... I was in the market for a netbook that can play 1080p video and has HDMI out port. Incredibly, it was very hard to find one that fits the bill... and then I bumped into Asus N10J...

I picked up a slightly more beefed up Canadian version off eBay -- it is the same as N10J-A1 but has a bigger 250 GB hard drive and a "bilingual" keyboard which has a few French symbols on it (makes no difference to my typing experience whatsoever).

The laptop looks great and feels sturdy. Keyboard is slightly cramped. Smaller shift keys bothered me at first, but I am now back to typing without even looking at the keyboard.

Vista runs fine. 2 GB Ram and dedicated video card can handle the glassy shiny Aero without any problems. The only occasional slowdowns occur under heavy multi-tasking... which is not what netbooks are intended for anyway. Overall, I'm very happy with the performance.

What I really like is the ability to use N10J as a media center PC. First, it can play 1080p video with no issues whatsoever given it is set up properly. Here's a very helpful tutorial on how to get smooth full HD playback on this little monster:

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Second, it delivers 5.1 sound via both HDMI port and a hybrid mini/SPDIF audio port. To get 5.1 audio via HDMI, you'll need to select nVidia Audio Output device via Control Panel => Sound.

Mini to SPDIF adapter is required for digital audio via the mini audio port. Actually, I recommend getting mini to SPDIF cable since there's signal loss with adapter + SPDIF cable combination.

Last, but not least, be sure to check out Asus N10 user community forums at [...] for helpful tips and tutorials.

I highly recommend this very portable yet very capable netbook. The price premium over less powerful machines is well worth it in my opinion. ...
Check Amazon Price and Read More Reviews on ASUS N10J-A1 10.2-Inch Laptop (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, NVidia 9300M 256MB, Vista Premium)