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Feb 13

Asus eeePC (Sub Notebook) Review

General, Mobile Add comments

The other week I picked up an ASUS eeePC Linux based laptop from, believe or not, Toys ‘R’ Us, for an incredible £220 GBP ($429 USD). I have recently started commuting to London on the train with around a 40 minute journey time, so for me this was a purchase that would save my sanity and hopefully my (considerably more costly) MacBook Pro from being stolen. It’s small enough to have on one knee so don’t worry about a table and I’m currently using it to surf, code in Ruby, read books and watch videos.

The strange thing is it seems to be marketed at kids (Toys ‘R’ Us are one of the few places you can pick it up), it contains some educational software and a dumbed down interface (more on how to change that later). Once you boot into advanced mode, it’s a very capable machine with a familiar looking interface (KDE). So without further ado, here’s some more detailed info.

Asus eee PC

Hardware

This thing is tiny. The LCD is a mere 7 inches, weight is under 1kg. In this shell you can find an Intel 900Mhz processor with hardware accelerated graphics (runs Quake 3 fine), 512MB RAM and a 4GB solid state hard drive (which I have expanded using the built in memory card reader). There’s 3 USB slots for external drives or devices, and of course 802.11b/g WiFi. Battery life is around 3.5 hours.

Asus eee PC - OS

Software

It comes pre-bundled with a lot of good stuff, and no crap. This includes Open Office, Adobe Reader, Firefox and Thunderbird, Skype, Messenger (Pidgin), Anti-Virus, Media Players and converters, eBook readers, image editors, and general utilities for doing most of the things you need to, I was actually suprised at the collection of things it comes with, even compared with OS X. They seem to have identified a lot of common tasks even if some of this is hidden away in the realms of command line programs. I’m going to attempt to run the Flex SDK on there, I think Eclipse might be pushing it but Linux has its fair share of decent text editors.

Operating System

Pre-installed is a branch of Xandros Server 2.0 (which is in turn based on Debian). This means you can use something like Synaptic (sudo synaptic on the Terminal) to install applications and games from the internet. It also means you can generally find help on advanced topics on Xandros or Debian forums. You can install Windows XP from external CD drive or memory stick, but I love the fact that my OS is taking a mere 30MB of ram when idle, and I’ve been wanting to learn a little bit more bash since I last dabbled as a kid. Alternatively there’s an Ubuntu branch.

Help and Community

The eeePC has a thriving community including a Wiki and forum. On there you can find introductory tutorials to Linux, to gaming, installing other operating systems, using mobile phones as modems and so on. There’s something about the little device that seems give its users an affinity with it, and that’s reflected by the sheer amount of blog, forum and wiki content you can find out there. Ease of use is never going to be on par with OS X or Windows, but it’s really not going to affect you unless you are a power user, and then you deserve it. ;)

Conclusions

So as you’ve probably guessed I’m really happy with this. It’s definitely not gonna make a dev machine (unless your an old skool hacker), but it will let you do 90% of what you need when you’re away from your home or office and in my case it’s forcing me to learn some new languages. My recommendation is run out and get one today. :)


28 comments

  1. § Scott Janousek said on : 13/02/08 @ 18:55
    I find it interesting you picked it up at Toys'r'us!
  2. § Richard Leggett said on : 13/02/08 @ 21:12
    Haha, yeah actually I did my research and found it was the cheapest (even when including online only retailers). Also I walk right past it every day now so it was a done deal, I resisted the urge to find out what Legos was up to now ;)
  3. § zarate said on : 14/02/08 @ 09:41
    It's out of stock right now in Toys'R'Us : ) I find quite impressive the video with it running Ubuntu with fully 3D desktop:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZRP8fPcaSzI

