ASUS Eee PC 901 Review

by Jerry Jackson

The ASUS Eee PC 901 is the new update to the Eee PC ... the affordable mini notebook that shook up the notebook market in 2007. This $550 mobile companion features the new Intel Atom processor, but is it the best choice for your next travel laptop? We took an in-depth look at the Eee PC 901 to find out if this mini notebook has enough performance and features to take the top spot in the popular budget ultraportable category.

First, let's review the system specs for the all new Eee PC 900:

• Intel Atom 1.60GHz processor
• Integrated Intel GMA 900 GPU
• 12GB of Flash-based storage (4GB onboard SSD and 8GB PCI-E mini card SSD)
• 1GB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
• Windows XP Home Edition operating system
• 8.9-inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100
• Webcam (1.3 MP)
• Battery: 6-cell 6600 mAh 7.4V Li-Ion
• Wireless: 802.11b/g/n
• Input: Keyboard and Multi-touch touchpad
• Dimensions: 6.87" x 8.87" x 1.63" (L x W x H)
• Weight: approximately 2.42 lbs with battery
• One-year warranty

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Build and Design

Like the original Eee PC, the designers at ASUS had no easy task creating an attractive ultraportable notebook while also making it cheap to produce. Customers also indicated that they wanted a larger screen and a larger touchpad, so both of these features had to be incorporated into a very small footprint.

The chassis seams match up with reasonably tight tolerances, plastics feel thick (though the pearl-like white plastics look cheap) and the display hinges are molded into body with the battery. Overall, the Eee PC 900 is almost identical to the original Eee PC. The only obvious differences are the larger screen and the slightly deeper dimension (front to back) in order to accommodate the larger touchpad.

Lifting the display cover you find the same amazingly small keyboard surface found on the original Eee PC. In short, the build quality is quite high despite the low cost.

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The design of the original Eee PC was something truly unique in the market. Weighing in at just two pounds and delivering a performance level similar to a full-featured budget notebook, the only notebook that came close to "directly" competing with the Eee PC in 2007 was the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 tablet PC ... which retailed for more than $1,000 last year. After the success of the original Eee PC, other manufacturers have started to flood the market with low cost mini notebooks. The Eee PC isn't the only kid on the block anymore, which is why Asus is trying to raise the bar with the Eee PC 900.

Screen

The Eee PC 901 (like the Eee PC 900) features a nice 8.9-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution. While this might not be the most impressive resolution we've seen, it's much nicer than the native 800 x 480 resolution on the original Eee PC 4G. Still, many owners of the original Eee PC 4G use modified display drivers to scale 1000 x 600 or higher resolutions on the original Eee PC ... so this higher resolution screen isn't as impressive as it could be.

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In any case, the screen on our review unit was free from any problems such as stuck pixels and color and backlighting were both excellent.

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Operating System and Software

Unlike the original Eee PC, this configuration of the Eee PC 901 doesn't come with Linux. This notebook comes pre-installed with Windows XP. While XP might not be the most modern operating system on the market, XP is still one of the most robust and stable versions of the Windows OS. Most importantly, Windows XP doesn't have massive system requirements ... so it still runs fast on a relatively under-powered notebook like the Eee PC 901.

Speakers

ASUS received some criticism over the speakers on the original Eee PC because of there massive size located on both sides of the screen. The bezel around the screen on the Eee PC 901 is much thinner than the thick bezel on the original Eee PC and the speakers have been relocated to the bottom of the notebook. Speaker output quality is good, but because of the location of the speakers the sound is quite muffled when you're using the Eee PC 901 as a "laptop."

Keyboard and Touchpad

Most low-priced notebooks currently on the market feature poorly built keyboards that show significant flex/bounce when typing pressure is applied. Much to our surprise, the keyboard on the Eee PC 901 (like the original Eee PC) is remarkably firm, though the keys are small and have a large degree of "wiggle" when pressed.

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The keyboard on the Eee PC 901 is very, very compact. The first few days spent typing on this keyboard probably will be quite frustrating as the small footprint and tiny keys require you to use a "hunt and peck" style of typing rather than traditional touch typing methods. This means that passwords get mangled, emails look like gibberish, and playing games that require keyboard commands becomes quite aggravating.

Of course, once I got used to typing on the tiny keyboard the keys felt just fine ... but this keyboard isn't designed to be used as a primary/main computer. For users who would buy this notebook as their "main computer" in their home or office, a full-size keyboard and external mouse are recommended.

