Asus EeeTop ET2010PNT review

Nvidia’s Ion chipset, which paired its own graphics chip with Intel’s Atom processor, was meant to usher in a new breed of entertainment netbooks, but it didn’t quite have the expected impact. After a return to the drawing board, Nvidia is back with the “next generation” Ion, inside the Asus EeeTop ET2010PNT all-in-one PC.

The new chipset is still branded Nvidia Ion, but it’s seen extensive changes under the hood, with the GT218 core replacing the GeForce 9400M of old. Built using a 40nm manufacturing process, GT218 promises greater power efficiency for the same gain in graphical power, and now boasts dedicated memory. In this case, the GT218 is supplemented by 512MB of RAM.

Real-world benefits, alas, were minimal. The original Ion averaged 16fps in our Low quality Crysis test; this new version scored 21fps. It’s a slightly better result, but it still isn’t enough for any serious current-generation gaming. Media playback is the key, though, and here it performed better. The Asus motored through our 720p clips flawlessly, although for the highest quality YouTube and iPlayer videos you’ll need to wait for a driver update when Flash 10.1 is officially released. It fared less well with 1080p content, but since the 1,600 x 900 screen can’t handle that resolution anyway, it’s a moot point.

The Ion chipset is partnered with Intel’s 1.66GHz Atom D510 processor and, despite its two cores, it returned a benchmark score of just 0.4. That isn’t significantly quicker than previous generations of desktop Atoms, and restricts the Asus to basic tasks, albeit slightly more capable of multitasking smoothly. Compared to the cheaper Dell Inspiron One 19 Touch, it’s way behind – despite an ageing Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 CPU, the Dell scored 1.19.