Still one of the best netbooks out there (Asus Eee PC 901)

Member Name: shuttlex

Product:	Asus Eee PC 901
Date:	16/08/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small light, easy to carry, not expensive

Disadvantages: Small keyboard

This review was locked by dooyoo for lack of quality content so I've decided to rewrite this review to make it as useful as possible for anyone considering buying this netbook. I've been using this netbook every day since I purchased it a year ago at a time when stocks were limited. The main reason for purchasing this EEE PC, the computer is light weight (approx 1kg including the power adapter), small and reasonably powerful for a machine of its size, it can run windows XP reasonably well and most important of all the price. At the time I purchased it for around £300 but now one can pick one up for maybe £200 online. In the past there have been small laptops of this size however they have been very expensive, in the business range retailing anywhere between £1000 - £2000. Just compare the price of the lightest Asus laptops that were released on the market 5 years ago compared to this EEE PC 901 and one will realize just how good value for money it is.

A year ago, there weren't many netbooks around, and Asus was one of the main pioneers of netbooks so received highly rated reviews. However recently a range of netbooks from various manufacturers have been released.

The main criticism of the EEE PC 901 is the small keyboard and lack of hard drive space. The EEE PC 901 uses flash memory rather than the traditional IDE internal drive, thus making the netbook lighter and saving power, however since flash memory is still in the early stages flash memory drives tend to be small compared to traditional hard disks. The EEE PC actually contains two separate flash memory chips. One for the C drive which is quite fast and another for the D drive which tends to be quite slow. All the main programs and software should be installed on C drive for maximum performance.

The keyboard is small however I recommend connecting a USB keyboard if one is going to use it at home. A USB keyboard can be purchased for as little as £10 these days. Admittedly for anyone who plans to type up documents for long periods of time whilst on the move, it would be better to buy at netbook with a bigger keyboard such as the Samsung N120 (see my review).

The EEE PC 901 is energy efficient consuming only 20 watts. I find it ideal not only as a netbook but also as a low powered computer to leave on 24/7 downloading files and torrents whilst I am away.

Overall even with the new competition from other manufacturers the EEE PC 901 is still one of my favorite despite some minor flaws. It has a classic design that will not outdate and if you can buy it for less than £200 it would be money well spent.

Summary: See review