Launching on serveral ASUS notebooks and netbooks during Computex is ASUS’ brand new Instant On! feature (yes, with exclamation mark). Sleep and hibernation are better than shutting down a notebook because it means you don’t have to shut down all your programs and work, so they can be resumed later.
ASUS Instant On! Software
It’s designed to be more convenient. First things first though – a lesson in the difference between sending a notebook to sleep versus hibernation.
Sleep locks the desktop data into main memory, which means the notebook can wake much faster to restore the desktop just as you left it. The downside is that it requires the memory to be always active to keep the data refreshed; this constantly drains the battery and in 2-3 days.
Hibernation takes the desktop data and stores it on the hard drive instead of memory. This means the notebook can turn off indefinitely at no cost to battery life, however resuming from the hard drive is often no faster than a cold boot-up, which can take 15-30 seconds.
Instant On! calls in the best of both worlds of Zzzzzzz. It can always resume in just seconds like sleep mode but it will last far longer. The Eee PC 1025CE will be able to resume in 2-4 seconds for up to 21 days with the 6-cell battery, while the larger new N-series can do up to 15 days. Even then, if your battery does run out of juice or it’s removed in the mean time, the data isn’t lost like in the standard sleep mode as it’s also backed up to the hard drive for security.
If you’ve any more questions drop them in the comments below!
Nick Holland
Nick Holland – Portability and PC gaming are essential to Nick’s life. He’s enjoyed the latter since a very young age – eschewing consoles for customizability of a PC (with the finest backbones like the Asus P3B-F and A7V133) and the feel of a keyboard and mouse. As soon as he could afford a notebook he got one and things have rolled on from there into sleek DTRs (desktop replacements) netbooks, smartphones and he’s already eyeing up the latest tablets while trying to think up an excuse to own one. After writing about all things tech for several years it is only natural he sought to join the already awesome TiS team.