[10/27/07 2:07am edit: had to switch the galleries to flickr as the self-hosted one uses up way too many resources]
[10/26/07 3:44pm edit: more pictures can be found here]
Click here to view the first impressions gallery (more pictures coming tomorrow)…
Let me begin by summarizing the Eee PC in four words: It’s worth the wait.
Four months ago, ASUS announced the Eee PC- a tiny, affordable, full-featured laptop. It was music to our ears- the ultimate portable gadget. Most of us have spent those last four months “guestimating” on when they would be released- and tormenting ourselves with excitement over speculation. To be fair, four months is actually pretty fast in getting a product to the market- much faster than many recent tech items. The Eee PC 4G was recently released in Taiwan on October 16th, and will be launching in the United States in the coming days.
Thanks to the folks at ASUS, an Eee PC arrived at my doorstep this morning. It was love at first sight.
The first shock came while opening the mailing package. Inside was the Eee PC product box. It was small- about the same size as a motherboard box. For some reason, I expected it to be much bigger.
Soon, I had the ASUS Eee PC 701 4G in my hand. It’s tiny. Good tiny. Tiny as in: take two DVD cases and put them on top of each other and the result is just slightly smaller than the Eee PC. From front to back, the Eee PC is about the size of a Nestle Crunch candy bar and from left to right it’s about 1 1/3 Nestle Crunch candy bars. I put the Eee PC in my shoulder bag today and barely noticed it in there, unlike how i always can notice when i carry my current 12″ notebook.
Also in the box were guidebooks, an AC adapter, and a case. I haven’t had a chance to read the guidebooks yet, so I’ll get back to you on that later. A quick glance did show that they include instructions for installing Windows XP, instructions for doing a system restore, and a CD with the manual and Windows XP drivers on it. The AC adapter is great- small enough that you can take it with you without taking up much space. But even better: the plug prongs are both small (instead of the one small one large variety) so you can plug it in an electrical outlet upside down if needed. The case is a form fitting neoprene sleeve- something that I would have actually paid extra money for as an accessory. It’s nice quality.
The best way to describe the Eee PC would be: proportional. The keyboard, screen, and touchpad all seem to be the proper size. Nothing is too big or too small. I’m not saying that a larger screen size on it wouldn’t be a welcome addition for some- but the screen is great how it is. The keyboard is not that much of a switch from typing on my Dell 710m laptop, just a little smaller. The touch pad is nice as well. I’m not too fond of the tightness of the physical mouse button(s)- i know that sounds ridiculous- but the button is a little tough to push down and it makes a loud clicking noise. I’m sure that over time it will soften up- and besides- I tend to do the tap-on-the-touchpad for a click anyway. By the way- the physical button is both a left and a right mouse button depending on which side you press it at.
Turning on and off the Eee PC is shockingly fast. It turns on in about 20-22 seconds and off in about 9 seconds.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous. It can go from very dim to very bright with many settings in between. I’m interested to see how the different brightness levels affect battery life. Whites are especially vivid and crisp. The screen is definitely high quality and makes the Eee PC a pleasure to use. The resolution is good as well. There’s enough screen real estate for almost all websites to work perfectly. PDF files look great on the Eee PC as well, so long as you view one page at a time. If you try to view pages side by side, it is still readable, but the text is a bit too small for me.
Of course, to the left and right of the screen are the rather large speakers. Unfortunately, if you turn the Eee PC against light properly, you can see that there are only speaker openings at the top- the bottom is just decor. Still, the sound quality is good- they are your typical laptop speakers.
The Eee PC comes loaded with software- Firefox, OpenOffice, Pidgin, etc. The Linux interface is really nice- very polished. There are plenty of different settings to play with as well, and four different “themes” for the Eee PC interface. I was surprised not to see a “terminal” application- in fact, I still can’t even find the Linux terminal. It must be around there somewhere…
The wireless networking card is great. It found many more networks than my other wireless devices can find, and the range appears to be superb. The network manager too is solid and works well, remembering the networks that you connect to often.
