Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1728 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Asus
• Model: 90OA1BB12111431K12EQ
• Released on: 2009-06-17
• Platform: Windows XP
• Dimensions: 2.87 pounds

Features

• Elegant Seashell Inspired Design
• 10.5 hours battery life with Super Hybrid Engine
• Faster Internet Access with Wi-Fi 802.11n
• Cutting-edge Mobility: Bluetooth V2.1
• Ergonomic keyboard for unsurpassed comfort

Manufacturer's Description
A mere 1 inch slim and 1.27 kg light, the uber-stylish Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is ultra portable and easy to use. The Eee PC 1005HA is so light and compact, you can take it anywhere with you. Dressed in a sparkling pearlescent "shell" casing that gives it a captivating sheen, the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is beautiful inside and out.

The Eee PC 1005HA offers great user comfort and convenience with its 92% scaled keyboard, multi-touch touchpad and instant key (for quick access to Wi-Fi and the touchpad lock). Furthermore, its 10 inch LED-backlit display in its compact chassis will allow you to work or travel in absolute comfort for hours on end. Its generous and convenient 170GB ASUS Hybrid Storage will enable you to store, share and access your important data anytime, anywhere.

Get noticed today with the ultra-slim Eee PC 1005HA Seashell.


Ultra-Slim, Ultra-Chic

Seemingly crafted by nature itself, the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell draws its inspiration from seashells. Its opalescent and glossy exterior is crafted by the innovative in-Mold Roller technology, giving it a stylish yet scratch-resistent surface for everyday use.

Only 1 inch thin and 1.27 kg light, it's so light and compact, you can take it anywhere with you! And with sleek curves and smooth lines hugging its lustrous shell, the Eee PC Seashell will easily charm passers-by wherever it goes. The slim and lightweight Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is a joy to behold and its compact dimensions make it the perfect runabout internet device anywhere.

Large LED Backlit Screen for Comfortable Viewing

A brilliant 10 inch LED backlit widescreen glare display makes reading documents and viewing multimedia files more comfortable. This latest generation of LED backlit technology allows for ultra-thin, ultra-bright and energy-efficient display allowing outstanding portability and versatility. 1024 x 600 resolution allows you to view most pages without often needing to scroll left or right.

Ergonomic Keyboard and Multi-touch Touchpad

The Eee PC 1005HA Seashell comes with a large-key keyboard that is 92% the size of regular notebook keyboard. This ergonomic design reduces fatigue and makes it more comfortable to type during prolonged use.

Eee PC 1005HA also comes with an user-friendly wide format multi-touch touchpad to help you navigate and have an easy and fun experience. It's multi-touch interface allows you to scroll and zoom quickly with 2 fingers. It is intuitive to use and is child friendly. The touchpad is in a wide format so you can access contents displayed on the 10 inch widescreen easily.

Flexible Connectivity with Eee PC 1005HA

Eee PC 1005HA Seashell comes with WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (draft 2.4GHz n) network connectivity for ultimate wireless accessibility and mobility. Also included is Bluetooth V2.1 for flexibility and convenience with your Bluetooth devices.

Eee PC 1005HA features 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x VGA port, 2 x Audio input/output ports, 1 x RJ-45 port, Kensington Lock port. A spring-loaded Plug-and-Play MMC/SD/SDHC flash card slot is also provided to let you easily access your digital photos and videos and expand your system storage.

Eee PC 1005HA also features a 1.3M Pixels webcam built-in and Digital Array Microphones to allow you to have clear video conversations with family and friends when even out and about.

Super Hybrid Engine for Extended Battery Life

Super Hybrid Engine and the high density Li-ion battery pack provides you with more power per charge; up to 10.5 hours* of unplugged use when you are out and about. Super Hybrid Engine also manages your power consumption, providing you with optimal power depending on your current usage needs.

To enjoy maximum battery life, simply change the default setting to the Auto Power-Saving Mode via the Super Hybrid Engine Instant Key above the keyboard.

Convenient ASUS Hybrid Storage and Power Efficient Intel Atom N280 Processor

Eee PC 1005HA comes with 170GB of ASUS Hybrid Storage that features a 160GB hard disk drive and 10GB of Eee Online Storage.** With the Eee Online Storage, your data can be shared with other people easily and can be accessed anywhere where internet is available.

