Whether you choose this Netbook or another, don't get one without a multitouch
touchpad - they offer a dramatic improvement in usability.
When you first power on the Asus Eee 1000HE it will begin with the typical Windows XP initial configuration that you’ve probably seen many times before on new computers. That’s right, the machine still ships with XP Home, which is probably a good thing. Both fans and opponents of Window Vista all agree on one thing – XP runs faster, and on Netbook, faster is better.
The 1000HE comes with a decent set of software and without the multitude of trial versions of software that bloat so many new machines. It includes Skype, Intervideo WinDVD and StarOffice. I prefer Microsoft Office, which installed on the machine with no problems.
As laptops go, there is nothing particularly special or unique about this one in terms of configuration and operation with one exception – the touchpad is a Multitouch pad from Elantech.A multitouch pad allows you, through a combination of gestures using one, two or three fingers, to do things like scroll and drag windows, right click, and zoom or rotate objects (depending on application) without your fingers leaving the touchpad.
I’m not generally a fan of touchpads, preferring the trackpoint button common on Thinkpad machines, but this one has me sold. It only takes a few minutes to learn the various gestures, and a configuration panel allows you to assign multi-touch operations to corresponding tasks.
The 1024x600 display can easily be toggled between three modes – native 1024x600, 1024x768 where the display scrolls, and a compressed 1024x768 mode where the display is compressed vertically. The latter mode is particularly handy with some applications that require a minimum of a 1024x768 display size.
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