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[bicostp]

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!) 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 over 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:

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 connector...

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!

PS I'm well aware of the fact that $500 could get a full size laptop. I'm looking for portability; the 15" aircraft carrier I already have is no fun to lug around.

[McTaggart]

I have a 1000H that's a few years old now, running Ubuntu Netbook Remix (until the end of semester when I'll change it up for an OS with less crap I never use). I'm not a huge fan of the build quality but I think the newer EEEs are nicer. Same story with the keyboard. You should really try and find one in a store and test out the feel of it in person.

I don't see problems with the slow hard drive, but I don't really do anything harddrive intensive.

Don't count on playing TF2 though, that game's been running worse and worse with every patch for a year or so now. You're definitely going to need high fps configs; hell I need to do that on my desktop.

[bicostp]

Well, as of this past spring I was still running it on my HP dv5000 with a 2.0 ghz Turion and Radeon x200m video Dorito, I can't imagine any modern netbook being much worse than that. (I'm primarily looking for something more usable than a regular 10" 1.6 ghz netbook, that can play HD content and the occasional game.)

I'm also looking at some of the AMD Nile based netbooks (1.7 ghz Neo/Turion, Radeon HD 4250). The prices are competitive (especially the 1215t on NewEgg with no preinstalled OS), but it's tough to find hard data comparing that architecture's performance and power consumption to the ION2. (I've never been a big fan of AMD anyway, to be honest...) A lot of the

For example:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6416086&CatId=4938
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6361951&CatId=4949

Looks like Acer even lets you swap out the hard drives without taking the entire laptop apart to the molecular level!  What luxury!

[benenator]

Just make sure the netbook doesn't have the Poulsbo/Moorestown chipsets, like the Acer Aspire One 751h and some Dell Minis have. The drivers SUCK under any operating system, and in Windows only a few programs even have support for its features.

[bicostp]

Actually, I've been looking at other models and have pretty much settled on a dual-core Thinkpad x100e. (1.6 ghz Turion x2 Neo, 1 MB L2 cache, Radeon HD 3200.) A fully loaded refurb is cheaper than a base new unit with the good CPU, even with the Black Friday coupon.