ASUS Eee PC 1000H

Measuring 10.5 x 7.5 x 1.0 to 1.5 inches and weighing 3.2 pounds, the Eee PC 1000H has some added love handles to its Eee PC predecessors' skinny stature. It can fit easily into a notebook bag or purse or be carried in-hand, but its new silver hinge adds some bulk.

The Eee PC 1000H boasts elegance. Its glossy black “Fine Ebony” lid is accented with the new Eee PC logo in a cursive font. The improved silver hinge, glossy plastic veneer, and sharp black-on-silver design make this system look anything but budget.

The 1000H comes with the standard array of ports: three USB 2.0, a memory card slot, VGA-out, Ethernet, and headphone and microphone jacks.

MSI Wind NB

By way of comparison, the MSI Wind is a bit slimmer than the 1000H at 10.2 x 7.1 x 0.7- inches. But you have to open the Wind and 1000H side-by-side to notice the difference. Weighing in at 3 pounds, the Wind is 2 ounces lighter than its rival

Like the HP Mini-Note, the Wind has saved space by placing the notebook hinge flush with, rather than above the keyboard. This sunken screen design takes about an inch off the height, allowing users to more easily look across the meeting table or at the front of the classroom as they type.

The Wind NB is less flashy than the Eee PC 1000H but sports a minimalist white finish (also available in black and pink) with rounded edges. Similar to the original white ASUS Eee PC, this system’s lid features a low-luster finish, resistant to fingerprint smudges.

Like the 1000H, the Wind features 3 USB 2.0 ports, a memory card slot, ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, VGA, and a Kensington lock.

Winner: Tie. This round comes down to personal preference, making it too close to call. We prefer the improved and elegant design of the Eee PC 1000H over the Wind, but the 1000H’s bigger stature will have others leaning towards the Wind.

ASUS Eee PC 1000H

The ASUS Eee PC 1000H has the largest and roomiest keyboard on any Eee PC to date. The size makes all the difference for touch typists who had been forced into doing finger contortions with earlier models.

Though the Eee PC 1000H's keys are physically larger and offer more tactile feedback than those of the MSI Wind, the entire keyboard feels rickety as it bounces up and down when you type. The right Shift key is awkwardly placed after the up arrow key, making it pretty much useless for touch-typists. Adding insult to injury, there is wasted, blank space between the up arrow button and the question mark key, where the Shift key should have been.

The trackpad on the Eee PC 1000H is far roomier than previous efforts and has a smooth, textured feel. The trackpad also supports multi-touch controls, such as the ability to zoom on a picture by pinching. The mouse buttons—a dedicated right and left button—are stiff and offer weak tactile feedback.

MSI Wind NB

The almost full-size keyboard on the Wind is about the same size as the ASUS Eee PC 1000H. However, the matte white keys offer nice feedback, and the manufacturing quality of the keyboard is top-notch. The board has no flex and felt sturdier under our fingers.

The Shift key on the Wind is in just the right place, but unfortunately the comma, period, and question mark keys are smaller than all the adjactent letter keys, making it more likely that touch typists would accidentally hit the comma when they meant to hit the period. Still, we think this is a minor problem that a Wind owner would get used to.

Measuring 2.0 x 1.7 inches, the trackpad on the Wind NB is smaller than that on the Eee PC 1000H. It requires more movement than we would like, and the single bar serving as a left- and right-click control is also less than ideal. However, the bar is not as tough to press as the buttons on the Eee PC 1000H.

Winner: MSI Wind NB. Sure, the Wind's trackpad is small, but its keyboard is more comfortable and solidly built than the new Eee PC 1000H's, which is why the Wind takes Round Two.

ASUS Eee PC 1000H

The ASUS Eee PC 1000H's expanded keyboard and stature complement the expanded 10-inch 1024 x 600-pixel display, which is extremely roomy and provides enough screen real estate to view any Web site—no need to scroll horizontally as you would on the original 800x400 7-inch Eee PC. The resolution switcher located above the keyboard is a unique feature and allows one to quickly swithc between 800 x 600, 1024 x 600 (default), 1024 x 768 (which makes the screen taller than its border), and 1024 x 768 compress, the last of which squashes the image vertically to make everything fit.

The matte screen looks sharp and bright and has solid horizontal and vertical angles. Compared with the MSI Wind NB, the horizontal viewing angles were better, and vertically tilting the screen caused only a bit of glare.

