You might consider changing the hard drive because, as our tests show, it's not the quickest of netbook HDDs, falling well behind the drives in rival mini laptops. Not so the 1008HA's 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor and its 1GB of DDR 2 memory which, tested in PCMark05, showed it to be the fastest netbook we've yet had in for testing.
PCMark05 Results
CPU
Longer bars are better
Like other Eees, the 1008HA has Asus' Super Hybrid Engine utility. Yes, it's a daft name, but it does something potentially useful: lets you over- or underclock the CPU. Put it into Super Performance mode, and the Atom runs at 1.71GHz. Flip it to the Power Saving setting, and the clock speed falls to 1.4GHz. That said, they made only negligible differences to the Seashell's PCMark05 scores. The results quoted above were taken running at standard speed.
PCMark05 Results
Memory
Longer bars are better
We also ran 3DMark06 - the 1008HA's score of 80 was weak but not at all surprising given the use of Intel's GMA 950 integrated graphics core. Since the Seashell's screen is the regulation 10.1in with a 1024 x 600 resolution - gloss covered with an LED backlight - any HD content you play is going to be downscaled anyway, but the machine had no trouble playing our standard-definition H.264 video full screen, even with the CPU in Power Saving mode. So the slower-then-par hard drive was no impediment to smooth playback either. Indeed, in general usage the 1008HA's HDD didn't seem slow at all.
PCMark05 Results
Hard Drive
Longer bars are better
The screen's glossy bezel is black no matter whether you have white 1008HA or a black, blue or red one. The single-colour machine we tested looked good, but it inevitably shows up fingerprints. The screen surround contains a 1.3Mp webcam - most netbook cams are 0.3Mp - and there are two array microphones in there too, to improve VoIP call pick-up.
COMMENTS
@AC - REFUNDS?
>claim a refund from Microsoft for the unused XP license.
My understanding in the UK is that you have to claim the refund from the vendor you bought the PC from. laarge vendors seem to make a habit of accepting the EULA for you before they hand the machine over, so you don't get the chance. It certainly cuts the ill-informed out of their rights.
The only succesful attempts I have heard of involved Photographing each screen during the initial power up process, including the EULA rejection; going via the weights-and-measures people; and issuing a claim in the small claims court.
I think this sort of thing should be on the EU's agenda, as uk.gov would certainly side with M$
@W/Ramazan
I agree that ultraportables, like the Q40 Ramazan mentions, have a completely different niche as compared to netbooks, but as you say, a £300+ machine is not that chuck-about-able at all, and in all fairness, you can find older £1000+ machines for £150 on eBay as well. I use my old Vaio TR5 that is 5 years old for netbook tasks, but I just love that it is the same weight range (1.4 Kg) and same dimensions (10.6 inch screen), but with a great keyboard, and with 1280x768 resolution, and the screen is of such a high quality that it is entirely usable. It is no longer my main laptop so I don't mind it taking a bit of a battering either, but it really is a great little machine that I will be sorry to see die off.
I would like to see how the Atom handles an Oracle instance which I need for work, as the little Pentium M ULV could work happily away with it, and the higher rez allows for useful spreadsheet viewing, but then again, those tasks are not what netbooks are designed for! Unfortunately, with the growth of netbooks into the larger, pricier form, such as the Acer Aspire 751, people will be thinking of them as small notebooks and that may well turn people off them.
As per other posters, it will be interesting to see what the new, small, ARM based machines will do to the market - I have noticed they are growing as a sector over in the Far East, but that region always produces many items that never make it over to the West...
Skinny Beach Bird
I wanna see a skinny Beach Bird to match the skinny eeee.
The other one was a bit of a porker.
PS
If you don't like the pre-installed windows XP, install Linux and claim a refund from Microsoft for the unused XP license.
@@Ramazan & @Peter Gathercole
@@Ramazan
Thanks Big Bear. Yup, aside from highlighting the omission of the detail in the review, if I had to be pinned down to making a point, it would merely be this: a weight of 1.1kg is (as Senor Tony Smith points out) nice to have. But it's hardly a revolution.
I'm not gonna slate the machine before I've seen it in the flesh, but the price/features combo doesn't make me want to trade in my NC10. That's not to say that £380 is an utter rip off for what you get. Just that £380 is more than I'd pay for what I want a netbook for.
I'm very happy with my NC10, but if I was going to replace my NC10, it would probably be in the other direction to the 1008HA - I'd probably plump for a second hand EEE 901. It's a largely comparable machine to the NC10, but with an SSD. And "from under £150" on eBay it'd be eminently more chuck-about-able than a new £300 NC10.
It goes without saying that anyone who mentions thin little £1000+ Sonys/Samsungs or 14"+Dual Core £400 Dells/Acers in a thread about netbooks is utterly missing the point.
@Peter Gathercole
I made the point about installing these Fisher Price broken Linuxes was a bad bad move, but got utterly shouted down by a few folk for being an MS apologist. I'm far from it. But MS realised the situation and at an effective price of less than £20 a pop, they started giving XP away as a stalling measure until Win7 arrives. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out in the Win7 era.
@Ramazan
Isn't the Samsung Q40 an ultraportable in the £1,000+ price bracket? W is comparing a bunch of cheap netbooks, hence no mention of the stupidly expensive Fujitsu Porteges or Sony Vaio T-series machines, which are all in the same size and weight range as netbooks but have much more capability like Core 2 Duo CPUs, fast RAM, integral optical drives, and decent screen resolutions. Of course, good quality components like those cost a lot more money...
