Key Specs
1.66GHz Intel Atom N2801GB RAM
160GB hard drive
None
10.1 inches
Integrated Intel GMA 945
3.2 pounds
1.5x10.47x7.53 inches
Windows XP Home Edition
The Asus Eee PC 1000HE doesn't mess with success—it just tweaks it. This updated $399 netbook builds on the design of the popular Eee PC 1000H by improving the keyboard (goodbye, misplaced right-Shift key!) and offering enhanced battery life as well as a mild performance boost.
In many ways, the 3.2-pound Eee PC 1000HE is very similar to its predecessor. It has a fingerprint-attracting glossy black shell, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, and a 10.1-inch, 1,024x600-pixel LCD. The only external difference, other than a reshaped underside, is the keyboard. It's 92 percent of full-size, just like the 1000H, but the new model uses a MacBook-like, Chiclet-style keyboard, and to the delight of touch-typists everywhere, it moves the right-Shift key to the inside of the Up Arrow key, where it belongs. Survivors of the 1980s who remember the IBM PCjr have nothing to fear here: This Chiclet keyboard is every bit as comfortable to type on as the more traditional 1000H keyboard.
The Eee PC 1000HE maintains the multitouch touch pad (and, alas, its too-stiff buttons), excellent audio clarity and volume, 1.3-megapixel Webcam, and SDHC/Memory Stick card slot of its predecessor. Expansion includes three USB ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, VGA-out, and headphone and microphone jacks. The lack of an ExpressCard slot as found on the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is one of our few complaints.
The Eee PC 1000HE features Intel's updated Atom N280 processor. Though it runs at 1.66GHz, just a hair faster than the N270 (which runs at 1.6GHz), it bumps the front-side bus speed from 533MHz to 667MHz. Our tests did show a noticeable speed improvement over N270-powered notebooks. The Eee PC 1000HE completed our Windows Media Encoder (WME) render in 22 minutes and 11 seconds, and our iTunes music conversion test in 17 minutes and 37 seconds. This is significantly faster than the Atom N270-powered 1000H, which turned in times of 28 minutes and 10 seconds and 22 minutes and 15 seconds, respectively. Also, these are very good scores when you compare them to the average for the netbook category as whole (31 minutes and 23 seconds for WME and 25 minutes and 35 seconds for iTunes).
