If you’re shopping for an affordable new laptop, then you’ve at least heard of the Asus EeePC series. The 1005PR is one of the newer models in the lineup, and it’s making a scene in the market on a few points: the size, the screen and the price. So, let’s look at each of these points individually.
At only ten inches, the 1005PR is one of the more portable laptops around. What really counts, though, is how much power per cubic inch you’re getting. Anyone can make a tiny laptop, but a tiny laptop that packs a punch is something else entirely. Well, we’re pleased to announce that no sacrifices have been made in shrinking the Asus down. If you’ve ever used a larger Asus EeePC, you know what you’re getting from this one.
What’s really impressive about the 1005PR’s size is the fact that the display is true hi-def. The screen is a hefty 1366 by 768 pixels, which, for such a small laptop, is really something. With the laptop plugged in and running the screen at top quality, it’s like having a big screen HDTV on your lap. Simply put, you’re not going to find a better, more crystal clear, hi-def image in a ten inch laptop any time in the near future.
It would be tempting for Asus to market the 1005PR as a status symbol, something like a Mac Airbook, but with most retailers selling the 1005PR in the budget laptop range, it’s clear that they’re more interested in just creating powerful little hi-def laptops and getting them into the hands of consumers as quickly as possible.
If there’s one drawback, it’s that the HD screen is perfect for media, video and graphic arts, but the ten inch size sort of discourages that. Still, that the screen “performs too well” is hardly a serious negative.
Ryan, March 15, 2011
The Eee Series laptop is known for its affordability, small size, long battery life and portability. The Performance on the other hand is usually lacking in speed. With slow loading internet speed and slow application loading the Eee series could use a little more power under the hood. But overall is a great bang for your buck!!
Ian, March 21, 2011
I've got a Eee 1005HA and its superb. It does lack speed (flash games are out), but I used it as my main laptop for all my computing work for quite a few months (plug it into a monitor and the screen size isn't a problem any more). I've upgraded it to Windows 7 Professional and installed a vast array of applications, every thing from Firefox to SQL Server Express 2005 and it still starts up like lightning. Having it means that I can work anywhere. Sat on a bus, on a train, as a passenger in a car. The integrated camera and microphone works perfectly for Skype. The keyboard it comes with is brilliant. The main badassery feature is the use of the pg up/pg down/home/end as function keys on the normal arrow keys. It becomes second nature to press the Fn key and up for page up, its simply brilliant. I've tried finding similar things out there but there's nothing that replicates this beautiful bit of functionality (although I think you can hack some of the Logitech keyboards) and Asus don't seem to make normal keyboards. Read this article if you ever do buy one: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/guides/2010/02/optimizing-windows-7-for-battery-performance-on-the-netbook.ars/.