Eee PC Future Goals, Making the Device Better
January 31st, 2008 by antYou’ll be happy to know that ASUS is planning on addressing three main areas of concern in future Eee PC devices, and they just happen to be the most important aspects. They include:
- Making the small screens larger.
- Increasing battery life.
- Shortening battery recharge time.
I can certainly say that all three are quite important to me. A larger screen would be fantastic, but battery life is my most important concern for any device I own. Especially as technologies like WiMax arrive, it will be important to optimize the Eee PC’s power needs to compensate for attached peripherals.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Please send along any timelines and prices associated with these improvements. I want to know if I should wait to buy one until the new line is out.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
I reckon you are at least 6-8 months out from anything new, more likely new models may hit the shops for Christmas.
January 31st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
This sounds good - it is a pity they haven’t identified support as an important issue.
The eee Add/Remove software is not only a lost opportunity, it is a liability
January 31st, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Frankly everyone worrying about screensize makes me uncomfortable. Sure, a larger screen in place of my current one might be nice, but I don’t want a regular size screen! Keep the tiny form factor! All those comments ‘aww that’s so small and cute…’
not to mention how easy it fits in my hand.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
The most important thing is keeping the price competitive with all the mods, cause thats one of the major features of this wonderful device
January 31st, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I with Patrick, initially I was sceptical about the screen size - but I’m starting get comfortable with it. I love the fact that you can hold it with one hand - and open it like a book. I would suggest making it longer - and skimming a bit off the width… then you might get a widescreen + speakers and a manageable keyboard.
If you can’t type with one hand — you are sure to get a cramp! And of course battery life — a big factor.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
They missed the most important issues like most companies.
The number one issue is screen resolution. Yes ideally on a bigger screen but a bigger screen with the same resolution would only appeal to the vision impaired.
Number two I would agree with.
Number three would be to increase HDD space or make it 1.8″ or CF. The already have competition and now need to dominate them.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:21 am
@Patrick: There is a lot of space around the current screen. ASUS should be able to put in a larger screen with at least 1024×600 resolution without changing the size of the laptop.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:15 am
Screen resolution is more important than screen size. However, I don’t think any company makes 1024×600 or higher-res at a low cost in less than 8.9″ sizing .. (at least compared to 800×480 7″ pricing.)
So, I’m hoping that in a couple of months we see a new EEEPC come out. Lets say: U2100 (Core 2 Solo Ultra-low-voltage 1.06ghz), 1GB RAM, 8GB flash, 8.9″ 1024×600 screen. US$500 maybe, with a small price drop on the 1st gen units?
The touchscreen sounds great, but I guess why include it if no applications support it?
February 1st, 2008 at 1:32 am
Yes, better battery life, but high on my list is a larger, useable keyboard for writing long documents.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am
I really agree that it needs a bigger and more solid keyboard.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:41 am
Several companies make the screen with better resolution. The reason why they went with the current resolution screen is it’s the same screen in many portable DVD players. Since LCD prices just keep falling it would easy to get a cheap contract price on 300,000+ units for a larger high resolution screen.
As far as a larger keyboard that’s called a regular laptop. They are about as cheap as the EEEPC. I like the current form factor. Asus already makes larger laptops with larger keyboards.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:30 am
You don’t have to go to a full laptop to get a larger keyboard. Surely there’s something in between. (With the Eee’s quick booting mobile OS, especially.) The Palm Foleo had a beautiful form factor with a fabulous full-size keyboard, and it was a very compact little device. In many ways, the Foleo is the Eee PC design that I want to see.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:40 am
So, who thinks there will be a 2nd generation EEEPC for April ‘08? (I’m keeping my fingers crossed.)
February 1st, 2008 at 4:08 am
9″ 1024×768 (or 1024×600 at least) screen and longer battery life sounds perfect. ASUS is listening (understanding) what people want the most and it’s just great!
February 1st, 2008 at 4:55 am
[Warning : Opinions follow]
I think you guys are missing the point about the 7″ screen.
It is too small, but it’s useable. Raising the resolution might be OK if we all want sore eyes, but it won’t make it more readable as the text will be smaller. Sure, you can increase the text size to compensate, but then you have effectively reduced the screen real estate. Try using a VNC client and remotely connecting to the eee’s desktop. Running at 800×480 on a proper sized screen is quite comfortable.
The real annoyances are the erratic touchpad and its nasty little clickbar, small internal SSD, battery life, heat, lack of proper support (as already noted). Yes, the keyboard is a pain but you can use it with two hands as long as you’re not a true touch typist (which I am not). Look to older devices like the Psion Series 7 / NetBook for an example of a useable small form factor keyboard (although there are no fn keys on it, it’s got good pitch and spacing between the key tops, so you don’t tend to make typos all the time like you do on the eee’s keyboard).
