Brian Junyor The Blog

ASUS Eee PC

I broke down and decided to get myself a new notebook.  My last purchase was a mammoth desktop replacement notebook from Gateway.  Even though it is about 4 years old, it's still perfectly good.  Coming it at 2ghz and 1gig of RAM, it served as my primary computer for about 2 years.  The only problem with it, it weighs 1000 lbs.  Okay, not really, but it is heavy & big.  I never consider taking it with me anywhere.  Did I mention it is big and heavy, I did, well, did I mention that it drains the battery in about 2 hours? 

This time around I was looking for portability over performance and I didn't want to shell out a fortune for a notebook that will serve as a secondary device.  With that criteria I focused my search on netbooks.

Netbooks are light weight, low cost, energy efficient notebooks that focus on mobility over performance.  There were several in the running, but I settled on the ASUS Eee PC 1000H.  Primarily because of the user base, hacks & mods, and looks.  The MSI Wind came in a close second on my list.

After playing around with this little ASUS for several days, I am hooked.  I wouldn't recommend it as a primary PC unless your eyesight is perfect and you've got small hands.  The small screen isn't really a deterrent for casual use, but I don't think I would want to spend all day working on it.

I've owned various types of notebooks & laptops over the years, from desktop replacements to road warrior, but what sets this one apart from the rest is the superb battery life.  I used it for a straight 4 hours with wifi and had only depleted a little over half of the battery life.

It's a winner where it matters - portability.  One other thing that I will point out is that it didn't come with DVD/CD roms built in, so I ordered a slim DVD writer.  Just in case I want to install some apps via CD/DVD.

Specs as ordered:

Hats off to ASUS for building such a superb little machine.