When ASUS looked upon the new cheap alternative laptops for those students who like a laptop with most of the features but in a low prize for parent to make a gift for their kind in their tenth birthday, for the use in internet and for the most time studying, and yes, they really made a new wave of mobile computers for us and other people to make a terminology about which are now in the “net book” series laptops with enough power and a strong battery to run the most basic internet surfing and also word processing.
Although there are two flavors with slightly different specifications — a Windows XP model for $499 and a Xandros Linux model — only the Windows XP model is currently available. Could this be the perfect balance between portability and function? Or has ASUS lost its way on the path to net book nirvana?
The Eee PC 1000 is the largest of the recent crop of mini-notebooks. Its 22.5cm by 17cm by 2cm chassis is a few millimeters wider and deeper than the MSI Wind, but we don’t have too much of an issue with this; it’s still very portable. What we do have a problem with is the Eee PC 1000’s weight — 1.45kg with the standard 6,600mAh battery. Even without the battery, it tips the scales at nearly 1.1kg, which is what the MSI Wind weighs with its standard three-cell 2,200mAh battery.
Asus is releasing two versions of the 1000, as it did with the 701, 900, and 901. The Eee PC 1000-BK002 ships with Xandros Linux and 40GB of solid-state storage, while the ($499) Eee PC 1000H-BK007X has an 80GB mechanical drive and Windows XP. Only the Windows XP version is currently available.
It’s worth noting that the Eee PC 1000’s 10 inch screen is a high-quality display. The vertical viewing angle is pretty limited, but that’s not unusual; the 1,024-by-600-pixel native resolution is also par for the net book course. Still, it’s a pleasure to use: it doesn’t have a glossy finish, icons and text are large and readable, and you’ll rarely need to peer closely at the screen to see what’s going on. Battery life was pretty impressive. We weren’t expecting it to last as long as the Eee PC 901, due to its larger screen, but it did surprisingly well, lasting 3 hours 56 minutes while playing a DivX movie, which is good compared to the 901’s 4.5 hours.
ASUS really come up a good net book provider but with the use of a bigger and much cheaper laptops as they progress to the ranges is a little of a weird side of me. I would expect a real jump in the 12.2 in variants and work your way down to the most usable screen size possible or just stick to the screen size of the ease of use and trademark being given in the long term, but with the new version of the EEE is bigger and better with enough for kids on the go or even the usual use of internet and word. All in thall a great lap top for kind who like something big.
