Reviews - ASUS Seashell 1005HA netbook review.

[HEXUS]

Is it the best yet? We find out.

Read more.

[Breezey]

Love it how manufacturers claim its X amount of inches thin etc but 3 foot thick the other end, imo the seashell looks terrible the whole shape just makes it look unappealing id much prefer a wind or something similar. Still waiting on a decent ION netbook to appear.

[asteroth]

£300 - £400 netbook market? WTF did this happen?!

I think the marketing people are losing the plot here...

[tickedon]

£300 - £400 netbook market? WTF did this happen?!

I think the marketing people are losing the plot here...

Thing is, they wouldn't make them if the demand wasn't there...

Personally, Acer Aspire One at £150 is my pick - for all it's flaws compared to the two here, it's considerably cheaper.

[crossy]

Thing is, they wouldn't make them if the demand wasn't there...

Personally, Acer Aspire One at £150 is my pick - for all it's flaws compared to the two here, it's considerably cheaper.

I'm with you on that - although my HDD-equipped AAO was just over the £200 mark. (special offer at Comet)

Got to say that the only manufacturer that's staying true to the netbook ethos (small, light and - above all - cheap!) at the moment is Dell. The rest of them seem to be slapping on Windows XP, larger screens and looking for £350+ - heck I'm sure I saw one advertised at £450 - for a effin' netbook.

For comparison, last time I looked Dell were asking £200 for a new 10v with Ubuntu on it which sounds okay to me - that said - the prices of the reco's on the Acer outlet were pretty damn tempting.

Pretty happy with my AAO - especially after I managed to get a hold of the larger battery and zapped the supplied Linux OS for a copy of Ubuntu. With a T-Mobile stick it makes a really good net-most-anywhere box, (and it's okay for a spot of slight Python hackery too). Even Acer's "legendary" quality control (hit and miss) seems to have managed to avoid me getting a lemon.

[tickedon]

I'm with you on that - although my HDD-equipped AAO was just over the £200 mark. (special offer at Comet)

Comet specials probably just take it near the normal price - I got mine from ASDA (hdd, 160gb too) when they bulk bought what must have been thousands of them

Pretty happy with my AAO - especially after I managed to get a hold of the larger battery and zapped the supplied Linux OS for a copy of Ubuntu. With a T-Mobile stick it makes a really good net-most-anywhere box, (and it's okay for a spot of slight Python hackery too). Even Acer's "legendary" quality control (hit and miss) seems to have managed to avoid me getting a lemon.

What battery did you go for and where from? The normal battery isn't exactly great for a netbook (But at that price, can't complain!).

[TheVoice]

I had an Acer Aspire One a few months back which I got very cheap from Tesco. For the price it was a bargain, but I was still a bit disappointed with it in terms of general performance, battery life and the trackpad was a bit annoying. I'm hoping that the performance issue is down to the rubbish SSDs Acer use, because I'd really like to get a decent netbook (like this Asus) in order to replace my Dell XPS M1330 notebook. Problem is, for a netbook this Asus is pretty damn expensive, so it doesn't really make it worthwhile when I'd probably not get much more if I sold my notebook.

[crossy]

Comet specials probably just take it near the normal price - I got mine from ASDA (hdd, 160gb too) when they bulk bought what must have been thousands of them

Yep, I was hearing that Tesco's were offering some pretty good deals too - £140 for a new AAO150w which I'm cussing that I missed out on.

What battery did you go for and where from? The normal battery isn't exactly great for a netbook (But at that price, can't complain!).

I got the six-cell battery (I thought this was the only official alternative to the standard three-cell) from CCL Online (sorry Scan) http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lc.btp00.017.

Downsides of this battery are that it's heavier than the original and bulges out so much that you can't fit the AAO in the slipcase anymore. Oh and it's very expensive.

Upsides are that the bulge gives a very good (for me at least) typing angle, it's not that much heavier, and I get 3.5-4hrs+ life with Ubuntu on WLAN doing webby stuff - YouTube, mail, browsing, Twitter, etc. Oh and I've not got the brightness down, non-standard power tweaks or any of that nonsense, and Ubuntu's giving me claimed 100%-0% times of about 4.75 hours.

Hope this helps. Bob.

(P.S. - before I bought my battery I checked out eBay - there seemed to be a lot of no-name Chinese batteries for sale. Found a couple of forum postings that warned off of these in the strongest terms, so I bottled it and bought the official one. If you're not as squeamish then I'm pretty sure you can get a six-cell cheaper than what I paid.)

[dangel]

I had an Acer Aspire One a few months back which I got very cheap from Tesco. For the price it was a bargain, but I was still a bit disappointed with it in terms of general performance, battery life and the trackpad was a bit annoying. I'm hoping that the performance issue is down to the rubbish SSDs Acer use, because I'd really like to get a decent netbook (like this Asus) in order to replace my Dell XPS M1330 notebook. Problem is, for a netbook this Asus is pretty damn expensive, so it doesn't really make it worthwhile when I'd probably not get much more if I sold my notebook.

My One is fine - it has the HDD instead and it makes a big difference in all honesty. I did picky up a (massive) battery for it too and that gives 7-8 hours (guestimate) of use at the cost of weight. It's a good machine overall and I just take whichever battery fits my requirements (i.e. will i be in a hotel with a power socket for example). At 150quid odd it's a steal.

I got a neoprene "sleeping bag" thingy to hold it and it streches round the larger battery too. Paid about 4-5 quid for it - the standard case is utter crap.

[TheVoice]

Yeah i had a feeling it might be the SSD, the ones Acer use are notoriously bad. I did get a warranty replacement when I had my AAp which had a slightly faster SSD, but I still found it pausing too much even with just one or two apps open with Ubuntu Netbook Remix installed.

Problem is, it seems like all the nicer netbooks are far too expensive. I'd probably be lucky to get £400 for my current notebook, and with the netbooks like the 1005HA going for over £300, you have to ask yourself if it's actually worth downgrading. Shame really.

[Rabs]

If you put XP onto the Acer with the SSD, theres some software that creates a buffer for writes which stops the 'pausing' issue caused by the slow SSD.

As for £300-400 for a netbook, manufacturers are going to the wrong way - 'normal' sized half reasonable laptops with a 15" 1366 x 768 display sell for around £280 which is far more capable.

Netbooks should range from £120-£220 max imho.