The good: Excellent battery life; improved keyboard; competitively priced.

The bad: Slightly faster Intel Atom CPU fails to impress; other Netbook makers have shown more innovation.

The bottom line: Asus practically invented the Netbook market, and the Eee PC 1000HE is an overdue overhaul that offers a new CPU and great battery life but misses some of the competition's bells and whistles.

Read full review of the Asus Eee PC 1000HE »

By Dan Ackerman, CNET.com
Mar 9, 2009

Asus deserves credit for practically inventing the Netbook market with its original 7-inch Eee PC, and its 9- and 10-inch follow ups. In the year-and-a-half since then, other companies have done much to add functionality (ExpressCard slots on the Lenovo S10) and refine the design (big keyboard on the HP Mini 1000), leaving the original Eee PCs looking a little dated. At the same time, competitors such as Acer's Aspire One have come in at hard-to-beat prices as low as S$498 (US$358.56), stealing away the entry-level part of the Netbook market.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

With the 10-inch Eee PC 1000HE, Asus has given the Eee PC line an overhaul, rolling out an improved keyboard and adding a newer version of Intel's Atom processor. While the faster processor doesn't add much in the way of performance, the Eee maintains its excellent reputation for battery life, and at S$798 (US$574.56), is competitively priced, making a great step up from the Acer model.



For a Netbook, the Asus Eee PC line has always been a bit heftier than the competition, but that distinction is even more pronounced when compared with 10-inch systems such as the HP Mini 1000 which is significantly lighter and considerably thinner than the Eee PC. Even Apple's new 17-inch MacBook Pro is thinner.

The keyboard is the biggest physical difference from previous 10-inch Asus Netbooks. The new flat-topped keys are widely spaced, which is similar to what you'd find on a laptop from Sony or Apple. It's a much-improved typing experience, and tied with the HP Mini 1000 as our favorite Netbook keyboard. Also notable: Important keys, such as the right Shift key, have been relocated to a more logical position than on earlier Eee PC keyboards. A handful of quick-launch buttons above the keyboard cycle through power profiles, start Skype, and change the screen resolution.

Considering it's cheaper, the touchpad is much better than the one on the bargain basement Acer Aspire One, with a relatively large surface and big brushed-metal buttons.

Features

The 10.1-inch widescreen display offers a 1,024 x 600 native resolution, which is standard for a Netbook. It's readable, but most documents and Web pages will require some scrolling, and this system lacks the slick-looking edge-to-edge glass of the HP Mini 1000. A quick-launch button cycles through some other resolutions (1,024 x 768, 800 x 600), but displays usually look best at their native resolutions.

Tags: Netbook, Hewlett-Packard Co., Keyboard, processor, Intel Corp.

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