I hope this review helps anyone who is in the market for a netbook without the flaws of the earlier generation netbooks. Well I was on a quest for the perfect netbook and have used so many in the past. I think I've tried at least a dozen models only to find that there was some short comings with them. This netbook will be used mainly for traveling since it is a lot easier to carry and not as expensive as other ultrabooks or notebooks.OK lets get to it. Here are the positives listed below.
Speedy for a netbook (2 to 3 times the speed of standard netbooks)
1366 x 768 resolution.
light weight
comfortable to type
hdmi, can output 1080P Blu Ray no problem
1 x USB 3.0
Was able to swap the HDD from a 320GB to a 1TB 9.5mm
OK now here are the negatives.
Memory not upgradable, onboard and not removable.
Pain in the A to access the hard drive.
No Bluetooth
Not a dual band internal wireless card
No gigabit lan : (
Did not boot from USB/used acronis 2013 to clone drive.
Before this model was released, I was so close to buy the Asus 1025CE model that featured bluetooth and removable ram. However I am glad I waited as the CPU speed and a nice 1366 screen resolution out weighs the other features of the 1025CE model. I am more than happy to sacrifice bluetooth and extra ram for a nicer screen and increase in cpu speed. For the money you cannot go wrong with this model. I would highly recommend this model or the next model 1015E-DS02 which will have 4GB of onboard ram.
Update 5/6/13
I have been using this netbook for a week and it works great. It has exceeded my expectations. At times however it can run a little warm and the battery life is not as advertised. On a full charge it will last me about 5-5:30 hours on the lowest dim screen. To me this is acceptable as many new ultrabooks do not even last that long. This will definitely hold me over for 2 movies during a plane ride.
The first thing I noticed was keyboard. It's definitely easier to type on compared to the Dell Mini 10. Having the separation between the keys helps a lot. The cursor keys are a little cramped, but what do you expect on such a small laptop.
The second thing I noticed is how much I dislike the touchpad. Seems to be par for the course on many netbooks. I frequently use the tap-to-click feature (quickly tapping to register a left-mouse click) on the touchpad instead of actually pressing down in the bottom-left corner. It would only register my taps about 80% of the time which was really annoying. I figured that this could be solved by trying different touchpad drivers. The laptop came preinstalled with the latest drivers from Asus' website. I tried the generic Synaptics drivers from their website. That helped with the tap-to-click, however, the pointer speed was way too slow, even when set to the highest speed. Also, I lost the Windows 8 gestures with the those Synaptics drivers. Next I tried the Elan drivers (did a Google search for 'elan touchpad driver windows 8', and it's the first link on asus.com). The Elan drivers did the trick. Everything works great... tap-to-click works 99% of the time, pointer speed is good at the default speed setting and the Windows 8 gestures work.
At first, when I read that this had a Celeron CPU, I was a bit wary. However, after using the Atom CPU-equpped Dell Mini 10, I have to say that this Asus is a bit faster even at a lower clock speed, but I'm sure the dual cores helps quite a bit. This machine also came with Windows 8 64-bit which I was surprised to see. I'm used to seeing 32-bit operating systems on netbooks. I'm sure that replacing the HDD with an SSD would make this a lot faster, so I might have to invest in that later.
The only thing I've really tested so far is streaming Youtube videos. This thing doesn't skip a beat, even with HD (all the way up to 1080p) videos running at full screen. The frame rate is smooth. I'm pretty impressed. Screen looks decent too. Speakers can get pretty loud without much distortion.
I'm happy with the build quality as well. There's a nice texture on the plastic surrounding the touchpad below the keyboard and on the bottom of the laptop. There's very little flex to the keyboard... it's pretty solid.
If you're looking for a 10" laptop for basic web browsing & productivity, definitely consider this one.
UPDATE 2013-04-30
After using this laptop for a few days, I'm still impressed. No new issues to report. Once my wife started using it, she would frequently trigger (by accident) the Windows 8 gestures on the touchpad. If you swipe in from the left, top or right sides, it triggers a gesture. I didn't see an easy way to disable these gestures. There are registry keys that you mess around with, but I found an alternative. There is another set of Elan touchpad drivers that work even better than the previous ones that I found. Just do a Google search for 'Elan touchpad drivers', and it's the link for station-drivers(dot)com. The driver version at the top of the list provides a bunch of configuration settings in the Mouse application for disabling gestures as well as many other touchpad settings.
I also read the other review about the difficulty in upgrading the RAM and swapping out for an SSD, which is unfortunate. However, the speed is decent enough as long as you have the proper expectations.
Buy ASUS 1015E1015E-DS01-PK 10.1-Inch Laptop (Pink) Now
How to make this notebook run smooth and real fast:0.(Optional).Search on google for classic shell and install.It will make windows 8 with a classic interface.
