Customer Reviews

ASUS Eee PC 904HA 8.9-Inch Netbook (1.6 GHz Intel ATOM N270 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 10 GB Eee Storage, XP Home, 6 Cell Battery) Fine Ebony

5 star:		(97)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

[per one of the comments, I needed to add additional information if you choose to change the keys on the keyboard. Go down on the keyboard section - 2/1/09]
[One more addition on how I fixed my keyboard. Go down to the Keyboard section for my addition. - 1/13/09]
[After using it for another month, I am adding to this review - 12/23/08]

I got this netbook last week and am having a great time with it. I have a decent core 2 duo 14" laptop and when I use the two side by side, my new netbook has no problem keeping up with the speed of the other one.

Let me break it down for you here...

1) Why I chose to buy Asus eee pc 904ha - I considered several options, but the reputation of Asus won me over. And then from the various models, I was getting differing opinions concerning celeron vs atom. In the end, I was reading that the speed was comparable but atom used less juice and so produced less heat. And so atom was chosen. Most people complained that the SDD on eee pc was problematic and so I chose the large 160 sata hd. I almost bought 900ha. In fact, I canceled the order right after I bought it. I changed to 904ha because I was reading that the keyboard on the 900 was simply too small. I was reading that people had to get adjusted to it. My fingers are large, and so I didn't want to take a chance on it. In the end, I love the keyboard of the 904ha. I'll talk more about it below.

2) Screen - I love the screen. I was worried that I would regret the small 9", but the screen fills up really nicely. I use the F11 button often to read the internet articles, and I have no trouble reading the fonts. The screens are getting better and better - imho, my new 9" screen shows better color saturation than my 2 yr old 14".

[Using Outlook 2007 on it works nicely, but adding Contact information has been difficult. I can't add address to my new entries because the program was created for a larger screen. Minor issue, I know. - 12/23/08]

3) Keyboard - I am so glad I got the larger 904ha because of the keyboard. I don't know how small the 900 ones would be, but I don't think I would enjoy typing on a smaller keyboard. As it is, the change to the larger keyboard is noticeable. I am making "shift" mistakes with my right hand because I keep on hitting the "page up" button, and I am still not used to it. I type without difficulty, but am always thinking about that right shift button.

[I must say, I am frustrated with the right shift key. I still type fine and with speed, but I am used to using both shift keys, and now, I am having to stop and think whenever I shift because I could never get to that right shift key. I keep on hitting the "page up" button. Grrr. Design flaw that needs to be corrected. I would deduct 1/2 star off of this product because of this. - 12/23/08]

[Ha! It was so easy! I have been frustrated with the right shift key's position. I would be perfect if it was where PgUp key was. After reading some sites, I decided to act upon it and switch the two keys. Here's what I did: I downloaded two free programs -- SharpKeys 2.1.1 & Windows NET framework 3.5 (2.0 could work). I installed NET 3.5 (follow the instruction and restart the computer), and then SharpKeys. In SharpKeys, I switched PgUp with Right Shift button. The program is incredibly simple to use. I closed the program and restarted the computer. Voila! I typed away, pushing PgUp to shift! I could have stopped there, but I wanted to physically change the keys, too. To finish the job, I gently lifted up the corner of the PgUp key and popped it off. And then did the same with the right Shift key (lift the corner and pop it off). And then I switched the two keys so that Shift is where PgUp was and PgUp is where Shift key was. And I simply pushed them both it. There's nothing to this -- like pushing in a pushpin. Listen for a few clicks and make sure they are securely in place. Now I type without hinderance! Yeah! I should post the modified keyboard here. 1/13/09]

[If you want to swap the keys like the photo I've posted, it's rather easy if you pop up from the correct corner. I've found that lifting up the top left corner is easiest. I am left-handed, so that came naturally for me. Sorry for all you right-handed people who tried to pry up from top right corner. I've tried several swaps since, and settled on only changing the shift up and up arrow key. I've returned the bottom arrow and the right arrow since I've posted the photo at top. 2/1/09]

4) Hard Drive Partitioned - the 160gb is divided equally into C: & D:. Some like it that way. I don't. Per others suggestion, I downloaded easeus partition manager 2.1 and used it to get rid of D:. It was incredibly easy. I think you can also adjust the sizes of the partitions using the program.

