Asus Eee PC 1215B

AMDs Fusion APUs seem to be trickling in the market gradually and giving stiff competition to Intel's Atom CPUs. You can already find HP's Pavilion DM1-3014au selling in the market with AMDs Fusion APU and today we have an entrant from Asus; the soon to be launched 1215B Eee PC from their Seashell line up.

The 1215B is a twin of the 1215N that we reviewed a while back that featured Nvidia's ION 2 chipset. The 1215B comes with different configurations and the one we'll be reviewing today is powered by the C-50 APU running at 1GHz. There's 2GB of system memory and a 250GB hard drive that should be enough for Windows 7 Starter Edition. You get different color options; ours had a nice brushed metal type finish on the lid and a palm rest.

There is a big compartment underneath to swap the memory or add more. The 1215B supports up to 4GB in total but only single channel.

Just like the ION variant, the 1215B comes with an HDMI port as well. The onboard Fusion APU can easily handle 1080p output to an HDTV.

Although the website mentions USB 3.0 support, this will vary from region to region. Our unit didn't have USB 3.0 onboard, just three USB 2.0 ports. Despite the slender design, the netbook feels a bit weighty with the 6-cell battery.

The keyboard is the standard chiclet type that we have come to love from Asus. The palm rest has ample amount of space for even large hands and the keys are quite comfortable to use as well. 

Performance

General and Multimedia Usage
The 1215B is very similar to the 1215N in terms of build and design, which means it's really sturdy and looks very classy. The finish of the netbook is very good and it doesn't feel cheap or tacky in any way. The keys are comfortable to use and the trackpad doesn't get in the way while typing. The mouse buttons, however, are still very stiff and require quite a bit of effort to press. This was the same problem we faced with the 1215N and Asus hasn't corrected it. The trackpad itself is very smooth and finger friendly.

The 12.1" screen has good brightness levels, which is way beyond what you'll typically need. We found the default contrast of the screen higher than usual which creates a blooming effect at the edge of the folders in Windows. Other than that the glossy screen makes the content pop a little, which is helpful when watching movies. The speakers are quite soft but are sufficiently loud if you're watching something by yourself. Even though the netbook is quite sleek, it's still a bit weighty at 1.45Kg. You'll definitely feel it in your backpack.

After a quick install of K-Lite codec pack, we were easily able to playback 1080p content with just 20-25% of CPU usage. 

Battery life
In our 720p video drain test, the 1215B scored a time of 3hrs 20min, which is quite good. This is with the brightness maxed out and WiFi on. It certainly fared a lot better compared to the 1215N, which gave us a battery life of 2 hrs and 30min.  

Pricing and Verdict
Asus has priced the 1215B quite well at Rs. 17,999 and a one-year on-site warranty. This is without Windows 7 Starter, so even if we had to include the OS cost it should not go beyond 20K. For this price you're getting a 12.1-inch screen, great keyboard, HDMI, decent battery life and the ability to easily playback 1080p content, thanks to AMD's Fusion APU. If you're looking for the cheapest 12-inch netbook that plays back 1080p and has a good battery life then the 1215B seems to fit the bill perfectly.

It's not perfect though, the mouse buttons are quite stiff, which haven't been fixed from the older 1215N and at times the 1GHz clock speed of the C-50 will make Windows a bit sluggish when pure number crunching is involved. It's only in times like these when the Atom has the upper hand, but when coupled with the onboard graphics card, the 1215B is certainly more potent.