How would you change Asus' Eee PC?
By Darren Murph 
posted November 9th 2007 5:28PM
posted November 9th 2007 5:28PM
Regardless, just about everyone who managed to get ahold of Asus' little darling came away impressed, if not thoroughly pleased, with how much functionality was stuffed into a sub-$400, two-pound ultraportable. Of course, critics were not hesitant to admit that the bugger wasn't perfect, and we've all ideas that a number of you early adopters out there share similar sentiments. So without further ado, why not give the world a piece of your mind on the matter? How would you meliorate the Eee PC? Make it more functional, more fashionable or just (even) more affordable? Chime on in below with your recommendations for the Eee PC Rev. B -- it's not like we don't already know it's coming.
Change the CPU from Intel to VIA
The PackardBell EasyNote XS (based upon the VIA Nanobook reference design) uses its own VIA C7 processor and is reported to get around 5hrs. of battery life.
That's nearly a cross-country flight!
Not necessarily in order of importance:
1. Obviously, larger screen. I would throw in an extra $200 for a 10" WXGA.
2. Make use of the ample unused space on the display swivel and around the touchpad. Small speakers could fit in both places.
3. Faster CPU, lower consumption.
4. Double the SSD.
5. Upgradeable RAM without warranty void is a must.
6. Bluetooth!
9. Separate mouse buttons.
10. Xandros? C'mon, that costs almost as much as win xp. If you need to preinstall anything, make it Debian or Ubuntu. But better yet, ship it with no OS.
Would also be nice:
- Push the GPU up a notch.
- SSD easily upgradeable without warranty void.
- Double the default RAM.
- Ditch the camera.
- Ditch the modem.
- DVI instead of VGA.
- Firewire.
- Multi-card reader.
If this comes out under $600 I'd buy it in this instant. But even $800 might do..
the name is kinda gay
Amazon.com just released their Kindle e-book reader for $399
Put a swivel screen on the Eee, and some buttons on the side for flipping pages, and you have a more versatile e-book reader for the same price. (a bit thicker, though)
Perfect for University students who have to read through tons of PDFs all the time.
I'd go for a larger touch screen, dump the keyboard and provide a fold-away keyboard for those who must have one.
Scrap the VGA port for additional USB
Dump the speakera and provide space to pack away your ear phones.
Multi flash card reader.
When standing about a keyboard is all but useless. I used to have an XDA phone. It was great for notes but too small to be really useful. Something with at least 4x the screen area of a typical PDA with the processing power of an EEE would be great.
Put Windows Mobile 6 with Pocket Office.
Remove the modem and replace with Bluetooth.
That's it.
This is got to be the most riduculous post I've read. You people that want all those specs, might as well just buy a regular laptop. The few people who posted a 10" screen with 1080i, Core2 Duo processors with 1GB ram, guess what, it AIN'T gonna happen. You can only dream about it dudes and dudettes. What do you expect for $400? Hello !! Its a subnotebook. But, I wouldnt be surprised if Dell will want in on this a type of subnotebook. and of course with all the bells and whistles
Absolutely. All these upgrades/wish fors will add substantially more to the price of what this little laptop costs now.
Only thing is, ASUS has started the ball rolling with this little beauty, if it sells as much as it's expected, other companies will jump on the band wagon and then you'll see better spec machines for low (as low? Possibly) prices.
Larger SSD say 8GB minimum.
One or two less USB.
1 Firewire.
This would make this machine an instant hit for me, providing the price was kept under 500 USD
I received my little black eee last Friday.
Stay as sweet as you are.
I see many requests for "larger screen". People seem to be looking for two different things. Some want the screen to be more like a 10" screen. Others want a higher resolution screen that fits the same space, like the 1024 x 600 screens on some UMPCs. Some want both, I'm sure.
I would vote for the same size, higher resolution screen.
An easily changeable Internal SSD - compact flash, maybe - goes up over 128G.
