The latest Seashell series from Asus’ Eee lineup also include the popular 1005HA; both netbooks have been well received thanks in large part to their slim chassis and otherwise striking appearance compared to the original and relatively bland Eee series. I don’t know how the minds at Asus’ design team work, but the square shapes on the 1008HA doesn’t really strike me as a seashell, but it looks pretty anyway so I won’t delve on the naming process.

Design and Build Quality

The overall design of the Eee 1008HA is very pleasant as it’s only about an inch thick and with slightly rounded corners. There’s no abundance of ports either – at least not visible ones. Besides a small power input, the rest of the ports are hidden behind plastic covers in the chassis. It doesn’t have a conventional VGA port, instead opting for a mini-connector and an external adapter.

For better or worse, the slim-line design calls for a built-in, non user-replaceable lithium hybrid battery. Unless you feel comfortable with dismantling the computer and doing it yourself, you’ll have to leave the battery with a qualified professional for replacement when the it reaches the end of its natural life. On the plus side you get excellent battery life with the 1008HA – more than six hours with power-saving features turned on.

Ergonomics: Screen and Keyboard

Upon lifting the lid you are greeted by a glossy widescreen display sporting the usual 1024×600 resolution and a flush mounted keyboard that provides a good typing experience. A couple of handy shortcut buttons have also been placed above the keyboard that allows for switching Wi-Fi on and off, or temporarily disabling the trackpad.

Performance and Features

The Asus Eee 1008HA can be considered a “premium” netbook thanks to its slightly more sophisticated design. However, it also offers a little extra in terms of performance, as it uses the marginally faster 1.66GHz Atom N280. We certainly didn’t expect any miracles from the faster CPU – after all, it’s only 6MHz faster than the more common N270 and at the end of the day it’s still a netbook. In PCMark 05, however, the unit produced a score of 1636 points, which is about one hundred points above average in this category. This is probably thanks to the also improved FSB (Front Side Bus) speeds on the newer N280 models.

In all,  it’s a well built netbook with some premium features and very nice-looking design elements. If you think it’s worth paying a little extra for good looks, then the Eee 1008HA is a good alternative. It’s available in white, black, blue and pink.
Quick Specs: CPU: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Memory: 1GB  DDR2, Hard drive: 160GB, Graphics: Intel GMA 950, Operating System: Windows XP SP3, Dimensions (WD) 10.3 x 7.1 inches, Height 0.6- 1.0 inches, Screen size: 10.1″ (1024×600) , System weight 2.4lbs, Battery life: ~6 hours on “power saver” mode.