ASUS 1015E-DS01 10.1-Inch Deals

By Recklessk (Los Angeles, CA USA)
This review is from: ASUS 1015E-DS01 10.1-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
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.

 By johnnydz (Indiana)
This review is from: ASUS 1015E-DS01 10.1-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
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.

By John -(CA)
This review is from: ASUS 1015E-DS01 10.1-Inch Laptop (Black) (Personal Computers)
I cannot think of anything negative about this net-book. This is the most fantastic little net-book that i have ever seen. Yes, I does warm up a little bit but that is because the processor is so powerful. Any computer with a powerful processor will heat up a little but that is okay. it doesn't affect the computers performance one little bit. This net-book is at least 3 times faster then my present net-book even though I had upgraded the ram in my present net-book from 1GB to 2GB. I was afraid that the fan would be too loud. Yes, if you put a sensitive microphone next to it and hooked it up to a loudspeaker, but I could just barely hear it under normal operation. The wireless works great also. It is true that you cannot upgrade the ram in this computer. You don't need too because it is faster than any other net-book without upgrading the ram. Everything about this little gem is perfect as far as I am concerned. Coming from me that is a real compliment because I am very particular when it comes to something that I pay over $100.00 for. I am totally 100% pleased with this net-book and I guarantee that if you buy one you won't regret it.