Most of us would agree that this whole netbook thing started with the first batch of Asus Eee PCs in late 2007. At the time, we were offered just a few gigs of storage, a tiny 7-inch display, and a keyboard that was anything but full-sized. My, how things have changed.
Since that time, Asus has been stocking the shelves of stores with a steady supply of new and exciting netbooks, adding more features and improving the overall quality with each successive iteration. One of the most recent introductions is what Asus calls the Seashell line. These are supposed to be slimmer, sleeker, and better than ever.
Today, we have the opportunity to check out the Asus Eee PC 1005HA, the more business-oriented of the offerings from the Seashell line. Now that the netbook market is so much more crowded, does this newest Eee still stand out as a winner? Let’s find out.
Have I Seen This Eee Before?
With Asus releasing so many variations on its Eee PC line of netbooks, it can be pretty hard to tell the difference between all of them. While the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell comes in a slightly different form factor, you’ll find that the spec sheet is nearly identical to that of the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. You may recall that the 1000HE earned an Editor’s Choice Award here.
- Microsoft Windows XP Home
- 10.1″ LED Backlight WSVGA Screen (1024×600)
- Intel Atom N280
- 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM
- 160GB HDD + 10GB Eee Storage
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- 1.3MP Camera with Digital Array Mic
- VGA Port, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN RJ-45, 2 x Audio Jack, MC/SD/SDHC Card Reader
- 6-Cell Li-ion Battery, 10.5 Hours
This has largely become par for the course. There isn’t much here, spec-wise, that makes the 1005HA emerge as an undisputed leader in the niche.
Do You Need Some Netbook Accessories?
If you are expecting to get a bunch of extras out of this package, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Beyond the Eee PC itself, the box will contain the battery, power supply, AC cable, and basic documentation. It’s nice that Asus also included a basic suede-like sleeve, but that’s about it.
This isn’t completely out of the ordinary for this market, so you may want to consider something like the Targus Netbook Accessory Kit to help you get started with the mobile computing experience. At least the webcam, mic, and Bluetooth are all integrated.
The Seashell Side Shot by the Sea Shore
What’s in a name? Why did Asus decide to create something that it dubs the Seashell line of Eee PC netbooks? Well, I guess you could say that the netbooks take on a clamshell-like appearance.
Over in Cupertino, the Apple MacBook Air has a characteristic teardrop-like profile, being a little chubbier in the back and tapering to a point in the front. Although the guys in Taiwan may not completely acknowledge it, I’m thinking that they derived a little bit of design inspiration from Apple on this front. At least it isn’t quite as blatant as what MSI came up with at CES 2009 with their effort dubbed as the “MacBook Air Clone“.
I don’t have the older Eee PC on hand for a side-by-side comparison, but the profile does appear to be slightly tapered on the 1005HA. The overall thickness has been marginally reduced, but this is pretty marginal based on my memory.
What Happened to the Chiclet Keyboard?
Speaking of Apple inspiration, I really liked the chiclet keyboard on the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. It made for a very comfortable and reasonably quiet typing experience, especially since the keyboard is nearly full-size as well. And it looked great too.
That’s why I’m quite disappointed that Asus decided to take a different route with the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell. Instead of a chiclet, it almost reminds me of the older keyboards you may find on some ThinkPads. It’s quite “clacky” and noisy, not giving the same kind of “soft” experience as the chiclet keyboard.
On the plus side, the right shift key is now the size that it should be. To accommodate this change, the up and down arrow keys have been compressed to fit into the space for a single key. That’s a small sacrifice to make for an overall better typing experience. Too bad it’s so clacky and cheap-feeling.
That’s One Bumpy Trackpad
The tapered profile and keyboard aren’t the only things to see changes for this iteration in the Eee PC line. Rather than having a trackpad made from a completely different material, the trackpad on this netbook has been integrated with the wrist rest surface. But it “sticks out” too, so to speak.
