Customer Reviews

Portability is what sold me...
I've had this netbook for a couple months, bought it about the end of February from amazon.ca - impressed again by the stress-free shopping on amazon. I think the best thing about this netbook, is that it's the simplest thing to carry around, or just slip somewhere on a table in amongst a lot of other things, or rest on your lap. Even though a lot of computers call themselves laptops, very few can really guarantee that fact - have you felt how hot some of them get? Not a problem with this one. There are times when the fan will run (I feel the warmth being blown out the vents, but can't hear the fan running - it's quiet!), but when this thing is on power saver mode, it's not really taxing the processor, so there's not a lot of heat being generated.

I charge this netbook from time to time (I've never timed it, but it certainly doesn't take long, ie: less than a couple hours), and use it in battery mode only. The battery indicator information is a little optimistic at times, but I don't pay much attention to it. When the warning pops up, telling me I have an hour of use left, then I start thinking about recharging the battery. I haven't timed the overall use I get on a charge, but it's easily over 10 hours of mixed use. Claimed battery life of 14 hours would be possible, I think, if you were just doing the minimal amount to work, and had wifi and bluetooth turned off, with screen lighting down to dim. I don't do any of that. I'm on wifi all the time, and I like to be able to see what I'm looking at on the screen. I don't use bluetooth, so I have turned that off. I was thinking of getting a bluetooth mouse, but I've gotten accustomed to the trackpad. Even though its multitouch, I don't use all those features, only the two finger slide (or 1 finger on the right side of trackpad) for flipping from one page to another etc...

I've done an upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Ultimate, and I've installed Windows Office 2003. I haven't increased the RAM, and haven't found that I need to. I partitioned the drive to allow me to install Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (haven't done the upgrade to 10.04, but have test run that off a USB flash drive, and it works perfectly also). I don't use Linux much, I installed just because I was curious to see if it was difficult to do - it wasn't. I've used Linux for over 15 years, but experience wasn't a necessity to install it on this netbook.

I use the Splashtop feature (push the left "on" button, and you're using certain applications in about 15 seconds) from time to time, but I usually am in Windows 7, which I put into hibernate mode when I shut the lid, and wakeup is quick (ie: less than 30 seconds). I use Skype quite a bit, and have gotten compliments from the people who I do this with, on the camera and sound quality of this netbook. When I use Skype on my Macbook Pro, after about 10 minutes, it's throwing off a lot of heat, as the fans are running at full speed, and a system resource check shows a lot of use by Skype. I don't have this problem at all with the Asus netbook. Skype runs very well, and doesn't use many resources at all, and I don't see a tremendous difference in battery usage, with this netbook.

People who are thinking of buying this netbook as their only computer, thinking it will "do it all" - don't! It has it's place in the useful category, but it does have limitations. Similar to a family sedan, it will perform well for everyday tasks. But don't expect to pull a 45' trailer with it, and don't expect to carry 2000 lbs of cement in the trunk. So don't expect to open a 100000 page document with this netbook, and don't expect to do any video processing with it, and you'll be as satisfied as I am with it.

Very Pleased
I have had the Asus EEE Pc 1005PE PU17 for over a week now and I just love it. I was worried that the small right shift key was going to slow me down. My earlier Asus had the small shift key and I eventually resorted to typing with two fingers, but not with my new computer. The shift is in the perfect spot for my fingers. I can't believe the amount of run time I have been getting with this battery. I attended a weekend course recently, with the computer running on battery both days and a few hours Saturday evening, and I just couldn't kill the battery.

I bought a small Targus notebook cooler for my earlier Asus because it ran fairly hot, but I haven't needed it with this machine. It runs very cool.

I have seen some complaints written about the bumpy touchpad; well, I like it a lot. No complaints here. As well, I put two gigabytes of RAM in the machine and am very happy with its performance. I also bought the Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook mouse and it has been performing well, though it took a bit of perseverance to get it set up. Everything is running well, now.

I also have to say how impressed I am with Amazon's service. I ordered my laptop and extra RAM early Good Friday morning, and the package arrived on Thursday. Very prompt.

ASUS netbook has great battery life
I have never had a laptop or netbook before so it was/is a bit of a learning curve to use vs a desktop, however the LONG battery life of this netbook is impressive. A friend who is a 'computer nerd' recommended this vs others on the market and so far we are pleased.