Asus 1005P - finally got one and I like it

[Webguy]

Finally took the plunge and grabbed a netbook. Decided on the Asus 1005p and so far am very happy, just monitoring memory usage as Win 7 uses double what xp does on the same netbook. So far not come close to the 1G of ram, easy to upgrade to 2g though.

Got most of the software installed I need. May look for some nav software that uses the mapsource maps.

Not many good mounting solutions for inside a car though, I saw RAM's double suction cup mount. Hmmm

Anyone else got the 1005P, how is yours holding up, hows the battery life?

[PesceVerde]

Picked up an end-of-batch, but new, 1001HA (XP) a few months ago. It handles much more workload than I expected, and no real problems loading extras (so far).

Battery gets about 3hours+ from fully charged, which possibly isn't as good as some others but is plenty with a little care. I'm still looking for a suitable in-car power source at a suitable price.

Overall very happy with it.

[Webguy]

Cool, I too am looking for a suitable car based power source.

[Papa Bear_Left]

Check out DealExtreme: http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.eee

I got their clear crystal case for my 1000 and my wife's 900 netbooks and they're really good. They add almost nothing to the size and the protection from scratches and casual knocks is very reassuring. I also painted my wife's red (spray paint on the inside) with a window left clear on the lid for a picture to show through.

They have car chargers, but check that the requirements for the different models are compatible!

[J_&_J]

We have a 1000H. Although the manual claims 8-9 hours battery life, we still plug it into a 600W inverter to keep it from going into sleep mode too often.

[WazzaAndWenches]

Received my new 1005PE about 3 weeks back. Win7, 1Gb from http://www.wireless1.com.au
Seemed good to deal with. Actually had stock and shipped when they promised to. Bought a 1001 at the same time. Price dropped a couple of bucks and a freebie thrown in the day after my order was placed and paid. Rang them and they gave me a $20 credit for future and also threw in the freebie (ipod speaker systems x 2).

Very happy with my 1005. The Wenche's 1001 is hidden away for her birthday next week (Win XP). Did the usual initial startup and update. Hers took 860Mb of updates yet had XP sp3 installed . Maybe Microsoft should make software that works and doesn't need constant updating
Battery life reports via Win7 as 13hrs at full. I've run it down to flat over a number of days with a reasonable amount of usage. My guess is around 8hrs all up. Very happy about that.

Taking it to NZ in a few weeks. Loaded up with GSAK, OziExplorer and works great. Happy with Win7 after being far from impressed with Vista on my work laptop.

Two most notable issues...smallish keyboard and big fingers makes for a challenge, and case shows every single fingerprint and takes a lot of wiping to keep it looking clean.

All up, very happy and good value for money.

During the research stage I did find that most dealers did not actually have stock but were happy to take your money in advance . Advice...chekc your preferred dealer actually has stock on hand and can ship within a reasonable timeframe (<48hrs).

[Richary]

I am sure I replied yesterday but it seems to have gone missing. My 1000HG has a 12 volt output from the DC power supply. This would seem to make it possible to run it directly off the cigarette lighter, though perhaps some sort of filter would be advisable to limit the voltage to 12 volts rather than the 13.8 volt charging level from the inverter, and also any engine noise spikes.

I would be quite happy running it off the lighter socket with the engine off though (remembering not to flatten the car battery!).

[Webguy]

After doing some reading about the "cheap" cigarette socket chargers and how a lot seem to be totally unregulated, I think I will be going the route of the small pure sine wave inverter. Seems a bit safer and more useful to me at this point.

Also means, I have found a use for my old blue tooth GPS, stopped using that way back when I stopped running tomtom on the palm, got sick of having to mount the palm all the time to use it. Dusted it off, paired em up and oziexplorer and Garmin Mobile PC work beautifully.

I think I have everything loaded on it now that I need. Wagga will be the test I guess. Car mounting will take some thought, being hard drive-based, proper vibration free solution will be required, especially offroad. Not happy with anything I have seen so far. Something creative may be required that does not get in the road of airbags or gear sticks etc.

[Richary]

I could suggest the better half's lap as a suitable holder, but not sure if mine would agree either

While I used to use Ozi hooked to the GPS I generally only find it necessary on the 4WD tracks. Planning a normal road trip I generally look at what caches I will be getting on the way beforehand and just use the TomTom these days.

Still a car mount and adaptor would be good. As for the pure sine wave ones they would be nice but I've never had a problem with a cheapie and the laptop power supplies. I might ask a mate at work if I get the chance tomorrow about running a 12 volt laptop off a car, he is much more up on DC power supplies than I am.