Asus Eee PC 1005PR reviewed – Broadcom chip worth it?
May 22, 2010 at 3:56 pm
The Asus Eee PC 1005PR is like the 1005PE in most respects, however it differs by offering a high-resolution (1366 x 768) display and Broadcom Crystal HD media accelerator card. It is powered by a 1.66GHz N450 Atom processor and comes with 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Windows 7 Starter, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), 0.3MP webcam and three USB ports.
LaptopMag has been putting 1005PR through its paces and found that the Broadcom chip wasn’t as convincing with HD video content as Nvidia ION is. With no real benefit from HD web video, it falls short of Nvidia’s dedicated graphics. Given some of the issues that many users are facing with the Broadcom chip (see Amazon comments here
However, moving past that issue, the Eee PC 1005PR has a beautiful high-resolution display, good speakers, long battery life (8 hours 45 minutes) and a smooth touchpad. However, the additional cost due to the Broadcom chip is of questionable value. You can read the full review here.
May 22nd, 2010 4:02 PM
Nice to see HD netbooks. Thanks for pointing out the issue of the Broadcom chip. I’ll be sticking with the Nvidia 😉
May 22nd, 2010 4:50 PM
Always thought (…or at least had a hunch) that Broadcom Chips were more of a make-shift arrangement to play HD videos on netbooks and kinda liked ’em for this too since this chip came at a low price BUT if they are giving problems then even the extra few bucks make no sense. Thanks for pointing it out cuz I was about to see the possibilities of putting one in my netbook thru’ local source.
Rather pay more and opt for the ‘real’ option from nVidia. This is why I predict that the price range bracket will go up by +US$100 straight off for want of latest ‘genuine’ and ‘reliable’ state-of-the-art technology. So, you want the best, you gotta pay for it !
August 19th, 2010 5:40 AM
Hey people, there’s a new driver (update from asus) for the Broadcom’s HD cristal clear chip. An now we can see 1080p stream video smootly. This is a grrreat machine. (2g of ram) its have just a great performance