Laptop Asus Eee Pc Seashell Series

The market is littered with 10″ netbook peas in a pod, not to the lowest degree the dozens of variants by Asus. The 1005HA seems to exist special in a few different ways, mainly overall residue and fantastic untethered run time. Our commencement await since the very beginning netbooks.

Sept 3, 2009 by Mike
Chin

We left the netbook sector untouched since reflecting on the Asus EEE PC 4G back in Nov 2007. Since and so, netbooks have taken the computing world by storm, and past some accounts, it's the one calculating sector that remained brilliant through the trials of the global economic downturn over the past twelvemonth or more than. This is not to say SPCR staff members take ignored netbooks. On the contrary, nosotros've personally gone through several netbooks of our ain in the search for the perfect balance of features, size, weight, keyboard, usability, battery life and price that anybody seems to be similarly seeking.

Then why await at present at another one of the dozens of Eee PC models Asus has spewed off its assembly lines? Considering the 1005HA is shut to The One, at least among 10″ screen models.

Is Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005HA The One?

Asus seems to continue dominating the netbook sector, if only in the sheer number of models offered. Among x″ screen models, Asus offers at to the lowest degree a dozen, although not all models are bachelor in all markets of the globe. In that location are still a couple of 9″ and vii″ screen models, and an eleven.6″ model, the 1101HA, a larger companion of the model under examination here.

Leaving the other screen size models bated, there are so many commonalities amid 10″ screen netbooks that they appear like peas in a pod to anyone who hasn't really used one or more for at least some time. For a standard 12~15″ screen notebook user, these 10″ netbooks are difficult to differentiate: Essentially, they all seem delightfully small and light, offer too little screen space for convenience, have keyboards too undersized for comfort, and don't accept quite enough computing ability to practice… well, anything serious . While some of these points are exaggerations, at that place's truth in them as well.

Regarding 10″ netbooks in full general…

• As smart: The computing power differences between various models and brands of Intel Cantlet-based netbooks are close enough to be irrelevant for well-nigh users. RAM, hard drives, network cards, graphics cards — they are all near identical in performance. If one is fast enough for y'all, the rest will be likewise, and vice versa; ie, if one is as well slow… Not only is this perspective borne from hands-on experience with some 4-v netbooks, at that place are many dozens of "performance oriented" web tech reviews that substantiate it. A few netbooks based on VIA processors announced to be somewhat more than capable than the Atoms, but the numbers are few. Hence, you know that this review will non embrace any benchmarks except battery life.
• Good for 80%: Having said all that, netbooks are real computers that can easily do >fourscore% of what most people enquire of them, including web surfing, emailing, office document creation and editing, Internet-enabled video or phone communication, and fifty-fifty some music and video play. They're not proficient for "serious" games, or HD video (720p or higher) playback, heavy duty video processing or editing, or working on huge nevertheless images.

  For the typical user, a netbook is not the primary PC, but a light and like shooting fish in a barrel travel companion, whether that travel is just cruising about the boondocks or a sunny holiday. It would rarely exist the preferred PC on a business trip.

• XP wins: Most all netbooks now run on Windows XP. Linux and other Bone certainly are options, but mostly not for mainstreamers.

• Screen quality tin vary: While the screen size or resolution can't really change from i x″ to another, the quality can.

• Keyboards and touch pads are key: With keyboards and bear on pads, there's no question of differences. They do differ, and significantly enough that for many people, this is the crux of principal buying determination. Ergonomics and usability design are male monarch.

• Wireless forever? Bombardment life is very important for most users. Pocket-size, lite and utra-mobile is simply useful if the untethered operational life is long.

• Price, price, price!? Even though 10″ netbooks fall in a narrow ~$fifty market price range, say $330~380 currently, consumer review articles always suggest that buyers are highly sensitive to cost. This doesn't really compute in our view. $fifty is merely $l — non that much coin even in these dire economical times for the typical netbook buyer. Getting one that'due south just right would seem more important than saving $50 and regretting the savings until you lot replace it!

Focusing again on the subject area at hand, when the 1005HA was introduced in mid-July, these are some of the key points Asus made in it's printing release.

Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005HA Feature Highlights (from the product web site and press release)
FEATURE & BRIEF	Our Comment
All-Day Computing – ASUS-engineered Super Hybrid Engine (SHE), LED-backlit display and Intel Atom processor allow upwards to 10.5 hours on a single accuse.	Astonishing claim, merely probably only under ideal low utilise conditions.
User-replaceable bombardment and upgradeable RAM	Adept. Some models did non have user-replaceable batteries
Extra-large Keyboard and Multi-touch Trackpad – 92% (of full size) keyboard with full-sized shift keys for an extremely comfortable typing experience, complemented by actress-wide palm rests and seamless touchpad with a dimpled surface that supports multi-touch gestures.	These are important usability features.
Eee Docking Software – provides easy access to utilities, software and digital content	Utilities some users might find useful.
Flexible Storage – 2.5-inch SATA 2 160GB hard bulldoze, plus 10GB of online Eee Storage.	Eee storage can be useful if yous have no other such service, and 160GB is probably plenty for most.

