August 4th, 2008Eee PC Does it…
As you may know I’m a huge fan of the Asus Eee PC 700 and dashed out and bought one, with my own money I hasten to add, the moment they went on sale, late last year. This titchy laptop has become my constant travelling companion, it does everything I need when I’m out and about and the price, at around £200, set a new benchmark for pocket notebooks and spawned a rash of clones and copies.
So now we have the Eee PC 1000, which follows hard on the heels of the first Eee PC upgrade (Eee PC 900) launched just a few weeks ago. The key feature of the 1000 is a 10-inch screen, (the 900’s screen is 8.9 inches) and like the 900 it has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor. For me, however, the biggest improvement is new power management system, which dramatically extends battery life from a paltry 2-3 hours on the 700 – if you were very lucky – to almost 8 hours. Solid-state drive capacity has also been beefed up, from a ‘cosy’ 4Gb to a much more generous 12, 20 or 40Gb on these two models. Like its predecessor the standard operating system is Linux Xandros but Windows XP is now offered as a factory-installed alternative (you had to install it yourself on the 700). Otherwise it’s petty much business as usual with on-board Wi-Fi, a built-in web cam, 3 USB ports, LAN socket and super sleek looks.
So what’s good, and what’s bad? The screen is a huge improvement with resolution up to 1024 x 600 and this makes all the difference when viewing stills, videos and web pages. Boot up time is much faster and Bluetooth connectivity is now built in. There have been some useful additions to the bundled (Linux) software, including Picasa, a DVD player (using an external drive), extra games and so on. Installing the KDE Desktop is still worth doing if you want to stick with Linux.
Minus points? Well, you can expect to pay the thick end of £380 for the 40Gb version running Linux, which is a world away from the cheeky, cheap ‘n cheerful 700 and dipping into the mainstream laptop market. The bigger keyboard means you can do some serious typing but it is thin, a bit flexy and lacks proper feel. Otherwise it’s all good news. Would I swap? Possibly, probably, but I’ve got used to my little 700 and it’s many funny little ways. Its larger cousins are definitely faster and more refined but in the end, after half a lifetime spent lugging computers around the world, for me size still matters.
Tags: asus eee pc, benchmark, Bluetooth, Boot, business, Computer, Eee PC, Laptop, Linux, linux software, processor, Software, travelling companion, USB, web, wi-fi, Windows, windows xp
