Asus EeePC 1015PE review

The EeePC 1015PE is the latest Asus netbook to use the Seashell design scheme. Its rounded corners and straight lines look great from almost every angle. The wedge-shaped body appears very thin from the front, but even from the back it’s a very sleek netbook. The white colour scheme looks great, even if the contrasting black screen bezel looks slightly out of place.

The 10.1in screen is very thin, but there’s still an embedded webcam. The 640×480 resolution might be low, but it’s still fine for Skype conversations. The screen itself has a resolution of 1,024×600, which is standard for netbooks of this size. While we prefer higher resolutions for web browsing, the image quality was excellent. Colours were particularly vibrant even on lower brightness settings. Motion was smooth, although the single-core Atom isn’t suited to high definition video over 720p. Sound quality was also very good for such a small machine. There was plenty of volume, which didn’t distort even at maximum. Mid-range notes were clear and treble was suitably sharp, but bass was predictably weak.

The 1015PE’s keyboard has Chiclet-style isolated keys, which are close to full size. Wide spacing and even placement meant touch-typing was easy. The keys felt sturdy and there was only the smallest amount of flex from the keyboard tray. Only the function and cursor keys have been reduced in size, so all-round usability was very good. The touchpad sits flush with the wrist rest, and was very responsive. The buttons placed below it are joined in a single bar, which unfortunately had a sizeable dead spot in the centre, but it was large enough to not be a concern.

While the design may be impressive, there’s very little about the 1015PE’s specification to get excited about. The components include a familiar Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of memory and a 250GB hard disk, so there were no surprises when it came to performance. A score of 15 in our multimedia benchmarks is low, but for web browsing or video playback it’s plenty. Connectivity was limited, but this is no different to what we’re used to seeing from other netbooks.

Although we didn’t see the 12-hour battery life that Asus claims, the 1015PE still managed a respectable eight-and-a-half hours in our light-usage test. The fan was barely audible in this test, and even at 100 per cent load we wouldn’t call it noisy. After running for several hours the case still felt cool to the touch, both on the keyboard and underside.

While outwardly the 1015PE is a beautifully sculpted machine, inside it’s a traditional netbook through and through. With a sensible price, great screen and long battery life, it’s a fine choice.