Time For Another Industry First: A Netbook For Games

It’s become clear that nowadays almost every netbook on the market comes with a 10-inch/Intel Atom/Windows XP formula configuration. Finding a netbook that breaks the mold is a great surprise, to say the least, and today is one of those occasions. Once again rising to the occasion, ASUS – whose recent developments we have been following in our articles here and here – has decided to deliver a netbook that will surely shock you.

The ASUS N10J is a 10-inch system that will, as a change of pace, not share the Eee PC brand name. Other ASUS netbooks have fallen under the Eee PC label but, perhaps to highlight the uniqueness of this new netbook, ASUS has decided not to continue the trend.

However, that is not all. It appears that this new netbook is going to be meant for games… what?!

At first glance, this seems anachronistic. Could low-power and small screen size, features that characterize standard netbooks, be even remotely compatiable with gaming?

The N10J will enter the market at $699, which is somewhat above the average. It has an Nvidia GeForce 9300 graphics card  to run the games it means to, which is the first time discrete graphics have been seen on a netbook. Interestingly, there is an option to switch between GeForce graphics and the integrate Intel graphics, so if you want to do a bit of tweaking to improve your battery life while gaming, you can.

The new netbook should appeal to PC game lovers, and prove to be an excellent device to travel with. Of course, this will require buyers to adapt to playing with lower framerates and turning down the graphics. In order to compensate for the added task of running games the ASUS N10J has 2 GB of RAM and a 320 GB HDD.

This excellent new attempt to change the industry is exemplary of the calculated risk-taking ASUS has proven it can harness and succeed with. It remains to be seen if any competitors are up to ASUS’ challenge.