5) Lack of DVD Drive - Initially, I thought I had to buy an external drive to upload my programs. But after reading some internet posts (God bless the forums!), I networked my two computers (laptop & netbook) using "set up my home or small office network" in My Network Places and then put my dvd drive in "share" mode (right click on the DVD drive and open "sharing and security...". Voila! I was able to use my laptop dvd drive to upload my programs into my 904ha! The limitation of this setup is the speed of the network. I have cable at home, so no problem at all for me.

6) 6 cell battery - I've read a lot of posts about how great these batteries are. Sadly, my battery is defective and won't charge beyond 65%. I called Asus tech and they are sending me a replacement battery. The drawback is that per Asus policy, I have to pay for the shipping cost to return my faulty battery. I was upset by this, but the vendor I bought it from agreed to cover my cost to ship back. I shall have to wait to marvel at the stated "7 hours" of continuous use. I can't wait!

[11/26 Here's an update on the battery. I got a replacement and fully charged it before use. From 100%, I had my screen at max brightness and used the internet to watch online videos. I wanted to see the battery life at max use. Before it turned off at 0%, it lasted a little over 4 hrs 30 min. I can see that with brightness turned down and less online use, I could get more hours on this. I am a happy camper.]

7) Protective bag - This is probably my only disappointment. I wished they would have provided a form fitting bag, rather than the pouch that has room to spare. I can put my netbook and my a/c cords in them and still have room. I am in a lookout for a nice sturdy netbook bag that I can carry along with my other stuff.

[I don't mind the size of the protective bag now that I've used it for a month. Rather than complaining about the large size, I am using it to carry my power cord and my flat Kensington mouse in it without problem. I was looking for another bag, but I don't need it anymore. - 12/23/08]

8) Black reflective top - Much has been made in the reviews about the reflective top that attracts fingerprints and such. I don't know, I don't have any problems with this. I love the black color because it's rather unassuming. I don't need to show off my netbook.

9) Memory upgrade from 1gb to 2gb - I realized that not all memory will work on the upgrade. I tried the OCZ's PC2 6400 2gb, but it wouldn't upgrade. And so I put in OCZ's PC2 5400 2gb and that worked well. Also, in the Owner's Manual, it says to turn off the "boot booster" before you upgrade. I think it is best to follow that instruction before any upgrading.

That's it. I hope this helps.

I already have an HP Multimedia laptop with a 15" screen which I love but it is to weighty to keep on my lap at night when I surf the web. It is difficult to move around on your lap when you share your chair with a dog. I wanted something lighter but I also wanted a keyboard I could touch type on, Windows XP, and enough HD, Ram and processor speed to run and store multimedia.

After looking at the various netbooks, I settled on the ASUS because I liked the design and the fact that it could be easily upgraded. I wanted the smallest screen that I could comfortably use to surf the web. I settled on 8.9", but I also wanted a netbook size that would fit comfortably on my lap and enable me to touch type easily. I know the 904 models have a larger bezel around the screen and to me that is an advantage because I often pull the laptop around on my lap by the sides of the screen.

After ordering this laptop I thought I might be disappointed by the 8.9" screen and that I should have gone with the 10.2", but after getting this laptop I found I prefer the smaller size because I can view more information at a glance.

This netbook is a great performer and starts quickly. You can learn more about the many features on the reviews for the 1000HA. It comes with a great case to protect it and the battery life is very good. I only tried using it for 6 hours on battery and it was still going strong.

