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By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
Jul 02, 2008

Let's face it, the Eee PC 901 is all that the Eee PC 900 should have been, but wasn't. The new version not only added Bluetooth and a new processor to the mix, but bumped up the battery life to exceptional levels and put in some new features to boot.

Even in an environment where major vendors such as Acer, HP and MSI are putting their 2 cents in, ASUS has managed a new sweet spot between size, functionality and price. Though the keyboard is one aspect which still needs major improvements, the Eee PC 901 has almost everything one would need in a Netbook, and more.

Design

Rule number one in the CNET Asia reviewer mantra: Thou shalt not put a glossy coat on a portable laptop. Yes, we know it makes the Eee PC attractive whether it be in black or white (currently, only Taiwan models have a wider choice of colors). However, the showroom shine starts to fade the moment one lays hands on the machine which, as a Netbook, happens so often that the Eee PC 901 soon looks like a surrealist mural. That aside, the chassis has been completely reworked from the Eee PC 900 and now sports a tubular hinge and a curvy body. It is also 100g heavier at 1.1kg, a tradeoff which is acceptable because the unit now sports a larger battery.

The Eee PC 901 now comes with four shortcut buttons. They provide an easy way to turn the backlight off, change resolution, adjust power profiles (a.k.a. Super Hybrid Engine) as well launch an application (Skype is tagged as default). These buttons sit just above the keyboard which, unfortunately, is of the exact same design as that on the Eee PC 900. This means that unless you like sessions with a chiropractor, avoid typing long dissertations and essays on this Netbook. However, emails and Internet surfing are still fine as the keys are responsive enough despite their size. If you really want a mini-laptop for work, the keyboard on the HP Compaq 2133 is still one of the best we've tested.

Features

A much welcomed addition is the integrated Bluetooth radio, so now we can send away the irritating Bluetooth dongle. The Eee PC 901 is possibly the first Netbook to come equipped with a Draft-N wireless card, which is capable of handling almost any Wi-Fi standard in the market. With wireless broadband still somewhat of a rarity in hotels, it is nice to see the 10/100 Ethernet port being kept alive in this iteration.

The Eee PC 901 is quite generous when it comes to USB ports, offering a total of three alongside the SDHC memory slot. Our Windows XP review unit came with a 12GB SSD while the Linux edition has a larger 20GB drive. It would have been nice to see an integrated optical drive like that on the Kohjinsha SR8, but this would have bumped up the price quite significantly and may also add to the bulk.

Another first for a Netbook is the Super Hybrid Engine which throttles the CPU speed for maximum battery or performance. The Auto High Performance and Power Saving mode slows the machine to 1.2GHz when unplugged, but ramp up the speed to 1.6GHz when attached to AC. The High Performance setting keeps the machine chugging along at 1.6GHz, while the Super Performance mode overclocks the CPU to 1.8GHz. Though most will probably find the Power Saving speed to be more than adequate for most tasks, it's great to know that more performance is available when required.

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