The box is only a bit larger than the 1005HA itself.

Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005HA (PU1X-BK) Specifications
Display	10.1″ LED Backlight WSVGA Screen (1024×600) with Color-Shine
CPU/Chipset	Intel® Atom™ N270/N280 (Our sample: 1.66Ghz N280)
Graphics	Integrated Intel GMA 900; VGA port (up to 1600×1280 )
Storage	160GB HDD + 10GB Eee Storage**
Retentiveness	DDR2 And then-DIMM 1GB
Battery	Li-ion battery pack: ten.5hrs* (half dozen cells, 63W/h) 8.5hrs* (half dozen cells, 48W/h) 4hrs* (3 cells, 23W/h)
Multimedia	i.3M Pixel / 0.3M Pixel camera, Hi-Definition Sound Codec, Stereo Speakers, Digital Assortment Mic
Communication	WLAN 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz**, Bluetooth 2.ane + EDR**
I/O	VGA Connector, iii ten USB ii.0, LAN RJ-45, Headphone / Mic-in jacks, Carte Reader: MMC/ SD (SDHC)
Os	Genuine Microsoft Windows® XP Home / GNU Linux**
Size & weight	262mm ten 178mm x 25.9~36.5mm 1.27Kg (with 6-cell bombardment); i.1kg (with 3-cell bombardment)

BASICS

The Eee PC 1005HA is actually the 2nd of Asus'south Seashell serial, the start existence the slightly lighter and thinner 1008HA (1.1kg, 25.7mm) released in the spring. The before model is equipped with a sealed 3-cell 32W/hr battery, which some felt was user unfriendly. The increased weight and thickness (1.3kg , 36.5mm) of the summer released 1005HA can exist attributed to its larger, removable half-dozen-cell 65W/hr battery, which explains the very loftier 10.5 hours of claimed run fourth dimension.

Our Seashell 1005HA sample was the the "P" version (PU1X-BK), for Premium. (There's a "5" Value version for about $50 less that has a matte screen, lower quality webcam, smaller battery, and no Bluetooth.) Information technology came with a soft zippered pouch, Ac ability adapter, newspaper documentation and a back up disk, which you'll need an external optical drive to access. Most users will never have to utilise the disk because Windows XP comes preinstalled. Some swollen trialware is included, MS function, Works, Norton, merely these seem par for the course for most PCs with manufacturing plant preloaded Windows. It's easy enough to uninstall them.

As with almost every netbook, there is the obligatory super-gloss finish which picks upward finger prints, smudges and probably scratches better than anything yous can imagine. This is a truly silly do. Asus should go smart and break away from the herd with a practical, convenient cease. Something like the crisscross (polarized?) textured, no-shine, no-smudge finish on last year'southward Lenovo Y-serial Ideapads would be infinitely preferable.

Annotation the tiny size of the connector from the Ac/DC power adapter. It may be more than easily damaged with rough handling than larger pins.

Its curved profile tells why this series is called Seashell. At the maximum thickness of 36.5mm, the 1005HA is not as thin equally the get-go Seashell, the 1008, which had shorter run time and nonremovable battery. Note power port, VGA output, USB connector and fan airflow vent on this side.

The screen hinges open to almost 135 degrees. Some people may prefer the ones that can open all way down for a wider range of utilize positions. Notation handy card reader, audio in/out, two more than USB ports and ethernet plug.

Preinstalled Windows XP has directly desktop access to the Eee Docking Software.

The Eee Docking Software is a scrap gimmicky, a quick desktop-accessed collection of utilities that some users might find handy. It seemed more than of an annoyance than a help to me, but its presence on the machine isn't intrusive, and it tin can be uninstalled if desired. The 10gb of free online storage offered past Eee Storage can come in quite handy, however.

KEYBOARD & Bear on PAD

The 92% of total size keyboard is made possible in this 10.25″ wide figurer considering it takes up the entire available width. The keys are big enough and have enough travel that they feel immediately comfortable, peculiarly compared to other ten″ laptops experienced in the past. For many women or men with smaller hands, it should crave little or no period of adjustment. Fifty-fifty someone with large hands should exist able to accommodate, if not long term, at least for the few hour stretches during which this netbook might exist used. The correct position and proportionate sizing of all the keys goes a long way to promoting comfort.

My better half, a bear on-typist with long fingers, had little trouble adjusting. A sloppy, mostly chase-and-pecker myself, I had a bit more trouble, with more than errors than with a full sized notebook. Part of my trouble was the lack of space between the smaller keys, which makes it easier to hit the wrong key if your aim is a bit off. Nevertheless, all in all, the 1005HA keyboard is quite comfy.

