Asus EEE PC 1005HA Seashell Netbook Review

The 1005HA comes with Windows XP SP3 and is certainly one of the last of its breed to come with it. Expect a slew of notebooks to feature Windows 7 Starter by the end of October.

In normal usage, the netbook was as responsive as any other we tested before. Asus bundled an application called Super Hybrid Engine (which essentially alters the speed of the processor depending on the load thereby saving power), Microsoft Works 9.0 and a 60-day trial version of Office 2007.

CPUID showed that the processor ran at 640Mhz in power saving mode (during which we were streaming music). SpeedFan put the temperature of the processor core at 33 degrees.

Asus provides with an online storage space - the EEE Storage - of 10GB, complimentary for the first 18 months after which you'd probably need to look elsewhere if you don't want to pay.

At the end of the day, the 1005HA is a slightly different version of the 1008HA which happens to be much cheaper. It comes with the same configuration and while it is still thicker than the original 1008HA, it still is a huge improvement over normal laptops. It is available from Dixons in black for £264.97 including free standard delivery. 

Any suggestions for the next version of the EEE PC? Well get more RAM, Windows 7, an Edge to Edge screen, a smudge free finish (the current one is a fingerprint magnet), a better touchpad, a more powerful processor, better graphics subsystem, microSD (rather than SD), a power charger (like for mobile phones) and a proper sleeve.