Pros: Excellent performance and battery life in the most usable Netbook yet!
Cons: Low audio volume, dropped frames in HD playback.
The Bottom Line: Excellent usability due to good keyboard, bright and sharp screen and good overall performance. All in an ultra-portable with all-day battery life! Now Windows and Linux dual boot too!
za9ra22's Full Review: ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (EPC1000HE-BLK005X) Netbook
The Netbook market has really taken off in ways many thought unlikely. The presumption that users wouldn't flock to low-cost, moderate performance ultra portables because there had never been a market for such systems before has clearly been affected by the economic downturn, matched by a similar upturn in base performance levels which made even the first Netbooks an attractive proposition.
Now we have seen the price point for these systems drop into the $300-$400 range, and begun to see rising battery performance combined with a growing feature set, and suddenly Netbooks look very attractive to a wide audience. The result is a confusing marketplace of systems, many from manufactures that are not well known, amongst a smattering of products from leading contenders such as Dell, Lenovo and HP.
But are these systems any good? What can they really do?
When the first generation of Netbooks began to arrive, I was not much impressed. Small drives, low memory, cramped screens and keyboards all conspired to make for systems which while truly portable, were very low on usability. The widespread use of Linux was an attraction, but the only truly interesting product seemed to be the One Laptop Per Child which offered a lot of innovative promise, but not much else. The flurry of competing systems from Aspire, Asus and others which came after seemed at first to be little more than condensed versions of yesterday's laptops. Cute, but not all that practical.
But that was the opening Netbook chapter. Now it's Netbook 2.0 and things have changed a great deal. Most systems are larger, sporting 10” screens rather than 7 or 8, less cramped keyboards, larger storage, more RAM, and, as 11n, Bluetooth and other technologies begin to appear, have also come equipped with larger batteries promising prolonged use away from a power outlet, along with more widespread use of Windows XP.
So, when considering replacing an aging laptop which was predominantly used for rough drafts of reports on the road, I took the opportunity to look at a few of the newer Netbooks, along with more traditional 'luggables'. I was pleasantly surprised. Spurred on by improved battery life and tiny footprint, I found myself placing a number of Netbook contenders near the top of my list of choices.
Tempted by the Lenovo S10 and Acer Aspire One, an HP, then the MSI Wind 100 and 120, I was about to jump for the easy choice of Acer, when Asus released the PC 1000HE. I'd considered a couple of their prior models (the 900 and 1000) but found the keyboards odd and difficult to adjust to, but the 'chiclet' style keyboard introduced on the 1000HE was much, much better. And the quoted 9.5 hour battery life won me over. With a special offer from zipzoomfly for the system and 2Gb RAM for $359, I took the plunge.
The PC 1000HE has a 10.1” matte screen, a glossy black casing, chicklet keyboard, three USB 2.0 ports, ethernet, mini-jacks for audio in and out, a VGA port, SD card slot, 1.3MP webcam and dual microphones. It features 802.11 wifi which is b,g and n compatible, Bluetooth 2.0 and a high capacity battery which is commonly reported to give 7 or more hours of untethered normal use. There's a 160Gb 5400rpm hard drive, partitioned in two, creating a C and D drive. There's even a multi-touch trackpad and easy access to both RAM slot and hard drive. All this in a package not much larger than a good paperback, and weighing a fraction over 3lbs.
Unpacking it proved one thing: Netbooks really are awfully cute. The gloss-black finish (plus fingerprints after a matter of seconds), the small footprint, the solid feel and the quick startup all make for an engaging experience from the outset. This is no laptop that will end up being left in the bag unused because it's too heavy or cumbersome!
Initial setup is very straightforward, in typical XP fashion. A few questions and selections and the system is configured and boots to Windows. From there, but for the diminutive size, it's just like any other XP system.
The PC 1000HE comes with very little software pre-installed. There's StarOffice 8 (in use right now typing this review) which is an excellent, free, fully Office compatible suite, Skype, Internet Explorer 7, Acrobat Reader 8, Windows Live Mail, a Bluetooth Utility, WinDVD player, and a login application for the 10Gb of on-line storage which is offered free for the first 18 months. There's no trialware or test versions of software found on many other systems which need to be removed. But no antivirus package. Curiously, also not much in the way of software to exploit the common strength of almost all Netbooks – the webcam. There is an application – Ecap – which can be downloaded from the Asus support site and streams the webcam output, but otherwise not even a video chat application.
This latter can be overcome of course by downloading the latest AIM client or Yahoo Messenger, but it's a shame Asus haven't given more thought to actual use of the webcam for the very purpose many will want a Netbook – video chat/conferencing. It's the only significant omission.
Wifi is quick to connect, reliable and rapid, though signal strength seemed a little below what I'd normally expect. No dropouts though, and a steady 54Mbit connection to my 11g router, making the process of updating Windows and downloading antivirus software both speedy and trouble free.
Once updated and a suitable security application downloaded, installed and configured, the system is ready for use.
