Yesterday, Canada was introduced to the ASUS Eee PC; an ultra mobile notebook computer that runs a custom Linux OS and uses a solid state flash drive (SSD) as its primary storage medium. The unit features a 7 inch screen and a built in webcam including wireless internet connectivity.
Because the ASUS Eee PC has no moving parts, it’s also inherently shock proof. A solid state hard drive and a custom Intel CPU and chipset sips power, allowing the Eee PC to boast anywhere between 2.8 hrs to 3.5 hrs of battery life depending on the model.
Three Flavours for Canada
The EeePC will launch in Canada in the following three flavours…
Missing from this list is the upper end EeePC 8G which features an upgrade of an 8GB Solid State Drive and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. We’re not quite sure when this will show up but based on specs alone, this might be the unit that will feature the Windows XP OS installed. The Eee PC 4G will be what we’ll be checking out today, while the 4G Surf and 2 G will be available by the end of the month.
As of 5:30 PM yesterday, Canada totally sold out so it looks like anyone else who wants one will have to wait. At least you have the rest of this preview to tied you over. At $399 CDN, it’s definitely a better deal than that iPhone Shizzle.
First Impressions
You can tell people how light and small something is, but you never really get the feel till you pick it up. This thing is LIGHT and it’s rather cute, which should appeal to a wide audience. In fact, it’s less than two lbs or 0.92 kg’s if you’re in Canada.
I parked the Eee PC beside my already thin and light 11.1 inch screened ASUS U1F. Now, the U1F is a tiny notebook, but as shown in the picture above, the Eee PC is a magnitude smaller.
As with all small laptops and notebooks, the keyboard seems to be a fine balance between function and fat fingers. The Eee PC manages to fit all necessary keys on the keyboard, however, if you have bigger than normal digits, this won’t be for you.
The touchpad does away with the other button and goes “ala MAC”. The single click might throw some two button mouse users off for the first little bit, but you get over it pretty quick. I don’t know if it was the sample I was playing with or not, but I found the button to be quite difficult to click. It was rather stiff and didn’t always click for me.
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What About That Screen?
Typically, on a notebook, the screen is the most expensive part of the whole unit. The 7 inch screen on the Eee PC was bright and uniformly lit with very good viewing angles. Unfortunately, it uses a really odd 800 x 400 resolution that is neither 16:9 or 4:3. Since most websites these days are made for a 1024 x 768 resolution (including this site), you’ll need to sidescroll quite a bit to view them.
On top of the screen is a 0.3 Megapixel webcam, and flanking the screen left and right are some built in flat panel speakers. Personally, I’d just ditch the speakers (since they won’t sound good anyway) and just give in to a wider resolution screen. We didn’t have a chance to test the camera or listen to the sound, but I would assume that the 0.3 Megapixel camera would be…umm…pixelly and the sound wouldn’t be kicking out the fat beats to Soulja Boy.
Connecting Stuff
Despite the small size of the EeePC, the unit does come rather well endowed with connections.
In order to mitigate the potential tinny sound emitting from the built in speakers, a headphone and microphone jack flanks the left side of the unit along with one of three USB ports and a phone and ethernet jack. A small vent allows for some air circulation inside the fanless interior.
Along the right side of the unit are two more USB ports and the memory expansion slot that supports SD Memory inlcuding high capacity SDHC cards for lots of potential external storage for data and software. The right side also features a VGA port for outputting to an external monitor and a spot to attach a notebook lock so your Eee PC doesn’t go missing. I didn’t have a chance to hook up the VGA port so I don’t know if it’s possible to extract a more useable resolution out of it. What I do know is that if you hate touchpads, you’ll be happy to know that you can use a regular two button USB mouse with it. A regular USB keyboard is also compatible.
Along the right hand rest is a selection of LED indicator lights that tell you whether it is charging, accesing the drive, turned on, or hooked up to a wireless network.
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How Fast Does it Boot?
One of the annoyances of full sized, Windows based laptops is how long they take to boot. With a Linux OS and a flash based drive onboard, we were hoping to see this thing power up in no time flat. Here’s what happened when we pushed the button…
Although it wasn’t “instant” it was pretty quick, especially compared to other notebooks. However, if you don’t shut off the PC and just let it hibernate, it takes nearly half the time (give or take a few seconds) to get going again which is pretty respectable. Not bad.
