| ASUS Eee PC 1000H 160GB Netbook |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Notebook | Compact PC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Matt Williams - Edited by Olin Coles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 04 November 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ASUS Eee PC 1000HJust over a year ago, Asus launched its Eee PC series of notebooks, prompting quick competition and innovation throughout the market. Today Benchmark Reviews looks at one of the newest additions to the Eee family, the Eee PC 1000H 160GB. Like the Eee PC 900 series, the 1000H is based on the Intel Atom platform, and features the Atom N270 processor. However, instead of an 8.9", the 1000H boasts a 10.2" screen as well as a 160GB hard drive. Perhaps the biggest improvement, though, is the use of a 6-cell battery. In this review, we'll take a closer at the Asus Eee 1000H netbook and find out how it compares to more conventional laptops. One of the reasons the Eee has become so popular is its small, lightweight design. It's easy to carry around in a backpack, briefcase, or if you're inclined, even a purse. Add to that the integrated Wi-Fi and it's easy to see why this particular category of notebooks has quickly garnered the term "netbook". Most netbooks users simply want to browse the net or run light office applications, and that is exactly what the Eee 1000H was designed to do.
Given the sub $500 price point it is clear that high-end performance is not what Asus had in mind with this model. Instead, Asus turned its attention to form factor, connectivity, and a truly portable design. In honor of these design goals, this review will focus much more on functionality than raw performance. In the spirit of fun and curiosity, however, we will be pitting the Eee 1000H, model EEEPC1000H-BLK066X, against a conventional laptop to see just what kind of performance difference we're looking at. About the company: ASUSTek Computer, Inc.Asus is well known in the IT field as an innovative and quality-driven manufacturer of PCs, notebooks, and countless other computer components. Here is what Asus has to say about their commitment to quality:
"ASUS products' top quality stems from product development. It's like learning Chinese Kung-Fu; one must begin with cultivating the "Chi" and inner strength. Besides innovating cutting-edge features, ASUS engineers also pay special attention to EMI (electromagnetic interference), thermal, acoustics and details that usually go unnoticed to achieve complete customer satisfaction. ASUS notebooks are the first TCO'99-certified notebooks worldwide. The requirements for this honor include radiation emission control, energy (battery consumption), ecology (environment friendly) and ergonomics. To succeed in this ultra-competitive industry, great products need to be complimented by speed-to-market, cost and service. That's why all 8,000 over employees of ASUS strive for the "ASUS Way of Total Quality Management" to offer the best quality without compromising cost and time-to-market while providing maximum value to all customers through world-class services. With unyielding commitment to innovation and quality, ASUS won 2,568 awards in 2007, meaning on average, the company received over 7 awards every day last year. BusinessWeek has ranked ASUS amongst its InfoTech 100 for the 10th straight year; and the company is ranked as No.1 in quality products and services by the Wall Street Journal. ASUS has also achieved the number one title on the annual league table of Taiwan Top 10 Global Brands with a brand value of 11.96 billion US dollars." ASUS Eee PC 1000 FeaturesThis Eee PCTM 1000 offers even more options to users for unique user experiences. While up to 8 hours of battery life, high speed 802.11n connectivity and makes it the ideal traveling companion for outdoor activities, the large 10" display provides comfortable viewing, and a keyboard that´s 95%* sized of generic notebooks make for easier typing and relaxing usage. Large Screen and Keyboard for Comfortable Usage
Up to 7 hours of Battery Life
High Speed Connectivity Anywhere with Wi-Fi 802.11n
Unique Design to Fit Your Individual Personality
EEEPC1000H-BLK066X Specifications
Closer Look: ASUS Eee PC 1000HTrue to the Asus reputation, the packaging was well designed and constructed of quality materials. After slipping the Eee out of its protective sleeve, I was immediately impressed with how solid it felt given its light weight. There was no noticeable flex, creaks, or rattling. I was also struck by its size. Having worked mostly with larger laptops, I had feared it would simply be too small to be useful, but after working with it and positioning for the photo shoot, the size definitely grew on me. It seems to be the perfect compromise between functionality and portability.
Here you can see a good size comparison. It was actually a little bigger than I thought it would be given the screen size, but, as you'll see, there is a considerable sized bezel surrounding the screen, which adds a little to the dimensions. Whether or not this is a good thing is really matter of taste. Personally, I don't mind.
Here is another great example of Asus' construction quality. Many manufacturers out there use small, flimsy hinges, which can lead to problems down the road. Asus uses a large metal hinge, which should reduce hinge wear and add to long-term reliability. It also promotes a very solid feel when opening and closing the screen.
