Asus Eee PC 1000HE Netbook Review
The Asus 1000HE has been tweaked to offer an improved keyboard and a new Intel Atom processor brain. Also the new Eee PC 1000HE offers some pretty solid battery life in a competitively priced $399 package. Not bad!
The Asus Eee PC 1000HE’s body is slightly fatter than competitor products in the same price/size range but it has a newer flat-topped style keyboard with widely spaced keys similar to Apple and Sony laptops to make up for this deficit.
Keyboard feel is noticeably improved over previous Asus Eee PC’s and additionally keys such as the shift keys have been relocated to give a more standard feel. Quick launch keys also reside above the keyboard to control various functions including screen resolution. Touchpad feel is also improved over previous Eee PC’s.
The new Asus 1000HE offers a 10.1 inch widescreen display with a native resolution of 1024x600. While a standard resolution for Netbooks in its category, some web pages still require some scrolling to view completely, though not exactly too much of an issue since this is honestly to be expected in such a small notebook package. With the press of the aforementioned quick launch key above the keyboard you can cycle through various resolutions including 1024x768 & 800x600 to sometimes improve the readability of some on screen elements such as small text. While not extremely useful since on screen elements look best at the native 1024x600 resolution, it is still a welcomed addition to be able to switch resolutions with the click of a button.
Ultra Portable Asus Eee PC Netbooks
Some other features of the Asus 1000HE include stereo speakers and a headphone/microphone jack, 3 USB 2.0 and an SD card reader, standard Ethernet jack, 802.11 b/g/n wireless, and Bluetooth. Unfortunately because of its small size the Asus 1000HE lacks a built in Optical drive though this is to be expected.
Performance wise Intel’s newer Intel Atom N280 did help improve performance of the Asus Eee PC 1000HE Netbook a bit but nothing quite substantial over previous models, though definitely a welcomed speed increase nevertheless.
Our test model included the Intel Atom N280 which runs faster than many other Netbooks running the Intel N270 in the same category. The Intel Atom N280 also includes a faster front side bus speed which also helps to feed the CPU with more instructions thus creating a modest but overall speed improvement.
Battery life of the Eee PC 1000HE was excellent. The Asus Eee PC 1000HE comes packed with a six-cell battery power plant that promises to drive the Intel Atom powered portable to up to 9.5 hours of batter life. Of course keep in mind this is with a relaxed usage style. Asus claims to have achieved 9.5 hours by running the system in power saving mode, with the LCD screen set at 40 percent brightness, and with webcam and wireless technologies disabled. After running our test system through the paces in various power modes and usage patterns we’ve achieved up to 4.8 hours of battery runtime. Not bad at all!!!
Warranty wise the Asus Eee PC 1000HE includes a standard one year included parts and labor warranty. Asus also offers web based help, and also a toll-free phone number. Asus also offers an improved support website with driver downloads a basic FAQ section and more.
Conclusion:
In conclusion the Asus Eee PC 1000HE includes some welcoming additions that were lacking in previous Eee PC’s, though compared to some of the competitors products in the Netbook market the Asus 1000HE still lacks some features that we would have liked to see.
Commendable additions of course include excellent battery life, the much improved Sony/Apple style keyboard and a competitive price to top it off. We would have liked to see better performance but the slightly faster Intel Atom didn’t quite impress us as much as we hoped for, though still we welcome any speed increase even if marginal.
Despite any of its shorcommings the Asus 1000HE is a solid little Netbook that will be a sweet little computing companion for many looking for a cheap little mobile web browsing machine.
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