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Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook
Nine-hour battery life? You betcha
The 1000HE incorporates Intel's latest Atom spin, the 1.66GHz N280, which is clocked a mere 3.8 per cent higher than the N270 found in past Eee PCs. We'll see shortly if that makes any appreciable difference to the machine's performance.
Standard netbook ports on one side...
Once again, Asus provides four CPU speed settings: Super Performance, High Performance, Auto and Power Saving. Super overclocks the Atom to 1.75GHz, HP runs it at 1.66GHz, Auto varies the speed according to load, from 1.66GHz down, and Power Saving underclocks it to 1.25GHz.
Asus ships the 1000HE with 1GB of DDR 2 memory and a 160GB hard drive. The 945GME chipset provides the graphics - a GMA 950 core. No, there's no sign of the mysterious 1080p-capable 'GN40' chipset said to be shipping with the N280, at least not here - we tried a 1080p video, but it didn't play without dropping frames a-plenty. But the frontside bus does run at 667MHz, up from 533MHz.
Like all recent Eee PCs, the 1000HE has 802.11n Wi-Fi rather than 802.11b/g, and this model comes with Bluetooth too. Other specs are netbook-standard: three USB 2.0 ports - one on the right, two on the left - VGA output, 10/100Mb/s Ethernet, 3.5mm audio jacks, SDHC card reader and 1.3Mp webcam above the screen.
Cosmetically, the 1000HE is largely unchanged from previous 1000-series Eees. It's the same slightly curvy casing design clad in glossy white plastic and with a silver band around the touchpad. The band once more incorporates the mouse buttons. The touchpad is of a decent size and thankfully free of the rough textures that were applied to previous Eee 1000s, though it is matte, not shiny like the rest of the machine.
...and on the other
However, it is a multi-touch device, and while we've never found its pinch-to-zoom gesture useful, we really like using two fingers to scroll through documents.