ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Teardown: Sticky Tape Strikes Again

Looks like we spoke too soon when we declared the ASUS Eee PC 1008HA Seashell a mostly tape-free zone.  Netbook Italia have dismantled the skinny ultraportable, and their photos show there to be plenty of masking tape of the sort that so disappointed in the MSI X-Slim M340.

The teardown also flags up a couple of questionable design decisions on ASUS' part, not least the fact that their WiFi card of choice – an Atheros AR9285 capable of WiFi draft-n - is MIMO compatible, but the netbook itself only has a single antenna.  MIMO uses two antennas to boost signal and improve throughput and range, but that's no use when it only has one antenna to play with.

Still, ASUS manage to squeeze a fair amount in – including removable RAM, which does make us wish they'd fitted the 2GB maximum as standard, since most users aren't going to go to the trouble of opening everything up - and a standard 2.5-inch hard-drive with a nifty rubber protection case.  More photos at Notebook Italia.