ASUS N10 netbook a cut above the rest

 ASUS single-handedly kickstarted the netbook market with a raft of Eee PCs released over the last year, it can be argued.

Keeping ahead of the competition, which has come to realise the potential that exists in the sector, has been a little more difficult.

Today, though, sees details of ASUS' new N10 netbook seep through, purportely packing in a juicy specification that's geared towards a little extra oomph than we're accustomed to seeing from a slew of 'me-too' designs from big-name players.

Specifically, the N10 houses the ubiquitous Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz) CPU, a 10.2in (1,024x600) screen, 2GB RAM, a 250GB mechanical hard drive, NVIDIA's GeForce 9300M GS graphics, fingerprint reader. Windows Vista Business, and the usual connectivity options in the form of 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi. There's no optical drive, however.

Shoehorning extra graphical pomp with a discrete mobile graphics card and adding a capacious hard drive means that price, inevitably, goes up when compared to vanilla netbooks. The bad news is that it seems to arrive with a recommended retail price of $849 (£480) for a somewhat feature-packed notebook. That seems a little too high given how competitive the current thin-and-light market is, especially knowing how comparatively lacking Atom is compared to full-fat Core 2 Duo.

Still, it's nice to see a manufacturer do more than try to solely compete on the basis of cost - something that typifies the market which has been littered with a raft of homogenous products released recently.

Take a looksie for yourself.