Asus Eee PC 4G
by on Friday 02 November 2007 52 Comments |
Ultra-portable PCs are hardly big news these days and if you're happy to make a few sacrifices for the sake of portability, they're a great way to lighten your load if you need a laptop with you at all times. Unfortunately, they're also a great way to lighten your wallet and the smallest, lightest models cost £1,200 and up.
So, you can imagine the hullabaloo that greeted the unveiling of the Asus Eee PC at the Computex trade show earlier this year. Not only is this one of the smallest and lightest ultra-portables ever made, but it's also one of the cheapest. Actually, that doesn't really do it justice - at a mere £219, the Eee PC is practically a freebie in laptop terms.
The Eee PC is ostensibly a competitor to the OLPC XO-1 (the '$100 laptop' that now costs $200) and Intel Classmate PC - both low-cost, lightweight laptops intended for use in education. With a desktop footprint barely bigger than A5 and tipping the scales at just under a kilo, the Eee PC is certainly an ideal candidate for computer-hungry kids who are already weighed down by text books, but these are features that obviously make it strongly suited to other users too.
Despite the unbelievable price, the Eee PC certainly doesn't feel like it's been cobbled together to meet a tight budget. The case is entirely plastic, but it feels extremely solid and there are no fragile parts to snap off or lose. The lid is thick and reassuringly rigid too, although we'd be happier if there was a latch to keep it closed when it's being jiggled around in a school bag.
We've only seen 'pearlescent white' models so far, but the Eee PC will also be available in 'galaxy black'. The white finish certainly looks clean and classy, but black will be a better choice for resisting dirty fingers and the inevitable Biro marks.
The keyboard is normally the first thing to suffer when a laptop shrinks below a certain size and the one on the Eee PC is certainly small. The 'full size' keys are 15mm wide and 13mm tall; the Enter key is about half as wide again, and the Function and a few punctuation keys are a bit smaller. The layout is surprisingly standard, with only the vertical bar ("¦") key being relegated to an unexpected place next to the Escape key.
The keys' small size may deter touch typists hoping to keep their fingers on the home row, but they have plenty of travel and a pleasant, positive action. The reduced dimensions takes a little getting used to, but the keyboard is certainly adequate for typing long documents (this review was originally typed on it) and it's certainly light years ahead of any UMPC keyboard we've seen.
Unfortunately, while the small keyboard works surprisingly well, the tiny touchpad that sits beneath it is less successful. It's probably adequate for the dinky digits possessed by most children, but at 54mm from corner to corner, it's a bit too cramped for adult fingers. It's quite deeply recessed into the wrist rest too and the tall lip that surrounds it just adds to the awkwardness.
We've read reports online about the touchpad being overly sensitive, but this can be adjusted in software. There's no way to tweak the acceleration setting though, and it takes a swipe and bit to move the mouse pointer from side of the screen to the other. The single mouse button also seems like an odd choice in a world that's now standardised on two, and it was a bit too stiff on our review model. The mouse buttons do fall comfortably under the thumb, though.
The other component to suffer from the Eee PC's compactness is the screen, although it's not immediately apparent why. There's enough room in the lid for a 9in panel, but Asus has opted for a 7in one and as a result, it's surrounded by a thick black bezel that makes the screen look even smaller. The empty space hasn't been completely wasted - there are small stereo speakers at either side of the screen and a webcam above it.
Despite its size, the screen is still usable, if a little lacking in contrast. The matte finish makes it usable in most lighting conditions though, and the brightness can be cranked right down to 'almost off' for making the most of a dwindling battery.
With a resolution of just 800 x 480, you'd expect to encounter problems with button disappearing off-screen on tall dialog boxes, but the pre-installed applications don't seem to suffer from this - you'll have to take your chances with other third-party programs, though. Few web pages look their best at this resolution, but pressing F11 to enable the full-screen mode in Firefox (default web browser) certainly helps.
Although a Windows XP model is due at some point (no doubt with a suitably higher price tag), for the moment, the Eee PC ships with Xandros Linux (at least that's what the files in the /etc folder suggest ) and a very Windows-like Gnome Desktop. There's a Taskbar, System Tray and trio of buttons in the top-right corners of windows, but no Start menu equivalent (although there's already a hack to enable one) and instead, programs are launched with a single click of the various icons that sit in six tabbed windows on the Desktop.
