Half a year ago Asus presented a new Eee PC netbook line called “Seasheel”. Some time has passed since then, so let’s look at how the computer behaves and looks from todays point of view. The netbook has a classic wedge-shaped body and it is equipped with Atom 1.6 GHz CPU, Intel 945G chipset and graphics, 1GB of DDR2 memory and 10.1“ LCD display. The interesting part is the addition of Bluetooth 2.1 support and even 802.11n (N series wi-fi!).

The keyboard is actually very responsive and built very well. Manufacturer says it can go up to 10 hours on one charge, and it isn’t that far from the truth. The brightness needs to be on low setting, and wireless should be turned off, but if you do all that, you can easily get 10 hours. Also the mouse pad is neat and we are able to scroll on it quite comfortably which we originally thought was‘nt possible.

What is inside this small and lightweight ASUS Seasheel netbook?

We found that GPU is just too weak for this netbook. Of course, we were‘nt planning on playing any DirectX 10 games or anything, but you cant even play HD video on this thing. Even with CoreAVC and Windows Media Classic (lightest decoding package), 720p video stutters. Kiss 1080p goodbye.

ASUS Seasheel Netbook chipset can handle medium settings on some games, such as War Rock, with an amazing 25-30fps. The hard drive is partitioned into 2 separate and equal chunks; we found this a little weird. The little 945GSE chipset can handle up to 6-8 tabs on Youtube if you pause the videos you are not watching so that they can load.

Gadgetine recommend to upgrade Asus Eee PC Seashell netbook to 2GB of RAM especially to DDR2 800 (not 667) because the faster one have about the same price. We also recommend, wiping out the XP Home install (which had minimal bloatware) and putting XP Pro on it with just the bare essentials.

ASUS Eee PC Seashell Netbook (1005HA-PU1X-BK) Price and specification you can check out from
newegg.com

Pros:

• Excellent build quality, especially considering the price.
• Faster N280 processor, 802.11n, Bluetooth, 3 USB ports
• The 6 cell battery fits nicely in line with the body of the netbook – it does not stick out in profile like the battery on the MSI Wind.
• One of the best keyboards we have seen on a netbook – full size shift, enter, and backspace keys.
• Surprisingly fast – after upgrading the RAM to 2GB we can play xvid movies, youtube videos, etc without lagging or stuttering.
• Came with XP Home rather than Vista.
• Impressive battery life (10.5 hours is complete bunk, but if we turn WiFi/Bluetooth off we can get 8-9 hours on a full charge).

Cons:

• No hardware buttons/switches to turn wireless on and off. we realize there are function keys to do this, but there is a separate hardware button to turn the touchpad on and off. Really? Who needs to turn the touch pad on and off on a netbook more than the wireless?
• When the screen is open all the way, the netbook has a tendency to tip forward.
• When running in power saving (battery) mode, the screen appears somewhat washed out.
• Fingerprint magnet.
• Gaining access to the hard drive requires complete dis assembly.
• No “one time boot menu” that we can find. To boot from external CD/DVD drive, you have to go into the BIOS and manually change the boot order, which then slows down the overall boot process until you change it back to the hard drive as the first boot device.

Final words

ASUS Seasheel netbook is great for traveling, good size, works well with Skype, watching online TV/video, tweetering and facebooking from all around the world. It is a must have for college students that are always on the go or and for those who wish to take notes. Great netbook for great price.

You can check out ASUS Eee PC Seashell Netbook (product code:1005HA-PU1X-BK) price and specification from
newegg.com