great netbook and excellent tech support and service
930144
I bought my Asus Eee PC 1000HE netbook about 5 months ago.  I have thoroughly enjoyed using it.  It's been great for checking emails and surfing the internet.  About a week ago I had an issue in that Windows XP wouldn't open.  I called Asus tech support and they had me try a few things which didn't work. I ended up sending my netbook back to Asus.  I sent it out on a Monday, they received it that Wednesday and I had it back in my posession that Friday.  This type of quick and efficient turn around time is unheard of.  Wow what service!!!  By the way they installed a new hard drive and now I'm back surfing the internet and happy I bought such a wonderful product with great tech support and service.
3587263
I've had the netbook for 2 days and its been serving me right. So I decided to write this review as this netbook still only has 1 review.

EDIT: I updated battery information

Pros:
1. Price - I bought it for $265 (at the time, earlier it was $235... should've bought it at that time.

2. Screen - Very nice screen it goes easy on the eyes. Compared to a monitor I bought earlier, I have a easier time looking at this screen. Yes, its small but its expected for a netbook.

3. Speakers - Nice and loud, I didn't expect that for a netbook lol

4. Batteries - (this can also be a con. but coming from a laptop whose battery, I kid you not, lasted 70secs anything is a pro). I think the 10.7hours advertised is 10.7 hours on idle with WiFi, and Bluetooth enabled lol... So far I have gotten about 5.5 hours with a 14% ad an 1 hour remaining! (so about 6-7 hours standard) With normal usage (e.g. wifi on about %70 of the time, watching flash video, downloading data (4gig 4k video file!), screen brightness set all the way half the time and mid-way the other half the time the machine was on) so for me its pretty amazing... Your not going to get 10.7 hours in unless im doing it wrong no pun intended.... but 5-7 hours with normal usage is pretty amazing for me atleast!

5. Design: Laptop looks amazing!

6. Hard drive: decent for the price I paid.

7. Quick boot Samsung feature. As a computer techie I should know or at least want to know how this works... At the moment... I honestly don't care as it apparently is able to fully power off the machine or put it in a state between sleep mode and a shutdown and automatically resume the machine in about a second!.... pretty amazing feature I've been using alot :)

Con (Not so much cons but also points I would like to address that are usually not addressed in other reviews) :

1. Processor... yes its a netbook I know what did I expect... It can handle multiple tabs, and applications (e.g. I have 6 tabs opens and move files in explorer at the same time) but don't expect to do anything graphic or CPU intensive... machine is just not made for it... its only an "atom" processor...

2. Crapware: Crapware is not as bad as other machines but the crapware takes away from the machines from already limited resources. BUT they are manageable (for the PC techie at the very least) Just download "PC Decrapifier" and remove all the crap you don't need. The machine will be much more responsive.

3. Heat: I am amazed no one else has talked about this in other reviews of other netbooks as this is supposedly common.... Currently, I am watching the daily show and the cpu temperature is at 65 Celsius. When I am just browsing the web and doing simple "netbook" tasks the temperature is cooler more like 35-50 (The show finished and now its back down to 49 :) ) Celsius. So yea just watch up for the Temp. Its not so much a con, as many other laptops suffer from this. But I'm making sure I point out all the bad things about the netbook. Perhaps I need to also buy a cooler? :(

4. The machine only has one gig of ram... I doubt the machine would be as functional as it now without the 1gig upgrade. I highly recommend buying upgrade ram to supplement the machine (I got it for $22 on Amazon)

4. This "Con" ain't that bad for you computer n00bs. Since the netbook is 64bit capable, I would assume 64bit drivers exist for this machine..... But they don't... But this isn't a big problem as the machine only supports 2 gigs of ram and that is one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to 64bit OS's. Personally, I was looking to upgrade my partitioning scheme to GPT which requires a 64bit version of Windows but... Guess not.... BUT Samsung provides drivers to both Windows 7 and Windows XP, So I think its nice that they still support XP as some manufacturers do NOT.