The pre-installed applications are all open source - OpenOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird and so on, plus convenient shortcuts for the leading webmail providers. The handful of programs under the Learn tab give passing nod the Eee PC's educational bent, but there's otherwise nothing to give the Eee PC away as a laptop aimed at school use.
There's nothing to stop you installing your own applications either, although there's only 1.2Gb of free space on the 4Gb SSD drive in the Eee PC 4G model -- the rest is occupied by system files. You can't uninstall the pre-installed programs to free up space either (or at least they don't appear in Add/Remove Programs - Linux boffins will no doubt be able to figure it out), but you can boost storage capacity by means of the SD Card slot.
Unscrew the panel on the underside and you can also upgrade the stock 512Mb memory, though you'll have to remove the single DDR2 SODIMM first. There's a vacant Mini PCI Express slot under here too, but with Wi-Fi built-in, the only really use for this is to house an HSDPA adapter - assuming that you can find the necessary Linux drivers.
A 900Mhz Mobile Celeron processor seems a bit weedy in these days of Core 2 Duo chips, but it seems sprightly enough in the Eee PC. A cold boot takes 40 seconds, a normal shutdown about 10 seconds and there's very little hanging around waiting for programs to launch. Video playback is smooth too and we successfully watched both DivX files and ripped DVDs stored on an external hard disk.
The Eee PC is quiet, too. The only moving part is a small fan to blow warm air out of the case and you can just about hear this with the laptop pressed to an ear. This only spins when the laptop is being worked hard though, and the underside really only gets warm to the touch.
Battery life is better than expected and the Eee PC lasted for 3 hours 31 minutes in our light use test, with Wi-Fi disabled. You'll still need to take the power adapter with you for all day working, but since this is simply a chunky mains plug with a very long cable, that's no great hardship.
As you've probably realised by now, at £219, the Eee PC is a complete and utter bargain. Anyone looking for a cheap and capable laptop for their child should snap one up immediately, but we suspect Asus will sell them by the lorry load to people who just want a laptop they can tote around all day.
Even more impressive is the fact that there's very little to belie the low price, although the small screen is a dead giveaway and it does lend the Eee PC an air of "my first laptop". But given that any sneers will probably come from people that have paid five times as much for their ultra-portable, who cares?
[Related: See all Mobile Computer netbook reviews to date]
© Dennis Publishing
Comments
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It looks perfect for me :)It is smaller than most portables, it costs the same as a cheap palmtop, and runs real and useful applications that will suit most users.I don't mind the screen being so small, because the all thing is suposed to be small.I just hope to see it on stores someday here in Portugal, with a price tag not excessivelly higher than 200Eur. -
The cheapest laptop at Tescos is £349. It has a 14.1 inch screen at a sensible resolution instead of 7 inch at 800 x 480 pixels. It has an 80Gb hard drive instead of 4Gb. And you can touch type on the keyboard. The thing I really couldn't live with though is having such a big bezel. That makes it look like the first Toshiba laptops in the 1990's.
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I thought the Eee ran an Asus-modified KDE? Certainly the Xandros distro on which the Eee's operating system is based uses KDE.
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can anyone help me on how to install shortcuts onto desktop menus?
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Why not use this together with an external HD that takes it's power from 2 USB ports?
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My problem is this: The source sells a laptop that is 500 dollars (CAD) where this \\"cheap\\" laptop is 400 dollars. the differencs is that the 500 dollar one has a harddrive, (but the same amount of RAM), comes with vista basic (eww), full size screen and keyboard. but I am a student looking for a small laptop. Aparrently I should choose this. should I? (btw I own a libretto 110ct, anyone now what those sell for nowadays?)
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I'm a chiropractic student. The course is very medical and we need to learn lots of anatomy, physiology etc. One of these would allow me to carry powerpoint graphics instead of huge heavy books. However, why can't we have a touch screen with optional keyboard. The case could be even smaller. That would be ideal for accessing information. An onscreen keyboard would be enough for note taking. A removable (USB maybe) hardware keyboard could be left at home when not needed.
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it does use kde via the full desktop option. To get there two files have to be downloaded: kicker and ksmserver. After their installed, you can select. As for the 80gb v 4gb space, it is somewhat an apples to oranges comparison in that the eee pc's hard drive is solid state--nothing moves in it except for the electrical current. I love mine.
