[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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hmmm…
i was wondering how you pronounce eee. is it a long or short e, or is it said with each e seperate? eg. “ee-ee-ee”
also, is there any word on whether asus will be coming out with other colors? (specifically black) maybe when the 2/8g are released or like next year (god forbid) or at all!
My pre-order from allasus is black.
Wait, you didn’t specify whether you were comparing to the Buncha Crunch, Nestlé Crunch White, Nestlé Crunch ice cream bar, Nestlé Crunch with Caramel, Nestlé Crunch with Peanuts, Dark Nestlé Crunch with Caramel, Nestlé Crunch Stixx, Nestlé Crunch Dark Stixx, Nestlé Crunch Mocha or the Nestlé Crunch Crisp.
I think we should all start calling it the E³
It’s much Sexier. I think I’ll work on a logo for case mods.
-Josh
The first thing i would do is add the virtual terminals back in by using a text editor on /etc/inittab. Then, once you reboot you should have a terminal at your disposal by hitting CNTL-ALT-F2 and so on.
I have seen those “Nestle Cruch”. Is it the same size as “Snickers”? Or “Snickers Super”? Or “Chocolate bar by Krupskaya confectionary plant”? I always get mad when I see some photos of things compared in the size to coins I never had in my hand.
And now these Nestles. Big macs coming soon?
Perhaps this will help:
# Run gettys in standard runlevels
1:2345:respawn:/usr/sbin/launcher tty1
2:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty2
3:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty3
4:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty4
5:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty5
6:2345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty6
I think we should all start calling it the E³
It’s much Sexier. I think I’ll work on a logo for case mods.
E³ Doesn’t really work because that would be like EEEE unless E is equal to 1.
E³/E may work though
JBrown – Awesome idea…let me know how that modding goes. kadave@gmail.com
You mean (E/E)^3
hey Ant, can we get some shots of each tab screen? I am interested in seeing the system tab.
Also, its not clear on any of the reviews I have read if you can just create your own shortcuts.
Congrats on getting one!
Ok! I made a picture of a logo design printed onto the case. I’m working with a company in the states and Taiwan to see about the possibility of these Logo’s being rub on transfers or stickers. If people are interested, I’ll probably hold a poll of some sort to see if people want rub on’s or stick on’s and what logo people like.
In any case, here’s my rough draft: http://www.honeypothack.com/images/eee-mod.jpg
-Josh
Well the idea is that Eee Pc has three E’s in it. and E³ is essetially (E*E*E)… Am I wrong?
-Josh
Just incase anyone is interested, I moved the topic of the case mod to:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=7773#p7773
-Josh
i realllly hope black will be available before jan. like the second or third release oh i believe E3 would be E*E*E*E
I think math hasn’t changed since my old times at school…
E, or E¹ means E
E² means E*E
E³ means E*E*E
This math makes me crazy its been to long since high school
if 2³=8 not 6 which means there it quadruples, but then again 3³=27 so thats like 9 times that original amount. So its pretty much exponentially, so i guess it would be three eee’s seeing as it has no specific number because its (e*e)e.
REally i was wrong i guess EEEE only really makes sense if e=2. But there is no assigned value so. EEE is right im wrong. Unless e=cube root of $399 which would be 7.36(rounded)
Nice review Ant. maybe I buy sooner than later.
Pcfy2
oops my bad i was getting confused
but i still want a black 8g real bad i cant wait im gonna explode…
I’M CRAZY!
what?? you’ve only used `~ “once or twice” in all your years computing?? i guess you don’t play any quake/doom games or code any php or write any sql statements? i think i use that key pretty much everyday!
ah, groklaw reader I missed your post:
“”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 work with flash devices also.
Were I work they’ll write and rewrite flash drives dozens times a day. They’ve been doing this for years. They have been nothing except reliable.
And frankly.. saying your from the ‘military’ does not mean much. He doesn’t even know that these devices have wear leveling built into the hardware.
Like I said before.. do the math yourself. If you do not max out the capacity of the drive so the wear levelling can work then you can use this drive for 24/7 use and it’ll last for years.
These things have been used all over the place. Flash used to be crap.. but that’s like comparing current SATA drives versus the old stepper motor-based harddrives from the 1980′s that would blow if you tried ot mount them sideways.
Anyways Sandisk is a good company and are generally trustworthy. Also Intel has always produced high-quality products (in relation to their price point).
If you want to watch out for a company look out for beware of Kingston..
Oh and I forgot.
I see people throwing out numbers with flash bits wearing out after 100,000′s of writes.
