Zen College Life

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I’ve had my Eee Pc 1000 HA for a little over 2 weeks now.  I’ve used it in class, on the go, for blogging, and even tested gaming.  I’ve installed most if not all of the important software I need, and I’ve tested it all.  Here’s the rundown.

Usablility

The keyboard is nice.  It’s a good size (unlike all of the 9 inch netbooks), and after a couple of minutes of typing I got used to the 95% fullsize keyboard.  I am a tall guy, and I have larger than average hands, so I’m sure it would be fine for most, if not all people (if you have fat fingers you may fumble around a little while longer before you get adjusted).

Asus claims the battery lasts 7 hours.  I get anywhere from 4.5 to 5.5 hours out of it.  It’s not 7, but its not 2 either.  I’m satisfied.  The screen is fantastically bright, and I never turn it up past half way.  The laptop boots up and is ready to go in about 45 seconds, although some people claim to trim it down to about 25.  My only real complaint is that I am unable to get hibernate to work.  I have to shut down or standby, and standby still uses battery power.  Hopefully I’ll figure it out.

Software

This one will probably tell you a lot about me.  I think you can tell a lot about a person by the software on their computer.  We’ll see.  Everything in this list works great on this machine.

• Adobe Photoshop
• VLC Media Player
• Skype
• iGuidance Navigation
• Starcraft Brood War
• Firefox 3
• nCleaner
• AVG Pro Internet Security
• Winamp
• PowerIso
• Hamachi
• VNC

I haven’t really tested much beyond that.  I will install Microsoft Office sooner or later.  Right now I’m just taking notes in class using Zoho Writer, a web based word processor.  The computer is pretty fast, but it definitely couldn’t take the place of a desktop computer.  Overall its great for what it is, and for the price it can’t be beaten.

I know a couple of you were interested in hearing what I thought about this netbook.  If you have any specific questions that I could address, leave a comment, and I’ll be sure to let you know what’s going on!

Check out these EEE PCs on amazon.  They have great prices there.

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