Even so, it’s a great little machine as it is, and we (I mean the user community) are only scratching the surface of its capabilities.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am
I disagree about the internal storage. Basically keep it small but useable for the OS - 4GB is fine for any sane OS.
All you would do by increasing it would be to raise the price. Read the press. Flash is likely to drop 50% in the next few months and Samsung are working on a technology that’s at least 5 times faster.
The flash market is so dynamic adding what will become a slow, expensive disk makes no sense now, keep it minimum and buy only what you need. In some ways adding a second SDHC card slot would make more sense or even simpler use the IDE interface already on the chipset and use compact flash.
After all, we’ve all got 16MB thumb drives we paid $100 for tucked away somewhwere haven’t we?
February 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Leaner machine = lower cost is the best approach in my book.
It really wasn’t the form factor that convinced me to buy an EEE (although that sure is nice), it was the fact that it was under $400! If upgrading these components is going to increase the overall cost of the device, I think Asus might be losing sight of what makes it so appealing.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:55 pm
The “click bar” I think is the worst aspect of the eee. Makes it too hard to drag stuff. As for the keyboard, the only problem I have is the right shift key. I say get rid of the windows key (the one with the picture of a house on the left), move everything down and let the right shift key be as big as the left one. I’ve *NEVER* used the “windows key” in all my years of computing.
A larger screen would be better, too. The screen should take up the whole lid. There’s no reason not to. Put the speakers to the right and left of the trackpad, and put the camera pointing up from the middle bar between the keyboard and the lid.
I love my EEE. I use it all the time.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
1024×600 is the bare minimum resolution I will accept. The 800×480 screen of current EEE models is the only thing stopping me from purchasing.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Promising bigger screen won’t really help, if the screen’s resolution isn’t raised neither!
Having a Ultra low voltage dual core with 2 memory slots, and a 9-10″ screen will be like heaven on earth (oh yes, and please, no more eeepc’s that’ll crash when updating to faster ram).
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:29 am
“…the Eee PC line up will expand to include elite level products…”
As much as I’d truly be interested in buying a $1000+ Leet EEE PC w/all the bells and whistles, I really don’t think Asus can get their act together to even make one. I’m still waiting for their mysterious disappearing 8G that’s backordered world-wide due to snow / Chinese New Year / NAND shortage / battery shortage or whatever excuse they thought up this week.
Due to their inability to meet current demands, I’d be surprised to see a 2nd generation EEE PC before 2009, let alone an elite version. Good luck, though.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 am
It’s nice that they’re acknowledging problems with the EEE.
-Screen size is ok but with no mention of resolution I am certainly worried. Almost all websites are designed for 1024 and often 1280 width resolution. This is the main reason I haven’t bought one yet. If they don’t plan on increasing resolution with the size of the screen then I say don’t bother, it’ll be a waste of energy.
-Battery life, the most important and very often overlooked aspect of laptops these days. I would love to see an EEE break 5hrs on battery even if it meant having a big clunky battery sitting underneath it pushing it up to a tilt.
-Battery recharge I don’t see as being a problem if the overall battery life is increased. Right now most rapid recharge is needed due to the short battery life and people are looking to get more out of their EEE throughout the day.
-Another note I’d like to touch on is variety. I know that contradicts production costs but Having options simply gives more appeal. What options you ask? Batteries for example. Already two different batteries are included with the EEE but there is another battery of even larger capacity that is neglected from currently offered EEE’s. Also different screen sizes and perhaps working in cheap older/value HDD into configurations.
Since most of their other announced E-products aren’t scheduled until fall I wouldn’t be surprised unfortunately if they don’t produce any of these significant changes until fall or even later this year but I’ll try to keep my hopes up for a march-april release. The sooner the better, I’m itching for a good value portable laptop (with higher res.)
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
what many of you really miss whining about the eee , is the fact that there is no competition. Its like the Ford T model. Sure you want this and that and the other. And sure you wont buy if the screen is that resolution, or this big. But who cares really about what would you buy with your big IFs??
Currently there is no other sub notebook (1kgr) in the market in this price range. You want big screens, better keyboard, more ram more storage? Go buy a Portege or a Sony with 2500euros or get a life. You want something cheap. Buy eee or buy nothing. Im fed up with all this whining.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I’m with the 1024×600 screen people. I had a Toshiba Libretto 50ct for years, and loved it. But it was only 640×480, and 480 is just too damn short. And I would really like a second SDCard slot.
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:01 am
How about running the FSB and the CPU at full speed!?! That should certainly be a top concern! The CPU is fully paid for but it is not running at its designed 900 MHz, what a waste!
I sure hope Asustek are working on that. Probably they are quiet about it because they don’t want to attract attention to the current embarassing underclocking.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I also think you’re missing the point about the Eee PC. I really like the form factor, and am not too worried about the disk space, screen size or keyboard. (I’ll be getting my Eee PC this week).
