The seashells-
Asus' new 10 inch
EeePC lineup
Asus 1008HA Review courtesy of
CNET
Asus 1008HA Seashell Review courtesty of Engadget
Asus 1005HA-M and Asus 1005HA-H courtesy of
EngadgetExciting news coming from
Asus, includes the release of the new
Asus 1008HA "Seashell"
netbook (priced at $429.99 at
Newegg currently). This is a new line of
Asus EeePc's, that will be followed shortly with the release of additional "Seashells" with the
Asus 1005HA-M and 1005HA-H. The new product line, in my opinion, is a great step forward for
Asus and
netbooks in general, as it moves the market towards slimmer, sleeker and better looking
netbooks. The
toy-like design
synonymous with many previous
netbooks is gone in this line, as these puppies are extremely pleasing to the eye. These seashells allow for a pretty good mix of price (only ~$20-$40 more than the chunkier
Asus 1000he), performance, size, and looks. The internal hardware is similar to most every other
netbook on the market, but the size and beauty of this
netbook is what sets it apart from the rest of the field.
The 1005HA-H and 1005HA-M (not available in the US yet) are just variants of the the already released 1008HA. This is where is gets a bit confusing, with all of these very similar yet different
Asus netbooks. The 1005HA-HA will be a "deluxe" version of the 1008HA (with more port options, bigger battery, but more weight), and the 1005HA-M will be a "1008HA light" version (no
bluetooth, better battery, bigger).
A few notes to mention with regard to the already released 1008HA: The battery is not removable (boo!) and it uses a mini-VGA port (not a big deal but somewhat annoying). The 1005 models do not have these issues so you may want to wait for them (although they are bigger in size because of this). Overall this is not a
dealbreaker, and the new
Asus Seashell line is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise cookie-cutter world of
netbooks.