Unboxing the Eee PC 900HA - Dining Room Table Quickie

[AZ100x]

Umm... Video stops at 5:51 for no reason...

[MangaSpinin01]

The Keyboard is so damn hard to type on =/

[Nosloveingneko]

*sigh* i really want one of these...

And i find it annoying that there not really makeing 8.9' netbooks any more =/

I truly adore the form factor of them.

[NoTaTtHiScHoOl]

on woot off right now for 175 including shipping..

[TheCanadianPublic]

For the 900HA? That's a really great price!

The price of the 1000HE is also falling further and further. It makes you wonder what Asus is planning next.

[WTFusernamenotvalid]

you're right with the stickers..

[carrierpilot1357]

so.

ok, lets open the box

so.

here we have the battery,

so.

No im just kidding. nice unboxing video.

[TheCanadianPublic]

So?

:)

[pacmanghostx]

"Which, I must admit, sucks a bit."

haha, great review, man. :)

[IronReviewer]

Very informative. Do you know any SSD that would fit this? I am getting mine tomorrow or wednesday.

[TheCanadianPublic]

Do you REALLY want an SSD drive? You could get a 320 GB 7200 RPM hard drive so cheap these days, for the same price, you'll only get one TENTH the storage space on an SSD!

But if you insist on getting one, shop around for a SATA compatible SSD drive with a 2.5 inch hard drive form factor.

[IronReviewer]

Thanks for the help!

[DasOrchid]

great review. very informative. especially about the battery. thanks.

[jeffrey9876543211111]

if you did research when you bought the 900ha you gain the hard drive but lose some battery life, the 900ha on 60 percent brightness runs 3 hours and 50 minutes on video time with wlan off. thats not that much of a problem in my eyes

[bigjayhasfrends]

nice name-(dining room quickie)

[lz3390]

Why are you complaining about the computer not being able to handle your video editing well? These are netbooks. They are not intended to be a primary machine. These are designed to be a secondary machine that can accommodate notes, web access, and the like.

[TheCanadianPublic]

That doesn't mean it shouldn't be able to handle some basic or even moderately advanced video editing jobs such as what my Fujitsu U810 and Asus 900HA are fully capable of accomplishing. It's pretty cool being able to create and post a short YouTube video of your vacation while you're still on vacation.

Anyway, the old 900 with its severely limited storage options is now a doorstop. :)

[jssawyer1993]

I don't think that 3.5 hours of battery life is bad!!!!! the laptop I'm using at the moment only has around 1.5 hours.(Dell Inspiron 1501)

[TheCanadianPublic]

If there's not enough battery life to watch an epic like Lawrence of Arabia, I ain't interested! :)

[jssawyer1993]

That is a fair point! and well done for the quick reply!!

[bmefff]

I just bought this from Newegg. I hope I'm not disappointed. I find it funny that you didn't want to show your face... ?

[TheCanadianPublic]

What exactly did you want to watch? Me? Or the computer? :)

[bmefff]

Definitely the computer. LOL I was only kidding before.

[TheCanadianPublic]

No problem. Besides, any chance for me to post a snappy comeback is a good one. :)

[jrcgeek1127]

this ones the one with the hard drive right?

[TheCanadianPublic]

Yep. And it's user upgradeable without the risk of invalidating the warranty.

[superkid24]

Battery was downgraded.

[s3xypillows]

lol i rly love dis laptop its compact and its a outdoor companion if u know wat i saying

[JoNaSbRoRoCk854]

Do you know if this netbook could "share" its internet?

The reason why I am asking is, I want to get a router for my house, connect to the internet with this, connect my xbox 360 to it via ethernet, and use the internet from my EEE to connect to xbox live.

[gmazin]

You can do that with any laptop... look on google. search something like "use your laptop to connect to xbox live" should be the first result

[MBProdz]

u can do that m8 i do it lol :D

[bigred850]

in the USA...do any 900HA Eee PCs come with PATA HDD??? i can't find any specs about the HDD except that it is 160GB standard.

[TheCanadianPublic]

The HD in the 900HA is a SATA drive. More specifically, a 160 GB 5400 RPM 8 MB cache SATA Seagate Momentus drive, model 5400.4.

Do note that Asus could replace the supplied drive with an equivalent model supplied by a different manufacturer. The interface however will remain SATA since changing the interface to PATA would require a re-engineered motherboard, which would be totally nuts at this stage.

[RBLSzeroX]

so which one is better the old or the new?

[TheCanadianPublic]

Check out the full review of the 900HA (the link is in the show info section). Your answer is in there.

[xinpoh99]

btw it quite lag ermm it atom =x

[callihammi03]

Why would they include a support dvd if there isn't a dvd drive included with the product ?