    So cool!
  4. § Richard Leggett® Email said on : 14/02/08 @ 09:44
    I'd ignore what the website says, it said out of stock when I went but they had 7 delivered the previous day.
  5. § David said on : 17/02/08 @ 09:15
    Funny, I bought mine for the train ride as a replacement for my MBP as well. I'm having problems with the keyboard though, it's hard for me to type fast - fat fingers I guess. And yes, this is a definite must buy, even if you already have a normal sized laptop.
  6. § Margret said on : 20/02/08 @ 03:11
    Pretty cool machine if you ask me!! i just wish it had more colors to it, something that matches my purse or shoes.
  7. § Justin Lee said on : 20/02/08 @ 15:50
    I'm a UI designer in Eee PC project.
    I'm so happy to know that you like the machine.
    Do you have any suggestion for next generation Eee PC?
  8. § Richard Leggett® Email said on : 20/02/08 @ 16:12
    Hi Justin, great to hear from you. I'd definitely appreciate a couple more inches on the screen without making the whole thing any larger. I think the UI is perfect for those not wanting to get too far into Linux, but I would provide a way of getting into Synaptic package manager, and the add/remove programs didn't work on my machine, but I'm running in advanced mode so that's no problem.

    One thing I had to do via the command line was stop the machine from automatically logging in, there didn't seem to be a way to do this from the control panel (the option was there but it didn't work). I think the addition of Gimp would be a good thing, the drawing applications that come with it are rather limited when you need to alter it slightly.

    One strange thing is that the keyboard seems to get smaller towards the right. I wonder if that could be made slightly even. But considering the small screen size and resolution, the UI is very usable, it seems well thought-out and responsive, congratulations. The shift towards giving web-applications the same importance as installed applications is especially insightful. :)
  9. § Justin Lee said on : 20/02/08 @ 17:29
    Thanks you!
    I'll bring those comments to office and discuss with other team members.
    :)
  10. § missbee said on : 02/03/08 @ 15:07
    They do it in 5 different colours - black, white, blue, pink, green.
  11. § Jase said on : 17/03/08 @ 14:02
    Picked up a couple of units @ PC World this morning. They are well sweet!
  12. § Colin said on : 19/03/08 @ 18:43
    anyone sussed out how to use symbols like @ ?? and what do you write in path prompt when trying to set a network printer via my PC and wireless router?
  13. § Ned Star said on : 24/03/08 @ 08:16
    I just love when the computer is so small. I'm a big fan of PDAs and this is something even better because I can choose the OS and it's still small in size.
  14. § Iain said on : 07/04/08 @ 14:40
    Hi Richard - I was thinking about getting one of these, as like you I'm about to have a longer commute into London. My question - does it get annoying to not be able to develop Flash on it? I can imagine getting annoyed that there's some work I could get done if was on a proper notebook.
  15. § Richard Leggett® Email said on : 07/04/08 @ 18:20
    Hi Iain,

    I don't tend to do my Flash development out of the office as I use a separate PC workstation for it and the code is generally not externally accessible (I'd have to manually copy it to my laptop for the commute which is a little too much effort). But I have found myself using my Mac more often for iPhone and Mac development recently, given that I can't experiment with this stuff on the eee. Having said that I'd use the eee for everything else, including browsing, continuing to learn Ruby and so on. In short the eee would not be my pick as a development machine, only as an extra, ultra portable machine that I use when I know I'll be on my dev station at the other end of the journey. It's a strange fit, but I'm still glad I have one.
  16. § simon scarrow said on : 13/04/08 @ 13:22
    I bought one yesterday. Neat machine and it had no problem reading a word file although the pagination was way out and I'm not sure I would trust it with a novel sized file. Your comment on the battery life seems way off my findings. On a full charge, the battery meter reports 80% and I've timed it to run for a little over an hour with no heavy usage and the battery reading is 30%, so it looks like 90 mins tops. Not too impressive if you have a two hour commute!
  17. § simon scarrow said on : 13/04/08 @ 13:22
    PS do you know where I can get an address book/diary/planner program to run on this?
  18. § Richard Leggett® Email said on : 13/04/08 @ 15:38
    Hi Simon,