I expect to use the PC as a dumb-terminal most of the time, connecting in via ssh and vpn to remote machines to do minor things (edit php files, remotely administer some linux boxes), also send short emails, read emails, check out a website… maybe make skype calls, and do it from a coffee shop.
If I need to do any real work with the machine, then I expect I’ll pull out a usb or bluetooth keyboard and hook up an external monitor… and then still I wouldn’t store much ‘real data’ on the Eee PC.. If I’m on the road I think one of those rollable bluetooth keyboards would be a great idea.
To me, the Eee PC is a great replacement for a palm…. trying to read email or surf websites on my lifedrive is a pain…. this will be a great solution to that. But it is not a great solution for a professional workstation…. if I wanted that I’d use my 17″ notebook.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Resolution must reach 600 vertical!
8-9″ screen would look a lot better in that huge bezel.
The current machine is too hot and too loud! Keep it cool!
A low-wattage chipset and a stainless steel backplate would kick ass! The fan in mine was so annoying that I had to sell it.
4GB is quite adequate, if 8GB is cheap enough, go there but I would rather have a faster 4. More GB = more sales though.
Allowing owners to upgrade the flash makes the most sense since the prices drop so fast. Put a second SDHC slot inside for “HD upgrade”
February 4th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Here are what I consider simple facts and anyone can dispute them if they see fit since that what these forums are all about.
The screen is 7 inches because it uses a lower power LED backlight and since these displays are new ASUS probably had problems with supply, cost, or the manufacturing processes. Increasing the resolution also increases the the manufacturing cost for these new screens because they require improved manufacturing processes.
The underclocked CPU and battery life issues were the result of having no decent low power system platform for this kind of device at the time. Even at 600 MHz, the Eee PC runs warmer than I would like. Can you imagine how hot it would get at 900MHz. ASUS wanted to grab a large share of the market for these kinds of device so they released the current series of Eee PCs with the technology that was available. Anyway, we all know how they have captured a large part of this market.
All early adopters of new products usually have some regrets. Ask any iphone user. It’s the price you pay to have the latest and greatest.
In the next year, look for new UMPCs from VIA, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASUS that incorporate most of what is on our wish list.
Menlow CPU and system platform from Intel (no fan, less heat, same or better processing power, better battery life)
Larger LED backlit screens with better resolutions (slightly increased power consumption but increased usability especially for web browsing)
Larger Solid State Disk drives (prices for storage alway come down with widespread adoption and improved manufacturing techniques)
WIMAX (affordable and reliable wireless internet which unfortunately might increase unit cost and reduce battery life)
My two cents,
Oldhand
February 4th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I don’t need the speakers, I’m happy to use headphones. But I do need a bigger screen. Take out the speakers or put them next to the mousepad and and make the screen the full size of the lid and give it a 1024×768 resolution.
Get rid of the clicker and give me a real 2 button (plus “press both keys for middle mouse”).
Put in a merom pentium M proc and get rid of the fan. And give us a bios that supports the full processor clock speed.
Make the mouse pad multitouch so you can use two fingers to scroll.
More battery life would be a plus.
Do these things for under $500 and you will have a machine that is untouchable.
I added an internal 16gig thumbdrive, I keep another 16gig sd card in the slot, and I upgraded too 2gig of ram and now I have a nearly perfec umpc. If the above suggestions were to be implemented, I would be so happy I would do a backflip!
February 4th, 2008 at 10:04 am
The only requests I have for the next gen eeepc is supply a higher resolution screen (maybe 8+ inches) and a better 3d supporting graphics chip.
February 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I think Asus did a good job with the eeepc. It should stay the course and remain focused with the product line that the eeepc is meant for - umpc with instanton, use everywhere functionalities that is easy, etc etc.
A larger screen 8~9″ can still fit in the current form-factor-size. The speaker can probably fit on the lower part of the screen. If the webcam can be swivel type, it would be a bonus!
Instead of having a larger built-in ssd that is not user-replaceable, why not fix it at 4gb to just install the base OS and have two SDHC slots or 1 SDHC and 1 CF slot for user programs and data. That should give eeepc devices more flexibility and still keep the cost down.
WHAT I REALLY LIKE ABOUT THE EEEPC
The one thing I like about the eeepc is the unionfs thingie that keeps the base os safe while the user programs and data are separate. This allows the user to restore to factory default settings in just a few seconds than the typical windows (or linux for that matter) reinstall that takes mins or hours!
Improve on the InstantOn feature and battery life. This would make the eeepc really attractive.
1. 8~9″ screen in existing formfactor
2. Better InstantOn feature
3. Better battery life
4. a) 2 x SDHC slot or b) 1 x SDHC slot + 1 CF slot
February 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
NEEDS TOUCHSCREEN , needs to be turned into a tablet PC!