ASUS Eee PC 1000HA Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The new Eee PC 1000HA is the latest budget netbook model to hit the ASUS lineup. It offers similar features to the already popular Eee PC 1000H, but at a lower retail price of $429. For $50 under the 1000H consumers lose the N-capable wireless card and Bluetooth module, but gain extra padding in their wallet, which is an easy compromise for those on a budget.

ASUS Eee PC 1000HA Specifications:

• Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor
• 160GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive (Seagate 5400.4)
• 1GB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
• Windows XP operating system
• 10” WSVGA LED-Backlit 1024 x 600 LCD
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100
• Webcam (1.3 MP)
• Battery: 7.4v 6600mAh 6-cell battery
• Wireless: 802.11b/g
• One-year warranty
• Size: 10.47 (W) x 7.53 (D) x 1.12 ~ 1.50 (H)
• Weight: 3lbs 2.5oz, 3lbs 11oz with AC adapter

Build and Design

The Eee PC 1000HA has a much newer look compared to the original Eee PC 701, with better looking glossy painted surfaces and smoother edges. The overall color pattern is very consistent, with the keyboard and touchpad matching the body color, and brushed metal trim all around the netbook. Compared to other netbooks such as the MSI Wind, the Eee PC 1000HA feels chunky, but some of that is related to the stock 6-cell battery.

Build quality is excellent, with solid plastic making up the body of the 1000HA. It feels rugged enough to withstand the abuse of day to day use, but the glossy finish will show minor scratches and fingerprints. The screen cover does a good job with protecting the LCD panel and with a strong squeeze the panel only shows small area of distortion. Flex in the palmrest is almost nonexistent, but this is quite common on small notebooks since the inside s are packed tight.

For user-serviceable components the Asus Eee PC 1000HA is very upgrade friendly. A single panel houses the hard drive, wireless card, and single ram slot, making the process of swapping out the parts as painless as possible. Another item worth mentioning is the lack of “Warranty void if removed” sticker on that panel.

Display

The 10” LED-backlit display found on the Eee PC 1000HA is easy on the eyes, and a real treat to view for hours on end. Whites are clear, colors are vibrant, and backlit levels are very bright and consistent. While many netbooks get the short end of the stick for some components such as processing power, they easily make up for it in screen quality. The panels found on most netbooks offer better viewing angles and brighter backlight levels. Vertical viewing angles which tend to quickly invert colors on full-size notebooks stay accurate longer on the display found on the 1000HA. Horizontal angles are the same way, allowing the user to easily share a movie with a passenger on either side.

The only real downfall these smaller screens have is limited resolution, which can often causes problems with some applications that require minimum resolutions for menu screens. You can get past this with scaling or screen scrolling, but it is just a downside to the limited screen size in general.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is comfortable to type on, but more cramped than one found on a full-size notebook. Key spacing is average for a 10” subnotebook and listed as 95% the size of generic keyboard. Once you get the hang of the layout it doesn’t take long to type at a good pace. Key action is smooth with just a little pressure required to trigger a key. Key wiggle is minimal, meaning the keys stay planted in one place even if you move your fingers side to side on the key pads.

The touchpad is an Elantech model which presented a few quirks in the Windows XP environment. The cursor movement had a bit of lag between the time when your finger moved on the touchpad surface and the cursor started to move on the screen. Another problem that got old very quick is the multitouch surface incorrectly sensing pressure from my palm and fingertip at the same time, causing multitouch features to activate. While good in theory, the notebook lagged when scrolling or zooming webpages in IE, so each time one of these features activated the notebook would freeze until it completed its motion.

Performance and Benchmarks

System performance overall was great. Applications opened without lag and behaved as if they were running on a full-size computer. In certain instances the 1000HA showed some lag under processor intensive activities such as smoothly scrolling a webpage, where the Intel Atom processor spiked upwards of 60%. Boot and shutdown times were very good, letting you break out the netbook and quickly have it up and running when you need to do something. Gaming is out of the question on these small notebooks unless you heavily tweak the game, operating at the lowest resolutions and lowest settings.

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,527 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,446 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 901 (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	746 PCMarks
MSI Wind (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	N/A
ASUS Eee PC 900 (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,172 PCMarks
HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	801 PCMarks
HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110)	891 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	908 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400)	1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500)	1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	1,839 PCMarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	117.577 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	127.172 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	123.437 seconds
MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.656 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	203.734 seconds
HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz)	168.697 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	95 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	N/A
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,055 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

3DMark03 Graphics Performance Benchmark (higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook	3DMark03 Results
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	788 3DMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	569 3DMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	751 3DMarks
MSI Wind (1.6GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	589 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T4400, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,622 3DMarks

HDTune for built-in Hard drive:

We also decided to try out the Intel X25-M SSD inside the Asus Eee PC 1000HA to test out its capabilities inside a Vista environment. It turns out the system operated more smoothly through day to day tasks, and even oddities such as the touchpad lag were gone. With only 1GB of memory the system happily allowed Aero to be turned on and still ran flawlessly. Performance benchmarks increased as well, with PCMark05 jumping from 1527 to 2020, and 3DMark06 going from 95 to 133.

Speakers and Audio

The speakers in the ASUS Eee PC 1000HA lack all bass and midrange, and really shouldn’t be used for much other than listening to YouTube videos or the occasional movie. The small size and speaker placement really don’t work out too well in normal use, leaving you to the trusty headphone jack that gives you better volume, better audio quality, and above all else private listening.

