ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life) Reviews
07. Aug, 2010 
5 Comments
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
- Intel Atom N450 (1.66GHz, 512KB L2 Cache)
- 10.1-Inch Color-Shine 1366X768 WXGA LED Display; Intel UMA graphics with Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator
- 1 GB DDR2 SODIMM memory, Max Capacity 2 GB; 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) + 500GB Free Web Storage
- 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth; 0.3MP Webcam; Chiclet Keyboard
- Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life; Windows 7 Starter Operating System
The ASUS Eee PC 1005PR is unique in the Eee PC lineup, featuring 1366×768 screen resolution in a 10.1 inch form factor. The Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator provides 1080P playback for videos and allows high-resolution viewing required by many business applications. The Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator, coupled with the energy-efficient Intel Atom N450 processor, gives you the best of mobile entertainment coupled with all-day battery life. Leave the power cord at home and enjoy tantalizing HD vide
Rating: 
(out of 29 reviews)
List Price: $ 399.99
Price: $ 399.99
Review by Carlos A. Sanchez for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
Rating:
Got it 4 days ago and I’ve been playing with this puppy everyday. Just make sure you update to the new flash 10.1 and also update the drivers for the Broadcom Crystal. It plays youtube HD @ 720p or 1080p without a sweat. Battery time is as advertised. I even upgraded to a Kingston V+ SSD and this thing flies. I have tried several netbooks and even the “magical” ipad, and this is a keeper. Small, light, plays HD and blu-rays, plays HD flash videos without a hiccup, long lasting battery life, 250gb hard drive @ only $399.00. Did I forget to mention 1366×768 true HD display?
PS. I was able to play my Avatar blu ray @ 1080p in my netbook. It played flawlessly. It got me teary eyed how gorgeous it looked, 10 times better than it looked in the “magical” ipad before I returned it.
Update: So far things keep going right. I read comments of people not being satisfied with their system. I had to admit that the PC right out of the box is not adequate enough to perform like you wish it would. I had to do a few updates and upgrades myself. I upgraded to a 2gb memory chip, installed a 128gb SSD, and did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium. Got the new flash 10.1 RC 4, and the latest broadcom drivers. I understand frustration from people about the additional work that has to be invested to get this system up to your standards, but for $399 is not bad at all. The HP mini 210 HD, with a similar configuration gets close to $499, and you probably have to make the same adjustments that I mentioned before. I had the HP mini HD with a broadcom that I installed myself, and it doesn’t come even close in performance to the ASUS.
For video playback, windows 7 Home Premium, supports DVD playback. Unfortunately for Blu ray files you have to upgrade to TMT platinum, and also install AnyDVD HD. But to give ASUS some credit, this system is not advertised for Blu ray playback; that would be considered an upgrade, and we have to be grateful that at least with the broadcom crystal HD card, we have the choice to upgrade if we want to.
So the bottom line, if you decide to get this system, be aware that you are going to have to get busy optimizing this netbook like any other netbook. My view is that once you trim the fat, and upgrade the memory, this system rocks.
Review by M. Yu for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
Rating:
This netbook has a great feature set and works well, despite a few niggling flaws.
PROS: Bright, full resolution screen, great battery life, HD accelerator, bluetooth, smudge-free case, kinda decent speakers, nice touchpad, very light.
CONS: Noisy keyboard, keyboard flex, takes some tweaking to get the Broadcom card to work well, bad speaker placement (under the front), stiff trackpad button.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Other users complain about bloatware and there really isn’t all that much. And like any new computer, it takes awhile to configure it. I also added an SD card for a little ReadyBoost speed bump and will add another gig of RAM, but when it’s in Super Performance mode, it does everything with minimal, if any, hesitation. I’m hoping the extra RAM will speed things up.
I bought this mostly as a media player and it does that well. 480 Hulu can be twitchy at times but Netflix and Youtube play very well. It’s my first time using Windows 7 Starter and so far I haven’t found a real need to upgrade.
The battery lasts for well over 8 hours, which is fantastic. They keyboard is noisy and flimsy but I can type fairly quickly with it. Frankly, with the video accelerator and the full screen resolution, it’s the netbook I wanted at a very reasonable price. I can live with its few shortcomings.
