Asus' Eee PC on sale with 8GB SSD, 1GB RAM for $499
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 1st 2007 8:39PM
posted Dec 1st 2007 8:39PM
[Via jkkmobile]
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Can anyone advise on running some type of remote desktop app on this? I need to access proprietary software on my co's intranet. Any help would be appreciated. Also, how about using broadband cards (i.e. ATT, Verizon) on the USB slot? Does Linux support the software to run them? Thanks,
you can use Logmein.com to remote a pc
I wonder if I'll get two.
kawaii [°ω°]
Kawaii nanka ja ne. Futsuu no gomi da yo.
MacBook Thin FTW.
It seems a huge part of the Eee's success is the low price point. I'm kinda scared that Apple is going to totally miss the point with their new ultraportable and price it around $1,500 or something absurd.
Well, even Asus makes more expensive ultraportables (the U1 and U6 being the most recent). $1500 isn't really an absurd price point for most normal full featured ultraportables. The Eee PC is something different, designed to be very tiny and very cheap. Apple isn't likely to make something along the lines of the Eee; any ultraportable they make is going to probably be similar in cost to things like the Sony TZ or SZ series, the Asus U6, etc.
You totally missed the point on the Eee PC. Compare the specs of the Eee PC with other Ultra Portables. The Eee PC is meant to be a toned down hardware PC for checking emails and web surfing. A number of companies already have ultra portables, including UMPCs at a much higher price point than the Eee PC, and it's all justified by the hardware.
Don't compare or confuse a computer with a 4GB/8GB (depending on model) with a full featured, high power ultra portable PC or Mac.
Come on Asus...just a slightly bigger screen instead of those speakers and I'll bite haha.
We all would
It will be perfect if they replace the speaker with more screen and fix the button for the touch pad. .. anyone know if they plan for bigger screen... I really want this thing.... The screen is just too small for any productivity... I holding your $500, Asus..
Agreed, teh screen is what is holding me back from getting one. I would rather pay double that and just get a UMPC...
M
The real problem is the resolution. If you were to put Windows on this, you'd easily find yourself trapped in dialog boxes (like the Display Properties one) that are taller than the screen. I'm not sure if the Xandros that comes with it suffers the same problem, but I know that the screen height severely impairs Google Reader.
When the fabled 10" model comes out, hopefully they'll up the resolution to 1024x600, at least. If they could keep the same form-factor and price, I'd buy one.
Its a standard 16:9 widescreen resolution, and exactly the same resolution as DVD. At this size (7") Its exactly the same as using a 3200x1920 14" resolution monitor in terms of scale. I have one and the resolution is DEFINITELY NOT an issue.
Ben Hobbs: I could be misinterpreting what you're trying to say...but I think you need to recheck your math.
From what I've read, the 7"-diagonal screen is 800 x 480.
If you double the width and the height to make it a 14" screen, and keep the pixel size (dot-pitch) the same, you get a 1600x960 screen.
You seem to have multiplied both numbers by 4 to get 3200x1920. The total number of pixels would be multiplied by 4 in going from 7" to 14" diagonal...but you should only have twice the number of pixels spanning each dimension.
--
on another note...I think that a perfect 480p 16x9 would be 854x480...so if this screen is indeed 800x480, and the pixels are square, I think they should first add the extra 54 pixels on the horizontal axis to make it a more true DVD size. Otherwise, DVD-quality video is either going to be cropped at the sides or scaled down slightly with a little letterboxing to fit fully on the screen. Doing this, but keeping all the pixels the same size, would still be a 7.35" screen, so not much bigger and likely not much added cost. There are actually a few ~7" 854x480 monitors on the market, so I'd think that the "mass-market" effect would keep prices lower at this size than the Eee's slightly smaller version.
Going one small step further, most widescreen computer monitors are 16x10, not 16x9...if the desire is to use that ratio, then they ought to move to 854x534. Still "perfect" for DVD-video viewing, with no scaling required and just some small black bars on top and bottom. Again, keeping the pixels the same size, you'd move up to just a 7.55" screen.
