Introduction:
another E
At last count, (Eee PC | Easy to Learn, Work and Play), Asus had a huge line up in the EeePc range with a sometimes confusing array of models (18!) competing over a very small price range. While Asus kickstarted the netbook segment, they seem to be going all out in order to ensure that they do not leave any part untouched.
Today I will be taking a look at one of the bigger siblings of the original Asus EeePc, the 10†E1000H. This comes with a now standard Atom 1.6Ghz processor, 1Gb DDR2 RAM and a roomy 160Gb HDD. At 1.45kgs, this is among the heaviest mini-laptops yet to be given the ‘EeePc’/netbook moniker.
I recently reviewed the Acer Aspire One notebook (here: http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-and-previews/review-acer-aspire-one-windows-version-117752.html ) and have also spent some time with the original E701. Hence these will be the netbooks with which comparisons will be drawn throughout the review.
Does the 10†screen and the E1000H as a whole stack up to expectations despite the heavier weight and pricing at the higher end of the netbook range? This is something we will try to check in the next few pages.
[BREAK=Specifications]
Technical Specifications:
specs
The specifications from the official Asus site for the E1000H (Eee PC | Easy to Learn, Work and Play ) are as follows:
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home / GNU Linux
Display 10"
Intel CPU & Chipset Intel® Atom N270
Wireless Data Network WLAN: 802.11 n
Bluetooth: YES
Memory 1GB (DDR2)
Hybrid Storage 160GB HDD / 10GB Eee Storage
*Eee Storage service is complimentary for the first 18 months. Please register account information for 6 months extension (depend on country)
Camera 1.3M Pixel
Audio Dolby Sound Room Certified (only support on XP OS)
Stereo speaker
Digital Array Mic
Battery XP: 7 hrs* / LX: 6 hrs*
*Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.
Weight 1.45 kg
Infusion Sakura, Sweet Pea, Pearl White, Fine Ebony
The unit with me is the Windows version with Xp Home preinstalled in black, which seems to be the only color available.
Also, there is some confusion on the battery front for this model. Is it or is it not a 6cell? The answer is both true and false. More on this in the battery page.
[BREAK=Bundle, Chassis]
Bundle:
The E1000H comes in a small thin box with all the components arranged neatly in their respective corners.
bundle
The Bundle:
The bundle included with the E1000h includes a quick start guide/warranty card, user manual, recovery disc, the requisite charger and a nice protective sleeve so that you can drop it into your bag without worrying about your shiny new netbook getting scratched. The one extra thing you get here is a nice lint-free cleaning cloth to wipe the E1000h of all those smudges and fingerprints which are unavoidable during handling and use. This is a nice touch. It does not cost much, but Asus is among the few manufacturers to include something like this with a netbook bundle (Apple does it too).
Chassis:
the chassis
The E1000H chassis is bigger than its 7†/ 9†cousins and heavier as well at 1.45kgs. The mirror finish makes this netbook a fingerprint magnet. There will be times when you will thank the handy cleaning cloth for being there to clean off all the smudges which this netbook is prone to collecting.
The E1000h is very well put together for a netbook with minimal flex. The keyboard does give a bit under pressure but the netbook holds up well as a whole. A nice touch are the Brushed aluminum hinges that hold the whole thing together.
Screen:
screen
As the name implies, the E1000H has a LED backlit 10†screen with a resolution of 1024X600. Though the same resolution as other 9†models, the extra 1†screen makes text seem bigger and easier to read in comparison. The 1024 resolution keeps horizontal scrolling to a minimum during internet use, which was a sore point in the E701.
The screen is uniformly lit and viewing angles are good. A brightness setting of around 30% is sufficient to perform most regular tasks.
A 1.3Mp webcam (0.3 on the Aspire One) is located on top of the screen for internet video / skype purposes with the inbuilt digital array microphone at the bottom. The picture quality is average and comparable to most basic laptop webcams.
