Asus

The Asus Eee PC 1000H was one of the company’s first 10 inch netbooks. I picked one up in August, 2008 and I’m still using it. The Eee PC 1000H may not be as thin or light as some newer netbooks, and it doesn’t get quite as much battery life as newer Asus models. But you know what? It still works pretty well and shares a common set of guts with most netbooks including a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU and 1GB of RAM. The model I own has just 80GB of disk space, but there are also 160GB models out there.

Asus stopped making this netbook a while ago, but the company hasn’t forgotten the earlier adopters like me. This weekend Asus uploaded a Windows 7 Self Upgrade Guide for the Eee PC 1000H/XP to the company support site.

Having installed Windows 7 RC on the netbook earlier this year, I can tell you that many features work out of the box. But the upgrade guide recommends that before you start, you make sure you have the latest BIOS version first. While the step for installing Windows 7 just says “Install Windows 7 operating system from the DVD,” step 3 is worth checking out. Once Windows is installed, you may want to download and install drivers and utilities from the Asus support site, and step three explains the order in which they should be installed, starting with the chipset drivers and ending with the Super Hybrid Engine and Asus Update software.

Will anything bad happen if you don’t install the utilities in this order (or at all)? Probably not. But it’s nice to know that Asus was thinking about us.

Keep in mind, if you upgrade an Eee PC 1000H or any Windows XP computer to Windows 7, your data and settings will not be imported. You could configure a dual boot system which would preserve your data, but there’s no clean migration path from Windows XP to Windows 7 that allows you to import your settings the way you can when you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7.

Asus has just launched a new low cost netbook model in Japan. Don’t expect any fancy new features. In fact, you can expect the opposite from the Asus Eee PC 1000HT. It looks almost exactly like the Asus Eee PC 1000H which was released well over a year ago, except that the Eee PC 1000HT lacks 802.11n and Bluetooth support.

On the other hand, Asus says the Eee PC 1000HT should get up to 6.4 hours of battery life, which is a little more than the 4-5 hours I can squeeze out of my ancient (in netbook terms) Eee PC 1000H.

Here’s a basic rundown of the Eee PC 1000HT’s specs:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
• Display: 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixels
• Memory: 1GB
• Storage: 160GB HDD
• OS: Windows XP Home
• Connectivity: Ethernet, 802.11b/g WiFi
• I/O: Mic, Headphone, SDHC card slot, VGA, 3 USB 2.0
• Battery: 6 cell, 6.4 hours (max)
• Dimensions: 10.5″ x 7.5″  x 1.5″
• Weight: 3.2 pounds

The Eee PC 1000HT is expected to launch this weekend in Japan for 37,800 yen. That’s about $421 US, but netbooks tend to run more in Japan than the US. Netbooked estimates that when you take regional differences into account, it’s kind of like finding a new $300 netbook in the US.

On the down side, you’ll have to put up with the old school Asus Eee PC keyboard which features a tiny right shift key placed to the right of the up arrow.

I’m about to pack up the Samsung Go netbook which I recently reviewed. But before it goes, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to photograph all 7 mini-laptops I’ve had sitting on my desk for the last few days. If you’ve been reading the site, you’ve already seen most of these little guys. But you probably haven’t ever seen them all in one place before.

In the photo above, you can see the following computers, clockwise from the top left: Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Acer Aspire 1410, Asus Eee PC 1101HA, Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, Asus Eee PC 1000H, Samsung Go, Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2.

After the break you can see a slideshow showing some of these netbooks together. By request, a few of the photos show the 11.6 inch models (the Aspire 1410 and Eee PC 1101HA) next to a couple of the smaller 10 inch netbooks so you can get an idea of the size difference. In my opinion, it’s not that big, and if you’re going to give me a 1366 x 768 pixel display I’d rather have it on an 11.6 inch screen than a 10.1 inch display. But since all of the 10 inch netbooks featured here have 1024 x 600 pixel or lower resolution screens, the point is kind of moot.

