Customer Reviews

ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201PN-PU17-RD 12.1-Inch Netbook (Red)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I gave it 5 stars, not because I thought it was perfect, but, rather as an engineer, I think that they did the best that is possible, and it is a great little laptop.
The display is very good and the performance is what you would expect from the processor.
Cons:
The battery life is short, maybe 3 hours watching videos.
One cannot replace the hard drive. I wanted to replace it with an SSD, but I could not find out how to take it apart, and I could not find any instructions on the web to do it.
I bought this for my daughter, I will buy another one for myself, and would recommend it to anyone who wants this class of laptop.
Oh, I forgot, I wiped the windows and installed Ubuntu Lucid, 64-Bit desktop (not netbook edition). Everything seems to work fine.

BEAUTIFUL SCREEN, EXCELLENT GRAPHICS, FAST AND UNCOMPLICATED, FULLSIZE KEYBOARD! My husband and I already have 2 Acer Aspire Netbooks but were looking for something a little bigger and faster with an HDMI port, so that we could hook up our bigscreen HDTV to a computer for occasional viewing. Lets face it, most of us dont have our bigger and more powerful desktops next to our big tvs and we certainly dont want to run more cables. After alot of research we decided to go with this Asus because of the power and the graphics capability and we are thrilled. We have watched several HD shows downloaded from Amazon and the picture was amazing! It was pretty easy to set up and there were no blips. I can be on the machine for hours and it does not get hot, a frequent complaint about its predecessor. I am only a light gamer and the bigger screen makes games more fun. The other reviewer complained about the lack of a dualcore chip but a netbook needs to run cooler and longer, and this one certainly does. Netbook Review agrees with me, The only possible concern that we might have is the very small power supply plug, if it doesnt survive daily wear and tear I will have to downgrade my rating.

PROS: Very compact and light-weight. Every standard feature desirable in a netbook, plus a few. Nice styling. Responsive, easy to type keyboard. Good price point. The dotted style multi-touch trackpad is surprisingly good. Distinctive Iron Man-esque styling.

CONS: Non-universal power adapter, not enough juice for gaming. HD Netflix Watch it Now unwatchable. No evidence that the Nvidia ION 2 chip is onboard, appears to be the original ION.

OVERALL: This machine blurs the line between netbooks and laptops, and at this price and size that's a very good thing. It is great for simple tasks like email, web, Putty, and OpenOffice. I would definitely recommend it for those applications. I would not recommend it for heavy duty multimedia or gaming, as it tends to struggle with hi resolution video or anything graphics intensive.

Detailed Review:

I got this computer for work, something I could slip into my briefcase and carry everywhere to take notes at meetings and have my schedule with me at all times. For these applications, this machine is perfect.

I haven't used Windows 7 before, and I actually like it a lot. I've been using Mac OS X for years and I have to say W7 is at least on par if not better. There are a number of small features that work really well and don't get in the way. It's nice that this computer has the full Home Premium version and not the Starter version that I assume is somehow stripped down for typical netbooks.

The fact that the ION 2 chip is not in this laptop is a bit disappointing. I probably would have purchased the older version (1201N, has a dual core Atom 330 processor) if I had known that. But for my purposes it really doesn't matter. I have a dedicated gaming PC at home for that stuff.

I highly recommend this machine for students and people who's work takes them to multiple locations. It is light and easy to carry around and has enough computing power and battery life to get you through the day. Check out the 1201N if you think you need more processing power, but really the differences are going to be minimal.

This is my 2nd netbook. My first was an Acer Aspire One which finally crashed after about 18 months of use. The typical netbook comes with a mini keyboard and 10" screen. This Asus has a 12" screen, which makes for a noticeable improvement without adding too much to the overall computer size. I like the netbook concept because I do an awful lot of traveling, and this size weight and battery life is just perfect for me.

Some people complain about the lack of processing power. OK guys, c'mon, its a netbook, not a high-end gaming machine. It does what I need just fine: Office apps (using Office 2010), internet browsing, email, and throw in the occasional video and music players. Windows 7 runs just fine with the 2Gb of ram and the light duties I put it through. It has everything I need except a CD/DVD player.... but I've found that I rarely need that anymore. I've actually got a portable DVD player, but rarely take it with me. yeah, this machine will play light duty games, but if you're a gamer at heart you just need to get a regular size laptop or desktop system. That's the price you pay for more power.

For people getting this, you should be aware that the initial setup will take a long time. It seemed like it took half an hour from the time I turned it on until it finished setting up. Not sure what took so long, but it started getting me worried after a while. But eventually finished. As some other reviews point out, the hard drive is partitioned into 2 equal size partitions. To take most advantage of that, you should consider moving your storage folder and the other WIndows prepared folders to the D: drive. That would be documents, downloads, pictures, videos, music folders at least. Then you can save the C: drive for installing programs. Oh, and another common complaint is the software that arrives preinstalled. I just removed everything I didn't want, took a little time but it helped clean the system. Your machine will also come preinstalled with Office 2007 (starter edition, you have to pay to get it activated), and since I already had Office 2010 I also removed this package.

All in all, a good product. Hope this one lasts longer than my Acer did. I'm only giving it 4 stars because I've only had it a few days now and not sure about hardware longevity. I see several complaints about the power supply going bad, so I'll be on guard against that.

Over all it is ok machine. However I had to return this because it could not play youtube video fine, the graphics was bad and the video was chopping a lot. I would not recommend this product for the price I Paid ($368)

This Laptop does what it was designed to do very well. No trouble with Laptop what-so-ever. Screen size for me is very readable, nice graphics. Plays videos very well with good resolution. Keyboard has a nice feel to it. Very light weight, comfortable to hold.

This is a very portable netbook. Great on battery life and lite enough to carry around unnoticed. Where the 1201PN lacks in cpu power it makes up for in gpu power. The intel Atom core is fast and has two threads to help will multitasking but don't try playing any cpu heavy games like Left 4 Dead, or Mass Effect 2. The ION2 is strong enough to allow you to run the games but with so many things happening under the hood the games are sluggish.

I didn't purchase this netbook though for those options which makes this a really great buy. I ride public transportation often so the large 12-Inch screen makes it easy to read. There are laptops for around the same price and much more powerful then this, but none of them compare to the 1201PN portability. The 2GBs of RAM is very helpful for large now-a-day programs that eat the stuff up but the single core cpu should tell you not to pay anything over 400 for this little monster.

You want to play the latest games, get a laptop. You want to surf the internet, check email, write documents, watch online flash videos anywhere? This is your netbook.

Do not waste your money. This netbook is the biggest piece of garbage. This is my 2nd one and within 5 weeks, the battery is not working again. The first one I received, the battery stopped working within a few hours. Amazon sent a replacement, this one after a month, battery plugged is plugged in, but says plugged in, not charging. Reviewed feedback by many other - same problem. Also, if you want to even go to basic websites, like Webkinz, which my daughter is a member of. Can't handle the graphics.

I purchased an Asus 1201N (earlier version of the 1201PN) 60 days ago. A blemish (bright spot) appeared on the screen. I contacted Asus to have the display fixed. Asus said that because it was outside the 30 day flawless display window, there needs to be at least 3 blemishes on the screen before it will service it under the warranty. I love this netbook, but I am more than disappointed in Asus as a company. I most likely will not purchase this brand again. This has to be one of the worst warranties I have ever come across for a display. Even Dell will at least fix the display if there is a blemish. You should consider this before you purchase an Asus Netbook.

First of all, I love ASUS product mainly computer parts especially motherboard. However, I bought this netbook on 08/04/2010 for my mom, and we love it because of the design and graphic performance even though it is one of the most expensive netbook in the market right now.

I realized that it does not come with the SUPPORT DVD ( Recovery CD), so I contacted the ASUS support to ask for one just in case if I have to replace the harddisk due to the physical damage or bad sector, which does not help with the F9 key.

The customer support told me that I am still eligible to request for a support DVD if I could fax them the invoice within 30 days of purchases, I faxed them all the documents as they requested, they replied as they have received the invoice and someone will contact me shortly.

I called ASUS again after few days but then the customer support now telling me that ASUS does not ship any support DVD for netbook/notebook anymore since JAN 2010, and there is no way for me to receive any support DVD. Then I asked what should I do If my netbook's harddisk need to be replaced and I dont have the recovery CD after warranty expired. He told me to send the netbook to ASUS for harddisk replacement, not free of charge, or I have to take good care of my netbook so that it would not cause any physical damage to the harddisk..... ~.~; LOL

Support DVD is important, I understand that not many people are using it, but it is for exceptional case. If ASUS decided not to ship out the support DVD anymore, at least give an option for their customer to request one if they need it. Also, how could the 2 ASUS customer supports told me 2 completely different story when I asked for the support DVD? The other customer support does not aware of something that already implemented since Jan 2010?