Asus eeePC 1000H Review
The main reasons for buying an Asus Eee PC 1000H was to have a portable laptop/netbook that I could take on holiday or carry around in my camera bag. The spec didn't need to be that fantastic so I the 1GB of RAM, 80GB HD and 1.6GHz Atom processor were more than enough. All I would want to do is browse the web and blog, transfer photos from my camera to the HD and maybe watch some movies.
After using the netbook for a just under a week, here are my thoughts.
First Impressions
Before the eeePC arrived I knew that it was going to be small but it was a lot smaller than I expected. It's light but probably not as light as the smaller 701 & 900/901 models. It's also slighter bigger than the other models but the increased screen size and larger keyboard make up for it.
Keyboard
The keyboard is larger than previous eeePCs and for the most part is pretty usable. I'm not a true touch typist but am pretty good at it and for the most part the keyboard is good for touch typing. There are a few key configurations that you need to get used to such as the location of the right shift key (I keep pressing the up arrow key).
Battery
The battery life is advertised 'up to 8 hours' but I don't think you'll ever get that much from it. I haven't done any extensive tests but using wi-fi and the screen on full brightness you can get 4-5 hours from it.
I've just lowered the brightness from maximum to minimum and the remaining battery has increased from 3:52 to 5 hours. And switching off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth has increased it to 6:27 (87%). Maybe you can get 8 hours out from the battery.
Screen Size
Even though the size of the screen is fairly small, it is very usable. However, when using Firefox I did have to maximise the browser using F11 to view certain sites. One in particular is Google Reader. In normal mode the list of feeds is not visible and the section showing the feeds is quite small. I guess this is relatively minor and because of the small screen size, I should really customise Firefox so that things like toolbars don't show or are at least minimised.
Other Features
The eeePC also comes with Bluetooth which was easy to connect to a phone for access the Internet, an SD card slot, which will be useful for my MicroSD cards, support for 802.11n and 3 USB ports.
Overall
I've found the eeePC great to use and the almost full-sized keyboard is easy to use when typing long articles. The battery lasts much longer than laptops I've used even when using Wi-Fi and the Atom processor can adjust it's clock speed to either maximise performance or battery life.
The eeePC is perfect for what I want although some will find the £350 a little steep when compared to full-sized laptops. With other netbooks available from Asus, MSI and Dell releasing one soon, the prices may fall.
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