Asus Eee 1000HE Netbook - performance and conclusion - part 4

Graphic illustration of the three power modes of the Asus 1000HE Netbook

The 1000HE offers three built-in power modes, power saver, high power and super power. The default mode is Auto – which switches between power saver and high power mode depending on whether you are on battery power or AC.

The following chart shows the Passmark benchmarks for all three modes, and a reference Thinkpad R60 Core duo laptop running at 2Ghz.

 As you can see, the 1000HE is slower than a typical mid-range laptop. CPU performance runs 1/3 to 1/2 as fast, Graphics performance varies depending on the type of graphic operation. Curiously, hard drive performance is faster than the laptop – suggesting that Asus put some thought into picking a high performing drive.

What the chart also indicates is that the superpower performance offers little if any benefit over the standard high power mode. Also, while the power save performance does have a substantial impact on CPU speed, it has little impact on memory, graphics and hard drive performance, meaning that you should not notice much if any of a slow down in most types of applications while running on batteries.

In practice, the Asus 1000HE should do a fine job handling all but the most demanding tasks. Your latest games may not run well, but everything else will do fine.

Conclusion:

The Asus 1000HE, like other Netbooks, is not a substitute for your main computing needs. The smaller screen, lower performance, and chicklet style keyboard simply don’t offer the level of experience you would expect from a desktop or full size laptop. This is not the machine you would want to buy for a student heading off to college. Nor is it a machine to get for your kids – the games they’ll want to play demand greater power and faster graphics.

However, it is a phenomenal choice for travel. It can also serve as a fine extra machine to keep around for guests. It handles web browsing and Email easily. It can handle heavy duty graphic and developer applications (such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel, Visual Studio and Eclipse) adequately – you wouldn’t want to work on the machine all day, but it will work in a pinch. It is inexpensive enough so that if it were lost or stolen, it wouldn’t be a disaster (just remember to avoid using it to store personal information). With 7+ hours of real-world battery life, you’ll get used to not carrying the power adapter with you everywhere you go or seeking out a power outlet every time you want to use it.

Overall, the Asus 1000HE was a very pleasant surprise and excellent value.

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