=======================

Well that's my review. If you have any questions please feel free to respond to this thread and I'll be sure to answer them promptly.
3463494
This netbook is the best netbook I have had, very cheap and excellent performance, including the following remarkable new technologies:

1. battery life up to 8 hours
2. after 6 hours of continued use, the body of the netbook is cold
3. run Google Chrome lightning fast, most netbook other computers cannot run it well, it is a resource demanding software
4. run movie and music streaming softwares perfectly, very good performance for a netbook of this price

Highly Recommended !
2204553
I just received my new ASUS netbook and I'm very pleased so far.  I ordered this machine to replace my four year old full sized Acer laptop which I've gotten tired of lugging through the airports as I travel. My first order of business was to wipe the pathetic Windows 7 Starter and all ASUS's bloatware from the hard drive and order a 2 GB memory upgrade.  While I consider myself to be a geek who hasn't used Windows as my main OS for eight years, I do like Windows 7.  With that being said, ASUS would have been smarter to install 2 GB RAM standard and update to Windows 7 Home Premium at the very least.  The graphics adapter on board has no trouble with Windows' Aero interface and I suspect many users will do this anyway giving Microsoft a nice little kickback in the process.  Shame on Microsoft.  Nevertheless, I've installed my favorite 64 Bit Linux distribution with KDE 4.6; Windows 7 Professional in VirtualBox and Microsoft Office 2007 Premium with Codeweaver's inexpensive Crossover Linux. Even with the stock 1 GB, this little machine flies like the wind and aesthetically the matte blue finish is very striking. ASUS pioneered Linux on netbooks with its first Xandros equipped models but eventually succumbed to Microsoft's pressure. ASUS should have stuck with Linux, even if "regular" users aren't familiar with it because even with the neutered Windows 7 Starter, performance is sub par in my opinion, especially with only 1 GB of RAM.  My Linux system is immune from spyware and viruses and it's fast and cutting edge.  I can't wait to take it with me on my next business trip.
231602
I bought this netbook refurbed for $200. At that price, it was a steal in comparison to the netbooks that are out now with the exact same specs and higher price tags. I was very impressed by the quality and packaging of the netbook I got... MSI definitely seems to care about their refurbished items looking as good as new.

TechRepublic ranted and raved about this netbook a while back and now I can see why. It's definitely one of the tougher netbooks I've seen. The hinges are sturdy, thick, and tight (I've found these types last longer than the thin, skinny hinges that leave a noticeable gap between the top half and the bottom half like what the Acer Aspire One has). The casing itself is made out of thick, hard plastic. The top is glossy and I think it may be prone to scratches but other than that I don't really see any weak spots. The ventilation is excellent, with a "chicken-wired" vent in front of the side exhaust and plenty of vents distributed all over the bottom half of the netbook so it's bound to get air somehow while it's in your lap. The keyboard is a bit more spacious than it is on most netbooks, partially because the arrow keys are made smaller and are tucked away nicely under the enter key. It also seems a lot of focus went in to retaining as much of the letter keys' normal size as possible, with the rest of the keys being shrunk to accommodate.

Thank goodness this has got one stick of RAM and not two, for that means the RAM can be upgraded from 1 GB to 2 GB easily.

Other than that, there's really not much to say about this netbook in comparison to others. It keeps right up with the newest netbooks and even runs a little faster thanks to the fact it has XP and not Win 7 Starter on it. I think it's most comparable to the Acer Aspire One minus the design flaws.
152637
I've had this netbook for close to a year now and I have not been disappointed. I primarily use my ASUS for browsing the internet, watching movies and managing my library of music, photos and eBooks. For people looking to play graphic-intense PC games, edit digital video and audio or cannot live without a built-in optical drive: this is not the computer for you. The 1008ha-PU17 has a 1.66 GHz processor and 2GB RAM, so while it isn't the fastest machine out there, it still wins in terms of being super lightweight with an aesthetically pleasing design and the functionality to keep the average laptop user entertained.

