How Good Is the Asus Eee 1000?

Jan 25, 2009

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I don’t have many tech gadgets or toys, but my Eee PC 1000 is one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Though admittedly I have conditioned myself to say that after paying so much for the 1000 model when it was still fairly new in Canada. It definitely has some flaws, but to be one of the early adopters of netbooks and to experience and follow the development of this industry is especially rewarding because of the ideas behind netbooks, and because of how big of a part Linux will play in it.

My First Netbook

I got the Eee PC 1000 instead of the other Eee PC models specifically because of its larger keyboard, preventing any excessive hand cramping from typing, and because I wanted to have a flash memory based device. I could have gotten a lot more hard drive space going with the Eee PC 1000H, but the SSD memory was purely for bragging rights.

After getting the netbook I immediately removed the customized version of Xandros which came preloaded, which wasn’t necessarily that bad, but I chose instead the Eee PC optimized Easy Peasy. Easy Peasy lets me use the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) interface, a netbook optimized menu system. UNR looks great on a netbooks’ screen when showing it off, and except for using hot-keys, there’s really no better way to access applications or system options.

When I first started using the netbook I thought I would need to install all of the light Linux applications to handle common tasks like word processing, programming, utilities, and multimedia. But I most of the applications function almost problem free except for two issues. When watching certain formats of video the computer has a habit of skipping the video every once and a while. The audio continues fine and it doesn’t get out of sync, but it does damage the experience of watching videos on the laptop.

Software Problems

The only one other problem with the Eee PC when using Linux is…. Firefox. Firefox (3.0 specifically) will commonly lock up the entire system. It’s an annoying situation when it happens. You are looking at a

web page an scrolling down, then the scrolling will stop. You might try clicking on some links to change the page, switch to other applications, or quit Firefox entirely. After a few seconds of unresponsiveness, all the actions you’ve performed in the last 10 seconds will happen in sequence. A total disruption. I haven’t experience a hang up or a slow application in any other application running on the Eee PC, and this is on Linux, so a Eee PC running Windows, and definitely running a faster browser like Chrome should do just fine.

Hardware Problems

Hardware wise I had some problems with the Eee PC as well. None of my USB devices would fit in the USB ports on the Eee PC, this was the only time I’ve ever experienced that problem. The EeePC has three USB2 ports, and to fix the problem I had to get a bit dirty and with a screw driver bend the prongs inside the USB ports ever so slightly so they would loosen and let the USB devices fit in. They all work fine, but that’s not a task that anyone should have to do after buying a new laptop. Another hardware problem that I’ve learned to live with is that the very left portion of the left track pad button is irresponsible to clicks. I can click on the right side of the left button and it works, but the left side seems to be permanently depressed and unusable. Again, not a problem that should have ever made it out of the factory. I seem to be alone in getting these sorts of hardware problems though. The LCD on the Eee PC is super bright and very crisp as well, easily the brightest screen I’ve ever used.

I expect the Asus line of netbooks to step aside in the next few years, especially in North America because of how they are sold. In Toronto, the Acer Aspire One (not as good) and the HP Mini-Note (over priced) are both sold at Future Shop and Best Buy, but there are no big retail stores who sell the Eee PC. The only place to find them is the bulk computer equipment stores in China town, which the majority of consumers are not as comfortable with doing as compared to buying at a Future Shop or Best Buy.

Now that you can find both the Eee PC 1000 and 1000H for under $500 CAD it’s a great first netbook.

Comments

10 responses to “How Good Is the Asus Eee 1000?”

Daniel Patricio

January 27, 2009

I am really finding I am using so many different devices and computers that cloud is really the only option. How do google apps hold up on one of these little guys?

I think I might need one for taking notes in class and blogging.

Reply
danielpatricio

January 27, 2009

I am really finding I am using so many different devices and computers that cloud is really the only option. How do google apps hold up on one of these little guys? I think I might need one for taking notes in class and blogging.

Reply
Malcolm Bastien

January 27, 2009

That's exactly what I primarily use mine for. Google Docs is great as well, that's what I do most of my writing in.

I should mention that Netbooks + Dropbox is a killer combo.

Reply
danielpatricio

January 27, 2009

I use dropbox for work. Any affordable suggestions for a starter netbook.

I might even be adventurous enough to try out Linux

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Terence Lo

January 27, 2009

Great review Malcolm. I like reading what others think about their netbooks. As for me, I'm quite pleased myself with my dell mini 9 despite a few minor complaints. I really should do a blog post about it in the near future.

Reply
Malcolm Bastien

January 27, 2009

The Asus 1000 or 1000H you can both get for under $500 and they are as good as you can get for a netbook at that price range. Another one to consider include is the MSI Wind. Stay away from the Aspire One until they come out with a 10" model.

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LinuxLover

January 29, 2009

For the record, here in the midwest US, Best Buy carries the Eee PC 900 and 1000H. However, you can only get them at certain ones and the selection is poor. Many people are still in the dark about netbooks, and sales people tend to lure them to cheap notebooks, instead.

I think the Eee PC is still a tad overpriced. I think a good price for the Eee PC 1000 is $399 US. Maybe some competition will push the price down?

Reply
1. Malcolm Bastien
  
  January 29, 2009
  
  Maybe after Asus releases another 10 SKUs the price will drop more on the 1000 line! How is it in the US for getting the Eee PC with Linux vs Windows?
  
  You're right on two points as well, most netbooks are priced higher than I think they should be as well and instead of being an appealing new item, like $200 – $300 netbook, they are too often (here in Canada especially) more often $400-$900. At that price bracket, a netbook is much too risky of a purchase and a traditional laptop is much "safer".
  
  Reply
Silverlokk

January 30, 2009

Re: the trackpad buttons: I was using a Trackpad-only notebook for over a year and found I never needed to use especially the left button. A quick double-click on the 'pad will do it. As to dragging, same thing: double-click on the icon but hold your finger down on the second click, and you've got drag-and-drop. The 'pad worked this way, even without the Synaptics driver, which turned the right region of the 'pad into a scroll "wheel".

Reply
Malcolm Bastien

January 30, 2009

Ya, even with the small problem with my trackpad its in no way something that makes the Eee unusable. Most of the button still works, and its very easy to move around with just the track pad.

The track pad has multi-touch so 2 fingers up or down will scroll, and 3 fingers emulates a middle mouse button. It's much easier to manage on Linux as well because in most Linux environments alt + clicking on any window will let you drag it around, which is much easier to manage than a Windows title bar.

Reply

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