[BREAK=Chassis (contd.)]
The keyboard:
keyboard
The keyboard is where the E1000H shines and is the highlight after the 10†screen. The keyboard has large well placed keys (~90% of a standard laptop keyboard). After using this keyboard, the one on the E701 seems positively cramped by comparison and even the one on the Aspire One (~85%) seems small. Typing is comfortable and even touch typists should be able to have a go on this.
Another neat touch is one of the function key shortcuts assigned to launch the task manager instantly. The pageup - pagedown keys are not separate but mapped to the arrow keys which is logical and an acceptable compromise. The only sore point is the misplaced right shift key. At times, I found myself pressing the wrong key while instinctively searching for the right shift, especially considering that a small gap has been provided where the key should be there. Keyboard mapping is possible if this gets irritating enough but one does get used to it gradually.
shortcuts
In addition to the power button, there are 4 more buttons on the top edge. One of them is to switch the screen on or off (save battery), the second to cycle among supported resolutions while the other two are configurable shortcut keys. One of them defaults to the excellent Asus Super Hybrid engine software (covered separately) while the second is a one touch launcher for instant skype access and can be configured as per user choice.
The one thing it would have been nice to have is a physical wifi enable/disable switch like the one present on the Aspire One.
Indicators:
indicators
There are four indicator lights on the lower right edge of the netbook. One each for power, charging, hard drive access and wifi/Bluetooth.
[BREAK=Chassis (contd.)]
Touchpad:
touchpad
The metal bordered touchpad on the E1000h is surprisingly roomy and easy to use. The large surface area helps in smooth scrolling without needing to realign your fingers each time. The buttons are firm but easy to press and give proper tactile feedback.
For anyone planning to use a laptop for any length of time, a normal laptop mouse is anyway recommended.
The touchpad is also supposed to have multi-touch capabilities unlocked by a recent driver update but I was unable to get my hands on the update to try these out.
Speakers:
dolby
There are tiny speakers built into the bottom of the unit which are surprisingly usable for a netbook. The E1000h also supports dolby virtual surround if it takes your fancy.
Ports Available:
left
On the left we have the RF-45 100Mbps Ethernet port, microphone and earphone jacks, one USB port, a lock slot and the vents for the cooling fan.
right
The right side houses the remaining two USB ports, VGA output, the power jack and the standard multi-format card reader.
[BREAK=Hardware]
Hardware:
The E1000H has basically the same Atom N270 processor running at 1.6Ghz that we have gotten used to seeing in every other netbook out there (including the Acer Aspire One).
The CPU and the onboard is correctly identified by CPUZ/GPUZ.
cpuz
gpuz
The CPU has hyperthreading enabled which helps in some real world scenarios where multiple threads are active simultaneously.
hyperthreading
HDD:
While SSDs have good read/write seeds, the fact remains that the low-cost SSDs used in netbooks leave a lot to be desired on the performance front. In some cases, its actually better to have a normal hard drive available.
The hard drive in this unit is a Seagate 2.5†SATA 5400 rpm drive (Seagate Technology - Momentus 5400.4 SATA 3Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ) which provides decent performance.
hdd info
hdd speeds
NOTE: The bottom of the unit contains a single cover which provides access to both the RAM slot and the hard drive in case replacement is required.
[BREAK=VGA-out]
VGA-Out tested:
The one thing I like to do with a netbook is to check the capabilities provided through the VGA-out interface. Most of us are going to use this as a secondary/download machine and will carry it around. However, when you are back home, you might want to plug this into a normal monitor. After all, why look at a 10†screen when you can look at a 19â€, right?
The EeePc supported a resolution of 1440X900 without any issues both on the desktop and for upscaling videos on my Dell SE198WFP.
1440X900
The VGA-out has the standard modes to transfer the picture to the external monitor, clone the desktop to the external output etc.
