I picked up an Asus 1000HE this week. This is the new netbook with a 10″ screen, the new Intel Atom N270 chip and a 6 cell 8700 mAH battery. The machine is touted as having a 9 hour battery life. I gave it a bit of a test today.
The Asus ran steadily for 7.5 hours and at the end of that time had 25% of the battery left, as indicated by the built-in battery meter. During that time WiFi was on for about 4.5 hours straight. The screen brightness was set one notch above the lowest level, which was plenty bright enough to do all the RSS feed reading I needed to do to make today’s postings on TeleRead. So far it looks pretty promising. Last night I streamed a 1 hour video from Netflix to the machine over WiFi and the battery level was at 85% at the end. With WiFi turned off this thing would make quite a long lasting e-book reader and the matte screen may make for easier reading than the glossy screen on my MacBook. The keyboard has been much improved, and with very little practice is very easy to type with – unlike my Asus 4G, which was impossible to type upon.
A couple of points that I haven’t seen brought out in the reviews. For us Mac people it is a good choice because it has 802.11n, which is twice as fast as the more popular “g”. All Mac routers use the faster “n” protocol. It also has bluetooth. If you check the specs of other machines you’ll be surprised at how few of the new netbooks include bluetooth.
I’ve downloaded a copy of eReader to the machine and will play with it over the next couple of days and report back. I really hate using Windows, I mean I really, really hate it, but the new Asus is so small and light that it will be my traveling machine from now on. My MacBook weighs more than twice as much and gets less than a third of the battery life.
Well, I have come to completely dislike Windows, but there is no choice in the netbook arena unless you are a Linux person, which I am not.
I don’t know about printers and the USB HD, but I regularly run the Asus on my Airport and it recognizes the “n” protocol and works like a charm for surfing and for streaming video. So far I’ve been getting about 7 to 8 hours of use, which is far better than I get on my MacBook.
I mainly use the Netbook when I am on the go, or when I want to stream video when I’m in bed, etc. I don’t use any anti-virus software because my usage is basically to follow RSS feeds for TeleRead, do posts for TeleRead using Windows Live Writer when I’m not at home base, and do streaming stuff. No worry about viruses if you are careful. Up to 3 years ago I was a 100% Windows user and I never had a virus because I simply was careful about what I was doing.
Kris Says: Any follow-up comments about ebooks on this netbook?
Like what? I read ebooks on my 1000HE with FBReader. It works fine. It should be even better when the epub support improves more.
With the display brightness at 30% (plenty bright enough) and WiFi off, I can easily get eight hours of reading. I haven’t pushed things until the battery goes flat, so it may go even longer.
It may be subjective, but I find the LED backlight on the LCD display to not be as harsh as the conventional CCFL backlight on my desktop PC.
As a dedicated ebook reader, it is not ideal. As a multipurpose device that I can read on, I think it is the best compromise I have used so far, and I’ve been reading on electronic devices for many years.
The only multipurpose device I had that was better in some ways was the Nokia N800. I could read on it for 6-7 hours and it was pocketable. I needed to move up to something larger mostly because I needed a bigger display.
I still would like a dedicated ebook reader some day. When the capabilities of such devices improve and when I can afford it, I’ll eventually get one. Until then, I’m happy with my multipurpose netbook.
The Asus 1000HE is working beautifully. As a Mac user I find Ubuntu Linux (I am running EasyPeasy 1.0 which is essentially Ubuntu 8.10) much friendlier than XP. It connects to my Airport-based network with no problems and I managed to find a driver for my printer. XP still can’t figure out where the printer is!
It plays movies that Windows Media Player has no clue about ( I didn’t think that .divx files were so exotic).
But the best part is the battery. I have the performance settings flat out and on my latest trip I watched two movies (3 1/2 hrs) and played music for another couple and the battery meter showed 50% charge remaining.
On a couple of informal tests heavy with Internet it lasted about 7.5 hrs.
I use XP occasionally as I am not that familiar with Linux yet and I have to say that XP works well within its limitations.
I upped the RAM to 2GB immediately (a 5 min, $20 job) and I kind of expected to be faster than my 5 yr. old Powerbook (1.5GHz, 1GB RAM). Well, it ain’t!
I just wish I could run Mac OS X on it. I know it can be done, but it is brain surgery .
Ah, other Mac users who have purchased the 1000HE!! My HE will arrive from Amazon tomorrow. I’ve been a Mac fanatic since 2001 and have never looked back.
Our 20″ iMac (Intel), 12″ iBook G4 (1.2ghz) and eMac all work fine, but I wanted something to tote around that was light and would be fun to experiment around with.
Only thing in the review is that it mentions the Atom N270, but it’s actually the N280 with faster front bus of 667mhz instead of 500 (N270). Well written.
