Asus the manufacturer of the Eee PC are now busily trying to capitalise on the massive  success of the Eee PC Brand and fight off the growing competition. They have introduced a number of new versions under the brand name.  Yesterday I blogged about the Eee PC 901, the most up to date version of the original Eee PC, but in this post I want to look at the Eee PC 1000. This is the newest release from Asus and one which departs from the original vision somewhat.

Asus Eee PC 1000

The Eee PC 1000 departs a little from the original concept of a small and lightweight PC in that it is significantly bigger and also quite a bit heavier.  The main reasons for the size increase is to accommodate a bigger 10″ screen and a bigger keyboard.  The weight increase (1.3 -1.45 kg) comes from both its bigger size and a bigger more powerful battery. The 10″ screen comes with a good 1024 x 600 resolution and the keyboard is now claimed by Asus to be about 95% of the size of a standard laptop keyboard. As the small keyboard on the original Eee PC was considered to small to be truly usable this will make a lot of people happy and from the reviews I have read so far most consider the keyboard a big improvement.

Apart from the storage (more on that in a minute), the other updates are all similar to those on the Eee PC 901 with a Intel Atom CPU, 1 GB RAM, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth wireless.  The battery life is now an impressive 5 - 8 hours depending on usage and what storage options you go for.  The  on board storage has increased  significantly with both 40 GB SSD and 80 GB standard hard drive options available, both of which offer a big increase over the original models.

Options

The Eee PC 1000 is available in both a Linux and Windows XP version (1000H), the only difference apart from the operating system is that only the Linux version comes with the 40 GB SSD. The Windows XP version (1000H) has a 80 GB standard hard drive however if you were so inclined you could install your preferred operating system on either model.

Verdict

Making the perfect netbook is always going to be a balance between size , weight, screen and keyboard size and battery life.  Asus appears to have decided that you can’t please everybody and have produced two versions each with a different emphasis on these criteria, which I think is the right approach.   The Eee PC 1000 is a capable machine that will make the Eee PC brand stronger.

My own choice would be for the Linux version to get the SSD drive and a reduced weight machine which will also run cooler. What would you choose?