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£10 Battery Upgrade For UK Eee PC 900 Owners

Posted by kdawson on from the doing-the-rght-thing dept.

Ken E. writes "Asus has backed down in the face of complaints from UK Eee PC 900 owners about the ultra-portable's low-capacity battery. Confusing statements posted in online reviews led buyers to believe that they would get a larger capacity battery than they actually did — and they weren't happy. Asus has, however, made a conciliatory gesture by extending a £10 high-capacity battery upgrade offer. Mobile Computer has the full announcement, plus quite a bit of background on how this fuss all got started. The batteries will be available June 10 and in the meantime Eee PC owners can download a BIOS update that Asus claims will add half an hour to battery life."

11 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Can you just buy a second battery by hkmarks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Can you just buy a second battery for a discounted price? That would be a not-terribly-crazy alternative.

  2. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by daybot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've no business attachment with Asus, but I have to say I couldn't be happier about the battery life of my Eee PC. Just today, I was using it for more than 3 hours for surfing the net, mplayer music playback, and occasional web video. I still had 30% juice left according to Ubuntu's battery state widget. I guess it's subjective. I looked at the Eee PC but the battery life was a deal-breaker. I know the Eee PC is excellent value and Toughbooks aren't, but Panasonic's ultraportable options of 7 (CF-W7), 9 (CF-T7) or 12 (CF-T5 - discontinued) hours set the benchmark that the subnotebooks will need to meet before I buy one.
  3. Something fishy inthe state of Asus by JohnBailey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems that Asus have been mucking about with the pricing and spec on the 900 in different countries. The higher price for Australian Eee users who want Linux defended as a charge for the extra capacity drive, but the same price for both models elsewhere, the lower battery power in the UK being justified by the two year warranty, who knows what is next.

    Perhaps they do this with all their products, and the Eee is just so carefully watched that it gets much more attention. But it looks like they have a product they haven't quite figured out how to price.

    --
    It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
  4. Kudos to Asus by capnkr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...for hearing what the customers and public are saying, and...

    Paying Attention to us.

    It's a win-win situation; we get happy, they get good street cred - we stay happy, they keep making money.

    Refreshing, when most manufacturers like to backpedal and deny.

    Kudos to Asus.

    --
    "...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
  5. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by quinks · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you want something that's just a step up from an Eee PC, get a Latitude C610. I had a C600 whose hinge broke after ages and got a broken C610 and did a transplant. And being able to have two batteries in there in place of the CD/DVD-drive slot is just badass. The C600 was free and the broken eBay C610 cost $50. Just over 1 kg, 14-inch screen. Some of the stuff is showing its age, like the single USB1 port, but with a PCMCIA card, that's no problem either. But one thing baffles me, I've never been able to get more than 6 hours out of mine (making 12 hours with two batteries), and I've got the slower 1 GHz processor. Any advice in terms of software, hardware, batteries or power configuration? Running Windows XP or Ubuntu? - Tried PowerTop or Intel Drivers or did you change anything in the BIOS?

  6. Reasonable Compromise by blank89 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think they've done a pretty good job in general with the Eee. I would be happy to get 2 hours of battery life on my shitty hp laptop with Linux on it.

  7. Re:Let me guess... by Slashdot+Suxxors · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And what's the price on a brand new one of those?

  8. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And what does that computer weigh, including both batteries?

  9. what we really want to know... by advocate_one · · Score: 3, Interesting

    is just how many of those little beauties they've actually sold... after all, there has to be some real reason why Microsoft suddenly blinked and allowed the OEMs to carry on making devices with XP on them...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  10. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by debatem1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1960 + 410 = 2370g
    eee pc = 990g
    I'm guessing that the eee pc battery weighs ~250g.
    Given that each battery gives the eee pc ~3 hours of battery life, that gives the eee pc about 18 hours of battery life before it exceeds those weight specifications.

  11. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by quinks · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, the original iBook had an advertised battery life of 6 hours. And I'd really like to know shadow-isohunt's OS if he can get 7 hours of battery life. To convert, that's 9.2 Watts of Power that shadow-isohunt's laptop draws. I've never managed to get it much below 11 Watts. What I'd like to know is where he can get 2 less Watt on the same Hardware with mostly the same software.

    For reference, 12 Watt is standard under light use. With a bit of Googling I see that the Eee PC draws up to 22-or-so Watt, with 12 Watt probably also being standard.

    What I'm trying to say is that there's a laptop out there for $300 that's basically got the same CPU speed, as much RAM, twice the screen diagonal, a HDD and draws not one Watt more power than the eeePC. I've anything, then unless you really are looking for a computer exactly as small as the eeePC, which due to the fiddly keyboard I don't always believe, I've already got a superior (but oldish) alternative that runs Windows XP without troubles.