Mini Review for 1000HE.

I have been using it for almost a week now. Here's what I found out about 1000HE. I'm using a fresh install of 32-bit windows 7 with 2gb ram.

Battery life:
I've managed to get 6-8 hours per charge when use continuously. It is possible to get 8 hours even with wifi on but I was using it for writing with no cpu intensive application. If it's used for active browsing, I would say the battery life is between 6-7 hours. I leave the brightness at 30-40% as this is suitable for indoor lighting. I haven't tested it with continuous movie playing.

Keyboard:
The new chicklet buttons are fun to type on. However, the size is smaller compared to the new Macbook pro that my friend has. The buttons give good feedback and don't fatigue your fingers even after a long typing session. I've tested my typing speed using keybr.com and it is almost the same that I got using normal keyboards. The result might be lower if there is a lot of right-shifting usage.

Touchpad:
At first, using the touchpad is a nightmare. It's less responsive especially when I was controlling using my thumb. It becomes noticeably less responsive when there were a lot of programming running or the cpu usage is high. I've tried updating the drivers but it is still the same. After a while, you will get used to its sensitivity.

The touchpad buttons are hard to press, but I rarely press them as the touchpad has multitouch control.

Multitouch is a wonder on this netbook. Once you get use to it, you won't be using a lot of clicking. two-finger tapping simulate a middle button. This is very useful to open a link in a new tab, or to close a tab. sweep across the touchpad using two fingers will trigger back and forward functions and vertical sweep is for scrolling. This is very useful when browsing. three-finger tapping is for right-click, so you don't have to press the touchpad's annoying buttons. sweeping it down will open application switch windows (like alt-tab) you can choose desired running program by sweeping left and right.

Using the multitouch makes a better browsing experience. I wish my other laptop has the same multitouch.

Screen:
The screen is bright and the text is crispy. You won't have trouble seeing stuff on it  if you are between 1-2  feet from it. It is bright enough even at 30% brightness.

General Usage:
The best part of this netbook is its battery life. With 8 hours of continuous usage, you can just bring it anywhere  without worrying about battery life. The next time you want to spend your saturday in starbuck or you have a 5 hours meeting, you don't have to bring the power adapter with you. I set my Windows to sleep the netbook in 5 minutes of inactivity. This save a lot of battery when I'm not using it. Waking up from sleep takes around 5-8 seconds which is fast to me.

I use it mostly to take note in class, browse internet, check email and watch youtube before sleep. Putting on your lap won't weight you down even though it's heavier than normal 8.9" netbook.

I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading