The Eee PC 1001P is a budget netbook from Asus. At first glance, it looks a lot like the company's flagship Eee PC 1005PE netbook. But there are a few minor differences. The Eee PC 1001P doesn't have 802.11n and it has a lower capacity battery than the Eee PC 1005PE.
But thee Eee PC 1001P also has a few things going for it. First, it's cheap, with a starting price of under $300. And second, it has a matte display and lid, which means it won't attract fingerprints as easily as some models, and it's much easier to use in direct sunlight than a netbook with a glossy screen.
Specs vary by model, but the demo unit Asus sent me to review has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel matte display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, and runs Windows 7 Starter Edition. The Asus Eee PC 1005PE-PU17 has a 250GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 6 cell, 48Whr battery. There's also a cheaper model with a 160GB hard drive and no Bluetooth.
Design
The Asus Eee PC 1001P has the same Seashell-inspired design as the last few netbooks from Asus including the Eee PC 1005PE. That means it's wider near the back where the battery is, and thinner in the front, with rounded edges and corners. But while the overall case design is much the same as Asus netbooks past, there are a few subtle differences between the Eee PC 1001P and earlier models.
First, Asus has replaced the usual glossy lid with a matte finish with a textured pattern. Depending on what angle you're at, the lid looks a bit like a subtle checkerboard or a series of dots. But the important thing to note here is that it won't show smudges and fingerprints as easily as most other Eee PC netbook lids.
The textured pattern also covers the palm rest area of the netbook, while the battery, bottom, and areas around the sides of the keyboard are just plain matte plastic.
Asus has also dropped the glossy display on this model in favor of a matte finish. Not only does this mean the display doesn't show smudges as easily, but it also mean that the screen is much easier to read in direct sunlight than it would be if it were a glossy display. That's because it doesn't reflect glare. You can use most netbooks with glossy displays as mirrors when you cut the power and gaze into the blank screen. That's not the case with the Eee PC 1001P thanks to the matte display.
The matte display also makes the netbook easier to use outdoors. The matte display doesn't look as good as a Pixel Qi screen outdoors. But on a cloudy day you could probably sit outside with this netbook and get a little bit of work done without the screen serving double duty as a mirror.
Despite the fact that the netbook has a matte lid and a matte screen, Asus stuck with shiny black plastic for the bezel. So if you miss being able to see your reflection in a netbook display, all you have to do is glance at the area around the screen.
Around the sides of the Eee PC 1001P you'll find a VGA port, 3 USB ports, mic and headphone jacks, an Ethernet jack and an SDHC card slot.
The bottom of the computer has a single access panel which you can remove to get at the single memory slot. Replacing the hard drive or other components requires opening up the computer's chassis.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The Asus Eee PC 1001P has the exact same keyboard as the Eee PC 1008HA which I reviewed late last year. It's not quite the same chiclet-style keyboard found on other netbooks, but the keys are large and flat and offer a decent amount of surface area, making typing comfortable.
My only real complaint with the keyboard is that the arrow keys are awkwardly crammed into the lower right corner so that you have full size left and right arrow keys and tiny up and down arrow keys sandwiched between them. That's four keys crammed into a space barely large enough for three normal keys — although
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