Asus Eee PC 1000HE review

We loved the first Eee when it tipped up a few eons ago, mainly because there was nothing else out there like it.

It was disposable computing that just about did everything you realistically needed on the move, plus a teeny bit more. Since then we've had the inevitable copycats, re-inventions and re-iterations, most of which have added to the price and precious little else.

Asus is itself diluting the market with more and more iterations of its Eee brand, this latest though supplants rather than builds on what was there before.

At its heart there's little difference between the 1000HE and the £70-80 cheaper 1000H, where it does shout about its edge though is in the battery department.

Long battery life

A fat sticker on the shiny plastic casing boasts 'all-day computing' with a 9.5 hour battery life.

Unfortunately, like certain pubs that only offer the all-day breakfast until three in the afternoon, that 'all-day computing' moniker is all kinds of marketing spin.

We've no doubt that with the right power profile and usage model that you could get close to that vaunted nine and a half hour mark, but from our experience that usage model would involve having the wireless capabilities off, the screen so dark as to render it useless and no hard disk, memory or CPU usage at all.

In short from what I could make out it would only be possible to get the boasted battery life if you didn't actually use the machine at all.

Better than the Samsung NC10?

Still, with regular usage and constant re-booting across the day, wireless use and the odd video we did manage to get the 1000HE rolling happily for over seven hours which is definitely nothing to be sniffed at and a whole lot more than the almost-as-awesome Samsung NC10.

So, seeing as we only work from a 9.30 to 5.30 we'll let Asus off and let it call it all-day computing.

The other big change from the Asus Eee PC 1000 is the keyboard. It's unashamedly MacBook-a-like with the flat keys, but the added space between makes the mis-struck key misery of most netbooks less of an issue.

According to the marketing spiel it's 92 per cent of a standard keyboard - now, we didn't get out the TechRadar tape-measure, but it was definitely a lot easier to type consistently on.

There is some unpleasant give on the typing surface though, which certainly makes it feel a lot less sturdy than an equivalent MacBook keyboard, and the space bar feels a bit dead, but it's otherwise thoroughly responsive.

Solid netbook features

Elsewhere though the 1000HE is standard in netbook-terms across the board. The screen's got a 1024x600 native resolution and it's still rocking the N280 Atom processor.

Giving up on the SSD has meant the latest Eees have all the storage space you need on the move and Asus has also made sure to keep the price as close to the £300 mark as possible.

If you've already got a 9"-10" netbook then there's little here that upgrading your existing battery wont give you, but if you're in the market for a machine that wont break the bank, and will last you a full working day, then we reckon we've maybe got a new netbook champ.