Asus 1000H vs Wind 80GB vs HP Mini 120GB

Rexy · 28th August 2008, 4:25 PM

I got my vendor to give me some netbooks on trial to evaluate. These are the three I've got, and they are all using XP (the HP was setup to dual boot Vista and XP by my vendor). They are all also HDD versions (no SSD). They would be used in an edu environment, hence I have edu usage in mind for my trial.

First impressions - I personally prefer the 1000H (but not in black - fingerprint magnet!!). The screen is nice and bright. The Wind is a little more dull, whilst the 1280 res on the HP Mini is just a tad too small. I have perfect eyesight, but find myself hunching a little close to the HP Mini for comfort. I also don't find the keyboard on the HP as brilliant as all the reviews say. It feels "slippery" to type on, and the touchpad is definitely not as good as the Asus.

I'm surprised just how quick the 1000H feels straight out of the box. The Wind feels about the same speed, but I don't like its KB as much, and it feels a bit "cheaper" with its matte finish, if that's important. The HP is pretty snappy with XP but slow with Vista (2+ mins just to see the desktop, and the hard drive is constantly busy all the time despite 2GB RAM).

Fire away, if you've got any specific questions I'll see what I can do, I've got them for a few days until early next week and will be running a bunch of tests etc and maybe PCMark05 which I use on all my eval computers. My main aim is to see if these netbooks can replace full size 14-15" notebooks for edu use ie browsing, doc creation, basic editing, flash creation etc. My gut feeling is "not quite yet" mainly due to warranty issues (none of them have a 3 year onsite warranty, which is mandatory for heavily used notebooks) and in 2 of the cases, the batteries aren't up to snuff yet. (2 hrs isn't enough).

T0fu · 28th August 2008, 4:41 PM

Q: Being the massive multitasking and networking whores uni students are, is it possible run at the same time multiple browsers/tabs open with 10 or so tabs of memory heavy stuff like flikr and youtube along with resource consuming programs like itunes and windows messenger live + adobe acrobat open and 2 microsoft word docos open

or does it just eat too much ram and doesnt fit the screen anyway?

Q2: How does the Atom multitask with things like antivirus, spyware and firewall programs running in the background and again with scans being run at the same time?

Rexy · 28th August 2008, 5:32 PM

No worries, will give it a whirl tomorrow. Installed CS3 on the 1000H today, was pleasantly surprised how quickly it installed (full 4GB DVD took about 30 mins to install across the LAN, and another 45 mins to download 480MB of patches and install them). Seems to open PS in about 20 seconds, which I think is pretty quick for what it is.

As for screen real estate, I guess the HP is best for multitasking - the extra res of 1280 is a big winner, but the text is mighty small, remember its an 8.9" screen compared to the 1024x600 1000H at 10". I have a feeling the "ultimate" eeePC would be 10 inches with 1280 resolution but as that doesn't exist yet, the HP wins on screen real estate alone.

I suspect I'll still end up buying old-school 15" notebooks for the next round (they get used hard in edu, and the 3 yr warranty is important), but next year when we're up to the 3rd and 4th revision netbooks it will be a totally different story. I suspect by then they'll be real competitors for traditional 14-15" notebooks.

For personal use ie buying it with my own money, the 1000H looks best out of the bunch, esp if you factor in the higher cost of the HP mini. Its quite a larger form factor than my personal 701, but its so much faster and brighter, and with 4+ hr battery, its a god buy IMHO.

Afurotsu · 28th August 2008, 10:37 PM

Set the dpi level to at least 120 if you feel the text is too small. The screen is actually 168dpi!

Vista with Aero does a pretty good job at scaling programs that aren't dpi aware.

wRONG · 29th August 2008, 7:57 AM

Q: Does the less weight and size saving of the Wind over the 1000H seem like a big deal? (I assume it is the 6 cell wind)

Tossing up between the two atm. Also apparently the wind has superior battery life. Im guessing it is partly due to the fact that when it is on power save it throttles the cpu to 1.1ghz, whereas the 1000H throttles to 1.2ghz.

Rexy · 29th August 2008, 10:59 AM

OK the Wind I have on eval is only a 3-cell battery, so yes, the Wind is much lighter than the 1000H. But picking them up side by side, at no stage does the 1000H feel heavy with its 6-cell battery. I'd rather carry a couple of hundred extra grams than live with only 2-2.5hrs battery. The 1000H has been running on battery all morning (currently running PCMark05) and it has 2:44 remaining. Pretty neat.

I might have to mention that side by side, the Wind and the 1000H screens are very similar in brightness. I wrote earlier that the Wind is a bit dull. If it is its a tiny amount, and not much at all. The screens of both are good.