I’ve shown the Eee PC to several of my friends in person and all of the responses are always positive, even from people who are not extremely interested in technology. People are impressed with the size and functionality, and sold once they hear the price range. Many people guess that it is much more expensive.
There are, however, several quirks. The battery indicator only shows the percentage left- but does not estimate the time left. I suppose after I use it for a while, I’ll have my own idea of how much time is left, so it’s not too big of an issue. The clock in my system tray is in 24h mode rather than 12h am/pm. Not sure if I just missed a setting, maybe? Also, there is no ~` key in the top left of the keyboard. [Edit: The ~` key is oddly placed to the right of the esc key.] Granted, in all the years of computing I’ve probably used that key only once or twice. What makes it odd on the Eee PC, however, is that the “1″ key is where the ~` key normally is, so i’ve been hitting “2″ instead of “1″ accidentally. [edit: Also, F1 is not directly next to Esc.] No big deal- just a little something to get used to.
Ultimately, the Eee PC meets all of my personal expectations and actually exceeds many as well. I’m really pleased with the size of the Eee PC along with the high quality screen. The software interface is also easy to operate. I’m excited to explore further the features of this device in an upcoming full review, where I will focus on battery life, benchmarks, wireless ranges, and many other things.
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Congrats on your eee! Now I’m even MORE excited to get my hands on one.
Thanks for the update!
Great post! Two questions; is this the US Eee you’ve received, or did they send you one of the Taiwanese models? Mostly asking this queston based on what language the manuals etc are.
Second question.. how loud is the keyboard when typing?
Thanks!
Wait, no ~ at all? I hope there’s a way to make one somehow, given that I actually DO use it on a regular basis. And the lack of terminal is a bit ominous as well. Any SSH client built in?
did you get this for free?
if so, are you going to give it away in a contest :O
Wait, the ~ is next to F1.
Dave, there is a ~, it’s ABOVE the 1 key; I ghad the same worrying thought til I checked out the gallery
.
Btw Ant, in the coming gallery photos, can we have a size comparison of it next to Nestle Crunch bars?
Whoops, my bad, fixed. This is the US Eee.
aelfin: you caught me right before i was about to eat the crunch, good timing! Let me grab my camera….
Crunch pic is up, along with dvds!
i can’t wait anymore~~~~~~~
Lol, awesome, thanks! *toddles off to shop to quash sudden desire to eat Crunch*
Congrats!
Great First Impression review! Hard to imagine what a “comprehensive” review will be like.
Thanks for the review! I can’t wait for this thing.
Does the built in video cam work when running the bundled skype application? I heard that it does not.
Cool – Now what happens when you load another OS, like Ubuntu for example? You do have to choose the file system for flash drives on the install, and partition your home on it’s own and any cache on it’s own, etc. A how to on doing this would be fun. I would love a full Ubuntu capable machine that was this size. Hmmm, I wonder if the drivers that Ubuntu has would all work out of the box?
Of course, maybe with dual boot, we could also run Xubuntu (a lighter Ubuntu).
Oh I have one question. Does changing the screen light settings involve pushing a keyboard button or is it software realated?
danny: i hear it does not. I’ll check to make sure. I can say that in the webcam application, the video looks great.
Groklaw: There’s a whole section of the manual on how to install WinXP that i bet would be perfect for figuring out how to install any OS.
Yuki: Keyboard buttons (specifically fn+f3/f4)
I am so jealous now. Does anyone know when and where to buy in Vancouver ,BC? Hate waiting…
PS – How robust is the email client (does it do IMAP)? Please show a few pictures of a working Email Screen, hopefully doing IMAP with 2 accounts active, and reading one email in one picture, writing email in another picture.
Also – can you hook up an external USB CD/DVD burner, and boot a live CD (Knoppix, or Puppy Linux, or Damn Small Linux, or even a Ubuntu Live CD).