I have the black version and think it is beautiful, but the white version with the black and white contrast looks very sharp. I like having a small full featured laptop that I can carry around with me. I use my cell phone as my UMPC to read email and look up information on the web when I am on the go. But, it is much easier to use a laptop when I want to email someone on surf the web in depth. I would not use this netbook to do photo editing or other detailed work without a monitor. But I have used it to watch TV.

I bought a AverTV Volar HD USB receiver after reading that someone else used one on their netbook. The picture is fantastic and I can actually see the HD quality. I have enough HD space on this netbook to record broadcasts or portions of broadcasts and watch them later. I also bought a VGA to TV converter to enable me to display web shows on the TV.

You will fall in love with this netbook. If you want a larger screen just buy the 1000HA. The only negative I see in this netbook is that you will not want to put it down.

I recently purchased the Asus Eee Pc 904ha and I couldn't be any more happy with the performance thus far. The Atom processor seems to work wonders with keeping the Netbook at great working condition. I have yet to be annoyed by the laptop over-heating. So far so good. The 1 gig of ram that is standard in the system makes this device run smoothly and allows for you to run many programs at a time with no trouble at all.

Alongside the 1 gig of ram, you get a 160 gig hard drive which is split up into your C and D drive. There is so much space to store whatever you need over the course of use with your netbook and still...if you wish to purchase a USB drive you can because this device comes with three USB 2.0 connection ports.

Transferring images from a camera is easy especially since you can insert a media card into the card slot located on the side of the Netbook.

One con about the netbook is that it lacks a CD drive. Although this takes away from watching DVD's and installing programs via cd-rom, you can still enjoy the use of this device to a great degree.

The keyboard is amazing. I find that the keyboard is spacious and good enough to write properly and as fast as I used to on a standard laptop keyboard.

One of the programs I added on was Microsoft Office Pro XP. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and all the other programs work extremely smooth on the Netbook. So yes, you can install the programs and expect them to run very well

I needed to purchase a laptop fast since my old one died and I need something to carry with me in case I have to write a report or write up computer programs and I found this one and it caught my eye immediately. The price alone is something that is to be acknowledged. It is easily one of the cheaper netbooks on the market and comes with considerably more than others on the market.

The Web cam works well with skype and other web cam enabled programs. I find it very useful and I intend to make even more use of it in the near future.

Overall this product is a perfect buy! I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great device for a cheap price. Again...it is way more than I had expected it to be.

I have had this laptop for 4 days now and 100% love it. The size is insane.

I have owned 2 laptops over the years...a 15" and 17" and what I hated was lugging it around. I would always have to take the AC adapter with me...now I can leave it at home.

It's so lightweight...this thing weighs like 3 pounds.

It comes with a simple zipper cover and I can actually fit my Logitech track ball mouse inside with the laptop. I no longer need to carry a laptop bag because I don't need the AC adapter.

The battery lasts about 6 hours for me.

I replaced the 1 gb ram with 2 gb and it makes a big difference.
I highly recommend using a software application called Eboostr to further increase performance. You can run a search on google and the site will come up. It uses your flash drive as additional ram. I notice a huge difference with programs like Photoshop or SoundForge. Plus you can get tiny 2 or 4 gb flash drives that you can leave plugged in. Or even better get a SD card and use that instead. It will stay plugged in your laptop using the SD slot and you wont even notice it.

The webcam is great and works perfectly with Google Chat.

Honestly, I have no complaints. Yeah the keyboard is a little smaller but I hunt and peck anyways. Next thing I am getting is one of those tiny bluetooth dongles and a bluetooth trackball mouse to become wire free.

Another great thing is the Bios updater application it comes with...so you can keep this thing up to date.

It also has some great hotkeys...plus ones you can setup for your own applications.

5 stars for sure!

UPDATE: Monday, December 8th

Laptop is running strong. I have had 0 crashes and 0 problems with anything so far.
Bootup time is just under 1 minute. I ended up buying a tiny bluetooth usb adapter and bluetooth receiver for my audio amplifier and works great.
Seriously, don't spend the extra money for a Acer. You get the same thing for a lower price with the Asus.

