Online group buying has taken off in a big way in the Australian market, with the market now worth nearly nearly half a billion dollars and significant growth predicted over the next 12 months and beyond.read more
ASUS
has unveiled its new Atom powered Eee PC 1000HE, which boasts up to 9.5
hours battery life. However, at almost A$100 for each hour for us
Australians the latest Eee PC model no longer carries the el cheapo
netbook price tag that helped make the brand famous worldwide.
We were warned that a price hike was coming because of our falling
dollar but over the past decade or two we have become so accustomed to
getting more hardware for less that the A$899 list price comes as a bit
of a rude shock. By comparison, my 1000HD bought just six months ago
cost A$519.
It is true, however that the 1000HE is a superior machine and more highly configured than the 1000HD.
For a start, the 1000HE has an energy efficient Atom processor as
opposed my little box's comparitively power hungry Celeron. The new
model also offers double the disk storage at 160GB.
Unveiled at
CES 2009, according to Asus adjustments can be made to the 1000HE to
suit prevailing usage which in turn reduces power expenditure, enabling
up to the claimed 9.5 hours battery life.
The Eee PC 1000HE will
also soon be available with the Atom N280 processor – the first N280
processor device to hit Australian and New Zealand shores - rather than
the current N270.
Despite its relatively high price tag, the 1000HE is likely to hit a
sweet spot among consumers looking for a box to take on the road. It
doesn't have an optical drive like the top-end sub-notebooks, but it
does have a great form factor, some nice features and is very
functional.
The 10 inch LED backlit LCD screen running at 1024 x 600 resolution is
more than adequate to comfortably do real work. The 92% sized keyboard
allows uncramped touch typing unlike the smaller Eee PC models, and the
multi-touch touchpad provides iPhone-esque pinching for zooming and
navigation.
Finally, for those of you wondering about the operating system
question. The Eee PC 1000HE comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home.
However, I can tell you that I've trialled Windows 7 beta on my 1000HD
and it runs fine - perhaps a trifle slower.
The Eee PC 1000HE
from ASUS will be available from March 2009 in Australia and April 2009
in New Zealand (NZ$1099) through selected retailers and resellers.
Specifications
Display
10” LED Backlight WSVGA screen
(1024 x 600 resolution)
David Bass
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