Phee-roo!

Intro and Overview

I recently bought an Asus eeePC, and it has changed the way I use computers.

Let me run down the specs before I start my review. There are currently a few different configurations at several different price points from $300 to $500. They are all 900mhz Intel Celeron processors clocked at 630mhz with a 7inch screen that has a resolution of 800×480. They have 3 usb ports, a VGA out port, SD card reader, and laptop lock hole. It also includes 802.11g wifi, and built in speakers.

The varying configurations are as follows:
2g Surf: $300
512mb ram (not upgradeable), 2gb solid state drive, 2.75 hour battery

4g Surf: $350
512mb ram (upgradeable to 2gb), 4gb solid state drive, 2.75 hour battery

4g: $400
512mb ram (upgradeable to 2gb), 4gb solid state drive, 3.5 hour battery, webcam

8g: $500
1gb ram (upgradeable to 2gb), 8gb solid state drive, 3.5 hour battery, webcam

Buying Decision and Model Comparison

I purchased the $400 4g model and a 2gb of ram for $42. I think this is the best deal (obviously, since it’s where I put my money). I’ll detail my buying decision for each of the customizable factors. Firstly, hard drive space. 2gb isn’t very much space, but if you are very budget minded and looking for a web surfing email machine, it will work perfect, but you definitely won’t regret going with one of the 4gb models. For informational purposes, I did manage to install Windows XP (nLited), OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird, Miranda, and a few other applications in only 1.61gb of HD space. 4gb is more than enough space for all but the largest applications (Microsoft Office 07 is around 1gb itself, and if you want to use it as a GPS, Microsoft Streets and Trips 08 requires 1gb to 1.5gb of space). Also, don’t forget that it has an SD card reader, you can buy 4gb, 8gb, or 16gb SD cards now, and install applications there (even MS Streets and Trips 08). I felt pretty good about the 4gb hard drive in the end and still like it now.

Next is the memory, the three lower models all have 512mb of ram and the high end 8g has 1gb of ram. I purchased a 2gb memory upgrade along with the laptop, however it did not get here the same time as the laptop, so I got the play with it with only 512mb for a while, and the verdict is that 512mb is plenty of memory. 1gb would be ideal, and 2gb is absolutely overkill. What is important to consider is that because of the solid state hard drive, you are going to want to avoid using a page file if at all possible due to the nature of solid state drive wear. So if your going to be using an application that requires more memory, be sure to buy a 1gb or 2gb memory upgrade with your eeePC or go with the high end model with the 1gb memory installed. During the time that I had only 512mb of memory, I had no problems running with a page file, the only issue I ran into was when I was running Google Earth.

Finally, there is battery life and the included webcam. For me battery life is one of the most important features, especially with a laptop as portable as this one. I carry it everywhere and bust it out every spare moment to kill time or check my favorite web sites and email. If it only lasted an hour and half or so, I’d be pretty sad. Luckily, even with the low end battery, you get 2 hours and 45 minutes on average, and with the bigger battery you get 3 hours and 30 minutes. Almost 25% battery increase is pretty significant and it really affected my buying decision. And there is also the webcam. I’ll admit, as much as I dislike Macs, I was always envious of that little camera they had built in. I wanted it. You may not. However it is awesome having what it essentially a little video phone with me where ever I go.

Review

This review is of the 4g Asus eeePC. It’s size truly must be seen to be believed. It weighs in at around 2.5lbs, slightly less than the MacBook Air and while not thinner, it leaves a much smaller footprint on your workspace at only 9″x6.5″. The keyboard is slightly smaller than your average desktop keyboard, it’s about 8.5″ wide, and it takes some getting used to. After about 30 minutes I could touch type as accurately as on a desktop. The touch pad is tiny, but you honestly won’t notice as you use it.

The screen is a 7 inch 800×480 LCD with backlight. When I first looked at the Asus eeePC I was immediately turned off by the small screen and low resolution, however, I still wanted an ultra portable computer so I looked at it’s competitors. It appears that 800×480 is pretty much the standard, I couldn’t find anything competitive for the price, so I decided I would try it out. And honestly, it’s not that bad. You can’t really multi-task, but word processing, instant messaging, email, and web browsing all work pretty well on the small screen. For the price and size, the screen is fantastic.

The eeePC does not come with Windows, it comes with a custom version of Linux, which seemed fairly functional for the 2 hours I used it, and it probably perfect for the average user. I used nLite to create a custom Windows XP install that cut all the fat following a guide I found here. This got Windows XP installed in just under 600mb. I used an external DVD drive and the whole process was fairly painless. I am told there are ways to install from a USB stick as well if that is what you have.

Windows XP runs great on this little computer. Due to the slimmed down version of XP I installed as well as the ultra quick solid state disk it boots up fast. Like really fast. From off to usable in 30 seconds. Asus provided drivers for all the hardware for Windows including a utility which lets you set the screen to 800×600 and scroll up and down (so you can change it temporarily for windows that are too tall for the 480 resolution).

The little Celeron 900mhz processor is up for most tasks clocked at 630mhz, browsing the web, watching Youtube, video calls with Skype all work well. I’ve only experienced lag when watching high resolution videos. I was able to watch these videos by clocking the processor to 900mhz temporarily, which is totally safe, just a greater drain on the battery. Asus doesn’t provide a utility to do this unfortunately, but it wasn’t hard to find one online.

It’s great being able to take out the laptop whenever I have some down time and boot it up to browse the web. It connects to any wifi hotspot you can find. I was also able to use my HTC Excalibur Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone as a modem to get internet places that don’t have wifi or don’t have free wifi.

Final Thoughts

If your looking for a portable web browsing machine or something just to have with you that can do most computer tasks, this is great. It’s doesn’t have the power for games, high res photo editing, or video editing, so it’s not going to replace a desktop. But at 2lbs, it’s so light to carry everywhere that you can keep with you always. And the 3 hour battery life is really nice as well. I wholly recommend this computer.