Hands-on with ASUS' Eee Keyboard

Remember that Eee Keyboard that was announced during CES? ASUS did itself proud by bringing a few to CeBIT this year, and we were able to swing by and take a look. The 5-inch, 800 x 480 touchpad was looking mighty fine, and the Atom N270 within seemed plenty powerful. It's a touch hard to believe that ASUS was able to shove a 16GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth modules, VGA / HDMI ouputs and a few USB 2.0 ports within a slim, elegant keyboard, but somehow or another it did. Oh, and the actual typing experience wasn't bad from the few moments we spent practicing this here post.

Hands-on with ASUS' Eee Keyboard

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 9:20AM]

Lap warming is a feature :)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 5:59AM]

surely removing the lcd screen and making use of the PICO projector technology would also be a good option?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:06AM]

*waits for 6 figure price to be announced*

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:41AM]

This isn't an Apple product.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 4:35PM]

Supposedly we're looking at $400-$600 price points.

[Prospero Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:06AM]

Fantastic product.. however i cant see its product placement so well.. why would you want the whole computer on your lap with cables and all coming out of it?

how is this better than a normal little pc hooked up to your tv with a little bluetooth keyboard on your lap?

In the media centre use, i can only seeing it being good if you sit right up to your tv. but.. how many people do that? (people with exceedingly square eyes.)

Great as a little home computer for use as a little computer, but media centre?

[Solipsism Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:04AM]

this is more portable, and you technically only need one cable. Your desk could be a 24" monitor, this, and three cables - power for the computer, power for the monitor, and HDMI between them, and nothing else excluding a wireless mouse.

[MikeWard1701 Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:11AM]

I'm not sure I see the point of it.

Yes it sounds cool to have a PC housed in a keyboard, but its not exactly a powerful spec, what size monitor can you realistically run ff it via VGA/HDMI?

Then there's the cables, I get infuriated with the one cable attaching my keyboard to the computer at times, and this will have at least two coming from it? Does it have a battery in it? In case you dislodge the power connector when adjusting it?

Its a nice idea, but I'd prefer to see it as a wireless keyboard and mouse replacement, the touchscreen acting as a track/touch pad, numeric keypad, and secondary display for the computer your using it with.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 3:13PM]

I'm driving a 24" LCD at 1920x1200 with an Asus EEE 1000. I suppose this keyboard-computer would do the same.

[NikiSk Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:19AM]

It looks nice.
Imagine this computer-keyboard + one super thin OLED monitor. People will wonder where are the computer components. :)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 2:23PM]

I had something like this back in the day... it was a Radio Shack tandy ex300!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:07AM]

looks useless for left handers tho.

[Gnoll Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:57AM]

I wouldn't say it would be useless. It would be a little more clumsy and a bit less comfortable, but it's far from useless. Still, I much prefer when companies take lefties into consideration :(

[Wintermute Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:40PM]

all the lefties I know mouse with their right hands. plus Asus is part of a coalition of worldwide companies attempting to rid the world of lefthandedness

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:52AM]

I'm pretty sure wireless HDMI was part of the original specs. Can the reviewer verify this please?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:54AM]

How much is this piece of technogasm?!

[pbrooks100 Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:57AM]

FAIL.

I'm left handed... I'm still waiting for my Mimo 7" DisplayLink touch screen that I can place next to my existing keyboard

[Reisa Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:03AM]

I'll need it since I just shorted my computer from drooling.

[Tohe Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:23AM]

I think it is funny who they paint the sides and bottom black. Asus is obviously selling an illusion.

[Bokal Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:29AM]

The same with a cool linux distro and it's an instant buy, nevermind the price.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:57PM]

seconded!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:31AM]

Gee, this looks like a 2009 version of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grundy_NewBrain

I wonder if the screen will turn out to be just as useless/full..

[arcanic Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:32AM]

It looks cool and geeky, but really....what is the point of this? If it's for controls for media center, then it's really just glorified buttons. As for a full working machine....I'd rather have a netbook. Can anyone give me a working scenario for this device? I'd love to like it if I knew the true use for it...looks really cool.

[xxxsam Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:21PM]

what's hard to understand? It's an all-in-one desktop computer, except they built the computer into the keyboard instead of into the screen. And you get a cool touchpad with some extra configurable control icons for no particular reason.

