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Asus Budget Ultraportable Notebook Sold Sans OS

Posted by timothy on from the utterly-completely-impossible dept.

EconolineCrush writes "Tired of paying the Windows tax on notebooks? Asus's Eee PC 1201T budget ultraportable comes without a traditional operating system and sells for only $380. The 12-inch system has promising specifications, sporting an Athlon Neo processor, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It weighs just 3.2lbs with a 6-cell battery and can even handle light gaming duties. However, battery life in Ubuntu is considerably shorter than it is under Windows. Are there any better options for would-be laptop Linux users?"

7 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. $380? by Reason58 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Didn't they sell for less than that WITH an OS a year ago? Does "netbook" not mean what I think it means (cheap, low power, long battery life, not a desktop replacement)?

    1. Re:$380? by Pojut · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I dunno, man...a 12" screen is really pushing the definition of "netbook". Then again, it is refered to as an ultraportable notebook, not a netbook, so...

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    2. Re:$380? by hansamurai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft convinced the manufacturers that they needed to run Windows, so any kind of ARM support was dropped with that, along with the likelihood of a cheap netbook.

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    3. Re:$380? by smbarbour · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can quote me on this: "The iPad will never reach full market potential as long as people cannot play FarmVille on it."

  2. ExpressGate/Splashtop by zogger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How well does that built in micro OS really work? Seems like for a lot of folks that might be all the "OS" they really need.

  3. Creating something is passe by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Netbooks are passe now that we have iPads. PCs are passe now that we have iPads.

    Actually creating something is passe now that we have iPad. Go and consume, consume, consume.

  4. Re:Or you can get a full laptop for $400 by yelvington · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not sure why you wouldn't get an Inspiron 1545.

    Because it's a pain to haul around. Full-size laptops suck batteries. They're heavy and clumsy. A 15-inch laptop seems like a good idea until you lug it around for three or four hours and then sit down in seat 4B on a CRJ. You can't even get a full-size laptop open on your typical crappy airline seat these days.

    Netbooks are great for portability, but their screen size is too small and the squished keyboards suck.

    The advantage of the 11.6 form factor is that it gives you near-netbook portability, but it's big enough for serious work and there's enough space for normal-size keys.

    I have an Acer 1410 in that size. It's great. It makes my 13-inch Macbook feel like a whale. I much prefer it for traveling. In fact, I prefer it, period.