I purchased this from Amazon.com, shipped on monday, received on wednesday, free shipping, how good is that ;>))
I like a couple of others here initially ordered the 900 model and quickly cancelled it and chose the 904HA, mainly because of battery life and also the larger keyboard, my fingers are not small ;>)
First, let me say everything you are reading about this little, no, tiny computer is true, I am amazed at how fast XP loads up, boom, XP is loaded.
Don't worry about not having a CDROM drive, if you have a desktop or notebook and a wireless network, just make that drive shared, right click on the other computers CD/DVD drive and click on SHARE. You may have to shut down your firewire in IE or McAfee or what ever you are using for security software but after that it's easy. I am loading a program from my desktop to "tiny" right now as we speak, couldn't be easier.
The keyboard is really nice, a little larger than the 900 model and so my large fingers are able to type pretty easily. The screen is bright and I'll go to Netflix tomorrow and watch a few movies on the battery to see what kind of battery life I get, I anticipate about 5+ hours though, pretty nice.
I highly recommend this "tiny" notebook, easy to carry, looks great (I have the black glossy model) and is really a fast computer. For the price, you won't be disappointed!

UPDATE 12-02-08 I watched a couple of movies via Netflix and the battery life was right at 5 hours. This is with the screen about 75% and volume about 40%, the wireless was left on to view the downloaded movies, otherwise, if the wireless is turned off, the battery life would be probably 20% longer life. The battery warning light came on after about 5 hours and showed to have about 20 minutes left. I would imagine you could realistically get close to 6 hours battery life with the screen down to say 50%, wireless turned off and working on spreadsheets, documents, etc., even emails and other things on the web.

I've had my 904HA for about 2 weeks now (I'm typing this review on it). It's my first netbook/laptop, although I am the default techie for my wife's compaq laptop and have used the office laptops periodically. I must say that I am more than happy. I get about 6 hours battery life surfing the net or playing games with the wifi on (brightness at about 75%). I've been able to put a "virtual drive" which allows me to run some old games I have, and I've copied over all the MP3s from my MP3 player to have on the road with me.

The only negative I can report is the oddly placed right shift key, but I really haven't noticed this to be much of an issue (I tend to shift with my left hand 99% of the time anyway).

Since I received the 904HA, I have only used my desktop computer one or two times.

Eric

I bought an Asus 901 and an Asus 904 because my existing laptop, although great, is just too heavy for me to carry around all day at the courthouses. This review is for the 904, with a 160 GB Hard drive, Windows XP Home, 1 GB RAM, and 1.6 GH processor. I have had the 904 for 2 weeks now and am thrilled by it. Boots fast (1 minute 45 seconds) and only weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce (according to my postage meter scale). This is less than half the weight of my old laptop. The 904 has a VGA output port, which allows me to use a bigger monitor or TV if I do not want to use the 8.9 inch display in the unit itself. Surfing the Internet and getting my email on the go is no problem for this 904. Unit appears sturdy and is very quiet in operation. Has a built in web cam for video conferences and 2 speakers tucked under the front edge. Has 2 mics at the bottom of the screen display. If you listen to music a lot I would not recommend this laptop or netbook unless you are willing and able to install external speakers (an external mic and headphone jack is built in). Best battery life I have gotten so far is 5 hours, but I do not use power saving mode so you may do better. This is a 12 volt model which in theory means with the right adapter you could run it off the cigarette lighter in your car (thus far I have just used it off battery and the included AC adapter). Has 3 USB ports. At $350, I believe I got a great bargain. Keyboard is not full size, but not mini either. Sort of in the middle, but I have big hands and it works for me. An additional option would be to buy a portable (folding) full size key board and just run it off the USB port. Very happy. 5 stars

When I took delivery of the Asus eee PC 904HA a month ago if anyone had asked me, the machine would have rated a 4.5. I was enthralled with the solid, yet attractive design, the ample power, the convenient carrying weight, the abundant battery life that allows 6+ hours of use, the huge hard drive, the quick boot-ups and shut downs, and the truly gorgeous matte screen.

