Home > Consumer Reviews > ASUS Eee PC 1000 10-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB Solid State Drive, 20 GB Eee Storage, Linux, 6 Cell Battery) Pearl White

Not a bad little portable to tote along. As long as you understand that is what you are buying, you will probably be reasonably happy. In retrospect I would have preferred something with less Linuxiness. My desktop and portables are about what I do with them external to the device itself. But for Linux, the medium and message are too often the same thing. Any sort of Linux problem will lead you into a fairyland in which the solutions, many possible and varied, are apt to lead you farther and farther from home.

The keyboard isn't impossible, but it's got a little stinker. If you touch type that shift key on the right side is going to take some serious re-learning. And every time you miss it, you get to clean up your mistakes before you continue with what you are doing. The size works well even with my clubby hands.

I'd buy it again for half the price. Maybe.

Update: three weeks on. I would never, never, NEVER buy this again. The Linuxware is buggy beyond anything I've ever used. Frequent crashes of one thing or another. At the moment there are problems with the touchpad. I'm zero interested in all the why and how and cleverness of Linux and 100 percent interested in a product that works. This product doesn't work. What I wanted was a product with turn-key usefulness. Not what I got. Read the other reviews by folks who have had problems. I've had many of the same. I wanted a Toyota Tercel; I got a Yugo. Silly me.

Update: five weeks on. Asus recommended restoring the unit to its original state by powering up and holding down F9. That restored the touchpad dialog box to sort of usefulness. A day later trying to use "file properties" in the file browser I discover closes the browser. The image previewer frequently crashes, and you get to start over. It's a great little computer with some seriously bad software. And when you restore the unit, you get to use your time to reinstall all the updates like the Bulgarian keyboard - not kidding. And reconfigure to your secure home wifi. Your wifi LAN is secure, isn't it? It's not by any stretch of the imagination worth the money.

Final Update: I use it every day. But I'm not sure why it's my job to fix or decide not to attempt to fix so many problems with the software that comes with the computer. For the moment I've modified myself to use what works well and not use those things that work poorly or not at all. Great for webwork, email. No problems with the wifi. For what you pay, it needs to work a whole lot better right out of the box.

Don't buy this one if your intent is to install and run WIN XP PRO SP/2. It's a nice little Linux computer but I needed to run some Windows-only compatible programs and I installed WIN XP PRO SP/2 as per instructions, installing the WIN drivers from the disk packed with the computer. Windows opened and ran incredibly slowly and hung up repeatedly on such simple commands as clicking on My Computer. I reinstalled WIN XP PRO and tried again, but no use--the same thing happened. I sent it back to Amazon and bought a Samsung NC-10 instead, which is a superior product with the same specs and costs about the same.

This seemed like a small cheap traveling laptop. Not so cheap! For most of the programs I use, Linux will not work. So, you must buy and install Windows. To install windows and other Programs you will need an external disk drive. After installing windows you must then reload all the drivers. To get the speed you are used to, a memory up grade to 2 gig is a must. When you are done with all of this you have a great little machine that can go with you almost anywhere that you would take a book. The tec. people for this company are great also.

Out of the box, it worked great and I was very pleased. The Linux system was great and the keyboard really does work out great.

But I ran into problems when I reformatted the hard drive, installed Windows XP, and upgraded the RAM to 2GB (as opposed to the 1GB included). From this point on, it booted once or twice, and then the next time I turned on the computer it just ran silent. The screen was on but black, I could not access the BIOS, and the hard drive was not spinning. I thought it could be faulty RAM so I put the original 1GB back in, and still same problem.

When it did work, I really did like it. But after two weeks and it broke, I am just skeptical of the longevity of this laptop. I didn't want to replace it because why deal with the same problem a year or two down the road. But otherwise, its a decent laptop for the price, but just be aware it may have some problems down the road in regards to hardware.

The Asus EEE PC 1000 is a users nightmare, unless you know how to find the Control Console, then know how to give it commands...At least on my XP system downloading utilities such as Google Earth was a simple task...Not So with the Linux System on this computer...and I don't want to hear all the crap about going to forum sites to learn...I nevver ever had to do that with Windows XP.

Also the +7.4 6600mAh battery only gives about 3-4 hours use from a full charge... no where near the 6 to 8 hours, or up to 10 hours claimed by some Retailers/Asus.

Is it possible that Asus puts a sticker on the battery saying it is 6600mAh, when in fact it is far less?

Further...I doubt I will buy anything else from Amazon, at least until they get hooked up with Paypal...
Their free shipping option adds another 3-5 days to the delivery time...though they don't tell you that until you've paid for your item.