Asus Eee PC 900

The Eee PC 701 may not have been perfect, but this first mass market, ultra-cheap ultra-portable ticked all the right boxes for a lot of people. And we mean a lot – the Eee PC proved so successful that Asus had problems meeting demand, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would produce an updated model to capitalise on its success. So, five months after the Eee PC 701’s launch, Asus has come up with version two – the Eee PC 900.

Superficially, the Eee PC 900 is pretty much identical to the 701. It’s a little deeper (the lid is 5mm taller), a little fatter and just a little heavier – but you could easily get the two models confused at first glance. It has the same love-it-or-loathe-it pearlescent white finish as the Eee PC 701 4G – black will also be available, but we prefer the matte finish on the 2G model. Asus has been careful to address the key complaints about its predecessor though, and on the whole, it’s been successful.

So, the screen is now bigger, there’s more memory and considerably more storage – not everyone was thrilled with the Eee PC 701’s pre-installed Xandros Linux, and the original 4Gb SSD was a tight squeeze for Windows XP and a clutch of applications.

That the Eee PC 900 would have an 8.9in screen was no surprise – the Eee PC 701 had room for one, but Asus was content to let a 7in TFT wallow in the relative expanse of the lid. Thankfully, it hasn’t just reached for any old panel and the 900’s 1024 x 600 display is bright, vibrant and crisp – easily on a par with that on much costlier laptops we’ve seen, in fact.

The screen brightness can be dropped an almost-off level and while you wouldn’t want to work at this setting, the display is still visible if you’re desperate to wring every last minute from the battery. There is some graininess if you look closely (something some users may need to do – this is still a small screen), but it’s not a distraction in normal use. The viewing angle is remarkably wide too – far wider than you can really make use of with a screen of these small dimensions.

The Eee PC 900’s increased screen resolution is also welcome, and while 1024 x 768 may not sound like much, it’s enough to make prolonged use a much more practical proposition. Web browsing is much more comfortable on a screen this size and spreadsheets are much more viable, though some Windows applications will still present dialog boxes that are too tall to fit on screen. You won’t have this problem with Xandros Linux distro, though – it‘s been tweaked to fit even on the 701’s lower resolution.

Unfortunately, the larger screen means there’s no room in the lid for a pair of speakers, so these are now moved to the laptop’s underside, just beneath the wrist rest. That there are just a few millimetres of clearance between the speaker grilles and the surface the laptop sits on obviously affects sound quality, but the change isn’t too detrimental -- the speakers are perfectly adequate for Windows notifications and YouTube videos. Still, Asus has upgraded the webcam in return and while the 1.3-megapixel model tucked atop the screen is hardly high definition, it’s miles better than the 701’s mere 0.3 megapixels.

Asus hasn’t made any changes to the Eee PC 900’s keyboard and how well you get on with its fun-size keys depends largely on your patience – and, obviously, the size of your fingers.

The keys are positive, with plenty of travel, but building up a reasonable touch-typing speed takes some practice – unless you’re a particularly prodigious child (with hands to scale), of course. Thankfully, there are no surprises with the keyboard layout, and there’s even a row of function keys complete with the usual dual-functions for certain laptop controls.

Asus has thankfully dumped the Eee PC 701’s titchy trackpad though, and the one on the Eee PC 900 is not only larger at 63 x 37mm, but also offers multi-finger control – much like that found on the Apple iPhone and MacBook Air.

Pinch two fingers together on the trackpad and the display zooms into an image or document; move them apart and it zooms out. Scrolling is achieved by dragging two fingers up and down the trackpad. Scrolling works well, but zooming takes some practice. It may be larger than on the 701, but the trackpad is still too small to move two fingers around with ease and we had to set the sensitivity to maximum on our review model to get it work to our satisfaction.

More memory is a good thing if you want to run Windows XP and the single 1Gb SODIMM sits in a user-accessible slot on the laptop’s underside. Storage comes courtesy of both an integrated 4Gb SSD and either an 8Gb or 16Gb flash drive slotted into the motherboard.

Which storage configuration you get depends on your choice of operating system. Both Linux and Windows XP Eee PC 900’s cost the same, but the Linux model has a 16Gb flash drive, Windows makes do with 8Gb (Asus has to cover the increased licensing costs somehow).

By default, the Linux model is configured with the SSD as the system drive, leaving around 1.3Gb free. A full installation of Windows XP SP2 on the SSD leaves around 2.6Gb free, but of course that leaves little room for other applications (though Windows can be pared down for Eee PC using nLite ) – not to mention a swap file and the 1Gb Windows hibernation file.

If you have a spare Windows license to hand though, it makes more sense to buy the Linux model for the bigger flash drive. The BIOS can be configured to make the 16Gb flash drive the primary drive and that will comfortably hold Windows, the swap file, hibernation file and any applications that take your fancy – and still leave the 4Gb SSD for your documents.

As with the 701 mode, installing Windows on the 900 is a breeze – you’ll need an external optical drive, of course, but Asus supplies a CD with all the necessary Windows drivers.

But before you reach for that Windows install CD, it is worth giving Xandros Linux a chance (the kernel is 2.6.21.4-eeepc, if you're interested). As on the 701, the Eee PC 901 operating system has a simple tabbed layout that groups the bounty of bundled applications and while you’re obviously stuck if you need to run Outlook, there’s really little else that’s lacking.

Rather than list the pre-installed applications, we’ll let the screenshots show you how they break down. One point to note, however, is that the office suite is OpenOffice.org 2.0 and this will handle most Microsoft Office document formats, albeit with a one or two issues. You can also flip Xandros into a more traditional ‘ advanced mode’ if you find the friendly interface a little too simplistic.

Asus has stated that the Eee PC 900 would use the new Intel Atom processor, but unfortunately, that chip isn’t available yet. An Atom-equipped model will appear later this year but until then, the 900 has the same 900MHz Intel Celeron M processor as the Eee PC 701.

It’s none the worse for it, of course, and until Intel’s new chip appears, it’s impossible to know what the 900 is missing. The Celeron M chip is more than sufficient for running both Linux and Windows XP smoothly though – and the extra RAM also helps, of course.

Battery life hasn’t changed dramatically and the Eee PC 900 lasted just 10 minutes less than the 701. Our review model came with a 4400mAh battery, though – the final production model will come with a higher capacity cell (though Asus isn’t sure what just yet, we suspect it will be 5400mAh).

The power supply has changed with the Eee PC 900, too. Gone is the small plug adapter and there’s now a traditional two-cable brick. It’s still tiny though, and will slip into a bag or pocket with ease.

The Eee PC 900 goes is on sale from 1 May and both Linux and Windows models are expected to cost £329 inc VAT (the price may drop between now and then).

Like the Eee PC 701 before it, the Eee PC 900 represents great value for money – though the £100 price increase makes it less of an impulse purchase (and yes we know a full-size laptop costs only a little more, but that’s missing the point). If the small screen and limited storage were the only things to put you off the 701, the 900 offers everything you’ll need, but we’re going to temper our praise just a little.

When it was launched, the 701 was the only ultra-portable of its kind that was commercially available, but the market isn’t quite so barren now. The Packard Bell/Evernote attempt may have been a bit of a misfire, but with HP about to launch its Mini-Note 2133 and Dell purportedly working on a cheap ultra-portable of its own, the Eee PC 900 isn’t the same easy choice as its predecessor.

Yes, we like it a lot, but if you can hang on a month or two, we’d advise you to keep your wallet closed until the competition comes to market. At best, you might end up with a better ultra-portable – at worse, you may be in time for an Eee PC with an Atom processor (not to mention a lower price).

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