Eee PC review roundup

We've already seen Laptop Mag's breathless review of Asus' diminutive Eee PC, but now that the thing is finally trickling out to the masses, it's time to check in with the best of the rest -- and it seems like the tiny wonder is living up to all that advance hype. CNET UK found the Eee to be "stonking value for money," complaining only that the keyboard is slightly cramped -- an overall sentiment echoed by PC Magazine, which called the little bugger a "tremendous bargain for people with general-purpose computing needs who don't plan on running any sophisticated software." TrustedReviews was even more positive, saying the keyboard is fine and that the Eee is overall "refreshingly innovative and scandalously cheap." On top of all this praise, NotebookReview has already started hacking away at the Eee and characterized their experiences as demonstrating a "ton of potential." Cheap, fun, and versatile: it certainly seems like Asus has a winner on its hands here -- now if only they'd ship a few more of 'em.

Read -- CNET (7.5 out of 10: "... a near perfect choice for a highly portable second or backup laptop.")
Read -- PC Magazine (4 out of 5: "Ample software and a substantial feature set that's well worth the money")
Read -- TrustedReviews (9 out of 10: "The natural successor to likes of the Psion Series 5 and netBook."
Read -- NotebookReview Eee PC Tweak Guide ("This little machine was as powerful as notebooks four to five times its price.")

[Thanks, Corinne and Jerry]

[superfresh @ Nov 1st 2007 4:28PM]

no disk drive, right?
All I need to hear is Firefox. This thing would be a lot of fun.

[jus10 @ Nov 1st 2007 4:31PM]

The one UPS is bringing tomorrow has a 4 gig flash hard drive and it can be expanded with SD cards.

My only concern right now is that the Atheros wifi-card in the thing doesn't have wide-spread Linux support yet. The Xandros that ships on the thing can use what looks like madwifi, but that's not going to work in ubuntu.

[Evan P @ Nov 1st 2007 7:02PM]

Plug in an external hard drive if you really need the space. Remember this isn't a laptop, it's more of a full-fledged wireless internet machine with the ability to use external media to supplement its small HDD space. The Eee PC is perfect for me.

[CapnVan @ Nov 2nd 2007 3:21AM]

Wow! You can plug in an external hard drive and it's still wireless? That's mighty impressive.

That would seem to be worth the price right there. Does it still count as a mobile, or do you have to invest in the patented super-long extension cord for that?

[Charlotte @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:26PM]

"Firefox"! ;-) Mine is delightful, and the screen is better than I could have hoped for.

[Cagrino @ Nov 1st 2007 4:29PM]

I still can't see paying $400 US for the 4G with its 512MB Ram and 4GB SSD. Maybe the the premium for the 8G won't be too much...

I've lost faith.

[bob @ Nov 1st 2007 8:51PM]

but you probally payed 1500 for your macbok

[mushrooshi @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:05AM]

I paid 1300 for mine.

[Cagrino @ Nov 1st 2007 4:30PM]

I still can't see paying $400 US for the 4G with its 512MB Ram and 4GB SSD. Maybe the the premium for the 8G won't be too much...

I've lost faith.

[Cagrino @ Nov 1st 2007 4:30PM]

I still can't see paying $400 US for the 4G with its 512MB Ram and 4GB SSD. Maybe the the premium for the 8G won't be too much...

I've lost faith.

[Cagrino @ Nov 1st 2007 4:41PM]

Sometimes I hate Engadget's blog server. Triple post? Good lord.

[paloooz @ Nov 1st 2007 5:31PM]

That's YOUR fault.

1. Type comment.
2. Click "Add Your Comments"
3. DONE. If you get an error, ignore it. Your comment will show up.

[Alan Partridge @ Nov 1st 2007 5:53PM]

They should give us a 2min editing window and auto-delte duplicate posts.

[Cagrino @ Nov 1st 2007 6:33PM]

@paloooz

Yeah, it's my fault the server has an error. Don't fix the problem, blame the user.

People have only been asking for a comment editor here for an eternity.

[aeo @ Nov 1st 2007 4:40PM]

My little nerd screams "COOL!" but my little accountant thinks a PDA might be more useful.

[Mc Snails @ Nov 1st 2007 7:51PM]

If it had a 21" OLED screen, blu-ray, 1TB storage and the Optimus Maximus keyboard, then maybe I'd buy it. But not for the rip-off price of $400.

