When I took this netbook – dubbed the Seashell by its makers Asus - out of its
box, I immediately wondered where it got its nickname. I had imagined it
would be something you couldn’t help caressing – with that rough-smooth
surface you get on shells at the beach, with perhaps a few swirls
incorporated into the design. Instead, it emerged with a black plasticky
casing that looked like something picked up from the beach after an oil
spill. Just in case I had the concept wrong, I held the Seashell up to my
ear in case I could hear the sound of waves. Nothing.
Asus have really delivered on design with previous Eee netbooks such as the 900
and S101
so this new incarnation feels a little disappointing.
Design aside, there is much to like with the Seashell for business travellers.
You can’t sniff at a theoretical battery life of 9.5 hours for the 48Wh
version – it delivered around seven hours during typical operation for me.
While we are on the subject of power, it’s worth mentioning the adaptor. It’s
good to see that Asus have slimmed this down to make it more portable but
the power plug is tiny and sometimes didn’t click home into the socket
without me realising it.
The Seashell is also fairly light – weighing in at 1.38 kilos. A great size
for a business traveller’s constant companion.
However, the hefty battery delivered that stamina and the light weight combine
to give a big downside - instability. The battery makes the Seashell rear
end heavy, meaning that if you have it balanced on your lap, an injudicious
push could send it toppling onto the floor. You suspect that the casing
wouldn’t survive such a fall.
With an LED backlit screen that is 11.6 inches across, you are starting to get
out of netbook territory and into that of notebooks. The screen has
excellent resolution but lacks in contrast.
Unlike some
netbooks I have reviewed here, the Seashell’s keyboard is pleasant to
type on with good size keys that respond well to fast typing.
The touchpad is unusual to say the least. Instead of having a recessed pad, it
actually forms part of the wrist rest. You only know it’s there because of a
series of raised touch-sensitive bumps above a single silver button at the
bottom.
On the subject of the touchpad, have you ever thought how nice it would be to
have a prominent button that allowed you to turn off the touchpad? No, me
neither.
If you are buying a netbook, sound quality is never likely to be high on your
list of priorities. That’s lucky if you buy a Seashell. When I first played
an audio clip, I thought that I had some headphones plugged in it sounded so
tinny. Sadly, I was mistaken – it really does sound like that.
Finally, we get to the processor, an Intel Atom Z520. This runs at 1.33 GHz
but can be overclocked (made to work quicker to those that have never heard
of this) by around 33%.
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