The one thing that stands out here is an option to extend the desktop to the external monitor that I haven’t seen on the Aspire One. This is something I wasn’t expecting on this machine and is a nice feature to have.
extended desktop
[BREAK=Super Hybrid Engine / Temps]
Super-Hybrid Engine:
super hybrid engine
The Super Hybrid engine is the software utility Asus provides to overclock AND underclock the Atom processor as per requirements.
Though MSI has a turbo button built into the MSI wind to enable an overclock, it lacks any underclocking functionality out of the box. From a real world perspective, while overclocking the Atom processor may not provide much of a performance boost, underclocking is always welcome as a means to increase the battery life while on the go.
The super hybrid engine has an ‘AUTO’ mode that underclocks the machine when on battery and puts it back to stock when connected to AC power.
These features are in addition to speedstep support which is enabled by default enabling the processor to downclock when idle. While the power hog in this netbook is the antiquated 945 chipset, power savings in a laptop are always welcome.
Stock:
idle
load
Underclocked:
idle
load
Overclocked:
idle
load
Temperatures are acceptable with the unit never getting uncomfortably hot, even in the overclocked state.
[BREAK=Software]
Bios:
BIOS screens
The BIOS is basic with hardware information and the standard options to switch between boot devices.
Preinstalled software:
The software bundle included with the E1000h is actually pretty decent. Windows Home comes preloaded with a copy of WinDVD which seems a mistake since there is no DVD drive included in this machine.
The positives are skype preinstalled as well as ‘Eee Storage’ which is basically 10Gb of online storage space valid for 18 months.
The standout inclusion here is an installation of the excellent NOD32 antivirus suite included as part of the software package which is a good step from Asus.
NOD32
The recovery disc include with the package can be used to perform system recovery though an external DVD-ROM drive will be required for the same.
[BREAK=Benchmarks]
Benchmarks:
Though this machine is meant for basic applications and usage, I did run a few benchmarks on it. Most benchmarks are on stock and in overclocked state. I included these as the EeePc can be overclocked out of the box for better performance.
Winrar’s inbuilt benchmark:
stock
Oc'ed
Superpi:
underclocked
stock
OC'ed
Everest OC'ed:
OC'ed
[BREAK=Battery Confusion]
Battery Confusion:
5600 mAh battery
The Asus E1000h originally came in an 80Gb version with a 6600mAh 6-cell li-ion battery. In order to better compete with other netbooks, Asus upgraded the hard drive to a 160Gb unit. However, in order to balance out the increase in costs, they seem to have reduced the battery to a 4-cell 5600mAh polymer battery unit.
The second theory is that the recent battery shortages forced Asus to go with lower capacity batteries in some units.
battery info sticker
How to spot the difference? The box has a big sticker on it (clearly a later addition) saying ‘5600mAh polymer battery’. This is what got me curious and researching for more information.
protruding 4-cell
Visually, the 4-cell battery being a polymer battery is somewhat larger in volume and sticks out the back of the unit while the older li-ion 6-cell battery sits flush with the back of the unit.
One point to note is that consumers in Singapore etc are also getting the same units as those in India (4-cell). However, those in the US buying from Newegg etc are reporting 160Gb units with the standard 6-cell batteries. This either points to it being a battery shortage issue, or better configurations being supplied to US customers. This wouldn’t be the first time a company resorted to such measures.
While the claimed 7 hours of battery life might have been possible with the 6-cell battery and drastic power saving measures such as underclocking, an idle processor, wi-fi/bluetooth/camera disabled and brightness set to a minimum, this is clearly not achievable with the 4-cell unit.
However, I did run an informal test where I ran a movie from the hard drive at 30% brightness (sufficiently bright) in a continuous loop with wi-fi disabled. The E1000h gave me a battery life of 4.5 hours on the 4-cell battery! With judicious use, 4 hours plus does seem achievable on this unit. While the 6-cell battery should obviously do even better, 4 hours is also a good battery runtime to get from any portable machine.