Battery life is excellent. I previously had a Toshiba Satellite which I could only use for about 2 hours before I needed to plug in the adapter to recharge it. The ASUS does not have this problem as I was able to browse the internet (via my Wi-Fi connection) and watch an entire movie while only burning through a couple hours with at least 3 more to spare. I'd say it has at least 6 hours total of use on the "Balanced" power setting.

There are only a few things I was not pleased with in regards to this netbook. The screen is super glossy making it nearly impossible to use outside on a very sunny day. Also, the speakers are not some of the best even compared to other laptops. At times, I had to turn the volume up to the very maximum just to hear things comfortably. I purchased this particular netbook in white, which looks fantastic, but if you aren't careful it will get scuffed easily.

All in all, no real complaints. I love the 1008HA for all my day to day computer needs. It weighs next to nothing so I take it everywhere. For the price and the functionality, I'd say this netbook is one of the best.
2559302
After a couple of weeks' travel (which is what I got it for) I'm pretty happy with this little netbook.  Keyboard is as close to full-size as possible for a small netbook.  Mousepad and buttons are well laid out.  Battery life is excellent;  I never came close to running down between recharges.  Windows can reportedly be upgraded.

The only annoyance is that the function keys are not explained anywhere; others have complained online about this.  And a few times it went into numeric keypad mode and refused to reset.  It finally cleared with Fn-F11-Scroll Lock.  (Actually, since there is no Scroll Lock, I used either Sys Rq or Insert instead).
3166268
CPU: it's not dual-core, but it is Hyper-Threaded (remember that?), so there is some multitasking capability.  It's fully capable for anything you'd want to do on a netbook.  My work laptop is only 2 years old and and the Wind is only slightly noticeably under that in terms of lag etc.

Memory: 1 GB is just fine for XP, but I'm recoring mine with Vista so I definitely had to go for the upgrade.  An extra 1GB is ridiculously cheap ($15), and it's a very easy install--just don't get squeamish about taking the entire bottom off of the thing.  Could certainly have been easier but still only took <5 minutes to do, and it worked perfectly the first time (no BIOS tweaking required).

Graphics: It's a low resolution, but it looks perfectly fine and for most purposes, it's just great.  Also remember that the screen itself is smaller than a normal notebook's, so proporitionally, it's just the real estate you want.  If low resolution is the major factor holding you back, do what I did--size some of your most-used app windows on your current machine to 1024x600 (I used MS Paint and created a blank pic at this reso, then just dragged windows around).  You may be surprised at what you can still get done.  I wouldn't want to play WOW or something on it, but then that's not what you're buying it for.

Weight, Battery, Form Factor, etc: Ridiculously slick and tiny, but the keys are still very usable, even for long periods of time.  Keys do feel a little cheap to begin with but they can definitely take the punshment.  Can't speak to battery life yet but from what I've heard on the forums, the 6-cell is definitely worth it.

Connectivity: Wireless worked perfectly and swiftly immediately.  This is a first for me.  It's brilliant.  USB mice work perfectly too.

Versatility: You can upgrade the memory (see above), replace the HDD with a standard 2.5" (so once SSDs come down in price you can make it shock-proof and speedy, or you can spring for that half-terabyte for all your movies on the go), replace the OS (fairly straightforward actually), and plug tons of stuff into it.  It's damn near perfect.

Screen: Ultra, ultra bright.  Brighter than any laptop I've used, actually.  Even in daylight it's fully usable.

Geeky: Updating the BIOS is easier than with any other machine I've done that on.  However, I did scout around for a "within-Windows" version of the installer.  Took five minutes and worked perfectly.  It's nice to see a company offer one-button overclocking too.