It looks fantastic. have to admit though that I have a tendency to break keyboards (spilling an entire mug of water on them can do that) so I don't think I'd want one where that was my computer broken too! Also, I already have a perfectly good desktop computer. So, yeah, I won't be getting one - but really nice design.

[jon Posted Mar 3rd 2009 7:36AM]

This thing is cool... But, what would you really use it for?

That screen would be useless for surfing.

For the price of this, I'm guessing between $500-$700, and a 15" lcd you could buy a 15" notebook with an actual cpu. More power, more portable, and probably just as energy efficient.

It doesn't have the storage or cpu to function as a media center, and you'll probably be tied to your second screen with an hdmi cable. For the price I quoted above you could build a nice SFF htcp with wireless kbm, that would have useful storage, an optical drive, and actual hd prospects.

Before anyone calls me anti-netbook, my primary computer has ended up being a sammy nc-10 running win7.

If I could slave a couple htpc's and a win home server to this thing and use it as the worlds largest universal remote that'd be great, but windows doesn't really work that way, and I don't think wmp12's Play to... function is going to cut it.

I really like this thing, but what could you use it for that another solution wouldn't be better for?

[keyboardstyli Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:36AM]

This Eee Keyboard is getting pretty interesting now!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:20AM]

Can you use an external keyboard with this?

[wpns Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:32AM]

Price? Availability? For a headless notebook, this looks pretty nice, but it's all about price...

[bigmak Posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:36AM]

Is it just me, or does it look like using this is like playing a flute? You've got your hands on the left side, your head is on the right... looks pretty fricking awkward.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:14AM]

What would make it really cool is if the keyboard can act as a normal keyboard so you can connect to your regular desktop. Also have a built-in KVM so you can switch between eee keyboard and the desktop.

[scottbakertemp Posted Mar 3rd 2009 12:17PM]

I was thinking the same thing. It needs a built in KVM. I suppose you could use Synergy but I'm not sure how well that would work if you want to play games.

[ChuckM Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:45AM]

I would love a bunch of these things for event registration. I hate having to have full blown laptops or nettops.

I wish it has integrated mouse/tablet and the screen was front/center. Or, it didn't have a screen built-in and instead utilized the 7" USB monitor. I just want to have a case of these things, set them up and lock them down.

[Hackettman Posted Mar 3rd 2009 10:51AM]

I didnt really understand how awesome this was until right now..... This thing is sweet.....

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 12:10PM]

honey? did you spill coffeee on my keeeboard?

[xdurus Posted Mar 3rd 2009 11:33AM]

Looks nice but......
In reality it is basically a netbook that is 2-3x as wide with 1/2 the display.
Once you plug in a monitor the portability aspect goes out the window.
It seems as of lately due to the stagnant pool of technological breakthroughs companies have resorted to preying on TGAs(Tech Gadget Addicts) with gimmickry and novelty items to sustain revenues.

I must contain my inner techie beast and resist....resist..........RESIST!!!!!!!!!!!

[neoprimalgmailcom Posted Mar 3rd 2009 1:58PM]

All they need to do to make it left-hand friendly is make the screen detachable (and attachable to the left side). This is the ultimate in home portability for the computer, very nice.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 2:38PM]

This is basically a laptop with a torn off screen that will transform home computing forever. Weird.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 3rd 2009 4:10PM]

Weird. But it'll sell like the netbook did, like cocaine laced hotcakes. MMM-mmm.

[FILA Posted Mar 3rd 2009 6:21PM]

i really like this

[Skor Posted Mar 3rd 2009 9:02PM]

I hope this has a built in battery. Is it just me, or would this be awesome for note-taking at school?(Especially for the person sitting to your right looking at your notes)

[LimboMan Posted Mar 4th 2009 12:59AM]

I'm SO ready to get my C64 emulator fired up for this device. Hopefully it'll be cheaper than the launch pricing I spent on my either my VIC-20 or C-64. With the screen, this will function like the dream computer I couldn't ever afford, the SX-64 'portable'.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 4th 2009 9:59AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series

:)

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 11th 2009 10:21PM]

This is a fantastic idea really. At home, i have to plug my netbook with another keyboard and mouse. Imagine the space i'd save with this EEE Keyboard

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2009 10:17AM]

Probably the coolest keyboard ever!

http://web-engineers.es/