Above the 10-inch display is a 1.3-megapixel camera that serves up decent visuals. Two microphones are placed on the bottom bezel. Callers over Skype didn't have any problems hearing us but said there was a bit of echo.

ASUS upped the ante by including Dolby Sound Room stereo speakers. The speakers, located on the bottom of the machine, delivered strong and solid sound. Streaming music from Pandora was loud enough to fill a small living room.

MSI Wind NB

The Wind has a similar 10-inch 1024 x 600-pixel display, and the widescreen gives you plenty of room to keep two windows open. But while vertical viewing angles are decent, horizontal angles are poor. With both screens sitting side by side at 50 percent brightness the Wind's lacked the same vividness as the Eee PC's. The Wind also lacks a resolution switcher; you've got to dig through the settings to change the resolution.

The 1.3-megapixel camera above the screen served up similar visuals to the Eee PC 1000H's webcam. On the other hand, the microphone on the upper right-hand corner of the screen picked up more background noise on a Skype call.

The Wind's speakers, located on the bottom of the mini-notebook, produced a loud and steady sound. But when we played Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" on both systems, the Eee PC 1000H's Dolby speakers were stronger and louder, while the Wind's sounded tinnier.

Winner: ASUS Eee PC 1000H. The Eee PC 1000H's wider viewing angles, screen-resolution switcher, and Dolby Sound Room stereo speakers K.O. the MSI Wind NB.

ASUS Eee PC 1000H

The system's 1GB of RAM and 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor make it more than capable of multitasking and handling its Windows XP Home operating system. Though the Eee PC's CPU runs at 1.6 GHz on the spec, its Super Hybrid Engine switcher allows for overclocking or underclocking of the system. The power-saving mode underclocks (1.2 GHz), high-performance mode runs on the spec (1.6 GHz), and super performance overclocks (1.8 GHz). We didn’t notice any significant change in real-world performance between the modes, so we recommend that users stick with auto power-saving mode, which switches between 1.2GHz on battery and 1.6 GHz on AC power.

The Eee PC 1000H's integrated Intel 945 graphics chip scored 739 in our 3DMark03 test and was even able to run Second Life quite well. 

The 1000H is the first Eee PC to sport a hard drive, rather than a solid state one. Its 80GB Seagate Momentus 5,400-rpm hard drive is partitioned into two 40GB sections and didn’t slow down the Eee PC's speedy boot time. From hitting the power button to gaining control of our Windows XP desktop, we had to wait only 40 seconds. 

Running on its included six-cell battery, the Eee PC 1000H lasted 4 hours and 28 minutes with Wi-Fi on.

MSI Wind NB

The MSI Wind is configured with the same specs: 1GB of RAM and a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor. As expected, performance was on a par with the Eee PC 1000H; programs loaded quickly even when we had several others running in the background. Like ASUS' Hybrid Engine, the Wind NB includes a TurboDrive button (activated by pressing Fn+F10), which overclocks the system’s CPU. At the highest mode, the CPU clocked in at 1.9 GHz—slightly faster than the Eee PC 1000H's "super performance" mode.

When it came to graphics performance, the Wind scored lower than the Eee PC 1000H at 606, but the score jumped to 746 when the system was overclocked to 1.9 GHz.

Sporting a similar hard drive to the 1000H, the Wind's 5,400-rpm 80GB disk provides plenty of space and isn't partitioned like the Eee PC’s drive. The Wind boots 6 seconds faster than its competitor, clocking in at 34 seconds.

Battery life, however, is where the Wind notches serious extra points. The system lasted a strong 5 hours and 13 minutes with Wi-Fi on—more than forty minutes longer than the Eee PC 1000H.

Winner: MSI Wind NB. This round was close, but the Wind's stellar battery life and slightly faster boot time smack down the Eee PC 1000H.

On paper, the Eee PC 1000H and the MSI Wind NB are evenly matched, especially considering there same $549.99 price tag. In our close, the Wind took two rounds, the Eee PC 1000H took one, and one ended in a tie.

Certainly the Eee PC 1000H is a strong mini-notebook. It has a stunning design, strong speakers, and solid performance and battery life. But if you are looking for the best 10-inch mini-notebook, the MSI Wind stands triumphant – though not by much.

Updated: 7/30/08 as of MSI's change in price

Winner: MSI Wind NB