A Quick Review of the Asus Eee
I have a quick trial of the Asus Eee. I have the Eee for three days and I am at the midpoint of my time with this small notebook. Here are three positives and three not so positive impressions:
For the positive side:
1. It is extremely easy to set up and use. Asus has made this notebook wonderfully user friendly.
2. It is very quiet. – The lack of noise takes some adjusting. Initially, I checked a few times to see if the machine was working. It was.
3. It is light weight and fits into a small backpack, with room to spare.
For the not so positive side:
1. For a little machine, it throws off noticeable amount of heat. This seems to be vented in such a manner that the computer user feels the warmth of the machine.
2. The small form of the Eee means that the keyboard suffers. In the short time that I have used this machine, I can’t seem to find a level of comfort with the keyboard. I am making keying errors because I am so used to a fully size keyboard. This may be a particular complaint because of my lack of time with the machine and because I touch type. It is not a ‘deal ending’ problem.
3. My third point is related to aforementioned keyboard problem. I find the machine tiring to use. This may be from the poor posture because the screen causes me to slump a bit and my hands on the keyboard are at an unusual position. Further, it may be that I am tall and used to a ThinkPad size laptop. I think that, with scheduled breaks away from the Eee, this would not be a continuous problem.
My overall impression has been highly favourable. Of course, this is not the machine with which to do intensive work. However, if expectations are realistic, it will do searches online, check email, do basics like writing text and so on. The machine that I am testing is at a four hundred dollar price point. I’ll start saving now …
link: Review by Mark Spoonauer
My next phase is to see what I can hook up to this machine.
Catherine Forsythe
[tag]asus eee, review, user friendly, quiet, weight, size, heat, keyboard, price point, notebook[/tag]
4 Comments
TWParrish
December 15th, 2007
at 7:28am
Hi. I own an EEE 701 (The 4GB storage version), and I love it. Is it a primary computer? No, I don’t think so. Imagine a notebook computer that is dreaming it is a PDA and you’ll have a good idea of what this device is like. Like a PC, it uses DDR2 SDRAM. The RAM is upgradeable to 2GB. Like a PDA, it has limited solid state built-in storage, extendable by adding a high capacity SD card. (Actually, some of the devices have an empty mini-pci-e slot intended for future storage upgrades). Like a notebook, it can run a number of different operating systems. Users report installing Windows XP, Windows 2000 (might be in the future for mine), and it’s even reported that one can install OS X
(http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/15/os-x-on-an-asus-eee-pc/). Its shipping OS is Xandros Linux, but I have read that work is underway to produce an EEE-compatible version of Ubuntu.
I wanted a device that was cable of both 10/100 and wireless networking, that could easily be carried (all day) from workstation to workstation while making and altering word processing and spreadsheet documents, and which could be used to keep task lists and other PIM functions. I also needed it to be able to play video. It does. The ability to record video and take still shots weren’t on my radar, but are huge plusses.
Battery life is more like a notebook than a PDA (3.5 hours), but it comes with an AC adapter.
Screen size is smaller than a notebook, but bigger than a PDA (7 in.).
I have yet to attach a USB device to it that would not work.
Able to attach to larger displays. http://img243.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lcdtveeezj8.jpg
Its an extremely capable, but extremely small device.
If you are one of the people who got excited at the announcements about the Palm Foleo, only to have your hopes dashed, look into this device.
sjc1963
December 15th, 2007
at 9:28am
I think that this is great and I would love to get one myself, but I think that it is a bit over priced since for around $50 more you can get a regular laptop with a 14″ screen and a real hard drive.
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at 12:15pm
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