Performance is very credible for general purpose work, including browsing, email, word processing and spreadsheets. Photoshop Elements is very usable, making it a good platform for uploading images from a camera while on the road. Mine has also been used for roughing out page designs and typesetting newsletters in a venerable copy of Pagemaker, and for playback of ripped movies from my iTunes library while away from home. StarOffice Writer has also been used to write a lengthy report, with few keying errors and none of the expected discomfort of extended use.
After prolonged use the underside of the PC 1000HE gets pretty warm, though not uncomfortably so and doesn't seem to get truly hot. The fan is noticeable in a quiet room when it spins up to speed, but is not obtrusive, and can't be heard if there's background noise.
While no slouch with the standard 1Gb RAM, swapping out the memory module for a 2Gb unit results in smoother handling of multiple applications with very little noticeable lag or pauses in use. All to be expected since even with the standard 1Gb RAM performance is sprightly and responsive. All in all quite impressive. It serves as a reminder, perhaps a timely one, that the ongoing trend to faster and faster systems with ever-greater power and capabilities is largely wasted on the majority of users who simply need a reliable platform on which to do very common computing tasks.
All very credible, and largely to be expected since as much as Netbooks are not in the same league as today's high-power workstations, they are perfectly capable systems. It should be said however that the system drops frames when playing HD video content, and sound is a little quiet due to the downward-facing speakers. I suspect Netbooks aren't for you if you are into serious gaming or HD playback.
The keyboard takes no real getting used to – while smaller than a traditional keyboard, the difference isn't all that great, and the 1000HE's chicklet style keys leave plenty of room for moderately sized fingers. Large hands could be a problem though, and for hunt-and-peck typists, the slightly closer key spacing could be a bit of a problem for a while. Key feel is pretty good, though a little springy, so while key travel is very short, tactile feedback is excellent. This keyboard is a serious improvement over the previous one used by Asus in earlier PC 1000 models!
At just over 3lbs, with battery, and barely 10 x 7.5 x 1 inches in size, this is a very portable system. It is not in the same realm as the early Netbooks which were almost pocketable – it's simply too large – but it is light and small enough to fit in a bag and be almost unnoticed. It is supplied with a soft carry-sleeve which is slightly too big for it, but protects it from scuffing and light impacts, and almost vanishes without trace if put into a standard laptop case! Even the power adapter is tiny in comparison to the majority of laptops.
The screen is very clear and sharp with good contrast and speed, and a wide viewing angle, and while it looks a little cramped to begin with, it is very easy and comfortable to work with. The hinges are stiff, which makes the 1000HE a two-handed job to open, but also means the screen stays exactly where you put it, making working with it much more comfortable than systems with softer or more springy hinges where the screen moves over time. Set on about 25% brightness it is usable in normal office lighting, and though it gets somewhat washed out in sunlight, even at 100% brightness, it has more adjustment than many other the systems, making it a good choice for variable or unpredictable lighting conditions.
Battery life is not quite the quoted 9.5 hours. In typical use, untethered from the mains, a little shy of 8 hours has been typical. This is exceptional, even now, for any portable, and allows considerably greater flexibility of use than is possible with the majority of other Netbooks and laptops. Whether this run time is an advantage or not is dependent on circumstance, but it has not been difficult to find situations where the extra power and portability have made the PC 1000HE far more useful than expected, or than would have been possible with other systems. It's also not hard to find applications in which it would excel, such as for students, regular travellers, or even with suitable software for in-car navigation.
The trackpad is much improved over the smaller and more cramped units on some other models. It's not large, but large enough, and features multi-touch, so there are a number of gestures it supports, such as using two fingers together to scroll up and down, zoom in or out and even rotate, or three fingers to 'swipe' for page up or down. These can all be switched on and off separately in the Mouse control panel if needed.
The PC 1000HE may not fare well in gaming or high-end video, but at this level of performance and price, and with these features and battery life, it is a compelling solution to mobile computing, where up until the current Netbook generation, there were just too many compromises to be made when needing computing power on the go. There were plenty of good portables, just not small and truly portable portables, capable of prolonged use away from a power outlet.
As such, there is much to recommend the PC 1000HE and very little to criticize. It's marginally heavier, thicker and deeper than other 10” Netbooks due to the large battery, but in each case the difference is marginal and the benefit of longer battery life well worth it. The best way to describe using it is that after a few minutes, you forget you're using a very cute Netbook that weighs less than a TV dinner, only to be reminded when you realise you have to wipe the fingerprints off it from everyone else wanting to have a play! UPDATED 7/23/09The netbook is still going strong in daily use. As a practical system for prolonged use and which is light and compact enough to be take-it-almost-anywhere, it's hard to beat. I have now set it up to dual-boot Windows XP and Eebuntu (Linux) Standard Edition, with the Eebuntu install being simple and flawless from a 2Gb USB stick. The current 3.0 release required a wired network connection to automatically grab updates which added support for the wifi adaptor, but otherwise was very smooth and easy to accomplish. Eebuntu download from http://www.eeebuntu.org/index.php?page=downloadand instructions for install at http://eeebuntu.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page with further support and discussions at http://forum.eeebuntu.org/ ..... for anyone interested!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 359 Operating System: Windows Processor: Other Processor speed: over 1000 Screen Size: 10 inches RAM: More than 256 Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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