Asus Eee PC 1008HA Seashell
In a few words that’s my new toy. And what a cool thing it is too! Start with the size. Fits nicely into a full overnight (overweek) bag. Light. Big enough to type documents and email on (sorry – the iPhone route wasnt going to cut it for me).
Really cool small netbook - all you need for on the road
Please take a trip to el Reg to read the full review. I read it and wandered off on Tuesday to Tottenham Court Roadwith a fairly open mind. I have used a Sony Vaio laptop as my only machine for years, but it has been getting slow and now the fan doesnt work so it is useless to travel with (ok at home on an external fan). As a solution, given the credit crunch, I rescuscitated a PC that I had under my desk as my main machine and then sought a suitable travelling companion.
I liked a number of the Netbook type machines. They all have small screens which is an issue – 10 inch is theoretically the largest although I did like the Acer 12 inch model. After checking out the review on el Reg, however, I was less sold – particularly in view of the difficulty that I was having reading the review on the machine in the shop! I liked the added screen real estate, but unfortunately the resolution we too ambitious for the screen size and my eyes complained.
Small and light
A note on shopping on Tott court road for these things. Dont feel shy to get the reviews up on the screen while in the shop. Most of the assistants are failry moronic, so dont expect sensible answers from them (I heard a few classics on Tuesday). Watch out for special deals – one shop offered me the 1008 $15 cheaper but then to sweeten the deal offered the bag at £10 instead of £20 – the thing comes with a bag anyway. Also, when they say they dont take Amex, walk for the door. You would be amazed how fast they find a way 🙂
Anyway – the machine is fantastic. 160G hard drive is twice the size of my “full size” laptop, and the machine runs significantly faster than it! So, a stripped down “low performance” netbook is in fact faster than a 3 year old top of the range laptop, and at £400 is a lot cheaper.
I still love this machine! The only gripe is the slightly too small screen resolution – my ideal machine would be exactly the same except the screen would go to the edge of the lid rather than the plastic border. I gather the screen resolution is an artificial limit imposed by MS for the cheap version of the OS – not sure how long that will last!
A note to developers of applications – make sure they work with netbook size screens! There are a growing army of users out there.