Asus Eee PC 1015B

Despite the exploding popularity of tablets, netbooks continue to hold a place on store shelves by offering affordability and portability that full-sized laptops can't match. The Asus Eee PC 1015B ($290 street) enters the crowded netbook market, offering up a basic feature set for under $300. Basic, in this case, means sluggish performance, a small hard drive (250GB), and a cramped keyboard. But while more expensive models may offer better performance or comfort, that low of a price can be hard to pass up.

Design
The 1015B has a clamshell (or seashell, as Asus calls it) design, thickest at the hinge and tapered toward the front edge. Though our unit came with a black silky matte-finish, it's also available with glossy finishes in black, red, and silver. The plastic construction is pretty rigid, so there's very little flexing in the chassis and screen. It's also light, weighing 2.8 pounds, and measures 1.43 by 10.31 by 7.0 inches (HWD).

The chiclet-style keyboard has square, matte-finish keys, which would offer a great typing experience on a full-sized keyboard. Unfortunately, the keyboard that's been used is smaller, and the resulting experience winds up feeling cramped. This problem isn't uncommon on netbooks, but in the 10-inch space, other systems have included nearly full-sized keyboards with more comfortable dimensions.

The 10.1-inch screen offers 1,024 by 600 resolution, so high-definition video (even 720p) is out of the question, but it does nicely with lower resolution streaming video and Web browsing. Surrounding the screen is a glossy black bezel that you may need to wipe down from time to time when it collects fingerprints. The palm rest, on the other hand, uses the same silky finish that's found on the lid, as does the touchpad. The touchpad has the added bonus of two-finger scrolling, which is nearly essential for browsing large content on a tiny netbook screen. The only gripe I had about the trackpad was the button bar, which was a bit stiff when clicked.

Features
The 1015B has a standard netbook feature set, with 3 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, a multi-format card reader (SD, MMC), and basic headphone and microphone connections. A Kensington Lock slot lets you lock it down securely, and VGA and HDMI outputs are perfect for connecting to a larger monitor or HDTV. As an added bonus, the HDMI puts out video in full 1080p.

The 1015B also comes with a 250GB 5,400rpm hard drive, which is smaller and slower than the 320GB 7,200rpm hard drive found in the HP Pavilion dm1z ($449 direct, 4.5 stars), but the Asus EeePC 1015B bolsters its small storage space with a 60-day trial of Asus unlimited web storage. You'll also find included on the netbook a selection of sample games, a Bing toolbar, and 60-day trials of both Microsoft Office 2010 and Trend Micro Titanium security. Thanks to a proprietary Asus app store, the actual amount of bloatware is minimal.

Performance
The 1015B is equipped with a 1.2GHz AMD C-30 processor, an accelerated processing unit (APU) from AMD's Fusion line. On the same chip die you'll find an AMD Radeon HD 6250 graphics processor, an arrangement that improves overall energy efficiency. It's not the fastest netbook processor around, however. In CineBench R11.5, a rendering test which serves as our gauge for processor speed, the Asus EeePC 1015B scored 0.22 points. Compared with the Intel Atom equipped Samsung NF310-A01 ($399.99 street, 4.5 stars) (0.48 points) or the AMD E-350 equipped HP Pavilion dm1z (0.61 points), it can be seen that a low price and long battery life took priority over processing prowess.

That's not to say that the 1015B isn't ready to get things done. In our SYSMark 2007 general performance benchmark test, the netbook scored 30 points overall, with its best performance in productivity tasks and 3D modeling. This score isn't that far off from the 32 points scored by both the Samsung NF310-A01 and the Intel Atom-equipped HP Mini 5103 ($650 street, 4 stars). If you need more power, however, netbooks using the AMD E-350 offer much better performance, like the HP dm1z, which scored and overall SYSMark rating of 57 points.

Though it's on the lower end in terms of processing power, the 1015B does offer plenty of is battery life, thanks to a 6-cell 56Wh battery. When tested with MobileMark 2007, the 1015B lasted 7 hours 43 minutes on a single charge, beating out the Samsung NF310-A01, which had a 48Wh battery (7:05) and HP dm1z and its 55Wh battery (7:08), but falling behind the HP 5103, which had a 66Wh battery (8:40). It may not break the 8-hour mark, but the 1015B has endurance to spare, taking you through a full work day or cross-country flight without needing to find a power outlet.

The Asus EeePC 1015B offers what you would expect from a $300 netbook, namely, passable parts, sluggish performance, and all-day battery life. If you're browsing the cheap end of the netbook aisle, performance probably isn't your chief concern, but you'll still have to look past the cramped keyboard and smaller hard drive that the 1015B offers. If all you want to do is check your email and browse YouTube, the Asus EeePC 1015B should suit you just fine. If you want a little more bang for your buck, take a look at the Editors' Choice HP Pavilion dm1z.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
Check out the test scores for the Asus Eee PC 1015B

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Asus Eee PC 1015B with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews: