ASUS EeePC 1215N: Bringing NG-ION to the 1201
by Vivek Gowri on November 25, 2010 12:00 AM ESTLooking at Mobility: ASUS Eee PC 1215N Battery Life
Where the 1215 really improves over the 1201 is battery life. See, the switch to Pine Trail, even on the nettop side, brought about significant reductions in power consumption, due to the on-package graphics die. But where the most improvements came from is in NG-ION. We almost take it for granted now, but Optimus really was game changing in how much it improved battery life in portable systems that have dedicated graphics cards. The original ION platform didn’t have Optimus, so you were stuck on the 9400M the entire time. NG-ION does have Optimus, so it can basically turn off the G 310M and run off the onboard GMA 3150 graphics chip during our battery life tests.
As such, we saw the power efficiency go up by 30% in our Internet battery life test. With a smaller 56Wh battery (the 1201N had a 63Wh 6-cell), the 1215 outran the 1201 by a full hour, with 6.25 hours of maximum runtime. In our Internet and HD x264 tests, we saw increases to 5 and 4.35 hours, respectively.
However, the D525-carrying 1215N still shares the same core problem as the 1201N. The nettop processors, whether it be the current D525 or the older 330, do not have Intel’s SpeedStep technology, so they can’t dynamically change the clockspeeds and voltages as necessary. Unfortunately, SpeedStep is at the core of most of Intel’s mobile processor line when it comes to power efficiency, so the 1215N gets basically shafted in the battery life tests since the processor is running at a constant 1.8GHz even when it doesn’t need to. The 5.5 min/Wh number for efficiency is basically around the same level as the Core i3-running ASUS U30J, while most of ASUS’ Pine Trail netbooks are in the 9.5 min/Wh range.
Now, we’d expect the new Eee 1015PN, with the new N550 dual-core processor and the 8SP variant of NG-ION, to get a lot closer to that mark, but given the nettop processor in the 1215, 6 hours is about as good as the battery life will get. By comparison, AMD's Nile platform posts similar battery life results, with slightly worse x264 battery life despite having a higher capacity 61Wh battery. Overall, looking at Nile vs. the 1215N it's going to be a choice between a faster CPU (AMD K625) and faster graphics (NG-ION).
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MeSh1 - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
" Intel has essentially left the Atom core the same since the launch in mid-2008" This is what happens when there is no competition.Alexstarfire - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
True, there aren't other netbooks without atom, but there are other CPUs to compete. Unfortunately they all suck. All of the "competitors" use more power, save for ARM processors. Not sure if they'll ever use ARM processors in netbooks though. Tablets and smartphones seem to promising for them.VivekGowri - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
No x86 license means no ARM netbooks. Qualcomm was trying to get the whole "smartbook" deal off the ground, basically just thinner netbooks running Snapdragon and either Linux, Chrome OS, or Android. They all sucked big time, then the entire segment got basically axed for tablets. Toshiba released this Tegra 2/Android smartbook, but it hit the market and basically disappeared, so that says enough about the segment.We'll see, I'm interested to see if AMD's impending release of Ontario can change anything, but the Ontario cores are clocked at a pitiful 1.0GHz (for the dual core, 1.2GHz for the single) so it might not beat Atom by too much. For single core apps, I'm thinking maybe a 20% boost in performance - whether this will be faster than Atom by enough to be usable is the question. But seriously, I would like for something (anything) to kick the Atom team into action. They basically created the netbook market with the release of Atom, but after that they've done nothing other than moving the graphics onto the CPU package. Every time I get a netbook, it's like "oh boy, Atom....again....greaaaaat" I want some interesting netbooks lol.
Eug - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Non-Atom netbooks already exist in 2010. The Acer listed in the review is arguably in this netbook/hybrid class, at 11.6" inches with a street price LESS than the Asus Atom/ION machine, but sporting a CPU that runs circles around Atom and which also has an integrated GPU (Intel 4500MHD) with full 1080p H.264 decode capability like NVIDIA ION provides.Hopefully 2011 will see more of these decently powered netbooks, whether it'd be with CULV Core 2 Duo class chips, or from Zacate, beginning in the sub US$400 price segment.
Actually, just as important as the CPU is the keyboard. Using 10" keyboards is utterly painful. Just one and a half inches more and you get a full-sized keyboard. It makes all the difference in the world, not for productivity apps, but for basic netbook-style internet consumption as well. It's much more pleasant typing an AnandTech comment on a full-sized keyboard. For this reason, any 10" model IMO isn't even in the running compared to the Asus 1215N, regardless of performance.
Terodius - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
you do realize Sony has a 13.3 inch vaio with core i7, nvidia discrete graphics and a full HD screen? I mean seriously... netbook on steroids? I consider 12 inches more of a ultraportable. with another extra inch you get the experience of a desktop replacement.monomer - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Did you seriously just compare a $500 netbook to an $1800 laptop?Well played.
jigglywiggly - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
THIS LAPTOP BE DISSAPOINTATOM SUX GTFO
damianrobertjones - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
What?erwos - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
I ordered a 1215N, but promptly returned it unopened after finding out online about the number of people who are breaking the flimsy power pin in the course of normal use. This is a very serious issue that needs to be addressed in the review.Scott_G - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
Why wouldn't you just give it a try on your own, you can't always believe what people say on the Internet about defects. If you did believe everything then you wouldn't own anything tech related.