Recommendations:
--Update the BIOS when you get it.  Google for the installer I found so you just download, double-click, and reboot; no funky floppies or bootable USB sticks.
--I'm using this for work on the go, so I also bought a screen privacy shield from 3M and it works great.  You just have to cut it down for the netbook-sized screen.
--If you're replacing WinXP with Vista, spring for the extra GB of memory of course, but also pick up an ultra-fast 4 GB SDHC card and stick it in the card reader.  Tell Vista to use it for ReadyBoost and voila, you've got yourself extra performance.  SanDisk Extreme is the brand I've seen recommended.  This will pretty much max out your Wind in terms of performance tweaks from what I've researched.
2196938
I did a lot of research to find a computer for my girlfriend who was upgrading from a Asus netbook that had served her well for a number of years. From the standpoint of price and performance, I picked this one. When it came, I was impressed with how sturdy it felt while still being thin and light. The screen is very sharp and bright (if you disable adaptive brightness in the advanced settings of the power options control panel). After playing with it for a while, I bought one for myself.

The only major issues I have with the TP300LA had nothing to with the laptop and everything to do with the Windows 8.1 interface. These issues can mostly be overcome by installing a free program called Classic Shell. Battery life is very good. Starting with a full charge, I watched a 2.5 hour movie on a flight and the battery was at 69%.

A couple of minor issues:
- The keyboard is not backlit. Asus makes this same basic model (Asus Q302LA-BBI5T14) with a lower screen resolution (1366 x 768) to sell at Best Buy (also available on Amazon) and it has a backlit keyboard. Its confusing why they didn't include it in this one.
- The power button is on the left side toward the front rather than on top near where the keyboard is. At first, I hit it several times a day and it would power down the laptop causing a lot of frustration. My workaround is to have the power button put the machine to sleep rather than turn it off. I know why it was placed there. In tablet mode it would be hard to avoid pressing it if it were adjacent to the keyboard.
- This machine does not recognize new WiFi networks after coming out of hibernation. I have to reboot and it will work fine after that. For most, this won't be an issue. I travel with work and need to switch connections often. The good news is that a reboot takes under a minute unless Windows is updating something.
4151734
With the double-core processor, it is one of the better netbooks out there. Battery life is surprisingly long. WiFi and Bluetooth work perfectly. However, with only 1GB RAM, you will have trouble running several applications simultaneously, and even opening several tabs in your browser may lead to a significant slowdown. In these cases, the system can freeze up for several minutes. However, after upgrading the RAM to 2GB (find the video on youtube on how to do this), these problems are solved and it becomes a decently performing, useful machine.
I give it 4/5 because it should come with 2GB RAM in the first place, and it is not so easy to upgrade the RAM.
1280709
This is an amazing product and their tech support is fantastic.

I was a little concerned about my initial backup, as it only took 4 minutes to back up 12,019 files - I had expected it to take several hours.  When I checked, it appeared it had backed up all my files, but I couldn't believe that was possible, in 4 minutes, so I called Click Free tech support.

A tech almost immediately answered - a happy surprise, in itself.  He verified that everything had been backed up and answered a few questions I had about restoration of files.  He advised me that everything backed up into it's original location and would be restored to its original location!

At the end of the call I asked the tech how long I would receive free tech support and was told "for life"!  He then gave me an account number and encouraged me to call again, If I had questions or needed any help!

I could not be more pleased with the product and the service!!
1158056
I just bought this netbook about 4 weeks ago and who says it cant run Vista or Windows 7?

I am sick of the Open Source Commie crew of capitalist hating Mircorsoft bashers and all their BS....

IN FACT.... Because the GMA 500 graphics in this netbook is capable of running DriectX 10 it actaully runs better with Vista than Xp and when you upgrade to Windows 7 it really shines having a noticable improvement when doing things like watching Flash vidos online! I know this because I used it for a wekk with XP, then installed a spare copy of Windows Vista Home Premium I had and after Windows 7 came out I bought a copy and tried it too. So I base this info on first hand real world testing. Will it replace a full size laptop? NO, yet no one ever said a netbook would....