    Check out http://pim.kde.org/ hopefully that can be installed easily, perhaps via the Synaptics program that comes with the OS. With regards to battery life, I turn off wireless and dim the screen, and I was mostly running one program at a time, usually PDF reader, I also turn off the Anti-Virus program when I know I'm not connecting to another computer/the internet, since it's been in use a while now, I get less than I had previously, 3.5 may have been a bit optimistic but I'm sure I got well over 2 hours with the above usage. There's something extra to note about battery life... the indicator does not update after it comes out of sleep unless you reboot, so it may show 10% even if it is 100% charged.
  19. § another iain said on : 15/04/08 @ 00:18
    i love the look of this machine, i had a play with one as well and it ooks perfect but i want a big SSDrive say 32 gb im thinkng, anyone know what size it is and where to get one from???
  20. § Creative Pimp said on : 20/04/08 @ 20:42
    Hi

    I bought an 8bg from memorybits.co.uk with a USB as most SD card readers do not take SDHC for £28 inc. shipping (5 days). They also sell 16gb for £45 and will propbaly do 32gb soon if not already.

    I like me Eee PC, but want to know where to get more free software to download.

  21. § Chris Tandy said on : 24/04/08 @ 17:45
    I have just got a 4gb one and am finding more out about it - i intend to use it to transfer pics from my camera to a portable hard drive whilst on safari. What i have noticed is there is a hatch underneath is that where the memory is and is it possible to physically upgrade the internal memory like a lap top?
  22. § icklealien said on : 25/04/08 @ 22:42
    i bought an 8gb sd card class 4 sdhc from play.com for £14.99, i also have 2gb of ram which i bought from crucial.com which if i remember right it was £28, which just goes in the slot which is under the memory hatch,(just screws and your in). got my eeepc 701 running xp.
  23. § Jon Grubb said on : 05/05/08 @ 11:30
    I'm looking to become more familiar with Ubuntu. Do you reckon it's worth investing in an Eee PC for this purpose or should I just go dual boot on my existing laptop?
  24. § c. lee said on : 08/05/08 @ 20:16
    www.thefreecountry.com has great free Linux & windows software.

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360049574710&ih=023&category=31534&ssPageName=STORE:PROMOBOX:NEWLIST
    sell a converter that allows 2 ps/2 devices to use a usb port, £2.

    the www.opera.com/products/desktop opera web browser can adjust pages to fit the screen width & can instantly adjust the screen magnification to whatever you like. it supports bittorrent, imports IE/Firefox bookmarks & loads pages quicker. it also has mouse gestures where you right-click & move the mouse eg. go back or forward a page.
  25. § battery Email said on : 10/05/08 @ 01:55
    We offer genuine factory direct and 3rd party replacement laptop batteries, or you can also select from our inventory of pre-owned laptop or notebook batteries. Place an order before 2:30PM EST and your laptop battery or notebook battery will usually ship the same day. We also carry a large inventory of laptop parts and accessories. Click here to browse our laptop parts inventory.
    http://www.batterylaptoppower.com
  26. § becky Email said on : 12/05/08 @ 08:20
    Bit late to the party but I just picked up a lime green 4GB model yesterday. Sorry to say I hate linux so the first thing I did was to install windows XP on it. It was a smooth transition. I love the way Asus support XP by providing clear install instructions and a disc with driver installs - even the disc allowed for auto install of all drivers with a couple of clicks. I will be giving my impressions of it on my blog sometime later today.
  27. § laptop battery Email said on : 27/05/08 @ 08:39
    thanks,How about not keeping your laptop battery plugged in all the time. Take it out when you are using the power cord.
  28. § Steve Elliott Email said on : 29/05/08 @ 23:26
    A techie friend of mine suggests that you need to almost run the battery flat once a week to get the most out of it. Not tried it myself though.

    I haven't seen an eeePC in the flesh yet. PC Format mag is raving about them, although their review of the second generation wasn't quite as good as for the existing model.

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