Nobody else likely cares much about this...but I'm all-for logical screen resolutions. And full-resolution DVD-rips would be nice on a portable device. Not sure why they would have selected a screen resolution that was just slightly-off from the logical size (at least for DVD-quality video).
Ditch the capitalist version of Linux on it, and it is pretty cool. I hate linspire/freespire. What idiot would pay for Ubuntu? They are MS sympathizers anyway.
Wow... ASUS.. I want one too!
SOMEONE PLEASE PUT LEOPARD 10.5 ON IT!~~ :D Teach me how to and I'll buy one!
It's been done:
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/11/12654/
Please please buy me one now!
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/index.htm
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/index.htm and test drive the Eee PC for Free!
I have a feeling the real version doesn't use windows XP themed title bars
hmm, looks like i shoulda done some research first... I like how i decided to check this after i made the post. my bad.
But can I stream content from my Eee to my Wii?
More importantly, Can it play doom?
I still don't get it. Why do we need this exactly? Whats wrong with a regular laptop?
size? portability? price?
nothing, but it will stop your mom & dad calling you every week to troubleshoot a windows or linux machine, and provides an alternative to buying them an expensive mac when all they want to do is write email to their grandchildren. do you get it now?
and yes, i realize it does run linux. the attraction is that it disguises that (perhaps intimidating) fact.
I picked up the 4gb model more or less as a toy to play with, but I've been very impressed with it. I find myself taking it places when I don't want to lug my Macbook around.
It is also available on buy.com but at a higher price ($519.99).
http://blog.pcnews.ro/2007/12/02/asus-asus-eee-pc-8g-on-sale/
Anyway, I never hear about E-tailer Dynamism...
8GB SSD is just about perfect. enough to out some decent apps on the thing. this would be perfect for college. i have a desktop that im not giving up anytime soon but i would like a lappy for mobileness. this would fit the bill perfectly. cheap and small and has word processing and internets. i think i would be happier with Ubuntu on it though. that should be easy enough though.
can it play Doom? (that is a serious question. you could play simple games on this thing right?)
Played Shadow Warror and Duke Nukum 3D...
Doom would be a pick of cake!
good to know. this thing is well worth $500. i'll have to see if they've made any changes to it by next summer or if there are any comparable ultra portables on the market
They fill that screen and I'll buy one for myself.. As it is I'm buying as many as I can find to send to our Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would like to start up a PayPal account for this charity operation but I'm still working out all the kinks.
If anyone here can afford it, please purchase one and send it to a Soldier fighting for our way of life. They make wonderful Christmas presents!
Please email me : grat3fulh3ad@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Remember our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers that can't be home with us for the holidays! =)
"our way of life"! And what that would be?
I thought they are fighting to liberate the Iraqies?
Exactly how are they protecting your way of life?
It's a stupid war, they are doing nothing for you
careful, DarkLightConnection, you *almost* sound "anti-troops!"
The troops are just doing their job with pride for patriotic reasons. Support the troops -- even if they, too, are anti-war, they don't have an "out" without becoming a criminal (AFAIK)...but hate the war, the genius who started it, and the people who allowed him to take/keep office.
I support our troops, but I think we are there for the wrong reason. We should not be pushing our "way of life" like some overly zealous preacher and using our military to do it. It's like a modern day Crusades. And look how that turned out?
> Remember our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters,
> mothers and fathers that can't be home with us for the
> holidays!
...because they got blown up by an American cruise missile.
80,000 documented civilian deaths so far [iraqbodycount.net].
I hope you get your relatives home for Christmas. Dead or alive doesn't really bother me, as long as they get out of the middle east as soon as they possibly can.
@EQC: the illegal invasion was in 2003, more than four years ago; any soldier who resigned at that time may have been required to complete their "tour of duty", but they would undoubtedly have been out of there by now. The ones who remain have _chosen_ to fight this disgusting war. They're legitimate targets.
i don't want to sound like a soulless cynic but...
new form of 419 etc related scam?
