Step forward the Eee PC 900. This brings several improvements, including a high-resolution 8.9in. screen, more storage, more memory, a multi-touch touchpad and an improved webcam. In other words, it's a far more attractive proposition even than the original. But is it enough of an evolution to stave off competition from its rivals? The Asus Eee PC 900 will be available on 1 May for around £329 (inc. VAT).
Design
The Eee PC 900 isn't too different to its predecessor, at least aesthetically. It's still ivory white and is still the size of a hardback book. It is, however, half a centimetre deeper than its predecessor and approximately 80g heavier at 999g. The speakers that sat on either side of the screen have been moved to accommodate the larger LCD, which immediately makes the notebook more attractive.
The Eee 900's larger screen size and higher resolution means that most web pages now fit perfectly on the display, with no need for horizontal scrolling.
The speakers now live at the bottom of the system, below the wrist rest — an arrangement that adversely affects sound quality, particularly if you're using the Eee PC 900 on your lap. We'll forgive it this oversight, however, because the quality of the speakers on the original Eee PC 701 was poor in the first place.
We had hoped that the Eee PC 900 would have a larger keyboard than the 701's, but were disappointed. As a result, we had the same trouble typing on it as we did before, resorting to a four-finger — index and middle finger — method instead of our usual all-digit touch typing. It slows you down, but you'll get used to it after enough time.
The mouse trackpad is now in a wide aspect ratio and supports multi-touch gesture input.
The touchpad has been improved considerably. It now has a wide aspect ratio to match that of the screen, so your finger movements will more closely mirror what's happening with the on-screen cursor. The left and right selector buttons have also been improved, sporting a silver finish and are easier to press.
Best of all, though, is the addition of multi-finger input, often referred to as 'multi-touch'. The touchpad now lets you scroll horizontally and vertically through documents by swiping two fingers up or down across its surface. You can also zoom in or zoom out of images by making pinching or stretching movements with your fingers — just like on a MacBook Air.
The selection of I/O ports on the Eee PC 900 is identical to that of the 701. The left side carries an Ethernet port, a single USB port, plus microphone and headphone jacks. The right side is home to a VGA-out port, two additional USB ports and an SD card reader. The latter can accommodate third-party SDHC cards for up to 32GB of additional storage. Larger cards are expected to become available in due course.
Features
The aforementioned 8.9in. display isn't simply for making the notebook look nicer. It's also of a very good standard. It has a native resolution of 1,024 by 600 pixels, which is significantly higher than the 800-by-480-pixel screen on the old 7in. model. The quality of the display is also commendable, especially given the price of the system. The vertical viewing angle is a little limited, so you'll need to adjust the horizontal tilt to get the picture just right. Still, the horizontal viewing angle is wide enough to allow two users to see the screen in relative comfort.
The Eee PC 900's webcam is now a 1.3-megapixel unit, a big step up from 0.3 megapixels on the 701.
Anyone expecting the new Intel Atom processor in the Eee PC 900 will be disappointed. This model uses the same 900MHz Intel Celeron M 353 CPU as the old 701, although it now has the backing of 1GB of DDR 400 RAM — twice as much as you got in its predecessor. We'll have to wait until at least the summer before Asus updates the Eee again. There is one upside, in that the Eee PC 900's Celeron M isn't throttled back to 630MHz by default, as it was on the 701.
The amount of storage you get in your Eee PC 900 depends on whether you opt for the Linux or Windows XP version. The Linux model comes with a generous 20GB, while the Windows XP model has just 12GB. The reason for this discrepancy is that Asus wants to keep the price of both models identical: had the Windows model shipped with a 20GB drive, its price would be higher due to the cost of the Windows user licence.
As before, the SD card reader accepts SDHC cards, which can provide up to 32GB of additional storage.
Both versions of the Eee PC 900 use Samsung flash memory chips rather than a traditional hard disk drive, with all the speed, low-power and robustness advantages that solid state storage brings. The only drawback here is that you're not getting the 32GB or 64GB SSDs seen in bigger notebooks like the MacBook Air, but that's not a massive issue.
The Eee PC 900 uses the same Xandros-based Linux operating system as the Eee PC 701, and comes with some 40 applications preinstalled. You can add your own applications as you might expect, but we found pretty much everything we needed was already on the system, including the OpenOffice productivity suite, Firefox browser, a media player and more. Applications are logically arranged in tabbed groups labelled Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings and Favourites, making everything easy to find.
The UI for the Eee's Linux OS is easy to use, with around 40 applications logically arranged under tabs.
The Eee PC 900 isn't designed to replace your primary PC, although many supporters will argue otherwise. It's at its best when used as second computer or a web access tool, and is well equipped for that purpose. It has an Ethernet port, plus 802.11b/g Wi-Fi so you can get online regardless of whether you're in the office, at home or at a public Wi-Fi hotspot. There's still no built-in support for Draft-N Wi-Fi or wide-area wireless (3G) connectivity.
Performance
The Eee PC 900 feels swifter in everyday use than the previous model -- something we put down to its 1GB of RAM. The extra memory also helped the system cope better with running multiple applications simultaneously. For example, we could browse the internet while watching a movie in a window without it dropping frames. It must be noted that this capability is only possible now that the Eee PC has a larger screen size and higher resolution.
Asus claims the Eee PC 900 will last approximately three hours on its standard battery — half an hour less than its predictions for the Eee PC 701. Doubtless the bigger screen and faster CPU are the culprits here. In our own DivX movie playback test, it ran for just 1 hour 29 minutes. Your own mileage will vary, but expect it to last slightly longer if you run applications that are not CPU-intensive and with Wi-Fi switched off.
Conclusion
The Asus Eee PC 900 is an excellent update to the Eee PC 701. The keyboard is still difficult to use, but the addition of a larger, higher-resolution screen, a multi-touch touchpad and more storage gives it the edge over its mini-notebook rivals. If you can't wait for the Atom processor and other mooted enhancements, it's a fantastic purchase.
Additional editing by Charles McLellan
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