The Asus Eee PC 1000HE (and other models like it) shows us the way we are going in computing. The Asus Eee PC 1000HE (love the machine, hate the name) is probably the most affordable, snazzy looking computer on the block although my Advent is somewhat similar. This is a review but it is also a general look at the way the Netbook is taking over a major section of the computer market.

While the previous Asus Eee PC 1000 was quite an acceptable netbook, Acer’s Aspire One was snazzier and sexier. Might even have been a tad faster but you could not have proved it by me.

Darren Gladstone, on the Washington Post thinks this new machine is a quantum leap better.

I agree. It is faster, much although that matters not as much as when pounding words. I think, lighter, I know, sexier (in the eyes of this beholder and, beyond all belief you can get one for $400. Bear in mind my off-sider still lusts for a Sony Vaio, which is made of carbon and which will cost him almost five times as much and you worry about his sanity. (Mark you, that is something you worry about all the time.)

With some, traveling journos especially, the keyboard comes first. This follows in the MacBook Air tradition in that the keys seem to come through holes in the plastic. As a touch typist I was, at first, a little leery. Then it took off and it is as fast as any keyboard except the old Lexmark (which was IBM) of which I have seven left which I treasure like gold.

It has a trackpad. There was a time when I had a small phobia and would not use them. With help I have got over this and no longer feel I have to plug a mouse into a USB. If I had tuning equipment and intelligence enough to know how to use it, I would ease down the sensitivity a notch. Not too much. Just a fraction. Possibly because I am a twitchy individual.

There are handy short-cut buttons some of which you can define. Basically the ones you need to know about are the ones that can change the viewing resolution. You can work at 1024-by-768 or 1024 by 600 which is a special compression mode. Some programs will not work with it and it is handy and quick to switch back.

OK, the unit only has a 10.1-inch back-lit LED display but it is bright and capable of good color reproduction and for writing it is excellent. There is a highly polished bezel around the screen. On all my computers bright polished work is painted out so it would not bother me.

It is small than the Eee PC 1000 and weighs 3.2 pounds. That makes never-no-mind when you realize you have 8700mAH battery which is said to deliver 5.5 hours of performance as tested. You could still fly to Shanghai and not be bothered about a recharge if you are going to drink with dinner. I get much longer with the larger battery on my Advent but it means I carry two batteries.

The computer uses Intel’s 1.66-GHz Atom N280 CPU which will be fast enough for anything you would want to do and is, as it happens, much faster than the Advent.

The Asus comes with 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard disk drive, and 802.11b/g/n/Bluetooth wireless. Around the perimeter of chassis lies a fairly standard set of inputs. (Have you ever wondered why they do not color the top of USB plugs so they always go in the way? I color all mine as I am a klutz)

It also has a shared eSATA/USB 2.0 port so you can carry a spare hard disk although some of us are moving stuff from the machine on to the Internet and I could live with 160GB. Especially as this machine comes with 10GB online free storage.

A reviewer complained about the audio. I only listen to anything with noise suppression earphones and it sounds OK to me. But Johnny Cash is not, I think, a test of hi fi.

There is a suggestion in Electronics News that a survey found that only 11% would use a netbook as their primary computer, while 79 percent view netbooks as a secondary device to be used in addition to a laptop or desktop computer.

While I can see why that should be so and my case might be special I use a Netbooks as my main machine. True, I sometime bung a bigger screen on it but it is, as it were, my main computer.

Principal analyst Philip Solis, said, ‘While their low price does cause some consumers to view Netbooks as a replacement for a laptop given the current economic conditions, the majority view a netbook as being a secondary device.

‘Even as a device that is secondary to the PC, this has to cut into the laptop market somewhat. When considering another laptop as an additional device mostly for browsing the web and using other Internet-based communications applications, consumers will find netbooks to be an appropriate alternative.’

In truth I think he is talking rubbish. On any flight I take the vast majority are Netbooks. I think when it comes to replacement time it is the natural choice. This computer is the start of a major, major revolution.

Related:

Entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 1:09 am under Intel, Notebook.

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