Asus is at it again with the release of their 904HA to their ever growing lineup of netbook computers. It literally feels like that I’m getting weekly updates regarding their new netbooks coming out on the market. Focusing on shrinking the size even more, while keeping the larger hard drive space and usability Asus had some work to do. Thankfully, they didn’t dummy down this netbook and we are proud to say that the Asus EEE 904HA is a tremendous netbook and one of the best for the size we’ve reviewed yet.
Our Asus EEE 904HA Specifications:
- 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor
- 1 GB DDR2 RAM
- Windows XP Home
- 8.9” screen, 1024×600, LED backlit
- 160 GB HDD 2.5” 5400 RPM
- 802.11 B/G Wireless Networking
- 6-cell 6600 mAh battery
- 3x USB 2.0 ports, MMC/SD/SDHC Card Reader, Audio Jack in/out, VGA out
Those are some killer specs for a netbook, especially one that comes in as small as this one does. This netbook is a polar opposite from the Asus EEE 900 we recently reviewed. It seems that they heard the complaints of the 900 (small disk space specifically) and made some really crucial upgrades to make this one of the best 8.9” netbooks on the market.
Build and Design
We have to say that we are extremely impressed by Asus, constantly upgrading their models and listening to the feedback from users and websites alike. It’s things like these that will help make Asus an ever growing company focused on long term business growth rather than short term crappy products. Thankfully they recently came out with this latest netbook that was produced nearly like the rest of the models. Understandably they had less room to work with as it is a smaller chassis than the 1000 series, but that doesn’t show upon initial inspections of the netbook. In fact, the really only noticeable feature that looks different is the size of the screen.
Asus used many of the similar features found on the 1000 series, such as the trackpad, casing material, matte monitor and chrome ‘trimmings’. Honestly a beautiful little machine and can go without many complaints from the eeeNetbook team.
Screen
The Netbook 904HA comes equipped with an 8.9” matte display boasting a decent resolution of 1024×600 (native resolution). Keep in mind it is possible for it to go up to 1024 x 768 although it requires screen panning from side to side to get the full width. Not really my cup of tea as it pretty much defeats the point of having a monitor at that resolution. As with the rest of the Asus netbooks the displays are LED backlit and have a wonderful matte finish. What most people don’t realize is the brightness capabilities of the screens as well as how nice the matte finish is. This allows for the screens to be used in the brightest of Southern California days. On every netbook we test we like to take the netbooks outside to see if we are able to see/use the netbooks (weather permitting). The Asus never have a problem with this and truly enjoy this ability, what’s a netbook without the ability to use them outside?
Operating System and Software
We’ve noticed that the phasing out of Linux as an operating system on the latest Asus netbooks. We aren’t surprised although we’ve heard some pretty upset people that Asus isn’t really providing much Linux support anymore. Personally we’re Windows XP people and don’t mind that nearly every new model has Windows XP as the default operating system. We’ve heard reports as well of people even upgrading to Vista (why would you do this?) on the netbooks and not having much trouble with the transition. If you are considering this then we’d highly recommend upgrading your RAM to 2 GB. We were able to boot the netbook up in a little over 30 seconds which was slightly slower than the Asus 900 we reviewed a few weeks ago. Not bad considering it’s a HDD vs the SSD on the 900.
Speakers
All of the latest Asus netbooks boast decent computers for a laptop, and great speakers for a netbook. Unlike the predecessor design in which had bulky landing strips of speakers on the sides of the keyboard the newer models feature the face down speaker design. This allows for optimal sound when the netbook is on a flat, hard surface, although creates a problem when the netbook is on your lap. Quality as stated above is great for a netbook but distortion can be heard at maximum volume.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is probably the best keyboard we’ve tried on 8.9” or smaller netbooks. Coming in at a mere 90% of laptop keyboards and boasting all the similar keys including F1-F12 (unlike the Dell Mini 9). The keys have a wonderful, light response and makes it feel like you are typing on air. Some people have complained of flex, although in every single netbook that we have reviewed we never have experienced this sensation. Asus adds the ability to use the function key as well, which will control things such as sleep, wireless on/off, adjusting brightness levels, and much more. These are extremely handy and we are glad that Asus has continued this support on the 904HA.
Asus trackpads are excellent and provide the gestures movement for various controlling aspects for heightened user experience. Gestures include zoom in/out, scrolling horizontally/vertically, and many more useful gestures. The only problem we encountered was the ’smoothness’ of the scroll in Firefox, and especially Google Chrome. There is a Firefox extension though that will help solve this problem though and we highly recommend it. Otherwise we cannot complain about the trackpad, it really is one of the best we’ve seen on a netbook yet (besides the rest of the Asus 900+ series).
Performance
For a non dual core machine, this netbook can sure do just about anything. The Intel Atom N270 Hyper Threaded processor comes in at 1.6GHz and has the ability to change speeds on the fly (more on that in a minute). Taking a look at the task manager some people might confuse this for a dual core processor. Don’t though, because this is a hyper threaded processor XP recognizes it as a dual processor in the task manager. It does ‘act’ similarly to a dual core, but is more of a virtual representation of one.
As stated above you are able to change the processing speeds on the fly via Asus Super Hybrid Engine. Being able to control this aspect on the fly is GREAT! That means that you really can get the best bang for your buck battery wise by being able to justify the processing power that’s needed for certain applications. Matched with the brilliant adjustable function keyboard option for brightness you can double your remaining battery life in a matter of seconds and no mouse clicks.
Battery
Utilizing the battery is what makes Asus stand out from the rest. Unlike other netbooks that don’t have the hybrid processing change on the fly, Asus built it in to allow the user to designate how long they need to use their computers for. For example, changing the brightness to 50% and the hybrid speed to the lowest processing setting we were able to pull out 6 hours on the 6-cell 6600 mAh battery! That’s absolutely stunning for a netbook.
Turning brightness to 100% and turning the processing speed to 1.6 GHz allowed for 3 hours and 45 minutes of battery time. That’s just about the norm for most netbooks so we aren’t displeased with this figure considering this was under extreme load, such as processing extensive programs, wifi, and even video play.
Conclusion
This netbook is fantastic and just the fixes we needed form the 901, such as the hard drive space. For those of you that are looking for a larger netbook then we’d suggest the Asus 1000 series, specifically the Asus 1000H. Although those of you that are students, or want an ultra portable capable netbook then the Asus 904HA was made for you. It’s fully capable of lasting up to 6 hours on it’s 6-cell battery and can be used in the brightest of days outside. Light, portable and capable is what we think of when we hear of the Asus 904HA.