Asus went with a 10-inch matte screen with a native resolution of 1024x600. I found that resolution comfortable to deal work with, although from time to time I did have to increase the font size to read it from a distance. I also had a few issues with website not displaying properly. Fortunately, Asus includes a display mode that allows you to switch to a more stand resolution of 1024x768. You end up having to pan the screen up and down, but it can help in certain situations. This particular screen also uses the new LED backlighting as opposed to standard fluorescent type. This cuts down on power usage, improves the contrast ratio, and provides a more even distribution of light. All add up to a great looking display.
The keyboard on the Eee 1000H stretches from end to end, taking up as much space as possible. This amounts to a keyboard roughly 92% the size of a standard laptop keyboard, making it much easier and more comfortable to type. I would like to draw your attention to the right shift key though. Asus had to bump it over to the side to make room for the up arrow. Until you adjust to it, this can be somewhat bothersome as most people will tend to hit the up arrow instead. The good news is most operating systems allow you to remap the keys as a possible solution.
Asus includes the stand power adapter, manuals, and driver CD with the EEEPC1000H-BLK066X kit. You will also find a carrying case and cleaning cloth, a good thing too, because the surface is a magnet for fingerprints. The inclusion of the carrying case was much appreciated as well. I couldn't imagine trying to find and aftermarket case that fit it perfectly. Eee PC 1000H Detailed FeaturesGiven its small size and price point, I was surprised by the number of features Asus decided to include with the Eee 1000H. Of particular note, is the Asus Super Hybrid Engine. This software allows the user to manually underclock or overclock the processor at the push of a button. While I typically ran the laptop at its default settings, this feature became useful when I needed to conserve battery power or wanted those extra processor cycles.
Asus include four function buttons at the top of the keyboard. The first two are permanently assigned and turn the screen on and off or change the resolution between several predefined modes. The last two buttons are user defined. I recommend keeping the third one at its default setting which allows you to control the super hybrid engine. The last one launches Skype by default, but can easily be configured to launch another application.
As the case badge implies, the Eee 1000H features Dolby Sound Room technology. What this amounts to is option to use Dolby's virtual headphone and virtual surround sound options. After thoroughly testing the speakers, I was very impressed. The audio was free from distortion and could be across the room. In fact, it was much better than most larger notebooks. The experience with headphones was even better. Add to it the 160GB hard drive and bright screen, and you have yourself an excellent traveling media companion.
Gaining access to the internal components was fairly easy. It's just a matter of removing a few screws and sliding the cover off. The hard drive, RAM, and WLAN card are all easily accessible. In fact, given the $30 price tag, there is no excuse for not swapping out the 1GB of RAM for a 2GB stick. The WLAN card uses a mini PCI-e slot and can also be upgraded to support future protocols.
Asus has a few variation of the Eee PC 1000H, some with an 80GB HD and some with a 160GB HD. The EEEPC1000H-BLK066X model uses a Seagate Momentus 5400.4 160 GB hard drive. However, Asus does not specifically state the brand or model of hard drives that it uses, which leads me to believe they may change it from time to time. As you'll see in the benchmarks, we lucked out with this hard drive as it has proven to be quite a performer.
One of the huge selling points Asus has been pushing with this Eee family is the battery life. Why? Because most of its competitors can't even come close. While the claim of up to 7 hours might be pushing it, the battery life on the Eee 1000H has been quite good. Depending on the brightness of the LCD and the load on the hardware, I've been getting around 5 or 6 hours per charge--certainly enough for a long plane ride. Testing MethodologyWhen I set out to test the Eee 1000H, I started looking at its direct competitors. As it turns out, most comparable laptops use the same Intel Atom platform, which wouldn't make for a very interesting test. Instead, I will be putting the Eee 1000H up against a whitebox laptop I put together two years ago. While it is obviously not a fair competition, I wanted to find out exactly what I was missing out on by going with a smaller, less powerful notebook. That said, expect the Eee 1000H to come behind in most tests, but keep in mind that flat out performance is not what a "netbook" is intended for. In regard to battery life, the 5 to 6 hours I refer to in this article is probably the most you'll get out of the 1000H under ideal conditions. It really comes down to how you use yours. Here's a basic run down of my usage during testing.
