Geek Tested:

Asus' Redesigned Eee PC 1002HA Netbook is Slimmer and Lighter

Posted 12/02/08 at 10:05:44 AM by Paul Lilly

Forgetting for a moment what's underneath the hood, Asus has officially introduced its redesigned Eee PC 1002HA, a gorgeous looking netbook that first appeared on the web back in October. The sleek new chassis owes its good looks to a brushed black (er, 'Agent Grey') aluminum LCD cover and palm rest in an attempt to bring "a touch of elegance to every day computing" in a lightweight package weighing just 2.6 pounds and measuring 1-inch thick.

On the inside, the familiar Intel Atom N270 processor makes an appearance, along with 1GB of DDR memory and a 160GB hard drive. Storage duties are complimented with another 10GB of hosted online space through Asus' Eee Storage service, free for the first 18 months.

Asus says you can expect up to five hours of unplugged computing time on its custom-made two-cell 4200mAh polymer battery.

The Eee PC 10002HA is available now through the usual outlets with an MSRP set at $499.

Image Credit: Asus

COMMENTS

Battery
Submitted by bland on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 11:56am

Those 3 and 6 cell batteries are just normal batteries. (think of a C cell) which are really cheap and a much older technology.

The one in this one is a lithium polymer (lipo) which are smaller and provide a much higher capacity. For a idea, look at the battery in your cell phone.

I've been waiting for a netbook to have one of these batteries so it can remain small and have a decent run time.

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Right Shift key
Submitted by cfrankb on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 9:28am

So many of these sub-$500 netbooks think the up arrow needs to be where the right Shift key should be (except, e.g., the Acer Aspire One).

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5 HRS on 2-Cell Battery?
Submitted by statewd on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 12:54pm

On a 3-cell battery you can only get around 2 to 3 hours of usability until the battery needs recharging. On a 6-cell battery it is about 5 to 6 hours of usability until the battery needs recharging. How can this 2-Cell battery muster 5 hours? It must be a darn good custom battery.

Netbooks are a totally different market. A Netbook that weighs 2.5 lbs (mobility) is $300 to $500. A notebook that weighs 2.5 lbs (mobility) is $1500 to $2000.

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it's a price vs performance
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 4:46pm

it's a price vs performance thing.

A $500 laptop gets you you well i detailed it below

for the same $500 from Dell you can get a desktop http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_great_deals?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Dell Inspiron 530Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2200 (1MB L2, 2.2GHz, 800FSB)Dell S1709W 17" Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor16X DVD+/-RW Drive3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 For the same rate really its a bit messed up to get a basic netbook when a basic laptop with 3 times the power cost the same or a desktop wwith twice the power of the laptop. Netbooks really need to be copetativly priced.

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for dang near a 100 dollars
Submitted by atomaweapon on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 9:06am

for dang near a 100 dollars more you can get a nice dual core with a few gigs and more space.

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why is this concept so hard
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 9:40am

why is this concept so hard to grasp.

Netbooks are designed for untra portability not as the "primary laptop"

I will asmit their prices are rather high though.

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$500 is expensive? A good
Submitted by horzo on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 10:37am

$500 is expensive? A good laptop (i.e., one I'd actually take seriously and use for business) runs around $1600. $500 sounds about right for a decent ultra-portable.

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considering i can get a 15.4
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 10:48am

considering i can get a 15.4 inch laptop http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dndopm2&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=features~laptops_great_deals

with 2.0 ghz celeron, 2gb ram, 120 (5200 rpm_ sata hard drive, and a intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

for the same price.....

yeah...

it is

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Celeron, it weighs 6 lbs,
Submitted by horzo on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 11:48am

Celeron, it weighs 6 lbs, and much worse battery life.

We're talking about two different markets here. A full-size laptop should be a good machine (dual-core, 7200 RPM drive, etc.) With an ultra-portable , you're trading peformance for small size and efficency.

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and payingthe same price as
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 12:22pm

and payingthe same price as a low end laptop? Sorry their needs to be more division among the ranks. For 500 you can get a decent Desktop, a ok Laptop and a top of the line netbook not a run of the mill netbook.

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Not Getting Netbooks?
Submitted by kavok on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 10:37pm

I really don't think you understand the concept of a netbook.

What you'd look for in a traditional laptop are performance as far as raw power goes - GPU, CPU, RAM, HDD etc.. with weight, battery life, and size being a secondary concern.

With a netbook your primary factors are weight, battery life, and size - performance is completely secondary. Netbooks are called "Net"books for a reason - its for browsing the internet and basic lower performance tasks like word processing. You shouldn't be planning on playing video games or doing video encoding on a netbook.

Would I rather spend $500 on -

1. Something that is under 3 pounds, relatively small, and has 5hrs of battery

or

2. Something relatively powerful but heavy 6 pounds+, large and clunky, terrible battery life (probably under 3hrs)

I'd pick the first option every single time. If I want something powerful I'll use my desktop.

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no you don't seem to follow
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 10:00am

no you don't seem to follow their needs to be a reletive price/performance scale. $500 sould get you the top=of-the-line netbook not the Standard issue.

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$500 does get you the top of
Submitted by horzo on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 2:20pm

$500 does get you the top of the line netbook. The 1002HA is it. Same for the best netbooks from Lenovo, etc. All around $500.

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doesnt seem all that special
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 2:27pm

doesnt seem all that special to me, sorry

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