The Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005PE sits at the bottom of the Seashell netbook range, aiming to bring the attractive and portable design of its range-topping siblings to the mass market. It’s also the first netbook we’ve seen to feature the latest Intel Atom N450 processor. Read on after the jump to find out how it gets on…
The Asus Eee PC 1005PE’s 10.1-inch screen offers glossy bright images, with excellent colour reproduction. It’s not as sharp as some of its rivals, and you’ll have to scroll both horizontally and vertically when viewing some websites. It’s fine for basic use though, with enough space to work comfortably with a Word document or to watch a film.
Check out our Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005PE First Impressions
The glossy black lid looks great, giving the Asus Eee PC 1005PE a modern and stylish look, but it’s too easily scratched and it’s also difficult to keep free from fingerprints. The lower half of the chassis is made from regular plastics, but it feels slightly cheap to the touch.
The design is attractive though, with the now familiar Asus Eee PC Seashell shape offering nicely curved edges and a slim profile that makes it easy to slip into a bag or carrying case. Unlike other Seashell models, there are no plastic covers to hide the ports.
The keyboard features Asus’ ‘chicklet’ style, which sees the keys protruding through singular holes in the chassis. This helps to provide better spacing between the keys, and means it’s easier to type at speed as a result. The quality of the keyboard is excellent, with a responsive typing action and no sign of the keyboard bending under pressure.
Inside the Asus Eee PC 1005PE’s slimline chassis, you’ll find a cutting-edge Intel Atom N450 processor. Although this chip runs at the same 1.66GHz as the older Intel Atom N280, it stands out by virtue of a graphics chip and memory controller that’s integrated into the processor itself.
The benefit of this is that it’s more efficient, and although we didn’t find performance to be noticeable faster, we managed to get over ten hours of use from a single charge when sticking to simple word processing tasks.
Features-wise, the most impressive aspect about this machine is the storage. Along with a 250GB hard drive, Asus bundles 250GB of online Eee Storage, making sure your files are kept safe even if something happens to your Eee PC 1005P.
There’s a single USB port on the right-hand side of the Asus Eee PC 1005PE’s chassis, along with a VGA port for adding an external display. There’s another two USB ports on the right-hand side, along with an Ethernet port for network connections, and a memory card reader.
Verdict
The Asus Eee PC 1005PE is a competent netbook, with the excellent battery life making it a highly portable device. It doesn’t feel as special as other models in the range, lacking the quality or any stand-out design touches. Until we find out how much it costs though, it difficult to judge – if it comes in under the £250 mark it’ll represent something of a bargain.
Best features
Great keyboard
Good screen
Good battery life
Not so good
Nothing really new
Standard screen resolution
Check out our Asus Eee PC Seashell 1005PE review iage gallery
Closest rivals
Samsung N110
This fresh update of the award winning NC10 brings with it a better screen and keyboard but still has the same knockout battery life
Dell Inspiron Mini 10
The stylish design, bright screen and good-sized keyboard make this a great all-rounder at an affordable price
Acer AOD150-1B Blue
This may not be the freshest netbook design around but the keyboard is comfortable, the battery life impressive and the specification great value for the price
100% secured payment
Thanks for the review. It’s helpful for my decision-making process. Succinct and to the point. Love it!