For info on how to install Windows Vista or Windows 7 with a flash drive see this web page from Microsoft Tech Net with a how to video..

[...]

Now with that said,  This netbook is my favorite portable that I have ever owned dating back to the mid 90's and my first notbook an NEC with Win 95. Is it the most powerful? Again No, so keep that in mind and if you do not have a desktop or full sized laptop I would not reccomend buying ANY netbook as your main computer. With that said, this thing is like an extension of myself and it's with me for most of the day. Fist thing in the moringin I use it to surf and listen to my local AM talk radio show. After that I throw it in my electricans bag, take off for the day and use if for anything from reading E Books and PDF files in the field, to watching youtube videos. Keep in mind it does get a little bogged down when watching video but that is comparing it to a 2.16 Mhz dual core Pentium Laptop or my Quad Core desktop.

Battery life is the reason I bought model and this is where it really shines!

This netbook really does provide all day computiing without a cord and from a fully charged battery it lasts from the time I get up in the morning till the time come home for dinner in the evening. In fact one day I did my own test, while doing some renovations to my bathroom. I used it to listen to Americas Anchorman on my favorite local talk radio station from a little after Noon till 3PM, followed by Hannity from 3-6PM, then my local guy from 6-7PM streaming over the internet with speakers at almost full volume. In total it lasted about 6 1/2 hrs under theese condtions with some battery to spare....
2813868
I am writing this review to pay my share of respect for my lovely ASUS 1005pe netbook. I bought my ASUS 1005pe netbook exactly three years ago. At that time, I knew that I am buying a netbook and not a quad-core PC, so I did not expect much computational power from it. my expectation was that the netbook can smoothly surf the web, run latex, run MS office products, skype, media player, ... and to be honest it has been doing this for three years with almost no complains. However, to run more smoothly, I downgraded the default Windows 7 to Widnows XP and upgraded the RAM on the machine. Throughout the time, I wrote a PhD thesis using it and even installed MATLAB and used to run small MATLAB codes in it. Again, I should tell that you really cannot go beyond running a small MATLAB code or writing a word document with the kind of CPU and hardware architecture of such netbooks. I even prepared couple powerpoint presentations using the netbook but to be honest, anything beyond 10 pages of powerpoints (to make) is too much for the netbook and it makes the netbook very slow. However, I have had several presentations using the computer and there is absolutely no problem with running presentations (not major editing). One of the fantastic thing about this netbook is its battery life. After three years (of irregular charging and discharging which is not good for battery's life), the battery can still easily run the machine for 5 hours. Another big pros of this netbook is the weight. It makes it PERFECT for travel. You can view movies on the flight from coast to coast and it weighs less than three pounds. Over all, I can tell that I have no regret whatsoever, of buying this netbook and I have been very happy with this purchase.

 Pros: light weight, solid, reliable, battery life, affordable.
 Cons: uneasy hard drive installation.
499739
This netbook is unbelievably great and I love the battery life. Although Windows XP was slow and Windows 7 was even worse, I installed the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and this thing was a beast! It was very fast for what I used it for which is basically just web browsing and the occasional Skype.
1377766
I shopped long and hard for a netbook and came very close to overlooking this one, so happy I discovered it in the knick of time and decided to go with it.  Here's what I love about it:
- Solidly built, nice big clicky keyboard, bright, easy to read screen with sufficient resolution, nice overall layout and design.
- Light as a feather and small enough footprint to slip easily into my purse and take anywhere without effort or even having to remove things from my (admittedly rather large) purse to fit it.
- It's purty (shiny blue).
- Gobs of battery life, usually nearly 7 hours.  I can *almost* go to work without my power supply.  Great to not have to be looking for a plug after one short session on the go.  I even like the ridge on the 6 cell battery that makes it easier to pick up the unit and grip it securely.
- Quiet as a whisper - I can work in bed with this thing and my spouse sleeps soundly without the constant loud fan of my old Dell kicking on.
- Cool as a cucumber.  This baby just does not heat up like every other laptop I've ever owned, some of which you could easily fry an egg on (or your thighs).
- Just the right ports - 3 USB, video out (which I use at work so I can work on my 22 inch flat screen at high res), photo card slot for easy picture access, speakers, mic, headphone jack, security cable connector, 10/100 network, bluetooth, 802.11 wireless - only thing missing is cellular wireless but you can get it on USB units now if you must have it.
- *Very* small power block - smallest I've ever seen and also stays nice and cool even when charging.  Quite easy to fit in the the bag with the unit and not even miss the space it takes up.
- Fast start up and shut down.  My bloated Dell used to take nearly 7 minutes to start and load all my startup programs.  My new motto is strip it down and store everything possible on the cloud.  This gizmo makes it easy.