However, one key component is very poorly executed and with continual use, as my ire rises about the keyboard's shortcomings, the rating keeps dropping. I would probably give the machine, overall, a 3.5 but it certainly isn't a 4.

Some might say that I'm being unnecessarily harsh, given the small dimensions of the eee PC. I don't think so because another company - Acer - manufactures the Aspire One, a machine of almost identical proportions that happens to have an excellent keyboard. To see what I'm talking about, just do a quick search on Google Images and look at the keyboards for both models. It is easy to see that one manufacturer did their homework and the other didn't. In particular, look at the awkward placement of the right shift key. I literally curse every time I miss this ksy while typing due to its small size and horrible placement. I also don't appreciate the glaring absence of separate PageUp and PageDown keys - both of which are found on the Aspire One keyboard.

If Asus could simply meld the Aspire's keyboard onto the 906HA, it would be a hands-down 5, or a perfect 10, for that matter. It is only lacking in one key component, but unfortunately it is one that you have to deal with every time the computer is used. Hopefully, in some future model Asus will get it right.

Recommended, with the noted reservations. Please -- no responses touting the use of portable USB keyboards. One shouldn't have to resort to those types of measures.

I bought the original EeePc when it first came out for $400. Athough it seems overpriced now, it worked great and I actually used it through a whole semester in college as my main computer. However, back then I actually wanted an ultra-portable laptop I could haul to classes without it adding more weight to the books already in my backpack. The 701 fit the description, but has very little on-board memory and a small screen (although I'm not complaining).

I have to say the 904HA is EXACTLY what I wanted initially. It still has the small size I wanted along with a large storage place (160gb) with additional online storage (10gb). It also has a better webcam (1.3mp) and a larger screen. I thougt about getting the 10" version, but the price was dramatically different and then 1" difference wasn't worth $100-$150 dollars.

The performance is great. I wanted a small laptop that could handle a fair amount of hardcore usage and the 701 just wasn't up to it (although it really wasn't meant to be). But I do lots of video converting and watching, image processing and Adobe Photoshop work, CD/DVD burning, Microsoft Office usage, and of course music with the lovely iTunes 8.1 (which can be a jerk at times). It handles all of them very well in my opinion. I was surprised at how fast photoshop came up considering I'm used to waiting about 3-5 minutes on my other (slightly older) PC's. Internet video handles as well as the internet connection. All my spyware and virus software does minimal interfering with what I'm doing.

All in all I really like this laptop and consider it an excellent upgrade from the original eeepc. Plus, I only paid $300 for it which is also a bargain for any laptop. I would actually compare this to non-netbooks simply because I can't tell too much difference in the performance. But I'm just an average customer looking for a portable laptop with good performance...which I found.

This is a solid netbook. Do check out the prices on the 1000HA though as it is only about $35 more here at amazon, and you get all the same features (and same size netbook) with the only difference being that the 1000ha has a 10" screen compared to the 8.9" screen on the 904ha.

I bought this as a gift for an elderly person who has decent eyesight (the screen is small), some computer experience, and needed a small "laptop" to check email, do web surfing, etc.

I used the 904ha for about 5 hours, setting up windows, installing some applications (AIM, McAffe, Firefox, etc.) and testing the various features.

Here is a rundown of what I tested:

* Youtube: videos stream well with no lag or stutters.

* CNN Video: Videos stream well with no lag or stutters in very high quality (it's not HD, but it is good).

* Hulu: Again, videos stream well.

* ABC Streaming Video: I watched "Life on Mars" from the ABC site. A couple of issues; the ads are all in 1024 x 768, so when the show switches to playing an ad, you need to scroll up a little to see the ad. But who watches commercials anyway? The second issue was a slight video stutter every 20 seconds or so during the show playback. It was just a slight pause in the video and there were no issues at all with the audio. The CPU was only using about 70% and I had nothing else running. I also had the overclocking feature set to the highest performance setting. RAM utilization was only at 25% or so. The video stutter was only slightly annoying, but annoying none the less.