RAM beyond 1G.
A docking station that had the "missing parts" that cannot fit a machine this size - DVD/CD drive, external HD, extra ports, and extra charger.
This could then be used as-is for travel, turn into a "desktop" PC at home or the office. One PC to fit everything.
This obviously wouldn't cut it for power user types, but for most basic office work this PC is adequate.
here's the wishlist,
1)bigger screen with higher resolution allowing it to be a mobile entertainer (Must)
2)make it a tablet (good)
3)make it an eReader friendly device
without needing to purchase special devices, should use a special long life battery mode for this purpose and some great content support (good)
4)have a harddisk that goes into ipods now a days however that should be removable so it could be replaced (must)
5)let the OS reside on CF for faster boot and have either linux or windows or other OS loaded onto the CF as one chooses (good)
6)USB/firewire for an external drive (must)
7)Have those dvds that fit in the inner notched tray of a regular media drive, perhaps in the blu-ray/hd dvd format (nice to have)
8)processor speed vs. battery life balance; perhaps the latest intel mobile chips following the price curve (future)
9)have it join the ranks of xbox or psp3 (future)
I just got a new 4G Eee PC ...works great right from the box but there is NO door on the bottom to access the 512M of DDR2 Ram. I would like to upgrade that RAM to 1 Gig. Anyone out there have a "take-apart" set of directions for me? It appears that the newer (or maybe just US??) models are coming through WITHOUT the RAM door on the bottom.
Thanks for any help.
Richard
I agree with filling the black border with screen. I already have the 4g Surf as a 2nd laptop and I will only part with it if the new model will extend the screen to fill the black border. I'm thinking of geting a 30 gb usb 1.8 inch toshiba hard drive from this store for added storage so the storage size is not a problem for me- http://www.dealextreme.com/default.dx/r.73231765. For less than 70 bucks with free shipping, I haven't found a cheaper price anywhere.
I made a mistake on the Toshiba drive- it's a Hitachi 30 GB USB drive, 1.8 inch for $64.38 (as of this writing). Bigger than a USB flash drive but much cheaper. They have the 20 and 60gGB models too.
Here's the product link. Has anyone used this on eee pc?
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7834~r.73231765
you gusy are really annoying i have an Eee and for 400$ you get a base line laptop wich is nice when you add all thiss crap it gets way more expensive my ass well get a 2000$ vaio and shut up they would bolth be the same price. but the thing i like about THIS laptop is IT WAS CHEAP and it was small and it didn't have all this useless crap that you never use and still have to pay for.oh and the screen size dosen't bother me at all in fact it makes it a lesser chance of breaking when and if i drop it oh and very tough . I LOVE this laptop.
How I would change it (from the current 4G surf)...
-Larger screen (fill the bezel with a screen of about 10") but don't increase laptop dimensions.
-Relocated speakers or use mono on bottom.
-Use a two-button mouse (not the single swivel button).
-Make the touch pad just a bit larger.
I would pay $399.
Paid £200 for black 4GB model 701. Opened up the full desktop by downloading kicker and ksmserver. Added debian etch repository. then added gcc, gfortran, build-essentials with apt-get. Added gnuchess + xboard. Now it has development potential. Still 1GB ssd left. CPU is speedy enough. Connected 1280x1024 screen: setup was automatic. Easy mode quickly restorable. Downloaded debian skype 2 beta which gives video: no issues. Pity than xandros has been used as a basis although there are media advantages over preferred debian. Obviously ssd disk size will be the first limitation. CD/DVD would be very useful. Should be cheaper in UK. I don't use MS wares. Would prefer more real estate on the screen say 10" 1024x768. Three hour battery capacity is only fair.
8GB SSD, 10"screen, BT 2.0 & DVD drive
& 2g/3g Sim Card Slot
I heard from my friend in who is a supplier in HK that Asus have told them that the new batch will come with no opening for the RAM. This sucks if its true man!