- 23,800
- Philippines
I'll update this as I gain more experience with the product, so bear with me if this review is a bit unruly.
Just last Christmas, I got an Eee PC on 0% credit... 4GB of flash memory, 512MB of RAM, webcam option and WiFi capability included. The painful removal of an impacted molar (there are shreds of bone still stuck in my gums) and the sore nerves in my neck this gave me, as well as the fifteen pound heft of my laptop bag (laptop, accessories, assorted auto magazines, documents, etcetera) convinced me I needed a smaller mobile internet and work solution. So, after some deliberation, I went for it.
The Eee PC comes with a [sarcasm]whopping[/sarcasm] 800-900 MHz of processing power and a [sarcasm]mind-boggling[/sarcasm] 4 Gigabytes of internal flash memory. It's pre-loaded with Xandros, a Linux-based proprietary OS, which, with all its ancilliaries, applications and such, consume nearly 3 GB of that 4 GB of space.
I'm a Linux-noobie, so customization and application installations and deletions are out of the question at this point. I'm stuck with the woefully primitive built-in games, but the apps are pretty good... the eePC comes loaded with OpenOffice and Mozilla, as well as a host of useful utilities.
In addition to the unit, I've bought a cheap SD card (2GB) for temporary video storage and a simple Logitech USB mouse. For big files, I carry along my WD Passport 160GB portable hard disk.
So... how does it work? Surprisingly, thanks to the simple OS, the eePC starts in around 20-25 seconds... a lot faster than my 1.7 GHz Compaq Laptop running Windows XP. Connecting to the internet is a doodle, though Firefox being Firefox, opening ten or twenty tabs uses up a huge chunk of that 512 MB of RAM, and can slow proceedings down somewhat. The small keyboard takes some getting used to, the screen is squint-worthy until you adjust the text size, and the built-in touchpad just plain sucks (which is why I bought the mouse).
But never has net-surfing on the go been easier. I used to rely on either my K750i cellphone or my PSP for "quickie" internet sessions, or I had to clear a big coffee table to put down my 17" widescreen laptop... but with the eePC, I've got full laptop functionality that fits... errh... on my lap. Video quality is also surprisingly good (except for WMV and Quicktime MOV, both of which suck, anyway), though my SD card is a bit too slow for full-sized AVI files... I'm switching to SDHC in a week or two. The 3.5 hour battery life (I actually tested this) lets me finish about two movies without plugging in.
I've started writing car reviews and articles on it... though the tiny keyboard takes a little acclimatization... but I've still got issues on how to publish PDFs and how to do my Photochoppery... but then, that's what the full-sized Compaq (as of this writing, now two weeks dormant) is for.
I'm in love with this bloody thing. Both my wife and my mother (as well as a few of my other relations and friends) want one now... and I've got it with me nearly all the time. I watch movies with it, surf with it, and write with it. About the only things that could make this thing better is a larger built-in flash drive, about 512 MB more RAM (many Eee PC users swear by the 2GB upgrade) and a built-in GIMP app. Otherwise, it's just perfect.
Just last Christmas, I got an Eee PC on 0% credit... 4GB of flash memory, 512MB of RAM, webcam option and WiFi capability included. The painful removal of an impacted molar (there are shreds of bone still stuck in my gums) and the sore nerves in my neck this gave me, as well as the fifteen pound heft of my laptop bag (laptop, accessories, assorted auto magazines, documents, etcetera) convinced me I needed a smaller mobile internet and work solution. So, after some deliberation, I went for it.
The Eee PC comes with a [sarcasm]whopping[/sarcasm] 800-900 MHz of processing power and a [sarcasm]mind-boggling[/sarcasm] 4 Gigabytes of internal flash memory. It's pre-loaded with Xandros, a Linux-based proprietary OS, which, with all its ancilliaries, applications and such, consume nearly 3 GB of that 4 GB of space.
I'm a Linux-noobie, so customization and application installations and deletions are out of the question at this point. I'm stuck with the woefully primitive built-in games, but the apps are pretty good... the eePC comes loaded with OpenOffice and Mozilla, as well as a host of useful utilities.
In addition to the unit, I've bought a cheap SD card (2GB) for temporary video storage and a simple Logitech USB mouse. For big files, I carry along my WD Passport 160GB portable hard disk.
So... how does it work? Surprisingly, thanks to the simple OS, the eePC starts in around 20-25 seconds... a lot faster than my 1.7 GHz Compaq Laptop running Windows XP. Connecting to the internet is a doodle, though Firefox being Firefox, opening ten or twenty tabs uses up a huge chunk of that 512 MB of RAM, and can slow proceedings down somewhat. The small keyboard takes some getting used to, the screen is squint-worthy until you adjust the text size, and the built-in touchpad just plain sucks (which is why I bought the mouse).
But never has net-surfing on the go been easier. I used to rely on either my K750i cellphone or my PSP for "quickie" internet sessions, or I had to clear a big coffee table to put down my 17" widescreen laptop... but with the eePC, I've got full laptop functionality that fits... errh... on my lap. Video quality is also surprisingly good (except for WMV and Quicktime MOV, both of which suck, anyway), though my SD card is a bit too slow for full-sized AVI files... I'm switching to SDHC in a week or two. The 3.5 hour battery life (I actually tested this) lets me finish about two movies without plugging in.
I've started writing car reviews and articles on it... though the tiny keyboard takes a little acclimatization... but I've still got issues on how to publish PDFs and how to do my Photochoppery... but then, that's what the full-sized Compaq (as of this writing, now two weeks dormant) is for.
I'm in love with this bloody thing. Both my wife and my mother (as well as a few of my other relations and friends) want one now... and I've got it with me nearly all the time. I watch movies with it, surf with it, and write with it. About the only things that could make this thing better is a larger built-in flash drive, about 512 MB more RAM (many Eee PC users swear by the 2GB upgrade) and a built-in GIMP app. Otherwise, it's just perfect.
...but it's so convenient, who cares? This thing has the potential to become the next "must-have" mobile device after the iPOD and the PSP.
, more than I'll need for the Eee PC's intended use.
