ASUS Eee PC 1000HE NetBook Review

I have had the Eee PC 1000HE netbook for about a week now, and it has fulfilled my every expectation. Because I hadn't started up the Eee without installing the 2 GB RAM I'd purchased, this review is relevant to those who plan to upgrade, or have already upgraded the RAM in the unit. For those who don't, I will add that it is extremely easy and inexpensive to double the RAM of this netbook. I had never opened a laptop chassis before, and it took all of 5 minutes.

Pros:

• Up front, the package is inexpensive. You definitely get the bang for your buck
• Bright, brilliant screen with an excellent viewing angle.
• Large, more comfortable keyboard; touch typing is incredibly easy to get used to.
• Long battery life; I've had mine unplugged for over seven hours without a recharge.
• Exactly the amount of power and speed that I need from a computer, I'm able to run some of my favorite games (GTA: San Andreas, UT2004, and Neverwinter Nights) without breaking a sweat, edit photos and stream videos through the wireless card.
• The power-saving hotkeys are really useful. Most of the time I don't notice the difference between 'Power-Saving' mode and 'Super Performance' mode, which means for normal usage I'm saving a lot of battery life.
  

Cons:

• The volume is a bit too low on the speakers, AND when I'm wearing headphones. I've opened up all of the volume adjusters at one point or another, and I can't increase the volume past a certain point. I could imagine this being very irritating on a long bus ride or a plane ride.
• As really helpful the multi-touch pad is (and it truly is helpful), some of the presets are too closely linked to "scroll up and down". For example, I find myself opening a 'magnifying glass' one moment, and 'zooming out' of a webpage the next. I couldn't figure out why all my webpages were tiny. So disabling most of the multi-touch functions is probably a smart idea when you get started.
• This is just a quibble, but the resolution of 1024 x 600 is so specific to a very small number of machines.
• The volume is a bit too low on the speakers, AND when I'm wearing headphones. I've opened up all of the volume adjusters at one point or another, and I can't increase the volume past a certain point. I could imagine this being very irritating on a long bus ride or a plane ride.
• As really helpful the multi-touch pad is (and it truly is helpful), some of the presets are too closely linked to "scroll up and down". For example, I find myself opening a 'magnifying glass' one moment, and 'zooming out' of a webpage the next. I couldn't figure out why all my webpages were tiny. So disabling most of the multi-touch functions is probably a smart idea when you get started.

Overall, the Eee PC 1000HE is something I will be using consistently. It is exactly what I need.