[BREAK=Pricing/Conclusion]
Pricing:
The official MSRP of approx. 26k does seem a bit excessive even for the loaded E1000h with windows Xp, 160Gb HDD and Bluetooth etc. Contrast this with other netbooks in the market like the cheap Aspire One (21.5k) and even the MSI wind (23k-24k max). However, actual street prices are lower.
Asus had an offer going recently with a Tata Indicom datacard and a Canon printer for the 26k price. This is a good deal for someone who needs the above.
The older 80Gb/6-cell units are still available with some dealers and are going at a cheaper price of 23-24k which seems like an attractive deal for the extra battery runtime that these units have to offer.
Conclusion:
The Asus E1000h is a nice little netbook. Its well-built, with one of the better netbook keypads as well as a good screen. It also comes loaded with a 160Gb HDD, Bluetooth and out of the box overclocking. Not to forget the included NOD-32 antivirus software that tech-savvy users will appreciate.
In the end, it comes down to your budget as always. You will also need to balance your needs for a 4-cell unit with a roomier hard drive Vs a 6-cell unit with a smaller hard drive. The only other netbook with similar features (10†and a good battery) in a similar price range is the MSI wind for which availability might be an issue.
Budget buyers might consider the Aspire One too which is among the cheapest Atom powered notebooks in the market currently (19.xk for a 9†Linux based 120Gb / 3-cell unit but no Bluetooth).
For features though, you will find the E1000h hard to beat despite the slightly higher pricing. If you can afford it, buy it.
Pros:
i. Good keyboard
ii. Large 10†screen
iii. Supports out of the box over and underclocking
iv. Good battery life (>4 hours)
v. NOD32 antivirus bundled
Cons:
i. Ill-placed right shift key
ii. Slightly more expensive
iii. No 6-cell battery in the 160Gb version (We always want more!)
Digg: Digg - Asus E1000h review + 4-cell/6-cell batt confusion.
PS: Thanks to my friend Eddy for the netbook so I could review it.
another E
At last count, (Eee PC | Easy to Learn, Work and Play), Asus had a huge line up in the EeePc range with a sometimes confusing array of models (18!) competing over a very small price range. While Asus kickstarted the netbook segment, they seem to be going all out in order to ensure that they do not leave any part untouched.
Today I will be taking a look at one of the bigger siblings of the original Asus EeePc, the 10†E1000H. This comes with a now standard Atom 1.6Ghz processor, 1Gb DDR2 RAM and a roomy 160Gb HDD. At 1.45kgs, this is among the heaviest mini-laptops yet to be given the ‘EeePc’/netbook moniker.
I recently reviewed the Acer Aspire One notebook (here: http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-and-previews/review-acer-aspire-one-windows-version-117752.html ) and have also spent some time with the original E701. Hence these will be the netbooks with which comparisons will be drawn throughout the review.
Does the 10†screen and the E1000H as a whole stack up to expectations despite the heavier weight and pricing at the higher end of the netbook range? This is something we will try to check in the next few pages.
[BREAK=Specifications]
Technical Specifications:
specs
The specifications from the official Asus site for the E1000H (Eee PC | Easy to Learn, Work and Play ) are as follows:
Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home / GNU Linux
Display 10"
Intel CPU & Chipset Intel® Atom N270
Wireless Data Network WLAN: 802.11 n
Bluetooth: YES
Memory 1GB (DDR2)
Hybrid Storage 160GB HDD / 10GB Eee Storage
*Eee Storage service is complimentary for the first 18 months. Please register account information for 6 months extension (depend on country)
Camera 1.3M Pixel
Audio Dolby Sound Room Certified (only support on XP OS)
Stereo speaker
Digital Array Mic
Battery XP: 7 hrs* / LX: 6 hrs*
*Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.
Weight 1.45 kg
Infusion Sakura, Sweet Pea, Pearl White, Fine Ebony
The unit with me is the Windows version with Xp Home preinstalled in black, which seems to be the only color available.