I'm anti-troops, if you are against someone's idea, even if it's the president of the world, you have no reason to do it..
I'm against the whole "You do it because I say it" idea, and that quite includes the military
BTW, i'm not American
looked good asus
why not add an e-SATA connector to it, and the hard drive problem is over?
eSATA would be nice. Still, it's got three USB ports and 16GB SDHC cards cost less than $150 now, so there are plenty of options for extra storage.
My only question is why? I have to admit they are cool and my inner geek is crying out for one, but at the same time the logical part of my brain is pointing out that at $500 you are fast approaching the realm of fully functional laptops. Occasionally you can find ok laptops for around $500 and for just $100 more you are more likely to find a laptop that has about 10x the storage capacity and functionality.
Then again, this thing is nice and small and probably has a great battery life.
Yeah, it all comes down to if you need the portability/battery life/webcam or not.
It weighs about 900g. A typical laptop weighs 3.9kg.
Also it has no moving parts because it is solid state instead of a HD, perfect for the young or people on the move.
Yes you are right about at least an extra hour battery life.
They have a maximum battery life of three hours -- our district just bought a bunch of them.
not bad
if only it has 10" screen
I'm an owner of a regular 4G, and I don't really see a reason to get this. The 8GB SSD is nice, but not really necessary. I'd rather put another 4GB in mine with the SDHC slot, and even then I probably won't. The 1GB of ram is also nice, and I'm considering breaking my warranty to add my own, but I've found that with my usage, I probably wouldn't notice it.
Basically, I use the Eee to browse and chat and watch movies when I travel. I have it tethered to my ATT Tilt, so it's online anywhere. With Firefox and Pidgin open, I'm still not stressing the amount of memory. And I definitely don't have much installed that would fill up the SSD.
Is me the only one who thinks flash memory isn't ready to be the main memory of a computer?
Most people seem to be just ignoring that SSDs have limited I/O cycles, they will die with use..
It is OK for memories that you will not be using for more than a few years at most (ie. SD cards), but for a computer? I'm not rich enough to buy a computer that will die after a few years, i'm still have a 10 year old computer that I use at my workshop, and the hard drive is working as if it was new...
A good point but for me i don't mind to replace my hard drive in 2 years. I just bought a new hard drive(250GB) for my 6 months old Macbook. I also bought tracks for it($15) so it's very easy to swap the drives, just like batteries. AND i am not rich ;)
ssd is not regular flash memory. no one is ignoring it, most people just already are aware of the difference. an ssd will last longer than a mechanical drive and use less power.
I love the "bigger better 'REAL' laptops are out there..." argument. Totally misses the point. We don't want windows, we don't want to lug a 6 pound keg, we don't want a massive powerbrick, we don't want viruses, we don't want crap components: we don't want Dell or Gateway or (from what I've seen of the new ones in my office) even Lenovo. For $399, the 4gb is one HELLuva machine.
Besides, the flash memory write limit is a myth, left over from the early days of SSD. Read around, it's been debunked.
As to the basic question of WHY? It's insanely portable. I love my MacBook, but at 13.3", it's not the easiest to grab-an-go, even as sleek as it is. To be able to open, write, surf, etc, and then stand, close it and walk off, with no bags to fiddle with, nothing banging or bumping off people or display racks or.. it's wonderful.
Yes, when a larger battery is available, I'll be all over it. But with 3 USB slots, the existing SDHC slot and the 1gb of RAM I stuck in (their "warranttee invalid of seal broken" is in violation of US consumer protection law), it's got more than enough oomph for its purposes.
And it's a moot point 'cause Apple's gonna announce THEIR version at MacWorld (revamped eMate running LeopardLite, anyone?) and then we'll all be in sleek geek tech heaven.
And don't forget that there's a free Mini PCI-e slot waiting for a 32GB or larger SSD to be installed, once they come down in price.
