This review is from:
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1001P-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch
Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life) (Personal Computers)
The overall build of this netbook feels
very solid and keyboard is firm, no flex. I love this keyboard, touch typing
is no problem. This is a very personal preference though; you should try out
the keyboard on any netbook before you buy it.
Cover and palm rests have textured finish that hides fingerprints. My
husband asked, "Is that carbon fiber?", and thought it looked cool. The
textured surface also provides a better grip than a shiny surface.
The Synaptics trackpad works great. Two-finger scrolling works smoothly,
which is good because the up/down keys on the keyboard are pretty small. I
don't use the trackpad rocker button very much, I just use tap gestures to
simulate the left and right button clicks.
I'm really glad I went for the matte non-glare screen. It is easier to read
in less-than-ideal lighting conditions while traveling. The 10.1" screen is
clear and sharp, and easy to read at 1024x600, no squinting. The screen
swings back and down when open, so that it sits low; it's good to have a low
profile when working on an airplane tray.
Windows 7 starter edition ran without lagging, but I can live without all
the extras provided by Asus. So, having an extra upgrade license handy, I
promptly did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium on the C: partition,
leaving the D: data partition, the ExpressGate partition, and the restore
partition intact. I was able to download all necessary drivers and utilities
from the Asus support website. Windows 7 Home Premium runs amazingly well
with only 1 GB of ram! I'm going to wait and see if I really want to upgrade
to 2 GB.
I was concerned that the wireless card was only 802.11g, and not 802.11n,
but I really don't notice any difference when surfing the web. I was also
concerned that the webcam was only 0.3 megapixel (640x480), but it looks
fine and works well with Skype, as does the built-in microphone.
I agree with others that the connector on the A/C adapter is very thin, but
it seems strong enough. I'd rather have the pin on the A/C adapter break
(which I can replace for a few bucks) than the power receptacle on the
motherboard.
When I'm working from home via VPN and Remote Desktop, I like to connect my
netbook to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, and wired ethernet. The
EEE PC 1001p had no trouble with the 1280x1024 resolution on my monitor. The
wired ethernet and USB keyboard work fine. Logitech doesn't provide a
Windows 7 driver for my old bluetooth mouse, but I just put the netbook
bluetooth into discovery mode and it found my mouse with no problem. Windows
7 had the bluetooth mouse drivers I needed built in.
I inserted a 256 MB SD card into the memory card slot and it was recognized
instantly. I'm trying out the Windows Ready-Boost feature with this SD card,
but since most of the things I do are not memory intensive (surfing the web,
remote desktop, VNC), and it's a fairly small memory card, I haven't noticed
much of a difference.
It would have been nice if Asus had included a neoprene slipcase for this
netbook. I recommend the Case Logic VLS-110 Sleeve for 7-Inch to 10-Inch
Netbooks.
The 1001p has everything I wanted in a netbook: good performance, a
reasonable weight, nice screen and keyboard, slick design, and a great
price.