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QUOTE BY THE ARTICLE:"The single mouse button ...."You plonker Rodney - it's a two button , the single button is hinged centrally !!
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Yes, for "only" £100 or £150 or £200 more you can get a much better specced machine, but this misses the point - some people cannot afford £3-400 for a laptop, but could afford £200. Also, for many pupils, even a very good 14.1" or 15.4" screen would be too heavy to lug around all day at school - weighing anything from 2.5kg up to 3.5kg. At under a kilo and small enough to fit in basically any bag, this device is perfect. Any one who compares this device to a full-size, full-spec laptop is missing the point.Also, Dave, I believe the Samsung Q1 and the Asus R2H would fulfil that particular product requirement for you. Although they cost three times as much, as touch screens are obviously more expensive.
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I have seen it and used it. Its beautiful, baby!For a Celeron M, I find it surprisingly capable. I don't know what you can put into 1.4GB space though except work or writing output.No space for games, but you don't use a machine like this for that. Internet is reasonably well-paced.Great machine. Not a high performance type, but when you just need a typewriter in your bag or tote, this machine is the most beautiful thing you will have...
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I mean select any other laptop under 1Kg of weight, make every day all the software updates (Microshaft, Antivirus, etc) and see what U can do an year later with your initialy ultra fast laptop compared to this Eee PC.Eee aleredy includes a real ISO compliant Office suiteHow about buying Microshaft Office 2007 Premium ? is it worth 2 times the Eee'c price ?Come one, get real, if you can buy windows without a PC, why souldn't you buy a PC without windows troubles?
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You can even "run" windows apps on it by running rdesktop with Windows XP Pro serverWith ThinServer XP, you can even run Windows apps while another user is using the XP Pro machine !http://www.aikotech.com/thinserver.htm
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i want one
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I have XP loaded on mine, and it works as smoothly as on a desktop. I'm only left with about a GIG of space on the hard chip, but I have a 4 gig SD chip in the slot, and an external USB HD for storage. It can easily run applications off the HD, and transfer rates are adequate. I bought mine for a specific trip I'm taking, and with a new padded bag I bought for it, it will stow safely and easily in my pack. The screen takes some getting use to, but at my age I need to wear reading glasses anyway. Keyboard also requires an adjustment curve, but what the hell, if you want to be fairly mobile and unencumbered, it's ideal. At $350(US), I'm not going to worry about it as I would my "good" laptop. Ironic that with slow processors and small storage...going back rather than forward in time. It's a "retro-mini."I sent this on it with fewer typos than yesterday. Progress? Maybe.
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I have a laptop and any number of desk top PC's however, all these lack ultra compact size and light weight.This device has very few moving parts thus improving reliability, and reducing weight. The OS is also light weight and is ideal for the basic stuff I do of web work and reports. As a matter of course I save these to an SD card, leaving the solid state HD uncluttered other than for the stuff I need to leave there.In essence buy this for what it is good at, not because it has something missing, and at £200 its a bargain.
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The Asus eee DOES have a right click, its just side to side, easy to useRAM upgrades have been allowed in the ASUS warranty, great for an XP install =] 2GB chipset support, and xp support, the Linux only supports 512 without a kernel hack
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Hi, I'm a 14 year old looking for a new laptop. Unfortunately I had a Fujitsu Siemens previously and the power supply conked out in it. Instead of replacing the whole motherboard (£120!), I might be buying one of these lovely Asus EEEs. I am finding it hard to find fault with these laptops in reviews, but I need glasses (which I often don't wear) and the small screens may ruin what's left of my sight. Also, my home network runs off a BT Wirless Connection, does anyone know if these Asus models take a wireless connection through Linux?
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I think it has an external VGA connector so you could connect to a external monitor, which for working for long periods could be a solution if you have a larger monitor of course. With wireless it should do, as with most cases the wireless router gives out an ip address via dhcp, so if the asus can find the router, get an ip address it should find the internet via the gateway address,comments welcome on this, not a dhcp or networking expert.
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Just bought one on Friday. So far can't fault it, it worked immediately, found the wireless connection (BT Hub) and after entering WPA password it connected. Only slight issue is the battery runs down quickly while on wireless but you can switch it on an off with Fn F2 key.
