Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005P review

It’s not until you tilt back the 10.1in display that the 1005P deviates from the original blueprint, with the excellent keyboard of the 1005HA discarded for the current chic substitute: the Scrabble-tile layout. Unfortunately, it’s a poor trade. We didn’t particularly like the feel of the short-travel keys, and the positioning of some keys is questionable. In an effort to relieve the once-cramped cursor keys, Asus has made the right Shift key impossibly small, which often had us dabbing the up cursor or the Fn key by mistake.

The display also seems to have taken a turn for the worse. The 10.1in panel still opts for the frugal netbook resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, and the matte finish keeps distracting reflections to a minimum, but image quality is disappointing. The 1005HA’s screen was never stellar, but the 1005P fails even to live up to that: muted colours leave skintones looking lifeless and pallid, and the overall brightness is noticeably lower.

It comes as some tiny consolation that the speakers have improved. The 1005P is head and shoulders above its predecessor here, managing to sound surprisingly crisp and clear for a netbook. Don't expect miracles but if you're on a business trip they'll do for a hotel room.

Meanwhile, the old netbook OS of choice, Windows XP Home, finally makes way for Windows 7 Starter, which makes a world of difference. Applications snap into view with appreciable haste and, while it all feels a mite less nippy than XP, the sheer usability amply compensates. It even makes Asus’ instant-on ExpressGate software seem redundant, as the 1005P wakes from Windows 7’s sleep mode in under 10 seconds.

But with the initial thrill of the Windows 7 experience having worn off, netbooks are in dire need of something new to really grab the public’s attention and Intel’s Pine Trail platform simply isn’t it. It may be more efficient and cheaper to produce, but with many netbooks already achieving more than six hours of battery life it’s hardly a game-changing upgrade. The Eee PC 1005P is undoubtedly good looking, but when you factor in the unnecessary design changes Asus has made, it somehow ends up less appealing than its predecessor.

Author: Sasha Muller