Hand's On with the ASUS Eee PC

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Hands_on_with_the_ASUS_Eee/' target='_blank'>http://www.hothardware.com/Articles/Hands_on_with_the_ASUS_Eee/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"One of the biggest news stories out of this year’s Computex wasn't of a new chipset, GPU, or graphics card, but rather of the announcement of the ASUS Eee PC, a small, slim, and light portable computer that is priced at $199. Introduced by Jonney Shih, Chariman and CEO of ASUS at Intel’s keynote address the first day of the show, the Eee PC has already made headlines world wide. Not only have we had the chance to actually use the ASUS Eee PC, we can also confirm some important new specifications of the notebook. The Eee PC is running a version of Intel’s 910 mobile chipset, it uses a 900MHz Intel Dothan based Pentium M CPU, it has 512MB of DDR2 memory, full 802.11g wireless capability, and a flash-based hard drive. There will be at least two different models of the Eee PC, with the $199 version using a 4GB flash hard drive and the $299 version using a 8GB drive."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/cgg-asuseee-06262007.jpg" /><br /><br />I was VERY excited when I first heard about this machine. But the little voice in the back of my head kept telling me to wait for the gotcha. Well, I'm relieved that there does not appear to be a gotcha. I'll be all over this as soon as I can order one. How about you?

[Kevin Jackson]

I'm with you. I don't think I've been this excited about something like this for a long time. I've wanted an ultra-portable PC that was full-featured enough to use daily, but not overloaded with features I didn't necessarily need (after all, I've got two desktop computers, two server and two full-sized laptops) and at the right price point. I am planning to get one of these as soon as they hit the shelves.

[MitchellO]

Yeah i agree i am really excited about this device. I love my macbook pro and it's very compact for a 15" model but still doesn't compete with my previous laptop which was a Dell 710m 12"wide ultraportable. If this really makes it to those prices my money will be down for an 8GB one so fast....

[alese]

This is realy cool. With this price I would take a couple to use in my house as reader, terminal...

[Chris Gohlke]

I have a coworker that is going to set this up as an in car pc. At this price point, I think you will see a lot of interesting applications that are just a little outside the box.

[Felix Torres]

I have a coworker that is going to set this up as an in car pc. At this price point, I think you will see a lot of interesting applications that are just a little outside the box.

My office mate is thinking of it as a replacement for the Audrey in his kitchen. The fact that the Linux package includes Palm pilot support is a plus but the big driver is small size and cost on top of the WiFi. With a screen rotation app the EeePC could be under-cabinet mounted in a kitchen for media streaming, simple browsing, and recipe lookup. :-)

(Any other ideas out there? Attach external drives and use it as a media server?)

Me, I'm interested in the larger flash drive models and the 10" screen version if the price is right.

http://www.akihabaranews.com/news-14057-Asus+at+the+Computex+%28Eee+inside%29.html

I like the CPU (900MHz Pentium M? What's not to like.) and the size. I'm a bit less price sensitive so anything around $500 is okay as long as I can do at least some media functions.
I do wish they'd come out with a slate version (passive digitizer is fine at that size); I'd use it as an ebook reader/webpad exclusively. I really like the Fujitsu UMPC but the price is a bit higher than I'd like.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/17/preview_fujitsu_fmv8240/

BTW, the $200 price is aparently the baseline for the US and asia but the Euro price is (like with all things electronic on the left side of the pond) higher; 199 pounds in Britain 299 euros on the continent. Those mandatory 3 year warranties? VAT? Dunno...

Oh, here's a nice comparo of the players in the ultralight.ultra-cheap regime:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/05/17/preview_fujitsu_fmv8240/

And finally, the Eee PC has its own fansites building up:
http://www.eeeuser.com/

There's a lot of interest in small light and cheap computers, apparently. :wink:

[treo007]

Have never used a linux laptop such as this. With just basic browser, office, and media player programs installed, what do boot times look like?

The Palm Foleo is being derided pretty hard, but the instant on seems a huge feature to me (although the lack of processing power, etc. are downsides).

I would certainly go this direction if it takes only a few seconds to boot.

[Felix Torres]

Have never used a linux laptop such as this. With just basic browser, office, and media player programs installed, what do boot times look like?


Boot times should be decent simply because of the Flash Drive speed.

However, remember these are full PCs, wheras the Folio is more like the Old Windows CE-based HandheldPC Pro machines of a few years back.
I have one of those and it is really nice and instant-on is better than hibernation on a regular laptop *but* the basic problem on that class of device is lack of software, which has to be written/adapted for the non-X86 CPU in the Folio.

The Asus has the advantage or running standard x86 PC Linux or Windows (or both, via dual boot). Theoretically, you could boot Windows off an external HD or SD card and Linux off the built-in Flash Drive or Vice-versa. The Folio lacks that kind of flexibility to say nothing of the power of a Dothan CPU. Plus its bigger, heavier, and costs twice as much with much less storage.