The world just got bigger, or so it seems. With ASUS and Intel’s demonstration of their $199 and $299 low cost ultra mobile platform, called the “Eee” (Easy to learn, work, play; Excellent Internet experience; and Excellent mobile computing experience), becoming connected globally just became easier for people in parts of the world who previously couldn’t afford items such as PCs and notebooks.
The “Eee” has a 7” display, weight about 0.89 kg, and features Intel’s mobile CPU & chipset, flash based storage (solid state, no moving parts), WiFi (802.11b/g) capability, a 300K pixel camera, Windows and Linux OS compatibility and quite a few goodies you wouldn’t expect to get for such a low price.
Intel is calling this its “World Ahead” market initiative, with the intent of giving everybody around the world the chance to own their own PC. These should sell really well once they hit the market considering its price point and features.
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My review about ASUS EEE PC:
I became one of very few privileged consumers in Canada to own the Asus EEE PC model 701 version with 4 GB drive. This is a *** pre-production *** model and I bought it from a company that did an online review for Asus. I LOVE THIS MACHINE. Overall look – it looks sexy, tiny, light, plesant to hold.
SYSTEM INFO:
Bios version 0155
Bios date: 09/10/2007 (this is after I flashed Bios today. Flashing Bios on EEE Pc is easy).
Software version: EEE PC 1.0
Build info: 2007-09-20 06:00. That means this EEE PC was built like 8 days ago.
CPU Type: Intel Mobile
Memory: 512 MB
Mother Board verion x.xx
Screnn – it is matt and looks and feels like a laptop screen when you bought a laptop 3 years ago.
Wherever I go peoples eyes are glaring. I better watch or it gets lost;-)
It boots fast. YES. The boot time when I received it new was something like 20 seconds. The EEE has special verison of Linux (made by Xandros).
.. You might remember Xandros signed a strategic aggreement with Windows. So no wonder that this laptop can run Windows as well as Linux.
The desktop (GUI) linux comes in two flavors. One is simplified (with big icons for email, gmail, gaim, firefox, Open office, player etc… It is very easy to understand. This desktop is for kids, and new computer users. The other flavor is Normal (full) desktop mode. This mode is like any other Windows mode or KDE. It is actually based on KDE and looks like any other Linux.
Switching between both modes is easy. But it requires restart (20 seconds ordeal).
I didn't test the battery yet (I just got the PC today). It is little bit warm. Not hot, but the tiny fan is running. The screen resolution is OK, the colors are OK. Don't expect high definition. This is a small device and a relatively low priced subnotebook. OK, what else, camera is so-so. The sound is perhaps some complain. Even using Headphones, the sound level is low. But this might be application dependend. So for example listening to anything in Firefox – the sound level was too low. Playing some games installed – the sound was OK.
A bug:
I discovered already a bug in EEE. If I wan to use external mouse (USB) and plug in and then plug out at some point, the touch pad and keyboard stops working. If I plug in the mouse again, it works, but the touchpad and keyboard don't. To get both working again, I have to shut down the EEE, take out the battery for a few seconds and then restart (to be honest, this is not a nightmare, it only takes like 20 seconds
Not sure why this behavior.
The EEE color (white) is nice.
Another thing – If you shut down the eee into stand-by mode, the laptop will still remain hot. Not quite sure why. I thought the system sleeps. But this laptop keeps relatively warm in stand by mode. Which is OK in winter, when it's freezing.
The screen doesn't tilt to 180 degrees (flat). Why? Because it is heavier than the keyboard. So limiting the tilt angle you prevent it from flipping over;-)
The button (which is actually a double button) on the touchpad is little bit tricky. Not easy to handle. Also, it is pretty loud. Oh my… It pretty much sucks… It is noisy. Click Click Click….
The touchpad itself is great.
EEE has 3 USB ports. Not 4. I don't know who saw EEE with 4 ports but this one has 3.
Multicard reader is great. I plugged in my SD card from my Nokia phone. EEE didn't recognize it however. I guess because it is not formatted properly. More testing needed for this.
Microphone is underneath the touchpad from the bottom. There might be another one besides the camera. I am not sure about this.
