Asus has brought another netbook to the lineup, anyone surprised? The affordable netbook craze has only just begun and we are here to see if this new netbook can hold up to the competition. Overpriced? Or just right? Let’s take a look and examine the new travel sized netbook known as the Asus EEE PC 901.
Our Asus EEE 901 Specifications:
- 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor
- 1GB DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
- Windows XP Home
- 8.9” LED screen, 1024 x 600 res.
- 12 GB SSD (4 GB onboard and 8GB PCI-E minicard SSD)
- 6-cell 6600 mAh battery
Build and Design
Asus’ task is never an easy one, to develop a small laptop that not only looks good but comes in at cheap reasonable prices. Asus had some criticism in their previous netbooks, criticizing the size of the monitors, and the operating system. They were quick to learn their mistakes and did what they could to fix it this round. The chassis seems to have the build quality of the previous versions, which is a good thing. No loose moving parts and everything felt sturdy. The plastics are of good quality and there were no visible cracks or problems that we could see. Taking a ‘quick’ look at the unit you may mistake it for a previous EEE netbook, although upon closer inspection it is noticeable that the unit has a larger screen, keyboard and touchpad.
Most people are skeptical of netbooks due to the low prices, fearing that build quality has been sacrificed. Thankfully Asus made sure that their design was not only built well but was also aesthetically pleasing. The EEE Netbook series is truly something unique and special in the computer market. Coming in at only two pounds and enough power to compare to a budget laptop the Asus truly is an amazing little laptop.
Screen
The EEE PC 901 comes equipped with an 8.9-inch display boasting a resolution of 1024 x 600. While the resolution may not be that impressive, the LED backlit display is. Of course we’d love to squeeze in a little more real estate as far as resolution, it simply isn’t possible at the time. Asus fixes that by the beautiful matte screen they used in the 900 series netbooks. Allowing for optimal viewing range as well as being able to be used in direct sunlight, this little netbook has quite a powerful monitor. We really can’t emphasize that enough, this computer can be viewed in direct sunlight due to its strong LED backlighting and matte finish. A blessing in disguise as we love to utilize our balcony here at eeeNetbook.com.
Operating System and Software
Thankfully Asus listened to the people and provided Windows XP as the operating system for the Asus EEE 901 Netbook. Surely Windows XP might not be the latest Windows O.S. but it sure does beat out Vista in our opinion. Considering that it is one of the most stable and robust of Windows OS in the last decade. The operating system boots from zero to go in a little under 30 seconds, making this a very fast booting computer. The linux variations on the older Asus netbooks booted up only four seconds faster than these new Windows loaded versions.
Speakers
When we first tried out the Asus 701 Netbook computer we were very unimpressed by the quality of the speakers. It was downright annoying how muffled and underpowered they sounded, not to mention the fact that they looked like landing strips surrounding the keyboard. Asus heard the complaints and not only beefed up the speakers, but put the facing the bottom of the computer. Allowing for a larger keyboard, although creating a problem if you use the netbook on your lap. If you use this on a hard surface though, we really cannot complain or expect much more out of a netbook.
ASUS Eee PC 901 8.9-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 12 GB Solid State Drive, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) Fine Ebony
Keyboard and Touchpad
Most low priced mini laptops that are on the market usually have horrible keyboards and significantly worse touchpads. Asus used to have this problem back with the 700 series, now though it seems that they finally corrected the issue. The Asus 901 keyboard is fantastic for a 9” netbook, it is roomy, and firm without the flex that other keyboards have.
In order to create such a small netbook the keyboard is not a full sized laptop keyboard, rather its a smaller equivelant (probably 90% of a normal laptop keyboard). It does take some getting used to in order to type at near optimal speeds. Those of you with rather large hands will simply give up most likely as the keys are rather small and compressed together which can cause error after error.
Performance
The Asus EEE 901 is a quick little netbook, with it’s Intel Atom 1.6 GHz processor and 1 GB DDR2 RAM. Understanding that netbooks are meant to be cheap, little laptop alternatives, you won’t find a dual core processor in these (just yet). This means that resource hog applications are simply out of the question, but just about 70% of the applications that you will need to run will operate just fine. Load time of applications is lightning fast due to the SSD, which provides virtually instant data access times.
Battery
The battery is great, especially matched with Asus ’smart selection’ processor options and the SSD vs a HDD. Under the Super Performance option, and ‘normal use’, using 100% brightness and wireless on we were able to pull out 4 hours and 30 minutes of use via the standard 6-cell battery. By lowering the brightness and turning the processor speed back to normal we were able to achieve 5 hours of use! That’s fantastic and means that most of us are able to have a full days work on a single charge. Thankfully the 901 comes with the 6-cell battery, which is an improvement over the 4-cell variations we’ve seen in other Asus netbooks.
Conclusion
We HIGHLY recommend this netbook for students, due to the SSD drive and the 6-cell battery and the outstanding 5 hours of battery life we achieved with ‘normal’ operating conditions. Coming in at 9” the netbook is just the perfect size to use at a desk, while still having room for a book as well. Other laptops and netbooks simply take up too much room and really can cause a pain. Although this light and portable 2lb netbook is just the solution for any student.
For those of you that require a larger disk space, and want a larger monitor and keyboard then we will have to suggest the Asus 1000 series over the 901. We had mixed reviews in the office of the 901 due to the smaller keyboard and lack of storage space. If neither of those are a problem, then absolutely get the Asus 901 Netbook.