I’d love to converse with other Mac users to see how they’re getting along with their Eee’s…
Gday guys,
need a hand here.
can this little laptop run HD videos?
and if so how do you get it too?
i have tried watching youtubeHD movies how ever very Jumpy and unwatchable. and movies off of my Camcorder also wont work ???? is this little laptop capable or not? thanks! jonathon_wilkin@hotmail.com for replies! THANK YOU
"Howard, you're just refusing to accept that consumers are also at fault for resorting to illegal acts when "instant" isn't instant enough for them. ..."
"I also believe that change is constant even in the world of publishing and usually changes are for the better. ebooks are alternative formats that ..."
I picked up an Asus 1000HE this week. This is the new netbook with a 10″ screen, the new Intel Atom N270 chip and a 6 cell 8700 mAH battery. The machine is touted as having a 9 hour battery life. I gave it a bit of a test today.
Previous
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
Comments:
Don’t think less of the Eee on account of it running Windows, Paul. You can also run Linux on it.
I have posted a complete how-to for the linux newbs at LinuxBuzz.net
Paul,
As a Mac user, I am looking for a netbook that will talk to my Airport Extreme/Express network with attached laser printer and USB HD.
Since this netbook will be for when I travel, I am not interested in any flavor of Windows: too many viruses, horses (Trojan and otherwise) a etc.
I take it that you run the Asus on your Airport network: any comments?
Thanks
AM
Well, I have come to completely dislike Windows, but there is no choice in the netbook arena unless you are a Linux person, which I am not.
I don’t know about printers and the USB HD, but I regularly run the Asus on my Airport and it recognizes the “n” protocol and works like a charm for surfing and for streaming video. So far I’ve been getting about 7 to 8 hours of use, which is far better than I get on my MacBook.
I mainly use the Netbook when I am on the go, or when I want to stream video when I’m in bed, etc. I don’t use any anti-virus software because my usage is basically to follow RSS feeds for TeleRead, do posts for TeleRead using Windows Live Writer when I’m not at home base, and do streaming stuff. No worry about viruses if you are careful. Up to 3 years ago I was a 100% Windows user and I never had a virus because I simply was careful about what I was doing.
Any follow-up comments about ebooks on this netbook?
Kris Says: Any follow-up comments about ebooks on this netbook?
Like what? I read ebooks on my 1000HE with FBReader. It works fine. It should be even better when the epub support improves more.
With the display brightness at 30% (plenty bright enough) and WiFi off, I can easily get eight hours of reading. I haven’t pushed things until the battery goes flat, so it may go even longer.
It may be subjective, but I find the LED backlight on the LCD display to not be as harsh as the conventional CCFL backlight on my desktop PC.
As a dedicated ebook reader, it is not ideal. As a multipurpose device that I can read on, I think it is the best compromise I have used so far, and I’ve been reading on electronic devices for many years.
The only multipurpose device I had that was better in some ways was the Nokia N800. I could read on it for 6-7 hours and it was pocketable. I needed to move up to something larger mostly because I needed a bigger display.
I still would like a dedicated ebook reader some day. When the capabilities of such devices improve and when I can afford it, I’ll eventually get one. Until then, I’m happy with my multipurpose netbook.
The Asus 1000HE is working beautifully. As a Mac user I find Ubuntu Linux (I am running EasyPeasy 1.0 which is essentially Ubuntu 8.10) much friendlier than XP. It connects to my Airport-based network with no problems and I managed to find a driver for my printer. XP still can’t figure out where the printer is!
It plays movies that Windows Media Player has no clue about ( I didn’t think that .divx files were so exotic).
But the best part is the battery. I have the performance settings flat out and on my latest trip I watched two movies (3 1/2 hrs) and played music for another couple and the battery meter showed 50% charge remaining.
On a couple of informal tests heavy with Internet it lasted about 7.5 hrs.
I use XP occasionally as I am not that familiar with Linux yet and I have to say that XP works well within its limitations.
I upped the RAM to 2GB immediately (a 5 min, $20 job) and I kind of expected to be faster than my 5 yr. old Powerbook (1.5GHz, 1GB RAM). Well, it ain’t!
I just wish I could run Mac OS X on it. I know it can be done, but it is brain surgery
.
Ah, other Mac users who have purchased the 1000HE!! My HE will arrive from Amazon tomorrow. I’ve been a Mac fanatic since 2001 and have never looked back.
Our 20″ iMac (Intel), 12″ iBook G4 (1.2ghz) and eMac all work fine, but I wanted something to tote around that was light and would be fun to experiment around with.
Only thing in the review is that it mentions the Atom N270, but it’s actually the N280 with faster front bus of 667mhz instead of 500 (N270). Well written.
I’d love to converse with other Mac users to see how they’re getting along with their Eee’s…
Steve aka MacLifer
Gday guys,
need a hand here.
can this little laptop run HD videos?
and if so how do you get it too?
i have tried watching youtubeHD movies how ever very Jumpy and unwatchable. and movies off of my Camcorder also wont work ???? is this little laptop capable or not? thanks!
jonathon_wilkin@hotmail.com for replies! THANK YOU