1. Search on google for "asus elan drivers" find the site, choose windows 8 64 bit click the link below "touch pad" then download and install from the 2nd link called "global" REMEMBER USE 2 fingers to scroll up and down.
2. Go to control panel > Programs and features and uninstall every single thing from asus everything! Including that hybrid crap that makes the notebook run 20 degrees hotter , don't worry windows 8 and nvidia has everything that you're going to uninstall.You'll have to reboot several times.
3. Go to control panel > Power options it should be set on "Balanced" below there is a link "More options" click on it and choose "High Performance". Close window.
4. Go to control panel and open " Mouse" click on top on the panel "Choose pointer speed" and move the setting to a higher point.
5. You're done. Enjoy the fastest notebook available.
I was skeptical at first about this little thing but I am blown away. I own a few laptops including a last generation vaio. For what you pay here 250 bucks you get a really nice machine. I am running 3ds max with no issues in this thing.I saw some people writing in these reviews stuff like it can be better or whatever. its the perfect machine for this money. Its comparable to the ultrabook I have at speed and that's got a solid drive in it! I thought for sure I was going to replace the hard drive in this one with a solid but it is not necessary at all. Boot time is around 30 seconds . Windows 8 interface sucks but the os itself is way better than anything on the market extremely stable , I install classic shell and run it with a classic interface. As for the people who complain about this product spend a hundred more and get the 350 dollar ultrabook from asus for heaven's sake. the battery is as they say around 7 hours .Screen is excellent I seat outside on the patio and I can see it perfectly. the keyboard very responsive and adequate for your hands. The mouse pad is big enough and responds accordingly as in the instructions. the built is solid with a nice piano finish on top. It is not thick just perfect. The fan blows warm but if you know about computers celeron chips run a little hotter. but nothing weird. if you complain about that get yourself a laptop with an atom processor at less than half the speed. I bought a pink one for the wife today. Overall a fantastic product. Thumbs up to Asus
Read Best Reviews of ASUS 1015E1015E-DS01-PK 10.1-Inch Laptop (Pink) Here
You CANNOT add RAM or upgrade the Hard Drive to an SSD in this computer. Amazon description is misleading if you read the specs, it says SODIMM under memory type. But this computer contains no capacity for user upgrades. Even if it did have an SO-DIMM slot as Amazon mistakenly says in their specs, there is no access door on the back.I purchased this Asus 1015E to replace my Acer A1410 which my wife decided she liked so much she took it away from me to use for herself! The A1410 used an older version of the Celeron chip (SU2300), similar to the one in this Asus.
This 64-bit chip allows you to do everything a more powerful processor can do, and even has the virtualization feature, unlike the Atom processors found in most netbooks this size. This puts this computer on a higher level than most of the other netbooks, with either Atom or AMD processors.
I really like the Asus, but I ended up returning it after I discovered that it cannot be upgraded. My A1410 had come with 2GB of RAM just like this Asus, but I upgraded it to 4GB and put in a faster hard drive.
The Amazon description said the Memory type in this Asus was SODIMM, so I assumed it could be upgraded also. After I received it, I discovered that this Asus did not even have an access door on the back to access the memory and hard drive. More research on the internet revealed that similar Asus models come with RAM soldered onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded.
This does not make it a bad netbook. If I thought that 2GB of RAM and a slow 320GB hard drive were sufficient, I would have been very happy with this choice. But for me, I always like to have more than enough RAM, and 2GB is just barely adequate in my opinion for running Windows. I am a power user and the small size of this unit was the main attraction, but I was planning on having 4GB and an SSD.
I am still giving the 1015E three stars because it is a well designed unit that has a better processor in it than other netbooks comparable in size. If this is what you are looking for and are not doing things that require a lot of RAM, this unit has excellent battery life and instant-on features too.
Asus could be more clear in their literature and specs about upgradability, and of course Amazon could too. At least my review might prevent others from making the same mistake I did.
Want ASUS 1015E1015E-DS01-PK 10.1-Inch Laptop (Pink) Discount?
Great little computer for on the go! Plenty powerful enough for web browsing and running apps such as Open Office, Adobe Reader, etc. Battery appears to last a minimum of 6 hours. Keyboard and touchpad a little funky, but easy enough to get accustomed to. Works great with Classic Shell. No touch screen but that's OK with me. It runs a little warm so we'll see how long it lasts. For $270, it's well worth the money. Oh, and unlike the tablet convertibles such as the new HP and the new Samsung, it's not top heavy meaning you can easily use it on your lap. Great little screen as well. I got this to replace an old Atom netbook that ran Windows 7. This little bugger blows the old Netbooks away. If you want something on the go, that has a keyboard, and can run full blown Windows programs, then it's a winner. Combine this with a home computer synched to cloud storage and you are good to go!
