Pictured: The new Asus is a beefy netbook, though battery-life claims seem exaggerated!
The Eee PC 1000HE from Asus is the latest addition to the firm’s line-up of low-cost netbook miniature laptops. With a 10″ display, larger keyboard and longer battery than many earlier models, the new model should prove more attractive for those seeking a lightweight PC that runs for longer while on the move.
The machine is among the first mini laptops to use the new N280 version of Intel’s Atom processor. It also features a high-density 8700mAh battery, which Asus claims offers the possibility of “all-day computing”. While manufacturers’ claims for battery life are almost always exaggerated, we found that the Eee PC 1000HE’s battery did indeed keep it running for much longer than other netbooks we’ve tested, and even beat many larger machines. However, the battery pushes up the weight of the unit to about 1.45kg, while many rival netbooks weigh in at little more than 1kg.
Nevertheless, the Eee PC 1000HE is still smaller and lighter than most standard laptops and, with a decent screen and keyboard, it’s worth considering by anyone needing a portable computer for basic office applications, e-mail and web browsing.
Asus claims a whopping 9.5 hours of battery life for this model, but in our tests it lasted for four hours and 48 minutes, as measured by the Battery Eater Pro benchmark application. As usual, we tested with power management disabled, so users should see longer than this in typical use, depending on how much they use the wireless connections.
This represents a significant improvement over the two hours that is typical for a netbook, even if it does come at the cost of some extra weight.
The Eee PC 1000HE is similar in the rest of its specifications to a great many other netbooks. It has 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive and runs Microsoft’s Windows XP Home Edition. However, the processor in this case is the newer 1.66GHz N280 version of the Atom, rather than the 1.6GHz N270 used in most other designs. In practice, we found this produced very little difference in performance.
We tested the Eee PC 1000HE using Business Winstone 2004, a benchmark suite that measures performance while running actual office applications carrying out typical processes. The Asus returned a score of 13, which is in line with many other netbooks we’ve seen, including the Asus Eee PC S101.
This is not surprising because of the tiny difference in clock speeds between the processors in question, but also because the bottleneck for office applications is typically the hard drive.
While this means that the system is no speed demon, it is still perfectly adequate for running office applications and other everyday tasks.
The other notable feature of the Eee PC 1000HE is its keyboard. This fills the case almost entirely from side to side, which results in large, well-spaced keys almost as large as those on a standard keyboard.
A 10in display has become almost a standard item on new netbook models, and the Eee PC 1000HE is a match for most others we’ve seen. Although small by the standards of larger laptops, its 1,024 x 600 resolution is a good fit for this size of screen, and it is perfectly adequate for tasks such as word processing and browsing.
The screen can also be angled back almost flat, which allows for a comfortable viewing angle when using the system on your lap. One slight drawback is that the density of the battery makes the system heavier towards the rear of the case. When typing with it on your lap, the Eee PC therefore has a slight tendency to tip backwards, so it needs to be used with care in this situation.
Asus has equipped the system with the usual ports. On the left is an Ethernet and USB port plus audio jack sockets, as well as a slot for a security cable. The right side has two more USB ports, a VGA output for an external monitor, and a slot for SD Card Flash storage.
As well as Ethernet, the system has 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless communications, but no option for a 3G modem for go-anywhere connectivity, as there is on some other netbooks. A 1.3-megapixel camera is fitted above the screen for web conferencing.
A single large cover on the underside of the case unscrews to provide access to the hard drive and a single SO-DIMM slot for memory, allowing both to be replaced or upgraded with little difficulty.
As well as Windows XP, our review unit came preloaded with the StarOffice 8 suite, Skype client and InterVideo WinDVD player.
Asus includes several of its own utilities, such as the Asus Update to download and install updates for the system’s Bios, Eee InstantKey, which drives the hotkey functions such as turning wireless on/off and controlling the display brightness, and the SuperHybridEngine power management tool.
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