Here'due south a view of the keyboard side by side to a typical size mouse for scale. The keyboard takes upwards the entire available width.
About every key is in the standard identify, with proportionately right sizing, peculiarly of the oft-used shift and enter keys. There's no infinite betwixt the keys, however, which can increase typing errors. The only real compromise is the shrinking of the up/down scroll keys.

In the same scale as the 1005HA keyboard is the total size keyboard of a 13.three″ IBM X300.

Extra attention has also been lavished on the touch pad and left/right buttons. Instead of the usual recessed rectangle, the affect pad is a 2.5 x 1.five-inch area with many tiny raised bumps. Information technology sounds and looks a bit odd, but it's quite prissy to apply, smooth and sensitive to finger commands. The touchpad supports multitouch gestures, using 2 fingers to pinch the pad and zoom, for case. The unmarried bar for the left and right push functions works fine likewise, and a push button press occurs with petty pressure and a quiet positive click.

Raised dots for the bear upon pad are like shooting fish in a barrel to apply. Some users might prefer separate left/right buttons but it was no trouble for this user.

1024×600 LED MONITOR

A 1024×600 monitor is a pretty standard for a 10″ netbooks these days. This ane is quite good: Bright, even, and sharp with vivid colors, it's a pleasure to view. Corner to corner and edge to edge, the consistency is excellent, and viewing angles are wide, even though it is inappreciably necessary. Given the small size of the screen, y'all're not going to exist seated very far abroad, fifty-fifty if a friend is sharing with y'all.

The screen resolution is such that standard text in Windows and on most web sites is large enough to be easily legible for most users. The 1024 pixel width is enough for easy browsing of mainstream websites (that limit folio width), for electronic mail programs, for most office productivity programs. Probably, the biggest downside is the glossy end, which can cause reflections in vivid or high glare settings, but this is another ommon failing of so many netbooks.

With some spider web sites, both horizontal and vertical scrolling is required, which can slow admission. Large spreadsheets are also difficult to work on, as are big loftier resolution images in Photoshop. Yet, all 10″ netbooks are subject area to the same limitations. With video editing or processing, the limitations of the Atom processor boot in. It's too slow to exist useful for anything more brief, spot operations. No one will want to use an Atom netbook for a product machine.

WIRELESS NETWORKING

The WLAN 802.11b/k/n device worked very well with the Linksys wireless G router at SPCR labs. Windows networking was used. It automatically connected extremely rapidly upon bootup or wake from sleep. Maximum speed of 17~22 Mbps (or upwardly to 2.2 mb/s) was obtained at 12'~thirty′ distance from the router, which is almost 10% slower than the fastest wireless PC on this network in the past. It's far greater than the fastest web access speed, all the same. Windows updates, streaming of music from the spider web (terminal.fm, etc), and playing youtube videos all worked fine without significant glitches.

Ability CONSUMPTION

The 1005HA has a a power management utility called Asus Super Hybrid Engine. Information technology has several profiles which set CPU clock speed and voltage.

When plugged into AC:

• Power Saving: 850MHz, 0.950V (idle), 1.42Ghz , 1.063V (load)
• High Performance: 1.02Ghz, 0.950V (idle), 1.66Ghz, ane.063V (load)
• Super Performance: 1.02Ghz, 0.950V (idle), 1.70Ghz, i.063V (load)
• Auto: High Performance

When running on batteries, the CPU speed stays downclocked, regardless of load.

• Power Saving: 850 MHz, 0.950V idle/load
• Loftier Performance: 1.00Ghz, 0.950V idle/load
• Super Performance: one.02Ghz, 0.950V idle/load

The system ability consumption was measured by running it off the Ac power adapter without the battery. In that location is some AC/DC conversion loss through the power supply, but it's about the just simple and practical way of measuring notebook power consumption.

System Ac Power Consumption Measurements
State	Power Savings Mode	High Perf. Way
Slumber	1W	1W
Idle (screen off)	9W	9W
Idle (screen on)	10W	10W
CPU load	12W	13W
CPU + GPU load	14W	16W

The power consumption of the 1005HA actually improved over the smaller, less well equipped Asus Eee PC 4G sample from 2 years ago, which drew
14~17W AC. This is very impressive.

Bombardment RUN Time

The Seashell 1005HA is equipped with a 6-cell, 63W/h battery that Asus rates for 10.v hours of continuous use. Actual run time depends so much on the way a notebook is used, and then we never take the claimed run time seriously.

The removable six-prison cell 63W/h battery is one of the 1005HA's biggest strengths. Note the small encompass which provides admission to the RAM expansion slot, which can have a 2GB stick of RAM.

To define portable usability on battery ability, the 1005HA was used casually in means that a typical user might do, likewise as tested more rigorously. The general impression of battery life was very positive.

