Asus N20 Lounge

Prior to purchasing an N20A-A1 I researched alternatives. Then I took the plunge. Choosing a notebook from a field of continually evolving technology always leaves me with some regret. There are always better, less expensive notebooks next week, next month, next year.

My criteria for purchase was:

Mid-range power: Intel GM45 or PM45 chipset.
Graphics: Alternatives to the Intel X4500HD (nVidia GeForce 9300M GS, ATI Mobility Radeon HD3470, etc) in this price range are nice, consume more power, only marginally better, all being in the same performance class.
Small screen: 12" - 13"
Ports: eSATA, HDMI, ExpressCard/54
Price: Under $1,000 USD (for budgetary reasons). Later add-ons were OK.
​

Here's a list of alternatives to the N20A (in my view) as of November, 2008.

HP Pavilion dv3510nr If I waited 2 months (!) I might have purchased this, the price since fallen $150 to $999. 13.3", nVidia GeForce 9300M GS, but ExpressCard/34 not 54.
MSI 122313-002US 12.1", no eSATA, barebones notebook.
MSI PX200 12.1", ATI Radeon HD3450, barebones notebook. Announced, not available.
Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 2738 minimum $789 USD.
ASUS F6V-X2 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470, Firewire. $1,150 USD.
​

There were a few others, now off the market(!) I'm sure others could be added, more as time goes by; faster, cheaper, etc.

Harry

 

Yeah I'm looking at what I can order in the next week or two. I've added the Lenovo U330 to my list as Amazon has a config comparable to the N20 at $999 right now. Guessing it has a top notch keyboard and touchpad, based on reviews I've read. Seem to be mixed reports about battery life, but otherwise looks like a good fit, too.

Still curious as to exactly what people mean by keyboard stickers. Is the lettering a decal or something that easily peels off?

Anyone have complaints about keyboard flex, hard to press keys, lack of feedback, etc? I'm not looking for perfection, but don't want something that is annoying to use, either.

 

N20 has arrived today. Due to busy class schedule I haven’t had much time to examine it. Fortunately, I was free tonight so I spend small time for this new baby.
The notebook arrived in a well package. It was shipped from ExcaliberPC.

Here is its specification:
ASUS N20A-B1 12.1” Notebook
Chipset: GM45 + ICH9M
CPU: Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0Ghz, 2mb Cache L2, 800mhz bus.
RAM: 4gb DDR2-PC6400 (800mhz)- Don’t know manufacturer’s name but I guess it was made by Hynix ‘cause I found their products in many ASUS laptop.
HDD: Hitachi TravelStar 250GB, 5400RPM, Cache 8MB, SATA I.
Display: 12.1” WXGA (1280x800) Led backlit screen.
VGA: Integrated Intel GMA x4500HD.
Webcam: 1.3 Megapixel
WLAN: 802.11 b/g/n
LAN: 10/100/1000 Base T
Bluetooth: v2.1+EDR
Come with 6cell 4200mAh battery
OS: Vista home premium 32bit.

The first thing I want to talk about this notebook is that it’s very good for portability. Of course, it has 12.1” screen size, a little small with me; at first I don’t think it can be small like that. Compare with my G50V it look like a baby. The quality of the screen is good, as specification, it has led backlit so I can notify it’s brighter than my G50V’s screen. I only need to set the brightness at 70%, the screen is quite bright and it will make you blind at maximum brightness. However, I slightly confused about a stamp that posted on the bottom, it said that the lamp in this laptop screen contains Hg.., as far as I know the led backlit is different with CCFL, so why they post that stamp on this laptop? Can someone explain it?

Some picture:



It has been taken off the package. Everything like new.

Starting windows for the first time:


The left side:
As you can see, there is an AC connector, air vent, e-sata, 2xUSB2.0, HDMI (so happy with this port), and Wifi switch.


The right side:
DVD-multi, headphone jack, mic jack, 3rd USB, kensington lock hole.


The portability and lightweight are an impress of N20. I put it on top of G50 so you can imagine how small it is.


The AC adaptor is also pretty small:


Asus always satisfy me with their superior services. Here are all accessories come with my laptop. Manual, recovery disk, battery, mouse, laptop, sleeve, shoulder bag (from Targus )..


About performance, I know this laptop is not a gaming one, so i didn't test it much. I only provide some specifications. Those specification are enough for everyday business works.

The CPU-z information:


Vista Rating:


HDD Tune:

The HDD isn't really fast. Actually, it's SATA I with only 5400RPM so I don't expect much in it. Maybe it should be replace with the faster one.

