ASUS Eee PC 901 (EEEPC901-BK002X) Netbook

I purchased my 901 after quite a bit of thought and research.  Once you’ve decided you need (or want) a netbook, IMHO, this is the perfect one.  That being said, however, do you need a netbook?  A netbook is not a substitute for a laptop; it’s too small, slow, and doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive.  If you’re planning on writing large documents, PowerPoint presentations, or spreadsheets, you’ll be disappointed with a netbook.  If, on the other hand, you want to make revisions or updates to a large document, presentation, or spreadsheet, a netbook will more than suffice.  The 901 will slip easily into the pocket of an overcoat, will provide 4+ hours of use with 802.11b/g/n (and a couple hours more without WiFi).  It has VGA output (which very few other netbooks have) so it can be connected to a projector and used to make a PowerPoint presentation (provided there aren’t many complex animations).  It’s peppy enough to run MS Office applications without difficulty (albeit running Outlook, Word, and Excel simultaneously will slow it to a crawl).

I looked at a display of 5-6 different brands of netbooks at a local Staples and found the 10” models (with full-size keyboards) were way too big.  I read a review saying an additional inch to screen size made little difference in size.  Don’t believe it, check it out for yourself… it makes an enormous difference!  The 901 can easily be held in the palm of one hand and be typed on with the other (it’s a bit tight for touch typing).

The XP 901 has a fast 4GB SSD soldered to the board and a slower 12GB SSD mounted in an easily accessed ZIF slot.  XP and small or essential programs can go on the 4GB drive but Office and other large or seldom-used programs must go on the slower drive.

The 901 comes with XP Home and bloatware on the 4GB.  You can strip it down to make more space but 4GB is 4GB.  If you screw it up, the 901 comes with an image of the original system on a CD and a version of GHOST that will restore the original system in less than half an hour (provided, of course, you have a CD drive you can connect to one of the 901’s USB ports).  I used nLite to slipstream a stripped down version of XP professional and SP3.  Once installed, the OS occupied less than 2GB.  I can’t see very much advantage in doing this (except to demonstrate you can).

The 901 can be run faster than as it comes “stock”.  Read/write speeds using newer SATA 70mm SSDs in the ZIF can increase load speeds substantially.  Increasing RAM size and using RAM disk is possible but its benefit is unclear.

In my opinion, souping up the 901 makes as much sense as buying a Prius and dropping in a big engine, racing suspension, spoiler, etc.  If you want a fast car, buy a fast car.  Someday the price of fast 70mm SATA SSDs will come down low enough that it will make sense to upgrade.  That time, however, has not come.  In the interim, if you want an inexpensive, well designed netbook, look no further than the 901.  Once you have it, install the software you need to use on the go… but don’t add RAM, a faster SSD or even a case (it comes with a well designed, padded case with Velcro™ closure).  If you need something bigger and faster, you probably don’t need a netbook.  If you intend to write the great American novel on your netbook, the 901 keyboard will probably be too small… on the other hand, the battery life will give you plenty of time to hunt and peck.

This review was written on my 901.