Thin, stylish Eee PC 1002HA launches at $499

From http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15975:

So far, Asus has offered cheap and cheerful Eee PC netbooks to the general public while keeping thinner, more stylish derivatives at much higher price points. With the new Eee PC 1002HA, Asus seems to be trying to merge the two concepts—affordability and style.

A quick glance at the Eee PC 1002HA's spec sheet shows many similarities with the $480 Eee PC 1000H: both units have Intel Atom N270 processors, 10" 1024x600 displays, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB mechanical hard drives, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows XP Home Edition.

Unlike its older sibling, however, the 1002HA boasts an aluminum palm rest and display lid, and Asus has strived to make it thinner and lighter. Compared to the 3.2-pound, 1.12-1.5"-thick 1000H, the Eee PC 1002HA weighs only 2.6 lbs and is just 1.09" thick. Those svelte proportions come in part from a lighter battery, which has only two cells. Asus nonetheless rates it for five hours of run time, or 2.5 hours less than the 1000H.

Last, but not least, Asus notes that the 1002HA features a Super Hybrid Engine technology that lets users lower or raise the CPU clock speed "by pressing a button above the keyboard." That sounds a bit like the overclocking functionality MSI has offered in its Wind netbooks for some time.

According to Asus, the Eee PC 1002HA is launching in the United States today with a $499 suggested retail price.

 

Yeah if I did not have a 1000H I would give this serous thought, its the best looking of all the netbooks on market IMO.

The battery life loss is the only major downfall, I love having 7 hours of life on the 1000H. I cant say I have used it all ever, but if I had too I like knowing I can (comes in handy or using the EEE as a GPS unit, but I guess you can buy a car adapter if you so desire)

Battery life is very different depending on OS.

XP - 7 hours max
Vista - 8 hours max
Linux - 5 hours mx

 

Just reading a bit more about it, seems Asus has included a system recovery option during boot up via F9. Would be nice if we could mod that into the existing 1000H/HA's that require a considerably more elaborate system for the same thing. And if only they got expressgate working for it...would be another port to the H/HA, as right now there are some issues.

 

It seems like a good model... though I wish it'd be a little more unique, as I do with all netbooks.

I wish my Aspire One's 3 cell was 75% as good as that's 2 cell...

 

Geezus Phil~! Why did you have to post this?
The 1002HA looks very sleek and I think I may have to just pick up one of these.

 

I know you know about this, but I want to stress it for other people anyway, to prevent bashing of the battery (like OMG only 2 cellz LOL!1!1 )

The battery is listed as having a 4200mAh capacity, which is almost as much as my 8-cell V6J battery (which has 4800mAh). Those cells are high-capacity cells. So this netbook is likely to have at least a reasonable battery life.

 

Not quite. Cell count and current aren't direct measurements of how long your battery will last.

Twinkle, twinkle little star. P equals I squared R. (P = I^2*R = IV)

So you'll multiply the battery's voltage by its current rating to get Watt-hours. Divided by your power draw in watts, this gives you a rough estimate of how long you can go unplugged.

 

it looks lovely
http://www.asus.com/prog_content/middle_enlargement.aspx?model=2659

 

it's a lithium polymer battery, that's the reason for having only 2 cells with 4200mAh capacity and being able to give 5 hours of battery life (their rating, not mine). Your 8 cell is a lithium ion.

 

mine just shipped out yesterday, it should be here tomorrow!

 

Thanks, Phil.....It looks nice! Hmmm maybe...WAIT! I already ordered my Netbook!



Cin

 

Looks quite nice. I think I would still rather have the 1000h just for the battery life.

 

Look great..

if i didn't have the 1000h i would pick it up in a heartbeat.

 

I just got mine yesterday. It is very nice. The battery life is actually quite good as long as you're on power save mode. It is very attractive as well. I had no problems connecting it to my WEP secured network, though I did get an error message until I disabled certificates. It still connected fine though. The touchpad is amazing. I may get a small mouse to use when I want to play a click-type game, but for most uses, the touchpad is more than adequate and is in some ways better than a mouse.

I actually decided to get this one over the samsung because I was hoping for a good trackpad.

I replaced the memory in it with a 2gb stick. It did fine with 1gb, but I sometimes have a lot of tabs open. Streaming video is fine on the highest power setting; on the lowest setting video is jerky. However, aside from video streaming, I don't notice a difference between the settings, so I kept in on the lowest setting, and was able to use it several hours without charging it, and without getting a message.

It runs very cool as well. I had it on my lap, on my bed, and walked it around the house. It never got even what I would consider warm, though since it wasn't doing anything really demanding, that's not surprising.

Unfortunately, since this was my Christmas present, my husband took my new toy from me, wrapped it, and put it under the tree so I can't do any extensive tests on it for a couple of more weeks.

Edit to add: I forgot to mention that it is beautiful. It doesn't show finger prints, and just has a classy look and feel about it. Too bad that right shift key is unusable. I think they could have done a better job on the keyboard layout, but aside from that key, it is a nice keyboard with no flex and good feedback.