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The touchpad and with dual buttons are easy to use and responsive. The Eee PC 901 actually has a slightly larger touchpad button than the previous Eee PC 900 which makes it much more comfortable to use than the original Eee PC.

ASUS also includeed several hotkeys for quick access to functions such asbuilt-in screen off, screen resolution, power mode (power saving, auto high performance, high performance, and super performance), and Skype.

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Performance

Overall, the Eee PC 901 is a snappy little budget notebook. The new Intel Atom 1.60GHz ultra-low voltage processor doesn't have the performance of a modern Core 2 Duo processor but provides a nice browsing experience. The flash-based storage drives on the Eee PC 901 help with performance since they provide virtually instant data access times.

One odd issue that we encountered with our review unit was that the Eee PC 901 produced a remarkably low PCMark05 synthetic benchmark. PCMark05 generally provides an accurate indication of overall system performance, but the Eee PC 901 produced a score much lower than its "real world" performance. It's also worth mentioning that the last Atom-based notebook we reviewed in our office (the MSI Wind) was unable to run PCMark05 at all.

Synthetic benchmark issues aside, the Eee PC 901 provides plenty of performance for travel and short-term use, but this mini notebook isn't designed to be a primary computing workhorse.

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
ASUS Eee PC 901 (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	746 PCMarks
MSI Wind (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	N/A
ASUS Eee PC 900 (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,172 PCMarks
HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	801 PCMarks
HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110)	891 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	908 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400)	1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500)	1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	1,839 PCMarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	123.437 seconds
MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.656 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	203.734 seconds
HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz)	168.697 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

HDTune storage drive performance results:

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Port Selection and Expansion

Front: Indicator lights (and speakers on the bottom)

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Left side: Security lock slot, 10/100 Ethernet port, USB 2.0 port, air vent, microphone in, and headphone jack.

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Rear view: Battery and hinges

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Right side: SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA out, power jack.

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If you open the bottom panel on the Eee PC 901 you'll find a standard DDR2 RAM slot and a PCI-E mini card slot. The PCI-E mini card slot in the Eee PC 901 uses the same 8GB SSD module found in the Eee PC 8G. Again, in order to reach the 12GB storage capacity on this notebook ASUS essentially just combined the Eee PC 4G and 8G: the motherboard has 4GB of flash storage soldered to it and the PCI-E mini card slot has a 8GB flash storage module.

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Heat and Noise

Even with the low voltage processor and SSD drives, the ASUS Eee PC 901 produced an incredible amount of heat. While the temperatures didn't get as hot as some mini notebooks we've reviewed, the 901 did produce hotter temperatures than the MSI Wind. The bottom of the notebook got quite hot even under normal use. Fan noise was among the quietest we've heard. The only way to tell the fan is blowing is to put your hand next to the air vent to feel the warm air blow past.

Below are heat overlay images showing where the Eee PC 901 warmed up (in degrees Fahrenheit) during normal extended use:

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Wireless

Unlike previous Eee PCs that used an Atheros AR5BXB63 wireless module for 802.11b/g wireless Internet access, the Eee PC 901 uses a 802.11b/g/n from Ralink. Reception is quite good for a budget notebook. The Eee PC 901 maintained a connection to my home router from anywhere inside my three-level home and from anywhere in my front or back yard. At the editorial offices for NotebookReview.com the Eee PC 901 managed to stay connected to the office router even after I left the building and walked across the parking lot.

Battery

Under normal use, in "Super Performance" mode, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and typing a text document, the Eee PC 901 managed to deliver more than 4 hours of battery life (4 hours and 13 minutes) with the standard battery. Needless to say, this was rather impressive. The original Eee PC 4G was able to deliver more than 3 hours of battery life with a smaller screen and weaker processor.

Fortunately, unlike the Eee PC 4G and Eee PC 900, the battery meter was accurate and always indicated when the power adapter was unplugged and gave correct estimates on battery life.

Conclusion

Last year our editorial staff was absolutely amazed by the original Eee PC. The original Eee PC finally delivered something that many consumers have wanted since laptops first arrived on the market: an extremely portable laptop with reasonable performance for travel at an extremely low cost. The new Eee PC 901 is an impressive update to the Eee PC line, but we have trouble getting excited about this mini notebook

The problem is that the budget mini notebook market has exploded in recent months, with many capable alternatives on the market. Worse still is the fact that ASUS itself has already trumped the 901 with the new Eee PC 1000 series notebooks.

