Asus Eee PC 1000H review

The Eee PC 1000H has the excellent knackof looking far more expensive than its price would suggest. Its chrome-style highlights won't be to everyone's taste, but our generally positive first impressions were backed up by the solid feel when we picked up this netbook by the corner.

As with the 904HD, the keyboard would have neared full-blown excellence if Asus hadn't decided to place the Shift key at the far-right of the chassis. This is a real bane for touch-typists, but everyone else will find this ajoy to type on.

The 10in screen is another mixed bag. While we appreciate the large diagonal, which makes web browsing just that little bit more pleasant than 8.9in affairs, it retains the slight graininess of the 904HD and 901.

It also shares the 901's excellent inclusion of draft-n wireless, and pulls ahead on the feature front by adding Bluetooth to the mix. The only wireless feature it misses is 3G, but that's easy enough to add via one of the three USB ports.

Far more important to most people will be battery life, and here the 1000H storms ahead of its rivals: it lasted for almost eight hours away from the mains. With an 80GB hard disk - and note that larger disks are now available in the 1000H range - it offers plenty of storage, too.

If you're after a 10in netbook, the choice boils down to the 1000H, Samsung NC10 and the MSI Wind - including its Medion variant. While the NC10 is slightly classier, the Eee PC wins if draft-n LAN is key.

Author: Tim Danton