I’m Booted. Now What?
Once you get into the desktop, you’re treated with over 40 “MS Alternative” programs including FireFox and the whole Google entourage of online apps. If you’re wondering how you’re going to type that memo while on the road and be able to use it back at the office, The Eee PC comes fully equipped with Open Office.
Skype is also included and could be considered one of the killer apps on the Eee PC. In fact, one of the accesories that will be showing up for the Eee PC this fall will be a Skype Handset fashioned specifically to work it.
Although you could probably hook it up to a phone line or an ethernet jack, the Eee PC is best used wirelessly. The Eee PC is equipped with 802.11 b/g and will automatically hook up to any available hotspot easily. I found the utility to be pretty much dummy proof. If a password or SSID is needed, it will ask for whatever is needed instead of bombarding you with a huge configuration screen.
Most impressive is the fact that with all this goodness packed into the Eee PC, it takes up just a little bit over 2 GB’s for pretty much all the applications you’ll ever need in a device such as this. It even has games for crying out loud! If that’s not enough storage, the memory slot does support SDHC, and with SDHC cards going up to around 32 GB’s, there should be plenty of room for a long time. If that’s not enough, you can use one of the USB ports to hook up an external hard drive.
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What’s the Word On the Eee PC?
The Eee PC is one of the most interesting notebook concepts to come out since UMPC’s and Tablets. But unlike those two product categories, the Eee PC does away with the complexities that kept those products from becoming a truly mass marketable product. For starters, the ASUS Eee PC is easy to use, lightweight, and boasts up to 3.5 hrs of battery life under continuous use. In fact, we’re told that this is actually being conservative.
The Eee PC also comes with all the software you’ll ever need installed and ready to go for $399 CDN for the 4G model that we looked at today. Last time I checked Microsoft Office and Windows XP or Vista would cost you about the same…without the hardware. Speaking of hardware, at $399, it is doubtful that you’ll find a regular laptop that could match the quality of build that the Eee PC has. It’s chassis is relatively flex free, and except for the slight issue with the touchpad mouse on the demo unit, it was better than any commodity sub $500 notebook that I’ve ever come across.
The Eee PC is also quick. It boots in under 30 seconds an resumes from sleep or hibernation in about half that. Mucking around with the applications and surfing a few websites, it performed as fast if not faster than some higher end $1000 notebooks. The Linux OS is definitely the right choice for this unit so I’d be curious to see how they will be implementing Windows XP on this unit in a subsequent release.
Despite my praise, the Eee PC isn’t perfect. The screen resolution of 800 x 480 is very odd. It’s neither 4:3 nor 16:9 or even 16:10. This makes surfing your favourite websites tedious because of the constant sidescrolling you’ll have to do. The tiny keyboard will frustrate individuals with above average digits and despite the fact that you can plug in an external keyboard, do you really want to do that? It would totally defeat the small and lightweight size of the unit. Also, with the fairly lightweight processor, heavy applications need not apply.
So who is the ASUS Eee PC built for? I think it’s built for everyone, even the power user. It’s for the power user because sometimes, carrying the huge behemoth 17 inch gaming notebook around might not be practical. The EeePC is so small that you can stick it in the same case and because it boots up in under 30 seconds and is wireless, you can surf the web, the check the email and be done. With the Skype phone accessory coming out by end of year, the Eee PC has the potential to become the ultimate mobile communications platform.
Families would also benefit from having a unit like this on vacation. The games and learning applications can keep the kids busy while the parents can tweak and upload family photos and fire them off via email. It’s also small enough that it can be kept in mom’s purse, or even in the glove box. The small keyboard is also useful for the smaller fingers of children and with the low cost of entry ($299 for the entry level unit), it might be a great starter computer for the kids as well.
With superior ease of use, portability, and battery life, the ASUS Eee PC practically sells itself to the masses that yearn for the simplicity that this product offers. Hopefully we’ll be able to get a hold of one for some long term testing to see just how well a device like this could replace that big ole laptop you “used” to tote around.
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