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Page 1 of 3   ASUS continuously expands its, already big, Eee product portfolio. Newest addition in Eee family, that we got in our test lab, is Eee PC 1004DN and it actually has few peculiarities that will make him stand out from the crowd. ASUS Eee PC 1004DN has optical drive and new Intel GN40 chipset with X4500M integrated graphics card that should be faster compared to GMA950 that can be found in most netbooks. Biggest news is that Atom CPU in combination with new GN40 chipset supports reproduction of HD video which was one of the biggest drawback of “old” netbooks.
ASUS Eee PC 1004DN arrived in black box with Eee PC logo on it. In it we found, hidden in bag made of synthetic suede, new ASUS netbook. Beside the device itself we also found in the box cloth (for cleaning), DVD, bag for cables and manual. We are used to getting technical samples from ASUS but this is first time that beside “beta” netbook we also received beta manual. Obviously ASUS is paying attention to details.
Cover is light-brown-ish with piano finish that gives the cover slightly elegant tone. Obviously, manufacturers realized that rant about piano finish wasn’t groundless, so most of them, as ASUS did, made those surfaces much more fingerprint unfriendly. Palm rest is made out of brushed aluminum – elegant and very practical solution. Color of palm rest is also unusual: something between silver and copper (similar to cover). One detail that isn’t that much elegant is 6-cell battery that sticks out at the back, but actually not too much, to be honest.
Rigid construction made out of modern alloys provides nice protection for components found inside the chassis. Best proof of good rigidity is the fact that even harder pressure on cover did not result in picture deformations. For build quality this netbook deserves very high marks.
Ergonomics of ASUS Eee PC 1004DN is, also, very good. Cover can be opened almost at 180 degrees, much more than almost all newer netbooks that we tested so far. Touch pad is relatively small but precise, with thin frame. It supports multi-finger gesture but only for zoom functions –scroll and rotation are not supported by multi-finger gesture. Two touch pad buttons are nice change from single button practice that was present on previous Eee PC models. In upper right corner, above keyboard, is located power button and on the opposite, left, corner – Super Hybrid Engine button.
Keyboard is slightly bending at the middle, but this is one of the best keyboards so far seen on netbooks. By shape and design it resembles Apple MacBook keyboards which is characterized by larger gap between each key. Keyboard size is actually 92% of standard desktop keyboard so prolonged typing shouldn’t be a problem.
Connector layout is very good. Two USB, VGA and audio connectors followed by Express card slot are located at left side, while another USB and LAN port are located at right side.
Display is matte, without shiny coating which is, in our humble opinion, great news and big plus. Picture is sharp with nicely saturated colors. At first glance wide frame around display is noticeable, which is a shame since this model could be much better with one of those new 11.6inch displays. Well, maybe this feature is reserved for some other model. Speakers are very powerless so we won’t waste much time describing them.
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