Asus Eee PC 1000H Review

It has been almost exactly one year since we saw the Asus Eee line of notebooks hit store shelves and it has been quite a year for this little side project from Asus. The original Asus Eee PC lineup, even with its flaws, turned out to be a massive surprise hit, as Asus hit a price and form factor that the market was finally ready to adopt for an ultra-mobile notebook. The Eee PC, while not truly the first of its kind, cemented the "netbook' product category, which has encouraged potential buyers to accept this genre of products. Since its release, we've seen nearly every major OEM produce a similar product to compete with the Eee, although Asus's six month lead in this arena has helped them flesh out their product lineup even before their competitors got their first notebooks out.
The draft-n wireless introduced in the 901 is present here too, but it’s in hard disk capacity that the 1000H makes the biggest leap forward. Gone are the 12GB and 20GB SSD storage options; instead we now get an 80GB hard disk with the XP version, although 160GB models will be available soon. If you opt for Linux you can get an additional 1GB of RAM over the XP version, bringing it to 2GB total.

The rest of the specification remains the same: three USB ports, 10/100 ethernet, Bluetooth and a card reader for SD, MMC and SDHC formats. The combination of 1GB of RAM and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor propelled the Asus to the expected score of 0.31 in our benchmarks – matching all its main rivals – and the battery returned an impressive six hours of light use before running dry.

The Asus Eee PC 1000H battery has much in common with the Eee PC 901. It's got the same shiny, metallic hinges and a curvy-edged lid. Currently, it's available in only one colour--glossy black--but we'd be surprised if Asus doesn't release a white version and other subsequent hues in the near future.

The Eee PC 1000H is the largest mini laptop we've come across. Its 225 x 170 x 20mm chassis is a few millimeters wider and deeper than an MSI Wind, but we don't have too much of an issue with this; it's still very portable. What we do have a problem with is the Eee PC 1000H's weight--1.45kg with the standard 6,600mAh battery. Even without the battery, it tips the scales at nearly 1.1kg, which is what the MSI Wind weighs with its standard 2,200mAh power cell. To say Asus has screwed up in this area would be an understatement.

The large and fast drive also makes the 1000H an ideal portable multimedia unit, as you can store almost as many movies and music files on it as you can on a high-end iPod. And that's very much a key aspect of this Eee PC; it's more than a tool for getting online and creating documents, it's also a vehicle for being entertained. Its size still makes it the perfect gizmo for travellers who want a small laptop on which to record their adventures and dump their photos, and students will appreciate it for its storage capacity, low price and relatively comfortable keyboard (compared to the other Eee PC models, that is).

Eee PC 1000H is Taiwan’s version of the latest Eee PC launched by ASUS late in 2007. Since then, like a wildfire the Eee PC revolution has burned asunder all competition before it. There is literally no other genré of PC like it. However, that being said, I have to say the look and feel of the model we are looking at today is a lot different from the first Eee PC we originally exposed in all her innocence a while ago.

Netbook Eee PC 1000H battery offers even more options to users for unique user experiences. Featuring up to 7.5 hours of battery life, built in high speed 802.11n connectivity and exclusive 20GB file-encrypted Eee Storage with 5 GB worth of downloads per day for easy accessibility makes it the ideal traveling companion for outdoor activities. The large 10" display provides comfortable viewing, and a large keyboard makes for easier typing and relaxing usage. Large storage space. Content includes Eee PC, battery, AC Adapter, Sleeve Case, Manual and Recovery CD.

There's very little difference between the EeePC 1000 and the rest of its Atom-equipped rivals in terms of performance. The 1000 clocked up 1,512 in PCMark 2005, which is a very respectable score for a machine of this type. During our time with it, it felt very responsive and never gave us the impression it wasn't up for a particular task.

3D gaming isn't the 1000's forte. It only hit 602 in 3DMark 2006, which is pretty pathetic. Remember, the machine clearly isn't designed to move polygons around, so if you stick to things like browsing the Web, showing presentations, playing movies, you won't be disappointed.

Battery life was pretty impressive in the EeePC 1000. We weren't expecting it to be as long as the EeePC 901's, due to its larger screen, but it fared surprisingly well. It lasted 3 hours 56 minutes while watching a DivX movie, which is good compared to the 901's 4.5 hours.

The prime competitors to the 1000H though are from outside Asus, namely the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, and the upcoming products from Dell and Lenovo. Almost all of these start off for less than the Asus, but features do vary so everyone will have to buy based on their needs. It is worth taking into consideration that Asus has been at the netbook game a bit longer than the others, but the competitors have done a great job of catching up. Prospective buyers should take note of the battery size–Asus packed this model with a 6-cell where some others start off with a 3-cell. Asus also tends to have better included software (for computer controls and such) than the other companies, so this might be important to you.

If you take a step back and forget about the competitors and the price wars and so on, the battery for Asus Eee PC 1000H turns out to be a very solid 10-inch netbook. It offers a good typing experience, a usable display, and a full set of features, making just what people need from a netbook. Where the Eee PC 701 was OK as a secondary notebook, the 1000H could be a primary notebook (but not, for most people, your primary computer). This may seem like a fine distinction, but it represents a big jump in usefulness and productivity. Once you factor in the price and competition, things get a lot more complex–Asus has still put out a very good product but the tough competition in this segment means that, for many people, it is not as desirable a system as some of the alternatives.