The ASUS Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is powered by the Intel Atom N280 processor. Built with the world smallest transistors, the Atom N280 processor uses only 2.5 watts of power (less than 1/10 of the power consumption of ordinary desktop processors) offering a long battery life.

Quick Recovery with Just One Key

Eee PC comes with a built-in quick recovery system that restores your system to its factory settings by just pressing F9 three times during start-up. With Eee PC's quick F9 recovery process, you won't need any Windows CD or driver CD. It is recommended that you backup your data with Eee Online Storage prior to using the recovery system. The easy recovery system is only available with Windows systems.

It's Better with Windows

Eee PC 1005HA Seashell comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home. Here are some reasons why Eee PCs are better with Windows:

Trusted: Windows Delivers a dependable experience that Microsoft and a worldwide community of partners stand behind.
Familiar: Windows is easy to use and be familiar with so you can be up and running right away.
Compatible: You can be confident that your devices and applications will work with Windows more than any other platform.

Visit www.ItsBetterwithWindows.com to see why.

Warranty

Eee PC 1005HA Seashell comes with ASUS 1 year of Eee PC Global Warranty with EU Collect and Return.


*Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.
**Eee Storage service is complimentary for the first 18 months. Please register account information for 6 months extension.
- All specifications and terms are subject to change without notice. Please check with your supplier for exact offers on selected models. Products may not be available in all markets.
- Operation lifetime subject to product model, normal usage conditions and configurations.

Customer Reviews

Exceeds most of its competition
I recently upgraded from my previous ASUS 901 to this newer, sleeker, and more robust model.

Prior to buying this, I did a lot of research into the best netbooks out at the moment and spent way too much time sifting through reviews. In the end, all fingers were pointing in this direction.

The other serious contender was the Samsung N120 which also boasts the same battery life and additional speakers. However, based on the reviews I read, those speakers apparently do not deliver the 'subwoofer' experience as mentioned. In addition, the N120 is bigger than most 10.1inch netbooks, and currently it is more expensive than the ASUS 1005ha on amazon.

The 1005ha on the other hand has a great design that shifts away from the usual boxy laptops out there including its own (even though I still prefer ASUS's stunning desing on the S101 netbook - too bad that one has poor battery). In addition, unlike its samsung competitor, it has:

- an upgraded processor (although the improvement is still minute)
- upgraded wifi
- upgraded bluetooth

And to top it all off, it is cheaper than the n120 on amazon!

BATTERY:
it wont give you the full 10 hours unless you have wifi off and brightness to 40% or something running minimal applications. But even on continuos video playback (which eats a lot), you can get about 6 hours non-stop on a full battery (much more if you're just doing word processing etc.)...and unless you sit glued to your computer for that amount of time without break watchin videos, I think you should find it exceeds your needs.

SCREEN
The screen is glossy like the samsung's, but it doesnt appear to hide the image too much mostly and actually gives the screen a smooth and crisp look (easier to wpe off stains as well). I can still use the computer for most things, but only for viewing videos in bright light where the picture is dark (e.g. a night scene), you might have to squint a little. The good thing is though you can view the screen from a wider angle than its predecessors where before if you move your head a litte to the right/left to view the screen from an angle, it immediately becomes darker and difficult to see. With this one, there is a lot more flexibility for what angle you can look at it from.

RAM:
The RAM can easily be upgraded (just one screw!), but unfortunately I haven't done it yet. I've been avoiding it for a while assuming it renders the warranty void, but ASUS have updated their policy and now allow for hardware modifications without violating the warranty.

BUILD:
Despite the seemingly sleek and fragile look, the build is suprisingly firmer than most netbooks previous netbooks. While previous netbooks have had this 'hollow' feel to their bodies where if you held a corner it felt a little creaky and prone to breaks, this one feels really solid. The screen lid however feels quite fragile; the hinge at least on the outside is not metal and if you push it back too far, it looks like its going to snap.