The ONLY thing I can think of that I'd love this unit to have is an option for a track button rather than a touchpad.  I am one of those tiny percentage of old Thinkpad users who loves the track button but even Lenovo is starting to abandon them these days.  A shame since it can be mastered with just a bit of practice and once you have the hang of it, it is so much easier to switch from typing to mouse movements without having to move both hands each time.  But as trackpads go, the NC10's works fine, thought it's a little bit too small and the button is a bit hard to find by touch (maybe a little added ridge would help).  I kind of like that left/right click are just different ends of the same big button though I can't really articulate why!

Anyway, money well spent folks and worth the little extra over some of its competitors which are much more poorly made and designed overall.  Samsung is the first to put it all together and really get the netbook right.  If you buy this you won't be sorry.
2770431
I recently bought this netbook for my wife.  She didn't need anything fancy.  Just something to use the Internet and check e-mail.  This machine does much more than we expected.  I am going to keep this review simple since there are many others that go into technical details.  I will just say that this review is for a machine straight out of the box with no upgrades at all.  She soon realized that she could do much more than she originally expected.  The (slight) problem is that out 6 and 9 year-old sons also realized this.  They are all able to use it for all of their gaming web sites, to watch streaming video, download and store music, watch TV and Movies via our Netflix account, chat with friends and family, download, manage, and share digital photos, and much more.  Right after she got it, my wife got tapped to work on an article for publication.  My wife thought this would mean purchasing some productivity software such as MS Word.  However, I showed her everything Google documents had to offer.  She wrote the entire article using Google docs and everything worked like a charm.

While I haven't used this netbook as much as the rest of my family, I have spent some time playing with it.  My first concern was that the keyboard would be difficult for someone with my fat fingers to use.  This was not the case at all.  I had no problem at all using the keyboard.  After using this for a few hours, I began to want one for myself to replace the bulky laptop I carry back and forth to work (and on trips) every day.

The only thing we have tried to do on this little guy that has not met with success is to use Skype for video calls.  We are able to connect and once got an image from the other participant but it immediately disconnected.  We frequently get the message that the computer is not functioning at optimum level.  Skype suggests we shut down all other applications.  Even if we only have Skype running this continues.  After doing some research, I learned that if we were to upgrade the operating system this would no longer be a problem.  We may do that in the future but since we have other computers in the house, I don't see a need to.

We did opt for the shorter battery life.  This isn't really an inconvenience.  We easily get four hours from the battery once it is fully charged.  This might be hard for some people but we have been used to using my laptop which can barely hold a charge for two hours.

In summary, this is a wonderful machine for the price.  While it probably will never replace our main computer, it seems my family can do 95% of the things they have always done on machines that cost 3 to 5 times as much.  Since it has come into our house, this netbook has been the most popular item we own.  In fact, we have had to place time limits on the boys when using it, which we never had to do with our other computers.  It is a very appealing and easy to use machine.  I would not be surprised if one or two more of these little guys found their way into our house by Christmas time.
4373563
I replaced a netbook with the ultrabook.  It is thin, light and fast.  It is used primarrily for email, and online games.  It boots quickly and runs everything that I currently desire.