I have an old VAIO that has to be like.. 4 years old now and it's become my primary computer, pretty much, except my desktop at work and I'm considering adding an SSD for better battery life, despite the fact it will cost me twice as much as the laptop is worth.
Think about it.. 2 years ago, I "couldnt afford" to be replacing my 120gb HD cuz I was a high school student and I had to save to buy one. Now I can get a 320gb for 90AUD from my local computer store. Don't you think the same thing will happen with flash memory. If you can't find 8gb of flash memory for less than $20 in 2 years, I'll buy you a whole new computer. I'm sure asus know this and if the HDs start to die in 2yrs time, I'm willing to bet they'll replace them for you with a bigger and better one, no doubt.
For a small fee, of course ;-)
Ahem, just thought about it and realized that I was NOT a high school student 2 years ago, I was finishing my first year of university....
Damn, I feel old.
Have you tried counting for how long time a certain block of the drive can be access before its estimated lifespan has been reached. A flash memory will stand (roughly) 100 000 write cycles. Let's assume you use the computer for 4 hours each day writing on average 5 MB/s. That will give us close to twenty years of usage before MTF is reached. How many mecanical hard drives will give you the same level of security? From a security standpoint flash is much better than a hard drive.
I think that this is more aimed at someone like me - who already owns two full-featured laptops. One a monster 17" Desktop replacement and the other a 13.3" (a MacBook) which I really just use for browsing and Word Processing.
I've got to admit, this version is very attractive. Though, I'd probably switch the OS.
Does anyone know where I could see the Eee in person? My parents are willing to get this for me for a portable to take to class just in case I need it, but I don't know if that 7 inches will drive me crazy. I just need to see it for myself!
People are using 7" touchscreen displays for large CarPC displays (about as big as you can squeeze in a double DIN, so if you can imagine what the monitor would look like squeezed into your car dash, you can imagine how big it is.
Why are so many people enamored with this device?
When Palm was talking about the Foleo, which seems to have similar specs to this thing, the pundits were saying that there was no market for a device like this.
huh, I guess the market is just wrong
The Folio was a far more affected high-concept device than the Eee, and seemed infected with Palm's profound lack of direction since the Treo 650. Palm wants to be all things to all people but scarcely manages to produce credible Palm devices anymore.
Part of the appeal of the Eee is the ability to install your own software and OS, since it really is simply a tiny laptop. Every arbitrary restriction that comes from owning a designer-finessed agenda-driven device has the cumulative effect of discouraging creativity. The Eeee has the advantage of being what you make it, not what dominating media presence thinks it should be.
Perhaps the Folio would have been equally customizable, perhaps not. What it wouldn't have been was interchangeable with any other baseline laptop sans space, size and power. Given the way Palm handled it, the Folio seemed another waystation between vaporware eclecticism and knuckling down to release the new OS Palm's been talking about for years.
foleo was eee pc done the wrong way.
foleo wasnt a stand alone computer in concept - it was a COMPANION device.. a cheap laptop like device to use with your phone.
now eee pc is like foleo in design, somewhat. eee pc is normal x86 though.
and the linux in eee pc isn't some one-shot linux distro made just for this with it's own ui libs...
Go and look at the Foleo pricetag and then you'll understand. The Eee PC is much cheaper and runs Linux with standard Linux apps like Firefox, OpenOffice etc. Palm were smart to kill the Foleo - I think many UMPC devices are going to follow as people realise that small doesn't have to mean expensive.
Nice update. But I'll wait for a version where the screen matches the lid.
If by about april next year they release a 10" version with this specs for about the same price, I'm sold.
I'm currently having a 12" Thinkpad with XGA resolution and I would be happy with 10" and a resolution of between 1024*640 and 1280*800. My machine has a 1.2Ghz P3-m and 640MB RAM and that's totally enough for everything I can do on such a tiny screen.
