Packaging & Accessories:
The cardboard of the R105 is not significantly greater than the netbook itself and thus easy to transport. Asus typical, the unit will "only" protected by additional cardboard, not foam. Whether the netbook so can withstand a fall from waist height so remains questionable.
In addition to a brief instructions and the warranty card, the power supply is (practically very small) at the Netbook. Sorry, no pocket.
In this area I forgive 4 stars.
Netbook Features:
The Asus R105 has a 10.1 "display which is absolutely sufficient for office applications and Internet applications for graphics applications, video applications and 3D applications, of course, much too small. For so but what applications would include the power of the device does not suffice, and this is the netbook also not designed.
The display is a very good illumination for my taste. Be it outside in the sun, on the train or in the apartment I could always adapt to the conditions without any problems thanks to the display function keys. Thanks matte display, there is also no "nasty" reflections by sunlight.
The keyboard can work surprisingly well. Focus is on the characters that are as comfortable to type exactly like a regular keyboard. For the function keys as cursor, Alt, Shift, etc. fall on the small side of (logically). The keyboard rattles a bit, because the keys are not very integrated into the top case (as in newer Netbooks (Apple Style), but the keyboard only rests That's a matter of taste, it bothers me personally rather less important to mention:.. This type of keyboard you could exchange even easier when needed!
The device has two USB ports, an external VGA output, LAN and a 3,5mm jack connection also represents the sound output and microphone input. Objectively speaking, two USB ports little bit, it does not bother me personally, because I always connect only one mouse mal ne external hard drive. What is really bothering the jack. Here one needs to microphone and headphones to have special hardware in a headset, or have to use a USB headset. Both impractical considering that one usually something already possesses and now can not use them properly. However, since an internal microphone is built into the device so that I can still live.
The webcam is sufficient for video calls with Skype, etc., for other exceptions it is not suitable. The quality is really not very good.
The touchpad is brushed, integrated in the housing and also in the same color as the housing. I like it very well, because that prevents wear and setoff as you know from other touchpads. The mouse buttons are located in chrome look directly below the touchpad. Netbook typically the keys are very difficult to achieve if you work with your finger on the touchpad. You have to hand cramp a little, so I almost never use them anyway, but "tap" just once on the pad for a mouse click. The touchpad recognizes multitouch what I have so far but not so often used. Problem here is the software not the hardware, because Windows-based software zooms mostly in stages and not continuously and therefore it is all a bit "hakelig".
1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive are generally not much. For Office applications than adequate and at least the RAM memory can be easily upgraded itself by subjecting the device simply has to solve only a flap (which you should do sooner or later). The hard drive retrofit is complicated, should do only by those people, because you have to take half the unit apart.
As operating system Windows 7 Starter Edition preinstalled. This is a stripped down version of Home and contains all the important Windows programs and functions. That is, some people complain about the missing graphic embellishments such as the Aero interface or graphical preview of the current programs on the taskbar incomprehensible for me. The netbook would anyway not bring enough power for this, it would do really everything look nice, but correspondingly also eat a lot of memory and thus be slow. What is the point a then? Nothing. Right.
WiFi yes, no Bluetooth, 3G modem no. Therefore one must not say is way it is.
In the device, a 4400mAh battery is installed, which is mainly for netbooks makes sense. The battery life still comes later review.
I forgive here again 4 stars, mainly the ports bother me a bit, for the other points mentioned may be the purpose of a netbook not forget (just not high-end features, but trimmed for office applications) and also to the netbook at a reasonable its price is just not available and subnotebook.
Test run and Performance:
I was surprised by the relatively lengthy initial configuration of Windows 7, which lasted about half an hour and it is also not clear what the software because actually everything "rumkonfigurieren 'needs. After configuration had the netbook will reboot again and then finally you could log on to Windows 7. I must say at this point that I immediately uninstalled all programs Asus (actually everything was pre-installed), before I had a look at what they can and for me, they were not only superfluous but also memory-eaters. I highly recommend this so. Thus, the system ran for me from the outset perfectly round.
Until now (owned since 4 days) I could see no disadvantages by 1GB RAM. Of course, I avoid consume a lot of RAM memory and programs. So, one should avoid "big" antivirus or firewalls or have many programs open simultaneously. OpenOffice, simultaneous browsing for example but are not a problem. For the study I need a latex application compile the document into a PDF file. I was expecting this great utilization of CPU and long waits for the compilation, but surprisingly went really quickly. Also development environments such as Eclipse run smoothly.
As a gaming platform the netbook is not suitable. This may be due to one of the 1GB RAM, on the other hand the weak CPU. The game Torchlight runs even with minimal adjustment is not liquid, Hitman 2 only partially liquid. For this, the netbook is simply not designed.
Videos to 720p are played smoothly, but recommended videos are 720p, it is possible to have also other programs are running at the same time. Everything about it is choppy and the sound is asynchronously quickly.
Moreover, it should not run too many youtube videos at once you since breaking performance thanks to poor programming of flash quickly. Otherwise no problems.
When the Wi-Fi, low brightness, and battery saving mode, I'm on a battery life of 6-8 hours, which is in my opinion very good and the netbook still brings good performance. With Wi-Fi turned off, goes the whole depending on the application on high 8-9 hours. If you were to leave your equipment to work without it, would be 12 hours theoretically possible. With Wi-Fi, High Performance and bright display, you can still achieve all the same good 3-5 hours depending on what programs you perform and how many USB devices are connected.
The fan is almost never in use, and once he "starts" it is almost impossible to hear (even in a completely silent room). The netbook is not hot indicating a very good cooling system even after hours of use.
I forgive this 5 star because all what I expected was met. I do not have gaming suitable netbooks expected what impresses performance with high-end, but a device with long battery life with the strengths of the Office and development. And just the development environment I was very pleasantly surprised.
Conclusion:
Just buy it if you want to use the netbook for Office applications, or as a programmer. Also working longer and surf the Internet is surprisingly pleasant and not tiring, despite a small screen. Vorallendingen the long battery life and good performance speaks for this version of the Eee PC and not the R101 version with a smaller battery. The 1GB RAM enough for the beginning and can be expanded later without any problems. The size of the hard drive is a matter of taste, but since you can not use large programs such as the Adobe suite or games anyway, you do not need actually also the place except for videos and music. In this case, one would just use an external disk.
In this price-performance ratio I forgive a total of 4 star and again exhort the netbook can not be seen as a desktop -or laptop replacement, but rather as a small mobile companion with which you can still work very well.
