Full Review - Testing and Conclusion
Use and Testing First Boot General Usage Battery life Cons:
On first blush, the new Eee looks and feels exactly like the previous model. We don’t have the old one around to compare, but our guess would be it’s exactly the same size, weight (2.1lbs) and dimensions, as the chassis appears to be unchanged. Once we opened up the display however, we certainly noticed its increase in size and think it’s a very welcome upgrade. Sadly, the keyboard looked exactly the same size, which was our biggest gripe with the previous model. When we went to plug in the battery it seemed much larger than the previous unit too, as that battery rested flush with the bottom of the case but this one juts downward a few millimeters and seems big in general for such a small notebook.
We pressed the power button and only had to wait 34 seconds to arrive at the desktop, which is similar to what we experienced previously. Linux may have its flaws but it’s certainly slim and trim, and able to boot much faster than Windows XP or Vista, that’s for sure.
The “desktop” isn’t really a desktop, as you can’t put files or folders on it, but rather it’s an interface with five tabs: Internet, work, play, learn, settings and favorites. Each tab contains programs related to the task group, so for example wireless networks are under the Internet tab and office-type applications are in the Work tab and so on. Overall it’s a simple interface to navigate but it does take some getting used to. For example if you plug in a USB device you have to open a file manager to access it, which is like Windows Explorer. It’s also a bit jarring to not have any links or folders on the “desktop,” but this is simply a constraint imposed by the size of the notebook and the Xandros distribution Asus uses here. We’d much rather prefer Windows XP, and thankfully Asus now provides that as an option before you buy.
The Xandros Linux distro is easy to navigate, but there’s still a learning curve for Windows users.
As we mentioned before, the Eee 901 uses Intel’s new super-small Atom processor, clocked at 1.6GHz. This processor combines with the Eee PC’s solid-state hard drive to make a surprisingly responsive notebook. Programs open almost instantly, and there’s no lag at all when navigating between the various tabs in the interface. Since it’s running Linux we don’t have any specific benchmark numbers to report, but we have zero complaints with the speed of the system.
Instead, our primary complaint is with the keyboard, which is the same size as the previous model and is very small. Due to its size, it’s not particularly easy to touch-type with it. We found ourselves resorting to the tried and true hunt-and-peck method for maximum effectiveness throughout testing.
The pre-loaded software is great though, and is a far cry from the typical bloatware we see with most Windows-based PCs we review. All the applications and utilities are generally useful, and range from Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for web browsing and email, to StarOffice 8 for productivity, to Skype and Pidgin for instant messaging.
According to the Asus website, the battery in the Eee 901 is a six-cell unit rated at just 4.5 hours. We tested it putting it in power saving mode (a little button above the keyboard toggles three pre-defined performance states) and then playing an MP3 file non-stop until the battery died. All in all, we had to listen to that darn MP3 for 4 hours and 45 minutes, which is almost double what we experienced the last time around, and is excellent battery life indeed.
Conclusion
All-in-all we like the improvements Asus has made to the Eee. It shows they are listening to their customers and making a valiant attempt to stay ahead of the curve in what is rapidly becoming a very competitive market. In fact, we’ll go ahead and say this is what the Eee should have been in the first place, as this version is much more useable and has better features than the original. Even better, Asus hasn’t raised the price despite all of the improvements it’s made, as the 901 still costs just $549, which is a decent value. We wished the keyboard was a bit larger, but for basic web use and email the Eee 901 is hard to beat when it comes to portability and bang for the buck.
Pros:
• Extremely portable
• Great battery life
• Decent screen size
• Comes with either Linux or Windows XP
• Keyboard is still too small
• Linux still a bit unwieldy
• Drive partitioning could cause issues for Windows users
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by Kylie Nexis on November 14, 2008:
“I use Windows XP with my 901, it was more expensive but I've found it's worth it. For such a small, compact system the 901 runs quickly, as long as you don't overload the memory. I'm using an external hard drive to handle most of my document, music and...” More...