by Jerry Jackson

The ASUS Eee PC 901 is the new update to the Eee PC … the affordable mini notebook that shook up the notebook market in 2007. This $550 mobile companion features the new Intel Atom processor, but is it the best choice for your next travel laptop? We took an in-depth look at the Eee PC 901 to find out if this mini notebook has enough performance and features to take the top spot in the popular budget ultraportable category.

First, let’s review the system specs for the all new Eee PC 900:

Intel Atom 1.60GHz processor

Integrated Intel GMA 900 GPU

12GB of Flash-based storage (4GB onboard SSD and 8GB PCI-E mini card SSD)

1GB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)

Windows XP Home Edition operating system

8.9-inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution

Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100

Webcam (1.3 MP)

Battery: 6-cell 6600 mAh 7.4V Li-Ion

Wireless: 802.11b/g/n

Input: Keyboard and Multi-touch touchpad

Dimensions: 6.87" x 8.87" x 1.63" (L x W x H)

Weight: approximately 2.42 lbs with battery

One-year warranty



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Build and Design

Like the original Eee PC, the designers at ASUS had no easy task creating an attractive ultraportable notebook while also making it cheap to produce. Customers also indicated that they wanted a larger screen and a larger touchpad, so both of these features had to be incorporated into a very small footprint.

The chassis seams match up with reasonably tight tolerances, plastics feel thick (though the pearl-like white plastics look cheap) and the display hinges are molded into body with the battery. Overall, the Eee PC 900 is almost identical to the original Eee PC. The only obvious differences are the larger screen and the slightly deeper dimension (front to back) in order to accommodate the larger touchpad.

Lifting the display cover you find the same amazingly small keyboard surface found on the original Eee PC. In short, the build quality is quite high despite the low cost.



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The design of the original Eee PC was something truly unique in the market. Weighing in at just two pounds and delivering a performance level similar to a full-featured budget notebook, the only notebook that came close to "directly" competing with the Eee PC in 2007 was the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 tablet PC … which retailed for more than $1,000 last year. After the success of the original Eee PC, other manufacturers have started to flood the market with low cost mini notebooks. The Eee PC isn’t the only kid on the block anymore, which is why Asus is trying to raise the bar with the Eee PC 900.

Screen

The Eee PC 901 (like the Eee PC 900) features a nice 8.9-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution. While this might not be the most impressive resolution we’ve seen, it’s much nicer than the native 800 x 480 resolution on the original Eee PC 4G. Still, many owners of the original Eee PC 4G use modified display drivers to scale 1000 x 600 or higher resolutions on the original Eee PC … so this higher resolution screen isn’t as impressive as it could be.



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In any case, the screen on our review unit was free from any problems such as stuck pixels and color and backlighting were both excellent.



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Operating System and Software

Unlike the original Eee PC, this configuration of the Eee PC 901 doesn’t come with Linux. This notebook comes pre-installed with Windows XP. While XP might not be the most modern operating system on the market, XP is still one of the most robust and stable versions of the Windows OS. Most importantly, Windows XP doesn’t have massive system requirements … so it still runs fast on a relatively under-powered notebook like the Eee PC 901.

Speakers

ASUS received some criticism over the speakers on the original Eee PC because of there massive size located on both sides of the screen. The bezel around the screen on the Eee PC 901 is much thinner than the thick bezel on the original Eee PC and the speakers have been relocated to the bottom of the notebook. Speaker output quality is good, but because of the location of the speakers the sound is quite muffled when you’re using the Eee PC 901 as a "laptop."

Keyboard and Touchpad

Most low-priced notebooks currently on the market feature poorly built keyboards that show significant flex/bounce when typing pressure is applied. Much to our surprise, the keyboard on the Eee PC 901 (like the original Eee PC) is remarkably firm, though the keys are small and have a large degree of "wiggle" when pressed.



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The keyboard on the Eee PC 901 is very, very compact. The first few days spent typing on this keyboard probably will be quite frustrating as the small footprint and tiny keys require you to use a "hunt and peck" style of typing rather than traditional touch typing methods. This means that passwords get mangled, emails look like gibberish, and playing games that require keyboard commands becomes quite aggravating.

Of course, once I got used to typing on the tiny keyboard the keys felt just fine … but this keyboard isn’t designed to be used as a primary/main computer. For users who would buy this notebook as their "main computer" in their home or office, a full-size keyboard and external mouse are recommended.



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The touchpad and with dual buttons are easy to use and responsive. The Eee PC 901 actually has a slightly larger touchpad button than the previous Eee PC 900 which makes it much more comfortable to use than the original Eee PC.

ASUS also includeed several hotkeys for quick access to functions such asbuilt-in screen off, screen resolution, power mode (power saving, auto high performance, high performance, and super performance), and Skype.



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Performance

Overall, the Eee PC 901 is a snappy little budget notebook. The new Intel Atom 1.60GHz ultra-low voltage processor doesn’t have the performance of a modern Core 2 Duo processor but provides a nice browsing experience. The flash-based storage drives on the Eee PC 901 help with performance since they provide virtually instant data access times.