Ports and Features

Port selection is normal for a netbook, with the biggest constraint being available real estate along the sides. You get three USB ports, one LAN, headphone/mic, VGA, an SDHC-compatible reader, as well as a Kensington lock slot.

Front: Activity lights

Rear: Battery

Left: Kensington lock slot, LAN, 1 USB, Headphone/Mic

Right: Multi-Card Reader, 2 USB, VGA, AC-power

Heat and Noise

Heat and noise is minimal under normal conditions such as web browsing or typing documents. The palmrest and plastic bezel surrounding the keyboard stay cool to the touch and without the blinking LEDs you might not even realize it was on. The bottom of the netbook is only warm in a few spots, mostly centered on the access panel which covers the hard drive, RAM, and wireless card. When the Eee PC was under more stress, the fan noise became more apparent, and overall system temperatures increased across the board.

Battery Life

Battery life with the 6-cell battery was average, lasting for 4 hours and 28 minutes before it went into standby mode at 5% remaining. This test was performed with the screen brightness set to about 60%, wireless enabled, and the processor working in dynamic switching mode. This was average for netbooks with similar configurations.

Conclusion

The ASUS Eee PC 1000HA held up quite well in our testing and turned out to be a worthwhile contender for those shopping for an affordable netbook model. Offering most of the same features as the more expensive netbooks, including the sought-after 6-cell battery, consumers aren’t missing much when choosing this budget model. While the touchpad was a disappointment during use, it was the only big negative mark on the notebook. Some of it can be attributed to user preference and as always, it is best to try out one of these models in a retail store if it is at all possible before making your final decision.

Pros:

• “Budget” Intel Atom model that includes a 6-cell battery
• Comfortably sized keyboard
• Great screen
• Easy access to upgradeable system components

Cons:

• Laggy touchpad

 

no bluetooth

 

Bummer on the multitouch functionality - I was looking forward to two-finger scrolling a la the Macbook.

 

Are there other differences from this and the 1000H model besides lack of Bluetooth and N wireless?

 

Does the included touchpad driver have a setting for "Palm rejection" or "Protection" to avoid accidental taps? I've found that sometimes these can cause that blink of detectable "lag" as it tries to determine whether or not you're deliberately swiping a finger or errantly brushing your palm against the surface.

If it's well and truly a laggy touchpad, I want nothing to do with this device.

 

Its portable but doesn't suit my need. Too bad my fingers are big and I can't type with that small keyboard.

 

Well it does do 2 finger scrolling, just with a bit of browser and CPU related lag. In the Vista environment it is MUCH MUCH smoother.

Those are the 2 main things are far as I can tell. HD size varies depending on 1000H model you get, so that isnt a key difference.

 

Yes I know, but who wants to use a laggy touchpad?

I noticed that the review of the 1000H does not mention the lag issue - could it simply be a bad sample?

 

FWIW. . . Newegg's Customer Reviews on this model mention nothing on a slow-to-respond touch pad.

 

Why is the battery life so low? a 6600mAh battery ,right, a processor that consumes 2 watts/hr.

Why does the 6 cell wind get better battery life despite similar parts? It must be software, right? (Unless Asus uses an amazingly power hungry screen). Wind seems to get 5 hrs of life real-world with a 6 cell.

 

Depends on if the touchpad model changed mid production or not. MSI did a similar thing with the Wind when they switched away from the Synaptics pad.

 

Do you have the latest Elantech drivers, not the ones Asus ships with the EEE? They add settings in the mouse section of the control panel.

 

The battery life quote was also worse (by an hour) than noted by the 1000H review.

 

Hey Kevin, is there any chance you could post a link to that wallpaper? I like it!

 

Unless they've done something screwy with this model, battery life of 5+ hours is easily attainable in real-life scenarios. On my 1000H, I have it in power saving mode, screen set to minimum brightness and bluetooth off and 5 1/4 hours or better is easily obtainable under normal workloads - ie, taking notes in a conference, browsing the web, and reading pdfs or word docs.

 

What's the weight in Kg? Thanks!

 

Kevin, did you defrag before running HD Tune? Those results do not look very good. I thought the 1000HA had the same hard drive as the 900HA and I'm getting much better results with my 900HA:

 

Could you snap a screenshot of the Info tab? Wondering if there is a mode difference between our 2 hard drives.

 

The reason, is probably your current FSB setting.

[quote="ViciousXUSMC]The software obviously just changes the FSB and in relation the cpu speed & ram speed will move with it. Well since the SATA hard drive shares the buss, for what ever reason the HDD speed will change in the different modes, and get this the lower the FSB the faster the HDD. So Power Save = Fastest HDD while Super Performance = Slower.[/quote]

 

Hey now this is what I was looking for... May have swayed me back to the Acer Aspire One with a 6-cell battery....

 

Kevin, here is another run with HD Tune and I have included info tab. My hard drive is defragged with Diskeeper 2008 prior to test. This second run was very similar but actually a bit better on burst and CPU Usage.




And here is ATTO:

 

Odd that your ATTO score is basically the same to what I got with HdTune.

Also for those wanting the background, it is a standard windows vista wallpaper. It is attached below.

 

has anyone installed ubuntu or variants onto this and can comment on out of box compatability w/ sound, webcam and wireless?

 

I can't believe that the truly horrible placement of the ultra-small right shift key wasn't mentioned. I own a 904HA with the same keyboard and literally curse every time I miss the noted key during typing.

Asus just didn't do their homework on this issue. Take a look at the Acer Aspire One's keyboard to see the right way to design one for a 10" netbook.

 

i have it and i don't have a problem with it. besides you can adjust the sensitivity.