In conclusion, this laptop is a good choice for portability. Especially, if you're looking for ultra portable laptop, it should be the best choice because the price is very competitive (less than 1000us, I think it's much cheaper than other brands) and its specification, probably, doesn't disappoint you.

Pros:
-Portability, lightweight.
-Great Keyboard and very comfortable touch pad (an improvement compare with many previous ASUS laptop).
-Reasonable price

Cons: (Haven't found much at this time, but in future maybe)
-Battery doen't fit , stick out in about 2cm.
-Bloatware (Norton IS, Picasa, Google desktop)
-Don't have Vista 64bit even the system has 4GB

P/S: This is my first review, I hope my review can help some people who is looking for lightweight laptop or people is now considering to buy N20.
Last one, I'm sorry for my pretty suck English skill.

 

Awesome the pictures were great, and the cons are really not that bad i guess this notebook really is a great choice.

itss great to hear that it is lightweight and keyboard is good two important things about portable notebooks

 

Thanks for the great review! Do you happen to have a photo of the battery sticking out the back? I saw one in a video review of a version from Europe, but I'm thinking it was an optional 9-cell or something. In the top down photo of your other laptop it's hard to tell if that's a battery sticking way behind it or just part of the box graphics though it looks like the power cord might be running under it.

 

Dorekofu_87,

Great review!

The Vista Experience Index for your N20A-B1 is very close to what I saw on my N20A-A1 (as I recall) in Vista x32 and Vista x64. The differences of note are the numbers reported for the P8400 processor (over 5) and memory (over 5, higher in Vista x64).

Those differences are so marginal I think any normal person, unless they're heavily number crunching, or editing images or video wouldn't be bothered by the difference.

You may have coined a phrase there! Back in school a looong time ago my grades showed my pretty suck English skill!

Regards,
Harry

 

"my pretty suck English skill"...That's classic!!! Can I use that? All jokes aside...great review. Really appreciate the pictures....specially the one of AC adapter....that thing is tiny!
Cheers.

 

Hey ModusPonens,
Do you have any pictures of this 3rd connector for the wifi card you installed? You got me interested in upgrading mine, Im assuming I just need to remove the keyboard and its plug and play correct? Also, any reccomendations on what card to upgrade to?
Thanks,
Chris

 

Yeah, this notebook is intended to be used as normal work such as Office, chat, music and watching movies. I think it's enough to do so.

Yep, this is a first time I wrote my review in a foreign forum. Moreover, English is not my language. Anyway, thanks for your feedback. About AC adapter, it's very convenient and much much lighter than G50's adapter.

Sorry for my mistake. Here i updated some picture of its battery. You can see it stick out a little bit not much as in video you've seen (I've seen that vid too). You're right, they used 9-cell battery so it should stick out too much. For my notebook. it came with 6cell battery so it stick out a little bit, I think with 4cell it should completely fit.


P/S:Can everybody see the stamp at top right corner? It said that the display lamp contains Hg... So I wonder why my notebook comes with LED backlit but they still put that stamp there?

 

Tech support told me they dont make a battery smaller then 6 cell for the asus n20. I wish they would I dont really like the battery sticking out the back, plus it would make it even lighter. If anyone finds one please post it here.

 

I have been using my N20a for about 2.5 months and I'm just loving it!! Yesterday I bought a 40" full HD LCD to use as a notebook screen and they are connected via HDMI...Also hooked up BT keyboard and mouse...The best of all is that they are all working in harmony

 

Sound is so good. We can get rid of big PC case. Can you upload some pictures of your mini "workstation"

 

My workstation hasn't been setup properly yet, but here you go:

 

dorekofu thank you very much for these pictures!!! + rep for you

can someone tell me if it is possibile (and/or easy) to swap the CPU for a better one? in my country the n20a comes with just a t3400....

 

As far as i know, yes it's possible (Of course, it's easy too if you've opened some notebooks) but if your swap the CPU you will void the warranty. There is a small warranty stamp on the screw which is used to lock the CPU. If you want to change the CPU so P8400 is my suggestion

 

What will you do with the computer? For typical usage patterns, upgrading the CPU does not bring much of a real-life performance improvement. (since typical desktop applications are not limited by the CPU nowadays)

 

This would be a planned upgrade, 2+ years from now (when it would be also easier to find 45nm CPUs on the grey market).

 

I'm up to my eyeballs in work. I owe the N20 forum a status report on Windows 7 x64. So, forgive my not dotting I's or crossing t's:

The install went without incident. Except for the issue with ASUS Power 4 Gear Hybrid (below) these issues are Windows 7 issues, not N20A issues.

