Naturally enough, the EC900 is the big brother of Hercules' eCAFE EC800.

Now boasting an 8.9'' screen, it has an Intel Atom CPU, 60 GB hard drive and 512 MB of RAM.

The choice of software remains the same, with Hercules sticking firm with its customized Linux distribution, designed to be both user-friendly and make efficient use of the limited resources available on a netbook.


Handling & Connectivity

In general, netbooks with 8.9'' screens are closer to the 'original' conception of a netbook than their larger 10'' counterparts.

The result is that user comfort can sometimes be less than optimal--especially when it comes to typing.

Despite the extra inch, things don't seem to be much better on the EC900 than they were on the EC800, and the keyboard is still very compact.

The touchpad is generous enough, though, and Hercules wisely makes use of all the available space by positioning the left and right click buttons right up against the front edge of the EC900.

Because of the bulky battery at the back, the netbook is tilted slightly forwards when you have it on a flat surface.  While we were using our test model, we noticed noise coming from underneath the case--a sort of light scratching that was probably the hard drive--but we hope this isn't a more widespread fault.

Typical webcam shot

A built-in webcam above the screen produces images which are very pale and sometimes lack detail.  As for the sound from the microphone, we found our voices sounded a little muffled when we tried VoIP conversations.

Having the internal microphone right next to the keyboard isn't a very good idea either, because it picks up the sound of typing far too easily.

Using the open source applications supplied by Hercules by default, you won't be able to enjoy video conferencing straight out of the box, but you should be able to get your hands on compatible applications.

Along the sides of the EC900, there are three USB ports, one Ethernet port, a VGA output, a pair of mini jacks and a memory card reader.

The speakers are much more powerful than is usual on netbooks, and can even get to grip with bass quite well.  Nevertheless, the sound produced by something so small is inevitably limited, so, as usual, we can only recommend you use it when you actually have to.  The rest of the time, a decent external sound system of some headphones will make all the difference.

2 USB, RJ45	2 mini-Jack
VGA, USB	Webcam

Turning the netbook over, you can undo two screws to gain access to the RAM and the hard disk, but the two ports are covered by a seal that invalidates the guarantee if broken.

Processor Power
One big change since the EC800 is the inclusion of an Intel processor--the Atom--which is found in the majority of netbooks and which really pushes the EC900 along.

It's by no means a record-breaker, yet, though, and the data transfer rates for copying files from an external hard drive are less impressive, only reaching 17.4 MB/s when the best of the bunch reach 20 MB/s.

This could be the fault of the 512 MB of RAM--1 GB is more common on models running Windows XP--but the EC900 seems to handle all of its applications perfectly well.

The extra power in the CPU has allowed Hercules to include some more visual effects in its Linux interface, which make it a lot more pleasant to use.  

As for the hard drive space, although there's only 60 GB on the hard drive, Hercules promises to provide up to 30 GB of secure storage free on its own servers for a year.

At the time of writing, the service still hadn't been launched, so we can't report on the kind of speeds available.

The extra processor power has also gone into pushing the E900 further with video, where it can now handle more formats, but still struggles with HD.

Portability & Battery Life
As we mentioned above, the EC900 has a very large battery, which is necessary to keep up with the fast processor and bigger screen.

On our standard test--looping video with some headphones plugged in and the screen set to a brightness level of 100 cd/m², it lasted for 4 hours 52 minutes, almost as long as the five hours clocked up by the Asus 901.

All this and just 1.2 kg on the scales, with an incredibly light charger at just 180 grams.