seashell by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Netbooks have come into their own as small but exceedingly practical portable computers. Next up, the promise of the all-day netbook. Enter the new Asus Eee PC 1005HA Seashell.
Asus has consistently evolved their Eee PC line of netbooks from the toy-like 7 inch models it produced two years ago to larger, more powerful and functional netbooks with 10 inch screens, bringing big time features and all-day battery life along with it.
As a variant of the earlier Eee PC 1008HA sealed-battery clamshell, the thinnest netbook in the 10 inch form factor in its day, the new 1005HA is slightly thicker than its predecessor, but it rocks a bigger, removable 6-cell battery that will reportedly power the device for 10.5 hours.
Real world usage is a little less than that, but still impressive. The 1005HA can easily squeeze out 6.5-hours out of its battery, thanks mostly to Asus' Super Hybrid Engine power management application.
Powered by a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom processor with 1GB of upgradeable RAM, the 1005HA runs Windows XP, and will likely do a good job with Windows 7 should you choose to upgrade the operating system (OS).
Asus has also made sure that this netbook is well connected, too, with built in 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth V2.1 - premium features normally found in more expensive laptops.
The trackpad on the Eee PC 1005HA sports the Multi-Touch gesture input feature for pinching to resize and whatnot. It's also unusual in that it sits flush with the unit's wrist rest, yet it's intuitive and accurate thanks to a grid of small protruding studs.
Also packed within its dimunitive form factor, you get a digital array microphone as well as a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam, ideal for video-conferencing, Skype and voice chatting, things you might want to do out on the road without the hassles of lugging around a bunch of USB peripherals.
Aside from the capacious 160GB hard drive, the Eee PC 1005HA comes with 10GB of online storage is you want it. This is helpful for storing files and back ups in "the cloud," retrievable from anywhere.
The most engaging feature of the new, more powerful and more feature-laden 1005HA over the old model is its price; it's cheaper.
In the realm of sub-$500 portables, providing you have unpretentious expectations befitting a netbook computer (as opposed to a notebook or desktop PC), you currently can't do much better than the Eee PC Seashell.