I haven’t shown every combination of each netbook next to the other, because that would have taken all day. But these photos should give you an overview of how these 7 models stack up against one another in terms of size and design. You can view higher resolution versions of the images either by hitting the full screen button in the slideshow or by visiting the photo album in the Liliputing Forum.

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Yeah, I’ve got a backlog of netbooks to review. The next week or two should be fun. I’d like to thank Samsung, Gigabyte, and Lenovo for sending me these models to review. The little guy in the back of the second row is my Asus Eee PC 1000H. That’s right, I’ve actually managed to hang onto the same netbook for nearly a year. It’s a dinosaur, but it still gets the job done.

Bottom to top: IdeaPad S12, IdeaPad S10-2, Eee PC T91

The Eee PC T91 isn’t just the first touchscreen netbook from Asus. It’s also the company’s smallest netbook to date. While it sports an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, the T91 is actually a little smaller than the first generation Eee PC 701, measuring just 8.9″ x 6.5″ x 1.1″ and weighing just about 2 pounds.

I don’t happen to have an Eee PC 701 lying around, but I do have a handful of other netbooks and mini-laptops. So I pulled out two 10 inch netbooks: my trusty Eee PC 1000H and a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2. I also snapped a few photos of the T91 with the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, which has a 12 inch screen. These images serve both to show just how small the T91 is and how large the S12 is compared to a typical netbook.

You can find the images after the break. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.

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Front: Eee PC 1005HA / Back: Eee PC 1000H

The Asus Eee PC 1005HA is the second laptop in the Asus “Seashell” series, with a design that Asus officials claim is inspired by seashells. The first was the Eee PC 1008HA, which was a thin and light netbook weighing just 2.4 pounds and measuring an inch thick. The 1005HA (which has a higher capacity, removable battery) is 1.4 inches high at its thickest point and weighs 2.8 pounds. But it bears a striking resemblance to the Eee PC 1008HA and looks positively svelte when compared with the company’s first 10 inch netbook, the Eee PC 1000H.

I don’t happen to have an Eee PC 1008HA lying around at the moment, but I do have a 1005HA and a 1000H, so I decided to pull out a camera and snap a few photos, which you can find after the break. For comparison’s sake, you can check out my photo gallery of the Eee PC 1000H and 1008HA.

The Eee PC 1000H weighs 3.2 pounds, making it one of the heaviest netbooks around. Generally, the Eee PC 1005HA is a bit thinner everywhere except near the back of the unit where the battery sticks out. At that point, the two machines are nearly the same height. But the Eee PC 1005HA has a screen which folds out behind the keyboard instead of above it, which gives the netbook the illusion of being even smaller when the lid is open.

One area where the Eee PC 1000H has the edge is in the screen angles. While neither netbook has a lid that can fold back 180 degrees, the Eee PC 1000H comes an awful lot closer than the 1005HA. While this isn’t a feature I expect to use very often, I know some people who use netbooks as eBook readers like being able to open their laptops up as wide as possible.

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I’ve been using an Asus Eee PC 1008HA for the past few days, and there’s one thing that’s become abundantly clear. This thing is small. I mean, really really small. It’s thinner, lighter, and much easier to carry around than the Eee PC 1000H I’ve been using for the last 9 months or so. It also has a nicer keyboard, a slightly faster processor, and gets about the same 5 hours of battery life.

But there are a few disadvantages, (aside from the fact that it’s so thin that I’m sometimes tempted to throw it like a frisbee when it’s in my hands). In order to maintain the sleek aesthetic, Asus put plastic doors over the USB, VGA, and Ethernet ports. These doors are held on by little bits of rubber that feel like they’re bound to break eventually if you use these ports on a regular basis. You also need to plug in a proprietary adapter to use the VGA port, which is kind of annoying, but not a big hassle if you don’t use your netbook with a monitor very often.

The biggest problem is that aside from that proprietary VGA adapter which fits into the bottom of the case, there’s not a single component that’s easily removable: Not the RAM, hard drive, or battery. If those things matter to you, this might not be the right netbook for you. Fortunately Asus is expected to come out with a slightly thicker and heavier Eee PC 1005HA soon which will have removable components. But I have to say there’s something incredibly compelling about holding a netbook as thin and light as the Eee PC 1008HA. It’s almost cool enough for me to overlook the non-removable battery.