The Eee PC 901 is still an impressive mini notebook or "netbook" for your travel needs, but we hesitate to recommend this particular notebook over the newer Eee PC 1000H which features a larger keyboard, larger screen, and a larger capacity traditional hard drive.

If you want a smaller Atom-based notebook then the Eee PC 901 still might be a better choice than the Eee PC 1000H, but we suspect most consumers would rather have the slightly larger screen and keyboard found on the latest Eee PC notebooks.

In short, if you're in the market for a low cost travel notebook the original Eee PC 901 is still a great notebook ... but you may find even better options from ASUS if you shop around.

Pros

• Small and light

• Reasonably well built and durable

• Flash-based storage

• Intel Atom processor surprisingly capable

• Surprisingly acceptable battery life

Cons

• Impressive, but ASUS already has several superior Eee PC models on the market

• 12GB of storage isn't a single drive (one 4GB drive and one 8GB drive)

• White plastics feel nice but "look" cheap

• Keyboard too small/cramped

• Temperatures are a little too hot

 

Thanks for this interesting review.

Does the display have an LED backlight? How big and heavy is the power supply?

Another of the notebooks worth of comparison (for performance, not necessarily price) with this device is the Zepto Notus A12 which has the slower Intel A110 CPU and a much longer battery life.

John

 

The screen appears to have an LED backlight but I didn't have an opportunity to pull the screen bezel apart to confirm that.

The power adapter is different than the power adapters on previous Eee PCs ... it's still small but it has a more traditional "power brick" design now. Here is a photo comparing the power brick from the 901 to the power brick for the 701 (4G).

 

I think the 901 is the perfect choice if you want mobility. The 1000 is way too large, better of get a normal laptop instead.

Is it possible to overclock the Intel Atom in the Asus 901?

 

Nice review!

 

The 1000H is only a little larger and has a keyboard that is MUCH easier to live with ... for basically the same street price (or less in some cases). I'm sure some people will prefer the slightly smaller/lighter form factor of the 901, but I highly suspect most consumers will be more interested in the 1000H.

As for overclocking the Atom, it should be technically possible, but none of the production-level Atom-based notebooks that we've reviewed have had the ability to exceed the default clock speed of 1.6GHz ... they seem to only have options to underclock or run at full speed.

 

Great review, a really nice netbook, but what about gaming performance? 3DMark scores?

 

The current trend with nettops is bigger screen, bigger keyboard, bigger everything. They are moving away from the original concept > maximum portability at minimum cost. I hope nettops like EeePC 901 don’t die eaten by the competition; so far EeePC is the smallest out there.
Nice review, makes me want one even more, I am waiting for the Linux version though.

 

First off, nice review! + Rep for sure.

But really, I don't think this laptop for me has much over the MSI Wind when they are at the same price point. I know that the Wind really competes with the 1000, but I still think the Wind compares as follows...

MSI Wind Pros vs. 901:
Heat
Keyboard
All around performance (mainly due to larger HD, but also because of GPU)
Screen Usability
Battery Life (Projected over 5 hours with 6 cell)
Cost
Style

MSI Wind Cons vs. 901 merely loses with:
Portability (slightly... for me it doesn't make enough difference to matter)
Touchpad

This is just my $0.02, but for the added price and marginal gains of the 1000 the Wind is the obvious winner here.

So now it's just a waiting game for the Dell Mini Inspiron to hit market.

 

I know what everyone (most people anyhow) say, that it's because it's ultraportable that it's worth the $500+, but I really disagree. This pricing for a "mobile companion" is out of hand.
Still, I'm disappointed they chose an atom processor instead of sticking with the celery or even going with a core solo. Core solo would make the price a little more reasonable. Atom just speaks "cheap" to me, and doesn't justify the cost (profits for Asus).

 

I bought one of these and absolutly love it, well worth every penny, got windows xp loaded on it and its running nicely.

 

I agree with the opinion expressed by some people here that Asus is hurting itself by edging closer to regular laptop sizes and prices instead of focusing on what made the original Eee special, small footprint and low price.

I do hope that the 900 series will be updated with a better keyboard and cooling solution as the passive keyboard heatsink and tiny keyboard just don't cut it for me. I guess I'll keep waiting until they come out with something that has decent battery life, good keyboard, and reasonable processing power (why acer...whyyyy must your battery life suck..)

 

I waited for this review so long, thanks Jerry !!!

 

What is wrong with the main page? It says "reviewed by" then nothing, and posts the replies in the discussion as 0. Is there something wrong with the database?

