Asus Eee PC 1005HA Review

The Asus Eee PC 1005HA is one of the best netbooks out on the market right now. (Just look at the bestsellers list. It has been #1 for over two months) and in the time I spent reviewing the Asus Eee PC 1005HA I could definitely see why. There is a lower entry model with a smaller battery cell, no blue tooth, lower res web cam etc. at just $290.68 or you can spend $366.62 for a 6 cell battery version with all the options you will see in this review. About my only complaint is that the chassis feels a little thick, but when you're coming from a 1008HA which is only an inch thick I suppose everything looks a little too big.

Pros:

Amazing battery life, Sturdy design, great keyboard, Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz Processor

Cons:

Thick chassis

Quick Product Specs:

Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 6 Cell Battery, Windows XP Home
View Full Specs

Full Review:

Coming from an Asus background with my netbook purchases I wouldn't say I am predisposed to writing a favorable review for future models, but because I've been so pleased with what I've purchased in the past (1000HE and currently 1008HA) I almost look at each new Asus model as a netbook that needs to raise the bar even over what the previous iterations were able to do and fortunately this netbook has done just that.

Design:

The netbook 1.4 inches tall at it's thickest point and a little under 1 inch tall at it's thinnest point. So that you can easily this difference in height I took a few pictures of the Asus Eee PC 1005HA stacked on it's more slender brother:

Obviously the reason for the size discrepancy is due to the fact that the 1005HA is using a 6 cell battery and the 1008HA has a modified unique 3 cell battery built in you can't remove. I like the way the 1005HA slants down in the front as it also makes it very comfortable to type on (almost as if it's like a desktop keyboard when you prop up the leg stands in the back). Speaking of the keyboard, it's great! I really like the chiclet style of keyboards that Asus moved to several months ago as they make typing a breeze on the 92% full size keyboards. Also, when compared to the the 1008HA the touch pad and rocker seemed a little larger (which is a good thing).

Usability

After using the Toshiba NB205's spectacular keyboard set up I can't help but feel like Asus in general has a few things to learn. I am still a little annoyed that they choose to split the up and down arrow keys into a single key spot. I found myself accidentally pressing the wrong keys on occasion. Beyond that the netbook is great. The ports are varied and easily accessible - nothing that goes beyond the netbook standard of 3 USB ports, VGA out and some form of multi-card reader, but what else do you really need? In any case, it's very easy to upgrade the RAM via the access panel on the bottom of the netbook which is a breath of fresh air *cough* 1008HA *cough*.

Battery Life

The Asus Eee PC 1005HA offers a 6 cell lithium ion battery with a 5600 mAh rating and delivers stellar battery performance. The 10.5 hours is the manufacturers claim could be possible if you reduced brightness to about 70%, turned off at least bluetooth or wifi and then used a lower performance mode. You should expect to see about 7 - 8 hours of battery life with Wi-Fi on and screen brightness set to 100% (which is how most would prefer to use it). If you don't think you need this much battery life you can still go for a mid range Asus Eee PC 1005HA with a 3 cell battery for around $330 so that's something to think about as well.

Benchmarking

Most netbooks share very similar specs but there are always some suttle variances worth pointing out, so if you must now how it performed under the wide range of tests we put it through, click here to view the full benchmarking results.

Overall Performance:

This netbook features the faster Intel Atom N280 1.66 GHz processor, which is something that I expect netbook manufacturers to offer at this stage of evolution of the netbook market so there are no surprises there. The speaker quality is slightly better than what I've seen with the previous Asus netbook iterations as well as some of the other manufactures and this is due to the fact that the speakers are located more near the front of the netbook (on the bottom though of course). The netbook has 1 GB of RAM pre-installed like nearly every other netbook out there and in my past experience it doesn't alter the performance much if you upgrade the RAM because the true bottleneck is the processor and integrated graphics chipset (Intel GMA 950 in this case), but if you must to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB's you can expect slightly better multi tasking abilities. The netbook offers 802.11b/g/n which is again something I expect netbook manufactures to offer as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Overall, if you want a relatively inexpensive netbook that packs the cream of the crop 10 inch netbook specs into a slightly bloated, but completely manageable framework you should look no further than the 1005HA. As I've said in the previous video comparison of the 1005HA vs the 1008HA it just comes down to what you'll use it for. If you want something for being on the road a lot definitely buy the 1005HA. If you don't mind spending a few more dollars and don't need a large battery life pick up the 1008HA. And if you are strapped for cash pick up the $290 version. Asus has another winner on their hands which is already evidenced by their continued dominance in the sales charts as well as the overall quality of their netbooks.

View the $366.61 model (Intel N280 1.66 GHz processor, 10.5 hour battery life)
View the $317.25 model (Intel N270 1.6 GHz processor, 8.5 hour battery life)
View the $290.68 model (Intel N270 1.6 GHz processor, 4 hour battery life)

Purchase Options:

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