Netbook Review UK

Finding that netbooks are all starting to look alike?  Well, Asus apparently thought the same and decided to hire leading industrial designer like Karim Rashid to design the new 1008p for them.  The 1008P is a mixed bag of specs — it has got the new netbook standard Intel Atom N450 processor, boasts 2GB of RAM and larger than usual 320GB hard drive, and a suprisingly small three-cell battery. US pricing has been revealed, and it looks like it will command a $100 premium over most netbooks.  So, how does it stack up?  And how long does that 3 cell battery last?  Read past the break to find out.

The Eee PC 1008P is thinner than most netbooks, and its 1-inch thick chassis is the same as the as the current 1008HA.   That means, that like int the 1008HA, all the ports are hidden behind teeny doors. There’s a mini VGA port on the left hand side, and the VGA adapter pops out of the bottom of the netbook. Pretty cool trick, but it’s fiddly and time consuming to fit it back into palce when you’re done with it.  The rest of the standard netbook ports are laid out along the edges, though the 1008P only has two USB ports rather than the typical three.

Unfortunately, we think we have to add the 1008P to the list of laptops that suffer from performance issues at the expense of better design, like the HP Envy and Dell Adamo. While we love the textured chassis (in brown!) and think it’s one good looking netbook, we can’t justify paying more for less battery life. If we’re going to pay $499 for a netbook, we’d take the Ion-equipped Eee PC 1201N that has comparable battery life to the 1008P, but much better gaming and HD performance. That’s not to say the 1008P isn’t perfect for those that are all about netbook beauty, but we’re just doubtful that’s the case for many people, and thus we don’t see why you wouldn’t go with a cheaper option like the 1005PE with its eight hours of battery life.