Life's A Journey, Not a Destination
the Asus Eee PC 1000-HE Netbook Computer
Page 2: Overview

Let's put that previous picture into proper perspective. In the photo below, my heavy-duty (and I do mean heavy-duty Hewlett-Packard ZD8000 is on the left, and my new Asus Eee PC-1000HE is on the right: (click on the picture for a higher-resolution view):

The two computers are shown with their corresponding AC adapters on my dining room table. Sorry about the clutter in the photo. I cleaned it up a little bit with a photo editor, but I know that I should eventually take a more properly-staged photo. I've spent too much time away from one of my other hobbies, photography. :(

Note the huge difference in size. Imagine the difference in weight. Sure, the screen sizes are markedly different, to the disadvantage of the netbook, but it's still a far better screen than my Samsung Instinct phone or my Palm T|X PDA. Surprisingly, the keyboard of the netbook computer is very well-designed, with keys that are more than 90% of the size of a full-size keyboard, not some tiny little pushbuttons like some netbook computers. Given the far lower power needs of the netbook, the AC adapter is much smaller. And its output is 12V DC, a voltage that is very easy to obtain from an automobile, for mobile use, unlike the ZD8000 which needs 19 volts at a whole-lotta-amps! To run the ZD8000 in a vehicle for more than the 1-2 hour capacity of its internal batteries, you will have to step up your vehicle's 13.8 VDC to 120 VAC with an inverter, and then connect that to the AC adapter shown here. Ugh!

Let's take a quick tour of the outside of this little gem.

 

Here is the Eee PC with the lid closed.

 

Here is the Eee PC with the lid opened up.

 

Here is the Eee PC 1000 HE compared in size to a standard CD jewel case.

Keep in mind that this photo is intended to show the size of the netbook next to something that most of us can relate to. But be aware that this netook, like most of them, does not have a built-in CD or DVD drive. I did buy an aftermarket external DVD recorder/player drive that plugs into two USB ports of the netbook (no other power or connectors needed), for those rare times that I need to read or write a CD or DVD with the netbook computer.

 

Here is a comparison of the Eee PC 1000 HE to the Apple iBook computer:

 

Here is a view of the opened-up netbook computer looking straight at the screen.

 

To the right of the touchpad, at the front edge of the chassis, are the cool blue LED indicators.

The power indicator LED is actually tri-color, showing different colors for different states, such as running on battery, plugged in, low battery, etc. There is a disk activity LED, as well as a Wi-Fi activity LED.

 

Here is the left side of the netbook.

The openings and connectors on this side are...

The headphone jack works well with Walkman-style headphones, and also works well for connecting to a home stereo system. Sure, this is not the smallest MP3 player on the market, but it comes with 160 Gb of hard drive space and also holds a SDHC flash memory card (mine is 16 Gb, but they now come in even 32 Gb size). If your home stereo has the typical pair of RCA phono jacks for left and right input, you can use a readily available aftermarket cable that has the 3-conductor stereo miniplug on one end, and the pair of RCA phono plugs on the other end. For my last two vacations, I put most of my CD music collection onto a 16 Gb SDHC memory card (in MP3 format, I could fit about 150 CD's worth of music on one tiny little card) and listened to all of my favorite tunes during the plane trip with headphones, and then plugged the netbook into the stereo system at the timeshare condo where we stayed, so we had our favorite music available while we relaxed indoors after we reached our vacation destination. Much easier than finding a decent FM radio station!

 

Here is the right side of the netbook.

Visible on this side are...

The video jack can connect to a standard PC video monitor, or an LCD projector, etc. Although the internal LCD screen is 1024 x 600 pixels in dimension, the graphics adapter chip can run at higher resolutions if an external monitor offers a higher resolution, like most of them do.

 

Here is the bottom of the netbook.

 

Here is the bottom, after the panel has been removed to allow access the insides of the netbook. This is where you can add either of two system upgrades, should you choose to do so.

Note that there is only a single memory module. A 1 Gb module is standard, but I replaced that with a 2 Gb module, which is the largest size that Asus supports.

Note the 160 Gb 2.5" SATA hard drive. I replaced mine with a 128 Gb Solid State Disk (SSD) drive. Now, I don't have to worry at all about using the netbook in a high vibration environment such as a car, boat, airplane, etc., and the netbook is more impervious to accidental drops or bumps. Of course, the LCD screen is still made of breakable glass, and can be shattered if you are a real klutz, but I do try to take care of my stuff! Anyway, I put the original 160 Gb hard drive into an external case that uses either USB or eSATA connectivity, and have some extra storage available for any of my computers. The way I looked at it, my older HP ZD8000 has served me very well for many years with its 100 Gb hard drive, so even though I gave up 28 Gb of storage by switching from the spinning hard drive to the silent, low power, high speed, low heat, reliable SSD drive, I still had more storage capacity in the netbook than I have in the larger laptop. And I also have the 160 Gb drive available as external storage if I want to plug it into the USB port of either portable computer, or to the eSata port of my desktop computer! Can you say "win-win scenario"?

 

Ok, that's the quick tour of the outside. One of my biggest hang-ups with portable computers of all sorts has always been the keyboards, which never seem to be good enough for my tastes. They tend to be too small and cramped, or too mushy, or too short of a travel distance, or laid out in an awkward and non-standard arrangement, or all of the above.

Let's take a look at the keyboard of the Eee PC 1000 HE... (Click here for Page 3)

 

Last edited September 5, 2010 by WØJT