* Skype video calls: Works very well. The speakers are not as loud as I would like them to be, even turned all the way up, but I am a little hard of hearing. If you have "normal" hearing then this probably won't be an issue for you. The microphone worked well. The built in webcam worked better than a USB standalone camera that I bought last year for about $100. Overall this works well for Skype, both audio and video.

* Multi-touch touchpad: I'm an iPhone user, and I really like multi-touch touchpads. The one on the 904ha is no iPhone, but it works very well. 2 fingers on the pad going up or down scrolls (this is clunky and doesn't scroll very smoothly). One finger on the pad and a quick touch with the second finger puts it into "scroll" mode, where you can just use one finger to scroll up and down (very smooth). A light tap on the pad turns off scroll mode. You can also bring up a magnify "box" with one finger on the pad and two quick taps with the other finger. This opens a large "zoom" box under the cursor that magnifies anything under it. There are also some three finger gestures. Put three fingers down and swipe left or right and it is supposed to "page up/page down", but in the browser this seems to translate into page forward/page back. Overall I really like the multi-touch touchpad. If I were buying a netbook for myself the multi-touch would be a must.

* Web surfing: As you can imagine, the screen is small, but web browsing works well on this little netbook. Press F11 to make the browser go into full screen mode and the experience is fine.

* Reading PDF documents: Reading on the small screen is a bit of a pain. But, you can rotate the screen! CTRL-ALT-LEFT Arrow turns it 90 degrees to the left. CTRL-ALT-RIGHT Arrow turns it to the right 90 degrees (C-A-Up makes the screen normal, C-A-Down makes the screen upside down). What is cool is that you can open a document in Adobe Reader, Press CTRL-ALT-RIGHT to rotate the screen, then press CTRL-L in reader to make the page full screen. Tilt the netbook on it's side, and viola, you can read a PDF just a little smaller than a full-size page. Use the Page-up and Page-down buttons to flip through the pages.

* The Keyboard, it is small. I am not a traditional touch typist, but I can still manage 50 words a minute on this little keyboard. (Not speed typing by any means!). For some reason I continually hit "s" instead of "a". And if I don't look at my fingers when I first start typing then forget it. I'm sure with a little more time with this you could figure out the quirks and get used to it. But the keyboard is one of the main reasons this netbooks gets 4 stars instead of 5 from me.

* Battery life: I charged it up, unplugged it, let the auto settings take over, then watched a 1 hour show and did some surfing for about an hour. When I first unplugged it, it said 5.4 hours remaining. After two hours of the aforementioned activities it said 3.5 hours remaining. To be honest I was happy with just two hours, since my two current laptops (a lenevo T60p and a Dell Inspirion) only manage about 1.5 hours each before they are totally dead. I would assume you can expect 4 hours out of this doing "net things", video, web surfing, etc. and probably an hour more if you turned off wifi and turned down the LCD brightness. Just a guess though.

A couple other things. It comes with a Windows XP recovery disk, which is nice, but keep in mind that it had no CD/DVD drive to actually use it. Not a big deal since USB optical drives are cheap these days, but something to keep in mind. Also, it comes with a nice small power brick. The power brick has a blue LED on it to let you know it is getting power, and the two cords (one for the outlet, and the other for the computer) both have a nice velcro strap to keep the cords neat when stored. The power brick did get warm but not hot after being plugged in for 2 hours or so. The exterior finish on the netbook is very nice, but gets fingerprints on it easily. The box does come with a microfiber cloth. I would assume you would want to use it on the screen and not the body though. There is also a cheap slip cover included.

Overall I think this is a great netbook for the price. Plenty of features in a GREAT price. Do check the prices on the 1000HA before you buy though, since it is the same netbook (exterior dimensions too) with a 10" screen.