Asus EEE

[Treefrog]

I like the sound of this - a small, light, sub-laptop with solid state HD and running under Linux. Not designed for DX10 games, etc, but for e-mails, a bit of surfing, WP docs, etc on the move.

From Google (http://www.google.co.uk/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=asus%2Beee&meta=&btnG=Google+Search).

Some nice pics (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829).

Opinions?

[semi-pro waster]

Looks pretty good to me, not going to break any speed records but then it was never designed to. The screen would be a little bit small for me to use often but then I don't have much call for a sub-notebook at the moment. :)

[Zirax]

Isn't another manufacturer doing something similar? I remember reading about something similar a while back. For people travelling around this thing is ideal. I have a 17" monster laptop if I know I am going to be somewhere for a while, but at that price it will fill a nice hole.

It strikes me as the alternative to a 12" mac. Even the mac G4 12" notebooks are wayyyy overpriced. Yes they are good, but try getting one at a reasonable price. If this thing can play video's well enough then its on a winner. Simply get a 250gb 2.5" drive in a usb enclosure and you will have everything you could need on the move.

edit:- looks like the 1:1 $ to £ exchange rate is still holding up :angry:
http://www.eeeuser.com/ - good review

It looks as if they are coming out in the US on Nov1st. Isn't Leo heading out there then?

[Stan_Lite]

I've been toying with the idea of a sub notebook for a while.
Like Matt, I have a 17" monster (fnar) which is fine for taking out to the rig as I only carry it for a couple of days every month but something small and light would be nice for shorter journeys like meets etc. I'm currently using an Asus W3A with a 14.1" screen for this which is quite light but I fancy something around the 11"-12" range for ultra portability.

It would only be for web browsing, e-mail, the odd document and listening to music (actually, I wonder what the sound would be like on that - the sound on the Asus I'm using is barely audible even through Sennheiser cans or desktop speakers). Video would be a bonus but not essential as I don't watch a lot of movies (not mainstream movies anyway ;)).

I have a 100Gb HDD in a 2.5" caddy for my music and stuff so the SSD sounds good - should be fast and pretty quiet.

[Zirax]

I've been toying with the idea of a sub notebook for a while.
Like Matt, I have a 17" monster (fnar) which is fine for taking out to the rig as I only carry it for a couple of days every month but something small and light would be nice for shorter journeys like meets etc. I'm currently using an Asus W3A with a 14.1" screen for this which is quite light but I fancy something around the 11"-12" range for ultra portability.

It would only be for web browsing, e-mail, the odd document and listening to music (actually, I wonder what the sound would be like on that - the sound on the Asus I'm using is barely audible even through Sennheiser cans or desktop speakers). Video would be a bonus but not essential as I don't watch a lot of movies (not mainstream movies anyway ;)).

I have a 100Gb HDD in a 2.5" caddy for my music and stuff so the SSD sounds good - should be fast and pretty quiet.

It has a headphone socket so you should be ok. If you are in a hotel rooms a lot of them have started having audio inputs on the tv so you can hook up your ipod

[LeperousDust]

I love my little Dell M1210 XPS. Perfect balance between power and usability for me. When i'm home i just hook it up to another screen use both then, along with bluetooth mouse and sometimes but rarely nowdays due to laziness bluetooth keyboard. Plug speakers into the ports and it's my stand alone PC too. I've given up with PC's for now, hauling them to and from two address for wasn't for me, and buying another wasn't really an option although cost a fair whack it's basically my only PC/laptop now.

For me the upgrades i'm looking at down the line are, more memory (only have 1g paid more for a faster processor at the time) at least 2g in this machine may help vista out a lot. When SSD prices fall i'd like to replace the internal 160g HD with something 64g (yeah when prices fall i said :p). Maybe add a bluetooth remote that fits in the express slot for when i use it for movies hooked up to the TV (or put a TV tuner in there or a USB slot).

[Stan_Lite]

It has a headphone socket so you should be ok. If you are in a hotel rooms a lot of them have started having audio inputs on the tv so you can hook up your ipod

There's a headphone socket on this one too but the sound is still pants :p
I'm wondering if it's an Asus thing or whether it's just this model. I'm running Ubuntu on it now but I can't remember what the sound was like under Windows - I seem to remember it was rubbish then too. Maybe just a crap sound module :dunno:

The Asus motherboards I have on my desktops have excellent onboard sound but this laptop doesn't.

[LeperousDust]

My headphone socket is awesome BigStan, i can even pump 5.1 through my 3 3.5mm jacks or use two stereo connections and a mic. It's more than enough to power nice big speakers...

[Stan_Lite]

My headphone socket is awesome BigStan, i can even pump 5.1 through my 3 3.5mm jacks or use two stereo connections and a mic. It's more than enough to power nice big speakers...

Yeh, Dell sound is a lot better. My M1710 has excellent sound - it's even reasonably loud through the built in speakers (tinny but loud), attach it to headphones or a decent set of speakers and it's ace.
Pity I didn't take it with me this time. I deliberately left it at home so that I would be forced to use this one with only Ubuntu on it - the only way I'm going to learn is to force myself to use it :o

I did look at the M1210 as a possible lightweight traveling machine, simply because the M1710 is such a nice machine but haven't really looked into it too seriously yet as I won't be in a position to buy one for a little while.

[kaiowas]

Not sure about that Asus. If they're aiming for $250 then you can guarantee that it'll be £250 by the time it's on the shelves here. Unfortunately you can buy a proper laptop for £300 making this a bit pointless.

Can help but wonder what they're playing at with the solid state storage either. They've cut corners all over to keep the cost down then gone for solid state sotorage when a conventional drive would have ben so much cheaper.