Then boot the LIMP live linux cd, and view a DVD movie with it, (you might have to use an older version of LIMP if the newer one does not work for you).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/limp-vkk-ver1/
How did u get this early purchase?
are they sending any image of the xandros os? any recovery disk or image in case crashes? or if we install another OS then decide to go back to default. thanks
There is review of the eee on Laptop ( http://laptopmag.com/Review/Exclusive-First-Review-Asus-Eee-PC-701.htm ). Unfortunately they say the $399 is for the 4G.
Great mini review. I’m now more excited to get it than ever.
But I’ll be waiting a while… for the 8GB Model.
To piggyback on “Groklaw’s” comment about hooking up an external dvd drive, what are the chances of the Eee playing dvd’s?
I’ve read its very easy to flip to a “normal” kde desktop from the settings menu. Have you tried that and can you get terminal/ssh etc from there?
If there isn’t an Xterm-like program, to get to a console you can try hitting ctrl-alt-F1 and hopefully it will switch you to a console. Then, to get back to X-Windows, hit alt-F7 or maybe a different F key if that doesn’t work.
Finite-
Unfortunately, ctrl-alt’s don’t work.
However, fareast’s method in forum post 6345 does work– go to the file manager and press ctrl+t
Now i’ve got a console!
If you want to use the Linux terminal, “Ctrl + T” or “File Manager(檔案管ç†å“¡) -> Tools(工具) -> Terminal(開啟主控å°ç¨‹å¼)”.
I wonder why ctrl-alt-F1 doesn’t work. But it’s great that you’ve got a console now! So, any chance you want to paste the output of some or all of these commands for us? Thanks!
cat /etc/apt/sources.list
cat /etc/debian_version
cat /proc/cpuinfo
cat /proc/meminfo
cat /etc/fstab
df
lsmod
lspci
lsusb
With the mouse buttons joined and doing a left or right click based on the side of the button that you click, can one do the essential middle-button click? Do you click in the middle or on both sides at the same time?
Danny: Skype don’t have cam support for Linux. You’re probably better off using Wengo or any other SIP service. It’s an open protocol, so it guarantees interoperability. It’s got full support for every OS, and the sound quality is actually better. That said, I’m betting the folks at Skype are about to release a cam support version in the coming weeks. It’s either that or lose their market.
Ant, knowing if the eee can use high-speed, high-capacity 4Gb SD cards would be nice, because I read somewhere that the EEE cannot use them…
I want one in Spain!! I want 100!!!!! asus eee pc 2g the best
Flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles, doesn’t it?! So, is it posible that the internal flash memory of the eee pc gets unusable after a year or so?
Regarding video support
lixy: thanks lixy! now I know that skype for linux does not support video and its important news. can you recommend video calling software with clients for both windows and linux and which is free to use? that free and video and OS interoperability.
Ant: now that lixy has set us straight, we are left with two questyions:
1) does the camera work for video in other applications?
2) can we install other applications to take the place of skype?
3) how easy or hard is it to install othe applications? I thought i heard that its not possible or very hard to do.
Ant, thanks for all you are doing for the nascent community of potential eee users.
Is the GCC compiler installed on the Eee PC?
niclas:
great question. there is a limit. the question is when is that limit reached. there is also a limit with hard drives befoe they crash. but hard drives are easy to replace. finally, to my knowledge, there are different types of flash, and there is a newer, more expensive type that does not have such a limited number of writes. which kind is asus using? does anyone know more about this?
ant: you received a 4G, so that’s gonna be the one asus puts to market first and in the greatest numbers. Do you know what the price is going to be?
Niclas, from wikipedia:
“Another limitation is that flash memory has a finite number of erase-write cycles (most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand 100,000 write-erase-cycles for block 0, and no guarantees for other blocks[citation needed]). This effect is partially offset by some chip firmware or file system drivers by counting the writes and dynamically remapping the blocks in order to spread the write operations between the sectors; this technique is called wear levelling.”
Does anyone know if Eee PC use this “wear levelling” ?
The hard life and times of a laptop drive is something that is pretty well known.
