PC1000HE ASUS Eee USA/UK
Asus continues to broaden their Eee PC line of netbooks, as we roll through the first quarter of 2009. Clearly, however, Asus was aiming more for evolutionary than revolutionary with its latest Eee pc1000he. Even though it's largely unchanged from its siblings, there are still enough refinements to the product here to take notice.
For the most part, Asus took aim at rival machines that were praised for their usability and portability but hammered when it came time to examine battery life. Essentially, the pc 1000he wraps up everything the world has come to know and love about the Eee netbook line, but also offers a few enhancements like a faster Atom N280 processer, a new keyboard layout and perhaps most interesting, longer battery life.
The fit and finish, build quality and overall allure of this machine isn't all that different versus its closely related family members. And, as you can certainly tell from the model number, Asus didn't intend for it to be any huge departure from the norm. In fact, the 1000HE leads you on to believe that this is simply an Extended version (in terms of battery life, not cargo room) of the existing 1000H. In many ways, that's absolutely true, but as you'll see when venturing through the pages ahead, there were enough tweaks made to give even existing Eee owners a reason to pay attention.
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PC 1000HE ASUS Eee Detailed Product Information
From the outside, the pc 1000he doesn't look much different from other models in the diminutive Eee line. But it's the machine's heart — the brand new 1.66-GHz Atom N280 processor — that makes it faster, stronger, smarter than its opponents.
Intel claims the silicon slab boosts computing power across the board, especially HD video playback — something that has been woefully horrid in past machines using Atom processors.
Performance-wise, this netbook is the fastest we've tested (by about 7 percent) in our benchmarks. And HD video playback was noticeably smoother and devoid of chop. Yes! Finally we can take a bus trip from S.F. to L.A., watch four episodes of Lost (in HD), and still have enough power to peruse Perez Hilton when we get in.
Better video would be a complete waste without a decent battery, and fortunately Asus has that on lockdown. According to Asus, the 1000HE's six-cell battery last 9.5 hours. We're not quite sure how they got those results — in our testing the pc1000he ran about five hours till it conked out. But that's still enough time to power the PC for an entire transcontinental flight.
We also really swooned over the pc1000he's roomy trackpad (yes the trackpad) and its two lovely buttons. Features like two-finger scrolling and zooming, give us comfy, precise control when navigating through XP menus.
If you have had a good think about which model you want and feel that the pc1000he is the one we recommend .