So far:

Adobe Acrobat 9 IE add-on refused to open a pdf in IEv8. Appears to work after re-install.

IEv8 doesn't allow Java 2 Runtime Edition 6 update 11 add-on to open a Java widget because "it can't verify the publisher". Re-install didn't resolve the issue. Yes, I've gathered it's a windows security issue. I dropped all security, same problem. But same problem in Vista. I haven't tried disabling UAC. That's not a solution; it may indicate where the problem lies.

Symantec Endpoint Security 11 MR4 (1) Network Threat Protection did not install. I recently noticed the SEP install, run as administrator, which should disable Windows Defender, didn't. (2) When logging in as a user Windows 7 Action Center reports SEP's virus files are not up to date. They are.

ASUS Power4 Gear Hybrid at least one setting is being ignored. I set "performance" to never go to sleep when connected to AC power. The darn machine persists in going to sleep.​

I like the Windows 7 Desktop. I haven't had the opportunity to learn it to make full use of it. I do believe it's better than Vista, XP, and (for those who really are in the stone age) 98 SE.

One really annoying problem is Recent Documents. There's a canned search which only shows recent docs from installed programs(!). There's a Start Menu - Recent Documents which I turned on. Unfortunately it remains annoyingly empty.

This is a work in progress. Please don't ask me for solutions. I'll write up solutions as I discover them.

Harry

 

I ordered an N20-A1 today from Califorinia Compute Center. I paid $999 for it with no tax or shipping. They had the B1 but I'm guessing from what I have read on these forums that I'll get the better processor, here's hoping anyway.

Thanks to everybody on who has posted here, especialy Harry. The reviews here ensured this little notebook would serve my needs. I wanted HDMI and eSATA. I was looking for a while at the Dell M1330 but it was almost $400 dollars more and didn't have eSATA. The only real advantage it had was the option for dedicated graphics but since I don't plan on gaming on this system I'd rather save the cash. Also it has a bigger footprint and portability was a high priority.

 

Does anyone have any clearer pictures of the screen and how big the bezel around it is? Page 7 has some nice pictures by dorekofu but the poor lightning, and black-on-black imaging, makes it hard to tell. For some reason there's no reviews or any information at all about this unit anywhere (like an officially tested battery life test, I somehow doubt the 12 hours they are claiming!)

Also, can it run 1080p hi-def videos? I've read that there's an integrated video card but a dual core CPU.

 

Dorekofu's image - thumbnail below - touched up to better show the borders of the screen.

What? We lounge lizards of the Asus N20 Lounge are chopped liver?

Please read this thread. Amongst the tidbits of info you'll find consensus for a battery life between 3 and 4 hours.

*sigh*

.

 

Do not try to buy a notebook from the Calfornia Computer Store. These guys gave me different answers everytime I spoke to them. Despite calling and confirming they had the N20A-A1 in stock before I ordered it they don't have any and they charged my credit card for one. The salesman was rude and forced me to email them to cancel my order. Why he would not cancel the order via phone I don't know. In short avoid the California Computer Company at all costs. Online reviews of the site bear this out.

Does anyone know of a site still stocking the A1? If I can't find one I will probably order one of the HP Pavilion dv3510nr notebooks Harry mentioned.

 

Consensus from rough estimates of varied usage means VERY little. Especially in terms of comparison. I stand by my claim that there has been almost no standardized official battery tests for this.

I did however recently come across one single site with a comprehensive N20A review that posted 260 minutes on a battery life drain test.

Still can't find any information on 1080p playback, thanks for not being helpful.

 

Guys lets take it easy, no point getting carried away. Or else I will close this thread.

Johnny T - NBR Moderation Team

 

Oh, well no need to close the thread. This place seems to be the only one to get information on this system, literally.

Can anyone confirm if it plays 1080p without stutter?

 

I asked Harry a 'similar' question but on some other thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=337898&highlight=netbook+OR+smaller+notebook

You can read his reply in post number 15. Hope that helps. Besides the blu-ray playback, a comment on playing H.264 encoded files from the hard drive would be additinally helpful.

Cheers.

 

I'd like to hear what the Windows bootup times are and Hibernate resume times too. From reading N10J reports, many have said they suffer more than a minute, how does N20 compare?

 

yeah but consider the fact that the N10j processor is probably 3 times slower also a minute is generous are you sure? It probably was like one minute 45 second or something. This notebook i estimate should take about 40 seconds to start up.

 

Well, it's not at all about the processor. To give only one example, the Samsung NC10, which also uses the Intel Atom N270, boots up in 25 seconds fully optimized and resumes from hibernate in 10-15 seconds or less. Most of it has to do with BIOS and computer design.