Also, there is some confusion on the battery front for this model. Is it or is it not a 6cell? The answer is both true and false. More on this in the battery page.
[BREAK=Bundle, Chassis]
Bundle:
The E1000H comes in a small thin box with all the components arranged neatly in their respective corners.
bundle
The Bundle:
The bundle included with the E1000h includes a quick start guide/warranty card, user manual, recovery disc, the requisite charger and a nice protective sleeve so that you can drop it into your bag without worrying about your shiny new netbook getting scratched. The one extra thing you get here is a nice lint-free cleaning cloth to wipe the E1000h of all those smudges and fingerprints which are unavoidable during handling and use. This is a nice touch. It does not cost much, but Asus is among the few manufacturers to include something like this with a netbook bundle (Apple does it too).
Chassis:
the chassis
The E1000H chassis is bigger than its 7†/ 9†cousins and heavier as well at 1.45kgs. The mirror finish makes this netbook a fingerprint magnet. There will be times when you will thank the handy cleaning cloth for being there to clean off all the smudges which this netbook is prone to collecting.
The E1000h is very well put together for a netbook with minimal flex. The keyboard does give a bit under pressure but the netbook holds up well as a whole. A nice touch are the Brushed aluminum hinges that hold the whole thing together.
Screen:
screen
As the name implies, the E1000H has a LED backlit 10†screen with a resolution of 1024X600. Though the same resolution as other 9†models, the extra 1†screen makes text seem bigger and easier to read in comparison. The 1024 resolution keeps horizontal scrolling to a minimum during internet use, which was a sore point in the E701.
The screen is uniformly lit and viewing angles are good. A brightness setting of around 30% is sufficient to perform most regular tasks.
A 1.3Mp webcam (0.3 on the Aspire One) is located on top of the screen for internet video / skype purposes with the inbuilt digital array microphone at the bottom. The picture quality is average and comparable to most basic laptop webcams.
[BREAK=Chassis (contd.)]
The keyboard:
keyboard
The keyboard is where the E1000H shines and is the highlight after the 10†screen. The keyboard has large well placed keys (~90% of a standard laptop keyboard). After using this keyboard, the one on the E701 seems positively cramped by comparison and even the one on the Aspire One (~85%) seems small. Typing is comfortable and even touch typists should be able to have a go on this.
Another neat touch is one of the function key shortcuts assigned to launch the task manager instantly. The pageup - pagedown keys are not separate but mapped to the arrow keys which is logical and an acceptable compromise. The only sore point is the misplaced right shift key. At times, I found myself pressing the wrong key while instinctively searching for the right shift, especially considering that a small gap has been provided where the key should be there. Keyboard mapping is possible if this gets irritating enough but one does get used to it gradually.
shortcuts
In addition to the power button, there are 4 more buttons on the top edge. One of them is to switch the screen on or off (save battery), the second to cycle among supported resolutions while the other two are configurable shortcut keys. One of them defaults to the excellent Asus Super Hybrid engine software (covered separately) while the second is a one touch launcher for instant skype access and can be configured as per user choice.
The one thing it would have been nice to have is a physical wifi enable/disable switch like the one present on the Aspire One.
Indicators:
indicators
There are four indicator lights on the lower right edge of the netbook. One each for power, charging, hard drive access and wifi/Bluetooth.
[BREAK=Chassis (contd.)]
Touchpad:
touchpad
The metal bordered touchpad on the E1000h is surprisingly roomy and easy to use. The large surface area helps in smooth scrolling without needing to realign your fingers each time. The buttons are firm but easy to press and give proper tactile feedback.
For anyone planning to use a laptop for any length of time, a normal laptop mouse is anyway recommended.
The touchpad is also supposed to have multi-touch capabilities unlocked by a recent driver update but I was unable to get my hands on the update to try these out.
Speakers:
dolby
There are tiny speakers built into the bottom of the unit which are surprisingly usable for a netbook. The E1000h also supports dolby virtual surround if it takes your fancy.