Safe to say that if your using and carying this thing around with you on a regular basis a flash drive is easily going to outlast a motor-driven drive.
If you want the drive to last more then 5 years or something like that just be sure to never use more then 80% of the capicity (or so). This way the wear levelling mechanisms in the drive can avoid ‘hot spots’ that will wear it out prematurely.
Don’t forget also that harddrives themselves are only rated for a number of read-writes themselves. Magnetic media does have a limited lifespan and it’s not a problem for the 99.99% of users out there so far.
The big big big advantage of Flash over motor-driven drives is that it’s pretty much shock-proof.
Anybody who has owned a ipod can tell you that these things wear out.. not from wearing out the drive by using it, but by wearing out the drive from dropping it and banging into things and stuff like that. Meanwhile people with flash-based mp3 players are pretty much indestructable.
“Does anyone know if Eee PC use this “wear levelling†?”
Everything uses wear levelling. CF Cards, USB sticks, etc etc. everything.
Maybe not SD cards, But I wouldn’t be suprised if they do something.
With flash-based media you require hardware logic to make it read-writable like a harddrive. In Linux-speak they call things like harddrives ‘block devices’. Raw flash devices are not ‘block devices’ and can’t be treated like a normal drive.. they are ‘mtd devices’ and require special software and file systems to manage correctly and require software-based wear levelling.
In order for the OS to use them like regular drives they require hardware to take the MTD-based storage and emulate block-based storage. The same hardware that does this translation also does the wear levelling.
Generally you only see MTD stuff being used directly in very small embedded machines. (like a linksys router)
Could people please checkout the forum – a lot of these questions have been answered. You can check out ants or my initial thoughts posts for most details and search for anything else you want to know.
I can’t wait to get mine so i can do in depth reviews and tutorials on it and really show some advanced eee’ing.
Can you describe the power supply? Is it universal? Is the plug detachable so you can replace it etc?
Nice to see you got one early Ant!
For those that were wondering why you can’t use ctrl+alt+f1 it is most likely that to get the eee booting faster Xandros didn’t feel the need to start any additional ttys (virtual consoles)… i am sure if you load up Ubuntu then it would have VTs no probs.
As for DVD playback… it will support all USB devices that you can plug in to any normal Linux PC. I am not sure if Xandros licensed libcss so DVD decoding might not work out of the box…. but then again it might!
Thanks for the pictures and yuor opinion. Come on Nov 1st
Guess I should have started a blog back in june when they announced this thing, then i would have to wait so damn long for this thing. Congrats on getting Asus to notice you. Hopefully Allasus will get there orders at the same time as bestbuy and newegg. Otherwise I think a small company in PA may have a riot on their hands
nate – Hmmm, this blog does not take really long posts as I just posted a long answer to your Flash question – Re Flash (the ugly) – a few experts showed up at Groklaw (note that one of them works in defense and works with Flash a lot) and so here is a link if you want to follow it:
http://www.groklaw.net/comment.php?mode=display&sid=20070526142455986&title=OT%20-%20Dell%20has%20SanDisk%20SSD%20for%20%26%2336%3B549%2C%20but%20not%20for%20Dell%20E1505n%20Ubuntu%20Laptop%20%28too%20bad%29…%3F&type=article&order=&hideanonymous=0&pid=576075#c576291
And so, all this Flash stuff in the link above, is why I have been talking for a while that the Eee PC needs a Tech Service Dept or user servicable, replacable, or upgradable Flash Storage and not to have it a permanent feature that is impossible to replace on the main board of the device.
If the warrantee is 1 year (?), and you have Flash Problems after that, what do you do? Can’t just take out a screw driver, and unplug the bad part and plug in a new one can you?
This reading (all of it) should give you some answers, or maybe some more questions.
i think everyone forgot to ask this.
is the ram upgradable ?
Modsoul: that question actually HAS been answered before, it’s all over the forum, it has appeared in all reviews posted in the main comments in this Blog… BTW: yes it is, but you make void the warranty.
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