The HP mini however, has a reflective screen with higher res, and in my well-lit office is definitely dimmer. It has a sharper display, but it is less bright even on full brightness. Using it in an office with a reflective display is annoying. No such probs with the Wind or 1000H.

Rexy · 29th August 2008, 3:04 PM

Well I've just finished running CPUMark 2.1 and PerformanceTest 6.0 over all the machines. Its 2 basic tests I've used for many eval units going back a few years. Comparing the 1000H and Wind (both Atom 1.6Ghz) to the HP Mini note.

CPUMark2.1 results (focuses purely on CPU):
1000H: 2360.x (finished second)
Wind: 2218.2 (finished third)
HP Mini: 2467.3 (finished first)

PerformanceTest6.0 "Passmark rating" (an all-in-one test, not just CPU):
1000H: 177.2
Wind: 198.0
HP Mini: 196.2

Its nothing scientific, and all machines are as pre-loaded with XP by the vendor. Interesting the 1000H is a little slower in the all-in-one benchmark than the Wind/HP. In real use, you'd be going to tell the difference, they're all about the same. The HP is maybe a little slower when beavering around XP, but not by much.

I tried running PCMark05, as a generic benchmark to compare them all, but it doesn't compare. The HP Mini obviously has different graphics features, as it runs a lot more of the gfx tests, whereas the Wind and 1000H just skip those tests entirely, so this can't be used as a test. Only the HP Mini gives a result when forced to run at 1024x768. 968 PC marks if anyone cares.

So on stats alone, you'd think the HP mini was best, but it doesn't feel it in real use. To be honest, they all feel pretty damn similar, and my choice would be based on things that have nothing to do with benchmarks.

The Wind battery is reasonable (~2hrs), but the HP is poor (~90mins). The eeePC lasts for 4+ hours, as is expected being the only 6 cell of the bunch.

If I wanted battery life, given the Wind and HP both charge you $100+ MORE for a 6 cell battery, I'd go for the 1000H. 4 hours+ is marvellous, and in my experience totally obtainable.

To be honest, out of the bunch, I'd probably prefer the 1000H myself too. The Wind is a close second, its battery really letting it down. The HP was supposedly designed for education, but to be honest looks more like a show-off business toy. Shiny screen, sexy metal case etc all screams beautiful, but in real use its a bit slower, the battery life is poor, and the screen is a bit hard to read. On its own, its a fine piece of kit, but because it costs much more than the others, I can't recommend it compared to the others. The next revision of the HP Mini with Atom and perhaps a 10" screen and better battery would be a real killer netbook (if they can keep costs reasonable).

As for the 1000H or Wind, its really personal choice. I think the 1000H looks more classy, and feels a bit more "pro", but the Wind is very similar in a lot of areas except the battery life.

So if that consolidates a lot of what you're already read, same for me. I expected a standout winner, but there isn't one. Not one of these netbooks has everything I need ie long battery life, 3 year warranty (or at least an option), onsite support etc. So at this stage, I will probably end up buying traditional 15" laptops until this market has matured a little. When we can by optional upgraded warranties etc I'll seriously consider these little beasties for use in edu. I can see their massive appeal to little kids too. Not having to cart around a 3kg+ monster would be a huge advantage. But they're not quite ready yet. Support means more to me than specs or portability.

If I had $700 blowing a hole in my pocket personally, however, I'd buy the 1000H. The upgradability, the nice screen, the solid feel etc all makes it my personal choice. However, you better hope nothing goes wrong with it, as apparently the only support is RMA back to Sydney for the Asus.

wRONG · 29th August 2008, 3:45 PM

The new revision of the wind will be coming out with a 6 cell battery very soon. So it would prob be a much better comparisonate. It also has a 1 year international warranty.

Rexy · 30th August 2008, 1:59 AM

Yes, I'm gobsmacked at these manufacturers. They talk portability, then have the audacity to give these things batteries that realistically last between 90 and 120 minutes. When you really ARE away from power you need a decent battery life (ie on the train etc). I just don't understand why all of these things don't have a 6+ cell battery from the day they were first designed. If I wanted a 90-120 min battery, I'd buy a friggin 15" cheapo laptop, they're everywhere and available for $500.

The HP really shocked me. Flat in around 90 minutes. That's pathetic. Its such a gorgeous bit of kit, and screen is very nice (if a bit hard to read) but the standard battery is a joke. Paying another $100+ just to get more than 90 minutes is absurd IMHO.

The 1000H is here now, with a good battery that lasts 4+ hours, and its the cheapest of the lot. If you can find it under $650, I think its a real cracker. Wait 3 months and it'll be $500 anyway, so its up to you.

