ASUS BR1100 - Thoughts?

[aisle9]

Here's what I'm looking at:

https://www.microcenter.com/product/652909/asus-br1100cka-ys02-116-quot-laptop-computer-gray?rf=PDP_altSell+>+Cross_Sell+>+Cross+Sell+Laptops+Notebooks+Specific

 

Short version, specs only:

Celeron N4500

4GB RAM

64GB eMMC (accepts a secondary M.2 NVMe drive)

11.6" 1366x768 panel (mixed reports of IPS or TN)

 

I have absolutely no use case for it besides wanting a laptop with me when I travel to more remote locations. Places I'd rather not lose my nice HP Envy 13. It would be used for web browsing, 720p Youtube, maybe some word processing and light photo editing (like, very light, not even Photoshop) and very little else. It comes with Windows 10, which would immediately be wiped in favor of something like Lubuntu or MX. I'm fascinated by the Jasper Lake chips, and this one being a 2C/2T, while a bit terrifying, means battery life should be on the order of double-digit hours. Not bad for a $100 glorified netbook. And being heavily ruggedized is a huge plus for some of the places that laptop would find itself in.

 

That N4500 is the only thing that concerns me. Even in a lightweight Linux distro, is there a point where it's just too weak to do anything? For reference, the laptop's Cinebench R23 score is half that of a Q6600.

[Zando_]

1 hour ago, aisle9 said:

Even in a lightweight Linux distro, is there a point where it's just too weak to do anything? For reference, the laptop's Cinebench R23 score is half that of a Q6600.

Depends on the iGPU, if it has a shite one or one that doesn't support current codecs, Youtube will try and use the CPU, and it will have a rough time, though I think it's still fine for 720p. Source: I have a Mac Pro 1,1 using Core 2 Era dual cores, so about as fast as that celeron (as they are basically half a Q6600 themselves). 

 

For word processing and web browsing it'll be fine, a bit slow with beefier sites but usable. 

 

My dad had a tiny (even smaller than this I think) HP Netbook he absolutely loved, it had an Atom chip IIRC, barely ran web browsers, and had to run a light version of Windows 7, not even the full thing. He still used it for years for general home office work and some other projects. 

[powertoys]

20 hours ago, Zando_ said:

Depends on the iGPU, if it has a shite one or one that doesn't support current codecs, Youtube will try and use the CPU, and it will have a rough time, though I think it's still fine for 720p. Source: I have a Mac Pro 1,1 using Core 2 Era dual cores, so about as fast as that celeron (as they are basically half a Q6600 themselves). 

 

It's a very modern Celeron. It can't decode AV1 but everything else will be no trouble at all.

 

It's about as powerful as a laptop i3 from 5 years ago, except it uses a lot less power. Still usable but that's where I draw the line for modern Windows usability - any lower than that will be a painful experience (I'm talking about the Gemini Lake Celerons).

 

Btw, 768p on a 11.6" has almost the same ppi as 1080p 15.6".

[jaslion]

I know this laptop have 4 in stock again.

 

They

Suck

 

Cpu power is low. The igpu helps with media decoding because without that good luck. But 1080p yt is very much so the max.

 

The reap nail in the coffin is the 4gb ram and super slow emmc storage. Makes it basically unusable for windows.

 

Battery life never reaches double digits the battery is very small.

[aisle9]

2 hours ago, jaslion said:

I know this laptop have 4 in stock again.

 

They

Suck

 

Cpu power is low. The igpu helps with media decoding because without that good luck. But 1080p yt is very much so the max.

 

The reap nail in the coffin is the 4gb ram and super slow emmc storage. Makes it basically unusable for windows.

 

Battery life never reaches double digits the battery is very small.

I was standing in line staring at the crate of them yesterday, thinking, "the N4500 is twice as fast as the N3350 in my current netbook," and I kept hearing a little voice in my head say, "Ice that melts twice as fast in Siberia is still freaking slow." Thank you, this just confirms it. If I see something around the same price come up with an N5100 in it, I'll be much more interested.

[jaslion]

3 hours ago, aisle9 said:

I was standing in line staring at the crate of them yesterday, thinking, "the N4500 is twice as fast as the N3350 in my current netbook," and I kept hearing a little voice in my head say, "Ice that melts twice as fast in Siberia is still freaking slow." Thank you, this just confirms it. If I see something around the same price come up with an N5100 in it, I'll be much more interested.

Even the n5100 is slow. Just if you do this make sure it has 8gb of ram and an ACTUAL ssd. The 8gb of ram is the absolute minimum with emmc storage.

 

Ive had this discussion many times already and for some people 4gb of ram will work but like ram useage is NOT going down so thats not going to last what so ever.

 

Theres a reason sub 300 euro laptops are what I have the most off in terms of abandoned units. I have 2 washing bins rn and I think only one has 8gb of ram but its a ancient toshiba n2830 and even with the upgraded ssd the internet is just no longer possible in a usefull sense