Personally I'd rather have a bigger screen and conventional HDD for the same money.

[LeperousDust]

I did look at the M1210 as a possible lightweight traveling machine, simply because the M1710 is such a nice machine but haven't really looked into it too seriously yet as I won't be in a position to buy one for a little while.

The M1330 can be had now for around £700-800 with 2ghz 2gig 8400gm and the usual. Excellent bargain for the ultra portable. Well when Dell actually get around to shipping it...

[Zirax]

El regamondo
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/10/29/asus_prices_eee_pc_for_us/

$300-400. Now 150 wing wangs is a good price! Not gonna happen at that price, but if the EU has them a lot cheaper than us then I may venture into a shop when I'm next in France.

[Mark]

Who knows on the price. :)

But LOL at 'wing wangs' ;D ;D ;D

[Mark]

Not sure about that Asus. If they're aiming for $250 then you can guarantee that it'll be £250 by the time it's on the shelves here. Unfortunately you can buy a proper laptop for £300 making this a bit pointless.
Just noticed OcUK are showing them for £190+VAT pre-order, which is a little better than we thought. A typical £300 laptop is certainly not likely to be thin and light, so it has a market segment.

[Zirax]

Just noticed OcUK are showing them for £190+VAT pre-order, which is a little better than we thought. A typical £300 laptop is certainly not likely to be thin and light, so it has a market segment.

Was just going to post about this. Its not as painful as first thought, but still it can be got for £150 in the states. Also that comes with 512mb ram. Even linux would chug. If you want to watch films etc then really upping it to 2gb would be an ideal addon at an extra £40.

[Mark]

Linux will be very happy with 512MB unless you're doing really demanding stuff, and that laptop isn't designed for that anyway.

I'm currently using 128MB on one of my boxes, and close on 100MB of that is taken by server stuff. That box doesn't run a GUI though so give that 100MB back to the GUI.

[Stan_Lite]

Necropost time.

I bought one of these today and it's pretty cool. I got it from a shop here in Newcastle for £220.

Haven't had much of a chance to play with it properly yet but I'm off to Egypt tomorrow. I dare say we'll be quiet again this trip so I'll have something to keep me occupied whilst I'm away.

One thing I'm happy about is that rdesktop is installed as standard so it's a piece of cake remotely accessing my Windows machines either over the LAN or over the web :cool:

Here's a piccy with my hand next to it for scale:

http://www.bigstan.net/Images/DSCF2056.JPG

I was concerned whether the screen might be too small to be much use but it's fine.

[Daz]

Damn that's small. I'm dead tempted by ones of those - like you say, great little remote control box and good little web browsing device. Could cludge my own Linux install on there too.

Hmm.

Thanks for the update :thumbsup: Let us know how the battery life is :)

[Stan_Lite]

Let us know how the battery life is :)

Will do.

The OS on there is ok - it does the basics, which is what you'd be doing with the thing after all and has some handy features. I've thought about chucking Ubuntu on to it but it looks a bit fiddly. Might consider putting XP on it as there are instructions for doing so in the manual and there are XP drivers on the installation disc.

[Matblack]

Strikes me as not a bad crack at a proper portable computer which can be used for prettymuch everything I need a portable computer for outside of a games machine or media centre. My only real concern is the size of the screen, maybe we need to be looking at a new approach to displays maybe OLED will allow a screen thin enough to roll up or something or connect the thing to a heads up glasses type arrangement?

MB

[Mark]

Roll up screens are already in the works. There's talk of a mobile phone being launched with one.

Unfortunately they're currently B&W only and the refresh rate is, shall we say, ponderous.

[Stan_Lite]

It's pretty much a compromise.
It's smaller than most laptops so less bulky to carry around, it's also rumoured to have up to 4 hours battery life (I'll test that) so you shouldn't need to carry the adapter on short outings. This means you could happily take it down to Starbucks or the pub to use the wifi some of them have available without having to lug around loads of kit. It comes with its own little bag thing to protect it too.

It's also bigger than a PDA/smartphone and has a proper keyboard (the keys are small but perfectly usable) so is a lot more user friendly.

The screen is small but not as bad as you may think. Only slight problem is the low resolution, meaning a fair bit of scrolling etc - a small notebook mouse with a scroll wheel comes in handy.

I'll be testing it out in a variety of different situations and will update as and when I've had a proper play.

[Mark]

Certainly be interested to hear the results. I have a new laptop now which I'll use most of the time but one of these may be worth a look - though I'll suffer from the small screen more than most.

[LeperousDust]

What is the resolution, because i don't think i could do less than what I've got now on my tiny (well it was till that think came out :p) Dell (1280*800) 1280 isn't so bad fits everything across just 800 seems restricting occasionally... I find myself connecting my external monitor up more often than not to give me some room!

[Dr. Z]

They can run Ubuntu or even Windows XP with no fuss :)

I have been looking at these with some interest for a few months now, not that I can afford to buy one at the moment anyway :)

[Stan_Lite]

What is the resolution, because i don't think i could do less than what I've got now on my tiny (well it was till that think came out :p) Dell (1280*800) 1280 isn't so bad fits everything across just 800 seems restricting occasionally... I find myself connecting my external monitor up more often than not to give me some room!

Resolution is 800x480 :D

[LeperousDust]

Resolution is 800x480 :D

Jesus wept!

[Stan_Lite]

Jesus wept!

It is only a 7" screen remember. I can read webpages quite easily from 6 feet away.
I could handle the resolution being a bit higher - but too much and you would need to have your nose against the screen to read text.