In one casual apply session, the unit was first fully charged, so unplugged from Air conditioning. The screen brightness was ready to fifty%, a perfectly usable setting that would help maximize run time. The organisation was used initially for a couple of hours for email and web browsing, then left on for it to fall into sleep manner by itself. It was awakened periodically to check email, web browse, view video clips, etc. Used in this mode, the battery lasted about three days without needing a recharge. In some other like casual use session, the unit was deliberately powered off between uses; the battery lasted three days off a unmarried charge.

More controlled tests for were besides conducted for surfing the web and watching movies. Critical and Low battery ability management deportment were disabled, so the organization would simply close down once the battery was exhausted. Super Hybrid Engine was left on Auto.

For the web browsing exam, three websites into Firefox on carve up tabs: Google News, Yahoo News, and CNN International. Using the ReloadEvery add-on, the tabs were set to perform a staggered reload in one case every minute, the equivalent of refreshing a page every xx seconds.

For video playback, an XVID encoded AVI (1324kbps video, 448kbps AC3 audio) files was played with VLC Player, one of the more than efficient media players for files of this type. WiFi and Bluetooth were disabled during video playback.

Battery Run Fourth dimension (hrs & mins)
Web browsing	8:18
XVID playback	6:34
Battery Charge	2:03

Our web browsing test may exist a bit more extreme than that of other reviewers, most of whom obtained longer run times with the 1005HA. (A web folio refresh every twenty seconds for over eight hours is not "normal"; it's probably close to the behavior of a hyped up teen.) Regardless, these are first-class run times and propose that for more than typical use, the Asus 1005HA can run the length of the daylight hours.

ACOUSTICS & HEAT

A small cooling fan ran almost continuously in the 1005HA. Information technology'due south overall quality was smooth and beneficial, with very little in the way of annoying tonality. The overall level was likewise quite modest, almost 24 dBA at the ISO 7779 standard seated user measurement distance (near 0.6 meters from the heart of the keyboard). The idle noise of the hard drive was obscured by the fan noise except when it was seeking or writing intensely, when some drive churr would become somewhat audible. Surprisingly, the fan rarely shut off. When it did (mostly just after plough on when ambience was cool), the dissonance level fell to ~18 dBA at 0.6m, quiet enough non to be noticed except in the dead of night in a tranquillity bedroom.

Noise was generally not perceived to be an event. For a computing device whose foremost quality is mobility, the overall noise level does not have to be very low for it to exist serenity plenty. An ultra mobile notebook will be used in many places with acoustics that are noisy and well across the control of the user. The Seashell 1005HA could ever be described as tranquility, in whatever audio-visual ambient.

Like all laptops, the bottom of the unit of measurement became warm over long apply, but it never felt much more warm, which ways it probably did not exceed 40°C by much. This was in ambient temperatures of 22~26°C. The modest size of the netbook actually makes in-lap apply quite awkward, and except in unusual circumstances, it is difficult to imagine anyone intensely using a 1005HA (or any other 10″ netbook) in his lap for very long.

SUMMARY

With every netbook we've examined, the question of how it will be used always comes up. The respond with the Asus Eee PC 1005HA is that its fundamental utility is non dramatically changed compared to other netbooks, but its enhancements make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The computing adequacy of the 1005HA is nonetheless express by the processor and Intel'due south mobile chipset/package for the Atom. As such, the 1005HA is not platonic for the role of a PC for business or production use, or for any serious user's primary computer. However, as a "lite" on-the-go notebook, it has some disarming enhancements:

The longest untethered run time of any notebook. This is very significant. Ultra mobility is a primary reason for the netbook's popularity, and long unwired performance is an essential part of mobility. Not having to hunt down an Ac plug all day could exist a lifesaver. Millions of amateur photographers simply wanting a handy storage and sorting tool for digital photos can capeesh this capability.

The keyboard, touchpad, screen, and overall size/weight are very skilful, good enough not to make it the way of all-day computing usability. Each of its features may not exist the best, merely the overall balance is excellent.

In that location are few 10″ netbooks that would get the nod of approval from SPCR. The Seashell 1005HA does. Information technology's a significant comeback over other contempo models we've looked at extensively: If you demand or want a 10″ netbook, the Seashell 1005HA is i nosotros can recommend.

Many thanks to Asus
for the Eee PC Seashell 1005HA sample.

Recommended past SPCR

* * *

Other SPCR articles of related interest:
Reflections on the Asus Eee PC

Reviews on Complete PCs

Notable Notebook Review Sites:
NotebookReview.com
Laptop
Mag
Liliputing

* * *

Talk over
this article in the SPCR Forums.

Laptop Asus Eee Pc Seashell Series,

Source: https://silentpcreview.com/asus-eee-pc-seashell-1005ha-netbook/

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