CPU Load (Estimated)
CPU Throttling
Screen Brightness
Power Scheme
Other Optimizations
For the most part, I used the 1000H to browse the web, some light typing, and occasionally a short video clip to test playback performance. I also had a fairly aggressive power scheme and the other optimizations listed.For example, setting the laptop to go into standby after 5 minutes will help conserve battery for those times that you're idle. If you use it continuously with a light to medium CPU load, you can expect 3 to 4 hours of use and less if you're running at 100% load with everything turned on. Just a final note, Asus claims 7 hours of battery life under "normal usage." This is where battery testing gets tricky. There is no agreed upon standard for normal usage. It's kind of like the issue we had with mpg ratings on cars before they standardized it (although there are still loopholes). In my experience, I usually achieve 70-80% of the manufacturers' stated maximum with optimization. Test Systems
Eee 1000H Test ResultsFor the most part, the results confirmed what could already be reasonably predicted: the Intel Atom platform cannot keep up with a mobile Core 2 Duo in terms of benchmark performance. Whether or not this performance difference will be noticeable in the real world really depends on what you plan to do with this notebook. If you plan to run CPU intensive applications or modern games, you will definitely want to look elsewhere, and in fact, outside the netbook class entirely. If, however, all you want to do is browse the Internet, take notes, and watch a few videos, chances are you won't miss the extra power at all. I was even able to play back 720P content with very little problems.
At 2.5W TDP, I wasn't expecting much out of the Atom processor. Still, it managed to put up a decent fight, particularly when you consider that the Core 2 Duo tested has a TDP of 34W. In terms of performance per watt, the Atom is the clear winner. Looking at hard drive performance, it's clear that the Seagate Momentus 5400.4 in the Eee 1000H has a marked advantage over the older 5400.2 on our test laptop.
The PassMark Performance Test produced similar results. Again, we see the CPU bottleneck restricting overall performance, but the hard drive on the Eee 1000H wins out.
Using HD Tach, we can take a closer look at the hard drives. The hard drive on the Eee 1000H has a lower (better) random access time and a higher sustained read speed. What this means to you is Windows will boot in less time and applications will launch quicker. In fact, the better hard drive really helps to compensate for the slower processor. During testing, the Eee 1000H felt very responsive and managed to open applications and files faster than the test laptop. Some might argue that a SSD is a better option for netbooks. While there is some credibility to that argument, most of the SSDs included on today's netbooks tend to be on the cheaper end and offer sub-par performance when compared to this drive. ASUS Eee PC Final ThoughtsThe rapid explosion of the "netbook" market segment is clear evidence of the demand for lightweight computing. While it won't blow you out of the water in terms of performance, the Asus Eee 1000H accomplishes exactly what it was designed to do. It offers great performance per watt in a truly portable form factor. The Intel Atom platform is quick enough to keep up with most tasks and even allowed us to play back some HD content. In the end, it comes down to what's best for you. A netbook is great for students taking notes, browsing the web, or working with office documents. It also works well as a portable media platform. With the 160GB hard drive and long battery life, you'll certainly appreciate it on your next trip. A netbook, however, is not a desktop replacement. Instead, it should serve to supplement your desktop, allowing you portable access to your files and light processing ability. In that regard, the Eee 1000H is the perfect solution.
ASUS Eee PC 1000H ConclusionPresentation and packaging can have a big impact on perceived quality and overall satisfaction with a product. Every Asus product I come across is packaged very well and the Eee 1000H is no exception. The graphics were printed in full color and each component was wrapped individually. Asus also does a great job of promoting their products on the web, although I would like to see a better assortment of product photos. Within this particular market, many buyers are more concerned with appearance than overall performance. Asus took this into consideration and came out with a very attractive design. The high gloss treatment and over-sized hinges convey a sense of quality. My only complaint is that the surface is a little too glossy and tends to attract fingerprints. There's a reason the Eee 1000H conveys a sense of quality: it's built extremely well. While I don't intend to conduct drop tests, it will certainly stand up to everyday use. Even after weeks of testing there are no visible signs of wear and it still looks as good as the day it arrived. In additional to the great construction quality, Asus includes a number of features that set the Eee 1000H apart from the competition. The LED backlit screen and Dolby audio provide a rich media experience, while the 802.11n and built in bluetooth offer the user multiple connectivity options. Most importantly, though, the included 6-cell battery means you'll be able to enjoy all of these features for hours on end without being tied to a desk. The EEEPC1000H-BLK066X kit sells for $480, which makes the Eee 1000H one of the more expensive Atom based netbooks on the market. Most of the cost can be attributed to the larger hard drive and Windows XP license. Less expensive netbooks tend to use low-end SSDs and a Linux based OS. For what you get, $480 is a fair asking price. While the Asus Eee 1000H isn't without its criticisms, if you're in the market for a netbook, this one should be at the top of your list. Pros:
+ Attractive design Cons:
- Surface attracts fingerprints Ratings:
Final Score: 9.25 out of 10Questions? Comments? Benchmark Reviews really wants your feedback. We invite you to leave your remarks in our Discussion Forum.
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