The hinge – perfect. Perfectly tight. Closes good and easy. Good job ASUS.
Bottom – there is a cover. Under the cover there is 1 DDR II 512 MB memory. This seems to be a standard laptop memory that you can replace. (Correct me if I am wrong) .. I believe Max is 1 GB. Besides memory there is Express card slot. This could be used for anything, like a GSM or 3G card or even a memory module. I read a post that said there are already 32 GB express cards coming on the market.
By the way, it is very easy to set up a 3G or HSDPA connection when you have the card. This can be setup in control panel.
The keyboard. The keyboard looks like a sugar candy. I'd like to eat it. Not that I would have masochistic desires, but the keboard really look like made out of sugar. Typing – well – some nightmare. But probably I need to get used to this. My fingers are like XXXL size, so you might find typing OK. One very negative thing about this keyboard is that is relatively noisy. So if you are in a quiet room or university lecture, you might be annoying when tying on this keyboard.
There are 3 USB ports, so you might consider plugging in another full size keyboard, if needed. I didn't try that though. There are many functional keys. The keyboard I have comes with English and small Chinese letters.
The Back-Space button should have been much bigger. Perhaps bigger than the Enter. Because you will make lots of typos on this keyboard. Other than that – the keyboard is a little bit swimming. So it's not that feel like keyboard is firm in place. But what can you expect for 300 dollar machine??
Application-wise – I didn't have much time to discover this but couple of intersting things:
Software update – it's easy. There is a utility that you can start and update your software. So far, there is not much to update, just the BIOS.
Skype. Hmmm. I wonder how will be the quality. Need to test this as well.
Games – nice set of sweet games.
Media Player – SMPlayer comes preinstalled.
There are other typical KDE applications.
Comes with an antivirus (from Xandros, the maker of this Linux distro)
The software takes lots of space. There is only like 1.3 GB left out of 4 GB for my files. Of course I can use SD or MMC cards or express canrd but.. anyway. There might be a way to put it on a diet by uninstalling some applications? Not sure I didn't try that yet.
Also I am not clear about how to the complete system backup of this laptop.
The EEE I have has a Webcam. I attempted to start the Web Cam application that came with the machine, but it doesn't start. Not sure why.
The carger. It looks nice (like some LG and Samsung laptop chargers). The power cord is long enough (thanks ASUS).
The power cord plugs from the back of the EEE. ..Which I don't like, but this is a matter of preference. I think it can break easily and it would be better if it is on the side. But this is a matter of preference, I guess.
And that's probably all I have to say. I think many people will love EEE PC and some of them will find that after intial excitement this PC is simply too small and thus a useless gadget that due to low price became a staple and thus a must-have shelf sitter.
If you need extreem mobility and always access to your stuff, work, school, internet, WIFI, movies on subway, then you are going to like EEE PC.
Hope this helps and good luck to buy yours soon. I hope Asus is not going to postpone the release date until after xmas.
Greetings from Canada.
Polocanada
The mouse thing is almost certainly because of the Debian heritage of Xandros Linux. I've used lots of Debian based distros and I always have this problem when plugging in a USB mouse.
After searching I once discovered a fix, but it was quite complicated and risky enough that I didn't try it — I just lived with the problem.
Debian itself is extremely cool, and derivatives like Xandros are often even cooler (though, as you point out, Xandros has many Microsoft ties — certainly not for true free-software believers, but a nice distro for people who just need stuff to work). The laptop support of this family; however, is still pretty spotty — I wonder if you had any other trouble with the touchpad, hibernation, or other laptop-specific stuff.
I'm wondering why the drive is so slim (I think the base model only has 2GB). I know it's a low price machine, but you can find laptops for about $300 that have 20GB of storage (plus full-size screens, optical drives, and other stuff that eee doesn't have). I guess it is solid-state, but still, the price of flash memory is falling and falling — seems like they could have put more in there.
I wonder if the OLPC will be any better. My guess is that it will work a little bit better but won't be nearly as sexy.
Also, the woman in all the eee screenshots (the one that's holding the eee) looks sooooo pretty and sooooo happy — based on that alone I think this has just gotta be a good product.