In a world of ultrabooks and tablets, where
does a netbook really fit in anymore? ASUS tries to find a niche for it with
Intel's most recent netbook processor, the Cedar Trail family. So does it
manage to do what it needs to do?
Worthy looks
The EeePC looks good on the outside, if a
little on the small side. The texture on the surface feels good; mostly because
it stays away from the aluminium builds that arc currently ruling the market.
The plastic frame feels solid and tough enough to handle the usual every day
abuse. It's not smooth either, with ASUS choosing to go with a more grainy
feel. A good choice in making it less likely to slip out of your grasp. On the
other hand, the shallow grooves will definitely end up catching and keeping all
sorts of dirt.
Showing it off
It's impressively small and easy to carry.
The weight is barely noticeable due to the compactness of the design. The size
also allows it to fit into almost anywhere for storage. Unfortunately this size
also works against it. Everything feels squashed to together to make it fit.
The keyboard is small and takes longer than usual to feel comfortable typing on
it. The screen is similarly small and very cramped, increasing eye strain when
using it, especially when trying to read.
Power
The lack of processing power becomes very
noticeable on this netbook. While it can handle performing regular word
processing tasks, it begins to slow down when surfing websites that are
graphics heavy, even Flash and Java based animations will begin to tax the
processor our review unit actually began to skip frames while running Facebook
games. Not a very convincing performance.
Connections
There are plenty of connection options on
the EeePC; a VGA port, an RJ-45 LAN, two USB 2.0 ports and a HDMI port
(courtesy of its Intel Atom processor). The addition of a VGA port Is brilliant
since it allows you to hook the netbook up to a real monitor when working at
home. On the other hand, the HDMI port probably won't see much use; considering
that you aren't going to be running any sort of HD movies on this particular
netbook.
