ASUS 901. Vista works…well! Has Some Ultra mobility issues.

Update: This is a double-post error. Please see the original here for comments and discussion.

JKK’s recent video showing an ASUS 901 running Vista makes you wonder why manufacturers aren’t actually releasing their netbook devices with Vista. So far, all the netbooks except the Gigabyte M912 are sold with just Linux or XP. There must be some customers out there that are interested in Vista, surely?

I had a long chat with JKK about the 901 last night. We both agree that as a mobile notebook it’s looking very nice. Possibly the best. Upgradeable, relatively small, good battery life useful UI control features through the multi-touch pad. In terms of platform power of course, it doesn’t have anything over the other Diamondville-based devices but its these little features that make the difference.

We did some battery drain tests with ‘perfmon’ and managed to get the battery drain down to an impressive 5.1W. That’s a figure I’ve only ever seen beaten by my modified Samsung Q1 Ultra (with SSD that can get down to 4.7W) and of course the Silverthorne-based Gigabyte M528 which can get down below 3W drain. If you push the 901 it will drain the battery quickly. 15W drain is possible if you push the device with gaming and Wifi usage on full brightness but even that would return three hours with the standard 6-cell battery. Its very impressive in the big market of ‘efficient’ notebooks.

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901 not perfect for ultra mobile users.

Despite what looks to be a good motherboard and radio components its the 6-cell 6600mah (48wh) battery that’s the main trick here and mobility users will pay for it, in weight. The 901 is 1.1KG (2.4lbs) which, for most of the ultra-mobile-concerned customers might be too much. It’s certainly above what I consider to be in the ultra-mobile range. There’s scope for improvement in a number of ways.

• Use high quality batteries and reduce to 4-cell. ASUS are using 1100mah cells but the best in the market can reach 1500mah. That’s a 30% improvement there. So if you remove 2-cells, you’re still at a similar capacity.
• Improve the build and use lighter casing and components.
• Use Menlow instead of Silverthorne.

The other option for ultra mobile users, and it’s one that I recommend unless you really are going to do multi-hour-long session in front of the screen or have eyesight issues, is to go the 7″ 1024×600 route. Building a device with Menlow around the 7″ screen size makes it possible to achieve much smaller case size and 20-30% reduction in weight.

I’m not expecting ASUS to do any of the above as it would be a relatively small customer base for this and it would increase design and build costs significantly but it shows that there’s still some niches out there and it’s the path that Kohjinsha are taking with the SC3.

For the average customer though, it looks like the 901 is just edging out in front. Slightly better usability. Better upgrade options and a 6-cell battery. My #1 netbook choice today based on what I’ve seen and discussed.

The Gigabyte M912X, an 8.9″ Diamondville device, and the Kohjinsha SC3, a 7″ Silverthorne device, both running Vista, are due to be here next and having seen this video now, I’m really looking forward to checking out how Vista performs.

Thanks for the Video and chat JKK.