It doesn’t have a silky smooth surface like what you’d expect from all trackpads. Instead, it has a bumpy texture to it. I guess the idea is that this will provide added grip and help it stick out from the rest of the wrist rest area, but I found this added texture to be more of a nuisance than an advantage. I want to glide my finger across the surface, not have its movement impeded with countless little speedbumps.
The trackpad still offers the same multi-touch interface as we saw with the more recent versions of the Eee PC, so you can do things like scrolling and pinching to zoom. That’s good, but I’m not a fan of this textured trackpad at all.
And the Same Old 10-inch Display
I can’t complain about the overall build quality of this Eee PC, aside from the unfortunate choice for the keyboard and trackpad as described above. The hinge is super solid and I like how it sort of glides the display behind the lower portion of the netbook. The ports are relatively well-placed, but it would have been nice to see a video output option beyond the standard VGA. No DVI love for netbooks?
Since this is supposed to be a follow-up to the earlier Eee PCs, I expected this Seashell netbook to offer improved specs. In particular, I would have really liked to see a higher resolution display, since some other companies are offering similar products with WXGA (1280×768) displays these days.
Viewing the Futurelooks website on this Eee, I am able to see the entire website without any horizontal scrolling in Internet Explorer. However, as you can see, not much of the vertical content is available at just a total height of 600 pixels. With all that precious real estate gobbled up with the taskbar and toolbars, your web surfing experience may suffer.
Benchmarks and Usability
What about performance? Seeing how the specs are virtually identical to that of the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, I expected the Eee PC 1005HA Seashell to offer similar numbers when put through its benchmark paces.
The 160GB hard drive, as far as I can tell, is the same as the one in the 1000HE. Even so, this particular model didn’t seem quite as healthy when it came to consistency. You’ll notice the three major drops in performance, but this could vary on a unit-to-unit basis. That said, the overall average transfer rate (54.4MB/sec) is in line with the 1000HE (52.1MB/sec), though the burst rate (60.2MB/sec) is quite a bit lower (89.9MB/sec).
Interestingly, the results from the PCMark05 and 3DMark06 benchmarks were a little different than expected.
For PCMark, the 1005HA was able to complete every test available to it, coming up with a total score of 1571 PCMarks. That said, the results did not give me individual scores for memory, graphics, or hard drive. I did get a CPU score of 1559 though, which is about the same as the 1000HE.
For 3DMark, the 1005HA Seashell ran into the same snag as most other netbooks I have reviewed, failing to complete the Batch Size Tests. It froze, giving me a black screen. Removing these tests, the benchmark produced an overall score of 122 3DMarks, which is a slight step up from the 90 that the 1000HE was able to produce.
Final Thoughts
You have a lot of options when it comes to buying a netbook these days. All the major players are getting involved and they all seem to offer similar features at similar price points. You could look to Dell, Acer, HP, Samsung, and so many others.
In my experience, Asus has always offered the best build quality in its class and the Asus Eee PC 1005HA Seashell is no exception. Everything is well built and the netbook certainly feels solid for something that costs less than $400. I am glad that I am able to stream live video through Ustream on this, which is usually a good benchmark test to see what a netbook can do. However, this netbook is certainly not without its faults.
The spec sheet has not been improved at all compared to previous iterations, so the performance level is comparable at best. The fantastic chiclet keyboard has been abandoned for some reason and we’re getting a strange bumpy trackpad. I like neither of those changes. Given its MacBook Air-inspired profile, it’s also unfortunate that this Eee isn’t that much thinner than its non-Seashell counterparts.
Don’t get me wrong. The Eee PC is still a pretty decent netbook, but it does not have the same kind of “wow” factor that the 1000HE gave me. We need more power, better specs, and something that really changes the game for that to happen.
Pros
- A premium feel for an affordable price
- Respectable specs and performance for the niche
- Able to handle Ustream live video streaming
- Impressive 10.5-hour battery life
Cons
- Why did you take away my chiclet keyboard?
- What’s up with this bumpy trackpad?
- Not as thin as “Seashell” should be
- No real innovation or game-changing features
Overall Rating: 8.0 / 10.0
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Asus Eee PC 1005HA Seashell Netbook Photo Gallery