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I'd like to have a proper look at one of these before I buy. Does anyone know where I can pick one up? (I live in london)
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Editor - Julian Prokaza -
When can i buy this in the USA? ASUS website doesn't have a store.
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Hi larryJust curious how you got your SD card to work as I have tried everything to get mine to work. It comes up as "You do not have permissions to use this". When I looked closer it stated that the permissions are held by the "root" not the User. Did you have this problem?RegardsBrian[quote=Larry]I have XP loaded on mine, and it works as smoothly as on a desktop. I'm only left with about a GIG of space on the hard chip, but I have a 4 gig SD chip in the slot, and an external USB HD for storage. It can easily run applications off the HD, and transfer rates are adequate. I bought mine for a specific trip I'm taking, and with a new padded bag I bought for it, it will stow safely and easily in my pack. The screen takes some getting use to, but at my age I need to wear reading glasses anyway. Keyboard also requires an adjustment curve, but what the hell, if you want to be fairly mobile and unencumbered, it's ideal. At $350(US), I'm not going to worry about it as I would my "good" laptop. Ironic that with slow processors and small storage...going back rather than forward in time. It's a "retro-mini."I sent this on it with fewer typos than yesterday. Progress? Maybe.[/quote]
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to get the SD card working, try formatting it in windwows xp, and then plugging it into your Eee. Otherwise just hack into a terminal, and [quote]sudo chmod r+w Photocard[/quote]Make sure that photocard is the name of your sd card. first you have to CD into /mediaGood luck!
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Mine arrived today (from play.com)... it's like my wife - perfectly formed and oozing sex appeal! Bought it to replace (mainly to replace my knackered PDA). More ompf & less dosh! Am estatic. Plus I now have an excuse to learn linux...
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[quote=Mike]QUOTE BY THE ARTICLE:"The single mouse button ...."You plonker Rodney - it's a two button , the single button is hinged centrally !![/quote]Ha! plonker - it's still a single button then, two switches though? LOL
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Mine arrived today (from play.com)... it's like my wife - perfectly formed and oozing sex appeal! Bought it to replace (mainly to replace my knackered PDA). More ompf & less dosh! Am estatic. Plus I now have an excuse to learn linux...[/quote]I had a look on play.com and found they were highly over priced. How are you finding linux? I am finding it very difficult to get used to and just want to hack it to bits, once I figure out how.
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I want to buy the battery for my asus eee pc 8G,if it's fit.[url=http://www.notebook-battery.us/buy-asus-eee-pc-batteries.htm][color=red]Buy asus eee pc batteries[/color][/url]
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What format are the files outputted by the Linux word processor? Could I save documents as .rtf or .txt and then open them up in Word on my desktop pc?
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Just bought the 4GB version of the Asus eee pc with webcam. So far its amazing, even with the linux interface. The Open Office software is great and enables reading and writing of Word and Excel files. Only prob with mine is that the spacebar isn't sensitive enough! It seems to work with everything I've thrown at it. Plays my Ipod music - no probs. Charges the Ipod too and my Motorola mobile phone without hving to load additional software. Works with my 3G USB access dongle with easy setup. Screen is perhaps too small and it would benefit from a larger one, but those who are worried about the linux interface shouldn't be depending on what you use it for.Don't think it can sensibly replace a full size laptop or desktop, but as an add-on for travelling its brilliant and functional and oh so light. May limited for adding on programs but for reading emails, getting on the web and for WP and Spreadsheet, which is what I need on the move, it looks great. My right shoulder is definitely going to thank me for buying it
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Yes, the EEEPC is a beautiful piece of kit, but the Wifi does not work reliably. Look at the number of forums there are about this. Asus suggested a complete reload of the system software which I did through a wired connection to my modem/router and are aware of this problem. I changed it for another one today. The battery was charged when I got it, which is as well as the charger does not work; the Wifi does not work either.A total waste of money. Here in the UK I may be able to persuade the trading standards authorities to take an interest.
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10th April, 2008Anyone know why when plugging in a memory stick or an external hard disk the message comes up: NOT ENOUGH PERMISSIONS. (odd English!) So I can't can't get into my stored data. I can get in at first Then it all goes wrong. I have had to tap the F9 key while starting and then tap on FACTORY SETTINGS (losing my user data) to get the Eeee to again recognise my stored data.