Ports Available:
left
On the left we have the RF-45 100Mbps Ethernet port, microphone and earphone jacks, one USB port, a lock slot and the vents for the cooling fan.
right
The right side houses the remaining two USB ports, VGA output, the power jack and the standard multi-format card reader.
[BREAK=Hardware]
Hardware:
The E1000H has basically the same Atom N270 processor running at 1.6Ghz that we have gotten used to seeing in every other netbook out there (including the Acer Aspire One).
The CPU and the onboard is correctly identified by CPUZ/GPUZ.
cpuz
gpuz
The CPU has hyperthreading enabled which helps in some real world scenarios where multiple threads are active simultaneously.
hyperthreading
HDD:
While SSDs have good read/write seeds, the fact remains that the low-cost SSDs used in netbooks leave a lot to be desired on the performance front. In some cases, its actually better to have a normal hard drive available.
The hard drive in this unit is a Seagate 2.5†SATA 5400 rpm drive (Seagate Technology - Momentus 5400.4 SATA 3Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive ) which provides decent performance.
hdd info
hdd speeds
NOTE: The bottom of the unit contains a single cover which provides access to both the RAM slot and the hard drive in case replacement is required.
[BREAK=VGA-out]
VGA-Out tested:
The one thing I like to do with a netbook is to check the capabilities provided through the VGA-out interface. Most of us are going to use this as a secondary/download machine and will carry it around. However, when you are back home, you might want to plug this into a normal monitor. After all, why look at a 10†screen when you can look at a 19â€, right?
The EeePc supported a resolution of 1440X900 without any issues both on the desktop and for upscaling videos on my Dell SE198WFP.
1440X900
The VGA-out has the standard modes to transfer the picture to the external monitor, clone the desktop to the external output etc.
The one thing that stands out here is an option to extend the desktop to the external monitor that I haven’t seen on the Aspire One. This is something I wasn’t expecting on this machine and is a nice feature to have.
extended desktop
[BREAK=Super Hybrid Engine / Temps]
Super-Hybrid Engine:
super hybrid engine
The Super Hybrid engine is the software utility Asus provides to overclock AND underclock the Atom processor as per requirements.
Though MSI has a turbo button built into the MSI wind to enable an overclock, it lacks any underclocking functionality out of the box. From a real world perspective, while overclocking the Atom processor may not provide much of a performance boost, underclocking is always welcome as a means to increase the battery life while on the go.
The super hybrid engine has an ‘AUTO’ mode that underclocks the machine when on battery and puts it back to stock when connected to AC power.
These features are in addition to speedstep support which is enabled by default enabling the processor to downclock when idle. While the power hog in this netbook is the antiquated 945 chipset, power savings in a laptop are always welcome.
Stock:
idle
load
Underclocked:
idle
load
Overclocked:
idle
load
Temperatures are acceptable with the unit never getting uncomfortably hot, even in the overclocked state.
[BREAK=Software]
Bios:
BIOS screens
The BIOS is basic with hardware information and the standard options to switch between boot devices.
Preinstalled software:
The software bundle included with the E1000h is actually pretty decent. Windows Home comes preloaded with a copy of WinDVD which seems a mistake since there is no DVD drive included in this machine.
The positives are skype preinstalled as well as ‘Eee Storage’ which is basically 10Gb of online storage space valid for 18 months.
The standout inclusion here is an installation of the excellent NOD32 antivirus suite included as part of the software package which is a good step from Asus.
NOD32
The recovery disc include with the package can be used to perform system recovery though an external DVD-ROM drive will be required for the same.
[BREAK=Benchmarks]
Benchmarks:
Though this machine is meant for basic applications and usage, I did run a few benchmarks on it. Most benchmarks are on stock and in overclocked state. I included these as the EeePc can be overclocked out of the box for better performance.
