At Last a Portable Laptop That Works!

I'm fed up with clonking great laptops that perform nothing like the whizzy speeds quoted on the label, that give one a hernia every time one picks them up and last just long enough on battery power to plug them into the mains. I'm equally irritated by those stupid PDA's, the touch screen is neat, but you can't do any work on them, at least not since HP stopped making the 720 with its 'proper' keyboard, pity about WINCE.

So I bought one of these Asus EEE PC the other weekend and I'm actually impressed.

Of course mini-laptops are not new, there was the Toshiba Libretto and there still is the JVC Mini-Note, both about the same A5 size, but they both more than make up for the pounds lost by the pounds stolen from the bank account, performance is pretty dire too. At £200(ish) for the Eee, no cruelty to bank accounts is required and it is almost disposable enough not to need a security guard to remind you to pick it up!

The low price is not the only benefit though. While it is never going to make a decent show of playing Quake, it soundly trounces every laptop I've ever tried in real use- start up in under 30 seconds, even OpenOffice starts in less than 10, more than adequate for my system support tasks.

Other benefits, a wireless connection utility that remembers where it has been, so you can connect easily. An SD card reader that handles the new HC format memory cards, essential really the SSD drive is not big. So far the only printer it has not been able to print to has been a nasty Lexmark inkjet, everything else, including network Xerox printers have been automatically configured as soon as it sees them. It even plays nicely with a 19” TFT screen. For Skype fans there is the built in camera and the latest linux version of the software can be downloaded to offer full video phone facilities.

Downsides?
None really.

I suppose for some the small 800x480 pixel screen is an irritation like the half-size keyboard.

Personally I have only three gripes:
The battery only just manages 3 ½ hours, then only if the Wi/Fi is off. A problem eased a little by a 9V car charger from Maplin for my roving needs.

While I like the idiot friendly front end, I'm less impressed with the way the SSD drive is partitioned with 2 drives. The last is easily dealt with by a very full set of instructions on the wiki.eeeuser.com website and now I have OOO 2.4, putty and openvpn installed. Of course if you don't like Xandros based Linux you can replace it with one of half-dozen others, tailored for the small screen, including an Ubuntu version.

The last problem is that our Sales Department have adopted it for a rep, and replacements are about as rare as the proverbial rocking horse droppings. I'm hoping the shocking pink one I've ordered will put them off stealing it again.

Reply from ianplain on Apr 04, 2008 - 07:48 PM

Hi

I too have been looking at these and I know others have as well.
The hacks that are being done to it are amazing as well see http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.ph ... ades#Modem for a few.

Ian

Reply from martyndavies on Apr 04, 2008 - 09:11 PM

Sounds appealing compared to my ageing Dell D800 with its shoulder-breaking weight and almost-but-not-quite fitting into one of those laptop rucksacks. Even the power supply, surely the inspiration for the term "power brick", so very heavy for the 1.5A it pushes out. Still in fairness the Dells are tough machines, and this one has been around the World and even commuted with me by motorcycle, and is still going after 3 years.

Reply from rgower on Apr 04, 2008 - 10:02 PM

At a little over 2lbs including the charger, it has a major bonus when flying- You can add a couple of spare shirts to the carry-on luggage- perfect for Terminal 5

Reply from dibsmft on Apr 04, 2008 - 11:23 PM

I have had one for a while now. Black with 4 MB and Webcam and very sturdily made. Seems to run everything I need, although small it is much easier to use than I expected and above all it is easy to carry. It runs Zoiper quite well but I could not get X-Lite to work. I have had a few chats with video using Skype and more recently Ekiga. I put eeePCLinuxOS live on an 8 Gb SDHC -takes a while to put it on, but loads fast. I think Asus made a good job of getting the size right and it should convince more people that Linux is not that difficult really.
Not bad for $399 Canadian! In some ways it reminds me of the Radio Shack 100 portable that I used to use (a favourite of reporters)... 32 kb memory and it could handle the whole of the student registration for our department long before general registration became computerized. The wireless on the Asus is about the easiest to connect I have found and it has a very good range and is stable even with a weak signal.

Reply from satphoneguy on Apr 05, 2008 - 12:29 AM

i bought one of these recently for $299 US. i love it. it is in my backpack all the time ready to go. it has become my primary emailing and blog checking system.

the only ones any of my local stores can keep in stock are pink; all the other colors sell out the day they come in.

Reply from dibsmft on Apr 05, 2008 - 11:39 AM

I got mine after trying to carry my large Toshiba laptop in my backpack and finding that (a) it was too heavy and (b) too fragile. The small size of the eee makes it much easier to protect and less likely to get damaged. Here, there is only one local store that has any and it sells them at a premium, the $350 model at $399 and the $399 model at $449. At least we pay the same by mail order as US list now that the US dollar is on par. UK prices seem to be inflated as usual.

Reply from gray on Apr 05, 2008 - 03:29 PM

I have one too ! Amazing value and it far exceeded my expectations in terms of performance and function.

Skype works well (with video) and I am plan to install a SIP application shortly. Has anyone got XLite to run on it ?

Reply from ianplain on Apr 05, 2008 - 03:52 PM

OK OK OK, I have finally been convinced. and have just got back from picking up a green one.

Ian

Reply from x-console on Apr 06, 2008 - 09:05 AM

how do you eePC owners find the battery life?

Reply from gray on Apr 06, 2008 - 09:26 AM

Battery life is not stunning if you use the full features (plenty of screen brightness + wifi on)

Definitely under 2hrs for me. The book says 3.5 which I guess may be possible with wifi off, sound off, no USB devices connected & running a text based application. There are some higher capacity batteries starting to appear on ebay.

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/hardware_power_ ... ?s=battery

Reply from dibsmft on Apr 06, 2008 - 09:44 AM

The battery life is better than my Toshiba and with on ethernet (no wifi) and a lowish screen brightness will keep going for about 3.5 h but on wifi it is reduced to a bit over 2 h. That is still quite a bit better than my Toshiba laptop. I have not managed to get X-Lite to run on the installed Xandros (loads and immediately closes) but Zoiper works fine.

Reply from rgower on Apr 06, 2008 - 12:34 PM

I get about 3 hours on average with an SD card permanently plugged in the side, which is a little better than the extended battery I used to have on my JVC. Less if Wi/Fi is used continuously. I do not leave any USB bits in and have disabled the camera and speakers.

The charger is a plug top device a little bigger than a mobile phone charger, but with miles of string. It takes a little over 2 hours to recharge.

Maplin does a multi-voltage universal charger that can be used in the car (Plugs in to the cigarette lighter), so I can charge on the road.

Reply from dean on Apr 09, 2008 - 07:43 PM

I wonder how long it will be before they bolt in a 3G modem. Insert a £10/month PAYG data SIM (3 and Voda both have good value offerings) and hit the road.

It's a fine line these days between mobile phone and laptop.

Reply from ianplain on Apr 09, 2008 - 08:11 PM

Hi

sort of like this . http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/h ... -asus.html

Ian

Goto page 1, 2  Next

Voip User Forum Index » Cafe VoIP » Voipbucks