Comments on: Asus Eee PC 1000HE Netbook Review

By: Acnegal

Acnegal — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:05:20 +0000

Asus Eee is perfect for ladies who does not want to carry a very heavy laptop. i like the Asus Eee because it is very compact and easy to carry anywhere.

By: The Netbook Buyer’s Guide » Blog Archive » Asus Eee Pc 1000he Netbook Review | Netbooks & Small Form Factor

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:50:40 +0000

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By: Jhen Lee

Jhen Lee — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:01:06 +0000

what i like about the Asus Eee PC is that it is very lightweight and very portable that you can just carry it anywhere.

By: scn

scn — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:26:46 +0000

I maintain that I’m yet to find a good trackpad on a netbook. While everything else can be very useful and good (I lump the 1000HE and the N120 into this group), the trackpad is garbage.

I think there’s a fairly good chance you’ll hate every other trackpad once you get a new MBP if only because the surface is so smooth. Even compared to the pad on my 15″ MBP (which has the old button bar and “normal” sized pad), it’s light years better. I’m yet to mention it on the site, but I have one of the lovely new 13″ MBPs, and it’s as close to old iBook as I’ve found yet, and frankly, I love it. I’ll be doing a review of it soon as well.

By: LizzieBee

LizzieBee — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:42:01 +0000

After doing a lot of research, I managed to get my hands on an 1000HE, to replace my dying iBook G4 (yes, it’s died, and has done several times to the point that everyone I speak to about it agrees it’s a Lemon, and that’s pretty sad since it’s my first Apple laptop experience). And I have to agree with everything that you’ve said in your review. I am a very happy netbook user, and am having a very good experience with this little machine. I’m an admin person, and am just about up to my normal WPM speed on the keyboard after around 3 weeks, and just occasionally have a wrong-key keystroke. The most frustrating experience I’ve had with this machine, and am continuing to have, is the stupid trackpad, which is driving me up the wall. I’m used to a Mac trackpad, and am looking forward to a new Macbook Pro experience with the all-in-one trackpad/button, so when I started using my 1000HE, I was expecting the trackpad to do the iBook things I was used to. Which it does, to a point. Then it’ll go spacko, move tabs in Chrome, scroll down pages, and zoom/minimise pages I’m viewing as well. The two-fingers use of the trackpad is the thing that drives me up the wall, as well as it’s sensitivity. Still trying to figure out how to turn the sensitivity down.
But as a little temporary measure/computer to use whilst traveling/everyday machine, I can not complain at all. Very happy with my little 1000HE.

By: rcfa

rcfa — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:58:38 +0000

Oh, one more thing that’s missing from the machine: an ExpressCard slot to stick in a 3G/4G cellular networking card. The motherboard is prepared for having such a card installed, but you’d have to mod it yourself (solder SMT connectors to the prepared locations, etc. So when Asus comes with a “1000HE Go” then even that issue will be taken care of.
Until then, there are instructions on the web on how to make use of the prepared features of the mother board…

By: rcfa

rcfa — Fri, 01 May 2009 03:50:57 +0000

I’m not sure what you consider iffy about keyboard shortcuts on the 1000HE running Mac OS X.
I write this on an EeePC 1000HE running Mac OS X 10.5.6, so I know what you’re talking about.

As far as I’m concerned, I got almost everything working: graphical multi-partition boot (Chameleon 2.0RC1), 10.5.6, video resolution, web cam, bluetooth, sleep (not hibernation), brightness control keys
Missing are sound (not critical for me), hibernation (also not critical and even on the Mac a relatively recent feature), and native WiFi drivers (I ended up ripping the WiFi card out of my AppleTV, and with that everything works beautifully).

So my summary: once you have the obviously far less than Apple-like installation process behind you and swap the WiFi card, it is indeed almost good enough to forget you’re not on a Mac, except as you say, the trackpad: too darn sensitive, often instead of scrolling it registers a tap-swipe, and hence drags items, etc.
However, with a bit of practice, these issues are not a show-stopper. For taking with me on trips, to a café, surfing the web, answering e-mail messages, or just taking along for “just in case I need a computer”, this is perfect, and if it gets lost, stolen or someone spills their coffee over it, it’s less than $500, and that’s with an upgrade to a 500GB disk drive and 2GB RAM.

The only thing that for me remains to be solved to make me happy:
installing a vanilla Mac OS X with all the mods in an EFI partition, such as to make Apple Software Update a less risky endeavor. As long as you can’t have automatic software updates installed without fearing the system might not boot anymore afterwards, Mac OS X on the Eee 1000HE is great, but only for the technically savvy who know how to get themselves back out of trouble…

We’re close, very close to the perfect laptop. What’s missing from the 1000HE as a computer?
86×64 and dual core capability (like the Atom 330) and an Nvidia ION graphics chip, plus 4GB RAM.
If the rumors that Apple is going to have a netbook in fall are true, then likely because they are waiting for an intel Atom version that can deliver just that. If/when Apple offers such a product in the sub $500-600 range, I’ll be buying one without hesitation. In the meantime, the 1000HE is about as good as it gets., unless you spend thousands on Apple’s 17″ monster laptop and give up true, casual portability, there’s nothing that can run Mac OS X longer without AC than this machine, and that alone makes putting Mac OS X on it worthwhile.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:11:50 +0000

Agree with the other commenters, this is a great review, exactly what I was looking for. Everyone else’s review talks about the new Atom processor in the 1000HE, like it’s a big deal.

I couldn’t care less, i’m much more concerned about the ‘experience’. The discussion about OS X was very helpful, as I was considering going through the process of installing it (Mac fanboy here). But now, I might have to try out Windows 7.

Cheers! (written on my 1000HE that arrived yesterday)
-brian

By: K

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:08:21 +0000

Thanks for the in-depth review. I just purchased the 1000HE yesterday after much research. The worst feature for me is the trackpad, but it is less ‘sucky’ than all of the other netbooks I tried. I really like the keyboard, and the only netbook which I found to have a better keyboard was the HP). I was originally keen to install OSX (being a MAC user), but think I will give Windows 7 a try since reading your review. Thanks again!

By: Guy

Guy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:10:37 +0000

Thanks for the in-depth review – it certainly helped some OS decision making. I’ve spent the last month debating between the Asus eee PC 1000HE and the HP 2140/1035nr. Based on the strength of your OS X install notes I elected to go with the 1000HE. I’m hoping that as the platform/OS interface matures it’ll become a more cohesive experience. I only ordered it recently, so should have it in hand (living in Japan currently) soon to test. I think I could be happy with Win7 as my sole OS, but using the me.com for all my standard Mac apps probably won’t satisfy my needs either.

Again, thanks for the time you took to publish such a solid review, I’m sure it’ll help a lot of people make their decisions regarding the eee PC 100HE (especially with OS X).

Best regards,
Guy