[RikF @ Nov 1st 2007 4:46PM]

Another one (video) over at http://www.channelflip.com/

[Logan Trussell @ Nov 1st 2007 4:46PM]

I bought this off Newegg, then cancelled my order. Does anyone know when the cheaper EEE PC 4G surf is going to come out?

[jus10 @ Nov 1st 2007 6:57PM]

Newegg had an issue with some of the first ones that shipped out. They shipped out 5 of them instead of one:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=981

So I'm guessing that screwed up their inventory a bit. Mine still comes tomorrow. Wahoo!

[CT A @ Nov 1st 2007 4:56PM]

What the hell is stonking?

[Argot @ Nov 1st 2007 4:58PM]

It's a stoner bonking.

[fuzzy @ Nov 1st 2007 4:58PM]

Man, I still want this thing badly. I'm wondering how much better it'd run if you put in a gig or 2 of ram, or if the performance gains would be negligible.

I'd also like to see how well it could use my ATT Tilt as a modem if I turn on Internet Sharing in WM6. If I could get it to just be online all the time, it'd be my perfect traveling companion.

[Jitterbug @ Nov 1st 2007 5:35PM]

Why get this thing if you already have the ATT Tilt? Just download Opera Mini Beta and your good to go.

[RikF @ Nov 1st 2007 5:46PM]

Because a small keyboard is still better than a thumb-board for typing more than a short email?

[Ben @ Nov 1st 2007 5:11PM]

Well Im out. The notebookreview.com review shows, the "hard drive" storage space is not a removable media, but rather soldered on the motherboard... Which means its not upgradable the way I was hoping it would be and there for not really worth the price tag that its currently at. Oh well, maybe if they drop the price down to the originally stated 199 Ill bite, but for now, sorry ASUS, I think Id rather have a 500 dollar Acer or something.

[TIMMAH! @ Nov 1st 2007 5:23PM]

That's kind of a surprise from an assembly POV. You'd think they'd have these on snap in modules so that they'd be able to share configurations (and offer future, outrageously priced, upgrades.) But then again, it does add to the sturdiness and shock resistance of not having another connector I guess.

[Matt O @ Nov 1st 2007 5:23PM]

yea it might be soldered on but they have an sd card slot for expansion which makes it easier to expand the memory than most computers out there.

[Jevanzz @ Nov 1st 2007 5:30PM]

As Matt said, you can add up to an extra 8gig with an SD card, besides, it's for minimal tasks, you not gonna go and stash all your dirty movies on there are you? ;)

[OddManOut @ Nov 1st 2007 6:08PM]

"...you not gonna go and stash all your dirty movies on there are you? ;)"

With less than 12GB of storage, obviously not all of them...

[riggs @ Nov 1st 2007 5:12PM]

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim gonna wait for nokia.

[Jeremy K. @ Nov 1st 2007 6:01PM]

I wonder what the battery life is like for playing videos. Could this be a bridge between a Laptop and a PMP? (UMPC doesn't count in its current generation)

[CaptSaltyJack @ Nov 1st 2007 6:04PM]

Can you install Ubuntu 7.10 on this thing, and will it work ok?

[is83071 @ Nov 1st 2007 10:10PM]

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=862

FYI

[St. Stephen @ Nov 1st 2007 6:06PM]

hmm, will it blend?

[loci @ Nov 1st 2007 6:23PM]

go away

[Mark @ Nov 1st 2007 6:26PM]

Can you install XP? I know XP is overkill but inorder to get pdanet to work (so I can use my sprint connection) I have to use active sync.

[Dan @ Nov 1st 2007 8:27PM]

Yeah, you can install XP on it. Several people have done it and you can read about it on ttp://forum.eeeuser.com/

[Ryan @ Nov 1st 2007 6:29PM]

Here's another review with a lot of shots of the operating system:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?type=expert&aid=469

[killyoko @ Nov 1st 2007 6:37PM]

Mark: yeah, I agree. It would be worth it if you could blast the linux and install xp.

[doknir @ Nov 1st 2007 6:55PM]

|| the "hard drive" storage space is not a removable media,
|| but rather soldered on the motherboard...
|| Which means its not upgradable

I would buy an ASUS Eee PC with eSATA port ...

[mark @ Nov 1st 2007 6:55PM]

dude... if you're gonna pump your employer, at least get the URL right.

[Mark @ Nov 1st 2007 7:41PM]

Needs a bigger screen and hard drive, or lower price.

