Asus hasn’t played around too much with the design on the Eee PC 1015PEM. It comes with a matte finish and one look at it will tell you that the design is pretty similar to that of the 1018P, except for its metallic finish. The design is sleek and this netbook isn’t heavy to carry around.
Neat design
Placement of the USB ports and audio connectors has been well thought. The chiclet keyboard design is unique and the isolated keys are well-spaced. The Shift and Function keys, however, are a little too small for comfort. The trackpad does not feel sensitive but that’s probably because of its finish.
In terms of hardware, the netbook has a configuration that includes a dual-core 1.5GHz Atom N550 processor. The 320-gig hard drive is larger than those in most netbooks — so there’s enough room for your movies and music. WiFi 802.11n is supported and so is Bluetooth 3.0. Obviously, you’ll need compatible devices and routers to take advantage of the speed benefits. The netbook comes preloaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition OS.
There are a few small but nifty features on the 1015PEM. For instance, there’s a physical Wi-Fi switch, meaning you won’t have to depend on keyboard shortcuts to turn it on/off. There’s even a switch to put the webcam on or off. The Ethernet port is located on the right side of the netbook and due to its profile of the netbook, there’s an extendable flap that opens up when you plug in a LAN cable. Speakers are placed at the bottom in the front but are not very loud in volume.
There are a few small but nifty features on the 1015PEM. For instance, there’s a physical Wi-Fi switch, meaning you won’t have to depend on keyboard shortcuts to turn it on/off. There’s even a switch to put the webcam on or off. The Ethernet port is located on the right side of the netbook and due to its profile of the netbook, there’s an extendable flap that opens up when you plug in a LAN cable. Speakers are placed at the bottom in the front but are not very loud in volume.
Lacking bite
The performance of the 1015PEM doesn’t match our expectations. This is noticeable if you intend on doing heavy-duty tasks like video encoding. The hard disk’s performance is surprisingly decent though. The quality of the screen is good — colours are decent and viewing angles are wide. The camera isn’t high resolution but it works well and outputs clear videos and photos.
Verdict
The Asus Eee PC 1015PEM is priced at R 20,999, which is decent for a dual-core netbook. You don’t get a whole lot more for the additional price but it’s not much more than a regular single-core variant. We like the nifty features that Asus has included in this product, but a slightly updated design would have been nicer.