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When Asus started the Netbook era with their Asus Eee PC 701 model, most people felt that something was missing for it to be the perfect travel companion. The screen size and resolution was a major drawback, which stopped many people from buying it, despite of the good price and other positive features that made the Asus 701 exceptional for the time.

And now when the the Eee PC 901 is here, the public might be relieved – it has a better screen resolution and size, integrated bluetooth connectivity, a much longer battery life, not to mention the better Atom-based CPU. And to match all expectations, the Asus Eee PC comes equipped with either Windows or Linux operating system. What else can you dream of?

General Specification of the Asus Eee PC 901

Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Home or Linux Xandros
Display size: 8.9"
Intel CPU & Chipset: Intel® Atom N270
Wireless Data Network WLAN: 802.11 n
Bluetooth: YES
Memory: 1GB (DDR2)
Hybrid Storage XP: 12GB Solid State Drive
Linux: 20GB Solid State Drive
20GB Eee Storage
Camera: 1.3M Pixel
Audio Dolby Sound Room Certified (XP only)
Stereo speaker
Digital Array Mic
Battery Life:
6-Cell Li-ion Battery
XP: 8 hrs
LX: 7.2 hrs
Weight: 1.1 kg
Dimensions: 225mm(W) x 175.5mm(D) x 22.7mm~ 39mm(H)
Colors and Expressions: Sakura, Sweet Pea, Urban Metropolis, Peony White, Pearl White, Fine Ebony, Navy Blue, Chocolate Gold

Appearance and Looks

The new Asus Eee PC 901 is just like its predecessors – nice looking, with a smooth glossy lid, that unfortunately takes all fingerprints of the holder. The silver hinges are nice, good looking and most important – they proof to be strong and sturdy-looking.
The 8.9-inch screen looks sharp from all variety of angles in comparison to the Asus Eee PC 701. Above the display a 1.3-MPxls webcam is mounted (again better than its predecessor’s) providing bright images and solid colors.

Improved Audio

The Dolby Sound Room stereo speakers on the 901 give the Eee PC 901 surprisingly good sound despite being located on the bottom of the netbook. Bass, as one may expect, is a bit lacking, but its quite good compared to other netbooks on the market.

Touchpad and Keyboard

When the netbook is opened, you find a keyboard that’s the same size as what’s on the Eee PC 900, a bit better than the one of the 7th series. However, it is still worse than the keyboards of the HP Mini-Note and the MSI Wind NB for example.
The touchpad, on the other hand, is far bigger than those of the previous Eee PC series and is the first in the Eee line that feels like one you would get on a full-size notebook. The most notable and interesting feature is that the pad is responsive to multi-touch FingerGlide gestures, which let user zoom out on photos by pinching our fingers together or zoom in by spreading them apart. A tricky part is to keep your Windows drivers constantly updated, since there are some issues with the Multi-touch touchpad that are continuously cleared by the manufacturer.

Switching Through Resolutions

Above the keyboard there are four buttons that perform various functions: the first turns off the monitor, the second lets you change the screen resolution, the third, the Super Hybrid Engine switcher, let us cycle through power-saving modes, and the fourth is a user-definable launch key. The resolution and power-mode switchers are the most interesting.
The resolution switcher lets us move between 800 x 600, 1024 x 600 (default), 1024 x 768 (which makes the screen taller than its border), and 1024 x 768 compress, which squashes the image vertically to make everything fit.

Super Hybrid Engine

The Super Hybrid Engine switcher lets the user quickly cycle through power saving (1.2-GHz), auto-power saving (1.2-GHz, default), high performance (1.6-GHz), and super performance (1.8-GHz) settings. We didn’t notice any change in performance while switching modes, but you may want to engage this feature just to save battery life.

Good Performance

The most interesting and appealing feature of the Eee PC 901 is its CPU – a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor. Most applications open and run quickly, which is probably also due to the amount of RAM (1GB by default) and SSD speed.

Excellent Battery Life

Undoubtedly one of the best feature of the Eee PC 901 is in the long battery life. With the low-consuming Atom CPU the 6-cell battery would last nearly 6 hours with Wi-Fi turned off. With the Wi-Fi signal on, one can experience longer than 5 hours of continuous operation, which is quite impressive.

Wireless Performance

The Eee PC 901 is equipped with 802.11b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi radio, and it operates flawlessly. The same is the situation with integrated Bluetooth – no problems were encountered while connecting different devices and transferring data.

Operating Systems

The Eee PC 901 comes in two forms - with preinstalled with Windows XP Home and a 12GB SSD, and the Linux Xandros version complete with a 20GB solid state drive

Final Conclusion

To summarize, the Eee PC 901 is an enormous step in the Eee PC line. It is small and light, and yet powerful and with longlasting battery life. It’s also nice-looking and provides huge connectivity of all types, which is not true for most competitors of the time.

Pros

• Light (1.1kg)
• Powerful Atom CPU
• Good connectivity

Cons

• Lid surface easily scratchable
• No good drivers for the multi-touch

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