Review: Asus EEE PC - is it the ultimate blogging companion?
For those of you who don't know what the eee-PC is, it's an ultra-small, ultra-lightweight notebook (of sorts). It only has a 7" screen and a 4gb hard drive with between 256-512mb of RAM available (depending on the vendor). It's literally the size of a hardback book:
It's all too easy to get confused with the OLPC (one laptop per child) machine that has similar objectives. The significant changes are that the EEE-PC targets the adult market whereas OLPC is designed for disadvantaged children. The OLPC is $200 whereas the EEE-PC is around $400. But this isn't about the differences between the OLPC and the EEE-PC, this is all about the value of Asus' latest creation.
So what does that $400 get me?
The machine wasn't designed for power so the CPU is a 900mhz Intel Celeron Mobile core isn't suited to anything hardcore but it does attribute itself well to longer battery life. The EEE-PC comes with 2-4gb of storage which isn't a lot by conventional laptop terms but (most notably) they are SSD (solid state disks) which are not only durable but quite light on power usage too. SSD is great for mobile computing because there's no risk of damaging the drive by moving the machine around while in use.
It's Linux
This may worry some users but it was vital to keep costs down and I'm reliably informed that Asus have loaded the machine with a modified version of Xandros (heavily modified). It's apparently intuitive and loaded with all the major open-source players (OpenOffice, Firefox etc) but you can of course install more (given you have space).
Connectivity and toys
An integrated 802.11g wireless card is a good addition for connections on the move, with then sensible additions of 2 USB ports and an SD-Card reader (meaning you can whack an extra 32gb of storage on the machine). There's even a 0.3 megapixel webcam integrated into the unit (which should hook up with Skype nicely).
Only $400 for a truly mobile solution
The battery should last 3.5 hours from a full charge which is okay (although heavy multimedia use will drop that substancially) with up to 4 hours available if you're gentle. The keyboard is tiny (so the fat fingered among us need to improve typing dexterity to be comfortable) and the screen is misleadingly small (only 7", the speakers surround the screen making it appear bigger until it is turned on). The above picture shows how close the keys are together (image taken from asuseeehacks.blogspot.com), I believe it's only 1mm between the keys, deviating from the normal 5mm you find in traditional keyboards/laptops.
Blogging on the move!
For me it sparked my interest when I stopped thinking about it as a laptop; a machine this small that travels so well with a decent battery life could be used as the ultimate mobile blogging platform. It's cheap price is favourable (I wouldn't want to take a $4,000 Alienware laptop around with me) and the 24 months warrenty (6 months battery) is a nice addition to comfort buyers. Asus are a well established brand too so they're not going to screw you over should you need to RMA it.
New model later this year: bigger
Rumour has it that Asus are looking to bring out a larger EEE-PC somepoint this year (2008) with a 10" screen, slightly larger keyboard and 8gb of storage - this should make it more managable for those of us who don't want to feel like Borrowers. While it's worth arguing whether a larger unit defies the point of the machine altogether, I think Asus have a great product. It's small, compact, stylish and suitably undercutting the laptop market to be considered as a lightweight travel companion.
I'm tempted to purchase one of my own for blogging purposes but I'll probably wait until Asus show their cards. I'm more interested in the possible 10" edition but that's not to say I won't be ordering a 7" one in a rare moment of commercial weakness.
For a bit more information and video proof of what the machine can do see this Youtube video:
Enjoy this article? Why not subscribe to the full RSS feed?