Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection – Cool design

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Attractive looks, 2 GB RAM which is twice the amount of typical Netbook.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive, you pay more for the looks and not hardware components, doesn’t come with some of the high end features that you’d expect in a $500 Netbook.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection is powered by Intel Atom N450 / 1.66 GHz processor. It has 667 MHz data bus speed. Chip set type is Intel NM10 Express. Installed memory is 2 GB DDR2 SD RAM at 667 MHz and it is not expandable. For storing data, there is 320 GB SATA hard drive at 5400 rpm. The card reader supports the following cards – SDHC Memory Card, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard.

The display is 10.1 inches big and gives a resolution is of 1024×600 pixels. Graphics processor is Intel GMA 3150 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0. Above the display, there is a 1.3 megapixel Webcam. Interfaces include Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX – RJ-45, Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm, Display / video – VGA – 14 pin mini-VGA, 2 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A.

The Netbook has a lithium polymer battery with rated battery life of six hours. The installed OS is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium. Bundled software includes ASUS Super Hybrid Engine, ASUS Express Gate.

Razzle Dazzle:

The undulating and wavy lines on the Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection has a tile like outer pattern and it is available in choice of pink or brown colors. We are quite bored of seeing the usually glossy and flat plastic looks on standard Netbooks and this is a welcome change. The cool design is limited only to the exteriors and doesn’t continue on the inside. The interiors are typical of a Netbook apart from the designer’s signature.

Inside Dope:

Netbooks are usually made to deliver most value for your money and almost all of them come with a predefined set of components. This also makes all the Netbooks cost almost the same. There are a few upgrades possible but Netbooks are meant for just basic tasks and hence people usually don’t opt for upgrades. They’d rather go for a 13 inch notebook. We have see some high end Netbooks but the high cost is attributed to the downright sexy looks and not the components. Netbooks mostly cost $299 and anything above that is either for the out of the box looks or for some meager upgrades.

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection comes with a few upgrades, it belongs to the Eee PC 1008P family and the unique looks are courtesy of Karim Rashid, an industrial designer. The Netbook has 2 gigs of RAM (twice the amount you had on the basic Netbook), bigger 320 GB hard disk and Windows 7 Premium (instead of Windows 7 Starter). All this gives this device an edge over a standard $299 Netbook but will you pay $499 for it?

When you are asking a price like that, we would expect something like Nvidia’s Ion GPU, Broadcom’s HD video accelerator chip and a higher resolution display is a must. We were expecting a HD 1,366×768 pixel display but were disappointed by the standard 1,024×600 pixel that you get on all $299 Netbooks.

Extra RAM is always welcome even in Netbooks which is used just for basic tasks. The design is the coolest we have ever seen in a Netbook. If you want to make heads turn and are willing to burn extra money, we will recommend you the Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection.

We have had Karim Rashid’s designed computers in our labs before and for those who don’t know about this guy, we would like to tell you that he has also designed products like Dirt Devil Kone vacuum and plastic wastepaper baskets. For this Netbook, he has tried to put a little fun in to work with this design.

The touchpad and the keyboard of the Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection is similar to other Eee PC Netbooks. It has flat topped and large island style buttons. The surface of the touch pad is made of up raised and tiny dots. The keyboard is solid and we were comfortable even after long typing sessions. The right key is shrunken and it was our only concern. The touch pad has support for multi touch gestures including scrolling with two fingers. But again, just like most Netbooks, you get a single rocker button instead of two separate mouse buttons.

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection lacks quick launch buttons except for a single dual use button for the quick boot OS (Asus calls this ExpressGate OS) and to disable the touch pad. The Fn key is still there and the quick launch buttons are routed there. We also liked the combination of Fn key and space bar to move through the power options.

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection’s resolution of 1,024×600 pixels is unforgivable for this price range. There is no way we would pay $499 for a low resolution like this. The screen does look slick with edge to edge glass over it. Still, there are Netbooks which cost less and have HD resolution

The clean look of this Netbook has to be attributed to the hidden connections and ports. They are put inside folding tiny doors. It prevents dust from going in but when you are on the move, it can be a bit difficult to access them. The power jack is located on the bottom whereas the VGA port is located on the sides.

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection comes with an Intel Atom N450 processor which is standard for all the Netbooks but the computer still has an edge due to the two gigs of RAM. Memory upgrades like this is rare in a Netbook but we are not complaining.

Nitty Gritty:

Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection makes you pay more for the looks and the components inside are typical of a standard Netbook except for the 2 GB RAM and Windows 7 Premium. We will recommend you this Netbook only if you want to grab attention at a local coffee shop.