So, what's so great about the Asus Eees?

K

Kuyt

Gawd
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Jan 21, 2007
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Hardware wise, they aren't good at all, and its funny how the 8G is priced at $499 when I see laptops at that price.

Are they really worth the $300?
 
More portable than your average laptop, more functional (and cheaper) than a UMPC. I don't own one, just saying...
 
Actually, they are pretty powerful, all things considered. They run all sorts of games, including WoW, CS 1.6, Warcraft 3 etc...
 
It's really ridiculous that people are still comparing these things to "regular" laptops.
 
j-dawg said:
It's really ridiculous that people are still comparing these things to "regular" laptops.
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defend your argument. its a sub-laptop, but a laptop nonetheless. if you can put *nix on it, almost any version of windows, and is a discrete device (ie, not a thinclient) why isnt it a regular laptop? you can play WoW on it (lord knows i dislike WoW, im a FPS type of guy, but still), you can VoIP on it, you can use it as a carputer, etc etc. I dont even own one.
 
Asus EEE is only popular because it's cool and cheap. It has nothing to do with functionality.

When the $500 version comes out, I'll laugh my ass off at people buying them. Hell, is a 14" notebook that weights 3lbs. really all that much of a hassle to carry around? No. And that 14" notebook will perform far better than the Asus EEE.
 
I own one. It replaced a 14'' thinkpad. As far as the portability, its much better. Carrying a full sized laptop and a bookbag is a pain in rear. Its small enough that I can carry it around and dont sweat it at the end of the day if I didnt actually use it that day. Its there if i need it and if i dont need it i dont feel stupid for carrying it around.
 
xenotype said:
defend your argument. its a sub-laptop, but a laptop nonetheless. if you can put *nix on it, almost any version of windows, and is a discrete device (ie, not a thinclient) why isnt it a regular laptop? you can play WoW on it (lord knows i dislike WoW, im a FPS type of guy, but still), you can VoIP on it, you can use it as a carputer, etc etc. I dont even own one.
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It was recently demonstrated that NetBSD can power a toaster. This says nothing about what one "should" expect it to do.

The HP 100/200LX palmtops had x86 processors and ran MS-DOS. Nobody expected it to be a full-fledged computer.

Similarly, the Eee PC can run Windows and Linux--but nobody expects it to have the power of a "regular" laptop because its hardware is clearly not designed for the same thing we look for in other laptops. Though we may not expect to be able to carry our entire media collection everywhere we go, we do expect that a "regular" laptop will be able to hold some significant quantity of music or other media. An Eee PC is obviously not capable of this without significant capital expenditure for purposes of obtaining additional storage media.

No, my good fellow, an Eee PC is clearly--very clearly--intended to be a portable machine suitable for internet and light productivity work, and little more. A brief glance at the specifications manifest will reveal that low processing power, choice of solid-state media for the primary data storage device, and other nominally limited-power hardware components place portability and convenience at a higher level of priority than does a "regular" laptop, making sacrifices in processing ability and media capabilities to fulfill the needs of the traveler, or the damn yuppies.

For the typical middle- or high-school student, an Eee PC may appear to be an acceptable first laptop simply because it is cheap, but as the individual reaches more mature stages of life, he or she will realize that he or she is in need of greater storage and processing capabilities in order to fully organize and process his or her increasingly digital life. At this point, the Eee PC will be relegated to its intended role as a lightweight and portable machine, to be used on the road or campus but relegated to backup machine when a "proper" personal computer, be it portable or fixed, is present.

Quod erat demonstrandum.
 
Mandane said:
Asus EEE is only popular because it's cool and cheap. It has nothing to do with functionality.

