Since the initial release of the Asus Eee 700, I’ve been looking into getting myself a sub-notebook. I’ve never had a laptop of my own, and lugging around the 4kg loaner laptop for a year or more on my travels was sure starting to annoy me.
Dad bought himself a nice 701 (in matte black) which looks incredibly cool, but there were just too many compromises for my needs. The screen was just too small, and the much maligned keyboard meant learning how to type again. Those two reasons coupled with the inability to store photos from my camera meant that I couldn’t enjoy the portability of the 700 range.
The 900 range was to be my entry point, but the complete lack of availability in HawaiiI meant that I had to wait until I got home. Lucky for me the 901 was announced shortly thereafter, and along with it a brand new 10″ form in the 1000 series.
The 1000H was a happy middle-ground between the 700 and what that model lacked, and I was almost convinced until I saw the $900+ prices on eBay for early Hong KongII models. Everybody on the forums were saying the same thing; nice, but way overpriced. The MSI Wind looked enticing (considering the same sized model) and was set at a lower point. Again the availability stopped me from securing one, and I was left to wait for the USA release date, and eventually the Australian scheduled drop.
After checking the forums at EeeUser every few days, I’d almost given up on a domestic release. My brother-in-law has a couple of technology wholesalers on speed-dial, so I asked him to enquire for me about a price. He subsequently copped an earful from oneIII because of the supply vs. demand problem, coupled with a more than meager profit margin per unit (something like $50). To add to their frustration, the 1000H is only being supplied to retail stores in Australia. According to one wholesaler, Harvey Norman would have exclusive distribution.
This was some seriously bad news, because Gerry Harvey’s franchise empire wasn’t known for competitive pricing, consistant stock levels or helpful service. I’d almost given up on finding a 1000H domestically, until I was surprised to find that somebody reported that JB-HiFi already had them stock.
I visited their website, a hopeless static advertisment for their stores, without any online purchasing availableIV. On the front page the 1000H was listed at the unbelievable price point of $648 AUD.
Lacking any product page or printable version, I printed a screendump of their website, and grabbed their phone number to call on opening the next day.
An hour or so later I checked the forum thread again, to find that JB had changed the advertised price up to $698, a fifty buck leap. Always inquisitive, I had a gander at the filename for the 1000H image on their site, and noticed the letter b suffixed. Removing it revealed the original image with the old price. I’m sure the webmaster was only doing his due diligence, but any enterprising bargain hunter could easily swap the old image back in and give themself a nice discount for little hassle.
The next morning I called the store, and a guy told me that they were out of stock. “Wait a sec-”, he added, “- oh no, we have some left.”
We were working in Surfers Paradise so it was a quick journey to the store where (firmly holding my printout) I approached the computer salesman. He fetched a ladder to reach the small pile of 1000H‘s perched away in a far corner of the store, and brazenly I asked, “I don’t suppose I can be picky enough to choose a colour?”. For those who aren’t aware, Asus has always released white before black, so even though I would have preferred it, chances are I was walking away with a white model.
“Yeah sorry, we’ve only got black.”
As he got down I saw the price on the tag, the corrected $698. Knowing that I had to essentially pretend not to know that the price had risen, I casually noted that it didn’t seem right, and slyly produced my printout. “Oh, they’re always doing stuff like that to us,” he said flippantly, “but that’s okay.”
I was expecting at least a small argument, but a few minutes later I was headed back to work with an almost too-cheap laptop. That happy to have got such a good deal, I was halfway back before I realised it was preloaded with XP, something nearly impossible for the price. If I had the choice I would have picked a Linux version (the price would be cheaper) but I doubt there’ll be non-XP versions out here any time soon.
After giving it the initial charge, I booted it up to find a bountiful amount of uselessV software preinstalled. Whoever decided to put both Microsoft Works and StarOffice on the same machine is asking for user confusion. Since XP will only be as a dire failsafe, I stripped it down to a bare shell, my only mistake was removing bluetooth. Removing it is a complete waste of time, as whenever you turn WiFi off you nearly always shift bluetooth on, and Windows instantly wants to install it again.
I also managed to have one dead pixel, and unlike any that I’ve had before it’s a lime green flickering-star type. As with all dead pixels, it’s just short of being in the very centre of the screen, seemingly just so you won’t forget that that yes, you don’t have a perfect display. No single dead pixel is worth returning a unit for though, and considering how lucky I was to own a 1000H so early it’s little to whinge about. 
The best news though is this entire post was written with it, something I doubt I’d be saying with a smaller model.
