I <3 My Netbook

I’ve had several people ask me about my netbook, which I purchased a couple of months ago. The topic has come up again in the discussion of e-readers so I’ll give a review of the netbook I got.

I bought the ASUS HE1000 from Amazon, and all comments are in regard to that model only, unless otherwise specified.

I’ve broken the review down into two parts: selection process and using the netbook.

Click  “more” for all the details …

Selection Process

Before buying this I did quite a lot of research. These are the factors I considered, in my order of importance.

KEYBOARD: I’d used a friend’s netbook before and found it small and difficult to use, so I immediately knew I would get the 10″ version rather than the 9″ version. Trust me, size does matter and even an inch can make a huge difference. The keyboard is slightly smaller than a typical desktop keyboard and has the keys configured in the same way. I’d heard some had shift or enter keys in a diiferent spot which made it hard to use, and hard to switch back and forth between the netbook and a desktop keyboard.

Also, the wider keyboard means a wider screen.

BATTERY: I wanted a model with a long battery life. The HE1000 is listed with a 9.5-hour battery life, the longest of all the ones I looked at. Some other models had 6-hour batteries, which would have been fine. It wasn’t the deciding factor. It’s replaceable, so if it dies on you at some  point, you can get a new one. I eliminated models without a replaceable battery, since it would cost more to fix them.

WEIGHT: The weights varied from 2 pounds to 5+ pounds. I didn’t want one of the heavier ones, so that ruled out a lot of models. HE1000 is about 3 pounds, which was reasonable. The ones with lower weights didn’t have the features I was looking for.

PRICE: Obviously I wanted to spend the least amount  possible to get the features I  wanted: 10″ keyboard, long battery life and reasonable weight. Since I had previously considered buying a Kindle or other e-reader, I realized that the prices of netbooks were not that much higher, and offered all the functions of a computer as well as a portable way to read my e-books. Netbook prices were on average $400. Anything much cheaper had a tiny hard drive and a shorter battery life. The one I got was $385 when I bought it, from Amazon and considering the feature set, it was a great value. Some of the more expensive models didn’t offer much more than this one, and certainly not worth the extra money for features that weren’t of value to me. It may cost more or less depending on where you buy it.

PROCESSOR: this wasn’t a big issue for me since I honestly don’t know the details or specs on any of them. This model did have the newest Intel chip (Atom) and I figured that was another plus for it.

So, considering those features I began my research. I found most models had similar hard disk sizes and RAM, so those weren’t factors for me. The ASUS HE1000 had everything I wanted at a reasonable price. And it came in blue as well as black, which was a nice option. There was a newer model that launched around the time I was buying, but reviewers said the battery life was shorter and not replaceable and the keyboard felt “cheap,” so I decided against that one on both counts.

Using the Netbook

It took about two minutes to get it working out of the box. It looks and feels well made and not cheap or plastic-y, which I’d heard was an issue with other models.

I admit it took a while to get used to the keyboard and at first I didn’t like it at all. I forced myself to write on it rather than the desktop and after maybe 2 hours total usage, I was beginning to get the hang of it.  The biggest issue at first was my fingernails. I have medium-length nails but they were too long to use the keyboard comfortably. I trimmed them shorter (not completely short, though) and it made a world of difference.

The keyboard has a nice feel to it. The keys are shallower than a regular keyboard, but they are easy to push. The biggest thing I had to learn was how to use the function key. I hadn’t realized how much I use the arrow keys and page down. These are accessed with a function key that you need to press (like control) to make them work. I found after some practice, I could use these more easily than a regular keyboard, since they are closer and you don’t need to move your hand off the letter keys to use them.

Mouse/touchpad. My previous laptop experiences taught me I hate the touchpad. I got used to using this one fairly easily. However,  it remains the one feature that I don’t like. I find that when I’m typing, if I accidentally touch the pad, it sends the cursor and my typing off to another part of the document and I have to delete the wayward typing and reposition the cursor. I tried making the pad less sensitive and that’s eliminated some of the problem. If I have the keyboard low enough that my hands don’t touch it, that’s the best solution.

Screensize: the screen isn’t very tall, so you’ll need to page down a lot more than with a desktop (which is why those function keys become second nature quickly). It’s a little bit frustrating, but not a huge issue compared with all the rest of the positives. It’s an issue with every laptop and netbook, so it’s just par for the course.

Battery: I”ve been really pleased with the battery life. I’ve use the netbook for 4-5 hours at a time and still had 40-50% of battery power remaining. That included having multiple apps running and switching back and forth.

What’s missing: The one really big thing that sets a netbook apart from a laptop is the lack of a CD/DVD drive. This is how they save money and weight. It means  you need to use a flash or external drive to transfer things and you can’t easily install new software unless you can fit it on an external source or download it directly to the netbook.

If you want to watch movies there is plenty of space on the hard drive (150 GIG) to put some. I found that Hulu and Netflix instant watch work perfectly. The smaller screen actually makes them seem higher quality than watching on my 22-inch monitor.

I think that covers most of the specifics of this particular model and how it’s worked for me. I’m really happy with it. I use it to write and to edit in Word and while not as easy to use as a mouse (esp for editing/highlighting passages), it’s surprisingly easier and more fun than I’d expected. It just takes some practice with the keyboard. It’s light and portable and lasts for hours. I definitely recommend this model.

If I failed to cover an issue you’re interested in (not likely considering how long this ended up!), let me know and I’ll answer any questions.

2 Responses to “I <3 My Netbook”

1. Jonek says:

   August 27, 2009 at 3:54 AM

   You can turn off the touchpad with fn+ F3, makes those pesky cursor jumping thingys go away.

   /Cheers

   Reply
   • EM Lynley says:

     August 31, 2009 at 6:43 AM

     thanks for the suggestion. the only problem is that I am using the touchpad, not a mouse, so it’s not an option for me.

     Reply