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Asus Eee 1005HA is yet another model in the popular line of Eee netbooks, though this time around the battery life has been vastly improved. It can last for no less than up to 8.5 hours and still packs some decent hardware that makes it a fine little workhorse for normal tasks, ideal for students and business users. The computer consists of an Intel Atom N270 processor clocked to 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM as well as a 160GB hard drive. Our expectations were high for this model, particularly with regards to the promised battery life. This review will be slightly different than our usual since we have already gone over plenty of Eee netbooks, so here we will focus more on the battery life rather than put it through our full array of benchmarks.

The product was kindly lent to us by Asus www.asus.com

The full name of the reviewed model is Asus Eee 1005HA-N270 M, but there is also an Asus Eee 1005HA-H N280 that offers a better 5600mAh & 62.6 Wh battery, Intel Atom N280, 1.3 megapixel camera as well as a display with Glare technology, all at a premium of about £50. Due to the larger battery, the battery life is actually extended to a whopping 10.5 hours on that model, making the small increase in price highly worth it.

The product was kindly lent to us by Asus.com

Specifications

Category
Student and business use

Processor
Intel Atom N270 - 1.60 GHz - 512 KB L2 cache

Chipset
Intel I945GSE chipset - Calistoga-GSE + ICH7-M/U

RAM
1x 1024 MB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM - Hyundai Electronics

GPU
Mobile Intel(r) Express Chipset Family i945GME onboard - 8 Mb

Storage
1x Hatachi HTS543216L9SA00 - 160 GB S-ATA hard drive

Display
10 inch - LED-backlit - WSVGA 1024 x 600 LCD

Sound card
Intel 82801GB ICH7 - High Definition Audio

Optical drive
None

Battery
Lithium Ion battery – 4400 mAh, 48 Wh – 6 cells

Connectivity
Atheros AR9285 WLAN - 54 Mbps
Atheros AR8132 PCI-E LAN - 1000 Mbps

I/Os
3x USB 2.0
1x VGA
1x Audio jack-input
1x Audio jack-output
1x Kensington lock slot
1x Media card reader (SD, MMC and SDHC)

Operating system
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 (build 2600)

Price
Around £245

Package contents





-    Manuals
-    Installation DVDs
-    Charger
-    Sleeve

Besides the computer itself you get some user manuals, installation media, a charger and a sleeve. All the necessities to get the computer up and running are there, and the addition of a sleeve is very nice touch as it protects against scratches and such.

Construction & Design

First impression









The netbook is mostly made of black and white plastic with an aluminium structure. The design is simple with nice, rounded edges, making it easy enough to handle. Indeed this design has prevailed on almost all of the other Eee models, so you might say it is tried and true. Much the same goes for the hardware. The weight of 1.27kg along with the small size makes it incredibly mobile, which is undoubtedly the kind of product Asus intended to make.

The lid





The design of the lid is very simple, with “Eee” imprinted in the middle. It is all in white like the rest of the computer.

The front



At the front are two diodes, but more on those later.

The rear



There is little of interest on the rear except the battery, which we test further down.

The bottom





At the top of the picture you can see the battery, and in the middle we have the lid for the RAM module, which is the only hardware you can change on this model (at least without ripping the entire thing apart).

The right side



From the left we have the card reader that supports SD, SDHC and MMC. After it we have the audio jacks followed by a couple of USB 2.0 ports and the RJ-45 port for Ethernet LAN.

The left side



From the left we have the DC jack for the charger, followed by the VGA output. After that a Kensington lock slot and a vent for cooling.

Hinges



The hinges consist of an iron rod clad in plastic. They are fairly strong, ensuring the display does not flex.

Buttons/Diodes





There is one button on either side above the keyboard. The left one is used to (de)activate the touchpad while the right one is simply the power button. Both are lit by blue diodes when the computer is turned on.



At the right side of the front we have a number of status diodes. The first indicates whether the computer is on or off, the second shows battery status, the third hard drive activity, the fourth WiFi status and the fifth whether Caps Lock is active. The diodes are all blue except for the second one, which is orange.

Keyboard and Touchpad



The touchpad is not really highlighted in any manner, although it does have a bit if texture in the form of tiny bumps that you can feel when you run your finger over them. They are only really visible when lit from a certain angle. The speed is good and the sensitivity adequate, although you have to get used to the small size first. Working with the “mouse” buttons can get slightly annoying because rather than having two separate buttons, they are integrated into a single button. This means you cannot depress the middle of it and that bothered me quite a bit. Still, it works fine even if it is a bit noisy.







The keys have a nice little feature that can be seen in the picture above. There is a small raised line, which can help you navigate around the keyboard without looking. The keyboard is suitably large and you quickly get used to it. The arrow keys have been given a slightly odd location, but that is something you get over swiftly as well.