I guess the thing that disappoints me the most about this is how they seem to be making it difficult for people to hack the hardware for this or make mods to it. For me, whatever manufacturer makes a device likes this that is easy to upgrade and/or easy for users to service themselves wins my vote. For example I would love to see a device where people can easily upgrade the onboard solid state memory by simply swapping an SD or CF card instead of soldering the damn thing to the board. And the price has risen too far above the original estimates for me to bite on this now. I'm glad I optend for the OLPC which will at least be more durable.
Hello???
The Eee has an SD card reader.
I have a 4GB SDHC card in mine.
I almost got an 8GB card, but then I realized that that would be overkill. I have barely made a dent in the 4GB card in the month I've had the Eee. That's the thing that all these naysayers don't get: you don't need a ton of memory to use this thing. I haven't even upgraded my RAM yet, and I probably never will have to.
I forgot to mention that you can boot off the SD card, so you can install your OS on it if you choose.
I have 4Gb SDHC too. Aside from an annoying dialog that asks if I want to browse it when when the system starts, the thing works fine. I also understand that I can replace the 512Mb internal RAM with 1Gb if I wish. I don't know if I can replace the SSD, but as I said, SD works, as would any USB storage device including harddisks.
Personally I'd like an OLPC but only if I could flash it with Fedora or similar. It also needs more memory and other changes to meet consumer needs. I do not understand why they do not produce a consumer version (e.g. in black) and plough the profits into the charitable arm. Everyone wins. The Eee PC proves there is a great demand for this kind of device and OLPC are losing out by not fulfilling it.
I can get a pretty loaded Dell Vostro 1000 for $499 on Dell's Small Business site.
The EEE only practical if it's priced less than a regular laptop.
Once again, someone misses the point.
That $499 Dell gets only an 1 hour (or less) of battery life, from what I've read, weighs >6 lbs with the 4-cell battery, and comes with 512MB of memory.
I'm soooooo not jealous.
I'll keep my Eee.
At David:
If I bite, I'll be getting an Eee to write fiction, criticism and travel journals, which means I'll be using Word. When you break down the Eee's real-life battery advantage, how many hours are you able to get without recharging? I'd like to have some idea how long I can continue writing while riding the trains in Berlin and other places in Europe.
Frastoglegnia:
On the train you won't be using WiFi, so your battery life will be maximized, which I believe translates to about 4 hours, but that's a moot point because all the trains in Europe (especially the high-speed trains: Eurostar, Thalys, etc...) have power outlets at each seat, and the Eee's power adapter is auto-voltage adjusting (120V-240V) AND is the size of a cellphone charger (that is, it's small, and without an in-line brick besides).
Personally, I am a touch-typist, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I can type close to normally on the Eee. The right shift key is slightly moved from the normal location, but nothing a period of habituation can't fix. I'm certain it's got to be better than the Mac Book's bizarre chicklet keyboard! The Eee's keyboard is compact -- it has to be, but it's completely functional.
I have one and am trying it out as a traveling computer. It's quite nice and is doing everything I need of it.
I'm posting from the MSP Airport and compared to my 'other' traveling laptop (MacBook) this thing is impressive.
The MacBook isn't that big but once again I got a chap in the seat in front of me who took advantage of the full recline during the flight out. I couldn't open my MacBook well enough to type so I transferred the doc I was working on over to the Eee with a usb stick and used Open Office to edit/etc.
The _only_ thing that's bitten me so far is that the sleep mode uses up the batteries (as opposed to the MacBook). after ~20 hours it used around 60% of the battery. Not a show stopper but something to be aware of.
The thing starts from a cold boot pretty quickly (I'm using the advanced mode and it's slightly slower). But until they get hibernate working I'm doing a power off when I'm away from power overnight.
Firefox with the Fullerscreen extension makes browsing totally useful and so far I'm not finding any major issues (when you take the price into account).
My previous travel machine was a Sony T150 and that's nice but much larger. Since I gave into the Mac urge I've managed to rid myself of all my win32 based machnes so this fits well.
