Category: Geeks r Us
Being on the sideline spectating the netbooks and its progressions, I have decided to take the plunge and procured a relative new release by asus.
The eee 1005 pc clam shell sports a smooth glossy feel with its 92% size keyboard permits a similar feel to a full blown laptop. The spacing between the keys however, leaves room for improvement. I for one would prefer a tad bit more spacing to aid in a more comfortable typing environment. The space bar also lack a comfortable feel as my right hand tends to land on the alt key with each word rather than on the spacebar itself. I must position my hand slightly further to the left, causing me to lose some of my speed. That being said, there are many pluses to this device.
1. The machine sports a bit more than your typical netbook on the market. Equipped with an n280 processor and an n wireless network, this machine is the big brother on the block of netbooks. However, the typical 1gb of ram and 160gb 5400rpm hard drive brings it down to your level of your neighboring netbook. Neverthe less, the processor and wireless card alone gives it that extra umph not found in todays netbooks.
2. The processor I have found not to be lacking. From completely off to the desktop ready to be used, takes about 40 seconds on this 1gb of ram and speed of hard drive. This is not a bad speed compared to the duo cores today as they typically take this long with your average full blown laptop on the shelves.
3. This netbook boasts a 10.5 batterylife and it is not far off from its claims. With the screen dimmed, and settings to optimized for energy conservation, I have managed to push it to about 14 hours usage. With the screen to its max resolution, all settings set to its highest, one could potentially prolong the battery for about 7 hours usage. Of course, realistic usage by a screen reader user, you can expect to use this netbook for about 11 hours before needing a charge.
4. This netbook comes with asus's processor modifier accessible through the operating system. You can push this processor to be overclocked to 1.7 ghz, higher than the 1.66 ghz at its normal setting, or lower it down to conserve battery. This enables a user much more control over energy consumption.
5. The weight of 2.8 lb makes it feel just as light as any notetaker on the market, if not lighter. After using a laptop of 4.3 lb, it almost makes me forget that I have a laptop on my lap while using this netbook.
It comes with a suede sleeve case giving it a fantastic finishing touch.
While this netbook have many pluses, it is not yet perfect. Its stock ram and hard drive can definitely be improved, neverthe less, it is a great netbook on the market today. The ram can be upgraded to 2gb for those who really wants more memory.
If those who can aford it, getting an ssd drive can definitely push the batterylife at least 30% longer than its current stock drive.
Adendum
I forgot to mention that there is a button permitting you to easily turn off the touchpad for those who has the problem of constantly contacting the mouse.
Also, as in many notebooks, the function key pls f-keys will allow a user to change the volume, turn off/on the wireless card/blooth, and switch to external screen source.
All in all, I believe this to be a great addition to the mirad of netbook choices out there.
P.s. changing your processor speed can definitely speed up your boot time.
Nice, my mom has one of those asus netbooks, but not the newer one. Its nice to see that the processor is a tad bit faster.
Very nice. Not really a fan of netbooks, I like a regular sized laptop, I think its just the smaller keyboard that's keeping me kinda not wanting to get one. I used my moms dell mini, and kinda hard for me to type on it because of how close the keys are to each other.
hmm, nice, but thinks Asus has too many netbook out at ones, and its pretty confusing, there are too many new releses from them in a short period of time. and they don't have any significant improvement from one model to another.
show me a netbook with a real dual core processor and i'll be on board... I mean its not like i need the screen real estate anymore now that i am relying on Jaws and not zoomtext.