 

It's a forum infrastructure issue that we're going to resolve in the coming months. It boils down to the fact that our forums have gotten so big and so active that many times we have two or more people posting new threads or submitting replies at the exact same time. If our forum receives two posts at the exact same fraction of a second sometimes the posts get merged and we have to manually go in and fix it. When we do this it will sometimes cause the "reviewed by" or total replies to default to zero.

We will resolve this, it's just that we are also getting ready to transition the site to a completely new layout and that has to take priority over the occasional forum glitch.

 

Thanks Jerry for a thorough review. Too bad about Heat and yeah, $549 is entering FULL Laptop Pricing. It's biggest Plus is the long battery life although the 1000 series has that too so it's kinda like the "middle child" of Asus and will be ignored by the most people I'm afraid who wil either go for the "cute" 701 or the more "mature" 1000.

 

Yeah that's true. But we need to keep in mind that the battery life is with a 6 cell battery, so even though the time is good, it really isn't in comparison to others' times with 6 cells...

Just my $0.02.

 

I am considering the original version and the 901.

Is the processor for the original EEE PC good, and is it very much lighter than the 901 in terms of weight?

 

The Atom processor has hyperthreading and a faster clock speed so that will help with many common computing tasks. The difference in speed between the 900MHz Celeron and the 1.6GHz Atom isn't "night and day" but the Atom-based 901 is a little "snappier" and "quicker" in some applications than my Eee PC 4G (701) with the 900MHz Celeron processor.

If I had to choose between the 701 and the 901 I'd pick the 901 unless cost was a major issue. However, given the price and specs of the new 1000H, I'd buy a 1000H before I'd buy a 901 ... unless I needed the smaller size.

One other thing to keep in mind is that a new dual-core Atom processor is coming out in a few months ... and it's probably a safe bet that ASUS will launch a new Eee PC at that time with a dual-core Atom processor. Of course, that means waiting several months for a "possible" new notebook and isn't very helpful if you need something now.

 

The 901 uses the same battery than the 701, i mean the batteries are interchangable?

Off course, one is 4400 and the other is 6600 mah

 

Hey! I just bought a Eee pc 901, and regarding the battery.
I tested it today, from 100% charge.
Under Auto processor performance management.
Wireless on, Bluetooth off, and Camera off.
Screen brightness at a little above half, which is more than see-able.
And all I was doing was setting up the laptop, downloading programs including firefox and using firefox.
The battery went to 1% with 3 mins left after 7 and a half hours.
Actually when I started the test with wireless off as well, and just checking the estimate battery length, it was quoted at 9 and a half hours!
I got through the whole day on one charge. I was really, really surprised because most people said it was around 4 to 5 hours.
And the 901 runs pretty well, you'll probably never think it's too slow doing normal stuff.

 

False/Misleading.

There is a version of the 901 that runs Linux instead of Windows. It's the same price, but comes with 20GB of SSD space instead of the paltry 12GB of the Windows version. Not only does one get more hardware if they choose to forgo Windows, but they don't have to deal with Windows. Win/win!

 

Sweet laptop/review. Awesome battery for a budget laptop.

 

I am indicisive of whether to get a 901 or 1000h. To me, both portability and screen size is important. 1000h is considerably larger and heavier than the 901. But I am concerned about the usability and eye strain due to the small screen of the 901. Keyboard doesn't really matter to me.

Lenovo S10 seems to be a perfect choice, but I need a netbook now, and Lenovo is having big problem with postponed shipment date. Also I have heard about the heat problem with S10.

So my question is, for those who have used 900 or 901 personally, is the screen size fine for prolonged hours of viewing. And what are the major pros and cons of using Linux (vs XP). Thanks.

 

Its all subjective, some will find the smaller 8.9" screen too small and for some, it will be just right.

Also keep in mind that the 1000 series have a larger keyboard as well, which a lot of people will find a big advantage alongside the screen. I just wish that with the larger 10.2", it wouldn't use the same 1024x600 resolution as the 8.9" version, have an option for a higher resolution.

Whats best is if you can be able to check it out yourself in a store in your area, but that may not be possible for you.

 

Thx for the input, it's certainly a good advice. But there aren't any stores close to my house that I can test them myself at the moment, so I would like to know your personal opinion if you have used the 901 for a prolonged period, do you think the fonts are too puny and does it strain your eyes?

*IF* I am getting the 901, I am planning to get the linux version because of the SSD, do most of the programs install as easily as XP?