ASUS N10Jc, A Performance Netbook

The N10 has the option of two lithium-ion batteries, a 3-cell 2400mAh unit or a 6-cell 4800mAh unit. Our review sample came with the 6-cell unit and all of our battery benchmarks were performed with it. Unfortunately we do not have a 3-cell unit on hand for comparison.

The N10 comes with a very compact 65W power adapter unit. The power adapter is slightly longer than a credit card and about 1/2" thinner. If it wasn't for the cord which could get messy, it would be easily pocketable. With the 6-cell battery installed, the N10 weighs 3.5 lb (1.59 kg), up from 3.1 lb (1.41 kg) with the 3-cell installed. An extra 0.4 lb for double the battery sounds pretty reasonable and for the most part the 6-cell battery pack delivers the goods.

We tested the N10's battery life using the Battery Eater Pro utility. We tested with the Classic test modes. In Battery Eater Pro's Classic test the system is stressed to full-load with the screen set to full brightness with the wireless adapter turned on and connected to an access point. This test should represent the most punishing battery discharge scenario possible, since the processor, memory, and graphics subsystems are all stressed simultaneously. We ran the test with both the integrated graphics and the discrete GeForce 9300M.

As you can see, disabling the discrete graphics does have a significant real-world battery performance effect. With the discrete graphics switched on, the N10 was able to stay running for about 3.2 hours. Keep in mind that this is with the Battery Eater Pro classic test and the system was stressed to 100% CPU and GPU utilization the entire time.

On the other hand, with the discrete graphics turned off and using the onboard chipset, the N10 was able to keep going for about 3.7 hours. Using the onboard graphics "saved" an entire 30 minutes of battery life. Well worth it in many situations.

Overall, battery life was quite good. Over three hours of battery life while the system is stressed to the max is very respectable and battery life during less intensive tasks with the screen brightness lowered to a reasonable level, the N10 should be able to easily reach the 4 hour mark and beyond.

Nearly all of the user serviceable goodies are accessible by removing a single panel from the bottom of the N10. The panel is held on by three screws and is very easy to remove. Under the panel are the hard drive, memory and wireless adapters.

The wireless adapter is a standard mini-PCI unit. Our review sample came with a 802.11b/g model but b/g/n models are also available for the N10. The memory comes in the form of a single mini-DIMM slot. The N10Jc came with a single stick of 1GB DDR-667 memory. The Intel P945GSE chipset supports up to 2GB of memory so there is some room for upgrades if you replace the memory with a 2GB stick.

The N10's hard drive has a metal drive cage attached to it. The drive cage serves two functions. It acts like a large heatspreader and it also provides a handle for removing the drive from the N10 and places for screws to the drive can be secured easily. The drive cage is compatible with any standard 2.5" drive.

These are pretty much your only options for easy upgrades. The Atom processor and GeForce 9300M are both hidden away deep within the body of the N10 and accessing them requires the dissassembly of the whole chassis.