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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."

6 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..

  2. 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 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.

  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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