[TheCanadianPublic]

You can use an external USB DVD drive to restore the system. This is especially useful if you upgrade the hard drive and would prefer to do a fresh install instead of restoring the old system.

[falseblue]

Im doing a lot of research on these netbooks, and Im reading as the MSI Wing is looking pretty solid. Why did you choose this over that? Just looking for opinions on them all :D

[TheCanadianPublic]

First, the MSI Wind is a 10" form factor that's too big for my computer bags a.k.a. "man purses". Second, upgrading the MSI Wind's hard drive or memory will void the warranty.

[falseblue]

Thanks. Im debating between an EEE PC or the Aspire one now. The MSI Wind is too, 7-yearoldish. And kind of big, as you said, for a netbook.

[TheCanadianPublic]

Check out my first two European Vignettes. They were created on my Fujitsu Lifebook U810 while I was in Paris. Filmed, edited and uploaded on YouTube the same day!

The 900HA has a larger screen and a more powerful processor. The final rendering will be quicker, and it'll be easier on my eyes.

[thedefog]

TheCanadianPublic, There is BIOS version available that will let you install OSX86 that gets rid of that issue with the WiFi. It's just that there is no driver available for it yet in OSX. Oh, you also have to do this ghetto thing with a wire Jumper in the video out to make OSX think it is running on an external display.

[thedefog]

LiamusShakirus, I tried OSX86 on this thing, and it works fine actually. Only thing I couldn't get to run was the stupid webcam and the WiFi. Otherwise, everything else worked bug-free.

[thedefog]

I just bought one of these a week ago. They freakin' rock. I can run Unreal Tournament/Half Life full frame rate with no lag at native resolutions, as well as Fruity Loops, Cakewalk Sonar, and Reason. Oh, it also runs Photoshop and inDesign very well too!

[tkflex]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I love Asus products. I have a 15.6' Asus Z70va Laptop with ATI X700-128mb Vram. The thing is a beast and Since I am a student now, I was thinking of downsizing. I was looking at the EEE PC 900HA seeing that is the smallest Atom Netbook on the market.I see that the SIZE is balky to accomodate the HardDrive? Comes with 0.3 webcam? No bluetooth and no WIFI-N?< Cheapest I found is about $420CND or so shipped!? Is there anywhere I can get it CHEAPER? Thanx.

[mikeyrokschicago]

Mine gets here tomorrow!!

[technotechie]

Can you confirm if the webcam is 1.3 or 0.3 megapixels? The reason I ask is because there are conflicting reports everywhere.

[mikeyrokschicago]

.3

I wish it was a 1.3. Still for a VGA cam, the quality is good.

[technotechie]

Okay, so I have read around. Have you tried updating the webcam driver? I read on another review that if you update the driver, you can use the "full potential" of the webcam, which is actually 1.3 (though reported as .3). I haven't verified the claim, but if I purchase the 900ha (hopefully in a couple of weeks, I will definitely try it myself!

Great videos, by the way - very well done.

[TheCanadianPublic]

I haven't done any research on the subject since I rarely use Webcams in the first place. Even at 0.3 MP, the 900HA's Webcam is more than good enough for the few times I ever use it.

Someone else will have to check out this one.

[asdfxyz1]

did you read that in an official review or a user review? i saw that in a user review but no one could find the drivers. and the reviewer did not provide links when asked.

it sounds like bs.

[technotechie]

I did read it on a couple of user reviews. I think it is a possibility. It is possible that the user who searched for the driver didn't know what to look for. Also, in some reviews, you cannot post hyperlinks, as per the UA. There are several BIOS updates on the ASUS website for the 900ha that might make an improvement. Just asking if anyone had tried it. Sorry you feel like it is BS - I just found the claims rather interesting, given all of the conflicting information on some tech blogs.

[LiamusShakirus]

Dude, you have thoroughly convinced me to buy one of these. Great job on the video, very professionally made. I'm looking forward to tinkering with this box, and I will try to configure a triple-boot between XP, Ubuntu 8.10, and MAC OS X 10.5.

Yes, loading a PC up with OS X is possible, in fact, its fairly straightforward. The only problems I can see with this model is the Wi-Fi, which is an atheros card, not supported by OS X. I'll just install a Dell 1390 or 1490 instead.

[TheCanadianPublic]

A word of warning. It's possible that the BIOS may be locked to accept only a single line of WiFi cards. I've tried installing the WiFi module from my Fujitsu U810 into my HP TX1220 to try and resolve the HP's incessant hardware conflicts, but the HP's BIOS reported that the WiFi module was not a recognized WiFi card. It knew it was a WiFi card, but it wasn't "authorized" or something.