 

So has anyone got there hands on one? and is the intergrated 4500HD( or whatever the name of the GPU is) better than the 9300 GS in the N10J?
I really need to get a netbook or ultraportable soon for work and for gaming on the road.

 

I don't think the integrated can rightfully be compared to an Nvidia, the Nvidia can run games fairly well, the integrated can't. I don't think the integrated can even run 1080p movies absolutely stutter free while the 9300 has no problems with that.

After much deciding, I don't think this is the laptop for me. Those with the free P8600 I'm sure got a good deal, if only those were still available. I also find it strange how this laptop almost seems extinct in terms of publicity and support, when in reality it has just released.

 

markhedder,

I've noticed that given the same media - DVD or BD - curiously 32 bit TotalMedia Theatre 2.1.6.129 plays stutter free while Vista 64 bit Windows Meda Center 6.1.1000.18273 occasionally stutters.

I don't understand what you mean by "extinct" in publicity and support. ASUS appears to me to plug the entire N series line an much as they plug their other lines of notebooks. But then I don't pay much attention to the ads to see a difference.

Harry

 

Hi everyone,

I have been reading this topic since pg.5 and finally I ordered my N20. Hopefully I will have it within the week.

But as I was strolling through the net I discovered that not all Asus computers that promote Express Gate have the Splashtop OS on the motherboard, but some of them have it installed on the HD.

I really want to find out if N20 has the the Express Gate SSD on the motherboard because I want to install Debian and Splashtops installer is Windows based unfortunately; although its a Linux Distro..

Thank you,
Konstantinos

 

Only in terms of marketing and reviews/youtube videos. I was reading the ASUS catalog the other day and they didn't include the N20 on it but they have their mainstream models like the N50 etc. There isn't enough data out there to make a good, informed decision on whether or not this is a good investment. For some reason there isn't a single indepth review with benchmarks by any companies, I can't really figure out why.

 

Just wanted to let you know that I just replaced the optical drive with a HL CT10N BD/DVD drive. And it works like a charm, no stutter or lagging what so ever when playing movies on my full hd lcd-tv. Got it from ebay (130USD). I have one question about the free minipci-e slot under the keyboard, want to install a 3g card but cant find the connectors for the card. Read somewhere in this thread that it could be the black cableharness running parallel to the slot and is secured with yellow tape (Can't remove it, don't wanna pull to hard) . Or I was thinking about using it for Intel Turbo Memory, would that work?

Other than that, I am extremely happy with my Asus!

 

Hi people,

Just thought I'd post a quick report about the N20 in Taipei. I'm here to study Chinese for six months and am thinking about getting an N20 while I'm here.

First thing to say is that the Asus N80/N50/N20/N10 range are being advertised everywhere you look here. All the big metro stations, billboards on the street, bus stops etc etc have a model (cute brunette in silky purple dress!) holding an N20 with the other three models nearby. So Asus is marketing the model heavily here anyway, even if the advertisting isn't as strong elsewhere.

Second, I went to Guanghua market, taipei's computer district and also saw lots and lots of N20s for sale and Asus advertising everywhere. Two models are available. By far the most common was the N202PAP86DD which comes with a P8600 2.4G and 320G drive and 2Gb and retails for 37900 TWD. Most vendors offered this model for 31000-32000 (USD910) when pressed for the best price. I only saw one on display but there was also a N202PAT58DD with a T5800 2G and 250Gb and 2Gb ram. These supposedly retail for 33800 TWD -- the best price I got offered on this model was 30000.

Naturally these models had chinese keyboards but I used one for a while in a shop and I don't think its going to be a big problem for me.

Have fun,
Damon.

 

Thanks for sharing That's interesting information.

Being a Taiwanese company, I wouldn't be surprised to see advertisements everywhere in their own country. However, Asus ads have been appearing on all major technology magazines lately in the US. Although their marketing strategy isn't as aggressive as say, Apple or Dell, Asus is getting more exposure than in the past. Prices are also usually cheapest in Taiwan, followed by the US. Oddly enough and from personal experience, Asus notebooks sold in Hong Kong are even more expensive than the US.

 

Hi, I just got my N20 and I have a few questions.

1) which processes do you guys disable?
2) Which start up ASUS programs are unecessary?

3) NHC Shows the CPU is constantly at 2.00 even at battery savings, anyone else experiences this?

 

What kind of specs you got on the N20?

 

1/2: Have a look at my Vista optimization guide.