Sadly there was an article that the eee will soon support MS (offically), that's too bad but was bound to happen.. I just hope the MS tax is massive to get more people exposed to the linux interface.
I have one and am trying it out as a traveling computer. It's quite nice and is doing everything I need of it.
I'm posting from the MSP Airport and compared to my 'other' traveling laptop (MacBook) this thing is impressive.
The MacBook isn't that big but once again I got a chap in the seat in front of me who took advantage of the full recline during the flight out. I couldn't open my MacBook well enough to type so I transferred the doc I was working on over to the Eee with a usb stick and used Open Office to edit/etc.
The _only_ thing that's bitten me so far is that the sleep mode uses up the batteries (as opposed to the MacBook). after ~20 hours it used around 60% of the battery. Not a show stopper but something to be aware of.
The thing starts from a cold boot pretty quickly (I'm using the advanced mode and it's slightly slower). But until they get hibernate working I'm doing a power off when I'm away from power overnight.
Firefox with the Fullerscreen extension makes browsing totally useful and so far I'm not finding any major issues (when you take the price into account).
My previous travel machine was a Sony T150 and that's nice but much larger. Since I gave into the Mac urge I've managed to rid myself of all my win32 based machnes so this fits well.
Sadly there was an article that the eee will soon support MS (offically), that's too bad but was bound to happen.. I just hope the MS tax is massive to get more people exposed to the linux interface.
It's about time someone bought out a really reasonably priced laptop. I am still waiting for the 8Gb version before I commit and I'm reliably informed it should be available Jan/Feb 2008. Until then I'll just have to wait!
Jas.
http://www.jasonslater.co.uk
I'm luvin my Eee PC - now that I've put Ubuntu on it of course!
http://www.internet-tools.co.uk/blog/index.php/2007/11/26/installing-ubuntu-710-gutsey-gibbon-on-my-asus-eee-pc/
I own a black 4gb model. I think the most important improvement they could make is a larger screen with better resolution. It really needs to be 1024x600 at least. It is possible to do some tricks to get more screen space. For example I customised the browser to reduce some space, and work in fullscreen mode when I can. I also installed GNOME prefs to reduce the system fonts that the GTK apps were using. But the resolution is too small. It's still a great device though.
sweet baby jesus!
Just order 8G white (in stock) from newegg
A local PC store's website has shown diff. configurations as well as colors for the EEE to include the ff:
256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB RAM
w/
2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB Hard drive
in white, black, green
My question is for those who have the 4GB version, do you think the 256MB w/ 2GB SSD would be adequate. intending to give it to my pop who only needs it for email, chat, and casual browsing? Or should I get the full bore version?
Thanks
So I'm really not a computer aware person, but I like the idea of this as something I can carry to my university classes to do notes and it won't be weight training. (My laptop is 7 pounds and 3 years old. It is heavy enough it ripped the strap out of the computer bag and fell. And I can barely get it on planes with carry on.) But I'm scared of the Linux and co. I've heard of them, but really don't quite get it. I'm certainly not going to be programing anything. The whole memory thing and loading xp, (buying and loading xp?) makes me worry too. And how much are the cards for extra memmory? Can I load a movie from a usb key, save it and then remove it later without wasting memmory space? Will I be able to print files from it or save and keep writting them for a semester? And what is the benifit of xp or os or the linux it comes with and other systems?
I'm not to worried about the keys or screen. I think I'd go for the 4g since I can't seem to find the 8g or higher on Newegg.
And really, I'm wondering if I should get it now for the start of the next semester, or wait a month and hear what happens from apple or see what they do next. Is it likely to change much in 2 months or for another/better option to come out?
As I said, I have a laptop that is my subsitute desktop. It's 17 inches and can't run games but manages most of what I want. And I figure that once I finish school and settle into a house I'd get a real desktop for games and to run a tablet. I have an external harddrive and a external disk burner.
So, is this rather inexpensive, 'easy', portable thing a good idea for me?
The maximum battery life for this machine is three hours.