Customer Reviews

ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1008HA-MU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - 6 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I decided to purchase this one because it met and exceeded my requirements for a NETBOOK. The specs on this baby match up better than most. Great keyboard and mouse, keys feel great, wireless n, fast boot, upgradeable from 1GB to 2GB, user friendly ASUS Bios updater interface, Microsoft works, lightweight. You must understand first the context of my statement. I wanted a NETbook. Not a Laptop. I didnt want an "ultimate" or Professional" version of ANYTHING running on this NETbook. I wanted it to be lean and mean. I wanted a small, powerful, convenient AND FAST NETbook for casual surfing and email. If you wanted more, your in the wrong market. I didnt buy this to play games, edit, video, watch TV or DVD's, etc. Like I said I didn't want a Laptop. Windows Starter 32 bit is an excellent match for a NETbook. Think of Windows 7 Starter as just that, the place to start. I figured, if I NEED an "anytime upgrade" Ill get it. At this point, having had used it for a week, I'm not changing a thing. Less is more with a NETbook. Ill save upgrades for my LAPtop and DESKtop. From when I push the power button to my first opening click of Firefox = less than one minute. I removed some preloaded crapware, i.e. ASUS whistles and bells and some preloaded games. Added Norton Internet Security Netbook Edition, and bingo, the perfect NETbook.

This netbook is lightweight and thin, even by netbook standards. Quick setup after powering on. I did elect to upgrade the OS to Windows 7 Home Premium. It is simply a key code to enter as the program is already loaded on the computer. I have not had any problems so far with the computer or software. I will say that finding anything on ASUS's website requires a bit of searching. A few concerns about the side doors to access ports. They seem very cheap and forsee them breaking off with repeated use.

This is my first netbook so I suffered a learning curve about problems you can encounter. Read the specs very closely. First, this netbook only has 2 USB ports. This can present a problem if you purchase an external DVD/CD drive that is solely USB powered. A lot of these drives require 2 USB ports to operate, leaving you with no other port. You cannot power these devices off of a hub. One seriously misleading spec is that the netbook is upgradable to 2 GB. Well yes it is, but not by the user unless you are very techinically capable of computer repair and want to void your warranty. So don't buy that 2 GB memory upgrade that pops up as a suggested additional purchase from Amazon.

If I had this to do over, I think I would have gone with Acer or HP. Both seem to be a little sturdier in their construction. I don't have a lot of faith that the body of the ASUS is going to hold up.

This is a wonderful netbook. I bought this cause I needed to do work when I am stuck at school and didn't want to drive back home waste gas. It does everything I need it to: surf the web, write documents, email, and it's portable. I use this laptop as a means to do work at school since I didn't want to buy a regular laptop. I already have a desktop at home, so I use this netbook as a means of doing SMALL AMOUNTS of works while at school.

Because it's a netbook I know not to expect it to work like a Macbook or any other fast-pace, high-capacity laptop. It's not meant for that type of functionality.

Bottom line: This is an awesome laptop if you are looking for something to do your work at a coffee shop like read and write documents and emailing.

It is not for those of you who tend to have more than 3+ programs running. Here's a quick analogy: netbooks are like little kids, if you ask them to carry an item for you they will only probably carry one or two items no more than 5 pounds. Regular laptops are adults who can carry about 5+ items about 50 pounds (depending on the adult) and not have a problem.

The processor (Intel Atom) on this netbook will not match up to regular processors like Core 2 Duos.

Do not buy this laptop if it's going to be your ONLY laptop. Buy it for convenience and portability.

It works much better than I expected. I thought it would run slower and not be able to perform with many windows open, but it actually keeps up with me fine. It is slower than other laptops, but surprise, surprise, it's a lot smaller! It serves it's purpose, which is basic net surfing and my work needs.

I bought the ASUS eePC 1 1/2 years ago. I left right away for Europe. When I got there the wireless worked intermittenly. I discovered that it would only work with unsecured wireless networks. If I had to use a password it wouldn't work. When I got home I tested it at my son's house and mine by securing then unsecuring the networks. The computer reacted the same as in Europe. I sent the computer to ASUS to remedy the problem. They kept it for a long time and sent it back programed in Chinese. No one could help me over the phone to change it back to English (the choice was no longer available on the computer) so I had to send it back to the factory. This time it came back after my warrantly had expired. It now spoke English but the problem with the wireless had not been repaired. Every time I call ASUS I get a different reason as to why it acted like that. The latest technician told me that it was the servers fault, nevermind that I had the same problem with multiple servers in multiple countries. I have unsecured my home network so I can use this computer but it is worthless for the purpose I bought it for which was to travel with it. ASUS has responded poorly to this problem and I would not recommend their products to anyone.

I bought an ASUS EeePC 1008ha in July, 2009 and less than a month later I started to have problems with this computer:
First Problem: The touch pad stopped working
Second Problem: After I upgraded to 2 Gb RAM, the computer restarted several times during the day by itself
Third Problem: motherboard is dead

I work as a teacher at MBA's course and I experienced bad moments using this computer during the classes.
My experience with Asus support service was the worst one I've ever had in my entire life.

Make you a favor: Never buy an Asus equipment! I won't buy.