Winrar’s inbuilt benchmark:
stock
Oc'ed
Superpi:
underclocked
stock
OC'ed
Everest OC'ed:
OC'ed
[BREAK=Battery Confusion]
Battery Confusion:
5600 mAh battery
The Asus E1000h originally came in an 80Gb version with a 6600mAh 6-cell li-ion battery. In order to better compete with other netbooks, Asus upgraded the hard drive to a 160Gb unit. However, in order to balance out the increase in costs, they seem to have reduced the battery to a 4-cell 5600mAh polymer battery unit.
The second theory is that the recent battery shortages forced Asus to go with lower capacity batteries in some units.
battery info sticker
How to spot the difference? The box has a big sticker on it (clearly a later addition) saying ‘5600mAh polymer battery’. This is what got me curious and researching for more information.
protruding 4-cell
Visually, the 4-cell battery being a polymer battery is somewhat larger in volume and sticks out the back of the unit while the older li-ion 6-cell battery sits flush with the back of the unit.
One point to note is that consumers in Singapore etc are also getting the same units as those in India (4-cell). However, those in the US buying from Newegg etc are reporting 160Gb units with the standard 6-cell batteries. This either points to it being a battery shortage issue, or better configurations being supplied to US customers. This wouldn’t be the first time a company resorted to such measures.
While the claimed 7 hours of battery life might have been possible with the 6-cell battery and drastic power saving measures such as underclocking, an idle processor, wi-fi/bluetooth/camera disabled and brightness set to a minimum, this is clearly not achievable with the 4-cell unit.
However, I did run an informal test where I ran a movie from the hard drive at 30% brightness (sufficiently bright) in a continuous loop with wi-fi disabled. The E1000h gave me a battery life of 4.5 hours on the 4-cell battery! With judicious use, 4 hours plus does seem achievable on this unit. While the 6-cell battery should obviously do even better, 4 hours is also a good battery runtime to get from any portable machine.
[BREAK=Pricing/Conclusion]
Pricing:
The official MSRP of approx. 26k does seem a bit excessive even for the loaded E1000h with windows Xp, 160Gb HDD and Bluetooth etc. Contrast this with other netbooks in the market like the cheap Aspire One (21.5k) and even the MSI wind (23k-24k max). However, actual street prices are lower.
Asus had an offer going recently with a Tata Indicom datacard and a Canon printer for the 26k price. This is a good deal for someone who needs the above.
The older 80Gb/6-cell units are still available with some dealers and are going at a cheaper price of 23-24k which seems like an attractive deal for the extra battery runtime that these units have to offer.
Conclusion:
The Asus E1000h is a nice little netbook. Its well-built, with one of the better netbook keypads as well as a good screen. It also comes loaded with a 160Gb HDD, Bluetooth and out of the box overclocking. Not to forget the included NOD-32 antivirus software that tech-savvy users will appreciate.
In the end, it comes down to your budget as always. You will also need to balance your needs for a 4-cell unit with a roomier hard drive Vs a 6-cell unit with a smaller hard drive. The only other netbook with similar features (10†and a good battery) in a similar price range is the MSI wind for which availability might be an issue.
Budget buyers might consider the Aspire One too which is among the cheapest Atom powered notebooks in the market currently (19.xk for a 9†Linux based 120Gb / 3-cell unit but no Bluetooth).
For features though, you will find the E1000h hard to beat despite the slightly higher pricing. If you can afford it, buy it.
Pros:
i. Good keyboard
ii. Large 10†screen
iii. Supports out of the box over and underclocking
iv. Good battery life (>4 hours)
v. NOD32 antivirus bundled
Cons:
i. Ill-placed right shift key
ii. Slightly more expensive
iii. No 6-cell battery in the 160Gb version (We always want more!)
Digg: Digg - Asus E1000h review + 4-cell/6-cell batt confusion.
PS: Thanks to my friend Eddy for the netbook so I could review it.
Which player etc tho? That can make a diff too.
.