3. NHC is an old program by now, and its support for new platforms is iffy at best. I would suggest you check your CPU speed with CPU-Z or Everest.

 

Is there anyone who got an N20A-A1 that does NOT have the P8400 cpu? ModusPonens or GarlicBreath, would you answer?

 

48 hour bump

 

Newegg (US) is now listing model N20A-X1 with a P8600 CPU.

 

Nice find no update in GPU i see

 

How does the X4500 perform,will it be able to run any game, probably not.

 

Yes it will, some games can even run on medium but at lower resolutions on the plus side it runs ALL MOVIES on any Res including full 1080 without chugging or anything the best thing about it though is battery life it uses little to no wattage so that is great.

 

I just put in an order for the N20A-X1 listed on NewEgg. Hopefully the P8600 will result in some nice battery life performance.

Actually, I was set to buy a ThinkPad X200 during Lenovo's St. Patrick's day sale, but the N20 is a pretty amazing deal. Ultimately, it came down to the N20 having more RAM, a larger HD, eSATA, HDMI, an LED display, and a built in DVD burner for the same price and form-factor. There is something to say for ThinkPad engineering, but I've never spilled a drink on my keyboard before (knock on wood).

For a while now I've been looking for something to fill the void of my decaying 12" PowerBook G4. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited

 

On Asus' support site when you specify 'N20 series' you are offered a choice between the N20A and N20H.

There isn't information about the N20H. I suspected it might be an N20 with discrete graphics until I came across this Energy Star listing for the N20H

The page states "Date on the Market: September 26, 2008", a stillborn product. Maybe ASUS made the N20H and variants into the N10 series.

Harry

 

The N20H turning into the N10 does sound plausible. Another possibility could be that it was slated to use a dual-core Atom. The time frame and specs listed in this blurb seem to match up pretty well:

http://www.slashgear.com/dual-core-intel-atom-330-delayed-until-q4-2008-2512978/

Pure speculation, though.

 

To cut to the quick:

(1) ASUS supplied DVDs - Recovery and N20A Driver & Utility - do their job with minimal human intervention.
(2) You may recover 10GB of usable hard disk drive: remove the ASUS restore partition.
(3) Recovery takes about 1.5 hours. It's best, after inserting the Driver & Utility DVD, to go back to your life (you do have a life?). Avoid the temptation to fiddle with the machine during recovery.
(4) Your machine will be restored to the factory configuration. Well almost, depending on a choice you make. More below.​

DETAILS:

The machine ran fine. Regretfully I must give it to a new user. So I restored the factory configuration.

If you read the N20A lounge thread from the beginning you may recall I split the single factory partition into two: an active primary VistaOS partition and a logical DATA partition. That's so DATA may be preserved through successive iterations of operating systems. Vista Ultimate SP1 x32 replaced Vista Home Premium without too much pain, accepting previously installed applications. I then wiped the active primary partition and installed Vista Ultimate SP1 x64. It turns out that, legend to the contrary, the N20A Driver & Utility Ver. 1.0 disc includes 64 bit drivers, recognizes automatically the 64 bit operating system, and installs appropriate 64 bit drivers. The December Windows 7 64 bit beta went on for a while. W7 beta having too many rough edges for my taste I returned to the image of VU SP1 x64 which I made prior to the W7 beta upgrade.

That's where things stood. The N20A & installed apps functioned like a well-oiled machine. Till today. It was time to do the factory restore using ASUS Recovery DVD Windows Vista Recovery Media for Windows Vista Products 32-bit N2819 V1.5.

The N20A booted off the ASUS Recovery DVD. It was quite pleasing to see you are offered a choice:

(1) Factory restore to the active primary partition only. Other partitions are preserved.
(2) Factory restore to the entire hard drive. This wipes the entire drive, returning to you the original factory single partition configuration.
(3) Factory restore resulting in two partitions. This also wipes the entire drive. The 2nd partition is blank.​

I chose (1).

The ASUS Recovery DVD process took about 20 minutes. The process re-boots twice. The Vista Home Premium SP1 x32 operating system is installed but no ASUS drivers. The ASUS Recovery DVD process ends requesting insertion of the an ASUS Driver & Utility disc. I inserted the Ver 1.0 N20A N3038 disc which came with the notebook.

This is the point where one should get on with their life. There's nothing to do for an hour and 20 minutes. The system goes through a succession of SYSPREP patch installs, reboots, driver installs, more reboots, a final SYSPREP cleanup session, reboot, then ASUS' applications installs.

When you return the notebook is waiting for the usual user first configuration: language, time zone, &etc.

Harry