Asus S101 EEE PC
The first thing you notice about the Eee PC S101 netbook is how little it resembles an entry-level machine, in comparison to its predecessors.
ASUS is aiming for this netbook to be the ‘executive’ model of the range, with a look and feel more of the ASUS U6 ultraportable laptop than other Eee PC Netbooks. Unlike other Eee PCs however, you won’t find the battery protruding from the back, as the 4-cell pack is hidden away on the base of the machine.
Highly portable at 1.1kg in weight, we found that it could run for over four hours without too much trouble. Measuring 25mm at its thickest point, this is truly a thin and light device, and a pleasure to use. This makes it lighter than the Mac Book Air, but 5.9mm thicker. Still, a slim machine nonetheless.
The hardware quality is impressively high, with the high-gloss finish of the lid and the brushed metal of the palm rests giving it an amazingly tactile feel. Likewise, the chrome effect trim around the edge of the machine and on the hinge that firmly holds the screen in place adds to the premium aesthetics of the S101.
ASUS has included a 10.2-inch panel with a 1024 x 600-pixel resolution but the LED display is brighter and sharper than other netbooks we’ve seen. The screen backlit can be switched off whenever the need arises. Graphics are handled by the integrated Intel GMA 950 chipset, which is more than adequate for handling video as well as office-based tasks.
Amazingly comfortable to use, the keys are well built and firmly mounted, and are 95 per cent full size. Not once did we feel cramped when typing. The touchpad is just as impressive, a good size and it responded well. There is a single-strip mouse button that has dual-click functions and while it’s rather small we found it worked well.
Storage is nice enough, with a 16GB solid state drive and an SDHC card slot. ASUS very generously has thrown in a 16GB memory card, ramping it up to 32GB in total. Windows XP is the operating system we tested it on, and we found it loaded quickly and ran smoothly.
Whilst the price is a bit more than we’ve seen with previous Eee netbooks, the £449 is justified due to the premium materials and smooth processing power. This is definitely the best netbook on the market.
