I've been looking at 12" netbooks to replace my old Toshiba Portege 7200cte (lol, P3 650 can't even run YouTube), and the Asus 1215n looks like it will suit my needs. (1.8 ghz dual core Atom with ION 2? Yes please!) I mainly want to use it for web browsing, accessing my desktop with TeamViewer, occasional rounds of TF2 and L4D2, and running XBMC on an HDTV with HDMI. The 1215n looks like my best choice without diving into $1000 thin-and-light laptop territory. (10" and under netbooks feel too cramped for me to comfortably use for extended periods of time, both in keyboard size and screen resolution.) Webcam quality isn't a concern for me (probably not going to use it anyway), neither is lack of USB 3.0 and Bluetooth. (I don't have any USB 3 devices, and I already have a couple USB Bluetooth adapters.)
However, a few different sites I've been reading point to a couple recurring problems, and I'd like some input from people who own similar models regarding them. I'm not too concerned about how different games perform (that's what YouTube is for
), but I would like to hear some feedback about a couple other factors.How bad is the keyboard flex? I'm not extremely heavy-handed while typing, but I've heard it's more pronounced than on bigger laptops. My Toshiba's keyboard flexes about 1/8" when you press on it; if the Eee is about the same I'll be a happy camper. (I bet there's a way to reinforce the keyboard from underneath while the laptop's apart, anyway.)
Is the 5400 RPM hard drive noticeably slow? My plan was to swap the drive out with an SSD next year, after the warranty expires and (hopefully) SSDs come down in price a bit more. Apparently Asus took a page out of the Apple playbook; you have to take half the laptop apart to change the hard drive, voiding the warranty in the process. A 7200 RPM hard drive would be an option too.
I've heard the tiny power port on the 1201 and 1215 is relatively fragile; a few people on other sites posted about the center pin breaking off the port in the laptop. I can replace it with a tougher old-fashioned power plug from Radio Shack if necessary (since sending it in to be "fixed" would just get me another motherboard with an identical port), but I'd rather not have to do that if at all possible. Is the port really so fragile that it breaks if you look at it wrong, or is it just one of those cases where people aren't as careful as they claim to be? Apparently there are other eee models that use the same port...
How is Asus's build quality is general? A lot of people say their netbooks feel cheap, but judging mainly from store models and clients' netbooks, they're about the same as Acer's and HP's.
Thanks!