Asus EEE PC 1008HA

Asus's next netbook might make you look twice. It's sexy, it's white--but it's not a Mac.

It's thin, sleek, and light, and at least one Macworld editor is eyeballing it with interest. Nevertheless, the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA
netbook is no MacBook. Asus seems to be spitting out new additions to its netbook line faster than I can count. (Who can forget the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, the Asus Eee PC 1000H 80G XP, and the Asus Eee PC T91? It ain't easy, since all three came out in the past six months or so.) Nevertheless, the company's designers continue to find ways to refine their machines. The proof is in this new $420 (as of May 26, 2009) netbook.

Under its frosty exterior, the system sports up-to-the-minute netbook innards: an Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Bluetooth, 802.11n, and a three-cell battery (we're still awaiting battery life test results from the PC World Test Center).

The keyboard is 92 percent of full size, with a good layout, and it feels big and comfortable. The buttons were firm and large enough to type on easily. Even the metallic mouse-button bar was reasonably secure--and I especially like Asus's treatment of the touchpad. Instead of using dainty trim or a different material to indicate that you're within the strike zone, this model incorporates tiny bumps. As aresult, the netbook looks as though it has a mild rash. But more to the point, it feels really good. Navigating Web sites was a piece of cake.

To accommodate the 1008HA's thin-and-light design, Asus had to drop a few ports--and in the process it made an interesting design move: In a hidden compartment on the underside of the netbook sits a VGA adapter dongle. When you need it, you simply pop it out and plug it into the mini-USB port on one side of the machine. This clever move retains the functionality while reducing the size, and it minimizes the chance of losing dongles. (Another smart tactic is evident in the Sony VAIO P netbook, which sneaks the VGA dongle onto its power supply...but I digress.) Otherwise, on the 1008HA you'll find the usual retinue of connection options hiding behind flaps: an ethernet hookup, two USB ports, an SD Card reader, and headphone and microphone jacks.

As for the 10.1-inch screen, it looks sufficiently sharp and crisp at its native 1024-by-600-pixel resolution. (You can scale this setting higher in an emulated mode.) Colors pop when you tilt the display at just the right angle--as is the case with most laptops and netbooks. Also typically, the screen's glossy coating will leave you squinting when you try to view it in broad daylight.

How does it perform? It falls right in the zone for netbooks. Scoring a little on the high side, it ranks a 38 in PC WorldBench tests (the average, to date, hovers around 35). So obviously, you're fully covered on your basic office documents and Web surfing needs.

I was also happily surprised to discover that this thin-and-light machine was able to hang in for just under six hours in battery tests. Well above the average...and earning it a nod for your next cross-country flight.

Considering its price, size, style and performance, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA
is a sleek, solid netbook choice and definitely worth a look.

by pc world

Acer - The Top Third Player

Formed in 1976 brand Acer is ranked third among computer giants with largest market share after Hewlett Packard and Dell. The company operates in a wide domain of offerings which includes desktops, laptops, PDAs, servers and storage, displays, peripherals and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users. Acer is best known for its desktops and laptops.

On one hand where Acer markets its desktops under a common series called Acer Aspire, its range of notebooks is more defined and well segmented to serve specific market. The notebook collection includes well known names such as Acer TravelMate, Acer Gemstone, Tablet PC series, Acer Aspire series, Acer Aspire Timeline series, Acer Extensa series, Acer Ferrari series, Netbook and Aspire One. Apart from desktops and notebooks, Acer also covers a good market for its consumer products such as PDAs with S and N series, Acer Altos series for servers and storage devices, Digital cameras and LCD TVs. Acer e300 series Travel Companion is Acer's brand for automotive navigation systems. In addition to this are workstations under the name Acer PICA.

Recently Acer has launched many new products. It has added three new beauties to its Netbook and ultra portable range. Gateway LT20 and Gateway LT30 are multi touch Netbooks weighing 2.62 pounds and possessing Wifi and 3G capabilities. Adding to this is Acer's new ultra portable Aspire one. Under its light weight notebooks it has unfurled Acer Aspire 3935 and Gateway EC series. These two are a perfect merger of style and capabilities but are very pricy models. Among its new Nettops and low power all-in-one desktops are Acer AspireRevo, eMachines EZ1600 and Acer Aspire Z5600. You can call these multimedia machines due to their features like integrated graphics platform, TV tuner and DV/Blu-Ray combo drive.

Apart from this Acer these days is also in news for launching Android based smartphones in September. It is anticipated that after the launch of this phone Acer would be the holder of 5 % of total market for smartphones by the year 2010. The phone will operate on Android's operating system which is open source and based on linux. After the launch of this phone Acer would be in competition with companies like HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola. Out of these HTC is already out with its Android based smartphone. The rest of them is still in planning.

By Vinnit Alex