Travelling with 1005ha

I was in South Dakota on the 6 – 9 of August attending my 20 year high school reunion.  A day before I left I received a new netbook from Amazon, the EEE PC 1005ha.  I really love my EEE 901 for everything except typing, the keyboard is a little too small and it has a bad habit of entering double letters on occasion.  It was enough of a hindrance that I decided to replace the machine.

Perhaps the best thing about the 901 is the size.  The 901 was one of the last batches of 8.9” EEE PC’s and that really is the best form factor for travelling.  I reluctantly went with the new 10” display standard and purchased my 3rd EEE PC (701, 901, and now the 1005ha).  I size difference is noticeable when compared to the 901, but the weight is quite similar thanks to the seashell design of the 1005. 

The claim to fame of the 1005 is it’s 10.5 hour battery life, which I am not sure I am seeing under my usage.  I show 6:00 left with 88.8% remaining which is definitely better than the 901, but not quite the 10.5 hours that was promised.  I did upgrade the computer to Windows 7, so it is possible that there is a difference in times vs. the XP that normally ships on the laptop.  I am happy with the battery so far and will try some battery bench marks when I have a chance.

The keyboard was the main reason for upgrading and I am very, very happy with the outcome.  The keyboard is a bit clicky, but very fast and responsive.  The keys are large enough to type on comfortably and the new configuration gives a good sized shift key on each side of the keyboard.  I am easily able to touch type on the keyboard, at least as well as I can on most keyboards.  I am not sure if the difference is the larger device or just the better keyboard but it has made a world of difference where typing is concerned.

About the only thing that I do not like about the laptop thus far is that it comes with a 160GB hard drive.  It is not the size that I dislike, it is the fact that it is a traditional HDD instead of an SSD.  The drive is so much slower than what I am used to on the EEE 901 (which I upgraded to a 16 GB Runcore SSD).  This drive has been very slow at times, with very slow boot times as well as slowness returning from sleep (see the benchmark below).  I think I will nab a 64 GB SDD from the Runcore Pro SATA line.  The read and write speeds on that SSD are quite fast and I am thinking that it will make this laptop perfect.

 
Disk benchmark for included HDD.

I am looking forward to this being my primary laptop for the next year.  With the nicer keyboard it is my hope that it will be easier to write a bit more.  I would recommend the 1005ha to anyone interested in a 10” netbook.