TRACKPAD:
The trackpad is no longer a box but blends into the actual palmrest which looks great as it looks like its not even there, which is awkward at first but its easy to get used to and actually keeps the design smooth. However, ASUS have dropped some features unfortunately from their previous models; while you still have multitouch for zooming in and out, you cant use mutlitouch gestures to scroll (something I used oftend when browsing or turning volume up/down). The biggest mistake however is the replacement of ASUS' previous double mouse buttons with a single mouse button. Clicking on this can be tricky; it is thin and you have to click on the far ends of the bar to achieve a comfortable click. Clicking too close to the middle requires more pressure.

KEYBOARD
The keyboard is obviously much bigger than my previous 901's and looks cool with its flat keys, but because its flat, it feels a little firmer than my previous netbook's, but perhaps thats just me getting used to a new keyboard. I would still definitely prefer this keyboard to the 901 anyday.

CONCLUSION:
All in all, I am very happy with this new little friend. At the moment, it appears to score more points than its competition, both in terms of money and tech. Unless somethig comes out by the time you read this review which is more attractive looking and boasts better specs and better pricing, this should be your number one choice.

[UPDATE: I'VE JUST REALISED THAT THERE IS INDEED A TRACKPAD SCROLLING FUNCTION. INSTEAD OF THE TWO FINGER MULTITOUCH SCROLLING ON ASUS' PREVIOUS MODELS, THERE IS A SCROLL AREA ON THE RIGHT EDGE OF THE TRACKPAD WHICH DOES THE JOB MUCH BETTER. GREAT!]

Lovely Little Netbook
Been looking at all the netbooks and took ages deciding. Choose this for the slightly higher specs and slim profile.

The netbook lookes lovely, but is very glossy (loads of fingerprints). The screen is very glossy too (great quality, very bright, crisp and sharp) but with the glossy bezel it can be quite distracting (going to buy an anti-glare screen protector).

The netbook is heavy, but I suppose that is the sacrifice you make to get the long battery life.

The keyboard is great to type on as the netbook is on a slight angle. The keys do feel a little cheap, but the whole netbook feels solid.

The touchpad is absolutely fine, I don't know why most people moan about it.

The netbook comes with XP Home, it lasted about 5 mins before I wiped it off and put on Windows 7 which is just superb. It runs pretty speedily (even with 1GB, although I upgraded to 2GB). You may not be able to play 720p HD video (although the forums say using the CoreAVC program solves that as long as you have 2GB).

The hard drive is split into 2 main partitions of around 74GB each (C & D) with a third hidden restore partition.

My only real gripe is the fan noise. When running on high or super performance the fan never seems to stop (although the louds speakers do a great job of masking it). I'm sure it'll be fine when browsing the web or writing documents.

The machine is not slow, the only time it seemed so was when running heavy apps like iTunes. Word, Excel etc seemed to run quite fast.

Overall it is a lovely little netbook with top specs and great battery life.

I give it four out of five because of the weight and the fan noise.

Good product
I saw that Amazon had reduced the price of this slightly higher-spec version of the 1005HA to £309, so grabbed one quick. It comes with the with the Atom N280 processor instead of the N270, a 1.3Mp webcam instead of 0.3Mp, has draft-n WiFi and Bluetooth. Delivered very quickly, but the keyboard was faulty - one key didn't work when pressed, but nevertheless occasionally sent an unending string of characters to the screen. Amazon replaced the PC without hassle, and the second one arrived a couple of days later. Been using it for a week so far, with no problems whatsoever. Very neat, good build quality. You can change the screen to 1024 x 768 to see more on web pages, but with slight distortion. The trackpad is usable, but I've never liked them so may invest in a mouse.

I've shared my desktop PC's DVD drive over the home network, so I can see it from the Asus - this partially gets me over the usual netbook problem of no optical drive.

The Asus comes with a 60-day subscription to Norton Internet Security 2009, which was handy. Also a 60-day trial version of MS Office 2007, which I deleted, since I'm still content using Office 97.... The battery seems to last forever with light use.

You don't get much in the box - just a slightly padded, tight-fitting neoprene zipped case, which is adequate for carrying it about as long as you're careful. The charger is very small and light, which is a handy, but it does seem to take a while to recharge the battery. There's also a support DVD and a small get-you-going manual.

Conclusion: Very handy product for occasional use out and about - for email, web surfing, and backing up & viewing photos from camera etc. Not intended to be a substitute for a main PC, though.