Last week we arrived in Prague and discovered that our Apple Airs didn't like the wifi connections around us. Strange. So we picked up two netbooks. One, the Asus 1000H. The other, an Acer Aspire One. The Acer Aspire One was a complete dog, and we returned it to the shop. Despite looking quite snazzy with its pearl color and miniscule size, it was way slower than the Asus and the fan had a high pitched whirr to it that was intolerable in a quiet environment.
Here's the Asus 1000H review. Overall we were most surprised by
the speed of the netbook. We were able to work on it for a full day quite comfortably provided we used USB mouse. The trackpad buttons are a joke
and are the big flaw on the device. They are too hard to press and
just terribly designed.
Screen: Is a 10" screen big enough? Yes. Barely, but yes.
Surprisingly we found we were able to work on this tiny 1024x600 screen just fine. However, we'd swap it out for a unit with 1280x800 resolution in a heartbeat. The screen was superbright and crystal clear, but we'd
just like to have a bit more resolution on it in the y axis.
Ergonomics: We got so used to the keyboard to the point we were able to touchtype. I think the chiclet keys on the new 1000HE would be a
little better, and faster, if our Apple Air keyboards are anything to go
by. Apple Airs, and the new Mac have the chiclet style keys.
Speed: Sufficient, especially using Google's
Chrome browser. Chrome is superfast, and minimal, making it the
perfect browser for the netbooks. I wouldn't attempt video
editing on a netbook, but for zippy gmail and browsing and MS Office
work (or OpenOffice), it does the job. The instant on, is awesome. That's the main thing we liked
about Apple laptops as well. Waiting is not something we do well. We don't have enough time in our days to spend 10 minutes each day waiting for a computer to get its act together and fire up.
Battery: The new 1000HE is supposed to get 9.5 hours, which is
incredible. We're seeing North of 4 hours on our little 1000H, with an
Apricorn hard drive plugged in and the screen on half brightness.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend getting this particular netbook, the 1000H. Get the 1000HE! That's the new landmark netbook. Don't bother with a 7" or 8" screen netbook either, the 10" screen is the smallest size that is truly usable. Don't bother trying the Sony Lifestyle, its very slow. The Intel Atom chipset running XP is the only combo to go with for this size and speed and class of PC. And all for $400?! Amazing. No wonder Asus is going well. I'm still tempted to get a Lenovo X301 as the thought of 12 hours of battery life and a 13" screen for a 3lb laptop is great. But that can wait for 2010 when Windows 7 is out. Windows 7 is going to be lot faster than the dog slow Windows Vista. Perhaps it will even give Mac OS X more worthy competition.