28th August 2008, 4:25 PM	#1
Rexy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Adelaide Posts: 487	Asus 1000H vs Wind 80GB vs HP Mini 120GB I got my vendor to give me some netbooks on trial to evaluate. These are the three I've got, and they are all using XP (the HP was setup to dual boot Vista and XP by my vendor). They are all also HDD versions (no SSD). They would be used in an edu environment, hence I have edu usage in mind for my trial. First impressions - I personally prefer the 1000H (but not in black - fingerprint magnet!!). The screen is nice and bright. The Wind is a little more dull, whilst the 1280 res on the HP Mini is just a tad too small. I have perfect eyesight, but find myself hunching a little close to the HP Mini for comfort. I also don't find the keyboard on the HP as brilliant as all the reviews say. It feels "slippery" to type on, and the touchpad is definitely not as good as the Asus. I'm surprised just how quick the 1000H feels straight out of the box. The Wind feels about the same speed, but I don't like its KB as much, and it feels a bit "cheaper" with its matte finish, if that's important. The HP is pretty snappy with XP but slow with Vista (2+ mins just to see the desktop, and the hard drive is constantly busy all the time despite 2GB RAM). Fire away, if you've got any specific questions I'll see what I can do, I've got them for a few days until early next week and will be running a bunch of tests etc and maybe PCMark05 which I use on all my eval computers. My main aim is to see if these netbooks can replace full size 14-15" notebooks for edu use ie browsing, doc creation, basic editing, flash creation etc. My gut feeling is "not quite yet" mainly due to warranty issues (none of them have a 3 year onsite warranty, which is mandatory for heavily used notebooks) and in 2 of the cases, the batteries aren't up to snuff yet. (2 hrs isn't enough).

28th August 2008, 4:41 PM	#2
T0fu Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SYDNEY Posts: 1,099	Q: Being the massive multitasking and networking whores uni students are, is it possible run at the same time multiple browsers/tabs open with 10 or so tabs of memory heavy stuff like flikr and youtube along with resource consuming programs like itunes and windows messenger live + adobe acrobat open and 2 microsoft word docos open or does it just eat too much ram and doesnt fit the screen anyway? Q2: How does the Atom multitask with things like antivirus, spyware and firewall programs running in the background and again with scans being run at the same time? __________________ i5 i750 \| 2 x 2gb DDR3 1600 \| 1tb WD Caviar Black \| HD3850 256 \| black ugly rusting shitbox of a case\| P55UD3 vanilla \| 500w Zalman RS \| Filco Zero Tenkeyless

28th August 2008, 5:32 PM	#3
Rexy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Adelaide Posts: 487	No worries, will give it a whirl tomorrow. Installed CS3 on the 1000H today, was pleasantly surprised how quickly it installed (full 4GB DVD took about 30 mins to install across the LAN, and another 45 mins to download 480MB of patches and install them). Seems to open PS in about 20 seconds, which I think is pretty quick for what it is. As for screen real estate, I guess the HP is best for multitasking - the extra res of 1280 is a big winner, but the text is mighty small, remember its an 8.9" screen compared to the 1024x600 1000H at 10". I have a feeling the "ultimate" eeePC would be 10 inches with 1280 resolution but as that doesn't exist yet, the HP wins on screen real estate alone. I suspect I'll still end up buying old-school 15" notebooks for the next round (they get used hard in edu, and the 3 yr warranty is important), but next year when we're up to the 3rd and 4th revision netbooks it will be a totally different story. I suspect by then they'll be real competitors for traditional 14-15" notebooks. For personal use ie buying it with my own money, the 1000H looks best out of the bunch, esp if you factor in the higher cost of the HP mini. Its quite a larger form factor than my personal 701, but its so much faster and brighter, and with 4+ hr battery, its a god buy IMHO.

28th August 2008, 10:37 PM	#4
Afurotsu Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Sydney 2177 Posts: 257	Set the dpi level to at least 120 if you feel the text is too small. The screen is actually 168dpi! Vista with Aero does a pretty good job at scaling programs that aren't dpi aware.

29th August 2008, 7:57 AM	#5
wRONG Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 183	Q: Does the less weight and size saving of the Wind over the 1000H seem like a big deal? (I assume it is the 6 cell wind) Tossing up between the two atm. Also apparently the wind has superior battery life. Im guessing it is partly due to the fact that when it is on power save it throttles the cpu to 1.1ghz, whereas the 1000H throttles to 1.2ghz.

29th August 2008, 10:59 AM	#6
Rexy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Adelaide Posts: 487	OK the Wind I have on eval is only a 3-cell battery, so yes, the Wind is much lighter than the 1000H. But picking them up side by side, at no stage does the 1000H feel heavy with its 6-cell battery. I'd rather carry a couple of hundred extra grams than live with only 2-2.5hrs battery. The 1000H has been running on battery all morning (currently running PCMark05) and it has 2:44 remaining. Pretty neat. I might have to mention that side by side, the Wind and the 1000H screens are very similar in brightness. I wrote earlier that the Wind is a bit dull. If it is its a tiny amount, and not much at all. The screens of both are good. The HP mini however, has a reflective screen with higher res, and in my well-lit office is definitely dimmer. It has a sharper display, but it is less bright even on full brightness. Using it in an office with a reflective display is annoying. No such probs with the Wind or 1000H.

