ASUS has updated the Eee range with the Seashell family with its whole new netbook design and two new colours - white and pink - to add to Asus' familar black.
The new range is supposedly reminiscent of clear blue oceans, soft silky sand and seashells. We can't see any of this in these netbooks, but perhaps it's down to the fact that all the devices shipped to the INQ have been jet black, an unusual colour for the sea unless its sporting an oilslick.
The white model especially, says Asus, shows off the cough design concept which will be the basis of all upcoming Eee PCs.
The imaginatively entitled Asus 1005HA is the bigger brother of the 1008HA and more or less replaces the Eee PC 1000HE from earlier this year. The specifications of the 1005HA are fairly identical to the 1000HE, but Asus has changed the outer appearance and the inside layout, increased battery life and decreased weight.
Talking of batteries, the 1005HA has a removable battery unlike the 1008HA. It also has a 160GB hard disc drive, as does the 1008HA.
There are two models to the 1005HA series, one with a 1.66GHz N280 processor and one with the 1.6GHz N270 that we saw. The other changes in the N280 version are a 1.3 megapixel webcam compated to our 0.3MP and the inclusion of Bluetooth.
The 1005HA arrives with the Intel 945GSE chipset running the GMA 950 integrated graphics, a regular favourite of netbooks. Normally, it can hold its own in terms of graphics but we found it distinctly lacking in beefiness coupled with this processor.
This device didn't want to play any HD content from YouTube or BBC iPlayer. We have seen the more powerful N280 version handle the same content happily, if a little jerky at times, with caching working better instead of streaming. The 1005HA onboard went into over drive whilst cooling down the CPU as it struggled to play YouTube video.
The device has an LED back-lit WSVGA 10.1-inch display capable of a 1024x600 resolution, which is becoming a common size in netbooks. It's much better than the 7-inch netbook screens of yesteryear, for everything from web browsing to knocking out email.
The keyboard has changed somewhat from previous Eee PC models, with a wider flatter key layout that is said to be just eight percent smaller than a full sized keyboard. One of the more welcomed additions is the full sized shift key, where past netbooks from Asus came with a half sized version that irked many, including the INQ.
The touchpad now has a raised Braille-esque tactile feel, which is easy to use. it also provides the ability to pan in and out of webpages and documents, operating much like the ‘pinch to zoom in and zoom out' feature on an
In continuous use the three-cell battery lasted two hours and thirty minutes.
Tags:Asus Eee range laptops,Asus Seashell family laptops, Asus 1005HA, Asus 1005HA specifications, Asus 1005HA features, Asus 1005HA price, Asus 1005HA availability, Asus 1008HA features,Inteel processors,New Processors from Intel,Intel N280
