one USB 3.0 slot which are in my eyes a must on a computer launched in 2011. Besides that, you get good video out options, with VGA and HDMI, mic/headphone jacks, card-reader and all the other standard features.
Heat, noise, speakers and others
Heat, noise, speakers and others


Both the top and the bottom of the device only get worm during playing games or HD content, but not hot. As for noise, this one ain’t a problem either.

Not many things not to like about this one

Speakers do provide a lot of punch for such a little machine so they are definitely loud. Quality ain’t bad either, but not really impressive.

There’s also a webcam on top of the screen but there’s few things we can say about it: will do its job in good light conditions but in dim light you might not be that satisfied with it. Still, webcam ain’t really a priority for me that’s why I consider the one on the 1215B to be good enough for the everyday user and for added security, Asus built in a webcam slider cover. Smart move ^.^




Battery life


On everyday use with writing, browsing, chatting, listening to music, watching some clips with Wireless ON and Screen Brightness set to around 80%, averaged around 5 hours of life.

So if you feared the AMD hardware inside the 1215B will negatively affect its autonomy, rejoice, that’s not at all the case with Brazos.


Final words


The 1215B actually managed to live to pretty much all of the hype created.

Asus 1215B is definitely a top pick on the market for a powerful and affordable mini laptop

Nothing changed on the outside from the 1215N, there’s the same seashell body covered in matte rubbery plastic, same keyboard, trackpad and display. However, the 1215B is faster than the 1215N, especially in terms of graphics, so will be able to deal with any kind of HD content and some modern games as well. Plus, you get superior battery life and a smaller price.

All these make the 1215B a winner. And I personally feel that this laptop will be sticking with me for a few years to come. Until the next impressive netbook comes along to knock this fellow off my hands...