Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook – Impressions
If you’ve been following the story, I’ve been trying to install OS X on the Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook with varying degrees of success. I figured I’d take a break from that and just give a quick overview of my impressions of the machine thus far as compared to my Acer Aspire One netbook and my former MacBook Air (and maybe even my former iBook, since that’s what I’ve been trying to replace all along).
It’s difficult in some ways to compare these beasts because they’re really all designed with different purposes in mind. While the MacBook Air is obviously the most powerful of the three, and even though it similarly doesn’t have an optical drive, it’s still different because of that damn Core 2 Duo. That changes things, but it’s not the be-all, end-all, or else we, as consumers, wouldn’t be buying netbooks like crazy. Anyhow, enough editorializing since you want to know what I think about the Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook, right? Right.
Here’s a quick and dirty rundown.
Appearance: nice, slick black case (yeah, I went with black since the Acer Aspire One netbook is blue), but a fingerprint magnet like the One. The ports are arranged nicely and the vents in the usual places. Unlike the one, there’s no colored rings around the headphone and mic ports which helps give the side a seamless appearance (aside from the holes for various inputs). The hinges look nice and strong, and the side of the hinges is metal and stands out in a nice way. Thumbs up to Asus for their exterior case design. Also, the access panel on the bottom allows for easy access to the hard drive and RAM, but if you want at the wireless card, you’ll have to remove more screws and plastic.
The interior appearance has the same attention to detail with very little color except for black, metal, and blue on some of the keys. I don’t care for the row of buttons along the top, including the power button. They’re small and can be a bit of pain to press squarely. Also, the pictures on the hot buttons are a little mystifying. However, I’m a fan of chiclet keyboards and aside from wanting a larger right shift key, I can find every little to complain about the keyboard.
The actual keyboard function is fast and snappy. I’m not noticing any case flex or squeaks, and the slightly increased size over the smaller One’s keyboard is immediately noticeable. However, a full-size keyboard it most definitely is not. While I would have loved a full keyboard, that can’t be done on a 10″ netbook, so this is a pretty reasonable solution, however, there is some wasted space on all sides that would have allowed for a slightly larger keyboard (unlikely since that’d be yet another odd ratio keyboard for them to make, although this one is different) and slightly taller touch pad.
While I like the keyboard about as well as I can (initially), the touch pad is garbage. It’s slightly better than the one’s because the buttons aren’t on the side and aren’t as ridiculously difficult to click (even with long, skinny guitarist fingers), it’s still junk. It’s too small and the buttons are barely adequate. However, again, it’s the best (size, at least) you’re going to get on a 10″ netbook.
Performance is right in line with the One and hardly different, storage aside. The slight jump in processor speed and FSB isn’t noticeable. Any perceived difference is likely because the One is running linux and this is running Windows XP (and sort-of OS X). However, that said, I’m pleased with how Windows runs and was a little surprised at how usable it is. It’s definitely better than I expected (despite many people saying it’s rather satisfactory) and I think I could live with it if I can’t get OS X to work properly. Although, as a side note, I did try to install Windows 7, but it complained because it didn’t like OS X’s modification to the partition table or MBR (likely the MBR). I may try to install Windows 7 in the future, but not likely if OS X ends up working out.
One thing I haven’t mentioned, weight. The Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook is solid. And I mean solid. Sure, it’s a pretty diminutive device, but when you pick it up, you can feel that they crammed a ton of into this little plastic shell, and everything just feels solid. Weight, construction, everything. It feels solid. It’s noticeable heavier than the One, and I’m not sure if it’s my imagination or not, but it almost feels like it’s a mite heavier than the MacBook Air, but that may be because I’ve forgotten what that one weighed like, or maybe it’s because the Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook is so back heavy. Either way, it’s by no means heavy as a whole, but this netbook is still significant.
Lastly, I’ll touch on battery life. I’ve not had a chance to really knock it down from 100% to 0% yet, but I’m pretty well impressed with how long a charge it’s able to hold. I’m calling BS on 9.5 hours right now, but I think 6.5 or 7 is definitely doable, and without resorting to turning everything down or off, and also assuming you’re not sitting there calculating pi or playing Q3A.
On the whole, I’m pretty well impressed, but I’ll need a week or two of general usage with it to see if it’s a keeper or not. I’ll post a full review once I’ve had a chance to give this netbook a better try, but for now, I’m giving it a cautious thumbs up.
That said, I’m still keeping an eye on the Samsung NC20 netbook. Just in case.
Also, I’ll be posting a write-up on getting OS X on your Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook soon, though I fully admit ahead of time it’s no more than a compilation of work others have already done, just slightly more focused toward the 1000HE with the hope in mind that others will chime in and flesh it out. (Yes, I know I’ve posted about getting it to install, but that’s more a “woe is me” than “here’s how to do it” thing.)
i love the Asus Eee PC, it is very light, cheap and portable. I also bought another unit for my girlfriend and she really likes it.
Asus Eee is very convenient to carry. It is my walkaround laptop wherever i go. The battery life could have been better though
I own an Asus Eee and an acer netbook but i often use the Asus Eee because it is so much lighter and easily fits in my small bag.
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I got an Asus Eee as a christmas gift. It is very compact but i wish that the LCD screen was larger.