Sep 22 2008
Welcome home the Asus EEE 1000H
I posted last week that my current employment situation dictated a need for my own laptop or netbook. I got the short list down to the Asus EEE 1000H and the MSI Wind U100 as the price point and mobility aspect are far greater than that of normal laptop.
Well my final decision was dictated by a couple of factors. Despite Kevin C. Tofel’s observations on the badly positioned right shift key, the deal breaker for me is battery life.
The Asus comes packed with a 6 cell battery giving around 5 to 6 hours of moderate usage, an impressive figure for a £330 unit. The UK version of the MSI Wind has only a 3 cell battery and for me 2 - 3 hours usage is not acceptable.
Before I had chance to order my new companion device, my wife had already pulled the trigger and ordered it for me! It arrived next day kudos to Ebuyer.co.uk for delivery and service.
I have spent a fair amount of time with the device over the weekend and I have to say I am really happy. The speed of the device is more than acceptable and better than I expected for a 1.6Ghz processor and the battery life is excellent. The unit comes packaged with Asus’s Super Hybrid Engine software which has several different power and performance settings to leverage battery life over performance or vice versa. Whilst using the ‘Auto Mode’ setting of the software I am seeing more than 5 hours of moderate to heavy usage and being as I can’t actually feel any less or more performance when using the different modes, currently I leave the power settings to auto.
The right shift key was a learning curve as I usually hit it with my right hand little finger and its miniature size and odd placement means a need for better accuracy but this isn’t too much of a problem for me.
My only really complaint, if I had to make one is the fan noise. Its a low hum but in a quiet room its an audible noise, its not loud by any stretch but it is there.
All in all my initial impressions of the device are very positive and it certainly ticks all the boxes for my requirements. I’ll post more about the device as items come up.