29th August 2008, 3:04 PM	#7
Rexy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Adelaide Posts: 487	Well I've just finished running CPUMark 2.1 and PerformanceTest 6.0 over all the machines. Its 2 basic tests I've used for many eval units going back a few years. Comparing the 1000H and Wind (both Atom 1.6Ghz) to the HP Mini note. CPUMark2.1 results (focuses purely on CPU): 1000H: 2360.x (finished second) Wind: 2218.2 (finished third) HP Mini: 2467.3 (finished first) PerformanceTest6.0 "Passmark rating" (an all-in-one test, not just CPU): 1000H: 177.2 Wind: 198.0 HP Mini: 196.2 Its nothing scientific, and all machines are as pre-loaded with XP by the vendor. Interesting the 1000H is a little slower in the all-in-one benchmark than the Wind/HP. In real use, you'd be going to tell the difference, they're all about the same. The HP is maybe a little slower when beavering around XP, but not by much. I tried running PCMark05, as a generic benchmark to compare them all, but it doesn't compare. The HP Mini obviously has different graphics features, as it runs a lot more of the gfx tests, whereas the Wind and 1000H just skip those tests entirely, so this can't be used as a test. Only the HP Mini gives a result when forced to run at 1024x768. 968 PC marks if anyone cares. So on stats alone, you'd think the HP mini was best, but it doesn't feel it in real use. To be honest, they all feel pretty damn similar, and my choice would be based on things that have nothing to do with benchmarks. The Wind battery is reasonable (~2hrs), but the HP is poor (~90mins). The eeePC lasts for 4+ hours, as is expected being the only 6 cell of the bunch. If I wanted battery life, given the Wind and HP both charge you $100+ MORE for a 6 cell battery, I'd go for the 1000H. 4 hours+ is marvellous, and in my experience totally obtainable. To be honest, out of the bunch, I'd probably prefer the 1000H myself too. The Wind is a close second, its battery really letting it down. The HP was supposedly designed for education, but to be honest looks more like a show-off business toy. Shiny screen, sexy metal case etc all screams beautiful, but in real use its a bit slower, the battery life is poor, and the screen is a bit hard to read. On its own, its a fine piece of kit, but because it costs much more than the others, I can't recommend it compared to the others. The next revision of the HP Mini with Atom and perhaps a 10" screen and better battery would be a real killer netbook (if they can keep costs reasonable). As for the 1000H or Wind, its really personal choice. I think the 1000H looks more classy, and feels a bit more "pro", but the Wind is very similar in a lot of areas except the battery life. So if that consolidates a lot of what you're already read, same for me. I expected a standout winner, but there isn't one. Not one of these netbooks has everything I need ie long battery life, 3 year warranty (or at least an option), onsite support etc. So at this stage, I will probably end up buying traditional 15" laptops until this market has matured a little. When we can by optional upgraded warranties etc I'll seriously consider these little beasties for use in edu. I can see their massive appeal to little kids too. Not having to cart around a 3kg+ monster would be a huge advantage. But they're not quite ready yet. Support means more to me than specs or portability. If I had $700 blowing a hole in my pocket personally, however, I'd buy the 1000H. The upgradability, the nice screen, the solid feel etc all makes it my personal choice. However, you better hope nothing goes wrong with it, as apparently the only support is RMA back to Sydney for the Asus.

29th August 2008, 3:45 PM	#8
wRONG Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 183	The new revision of the wind will be coming out with a 6 cell battery very soon. So it would prob be a much better comparisonate. It also has a 1 year international warranty.

30th August 2008, 1:59 AM	#9
Rexy Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Adelaide Posts: 487	Yes, I'm gobsmacked at these manufacturers. They talk portability, then have the audacity to give these things batteries that realistically last between 90 and 120 minutes. When you really ARE away from power you need a decent battery life (ie on the train etc). I just don't understand why all of these things don't have a 6+ cell battery from the day they were first designed. If I wanted a 90-120 min battery, I'd buy a friggin 15" cheapo laptop, they're everywhere and available for $500. The HP really shocked me. Flat in around 90 minutes. That's pathetic. Its such a gorgeous bit of kit, and screen is very nice (if a bit hard to read) but the standard battery is a joke. Paying another $100+ just to get more than 90 minutes is absurd IMHO. The 1000H is here now, with a good battery that lasts 4+ hours, and its the cheapest of the lot. If you can find it under $650, I think its a real cracker. Wait 3 months and it'll be $500 anyway, so its up to you.