When I first heard that Acer was pricing their Aspire One 532h at $299 I figured they were looking to attain the#1 selling netbook status for 2010. With its excellent keyboard and decent performance, the low-cost machine was likely to attract a lot of fans. Oh, but wait. Here comes the Eee PC 1001P. Same price, similarly great design and ergonomics, plus decent performance. It’s on.

Not only does the 1001P do well on overall performance benchmarks, this awesome little machine lasted 8 hours and 23 minutes during our battery test. That’s 13 minutes shy of the Aspire One 532h. But here’s the real kicker: the version of the Acer that achieved this score costs $349. It’s $299 cousin has a lower capacity battery, so it probably won’t last as long. The Eee PC managed its time on a 4400-mAh, 6-cell battery and at $50 less. That’s why it’s an Editor’s Choice.

Click here to read our full review and see how well the 1001P stacks up against other Pine Trail netbooks.