The Eee PC 1000’s keyboard is the same size as that on the MSI Wind U100, both in terms of overall width and individual key size. The Eee PC 1000 has larger cursor keys and its Fn and Ctrl keys are in the right place (the Wind has them swapped around), but it only has a single-height Enter key, and the right Shift key is shrunk to the same size as the other letter keys.

The keyboard is no better nor worse than that on the MSI Wind, but we can’t really say much more than that – our Eee PC 1000 was a pre-production model and the keyboard had some obvious defects that will obviously (ok, hopefully…) be fixed by the time it goes on sale.

Size and weight are only two factors that affect the portability of a laptop like the Eee PC 1000 – battery life is a third. This fact seems to escaped some manufacturers’ notice and we singled the Wind U100 out for particular criticism thanks to MSI’s decision to ship it with a puny 2200mAh cell. Thankfully, Asus hasn’t made such a silly decision here and the Eee PC 1000 ships with a beefy 6600mAh battery as standard.

This powered it for nine and a half hours in our light use test, in which we page through a local document in Internet Explorer with Wi-Fi off. That such a mundane task never causes the Intel Atom processor to step up its speed from 800MHz obviously plays a part in this impressive result, but you can probably achieve a similar battery life if you’re just using a word processor and sending the occasional email.

In our heavy use test, where we run a series of demanding image-editing tests in Paint Shop Pro and convert a number of WAV files to MP3 simultaneously, the Eee PC 1000 lasted for just under seven hours. Again, Wi-Fi was disabled for this test, but given that you’re never likely to push a netbook this hard in normal use, it’s fair to assume that the Eee PC 1000’s battery will last for around seven hours in normal, Wi-Fi-enabled use.

At £369 for the EEEPC1000-BK002 with Linux and a 40Gb SSD, and £349 for the EEEPC1000-BK007X with Windows an 80Gb HDD (these are Asus' suggested retail prices, inc VAT), the Eee PC 1000 is priced similarly to the MSI Wind U10 and has pretty much the same specification in its Windows form too.

Of course bountiful battery life is the ace up the Eee PC 1000’s sleeve and the ability to last for an entire working day is a deeply desirable feature. Of course the trade-off is in its size and weight, and the Eee PC 1000 is biggest, heaviest (in its Windows/HDD form) netbook so far available.

[Related: See all Mobile Computer netbook reviews to date]

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Susan  - Magic batteries...   |22/07/08 9:21 AM Given that it has the same battery as the 901, but a larger more power hungry screen how come it has longer battery life than a 901 in your tests?? Give n that the internal hardware + CPU is identical to the 901, how come it performs better in your tests??? Reply | Quote

Dave - No bluetooth I see -   |22/07/08 10:14 AM :evil: Shame it is not fitted with bluetooth and internal GPS Reply | Quote

Julian Prokaza  - Bluetooth   |22/07/08 10:45 AM It has Bluetooth Dave -- there was an omission in the specs table. Reply | Quote

anony   |22/07/08 10:30 AM why is the windows version cheaper than the linux one when it's actually got a 80gb hard drive??...doesn 't make sense...who's making the money here?? Reply | Quote

Julian Prokaza   |22/07/08 10:46 AM SSDs are much more expensive than HDDs at the moment, which is why SSD + Linux costs more than HDD + Windows. Reply | Quote

KoKo   |22/07/08 5:12 PM Time for a comparo with the Wind, the only other netbook with a usable keyboard. Same screen size, same hard drive. Different battery, but the Wind is getting a 2x battery in a few months. Is the Wind cheaper in the UK? Reply | Quote

Eee monitor  - Price cut for the Eee 1000     |22/07/08 7:23 PM There has been a recent USD 100 price cut for the Eee 1000 H. It's now $549 on selected sites. Seems the cut is only for US, not Australia and other countries. Reply | Quote

Eats Wombats  - Availability Availability Availability     |23/07/08 9:01 AM It seems I have been waiting for months for a laptop with an Atom processor (decent battery life) and a usable keyboard onto which I could install Ubuntu (hopefully the netbook remix version later). The Advent machine is close-ish, but the lack of palm rest space means it's usable only for a short period. The EEE 1000 could be what I need but it's not available. However, I cannot and will not use a machine with a rubbish keyboard. If the Samsung Q45 wasn't so hot (thermally, thermally that is) I'd have given up waiting for an Atom powered unit. Still waiting Reply | Quote

Kat  - availability   |02/08/08 2:41 PM well, just saw the 1000 in a local shop, and it looks georgous. typing this message on the advent, which I bought for work. keyboard of the advent is fine, but mousepad irritating when you've been used to the eee pc (got the 900 myself and am kicking myself for jumping in too early). keyboard of 1000 felt better than this one (advent). advent weighs 1200gr, so linux version of the 1000 is another 160 gr on top. don't think i'd mind that.... Reply | Quote

Diane  - keyboard flexibility   |12/08/08 4:48 PM Your video shows the 1000 keyboard flexing quite noticeably in use. Does anyone know whether this has been rectified :?: Reply | Quote

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