Go To Latest Video ReviewsAsus S121 - Preview Comments
| Author | Ardjuna Seghers |
| Published | 13th Mar 2009 |
Comments for Asus S121 - Preview
Xamph said on 13th March 2009
TheLostSwede said on 13th March 2009
The power connector next to the USB port is for powering an external optical drive. Asus has done this in the past on a few notebooks along with a range of other manufacturers.
Ardjuna said on 13th March 2009
@Xamph: No, you didn't miss it, there has been no official price announced. However, in line with the S101 it will demand a considerable premium over other similarly-specified netbooks (quite aside from the exclusivity and design, metal and leather are more expensive building materials than plastic).
Xamph said on 13th March 2009
Hmm, well in that case, I'd prefer to go with something like the Samsung Q210 which you reviewed here last year - 400 g heavier, but decent graphics chip (720p no problem), HDMI out, 4GB RAM, 320GB disk, DVD-RW...
Ardjuna said on 13th March 2009
@Xamph: As would many people, but the whole point of the S121 is style over substance. To get a similarly powerful notebook as the (relatively unattractive) Q210 in the styling and materials the S121 offers would set you back close to £1000 [for a point of reference see the U2E we reviewed a while back (http://www.trustedreviews.com/notebooks/review/2008/05/12/Asus-U2E-1P057E-11-1in-SSD-Ultra-Portable-Notebook/p1)].
It all depends on what you want; personally I'd rather have features over looks anyday, but also keep in mind the longer battery life and that for some 400g is a lot.
xenos said on 13th March 2009
Netbooks seem to be moving along nicely. Still a few niggles though, HSDPA option, better chipset (Ion please?) and a better CPU I would then buy I think. Lets stick to XP until Windows 7 is out though, Vista would just laugh at that Atom CPU.
basicasic said on 13th March 2009
I was actually getting quite excited about this until I got to the cpu bit. A premium netbook should have premium performance not worse. It will no doubt be lumbered with Windows XP rather than Linux and what could have been a nippy svelte appealing netbook will turn out to be a tarted-up asthmatic old dog.
John Ratsey said on 14th March 2009
At 1.5kg it's no lighter than the 12.1" Samsung NC20 although the S121 is thinner.
Also, the GPU in the NC20 can handle 720p decoding.
Jay Werfalli said on 13th June 2009
@John Ratsey - you are indeed correct. The S121 uses Intel's System Controller Hub US15W (with Intel's GMA500 graphics media accelerator). The GMA500 chip has been designed to support high-definition decoding as it has hardware video decode acceleration. Since this was a preview, our reviewer did not test this. I have updated the review with this information.
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You say "the S121 might be worth its asking price" -- what asking price is that, then? I couldn't find any mention of the price anywhere, maybe I missed it?