When the $500 version comes out, I'll laugh my ass off at people buying them. Hell, is a 14" notebook that weights 3lbs. really all that much of a hassle to carry around? No. And that 14" notebook will perform far better than the Asus EEE.
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Yes, a 14" laptop is that much of a hassle to carry around. My first laptop was a 14". It was ok and performed fine at the time, but it was a hassle to carry around. And when I say carry around, I mean in a small backpack that needs to have space for alot of other stuff, sitting in a cramped coach seat on an airplane and not having a problem pulling the laptop out to use. I would have a problem using my 14" in that situation and I just would not bother doing it, it was more trouble then it was worth. I don't care about " will perform far better than the Asus EEE" , I care about it performing what I need it to do in as small a package as practicle. Except for storage, the short battery life and the 7" screen in a frame that could fit a 10" screen, the Asus EEE looks like a great deal to me. The soon to be 9" version looks better, but even with the improved storage size, it's still just not enough, since as far as I can see, we won't be seeing the 20GB version in the states for a while and I wanted a new laptop more sooner then later. What I really like about the Asus EEE is the SSD HDD and the 20ish seconds to start from completly off to completely on and ready.

Another laptop I thought of getting was the Fujitsu P1620. It's about .5 inches wider then the EEE and .2 inches deeper, so really damn near same size, but it has the 8.9" screen, 60GB/80GB HDD (option for 64gb SSD $500ish) 2gb ram, a 1.2/1.6 inntel c2d cpu and it's a touchscreen tablet convert. $1520ish at the egg. I almost bought it, but thought it over and it's more power then I need and too big. Yes, too big. And yes, that means I think the EEE is too big too. I already own a 12.1" laptop and the frame for both the EEE and the P1620 an fit a screen of around 10", so although it is smaller then my current small laptop, it just isn't small enough to justify to myself spending the money for it especially since performance wise, it'd be a step down for EEE, but about similar performance on the p1620. However, I do think the EEE has the correct formfactor once they start putting a screen that actually uses up all the space the shell has, so in the future when my little 12.1 laptop is ready to be put to rest, I will get one the size of the EEE.

My plan is a:

17" desktop replacement gaming laptop for me to drag around when I know I will be away from home but at the same location for extended time.

10ish" laptop for day to day normal mobility use.

5-7" laptop for ultra portability

This assumes the screen fills most of the casing.

An EEE with a screen that filled most of its casing would have been great or a 7" screen EEE with a casing made smaller so the screen used up the space would have been great as well.
 
Furystrike said:
Actually, they are pretty powerful, all things considered. They run all sorts of games, including WoW, CS 1.6, Warcraft 3 etc...
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I totally agree. I own a 4GB model and I absolutely love it. With an nlited version of Windows XP Pro and 1 GB of ram I an boot into the desktop in under 25 seconds.

For the time being I use it for browsing the web (on the bed, cafeteria, anywhere), VNC, office work, and more.

I run Media Monkey Pro on it (music player)
Open Office Portable
FileZilla FTP Portable
Foxit PDF Reader
FireFox 3
and a couple of other programs. It's fully updated and I play Counter-Strike 1.6 on it somewhat often :D. Honestly besides the small screen this thing is as easy to use as my 17inch Sager laptop. Using a resolution hack helps a little bit however.

I've owned mine since the beginning of the year and still love every minute of it.
 
[PC snob]It's great if you're broke, you don't actually do that much on the move because you don't have a proper job and you want something actually portable. I used my eee like a week before discarding it as a toy, comparatively speaking. I normally use the TZ, UX, SZ, Air, etc.[/PC snob]
 
One of the women I went to the "heros happen here" microsoft launch event in seattle with, had one in her purse. She certainly wouldn't have been carrying a 14" laptop like that. On the other hand the screen felt very restricting. Don't think I'd buy one.
 
I think the eee is a great compromise at the current moment. If you aren't doing anything like software development/compiling that requires a more powerful CPU, the eee can handle quite a bit. With 2 gb of ram and an SDHC card, it has decent performance and storage. I use it more than my desktop for simple web surfing and office documents. As a special education teacher, I do lots of paperwork. I HATE staying after school with the crappy computers we use here. It's nice to throw in a bag and chill at a coffee shop to write up my IEPs. I don't hesitate to reccommend it to people if they ask about it.
 
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