Even though they, for all intents and purposes, invented the current trend of netbooks, ASUS has not really created a stranglehold in the category. In fact, the company is continually stepping up its game in order to remain relevant on the market, churning out new products like there was no tomorrow.
With the Eee PC 1008HA, aka Seashell, ASUS reinvents its line with a model that focuses on aesthetics as much as it does on overall value. How well does this latest effort fare?
Physically, the Eee PC 1008HA is a beautiful piece of hardware. Measuring around an inch thin, it manages to foster considerably slimmer lines, without sacrificing all that much in terms of performance and connectivity. To enable the downsized frame, it makes use of cleverly-hidden ports (with some a little difficult to access), along with whatever magic they did to the internal components.
Keyboard features flat and wide keys that offer, simply put, one of the best typing experiences on a netbook. The 10.1-inch display can manage up to 1024 x 768 resolutions, although it seems to perform best at 1024 x 600. Powered by an Atom N280, performance is in line with pretty much the best netbooks in the bunch, neither proving better nor worse on most standards (although it did run faster on some side-by-side tests with a few N270-based netbooks). As it is, the overall computing power is very impressive, considering the trimmed-down chassis.
While I don’t personally have a problem with it, the Seashell uses a non-removable battery pack that a lot of users find objectionable. The one on my unit lasted a good four hours of regular use, which is pretty impressive for a three-cell unit.
Priced at $429, the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell might be a tad more expensive than standard netbook efforts, though the MacBook Air-like profile should more than make the case for it. If you want a more attractive netbook than usual, it’s definitely a cheap-enough choice.
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