It takes a lot to stand out in the Netbook crowd these days. With so many devices available and the vast majority of them having very similar specifications, users really are spoiled for choice.

The EEE PC 1005HA is the second device to be released in ASUS’  new Seashell form factor. The Seashell netbooks are slim line with curved edges, and to their credit ASUS have managed to fit the exact same specs as the 1000HE into a significantly smaller and more stylish package.

EEE PC 1005HA-P Specifications:

• Display: 10.1″ LED-backlit WSVGA Screen (1024×600 pixels)
• Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP™ Home
• Processor: Intel® Atom™ 1.66GHZ N280
• Default Memory: 1GB DDR2 SO-DIMM
• Hybrid Storage: 160GB 2.5” SATA II 5400RPM HDD + 10GB Eee Online Storage
• Wireless Data Network WLAN: 802.11b/g/n @2.4GHz, Bluetooth2.1 + EDR
• Battery: 10.5 hours*
• Multi-media Camera: 1.3M Pixel
• Audio Codec: Hi-Definition Audio CODEC
• Speakers: Premium Dolby® and SRS Surround Sound Speakers
• Built-in Mic: Digital Array Mic
• Interface: 1 x VGA Connector, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x LAN RJ-45, 2 x Audio Jack (Head Phone / Mic-in), Card Reader: MMC/ SD(SDHC)
• Physical Dimensions: 10.2” (W) x 6.9” (D) x 1.4” (H)
• Weight: 2.8lbs
• Colors: Black, Blue, and White

The 1005HA is similar to the earlier released 1008HA model with the only major differences being that the 1005HA has a longer lasting removable battery, the ports on the 1008 have plastic covers, and the 1008 has a mini VGA adapter as opposed to a regular VGA output. The battery on the 1005 is both longer lasting and physically larger, this makes it stick out from the bottom so the 1008HA may be more aesthetically pleasing for this reason.

The EEE PC 1005HA comes in two varieties, the 1005HA-P and the 1005HA-V. These tags stand for Value and Performance. The performance version that we have here comes with the faster Intel Atom N280 1.6G6hz processor, Bluetooth, and a longer lasting battery (10.5 hours compared to 8.5).

Build Quality

One of the major improvements to the Seashell line of EEE PCs is the vastly improved keyboard. Anyone who owned a 701 or 901 will know that compared to the more recent 10″ devices the keyboards of those early models were very difficult to type on. The keyboard on the 1005HA is 92% of a full size keyboard, has a large right shift key in the normal position, and features the apple’esc chiclet style keys. These combine to make the 1005 keyboard the best EEE PC keyboard to date, and probably the best keyboard we have seen on any netbook. We put it up there with the HP Mini 110 which is also very easy to type on.

The 1005HA also features a uniquely styled multi-touch touch pad. The touch pad has no frame or borders, is the same height as the rest of the palm rest, and is only identifiable by the area of raised bumps where the motion tracking exists. This has taken a bit of getting used to and overall we think that this new touchpad is actually not much of an improvement. It is a little bit smaller than that of the 1000HE and 901 touch pads, and to top it off the unit ships without all of the multi-touch gestures pre-installed. Despite advertising the EEE PC 1005HA as having a multi-touch touchpad the default drivers only support the pinch to zoom feature. Notably absent is two finger scrolling which  makes browsing on a small device a lot easier. Fortunately these are simply driver issues, and the full suite of gestures can be implemented by following the instructions found here.

The 10.1″ 1024 x 600 LED back-lit screen is a fairly standard affair. It looks good indoors but glare is a problem outside. The vertical viewing angle tends to lose contrast with only a few degrees either way but the horizontal angle looks good well over 45 degrees.

One particularly pleasing feature is the inclusion of an access panel for the RAM. This allows the user to upgrade the system to 2GB if required. We have done so using an OCZ 2M8002G PC2-6400 stick and it has performed without any problems.

One last point we will make about the build quality, although the seashell form factor is nice to look at we have actually found the craftsmanship of the casing to be sub par. The edges on our unit are actually quite sharp and can irritate the skin after a little while. The bezel of our monitor is also not securely fastened in places and clicks when pushed.

Performance

We have put our EEE PC 1005HA through the standard 3D Mark 06 and PC Mark 05 benchmarks:

3D Mark 06

PC Mark 05

Using the Toshiba NB205 as a reference we can see that the EEE PC 1005HA does quite well, besting Toshiba’s offering in both tests.

For the Hard Drive test we have used ATTO Benchmark:

ATTO shows about a 55-56MB/s read and write speed which is a good result for a 2.5″ hard drive. With this sort of performance we found the hard drive to run well within its limits and any system lag was usually due to the Atom CPU being the bottleneck.

The battery life of the EEE PC 1005HA-P is advertised at a whopping 10.5 hours. Manufacturers have a habit of overstating these things and the 1005HA is no exception. While 10.5 hours of battery life may be possible it requires reduced screen brightness, running the CPU underclocked, and turning off Bluetooth and WiFi. Running under normal usage conditions (wifi on, 80% brightness) we found the battery to last about 8.5 hours performing general email and internet surfing duties. This is still an incredible amount of battery life and it makes the EEE PC 1005HA-P the longest lasting netbook currently available.

Summary

While the 1005HA-P doesn’t bring anything ground breaking to the netbook sector, it does represent a marked improvement in both performance and usability. Despite a few annoyances with the sharp edges and the multi-touch touchpad, the excellent keyboard, class leading performance, and amazing battery life make the ASUS EEE PC1005HA-P one of the best netbooks currently available.

Related posts:

1. EEE PC Touch Screen Mod