Asus 1008HA Seashell Netbook : Macbook Air's Lost Half Brother

As for the conclusion. Well here are several ways to improve the 1008HA

(1) the battery is not removable, which can be an issue if you want to upgrade to a better model or simply want to swap a defective battery

(2) the touchpad is not up to scratch for us as it stands right now. This is certainly a personal point of view but our hunch is that many customers will feel the same. Trying multi-touch gesture input on such a small touchpad is painful. It worked on the Macbooks because they have BIGGER touchpads.

(3) the flipping frame. The frame around the 1008HA should be trimmed to the strict minimum. This would certainly allow for a 12.1-inch screen with the potential of offering a much more comfortable 1366x768 pixel resolution, matching the Mac Book Air.

(4) Increase the memory to 2GB. This is the minimum amount that is needed right now for a decent computing experience - end of.

(5) Swap the GMA950 for a GN45 graphics subsystem at least. That's the minimum we could expect as well if we want to have HD content on the 1008HA.