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a ?: can you flip the screen all the way backwards? so that you can use it as a document reader, like for bus riding. I can't seem to find anything related to this in the specs. My assumption is that if it doesn't mention it then it doesn't have it, but i'd like to get the owners' opinions/suggestionstx
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Editor - Julian Prokaza
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[quote=Alex]What format are the files outputted by the Linux word processor? Could I save documents as .rtf or .txt and then open them up in Word on my desktop pc?[/quote]It's Open Office - so save them as ".doc" (if you want)! Don't be scared of Linux, it's more capable than Windows.I think the EEE is a great idea but would like 9 inch screen and 16G flash memory. This is the future of computers though!
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[quote=John Thompson]It's Open Office - so save them as ".doc" (if you want)! Don't be scared of Linux, it's more capable than Windows.I think the EEE is a great idea but would like 9 inch screen and 16G flash memory. This is the future of computers though![/quote]Then you shall have one, the new Eee 900 [url]http://www.eee-900.co.uk/[/url] has a 9" screen and 12GB or 20GB flash, amongst other improvements.
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Granted the Asus is nice a solidly constructed but no one seems to have grasped the fact that for £399 you can get a bargin laptop from currys, dixons, pc world etc which will come with a 1.4ghz CPU and a 80gig disk, not some paltry 8gig or 4gig.. I would fill 4 gig in ten minutes! :P
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This will make a lovely replacement for my 12inch powerbook, seems like it will be great for school work, anyone know the time it takes to return from standby/hibernation??
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how can i install windows xp
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[quote=Dan]Granted the Asus is nice a solidly constructed but no one seems to have grasped the fact that for £399 you can get a bargin laptop from currys, dixons, pc world etc which will come with a 1.4ghz CPU and a 80gig disk, not some paltry 8gig or 4gig.. I would fill 4 gig in ten minutes! :P[/quote]You my friend, are an idiot. Try buying something can an external harddrive - That way you can use your 4gb on any (good) computer including the Eee.
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Does anyone know how to edit the desktop shortcuts to remove/add different programs?
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[quote=Degz]Mine arrived today (from play.com)... it's like my wife - perfectly formed and oozing sex appeal! Bought it to replace (mainly to replace my knackered PDA). More ompf & less dosh! Am estatic. Plus I now have an excuse to learn linux...[/quote]I got mine for free, well having to buy a new contract phone but well worth it as didnt pay nything for the phone either just line rental...which basically pays for the equipment
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Degz]Mine arrived today (from play.com)... it's like my wife - perfectly formed and oozing sex appeal! Bought it to replace (mainly to replace my knackered PDA). More ompf & less dosh! Am estatic. Plus I now have an excuse to learn linux...[/quote]I got mine for free, well having to buy a new contract phone but well worth it as didnt pay nything for the phone either just line rental...which basically pays for the equipment[/quote]..but am basically still getting used to the linux as, ..so used to windows and not even sure where to start with Linux
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I bought a asus 4gb in spain, can you change the programms to english.
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[b]Oh man! [/b] [b][i][u]EXPERT BBCODE PROGRAMMER.[/u][/i][/b] Have you read scip today? Hah hah hah hah.I'm a man who likes to (try to) write music. Sometimes during a year, there are times when I'm riding in the car with my family, and have a musical idea but can't write it down. So I've bought an ASUS EEE to write music with during long car journeys.The Asus Eee is designed for a special purpose. If you don't care how big or heavy your laptop is, then the EEE isn't for you. But if you need something small and light, the EEE is more your kind of thing. Ah man yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh DENIS. DENNIS.
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does anyone tried to use their dialup modem on their EEE.. i tried to do so but it aint work.gush can anyone help me to do this i dont have other means to connect to the internet exept dialup.. pleaseeeeeeeeeeessssss... thanks
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There is no modem in the 4G! You have a socket as Asus was going to put one in, however it was dropped from production..... hence the modem port is bunged up with a rubber plug!
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thanks buddy.. i really apreciate you big help...good day.
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No Problem. There is apparently a way you can solder one in.... if you go to eeeuser.com and join the forums there is lots of great information and a good community for the eeepc there!
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you can find everything you need to know about the EEE herehttp://forum.eeeuser.com/
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my wife owned a Eee pc 4g.i just want to know if it's possible to internal hard disk to a larger gig.right now we saw a toshiba model same size of Eee pc 4g.it has a 120ggb of hard disk.thank you
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