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My New Toy – The Asus Eee 1005HAB Netbook

August 21st, 2009

I’ve been looking into netbooks all of this month, and yesterday I took the plunge. I was looking into the Dell Minis, the HPs, Lenovos, and the Asus Eee. I decided to go with the Asus because of rave reviews I’ve been reading, and the huge community support for the Eee lineup.

The Eee 1005HAB cost me a cool $299.99, and I went with the midnight blue model. At a glance it looks black. This is a very sleek looking unit no doubt. It’s very compact, rounded, and glossy.

Here is the product page on BestBuy.com

(the bill is placed for size comparison, and not to show how “Ballin’” I am )

Here are the specs:

• Intel® Atom™ processor N270
  Features a 512KB cache and 1.6GHz processor speed.
• 1GB DDR2 memory
  For multitasking power, expandable to 2GB.
• Note: Optical drive not included
  Compatible with optional external recordable DVD and CD drives (not included).
• 10.1″ WXGA widescreen LED display
  With 1024 x 600 resolution showcases movies, games and other images in rich clarity.
• 160GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
  Offers spacious storage options.
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
  With up to 224MB shared video memory for lush images. Integrated audio support with built-in stereo speakers.
• Built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam
  Makes it easy to chat with family and friends.
• 3-in-1 memory card slot
  Supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity and MultiMediaCard formats for easy digital photo transfer.
• 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
  For fast digital video, audio and data transfer.
• Built-in high-speed wireless connectivity (802.11b/g/n)
  Lets you wirelessly connect to the Internet.
• Built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector
  Provides an easy Internet connection.
• Weighs 2.4 lbs. and measures just 1.4″ thin
  For lightweight portability.
• Long battery life
  Of up to 4 hours and 20 minutes to give you more time away from an outlet.
• Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system
  With Service Pack 3 (SP3) preinstalled for a stable operating platform from which to launch programs, applications and games.
• Software package included
  With Adobe Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Works, Windows Live Suite and more.

I have to say, I am very impressed with the Intel Atom processor. It allows for snappy performance, while conserving the battery life very well. I was able to get 4 and 1/2 hours of use. I put in 1 hour of web browsing, and streamed an hour and a 1/2 movie from my main PC over my home-network, and other tasks at screen brightness set to half.

I uninstalled a bunch of crap-ware including Asus software, and a bunch of Windows Live additions.

The unit is so light- which is the main reason I got it. It’s very easy placing it on your stomach in bed for use- it does not heat up like normal sized laptops. It’s also great having it around the house when you need to look something up on Wikipedia or something.

I get 3 USB ports, a VGA output in case I need to hook it up to a bigger monitor, and a memory card reader.

Now this is a  netbook, so I don’t expect to do heavy-computing on this. It won’t handle tasks like Photoshop, or video editing. So I installed Gimp for simple image resizing and cropping if needed on-the-fly. It performs great running Firefox with all my favorite extensions such as StumbleUpon, and XMarks.

It came with 1gig of RAM, and I will be upgrading to 2gigs very soon. With the 1gig it came with out-of-the-box, I am able to comfortably work with Microsoft Office documents, listen to my music, and watch flash videos such as the ones on YouTube.

What more can you ask for in a netbook?

If you have and extra 3 bills laying around, I definitly recommend the Asus Eee 1005HAB. BOSS-APPROVED!

More Pictures:

Entry Filed under: Asus Eee,Reviews