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First Full Review of New Asus Eee PC 900
An anonymous reader writes "After months of rumors, the new 8.9in screen Eee PC is out in the open and the first review is online. As well as the larger screen you get 1GB RAM, 20GB Storage and a multi-touch touchpad. It costs more than the old Eee PC, but it definitely sounds like it's worth the extra cash." I always thought the appeal of the original was the ridiculously low price, coupled with the ease of hacking. Not sure if the sequel will meet that challenge.
They all seem to have pretty close pricing, for example the HP's 2133:
... anywhere from a $499 system running Linux to a $749 model using Microsoft's Windows Vista Business operating system. The low-end Linux version, which sports a 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM--is probably the closest matchup for the Eee. The Vista machine we review here today sits at the top-end with a 1.6GHz CPU and 2GB of RAM. I'm glad to see healthy competition in this market. I know some people are going to hate the non-standard stuff going on with these laptops and there's going to be some dirty tactics to 'lock-in' countries to purchase only a certain brand for schools (*cough* Intel/Microsoft *cough*) but these prices are going to continue to be driven down. Which from $400-$500 is a great price!While it may not be the year of Linux on the desktop, it's certainly the year of Linux on the super freaking tiny notebook that is difficult to type on (yes, I know what a USB keyboard is).
My work here is dung.
The whole point is that it's so small, hence "ultraportable".
Infinite time means everything that can happen, will. You being you is absolutely incidental. You do not exist.
You can get a full-sized laptop with twice the ram, more than 10x the storage, a bigger screen, etc., for under $500.00
I dare say you have completely missed the point of this device. The whole point is that it's not "full-sized".
I agree, theoretically the appeal of a device like this is that you can flip it open any time you need it, and riggity-jig-and-away-you-go.
On the other hand, how many people are buying this as a full time alternative to a full sized laptop?
I think we're still in the early adopter stage -- where most of the people who are buying it are just curious. Therefore it may be more important to meet certain psychological pricing benchmarks (e.g. it's closer to 300 Euros than 400) than it is to put a bigger battery in it. Then the people who find it seriously useful will buy a second battery, or a larger aftermarket battery.
Admit it; you've bought things on impulse for X dollars, then on impulse bought a Y dollar ugprade for those things, even though you probably wouldn't consider paying X + Y for the entire rig and it was just wishful thinking you didn't need the upgrade. That normal economic behavior for early adopters.
When the thing gets to the point where pragmatists are buying them, you can bet they'll sport much longer battery lives. Just the volumes they'll be buying parts in will bring the price down to stay "cheap".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Sorry, but I've USED Windows CE before.
I know just how terribly unresponsively it performs.
I know how terribly limited the selection of available software is
I know how crippled all the "pocket" apps are.
I know just how completely lacking external hardware drivers (eg. printers) are.
If you need more than something that just barely lets you type basic documents and sync them with your desktop, WinCE is a lame duck.
The HPC form-factor is quite nice, but the realities of using one for any length of time is not so pleasant.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
While I'm not American, I will say that an extra 3kg or so is an inconvenience compared to just under 1kg. It's not as if we're all suddenly lacking the muscle mass to carry a 15" machine or that we're so lazy we don't want to expend the extra energy, it's that if you want a machine with you all the time then it will get irritating to carry the larger one - the smaller and lighter the machine, the more likely it is to become something you carry everywhere and thus have whenever you need it (or, to put it another way, if you know you're going to potentially need a laptop at any time while you're out, the eee is going to get much less annoying to carry all day every day).