Review by Pieter Viljoen for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
Rating:
I got the 1005PR yesterday (10 May 1020), so it is a bit early to give a thorough review, but I felt compelled to comment on my experience so far.
At the end of the Windows installation, the Asus software says configuring system, I thought it was hanging, but after about 20 minutes it eventually completed.
I found the machine to be a bit slow, at least slower than expected.
I uninstalled the included anti virus software, and it made quite a big difference in responsiveness.
Regarding reports of missing hardware, my machine does have the “Crystal HD” hardware.
Asus has two update utilities, one called “Eee LiveUpdate” and “ASUS Update”.
It seems that “Eee LiveUpdate” updates the software installed on the system, and “ASUS Update” updates the BIOS.
I don’t know why they have two different applications, why not just integrate them.
“Eee LiveUpdate” updated the “ASUS Vibe” application.
When I ran “ASUS Update”, it failed with an error that says “Sorry, there’s no proper BIOS image file on the server!”.
I wanted to double check if any updates are available, and I logged on to the Asus support site at [...].
On looking for updates, there is no product model matching 1005PR, there is 1005P, 1005PE, but no 1005PR.
I wanted to contact support about this, but you have to register to get support, yet again, there was no product matching 1005PR, so I can’t register the product.
I ended up posting a question about the model number in the 1005P support forum, there is no 1005PR support forum.
As of this morning (11 May 2010) there is still no product 1005PR on the Asus registration page, the download page, or the support forum.
So 4 stars for the product, and 1 star for Asus.
Review by SeaDav for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
Rating:
With the latest broadcom drivers (3.3.0) and flash software:
pros:
- sleek and well built. Not the thinnest around but the battery is almost flush with the body (not promiscuously hanging in the back as most).
- bright HD screen. You can work as you are used to on a bigger laptop, plenty of room. The fonts are not too small (also can be increased).
- perfect decoding (silky smooth) of 1080p 720p 480p h264 videos files with included total media theater 3 player and MPC-HC, etc.
- Youtube (windowed) 1080p = ~22 fps, 720p=~22fps
- Youtube (fullscreen) 1080p = ~8 fps, 720p=~12fps. Amazingly, it is still watchable
- youtube (fullscreen with total media theater 3) 1080p, 720p … silky smooth!. Works from clicking a play icon on the youtube video thumbnails in internet explorer only. 35-60% cpu max in power saving mode for 1080p
- long battery life
- noise cancelling microphones tech (with two microphones)
- great keyboard
- sdcard slot allows the card to be flush with the case
cons:
- webcam could be better in low light but ok in most conditions
- no desktop vsync due to lack of aero in win7 starter => some tearing occur on the desktop. it does not affect playing videos with total media theater 3.
- touchpad has to be tuned (disable zooming gesture)
- lack of aero on windows 7 starter makes the desktop look laggy so better optimize for performance (remove windows decorations). Tried linux 3d desktop and it is silky smooth so it is a software issue with starter.
Very happy with my purchase overall.
Review by K. Chan for ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005PR-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook (Up to 11 Hours of Battery Life)
Rating:
This is my first netbook. Ordered and shipped on May 12, just before Amazon put a halt on selling this machine. When received, checked to have th broadcom HD card in device manager. After upgrading to 2GB ram and updating the Adobe flash to 10.1 RC4, things work fine. I just use the stock Win 7 starter. Played around for 2 days.
The good:
The hi-res screen is very nice. Screen brightness can range from very dim for use in dark to very bright.
I really like the chicklet keyboard. Very good feedback.
The “eee super-hybrid engine” is useful and fun to play around with.
On-screen-display for Wifi on/off, power mode, volume change is very responsive.
The so-so:
Viewing angle is not exceptional but usable, as mentioned in other reviews.
The bad:
The touch pad is a bit sticky. Maybe it’s my oily finger. But really frustrated me a bit. Would have given it 4.5 stars. I put scotch tape over it and it is better now.
Would be nice to have:
Dedicated button for vol up/down and mute.
Separated Fn key for Wifi and Bluetooth. (Currently, Fn-F2 would cycle through all combinations of WiFi on/off and Bluetooth on/off.)