[LiamusShakirus]

Hmm, that's interesting. I know plenty of people that have installed dell 1390s that worked, which are a dime a dozen these days, but those were in different EEE models, 701, 1000H, etc. Well, I have a spare 1390 so I'll try it when I do order my 900HA, and I hope it works. I Suspect it will, considering all of the EEEs run on the same BIOS.

Cheers,

Liam S.

[TheCanadianPublic]

Ah! Others have already successfully swapped the Wifi card on different models. In that case, you should be okay.

Unfortunately, HP computers appear to be extremely anal in the hardware department, which is regrettable since it's a conflict between the nDivia chipset and the WiFi card's draft-N specification that causes a catastrophic audio breakup on the TX1220. Because of this major design failure, I'll never recommend an HP computer to anyone.

Have fun with the multiple OSes!

[LiamusShakirus]

Well, I will as soon as I raise some more money... A 15 year old's budget isn't exactly huge. I gotta do some work for my neighbors first, but Ill eventually order it. Hopefully Ill get some money for my birthday first.

Im dying of anticipation

[Masterz13]

Hey. I'm thinking about getting one of these. Could you...

 -tell me about its performance? -tell me if flash videos work okay with it?

It looks like a really good deal.

[TheCanadianPublic]

The performance of the 900HA is MUCH better than the performance of the 900. It's very smooth, not suffering from the endless stuttering that plagued the 900. And the flash works fine. It may not be as pristine as what you would normally see on a desktop machine, but it's definitely better than the 900.

I feel like I have a real computer in my hands. It even makes the original 900 seem like a mistake!

[Masterz13]

Thanks a lot. One more thing: Does it do decent with multitasking? I dont mean heavy multitasking, just an internet browser, media player, and MSN messenger.

[TheCanadianPublic]

I'll test that out and include the results in my review. It should multitask pretty well since the Atom processor in the 900AH is a hyperthreading model.

[LiamusShakirus]

Yes, I believe the atom is a fairly decent multithreaded processor.

[gmazin]

Can you post some games running on it? Some old ones, like World of Warcraft or something. I have a 701 and I'll probably buy this model once I save up for it.

[TheCanadianPublic]

Already working on it. I've already tried Half-Life 1 and 2. HL1 works flawlessly, but the 1024x600 resolution is unavailable. HL2 however DID support 1024x600, but the game chokes whenever there's too much action on the screen. I attribute that to the severely underpowered Intel graphics engine. Asus has to start using nVidia or ATI chipsets.

I still plan to reload Postal 2 and see how well I can whack people over the head with a shovel. :)

[LiamusShakirus]

There are multiple ways to get games working with this thing. If you hunt around, theres a video of a guy playing Unreal Tournament 2004 flawlessly. Its pretty impressive.

[munic1]

LOL ....WELCOME TO MY DINING TABLE>>>

LOL....

muhahahahah....

nice video man...

[diggingforgold]

Good review. SSD was good idea for the 701, but people are finding that newer netbooks are replacing their big laptops, and people crave storage space and speed that you can't get with low-end SSD.

I have a 701 now. I'm very close to buying the 900HA. Ebay/Live cashback is at 25% right now and I might jump on that deal while it lasts. I can get it for $262.49 after cashback. It's hard to resist such a great deal like that especially when ASUS finally got the netbook right with this model.

[TheCanadianPublic]

$262.94? If you can afford to take a chance, I say go for it! Up to now, the 900HA hasn't produced any nasty surprises. Even the extra software was limited to Windows Live, Microsoft Works, Skype, and Eee Storage. As for the form factor, they truly got it right this time.

It'll still take me at least a couple of weeks before I post the full review (this was just an unboxing video). It'll take me that long to abuse the computer close to the breaking point. :)

Thanks for watching!

[diggingforgold]

Your unboxing video was the last straw. I caved in and bought it. Final price was actually US$261.75 after Microsoft cashback. I could have got it cheaper, but I chose to stick with a reputable eBay dealer, expcestore (99.9%) and paid a few bucks more.

Can you verify whether or not your 900HA has a 1.3MP or a 0.3MP webcam? I've heard mixed reports of some people getting 1.3MP webcams on theirs. Either way doesn't much matter since the 0.3MP on my 701 was good enough for normal use. Thanks!

[TheCanadianPublic]

I just took a snapshot with MS Paint. It came in as a 640x480 image. So it's a 0.3 MP Webcam. It doesn't look that much better than the 1.3 MP camera on the 900, or the 0.3 MP Webcam on my U810.

Then again, I never use Webcams because I find them all to be terrible. I actually prefer to use my HD camcorder connected via firewire. Now THAT'S a Webcam! :)