EEE! I’m In Love! »
Ultra-mobile PC’s are the most practical thing a weakling like me can own. Before I used to acquire bruises due to lugging my old heavy laptop round town and to the pub, like some sort of self-inflicted Atlas. However, on one of my adventures through the underbelly of Google I stumbled upon the Asus EEE PC. At first I dismissed it for the small amount of memory and unfamiliar operating system. I did not want to risk buying a gadget that could potentially fail to meet my needs.
Being an awful procrastinator I decided to read through every single review available for the Asus, since the lure of it being cheap was strong. It was fairly impressive to see the lowest rating at four and a half out of five stars from an average of about two hundred customers.
Eventually I went with my gut instinct and bought a white Asus from Expansy’s.
- 7″ Screen
- Intel CPU
- Condensed Linux (compatible with a full version of Linux or XP)
- 10/100 Mbps Ethernet
- WiFi 802.11b/g
- 512MB RAM
- 4GB Solid State Hard Drive
- 0.3 MP Webcam
- Built-in Speaker & Microphone
- QWERTY Keyboard (UK)
- 3 x USB Ports (take that Macbook Air)
- 3 Hrs Battery Life
- 22.5 x 16.4 x 2.15~3.5 CM
- Less Than 1kg
Everything operates straight out of the box, and naturally the first thing I tinkered with was the camera. I thought it was going be worse than a mobile phone camera, but the quality does not immediately lend itself to a 0.3 MP camera. Seriously impressive stuff — score one for Asus.
Linux boots up in under minute, and has not frozen at all. I can easily run two or three programs at a time without it lagging. The applications are also incredibly useful and create documents compatible with Macs and PC’s. Very useful as I often interchange between the two.
It comes with free anti-virus, games (specifically a Linux version of Bubble Trouble), a media player, instant links to useful websites, Thunderbird, Firefox, a couple of paint programs, educational programs and plenty more. How they crammed it all in I’ll never know.
The battery leaves much to be desired with a measly three hour life, however I’ve squeezed four hours out. It is not too much of a problem on a short journey or in lectures but otherwise I would invest in a newer model.
The only other problems are to do with the internet. There is no WPA2 encryption support, which is what the wireless at university has. There is also no webcam chat available on Skype — I am hoping both things will be supported in later models.
Having a 4GB hard drive has not been as troublesome as I thought it would be. I am not using the Asus as a desktop replacement — neither would I recommend that anyone use it for that purpose — so 4GB is just fine to keep a few lectures notes, essays and music on.
Perhaps it is because I am easily amused, but I was taken most by the dimensions of the laptop. It is only slightly heavier and bigger than a Nintendo DS which is less than an average bag of flour. I can fit it into most of my handbags. That said, it is also robust and can take living in my handbag!
Of course the Asus probably is not for everyone. It suits my needs and it would also suit the needs of a short distance commuter, any level of student, technology savvy kids or gadget enthusiasts. And of course there is the brilliant low price. I would highly recommend it. Five out of five.
In response to your comment. You live in Portsmouth! I was born there =] and now live in Southampton for University, lol.
REPLY: I’m only a stone’s throw away from Southampton. We should go to the Edge!! Haha.
Please may I come visit and play on your lappytoppy? You may play on my Viewty because I shall make sure it has enough battery…
REPLY: Oh, go on then. Sounds fair enough to me :D
It may be worth clarifying, that the Asus EEE has a 4GB (solid state) *hard drive*, not memory. The RAM is the memory :P
REPLY: Duly noted and corrected. Tisk, tisk, you pedantic techy types *waggles finger and eyebrows for good measure*
Wow. You really like your laptop! With my laptop, I’m just like “meh.” I use it all day, everyday, but I have not formed any attachments (or used sentiments such as “love,”) toward it! Still, I wish you and your EEE (Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Eeeeeeeeeeeee! E! E! E! We are the knights who say E! I know it’s Ni! But I don’t care, I am HYPER. I love you, Lil. Please to produce children for me? :P) every happiness.
REPLY: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Aisling! Our children would be so awesome that people would flock to bask in their awesomeness. As much as I would love to raise miniature Monty Python fanatics with you, I’ll have to decline. I gots to get myself some edumakation first!
Asus is great :). My sister has one, it’s way better than mine but cost a bomb to buy. I brought mine purely because of the price :D.
It’s good to know your Asus EEE has done you proud :).
REPLY: It has indeed :D
Hey-Girl.Org » Blog Archive » Browser Resolution Forecasting on March 19, 2008 at 2:33 pm
[...] I purchased an Asus EEE PC, and the resolution on that is a mere 800 pixels in width. The newer version has a larger [...]