This is incorrect. Modern flash has lifetimes measured in 1,000,000′s of writes.
thehbcrew, please tell me that was supposed to be a joke…
I see something for the first time in these forums. It was the pictures that did it. What do I see? – HOPE. The TripleE is finally in sight. We are so emotionally invested I don’t care anymore. $300, $400 or $500 I don’t care I gotta have one. I’ll take it in white, black, or even those funky green and blue colors… Just not pink. Sorry, homie don’t play that. Drool… gotta get one. Can’t wait.
nate – You should visit Groklaw’s OT section and post your comments about this refering to the link that I gave you to fully read. Anyway, My guess is that the white papers – listed in one of those posts on Flash (from many companies) are of value. One does wonder about marketing… Of course, the ideal situation with Flash Storage is to have the most RAM you can, and to not have to use SWAP at all, as one of the problems with Windows, just one problem with Windows, is that Windows it seems hits the Cache or SWAP too frequently and eats into your write cycles very quickly… (so I am wondering if using and Eee PC with Windows is a wise idea). Of course, with Linux, as you might have read in that Groklaw comment in my original post that you are replying to, with Linux you can partition in many creative ways, such that SWAP is taken care of, and Home is in some partition on it’s own (not with the OS install) a better place (for dual booting and using the same HOME folder, so can be used once many times, with various Linux OS installs on the same system), etc. You just have more control with Linux vs Windows (= happier). Now, what I would like to see is a multi-OS bootable Eee PC, with the Maemo OS for the Nokia ported to the 2GB Eee PC… just to use all those light weight Maemo.org applications to extend the useds of the cheapest Eee PC (of course using Grub to Dual boot then back as well to Xubuntu, Ubuntu, or the original Eee PC installed OS (of course might need the 8GB model for too much of this, or you could boot from external USB Flash, etc). Don’t forget to visit Groklaw and stir up some experts there to refute what was posted about Flash before. Anyway, it would be better if the Flash was not permanent on the Mother Board of the system, and was easily tech or user serviceable.
SWAP isn’t a problem if you don’t use it. Just install Linux without swap. It’s not hard. The default install from ASUS doesn’t have one. With 512MB to 1GB RAM a small machine without swap is just fine.
I just ordered one in Taiwan. It should arrive in about 4 to 6 days! I will let you know what I think as soon as I get the OS into English… Thanks for the support in the tricks & tipps section it should not be a problem!
I got eeepc from this seller in Taiwan.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200167305216
Ya. This is nice ,tiny machine.
Thank you for the generous amount of information and the photos.
you should be able to access console by pressing ctrl+alt+f1 (and alt+f7 to get back)
I am so excited for this thing, but I’m gonna have to wait for the 8GB version..
I feel like I would regret not getting the best model when its still under 400 dollars
Also if I ever decide to run XP it would take up too much of the hard drive and 512MB RAM wont cut it with a 900mHz processor
On the plus side, the screen looks very nice.
I sincerely hope Asus reads this blog because the truth is the EEE price (299 dollars and up) is pitched way too high for a machine with this spec. Maybe Asus is hoping the novelty value will make people buy it in droves but the chances are they won’t. A little less corporate greed and a bit more realism about the utility value of this device could do wonders. I won’t be buying one at this price, that’s for sure.
I’ve been following this forum for a while now and it’s been extremely helpful in understanding the capabilities of the Asus Eee. I’m looking forward to the release of the 8GB.
The specs of this machine are only one small part of the equation that determines its price. A machines this size is positively a bargain at $399, and the specs are very respectable for its class.
Is Gary C serious $299 pitched way too high!!! I think he needs a reality check. The Archos 400 series which run linux and had a touch screen cost over $600. Plenty of the sub notebooks cost over $1500 or more. Hey if he won’t buy it someone else will. Sure you can get a fully blown laptop for $400-500 low spec but it weighs a ton, which is why I never carry mine around with me. The eeepc will do the job for me, I wont be modding it or sticking windows XP on it. I just want to use it out of the box knowing that everything works.
My apologies to Gary C, it was docprego, who I was talking about
Sorry Gary C
Price points seem ok, IF there is truth to the demand on the LCD screens that results in their price going up. FYI – The Nokia N810 is very expensive compared to it’s specs vs Eee PC, and Nokia really need to come down to ASUS’s price point, or else risk the N810 selling as poorly as the N800. Of course, behind ASUS is QUANTA (their competition), with QUANTA announcing their $200 OLPC derived commercial OLPC version of a laptop, that was announced this past spring…! So, with two heavy weights in this game, we are seeing this price and competition from the OLPC price as well (also Intel has announced something to be out in 2008 as well). So? Price, is ok, I just want better battery life and wished they licensed the OLPC screen tech for this device).
Is the screen glossy or matte?
This is my only concern before I buy one. I will not buy it if it’s glossy.
How much space is the OS taking up on this machine? I’m wondering how full the 2GB model is going to be when its released
It’s odd that they’ve misplaced the ~ key since “~” means home directory in Linux… to think it runs on Linux…
I have just one word: Jeal. Ous!
I will be adding companies selling Eee PC to my Linux Vendor List.
http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/
Database
http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14
Is Eee power adapter 110 and 230V capable or only 110?
Hi,
thanks for this news.
I’m leaving in France and want to use the eee has a small server.
Do you have any measure about noise on it ?
Regards
this is a great review that help me a lot to more understand about eee pc. i am going to buy one and will let you konw the result. many thanks to web master agian.
I tried to order a EEE at qbitonline. All worked nicelly until I got the paypal statement asking for 120 dollars more for the laptop then was on my bill. Be carefull before you order with this online shop in Taiwan.
Can I surf the internet using my cellphone as a modem? How do I set it up? My installers are for XP.
I can’t find eeepc anywhere in uk…
everywhere is sold out…
http://www.geekfreak.co.uk/wordpress/?p=82
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