[JBrown @ Nov 1st 2007 10:18PM]

Hey, and if you want to test drive the Eee online to check out it's sweet interface, view: http://www.honeypothack.com/eee/internet.htm

-Josh

[Otz @ Nov 2nd 2007 8:04AM]

Walmart is selling a Acer Laptop w/ Celeron Processor & 1GB RAM for $348.00 today (sorry, that's all the specs I could find). And Black Friday will probably have great deals too.

So besides it's light weight, why get an Eee PC? It has a smaller screen than any laptop, less RAM, no hard drive, and probably a slower processor. It's $50 more expensive than the Acer laptop, and probably more expensive than a similar Black Friday laptop.

It just feels like everyone's heads are in the clouds about the Eee PC. I don't get it.

[perfectionist @ Nov 14th 2007 7:17PM]

Carrying around a 7-pound monster is not fun.
It has a webcam and microphone unlike most budget laptops.
Its build is supposedly better.

[Matt @ Nov 2nd 2007 10:06AM]

Does anyone know what J&R's return policy is? Their web site states that: "J&R offers an exclusive 30-day exchange/refund policy to mail order and web customers only, except for the following products: defective computer software and opened pre-recorded DVDs and CDs may be exchanged for same title only." From this, it seems that if I order the Asus EEE from them, use it for a while and decide that the keyboard is too small, I could send it back.

BUT I just called their customer service line to confirm, and "Charlie" oddly told me that their policy is that I can only return a laptop for a refund if it "hasn't been turned on." I explained that that was not written anywhere on the Web site, and he said he didn't know if it was a written policy but it is their policy.

Can anyone confirm? I'd love to buy the Asus but I'm not sure if my fingers are too big for the keyboard, and as yet there's no store around here where I could test it out...

[Charlotte @ Nov 2nd 2007 2:25PM]

Mine arrived today from RM, and OMG, it's such a pretty little machine! I'm SO in love. It's a little heavier than I had expected - pretty solid little monkey. And yes, the keyboard is cramped, but for someone who does as much typing as I do, this is really not a bad thing - it will take a bit of getting used to, but will mean less movement in my hands.

And JUST in time for NaNoWriMo!! Huzzah!

Naysayers and critics, hold your criticism until you've tried and played. Despite the hike in price (though I was expecting it to be more here in the UK) it's still incredible value for money!

[KRASH @ Nov 6th 2007 12:55PM]

As usual I find the hype is out of control.
We might be a bit spoiled here in the US, but I see adds all the time for laptops with 100 gig drives, lots of memory and even DVD burners for $400-500 US, and that does not include the big sales like Black Friday.
So why even look at a stripped down box like this.
At $200 or less you might have some thing.
KRASH

[Charlotte @ Nov 6th 2007 1:15PM]

Aaah, but you see, the big draw is the SIZE of it. Not everyone wants to lug around a 3-4kg monster, regardless of computing power. You can't get a sub-13-inch laptop for shy of £700-800 here in the UK. So to be able to get one for £200 has been a god send.

I've never owned a laptop before - for me, the tradeoff between price and performance taking into account the inconvenience of size, was just not worth it. I've always had a super powerful home-made desktop system which I mod to my hearts content, but I've always wanted a laptop, if just for writing while on the go. This machine is all I've ever needed - all hype aside, it really is amazing value for money.

Also, I've just switched to the "advanced" desktop mode, which makes it run more like a conventional windows-based (lower case w) machine, and less like the baby-toy that it shipped as. Switching to Advanced Desktop was quite easy, just followed the instructions here:

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=1083

I know there are a lot of annoyed people out there at the hike in price, but the truth is that in my opinion, it'd still be good value at 50% more cost - i'd have been willing to pay as much as £300 for this little tinkerbell.

[JBrown @ Nov 27th 2007 2:18PM]

The good folks at HPHstudios have put together a great little utility for those of you curious about the Asus Eee PC. If you are looking to buy one of these laptops for someone special this Christmas, but are not sure if the Eee PC is really the right one; then you need to visit http://www.honeypothack.com/eee/

HPHstudios has developed an online interface that almost exactly mimics that of the Eee PC. What you see is an intuitive, easy to use, Online Graphical interface that allows you to explore the Linux Xandros operation system implemented on the Asus Eee PC. While the interface is not 100% complete, the depth of detail and level of "clickability" is incredible. Thanks to many images supplied by eeeuser.com and other Eee PC owners, you can visually explore the Eee PC just as if you had one on your lap. Hop on over to http://www.honeypothack.com/eee/ and test drive the Eee PC for Free!