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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."

13 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. genius. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 5, Funny

    unlimited battery life.. just keep downloading BIOS updates to add half hours to your battery life..

    1. Re:genius. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      With all the money I've sank into that stuff, I calculate that my next game will be coming in at -5 strokes.

    2. Re:genius. by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Buy some more and you needn't play at all anymore!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Oh, 10 pounds sterling, not 10 lbs! by Jon+Abbott · · Score: 3, Funny

    I caught the RSS title of this story and it appeared that Asus is making a 10 pound heavy battery! I thought for a second that luggables were making a comeback!

    --
    Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
    1. Re:Oh, 10 pounds sterling, not 10 lbs! by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh, you gringos and your funny non-metric measurement systems...

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
  3. 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.

  4. MiyEee PC runs just fine by wildem · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:MiyEee PC runs just fine by Shadow-isoHunt · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've got a 1.2ghz p3(latitude c610) that gets 14+ hours on two 66whr batteries w/ a 1500x1050LCD, so color me unimpressed.

      --
      www.isoHunt.com
    2. 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?

    3. 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.

  5. 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.
  6. 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
  7. 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.