The wait is finally over for the EeePC 1000, a laptop that promises to slay all that enters into the netbook arena. It's the most well-equipped — and largest — in the Eee series and has cast aside the usability shackles of its diminutive predecessors.
In Australia it's only available in its Windows XP Home form — we can only assume either the Linux version was selling in enough volume to justify it here, or Microsoft Australia got even more aggressive on the netbook front. It sells for AU$699, and comes in either black or white.
Design
The EeePC 1000 has much in common with the EeePC 901. It's got the same shiny, metallic hinges and a curvy-edged lid. It's also the largest mini laptop we've come across. Its 225 by 170 by 20mm chassis is a few millimetres wider and deeper than an MSI Wind, but we don't have too much of an issue with this; it's still very portable. What we do have a problem with is the EeePC 1000's weight — 1.45kg with the standard 6,600mAh battery. Even without the battery, it tips the scales at nearly 1.1kg, which is what the MSI Wind weighs with its standard 2,200mAh power cell. To say Asus has screwed up in this area would be an understatement.
The extra weight and larger than normal size places the Eee PC 1000 in unusual territory. It's no longer a netbook, in our opinion, but is more like an ultraportable laptop in the same vein as a Sony Vaio TZ series. There's nothing wrong with this, per se — ultraportables typically cost well over AU$2,000 — but EeePC purists may cry foul.
One thing the purists can't complain about is the 1000's usability. It's the easiest to use on a daily basis of all the EeePCs and its assorted rivals. The size of the keyboard in particular is wonderful. Our review sample felt clunky, but Asus says it'll iron this out for the final machines. The right shift key is way too small at the expense of full-size cursor keys, but aside from this it's the best keyboard on any machine in its category.
The mouse track pad is fantastic. Unlike its rivals, it supports multi-touch gesture inputs, so you can stroke two fingers vertically or horizontally to scroll through documents or use a pinch or stretching motion to zoom in and out of photos. This feature is perfect in a machine for which its primary use is surfing the Internet. It just makes life so much easier.
The rest of the chassis is basically identical to the EeePC 901. On the left side, there's an Ethernet port, a single USB port, plus mic and headphone ports. On the right, there are two additional USB ports, an SD card reader and a VGA output port.
Features
There are few surprises inside the machine — particularly if you've been following our coverage of the EeePC 1000 for the past few months. It uses a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, plus 1GB of DDR memory — much like the EeePC 900, Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind.
The wireless capabilities of the EeePC 1000 include 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, so you can connect to just about every type of popular Wi-Fi network, including high-speed 300Mbps networks. There's also Bluetooth, which isn't quite so handy, but we're more disappointed at the absence of integrated 3G for true go-anywhere Internet access.
It's worth noting that the Eee PC 1000's screen is of a good standard. Its vertical viewing angle is pretty limited, as is the case with all these devices. The 1,024x600-pixel resolution is, again, par for the netbook course, but it's still a pleasure to use. It doesn't use a glossy finish, all icons and text are large and readable and there's simply not as much need to squint or bow your head closer to the device to see what's going on.
Performance
There's very little difference between the EeePC 1000 and the rest of its Atom-equipped rivals in terms of performance. The 1000 clocked up 1,512 in PCMark 2005, which is a very respectable score for a machine of this type. During our time with it, it felt very responsive and never gave us the impression it wasn't up for a particular task.
3D gaming isn't the 1000's forte. It only hit 602 in 3DMark 2006, which is pretty pathetic. Remember, the machine clearly isn't designed to move polygons around, so if you stick to things like browsing the Web, showing presentations, playing movies, you won't be disappointed.
Battery life was pretty impressive in the EeePC 1000. We weren't expecting it to be as long as the EeePC 901's, due to its larger screen, but it fared surprisingly well. It lasted 3 hours 56 minutes while watching a DivX movie, which is good compared to the 901's 4.5 hours.
Conclusion
The EeePC 1000 is a fabulous machine. It precariously straddles the line between mini laptop and ultraportable, but it's well equipped, well designed and great for those who need a usable laptop on the move. At the same price as the similarly-equipped MSI Wind, it stands out through the use of the multi-touch trackpad and N wireless. As a result, we recommend it highly.
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