Asus Eee PC 901
12 JUN 2008
Launch price
£320.00
Stuff says
The original and still the best by a good margin, just not a £120 one
*
*
*
*
*
Stuff.tv hot buy
Ten months old is young to write an autobiography, but if the Asus Eee PC were to pen its memoirs it’d consist of three chapters. The first would be all about introducing a revolutionary new product (the Eee PC 701), the second about rapidly refining it (the Eee PC 900) and the last would detail how, in the face of several me-too look-alikes, it was reinvented again in the guise of the Eee PC 901.
The 901 is, in many ways, so much better than its peers it’s laughable, but if you have an Eee PC 900 don’t worry about upgrading. The basic body shape and size is identical, save for a few millimetres here and there in the 900’s favour. The screen, too, is the bright 1024x600 panel that we know and love.
The same but different
Both notebooks also use the same Linux Xandros operating system and have a 20GB solid-state hard drive (an XP model will have 12GB storage). And while the Intel Atom processor that pulses away under the diminutive keyboard of the 901 is superior to that of the 900, you’ll be hard pressed to tell the difference.
There was some confusion about the 900’s battery: at the time of launch, Asus UK believed that it would ship with a 5800mAh battery. Many arrived with a 4400mAh affair, which fizzled out after just two hours.
Better battery
Such was the outcry that Asus is planning to offer Eee 900 owners a bigger battery for just £10. The lesson has been learnt. The 901 comes with an enormous 6600mAh battery – even with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on it lasts for well over five hours.