Product Reviews

UPDATE: We have now received a full XP version of the 901. Click here to jump directly to the updated battery life results.

With new pretenders to the throne growing in both number and popularity, the mini-notebook that started it all must adapt to stay ahead of the pack. Thus, Asus is launching the Eee PC 901 - less of a whole new model, more an Atomic Eee PC 900 with added curves.

Read the full review of the Asus Eee PC 1000H here.

To recap, the 900 brought the original Eee up to the specification most people were clamouring for: an 8.9in, 1,024 x 600 screen, a more sensible 1GB of RAM and up to 20GB of solid-state storage. The Eee was finally a proper, usable laptop rather than an early adopter's novelty item.

But with a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor under the hood, it still lacked power compared to full-sized laptops; and despite this the battery failed to offer the necessary juice for a full day's work. The price also rose to £329 inc VAT, moving uncomfortably away from the original ground-breaking concept of a cheap-as-chips runaround laptop.

Smooth-Eee
The Eee PC 901 doesn't do much to refute that last criticism (the price has only dropped to £319 inc VAT), but in every other respect it's a step forward. As our first look showed, the chassis has been smoothed, glossed and rounded to make it more attractive to consumers, and Asus has taken its own name off in favour of the ever-expanding Eee PC brand. A new hinge also feels more solid than the previous mechanism.

The MacBook-inspired multitouchpad on the 900 got a lot of praise, and it's still here on the 901. The mouse buttons, however, have been rejigged, with a full silver frame now surrounding the pad, bringing the buttons into line with Asus' other laptop families. They're responsive and quite firm, but a bit too clicky for our liking - and the touchpad on our sample didn't quite sit flush with them.

The real improvements, however, are internal. We've been hearing about Intel's Atom for eons now, and the Eee PC 901 finally gives us what we've waited for: the Atom N270. It runs at 1.6GHz, with 512KB of L2 cache and a 533MHz front side bus; has a thermal design power of just 2.5W, and an idle power consumption as low as 30mW - it promises similar performance to an old Celeron, but with hugely increased efficiency.

Running Linux the 901 felt responsive and smooth, just as the 900 did. As we expected, you still can't push the Eee too hard and expect it to remain snappy, but in our XP benchmarks

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(all of which it completed, unlike the 900) it actually performed pretty well. The 901 and its Atom scored similarly to the 900's Celeron in our Office and 2D graphics tests, yet proved 37% quicker at video encoding and 33% slower with audio - a mixed bag overall.

As well as the Atom processor, Asus has also fitted a new 802.11n wireless module and a Bluetooth adapter, both of which extend the Eee's appeal to those on the move. The physical ports haven't changed, so you get VGA, three USB, Ethernet and a memory card reader.

Longer lasting
The biggest improvement, though, is in the 901's new battery. It has a 6,600mAh capacity to the 900's 4,400mAh, and the two are also, annoyingly, incompatible with each other - bang goes any chance of plugging in the 900's battery and checking the difference the efficiency of an Atom makes.

So the improvements really do add to the appeal of the Eee PC 901, and the choice of Linux or Windows XP will keep both the purists and the masses happy. The XP version sacrifices 8GB of storage to make room in the budget for the OS license, but other than that they're identical.

The stumbling block to the Eee's continuing success may come from elsewhere, though. The Eee gained its popularity by being unlike anything else on the market; but we've now seen several other rivals that do everything the Eee does - and (whisper it quietly now) in some cases do it better.

The HP Mini Note 2133 certainly looked the part, but battery life shy of two hours put it out of the race. MSI's Wind looks more promising (and not dissimilar to the Eee itself), and our early hands-on with the laptop garnered positive reactions from all who saw it.

But it's Acer's Aspire One that seems to have most caught the eye in the PC Pro office: its extra inch of width and slightly larger keyboard, coupled with a VAIO-style lid, makes it look much more like a proper laptop than the little Eee. And with prices starting from a staggering £199 inc VAT, Asus will have a real fight on its hands once the mini-notebook field is fleshed out.

For now, though, if you're going to buy an Eee the 901 is your best choice - the battery life is vastly improved, and the processor more efficient if not significantly faster. The forthcoming 10in Eee PC 1000 will only move further up the price scale into standard laptop territory, and pretty soon the old 900 will be removed from sale, so your choice is this: buy a 901 or wait and see what the competition does. Look out for our review of the Aspire One soon.