I’ll have a complete review of the Eee PC 1008HA in the next week or so. But in the meantime, you can find more photos of the netbook hanging out with my Eee PC 1000H at the Liliputing Community. For lazy readers, there’s also a slideshow after the page break, but you can also see higher resolution versions of the images at the Liliputing Community. And I suppose this is as good a time as any to remind you that the Liliputing Forums have been expanded into a whole social networking site. When you sign up you can create a profile page, follow other members of the Liliputing community, share your own photos, and participate in discussions about netbooks, nettops, technology in general, or anything else you like

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Left: Asus Eee PC 1000H / Right: Samsung N120

The Samsung N120 has one of the largest keyboards you’ll find on a netbook with a 10 inch display. It’s nearly the same size as a full sized laptop keyboard. But in order to accommodate the keyboard, Samsung made the N120 a bit wider than most netbooks as well. But that doesn’t necessarily make the N120 the biggest, heaviest netbook around.

In fact, it’s almost exactly the same size as the Asus Eee PC 1000H, which I’ve been happily carrying in my backpack for the past half year or so. To give you an idea of how the netbooks compare, I shot a few photos of the two laptops side by side. While the N120 is a bit wider, it’s a bit thinner than the Eee PC 1000H and it looks even smaller when you open it up, since the screen folds down behind the keyboard to save some vertical space.

The Samsung N120 also weighs less than the Eee PC 1000H. The Asus netbook weighs 3.2 pounds, while the Samsung N120 weighs just 2.8 pounds. Both laptops have 6 cell batteries.

Both laptops also have fairly sizable screen bezels around a 10 inch display, but the Samsung N120 uses that space to house the speakers. The netbook isn’t necessarily louder than the Asus Eee PC 1000H, which has speakers on the bottom of the laptop. But the sound is a bit cleaner, and there’s even a 1.5W subwoofer on the bottom of the Samsung netbook to provide a bit of a bass boost. I’ll see if I can’t figure out a good way to demonstrate the sound differences in another post.

You can see more photos of the two netbooks side by side after the break.

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The Asus Eee PC 1000H and 1000HE are very similar. But the newer Eee PC 1000HE has a slightly faster processor, a better battery, and a new “chiclet-style” keyboard that many users find easier to type on. But if you already have an Eee PC 1000H and don’t want to buy a new computer just for those features, there’s hope. The Eee PC 1000HE battery should work just fine on the older netbook (although Asus doesn’t appear to be selling replacement 8700mAh batteries yet). And as several members of the EeeUser Forums have discovered, the Eee PC 1000HE keyboard is also compatible with the Eee PC 1000H.

via Portable Monkey

The Asus Eee PC 1000HE is virtually identical to the Eee PC 1000H netbook that Asus launched in 2008. But there are three major differences:

1. It has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU instead of the older 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor.
2. The 1000HE has a higher capacity 8700mAh battery rather than the 6600mAh battery that you get with the 1000H.
3. There’s a new keyboard design.

Visually, the only difference is the keyboard. The battery is physically the same size (although according to my postage scale, the new battery weighs a hair more than the old one). But the new keyboard uses the new Asus “chiclet” design. The keys are pretty much the same size, but the part you actually touch with your fingers has slightly more surface area. The new keyboard also features a larger shift key on the right side. And it’s been shifted to the left of the up arrow button, which should make the new keyboard much easier for touch typists to use.

Having gotten used to the Eee PC 1000H keyboard over the last few months, I found the new keyboard a little disconcerting at first. But literally, after using it for about three minutes I found the new keyboard just as easy, if not easier to use than the older version.

I’ll share more thoughts on the Eee PC 1000HE over the next few days, and I hope to have a full review sometime next week. In the meantime, click the picture above for a higher resolution version of the photo, or check out the closeup of the new keyboard after the break.

You can read more about the Asus Eee PC 1000HE in the Liliputing Product Database. You can also order one for for $374 from Amazon.

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