One odd issue that we encountered with our review unit was that the Eee PC 901 produced a remarkably low PCMark05 synthetic benchmark. PCMark05 generally provides an accurate indication of overall system performance, but the Eee PC 901 produced a score much lower than its "real world" performance. It’s also worth mentioning that the last Atom-based notebook we reviewed in our office (the MSI Wind) was unable to run PCMark05 at all.

Synthetic benchmark issues aside, the Eee PC 901 provides plenty of performance for travel and short-term use, but this mini notebook isn’t designed to be a primary computing workhorse.

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook PCMark05 Score ASUS Eee PC 901 (1.60GHz Intel Atom) 746 PCMarks

MSI Wind (1.60GHz Intel Atom) N/A ASUS Eee PC 900 (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV) 1,172 PCMarks HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV) 801 PCMarks HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110) 891 PCMarks ASUS Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV) 908 PCMarks ASUS Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV) 1,132 PCMarks Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV) 612 PCMarks Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600) 2,446 PCMarks Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400) 1,152 PCMarks Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500) 1,554 PCMarks Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600) 1,839 PCMarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU wPrime 32M time ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)

123.437 seconds

MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz) 124.656 seconds ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz) 203.734 seconds HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz) 168.697 seconds ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz) 289.156 seconds ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz) 200.968 seconds Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz) 248.705 seconds Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz) 209.980 seconds Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz) 124.581 seconds Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz) 76.240 seconds Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz) 231.714 seconds

HDTune storage drive performance results:



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Port Selection and Expansion

Front: Indicator lights (and speakers on the bottom)



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Left side: Security lock slot, 10/100 Ethernet port, USB 2.0 port, air vent, microphone in, and headphone jack.



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Rear view: Battery and hinges



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Right side: SD card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA out, power jack.



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If you open the bottom panel on the Eee PC 901 you’ll find a standard DDR2 RAM slot and a PCI-E mini card slot. The PCI-E mini card slot in the Eee PC 901 uses the same 8GB SSD module found in the Eee PC 8G. Again, in order to reach the 12GB storage capacity on this notebook ASUS essentially just combined the Eee PC 4G and 8G: the motherboard has 4GB of flash storage soldered to it and the PCI-E mini card slot has a 8GB flash storage module.



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Heat and Noise

Even with the low voltage processor and SSD drives, the ASUS Eee PC 901 produced an incredible amount of heat. While the temperatures didn’t get as hot as some mini notebooks we’ve reviewed, the 901 did produce hotter temperatures than the MSI Wind. The bottom of the notebook got quite hot even under normal use. Fan noise was among the quietest we’ve heard. The only way to tell the fan is blowing is to put your hand next to the air vent to feel the warm air blow past.

Below are heat overlay images showing where the Eee PC 901 warmed up (in degrees Fahrenheit) during normal extended use:



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Wireless

Unlike previous Eee PCs that used an Atheros AR5BXB63 wireless module for 802.11b/g wireless Internet access, the Eee PC 901 uses a 802.11b/g/n from Ralink. Reception is quite good for a budget notebook. The Eee PC 901 maintained a connection to my home router from anywhere inside my three-level home and from anywhere in my front or back yard. At the editorial offices for NotebookReview.com the Eee PC 901 managed to stay connected to the office router even after I left the building and walked across the parking lot.

Battery

Under normal use, in "Super Performance" mode, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and typing a text document, the Eee PC 901 managed to deliver more than 4 hours of battery life (4 hours and 13 minutes) with the standard battery. Needless to say, this was rather impressive. The original Eee PC 4G was able to deliver more than 3 hours of battery life with a smaller screen and weaker processor.

Fortunately, unlike the Eee PC 4G and Eee PC 900, the battery meter was accurate and always indicated when the power adapter was unplugged and gave correct estimates on battery life.

Conclusion

Last year our editorial staff was absolutely amazed by the original Eee PC. The original Eee PC finally delivered something that many consumers have wanted since laptops first arrived on the market: an extremely portable laptop with reasonable performance for travel at an extremely low cost. The new Eee PC 901 is an impressive update to the Eee PC line, but we have trouble getting excited about this mini notebook

The problem is that the budget mini notebook market has exploded in recent months, with many capable alternatives on the market. Worse still is the fact that ASUS itself has already trumped the 901 with the new Eee PC 1000 series notebooks.

The Eee PC 901 is still an impressive mini notebook or "netbook" for your travel needs, but we hesitate to recommend this particular notebook over the newer Eee PC 1000H which features a larger keyboard, larger screen, and a larger capacity traditional hard drive.

If you want a smaller Atom-based notebook then the Eee PC 901 still might be a better choice than the Eee PC 1000H, but we suspect most consumers would rather have the slightly larger screen and keyboard found on the latest Eee PC notebooks.

In short, if you’re in the market for a low cost travel notebook the original Eee PC 901 is still a great notebook … but you may find even better options from ASUS if you shop around.

Pros

Small and light

Reasonably well built and durable

Flash-based storage

Intel Atom processor surprisingly capable

Surprisingly acceptable battery life

Cons

Impressive, but ASUS already has several superior Eee PC models on the market

12GB of storage isn’t a single drive (one 4GB drive and one 8GB drive)

White plastics feel nice but "look" cheap

Keyboard too small/cramped