Display









The display is a 10 incher with LED-backlighting and running a resolution of 1024 x 600, also known as WSVGA. There are 16 levels of brightness which can be controlled via FN key shortcuts. The backlighting is homogenous, meaning that the brightness is the same on every point on the display. If you change the angle of view by looking at it from the left, the brightness is reduced a bit but the colours stay as they should. The view from below gives both weaker colours and less brightness, whereas the view from above gives stronger colours and brightness. The frontal angle of view is optimal though.

Noise and Heat
The computer really does not make any noise when idle, or even when working for that matter. At a BurnBench test the fan did start going at it, but it is still silent all in all. The computer does not get too hot, no matter whether it is at full performance or not, so you could not ask for more in that department.

Speakers
The speakers are pretty much of the quality you would expect for such a small machine - not very impressive. The volume cannot be cranked up all that much, and the sound quality itself is not too good. There is no bass but plenty of treble. It is okay for listening to some music now and then, but you really should not expect too much.

Special Features

Eee Docklet



Eee docklet provides easy access to updates, chat with other Eee users and other settings. The Eee dock is located at the top of the desktop and does not look all that bad. However, it becomes rather useless once you have chosen the settings you want.

Webcam
The webcam is a 0.3 megapixel kind and located at the top of the display. There is not any bundled software that allows you to play around with the camera, so you have to make do with Windows’ software which only takes low quality pictures. At least the camera works just fine and is able of capturing many colours.

Benchmark

Asus have launched quite a few Eee models to date, but few improvements have been made when it comes to specifications. The 1005HA we are reviewing is not much of an exception in this regard, so we have opted to skip the majority of our benchmarks as the results would likely mimic those we have seen before. However, we will still be testing boot and standby times, as well as battery life. If you want to learn more about performance, check out our review of the Asus Eee 1000H; it has almost the same specifications and can be found here:
http://www.laptop-review.eu

The above model will in all likelihood paint an accurate picture of the performance of the 1005HA. Do note that there might be minor differences though, due to driver and software optimisations and the like. Also note this model sports a better battery life.

You can see a comparison of all the Asus Eee models here:
http://event.asus.com/

The computer has four different power profiles that you can browse through and toggle in a small program, minimised to the system tray at the bottom right corner of the desktop:
-    Super Performance Mode: 1680 MHz
-    High Performance Mode: 1600 MHz
-    Power Saving Mode: 1280 MHz
-    Auto Mode

Benchmarks run on AC have used Super Performance Mode while benchmarks running on battery or idle have used Power Saving Mode.

Boot & out of standby times





Boot and out of standby times are measured from when the power button is pressed and the Windows desktop appears.

As can be seen, the computer starts up blazing fast, taking only 23 seconds. This is an extremely short time when you consider most laptops take about a minute or more. The OS has clearly been optimized to run fast and smooth.

Battery life



Idle test settings: Maximum clock frequency of 1280 MHz, brightness of 1/16, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi & webcam deactivated.
Classic test settings: Maximum clock frequency of 1680 MHz, brightness of 16/16, hard drive standby after 10 minutes and WiFi & webcam activated.

The Asus Eee 1005HA has been given quite a boost in the right direction when it comes to battery life. It can run for 8.5 hours which is rather impressive. However note that it is with WiFi off and minimum brightness, so if you are not prepared to make that sacrifice you will get a battery life of about four hours – at full performance, mind you. If you restrict usage to the Office package and a bit of surfing on the web, it should last a quite a bit more than that.

Microsoft Office Load



The programs are started up individually after a reboot as they load quicker after having been opened at least once. The Office package is fairly quick to start up and it runs very smoothly. The computer comes with a 60 day trial version if you want to try it out before buying.

Gaming
Since all the computer has is an onboard GPU of 8Mb, you should not expect too much of it when it comes to gaming. It should be able to run online flash games though.

Conclusion

The Asus Eee 1005HA is a very reasonable solution for the user who requires an easy and portable tool. The computer is especially well suited for student and business use, in that it is nice and mobile, quick to start up and very much capable of handling the Office package. The computer is of a size that ensures it will fit in almost any bag, and the long battery life ensures you can use it for many hours without needing an external power source.
Some might find it a bit of hassle to use though; the ergonomics are not exactly optimal because of the small size. The computer is not really the best choice for larger, more demanding tasks like multimedia use, because performance simply cannot keep up. However, it will not have any troubles with standard word processing and other light tasks. It does not have an optical drive; it just is not big enough to have one. However, you can always get an external drive and connect it via USB.
All in all though, it is a fine take on the busy man’s portable secretary or the student’s new tool for academic work. The price is also sufficiently low so as to allow anyone to participate, so if you are in need of a smart little netbook, consider the Eee 1005HA.

Pros:
Exceptionally mobile
Great display
Simple but elegant design
User-friendly software
Impressive battery life

Cons:
Somewhat unergonomic
Touchpad button – albeit a matter of taste

Battery: 5 / 5Graphics: 1 / 5Construction: 4 / 5Mobility: 5 / 5Software: 3.5 / 5Overall: 4 / 5